Join the Advent Encounter challenge! Get daily Advent lessons here. 

The Religion Teacher | Catholic Religious Education

Religious Education eLearning Help for Parents During the Coronavirus Crisis

Come, Holy Spirit! 

I have been getting a lot of questions about resources for religious education at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a new reality for all of us and I want to be as helpful as I can during these unprecedented times.

Here are some thoughts and ways I would like to help religious educators (religion teachers, catechists, DREs, catechetical leaders, principals, etc.) coordinate eLearning from home and provide tools to parents.

Remember Priority #1: Encourage Encounters with Christ 

Whether the kids are in the classroom, the church, or at home, our first priority is to encourage encounters with Christ.

As you send resources to parents and plan various ways to do virtual catechesis, please keep this goal in mind. Through all of this, we must strive to lead kids into opportunities to learn, meditate, and pray to the Lord. 

How The Religion Teacher Will Help

Things are constantly changing. Here is what I have done so far to help religious educators and parents. I’m taking this week-by-week just like everyone else.

Sunday Gospel Worksheets

Many families will spend Sunday mornings at home watching Mass online. This gives us a good opportunity to encourage more time to prepare for and reflect on the Sunday readings. 

I unlocked all of the weekly Sunday Gospel member worksheets until Easter. Please feel free to download these worksheets and send them to parents. 

Saint Worksheets

These worksheets are included among the more than 75 saint biographies and reflection questions for kids. Learn more about these resources here.

The Religion Teacher Sunday Newsletter

Every Sunday morning I send out a weekly email newsletter with lesson plan ideas for the week and month ahead. (Subscribe here and get a free lesson planning eBook when you sign up.)

Look for a new section in the newsletter with links to resources to send to parents as well as adaptations to deliver online lessons via a virtual classroom or email links to resources. 

I have a few other ideas and I will share those resources as I create them. 

FAQs about The Religion Teacher Resources

My mission is to create and cultivate practical tools (activities, lesson plans, prayers, worksheets, videos, etc.) that help religious educators lead their students to encounter Christ.

There seems to be two plans going forward for many of you. Here’s how The Religion Teacher resources might fit it. 

Emailing The Religion Teacher Resources to Parents 

Many DREs and catechists have reached out for ideas that they can include in an email to parents. I’m glad to hear so many of you are interested in starting a weekly email with links and lessons for parents to use with their kids at home. 

Please feel free to include links to The Religion Teacher website including individual articles in your emails and resource collections:

eLearning and Virtual Classroom Resources

Many Catholic school religion teachers tell me that they are using Google Classroom and other learning management systems to communicate and conduct lessons online.  

The Religion Teacher Membership Resources

Login or Join

There are 75 videos and 430+ worksheets available to members of The Religion Teacher including many of The Religion Teacher activity packs and worksheet packs. 

Read this if you are a member of The Religion Teacher: 

Instead of sharing the links to the video and worksheet pages (which requires your login information to access): 

Download and post the worksheets you want parents and students to download on your learning management system, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. as long as they are not freely available to the public. (See the list of unlocked resources above with links you can share directly instead.)

Yes, you may embed the member-only videos that are not on YouTube as long as they are not freely available to the public. Each video has a link to download it to your device. I will also add links to make it easier for you to embed these videos. 

Questions? Other Ideas?

If you have any other questions or resources you are having a hard time sharing, please email me. I’m trying to think ahead, but it is hard to tell what lies ahead for religious educators! 

P.S.

I put together this reference for how to refer to and about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). If you have students writing about the disease, then this might clarify a few things.