Do you employ active learning strategies in your classroom? Watch this video introduction to active learning strategies. Then consider ways to shine the spotlight on those you teach as you start planning this year’s sessions. Read the post that inspired this video: Engaging Young People with Active Learning Strategies.

Over the last few years I have become more and more attentive to the saints. I am not sure if this heightened awareness came from being a catechist, but it surely has changed the way I catechize. As a second-grade catechist, I introduce the children to saints of the month, we have an All Saints Day celebration, and the children complete a saint’s report. Each month I pick two saints whose feast days fall during […]

In my work, I do a lot of traveling—most of it in the air—and as anyone who flies knows, viewing the world from 30,000 feet provides one with a different perspective! One of the responsibilities of catechetical leaders is to call people to step “back from the specific issues that need attention (‘Should we add an additional hall monitor?’ or ‘Do we want to explore a different text series for junior high next year?’), and […]

Welcome to the fifth installment of my series “Discovering the Nearness of God: An Eight-Week Series on the Catholic Sacramental Vision.” This week we will explore the Sacrament of Reconciliation, with the theme of “Rescue Me!” All of us can recall watching footage on TV of heroic rescues as a victim finds himself or herself in swirling flood waters. The rescuer enters the swirling torrents and extricates the flailing victim, carrying him or her to […]