My classroom has a Twitter account, which is a great way for my students to share what’s going on in the class. But I often ask myself how we can use Twitter to help in the Church’s mission to spread the Gospel. Why not use our Twitter account to share the message they hear at Mass?
About every six weeks, my students have the opportunity to read at Mass. They are always so excited and proud to be able to minister to their fellow students, their parents, and parishioners. I give them a copy of the readings to take home so they can practice. We also make time to practice during class. I remind them to read loudly, clearly, and slowly. I tell them that the best readers always give me goosebumps, and their goal is to give me goosebumps! Finally, we rehearse the readings in the church. This gives them the opportunity to practice the readings with a live microphone.
After the Mass, I like to ask my students if they could summarize Father’s homily in 140 characters or less for our classroom Twitter account. This is a pretty easy task for my students:
Father’s homily today reminded us to put others first!
— Mrs. Gilman’s Class (@Room113SMM) March 4, 2015
In Fr. Michael’s homily today, he asked us if we have ever heard God’s voice? He wanted to know if God had a high, deep or musical voice.
— Mrs. Gilman’s Class (@Room113SMM) January 15, 2014
This task requires the students to pay attention to Father’s homily and apply it to their lives. It also shows the students how easy it is to share the Good News.
Twitter not only helps my students share their faith with the world, but it helps them learn about their faith as well. Our classroom Twitter account comes in handy when the kids ask a question that I can’t readily answer. I rely on our Twitter friends to help:
@Room113SMM @GregWillits Here’s photo of passion relics at Santa Croce-true cross pieces in cross-shaped reliquary pic.twitter.com/0qjWuWjc0p
— Paul Camarata (@pcamarata) April 13, 2014
Having a Twitter account makes it easy to share our faith with others. It also helps us make connections with people who can help us learn more about our faith.
How can you use social media to help your class share and learn about the faith?
Barb, I really like this idea and I think it should become standard practice for every parish at every Sunday Mass!
Thanks, Joe! We need to come up with a hashtag now. I currently use #viewfrommypew maybe it should be #tweethehomily or #tweettheMass
Great idea, Barb – I think this is a powerful evangelization tool, plus a wonderful way to help the youth focus on the message/teaching for them personally at Holy Mass! What kind of response have you seen in the way of Twitter followers, or parents and parishioners sharing your class’ tweets?
Thanks, Mary! We have several parents and Catholic classrooms that follow our account. I think the feedback takes place at the dinner table when a parent would bring up the earlier tweet. Then the child can’t say, I forgot what the homily was about!
This is wonderful, Barb. I love the intentionality of the process, ending with a tweet.
In a culture full of soundbytes, these children are producing thoughtful topic sentences. Brava!
I can’t tell you how happy I am to come across this article, this idea, and you. Love the examples because I will share them with my students, parents, fellow catechists, and DRE. Muchas gracias!