Dear R.E. Teacher / Chaplain,
Click on the numerous links below to both resources & upcoming events:
Links to Resources
Facebook Group / Forums/ Blogs
If you are on Facebook you might like to join over 600 other teachers who are part of the Teaching Religious Education Facebook Group.
RE Source is a forum to support Religious Education and is coordinated by the Post-Primary Diocesan Advisers of Armagh and Down & Connor.
If you have Junior Cert R.E. classes you might find the following website useful: www.jcreled.weebly.com. It’s a work in progress by a teacher in Galway Michael Purcell. If you have a Leaving Cert Exam class click here to look at the blog site by Edel Tumelty or the excellent Talking Donkey blog is well worth following.
New RE Textbook: Seek and Find
Before the summer I mentioned Seek and Find, the new RE Text for Senior Cycle Religious Education, and it is now available from Veritas. Written by Katherina Broderick, Elaine Costelloe and Brendan O’Regan, and edited by Ailis Travers, it features lots of arts resources, including film, music, visual art and poetry. Each section is divided into lessons as opposed to chapters, making it very user friendly – Each lesson has objectives and a summary to give a clear focus to the content covered – In each lesson, students are given opportunities to build their own responses to the material, thus ensuring they engage on a personal level – Activities vary to challenge and encourage faith development in students by helping them to relate to God in their own lives, in the life of the Church and in the local community, as well as in the wider world – Activities provide for differentiated, active and co-operative learning by including a variety of methodologies and a wide range of different exercises – Additional resources will be available online at www.seekandfind.ie (coming soon). For further info and ordering details click here.
Why Care about Social Justice?
A reminder to check out the website on social issues called www.whycare.ie. Designed for both students and teachers it is an online educational resource on social justice issues in Ireland such as crime, homelessness and prison. The website provides useful information and challenging questions to encourage informed debate among young people by developing their understanding of concepts such as human rights, inequality, poverty, and the complex relationship these have with phenomena such as crime and homelessness.
Why Care? aims to promote complex social issues in a practical – rather than an abstract – way, by encouraging students to act for social justice. It highlights how each of us can act within our community or school for the promotion of social justice, and that a person does not have to be famous or extraordinary to make a difference.
The resource is broken down into four parts. The first discusses the concepts of social justice, human rights and inequality in general, on both a national and international scale. The following two sections – ‘Homelessness and Housing’ and ‘Understanding Crime’ develops students understanding of how these two issues relate to social justice, and their complex interrelationship with each other. The final section ‘Working for Justice’ gives examples of local people working for justice, and organisations in Ireland that address the issues covered in the site. There is also a ‘Teacher’s Section’, accessed with a username and password, that gives additional resources including an educators guide and class activities that relate to the various issues. For access to the Teacher’s Section, email info@jcfj.ie
CAFOD
CAFOD is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales. Click here to sign up for Weekly email reflections from CAFOD. These weekly Gospel based reflections can be very useful as part of assemblies, prayer services or as a prayerful start to an R.E. lesson.
RESS
The RESS (R.E. Support Service) resources can now be found on the PDST website: http://www.pdst.ie/node/34 . Click on the links on the left side under religious education.
The Religion Teacher (www.TheReligionTeacher.com)
Click here to join the mailing list and below are some of the most useful new school year resources at The Religion Teacher:
You can also find new school year resources on Pinterest: pinterest.com/religionteacher/new-school-year/.
Upcoming Events
Different Voices: Faith in a Secular Age, Autumn Lecture Series 2013 – Marino Institute
Following the success of the last two years, Marino Institute invites you to join us this autumn for our annual lecture series, Different Voices: Faith in a Secular Age. These lectures provide a forum for different voices to facilitate our individual and collective discernment towards a better understanding of our humanity and the search for God in our times. The talks are open to all, particularly teachers, principals and anyone involved in education or catechesis. Click here for further details.
Next FaithFest for teenagers – October 4
What is Faith Fest ?
Faithfest is a fantastic new initiative by Dublin Diocese which offers young people an event that is lively and good fun. Each event involves a variety of workshops to choose from such as meditation, music, justice and peace. We were blessed with great weather that evening and therefore some workshops could be held outside. We were treated to roasted marsh mellows thanks to the Dublin Scouts. I attended the meditation workshop which offered young people the opportunity to experience a different type of prayer, through meditation, relaxation exercises and quiet time. Faithfest gives youth the opportunity to express their faith and share their thoughts and ideas with other young people, a place to ‘chat n chill’ with teenagers from parishes across the Diocese. Well done FaithFest team!
When is the next Faith Fest? – OCTOBER 4 – put it in your calendar! Bring a group
R.E. Congress – Mater Dei – October 5th
The RE Congress is on Sat 5th Oct in Mater Dei Insitute, Clonliffe Rd, Dublin 3. I will be giving a workshop on A Calendar Approach to Teaching Post-Primary Religious Education. There are plenty of other workshops on areas such as Senior Cycle RE Non-Exam (Brendan O’Regan), Gospel Values in our Schools (Sean Goan), Digital Storytelling and Religious Education (Ailís Travers and Enda Donlon) & Resourcing Social Justice in the School Year (Ronan Barry).
Guest speakers include Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Dr Gareth Byrne, Dr Andrew McGrady and Sr Edith Prendergast RSC, Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Congress is booking fast so click here for the full brochure with booking form. Congress fee €50.00/£44.00.
Registration fee includes lunch and coffee breaks.
An Introduction to Islam for teachers, principals and chaplains – Mater Dei – October 12th
On 12 October 2013, Mater Dei will be hosting a day of professional development on the topic of Islam for teachers, principals and chaplains. The talks on the day will be given by Dr Yazid Said, Lecturer in Islamic Studies at MDI. Further details about the day as well as registration details will be available shortly.
Kind regards,
Gary