Dear R.E. Teacher / Chaplain,
Friday is International Women’s Day and to mark the day there are resources on our website on inspiring ‘women of faith’ including Dorothy Day, Nano Nagle, Helen Prejean, Mother Theresa, St Therese of Lisieux, St Teresa of Avila & St. Brigid. I have also made a short reflective slide show which you could show your classes to mark the day. If your school has a female foundress you could include a short reflection and prayer on her too.
I hope you have been able to make good use of the ‘Electing a Pope’ resources and I have added an interesting link to a new website Fantasy Conclave. The Fantasy Conclave League is a chance for your students to share their prediction on which Cardinal will be elected Pope as they learn more about the papal election and conclave process. This site states that it is not a betting site and to win the prize for guessing correctly you must be living in America or Canada. Links to the website and information about the Cardinal electors can be found here and perhaps you could organise your own fantasy conclave league in your school.
As we are half way through Lent it may be no harm to check with your students how their Lenten promises are working out. The Busted Halo Lenten Calendar is a great way of focusing your students on a daily spiritual contemplation relating to Lent.
Garreth Fitzpatrick from St. Brendan’s, Bray has kindly shared this PowerPoint resource featuring key words related to R.E. and it might be something worth including as part of your literacy in R.E. plan. To view the PowerPoint and other literacy resources click here.
This week an eye-opening video went viral highlighting that not only do most Americans think that wealth is unfairly distributed in their country, they also have no idea how bad things really are. Based on data from a 2011 Mother Jones article, the video breaks down the gap between rich and poor and the gaping divide between what Americans across the political spectrum consider an “ideal” curve of wealth distribution and what exists in reality.
Given all our own economic and banking scandals of recent years it would be fair to say that the reality in Ireland isn’t a whole lot different. Forbesmagazine in its annual billionaires list, highlighted the 1,426 people who control $5.4 trillion of the world’s wealth.
The video raises plenty of questions about inequality in the world and the video is also a good example of numeracy in the R.E. classroom! Watch the video here and I have added it to the Poverty Playlist on our YouTubeChannel.
Kind regards,
Gary
Email: garyabrahamian@gmail.com