101 Essential Resources for Catholic Educators

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2012 Catholic Schools Week Logo

Happy Catholic Schools Week! To celebrate, I’ve put together a list of 101 resources that no Catholic educator should be without. From Twitter users to bloggers, from social networks to teaching tools, it’s all here in one convenient spot. Share the love, spread the news, and tell the world about Catholic Schools!

Catholic School Organizations and Resources:

  1. The National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)
  2. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice
  3. Today’s Catholic Teacher
  4. Catholic Education Resources Wiki
  5. Resources for Catholic Educators
  6. Edocere.org
  7. CSK12 – Catholic Schools Virtual
  8. Catholic Coalition for Special Education

Social Networks and Catholic School Connections:

  1. The Catholic School Chronicle List of Blogs by Catholic Teachers, Principals, and Catechists
  2. ACE Advocates
  3. I Love Catholic Schools – Facebook
  4. Teaching Catholic Kids from OSV – Facebook
  5. NCEA Social Media Mashup
  6. Digital Catechesis Global Network on Ning
  7. Catholic School Connect
Catechetical Resources:

Catholic News, Podcasts, and Multimedia:

  1. Catholic News Service
  2. Catechetical Leader Podcast
  3. Sunday Sunday Sunday from Lifeteen
  4. Catholic Movie Reviews from Lifteen
  5. Catholic Newsbreak from CatholicTV
  6. Redemptorist Television
  7. Whispers in the Loggia
Prayer Resources:

Members of the University Consortium for Catholic Education:

  1. The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at University of Notre Dame
  2. The Alliance for Catholic Education at St. John’s University
  3. Magis Catholic Teacher Corps at Creighton University
  4. The Educational Partners in Catholic Schools (EPICS) Program at Seton Hall University
  5. The Gulf Region Academy for Catholic Educators (GRACE) at University of St. Thomas
  6. The Lalanne Program at University of Dayton
  7. The Lasallian Association of New Catholic Educators (LANCE) Program at Christian Brothers University
  8. The Lutheran Education Alliance with Parochial Schools (LEAPS) Program at Valparaiso University
  9. The Loyola University Chicago Opportunities in Catholic Education (LU-CHOICE) Program
  10. operation TEACH from Notre Dame of Maryland University
  11. The Pacific Alliance for Catholic Education (PACE) at the University of Portland
  12. The Providence Alliance for Catholic Teachers (PACT) Program at Providence College
  13. Partners in Los Angeles Catholic Education (PLACE) Program at Loyola Marymount University
  14. Remick Fellowship at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
  15. Urban Catholic Teacher Corps (UCTC) at Boston College

A Sample of Some of the Best Blogs in Catholic Education: (click here for a comprehensive list)

  1. Barb in Nebraska on Posterous
  2. Catholic Educator
  3. Catholic Teacher Musings
  4. Notes from McTeach
  5. Soul of a Nation
  6. Work with Hope

A Small Selection of Catholic Educators, Organizations, and Catechists on Twitter:

Catholic School Resources from the Magisterium:

  1. Congregation for Catholic Education
  2. United States Council of Catholic Bishops Office of Education

Documents from the Congregation for Catholic Education and the USCCB:

12 of My Favorites in Catholic Media

Sitting at home sick today I discovered–thanks to tweets by Barb Gilman and Nancy Caraminico–that it was Catholic Media Promotion Day. I don’t know how I missed hearing about this, but I’m glad I found out in time. According to the CMPD Facebook page, Catholics with blogs should post their favorites in the following categories:Catholic Media Promotion Day

  • 3 blogs
  • 3 podcasts
  • 3 other media
  • 3 random Catholic things online
  • their own projects

In addition, Catholics are asked to visit iTunes and leave 3 positive review for podcasts and apps.

Here are my contributions, heavily biased by my current interests in Catholic education and deacon formation:

Blogs that I Never Skip:

  • The Deacon’s Bench – Of all the blogs I read, I look forward to this one the most.
  • Engaging Faith – Superb effort from Ave Maria Press to share practical lesson plans and activities for Catholic educators and catechists.
  • CNS Blog – An essential source for Catholic news.

Podcasts I Can’t Do Without:

Other Must-See Media

  • Catholic TV, iCatholic Digital Magazine and the iCatholic Community – I can’t say enough about how much I admire and appreciate what the Archdiocese of Boston is doing in the realm of new media. Between their TV network, their digital magazine, their gorgeous iPad app and their online community, they are paving the way for Catholic evangelization in the 21st century. This is what all Catholic media should aspire to–high quality in every respect.
  • iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta – This is the greatest Catholic app in iTunes, hands down. The complete Liturgy of the Hours, Mass readings, Catholic rites, prayers–and all for FREE. An absolute must for all Catholic iPhone, iPod or iPad users. There is no reason for this app not to be on the mobile Apple device of every Catholic.
  • ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools – If you care anything at all for Catholic education, then I implore you to join this initiative from the University of Notre Dame. ACE Advocates will keep you up to speed on Catholic school initiatives and events, and connect you with others who share the same love for Catholic education.

3 Random Catholic Things Online

My Own Projects:

  • Catholic School Chronicle
    • Website – You’re here; stay current on Catholic school news, events and resources by subscribing via RSS or email using the links in the right sidebar.
    • Facebook page – Connect with CSC on Facebook by liking the Catholic School Chronicle Facebook page. Be sure to leave your own thoughts, comments and resources on our wall. We’d love to hear about the positive impact of Catholic education in your community.
    • Catholic School Chronicle on Twitter – A steady stream of Catholic school news.
  • ROMAN Reading – Support literacy and independent publishing by purchasing ROMAN Reading: 5 Essential Skills for Transforming Your Life Through Literature. This practice edition includes stories by Chekhov, Tolstoy and Dickens, and is also available in ebook format. Perfect for students of all ages.
  • Catholic School Minute – Finally, announcing our newest initiative, Catholic School Minute, student-produced news for Catholic classrooms. Look for a full article about this crowd-source project in the days to come, but here’s a brief summary:
    • Catholic School Chronicle is calling on all Catholic teachers who use technology in the classroom to have their students create one-minute videos of Catholic news items. Once these videos are posted on YouTube they can be added to the Catholic School Minute blog feed so that Catholic schools all over the country can use these videos in the classroom with students.

There were many great blogs and resources that I would have liked to list above. For more of my favorite Catholic media sites, see the related posts below and the Links of Interest in the left sidebar.

25 Kindle Books for Catholic Teachers

So, you got a Kindle for Christmas, and you want to do some professional reading. The following books may be just what you’re looking for:

Catholicism/Catechesis

Technology/Writing/Reading

General Education/Productivity

Just this past week, Amazon has implemented a rudimentary lending system for those with Kindles. If the publisher of a book allows, you can lend a Kindle book one time to someone else. They can have the book for no longer than 14 days, and while they have it, you cannot read your copy. It’s not a perfect lending solution, but it’s better than nothing.

I’ve noticed that Goodreads has already started a Kindle Lending group for people who want to exchange books. If you’re not a Goodreads member, I highly recommend it as a place to share with other readers. It’s free, and integrates easily with Facebook and Twitter. I would love to connect with other educators via Goodreads and compare reading lists, so please feel free to friend me.

Kindle Books for Catholic Educators: The Rosary

With the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary coming up on October 7, the following two Kindle books are excellent resources for preparing to explain the rosary to students.

Praying the Rosary, by Megan Mckenna. Doubleday. Printed Length: 272 pp. Kindle Price: $9.99.

Internationally acclaimed author Megan McKenna gives this Catholic tradition enriched modern relevance in a completely up-to-date guide to praying the Rosary, designed for general readers and incorporating the recent additions made by Pope John Paul II.

As a speaker, teacher, and bestselling Catholic author, Megan McKenna has informed and inspired audiences both in- and outside of the Catholic tradition with her warmhearted, contemporary approach to spirituality. Now she turns her attention to the Rosary, revealing the universality of this ancient practice and how it can enrich lives today.

Praying the Rosary—the act of counting off prayers with a string of beads in a rhythm of focused spiritual contemplation—is a practice that has existed for centuries and is common to many faiths. For the world’s one billion Catholics it has become the most popular form of devotion. Though strongly associated with The Rosary - Mckennathe Virgin Mary, the prayers of the Rosary are ultimately meant to bring those who say them closer to Jesus Christ, whose life and teachings are central to all branches of the Christian faith. This gives the Rosary an ecumenical dimension that is in sync with today’s emphasis on the common bonds, rather than the divisions, among all Christians. In 2002, Pope John Paul II updated the Rosary by adding a new section on the teachings of Jesus, further emphasizing the centrality of Christ and the biblical Gospels at the heart of the prayers. Embracing this ecumenical attitude in Praying the Rosary, Megan McKenna explores the Rosary and explains how to pray it, incorporating the Pope’s recent additions and revealing its relevance to a new generation. She breaks down the Rosary into its twenty components, prefacing each with a selection from Scripture that identifies the prayer’s source in the Bible. Combining practical instruction with meditative reflections on the prayer’s spirituality, she reveals the Rosary’s richly contemplative nature and shows how praying the Rosary can inspire peaceful, calm attitudes, and an awareness of the universal spiritual mystery that connects all Christians. –Amazon.com

The Rosary: A Path into Prayer, by Liz Kelly. Loyola Press. Printed Length: 174 pp. Kindle Price: $9.56.

An introduction to the rich tradition of rosary devotion, with new material on the recently added Rosary - Kellyluminous mysteries.

The rosary is a central element in the prayer lives of countless people, though it is still often neglected and misunderstood. The Rosary, an updated and revised version of The Seeker’s Guide to the Rosary (Loyola Press, 2001), is a comprehensive look at the history, practice, and benefits of rosary devotion. Designed to introduce the reader to the mysteries of this simple meditative prayer, author Liz Kelly gently guides the reader on an exploration of this powerful prayer that is well suited even to this modern world.

Kindle Books for Catholic Educators: Basics

This week we feature two books to help you or your students brush up on the essentials of our faith.

Catholicism for Dummies, by Fr. John Trigilio and Dr. Kenneth Brighenti. For Dummies. Print Length: 432 pages. Kindle Price: $13.19.

There are more than one billion Catholics in the world, and each one has a similar set of basic beliefs and practices that he or she follows. Some of the teachings of Catholicism are thousands of years old, while others are more recent. So what is the Catholic culture like and what do they believe? Catholicism For Dummies answers these and many other questions.

Whether you-re a Catholic or not, you may be totally clueless or just unaware of some aspects of Catholic traditions, history, doctrine, worship, devotion, or culture. No sweat. Regardless of whether you-re engaged, married, related to a Catholic, or just curious about what Catholics really do believe, this book is for you.

Catholicism For Dummies is not a catechism or religious textbook, but a casual, down-to-earth introduction for non-Catholics and reintroduction for Catholics. It gives commonsense explanations so that the next time you-re invited to a Catholic wedding, Baptism, funeral, Confirmation, or First Communion, you won-t be totally confused. You-ll also discover other important topics that can help you better understand the Catholic culture-from morality and devotions to worship and liturgy. This book will familiarize you with Catholicism by showing you:

  • What it means to be a Catholic: traditions, prayers, beliefs, and holidays
  • Who is who in the Catholic hierarchy
  • How Catholics worship
  • What the Seven Sacraments and Ten Commandments are
  • The book regarded as the holiest to Catholics: The Bible
  • The Church-s stand on some sticky issues

Catholicism For Dummies presents a rich tapestry and history of the Catholic faith-from devotions to doctrines. This intelligent and faithful look at Catholicism will open your eyes to this religion and answer many of the questions you may have about it. — Amazon.com

The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You, by Michael Debruiel. Our Sunday Visitor. Print Length: 272 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99.

Maybe you are a recent convert, or perhaps you’ve attended Mass your whole life, but there are still things that puzzle you, like: when you should genuflect and when you should bow; what the different books used at Mass are and what they contain; the meaning of words like “Amen,” “Alleluia,” or “Hosanna”; what to do during the sign of peace.

You aren’t alone.

The How-to Book of the Mass not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.

In this complete guide to the celebration of the Eucharist you get:

  • Step-by-step guidelines to walk you through the Mass
  • Biblical background of the prayers of the Mass
  • Insights from the Tradition and teaching of the Church
  • Practical aid to overcoming distractions
  • Concrete ways to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ at every Mass
  • A handy study guide for individual or group use

— Amazon.com

Kindle Books for Catholic Educators: Saints and Shakespeare

In this week’s Kindle Books for Catholic Teachers we share a book on the saints for teachers and a pair of books for those who teach Shakespeare in Catholic schools. Each book is also available in print form, for a slightly higher price.

My Best Teachers Were Saints: What Every Educator Can Learn from the Heroes of the Church, by Susan Swetnam. Loyola Press. Printed Length: 298 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99

Dry spells and indifferent students, acrimonious meetings and recalcitrant colleagues, isolation and self-doubt–the stresses of the teaching profession are plentiful. In times of strain, many teachers draw on the wisdom of their mentors, the seasoned teachers who taught them classroom skills and became trusted models and friends. For Susan H. Swetnam, some of the best, most inspiring, and most insightful mentors she has are saints of the Catholic Church–and a remarkable number of these men and women were teachers themselves. In fact, many of the church’s heroes achieved their saintly stature by facing challenges identical to those that teachers face today.

Some of the fifty-two saints described in My Best Teachers Were Saints give lessons on how to overcome the teaching profession’s unique problems; others show today’s teachers how to identify successes that are often quite difficult to discern. All of the saints in this book share one thing in common: they persevered in the educational work that God called them to do. Swetnam brings to life each story of perseverance and makes it easy for today’s educators to discover mentor-companions who can help them rekindle and fortify their passion in the classroom. – Amazon.com

Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avaon and the Church of Rome, by Joseph Pearce. Ignatius Press. Print Length: 367 pages. Kindle Price: $13.17.

Highly regarded and best-selling literary writer and teacher, Joseph Pearce presents a stimulating and vivid biography of the world’s most revered writer that is sure to be controversial. Unabashedly provocative, with scholarship, insight and keen observation, Pearce strives to separate historical fact from fiction about the beloved Bard.

Shakespeare is not only one of the greatest figures in human history, he is also one of the most controversial and one of the most elusive. He is famous and yet almost unknown. Who was he? What were his beliefs? Can we really understand his plays and his poetry if we don’t know the man who wrote them?

These are some of the questions that are asked and answered in this gripping and engaging study of the world’s greatest ever poet. The Quest for Shakespeare claims that books about the Bard have got him totally wrong. They misread the man and misread the work. The true Shakespeare has eluded the grasp of the critics. Dealing with the facts of Shakespeare’s life and times, Pearce’s quest leads to the inescapable conclusion that Shakespeare was a believing Catholic living in very anti-Catholic times.

Many of his friends and family were persecuted, and even executed, for their Catholic faith. And yet he seems to have avoided any notable persecution himself. How did he do this? How did he respond to the persecution of his friends and family? What did he say about the dreadful and intolerant times in which he found himself? The Quest for Shakespeare answers these questions in ways that will enlighten and astonish those who love Shakespeare’s work, and that will shock and outrage many of his critics. This book is full of surprises for beginner and expert alike. – Amazon.com

Through Shakespeare’s Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays, by Joseph Pearce. Ignatius Press. Print Length: 364 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99.

Fulfilling the promise he made in his previous book, The Quest for Shakespeare, bestselling literary writer Joseph Pearce analyzes in this volume three of Shakespeare’s immortal plays – The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet and King Lear – in order to uncover the Bard’s Catholic beliefs.

In The Quest for Shakespeare, which has been made into an EWTN television series, Pearce delved into the known biographical evidence for Shakespeare’s Catholicism. Here the popular and provocative author digs into the plays, which were written and first performed during the English crown-s persecution of Catholics. English history and literature were taught for generations through the prism of English Protestantism. Of late both of these fields have been dominated in universities and academic presses by modern scholars with filters and interpretations of their own. Though the evidence for Shakespeare’s Catholicism has been studied before now, thanks, in part, to the unique contribution of Joseph Pearce, the Bard’s genius is being analyzed in the open air of the public arena, the very place where Shakespeare intended his dramas to entertain and edify. – Amazon.com