Tag: Reviews

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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.

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Advice for Catholic School Web Site Design

Web IconAbout fourteen years ago, my eighth grade class and I created the first Catholic school website in our diocese. It was 1996, and I paid $50 for a web page editor and spent hours trying to make menu frames work while my students wrote content. We were very proud of that site, and of the fact that we were the first school with a web page. Never mind that it was hosted for free on a domain that had nothing to do with our school’s name, or that we didn’t know the first thing about web design; like so many other Catholic school endeavors, we worked with our limited resources to create the best product we could. That particular web site lasted for several years, until our development director took the burden of maintaining the site off of my shoulders.

Today, web sites are too important to schools to be designed by a geeky teacher and his students. Catholic schools hire professional web designers or rely on parent volunteers with web design experience. Enter Lance Johnson and Adam Fairholm, the creative minds behind Catholic School Web Design, a web site dedicated to bringing useful web design information to Catholic schools. Though it’s only been around for three months, CSWD has already produced over a dozen helpful articles for Catholic school webmasters, including the following:

If you’re a Catholic school administrator, development director or web designer, pay CSWD a visit and subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also follow them on Twitter, too.

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Essential Podcast for Catholic Science Teachers – The Catholic Laboratory

The Shroud of Turin

Can you name ten significant Catholic scientists? Three? How about just one? And yet, according to Ian Maxfield at The Catholic Laboratory, “Over 200 religious and lay Catholics have made significant and notable contributions to our understanding of the natural world and our universe through research into astronomy, chemistry, physics, atomic theory, geology, meteorology, seismology, cosmology.”

The Catholic social justice tradition used to be the best kept secret in the Church, but it’s now been superseded by Catholic contributions to science. Many people today, including our own Catholic students, see faith and science as mutually exclusive, as if one has to abandon all reason to be religious. The Catholic Laboratory Podcast aims to change that by helping the world “rediscover the rich scientific heritage of the Catholic Church, to understand the Church’s stance towards modern science, and to inspire and give comfort to today’s Catholic scientists who may be struggling to practice their faith whilst pursuing their God-given talent for science.”

The Catholic Laboratory Podcast is a must-listen for every science teacher in Catholic schools. A new Catholic scientist is featured in every episode, along with discussions of current scientific topics and their relevance for Catholics. Past topics have included multiverses, Darwinism, the Shroud of Turin, Galileo, and the 35 lunar craters named for Jesuit priests. Since its beginning in May of 2009, the podcast has featured profiles of dozens of Catholic scientists.

Not only does Ian Maxfield give valuable background information about Catholic contributions to science, but he does so in an engaging, relevant and often humorous way. But watch out for his jokes–some of them are real groaners!

Science teachers (and catechists) can use the podcast in many different ways:

  • Listen to it yourself as general background information for your teaching;
  • Play excerpts from it to your students during class (especially the scientist profiles);
  • Break students into groups and assign each group an episode; ask them to share what they’ve learned with the class, or have them research the featured scientist more thoroughly.

In addition to the podcast, The Catholic Laboratory also features several other resources of interest to Catholic educators:

Don’t miss this amazing and essential resource for Catholic science teachers and catechists.

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Essential Podcasts for Educators – Lifeteen’s Sunday Sunday Sunday

Bible Geek Mark Hart
Bible Geek Mark Hart

One podcast that I play for my eighth grade students every week is Lifeteen’s Sunday Sunday Sunday. The Bible Geek, Mark Hart, prepares young Catholics for Sunday’s Mass readings by highlighting the major themes and filling in background information.

Hart begins the podcast by reminding his listeners to get a pen and paper before he lists the readings for the week. For the next seven to ten minutes he helps teen listeners connect more easily with God’s word. His enthusiasm is contagious and my students always enjoy hearing what he has to say. Hart has an energetic, folksy voice that doesn’t get too preachy or overhanded.

One thing I like about the Lifeteen podcasts is how easily they can be incorporated into a class period. Each Friday morning, my Religion class begins by listening to Sunday Sunday Sunday. Students take notes, and after the podcast is done I ask my students if they have any questions or comments. I think Hart’s style and message would be understandable by students from 4th-12th grade, and the seven minute average run time is short enough for most student attention spans.

The only complaint I have is that a couple of months ago they changed the theme music. It used to sound like a monster truck commercial, which my eighth grade boys looked forward to each week. I don’t know if they were violating copyright, but they changed the opening theme, and the new music is much more generic. Still, I highly recommend playing this podcast with your students each week. You might even try pairing it with Lifeteen’s Catholic Movie Reviews podcast.

You can listen to Sunday Sunday Sunday at Lifeteen’s podcast page, or subscribe to it for free via iTunes.

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Catholic Media Literacy from the Pauline Center for Media Studies

Pauline Media
Pauline Media

One of the biggest challenges facing Catholic teachers is how to help students live their faith in a culture that is increasingly counter to gospel values. Fortunately, the Daughters of St. Paul have been working to provide you with resources. The Pauline Center for Media Studies began in 1995 to “encourage and promote Media Mindfulness within the context of culture, education and faith formation.”

The Center offers teachers several important media literacy resources:

  1. Film Essays and Reviews: Over forty essays about faith and film, including several discussion guides that could be used with students. Movies discussed include Prince Caspian, The Golden Compass, Cinderella Man, Hotel Rwanda, Bruce Almighty, The Da Vinci Code, Fargo and The Village.
  2. Church Documents on Media: A convenient list of church statements regarding various issues in media
  3. Media, Catechesis and Preaching: A short but impressive set of catechetical resources

I’m also intrigued by Pauline’s series of books, Lights, Camera, Faith! A Movie Lover’s Guide to Scripture. Peter Malone and Sr. Rose Pacatte use movies to illuminate the meanings of the Sunday lectionary readings. Each book takes a different year in the cycle of readings, with a fourth volume that uses movies to explicate the ten commandments:

  1. Lights, Camera, Faith! Cycle A
  2. Lights, Camera, Faith! Cycle B
  3. Lights, Camera, Faith! Cycle C
  4. Lights, Camera, Faith! The Ten Commandments

They appear to be excellent resources for youth groups or even adult formation classes. I haven’t had a chance to look at these myself, so if you’ve read them or used them, leave a comment and share your experience with other readers.

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Lifeteen Catholic Movie Reviews – Essential Podcasts for Catholic Educators #2

Lifeteen movies200Anyone who teaches school knows that one way to connect with students is to talk movies with them. Lifeteen.com’s weekly Catholic Movie Reviews podcast is a great way to keep up with the latest screen triumphs and travesties. Host Greg Iwinski does an effective job of balancing cinematic critique with a Catholic moral and aesthetic perspective. His insights are pithy intelligent, and useful. Recent reviews include The Dark Knight, Hellboy II, Hancock, Wall-E, Get Smart, The Love Guru, and The Incredible Hulk.

At less than seven minutes an episode, this would be a great podcast to play to your students each week to jumpstart a discussion about living the Catholic lifestyle in today’s culture. I listen to it myself to help weed out the worthless from the worthwhile.

You can find the audio reviews at Lifeteen.com’s podcast page, or you can subscribe to Catholic Movie Reviews via iTunes (will open up iTunes on your computer).