Tag: Video

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Advent and Christmas Videos for the Catholic Classroom (and a Bonus Christmas Carol Puzzle)

Advent Wreath

On today’s #CatholicEdChat, I shared a few YouTube videos that I sometimes use with my students. Here they are in one convenient place for you to use, along with a special word puzzle, Translate that Christmas Carol.

(This post will update as I find more Advent/Christmas videos)

Advent Conspiracy

Advent in 2 Minutes

Bethlehemian Rhapsody

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob of Hallelujah Chorus

Fr. Jim Martin on Good King Wenceslas by The Roches

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011

Sean Quigley – The Little Drummer Boy

Darth Vader Conducts Christmas Carol Flash Mob

Rudolph (You Don’t Have to Put on the Red Light)

Bonus Word Puzzle: Translate that Christmas Tune

For a fun Christmas/vocabulary activity try having your students translate these verbose Christmas carol titles back into their original form:

Example: Soundless Nocturnal Timespan (answer: Silent Night)

  1. Move Hitherward the Entire Assembly of Those Who Are Loyal in Their Belief
  2. Ornament the Enclosure with Large Sprigs of a Berry-Bearing Evergreen
  3. Vertically-Challenged Adolescent Percussionist
  4. First Person (Singular) Experiencing an Hallucinatory Phenomenon of a Natal Celebration Devoid of Color
  5. Soundless Nocturnal Timespan
  6. Majestic Triplet (First Person Plural)
  7. The Yuletide Occurrence Preceding All Others
  8. Precious Metal Musical Devices
  9. Omnipotent Supreme Being Elicits Respite to Ecstatic Distinguished Males
  10. Caribou Afflicted with Vermillion Olfactory Appendage
  11. Allow Crystalline Formation to Descend
  12. Jovial Yuletide Desired for the Second Person (Singular or Plural)
  13. Commence Auditory Reception, the Celestial Messengers Produce Harmonious Sounds
  14. Village Expectations of a Yuletide Emmisary
  15. Bipedal Travel through a Geographic State of Fantasy During the Season of Mother Nature’s Dormancy
  16. Arrival Occurred at Twelve O’clock During Clement Nocturnal Period
  17. Exclamatory Remark Concerning a Diminutive Municipality of Judea
  18. Ecstatic Experience Directed Toward Global Inhabitants
  19. First Person (Plural) Acoustic Awareness of Extra-Terrestrial Messengers at Great Altitude
  20. Obese Male Personification Consisting of Aggregate Compaction of Individual Water Crystals, with Appellation of Surface Crystalline Deposition of Water Vapor
  21. Tintinnabulation of Vacillating Pendulums in Metallic Resonant Spheres
  22. Improvised Infant Furniture in Remote Location
  23. Imperative Expedition for the Purpose of Proclaiming Upon a Specific Alpine Formation
  24. First Person’s Perplexed Contemplations Upon a Period of Aimless Meandering
  25. Wintertime Festivity Consisting of a Dozen Planetary Sidereal Rotations
  26. My Sole Desire for the Yuletide Season Is Receipt of a Pair of Central Incisors
  27. Are You Detecting the Same Aural Sensations as I Am?
  28. Who’s the Mystery Offspring?
  29. Testimony of Witness to Maternal Parent’s Infidelity with Kris Kringle

For the answers, click here.

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Bishop Cupich Launches Initiative to Safeguard Catholic Education

 

The Nazareth Guild Logo

Bishop Blase Cupich has made Catholic education one of his highest priorities since coming to the Diocese of Spokane in September of 2010. First, he invited every Catholic school student to his installation Mass in what must have been the largest gathering of Catholic schools in diocesan history. Second, he takes every opportunity he can to write and speak about the value of a Catholic education.

Now, through a 501(c)(3) corporation he calls The Nazareth Guild, Bishop Cupich is taking a proactive role in shaping and safeguarding Catholic education in the Diocese of Spokane:

As Bishop Cupich himself puts it:

This past month a major archdiocese announced the recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Committee to close 48 of its Catholic schools. While the results of the committee’s study were based on solid research and study, the announcement nonetheless sent shock waves through parishes, schools and families. While students, teachers and parents complained that they did not see this coming, committee members noted that the problems leading to the closures were longstanding and systemic. “Ten years ago, one member stated, ‘ if we had looked around the corner, we might have been able to do something to save them, but now it is too late. We have hit the point of no return.”

Dioceses around the country are facing similar challenges as parishes have shrunk with changing demographics, as dioceses have suffered financial setbacks and rising education costs have put the choice of a Catholic school out of reach for many families.

The Catholic schools in Eastern Washington are not immune to these trends, but happily the situation has not developed to ”the point of no return.“ We are blessed by many supportive parishioners, pastors and parents. There is a strong legacy in the diocese predisposed to Catholic schools. That is why I have decided to gather a group of leaders together to help strengthen and stabilize the viability of our Catholic schools. To that end we have formed The Nazareth Guild, a separate 501(c)(3) corporation, which will have a multi-pronged purpose aimed at keeping our schools financially healthy, academically excellent and accessible and safe centers of learning. One of the initial goals is to build an endowment to ensure that our exceptional educational programs will be available to students in all income groups, by providing tuition assistance for students who may otherwise be unable to afford this educational opportunity.

Taking its name for the town where the child Jesus was educated, the Nazareth Guild, will promote a professional, strategic and high quality development plan for our schools.

It’s this kind of hope, vision, and foresight that will strengthen Catholic schools for the future.

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Powerful Video Shows Students How a Dollar Can Change the World

Change

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” So says Galadriel to Frodo in Peter Jackson’s film of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. The same sentiment could be applied to the money that gets donated in the following short film Change for a Dollar. Even the smallest amount of money can change the course of the future.

I am sorely tempted to list discussion points or viewing questions that you could use with this video after showing it your students, but I think this time I’ll just let the video speak for itself. I’d love to hear how you would use the video, or what you would focus on with your students. To share, leave your suggestions and thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks to CatholicTV for posting this video on its Facebook page.

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Dramatic Changes Expected in Philadelphia Catholic Education

Philadelphia Catholic School Students
Image from http://www.catholicschools-phl.org

Which Philadelphia Catholic schools will close? That’s the question on the minds of many Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia this week. The results of Philadelphia’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Catholic Education will be made public on Friday, January 6. The members of the Commission were appointed by Cardinal Justin Rigali just over a year ago “to undertake a comprehensive study of Archdiocesan elementary and secondary schools, as well as the schools of special education and religious education programs.”

The study is expected to bring about a dramatic change in Catholic education in Philadelphia, strengthening it for the future and ensuring the long-term existence of Catholic schools in the archdiocese. That change is not going to be without cost, however. According to a local Philadelphia news report, “all elementary schools with fewer than 125 students are expected to be closed. Some secondary schools will also likely be closed.”

Which Catholic Schools Will Close?: MyFoxPHILLY.com

This week, as we celebrate two American saints with strong ties to Catholic schools, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Neumann, we ask their intercession to guide the Commission and Cardinal Rigali to make decisions that lead to stronger, more viable Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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Poignant Video Shows Students True Service

Get ServiceAs the prospect of my ordination to the diaconate draws ever closer (9-10 months away, God willing!), I am becoming more sensitive to articles and videos having to do with service. The following video expresses beautifully what it means to be a true servant. It would make a powerful statement during a service retreat with your students, or even as a way to begin a lesson on what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

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How YouTube Can Increase Students’ Awareness of God

YouTube LogoA while back I wrote a post about using YouTube videos in the Catholic classroom. Here’s one of my favorite YouTube videos to use at the beginning of the school year to help students be more aware of God’s presence. It can also be used in faculty meetings to help remind teachers to look for the ways God works in their school day. If you teach in a Jesuit school, it might be a good video to use when teaching the examen.

I’ve written a few points for discussion but watch the video closely yourself first to avoid spoilers.

For Meditation/Discussion:

  • God is always present in our lives, but we often fail to see him. We get caught up in the details, the busyness, the distractions of our day-to-day lives–in other words, we get so busy counting the passes that we miss the moonwalking bear. God is the moonwalking bear, and when we notice him, we can’t help but break into a smile.
  • When was the last time you noticed a “moonwalking bear” in your own life? What was it?
  • What are you so focused on that you miss the moonwalking bear?