Students blogging
Posted on by Deacon Nick

Blogs by Catholic Teachers, Principals and Catechists

Blogging TeacherThe good news is that there are Catholic teachers, administrators and catechists who are willing to share their wisdom, knowledge and experience with anyone willing to follow their blogs. The bad news is that there are so few of these bloggers out there. Currently, there are over 7,000 elementary and secondary Catholic schools in the U.S, staffed by over 154,000 teachers and principals, but I could find less than forty blogs by Catholic educators. Even BarbinNebraska’s Twitter list of Catholic educators, arguably the biggest list of Catholic teachers using social media, only has forty-four teachers as of this writing.

To be sure, Catholic teachers are overburdened and rightly need to make teaching their number one priority; but it’s a shame that more don’t take the time to share their ideas and resources with the rest of the world. Blogging can take as much or as little time as you want, and can be as professional or informal as your personality and goals dictate. If you teach in Catholic schools, please consider starting a blog of your own.

Here’s the list of all the blogs by Catholic educators that I’ve been able to find. I’d love to be able to add to this list, so please let me know of any blogging teachers, administrators and catechists that I may have missed.

Teachers:

Principals/Administrators:

Catechists:

31 Replies to “Blogs by Catholic Teachers, Principals and Catechists”

  1. Great post touching on a good point. I especially enjoy the the list of blogs. I have one thought, however, that may explain why there are so few good Catholic school teacher blogs. Feel free to disagree.

    I think there are probably hundreds and hundreds more out there, but for the most part, the blogs are used as supplementary teaching tools aimed at just a class or a grade level. I know the teachers I worked with at K-8 Catholic school in Chicago used them, but it was not so they could write about their experience, but rather, so they could be better communicators with their students (probably not something you want in your RSS reader).

    Some educators are able to do blogs in both realms, but I can see where time could be the limiting factor – not saying that the technological comfort level isn’t an issue as well.

  2. I agree. We used WordPress blogs at our school to communicate with parents and students until we started using Sycamore Leaf’s online administrative suite. In addition to attendance, grades, report cards and hot lunch, teachers can post news items, documents, homework and pictures in a secure environment. It’s not customizable at all, but it gets the job done and teachers don’t have to worry about spam comments, plugins, themes, etc. (And I don’t have to worry about maintaining them!)

    But even if teachers were just using them to supplement their teaching, it might be helpful for other teachers to subscribe to them to get ideas and see another teacher in action. For instance, Karen McMillan (aka McTeach) has a great WordPress blog for her students and parents that would be an excellent model for other teachers to follow. In fact, it might be great to have another list of Catholic teacher blogs focused on just the ones that are used for communicating with parents and students.

    And yes, time is a huge factor. I think there must be certain personality traits that drive a person to blog, in spite of the extra time and effort it takes. I won’t speculate on what those traits (virtues? vices?) might be, however. 🙂

  4. Hello! I am a former Catholic high school teacher, now a catechist and homeschooling mom, and I blog at Scrutinies about catechesis, family, and culture. I’ve started a semi-regular feature called “Catechist Chat” in which I give and solicit suggestions for catechists, especially at the high school level.

    I think part of the reason that there aren’t more Catholic teacher blogs is time, true, but there are also sensitive issues with blogging from the classroom. There are privacy concerns involved and it’s also more difficult to be candid about the real challenges of catechesis. I actually started out as “Anonymous Teacher Person” when I began teaching theology and was eventually tracked down by an enterprising student. So, even if teachers blog under a pseudonym, they should write as though their names were on their blogs.

  5. Excellent point about privacy, Dorian. I don’t think there is such a thing as blogging anonymously anymore, so teachers and catechists need to be aware of the ramifications of putting things out publicly. There was a recent case of a Catholic school teacher who had joined an online atheist site and lost her job over it after posting about it on Facebook.

  6. Followed the link from Dorian’s blog. I am a catechist and a blogger, and sometimes my blog hits catholic topics. But it’s not a “catechist blog” in that catechesis isn’t the main theme. (I don’t know what is the main theme. I just like to write. So I do. Sometimes.)

    As Dorian mentioned, privacy for my students is a concern. As an underling, I also want to respect the authority of my DRE and pastor, and not be spouting off my inexperienced opinion on the various issues that inevitably arise in an RE program. And frankly, I’m not that great of a teacher yet, so I’m a bit short of things to write specifically about teaching.

    Also, as a catechist, I get an awful lot of training from just reading good catholic blogs — priest blogs, theologian blogs, canon-law blogs. But I’m thrilled that you are compiling this list here, because I and many others can use some help in taking all that info and turning into a helpful class for our students.

    Jennifer.

  7. Nick,

    Just went through Google Reader feeds and pulled out the ones I follow that aren’t on your list:

    Liturgy and Catechesis Shall Kiss (http://liturgycatechesisshallkiss.blogspot.com) – Joyce Donahue, Catechetical Associate, Diocese of Joliet

    eCatechist (http://ecatechist.typepad.com) – Dan Pierson

    Catechetical Foundations (http://catfoundations.com/) – new apostolate for catechist formation

    Engaging Faith (http://engagingfaith.blogspot.com/) – Ave Maria Press

  8. Jonathan, you’re awesome! Thank you. I will add them later today, if I can finish getting my classroom ready for school tomorrow. 🙂

    Jennifer, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Even if you’re relatively inexperienced, just telling your story as a catechist and believer can be powerful.

  9. The good thing about non-anonymity is that it forces one to be charitable. 🙂

    Okay, I’m no technical genius, but I believe I have just created a blogroll that each of us can add to our own blogs. I’m going to tinker around with it later, but first I want to find out if it works!
    It seems to work on my own blog – scroll down to just below the Blog Archive and you’ll see it. I’ve only entered the addresses of the Catechist blogs so far, because I wanted to make sure this is actually going to be something we can all use. And that I did it right.

    I’m not sure if I can paste this code into this box for other people to grab or not. Let’s see:

  10. I forgot to add – if it *doesn’t* work, someone can email me and I’ll email you the code back. Then we can see if it works? It would be really cool if it does.

  11. In an annoying third-comment-in-a-row, I hereby report that it *did* work for me when I pasted the code into a different blog I maintain under another gmail address. I don’t know if will transfer to non-Blogger sites or not; it’s just a javascript.

    It does display a little banner ad across the top of each blog that you click on, but you can close it.

    I shall leave no more comments for the next ten minutes, at least.

  12. Dorian, I think that WordPress commenting probably prohibits code from being embedded, because yours didn’t show up at the end of your comment. You might have to take a screen shot of the code and post it as a picture or something like that. I did see it on your site and it seems to be working.

  13. Leave as many comments as you want. I also want to remind everyone that another way to share this list to click the Facebook “Like” button at the top or bottom of the article.

  14. Cool – okay, I’ll see what I can do about making a screenshot of the code. That makes sense that I can’t just paste it into a comment box. Meanwhile, those who would like to add the blogroll to their pages can email me.

    Another site is RE Net News (http://renetnews.blogspot.com/) which is maintained by Marc Cardaronella in the diocese of Peoria.

  15. Thanks for this wonderful collection, Nick. You found a few blogs that I haven’t come across yet. I tried to make up similar collection back in March: http://thereligionteacher.blogspot.com/2010/03/religious-education-and-catechesis.html. I didn’t take the time to cross reference, but your list seems to cover the biggies. Thanks Jonathan and Dorian for adding to this list.

    Also, The Religion Teacher is moving to http://www.thereligionteacher.com. WordPress is definitely the way to go, though blogger has its benefits.

    Jared

  16. Thanks, Jared. I’ll add the ones from your collection that I’m missing when I get the chance. Good luck with your move!

  17. Wow, Nick! Thanks for including my blog and listing me as a pioneer in Social Media!

  19. Pingback: A Revolution in Learning | Marc Cardaronella

  20. Thanks for this list Nick. This is awesome! I can’t wait to add these to my rss list.

    Responding to Jennifer’s comments, I don’t think you need to be a master catechist or an expert to blog about cool stuff that you do in the classroom. There’s always something to learn from everyone. Someone is always doing things a little different or injecting a new perspective that’s enlightening. I think we need many voices out there sharing ideas.

  23. Greetings,

    You may remember me. My name is Anthony DeStefano and a few months ago my first children’s book was published—This Little Prayer of Mine.

    I‘ve also written a couple of bestselling non-fiction books—A Travel Guide to Heaven, and Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To—both published by Doubleday.

    I’m writing to you because my second children’s book is now out! It’s a Christmas story called: Little Star.

    Little Star is a very simple retelling of the Nativity story which focuses on the star of Bethlehem—the smallest star in the heavens—who burns himself out to keep the newborn baby Jesus warm in a Bethlehem stable. My goal was to try to encapsulate the whole gospel message in a simple Christmas story, and to do so in a way that all kids could relate to.

    I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look at my book to see if it’s something that your readers might be interested in. I’d be happy to send you a free review copy, if you send me the best address to mail it to.

    Thanks very much, and an early Merry Christmas to you!

    Best,

    Anthony

    PS: Here is the link to the press release for the book, which I thought you might like to read:

    “http://anthonydestefano.com/landing/blogs/LittleStar_01.htm”

  30. Dear Deacon Nick:

    I just completed my first year as a Catholic school teacher after 27 years in the corporate business computer industry. I would be happy for you to add my new blog to this list:

    http://spiritedteaching.com

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