Engaging Faith

Listed below are ten challenges facing the Church in the United States for the twenty-first century. Invite the students to vote on which challenge they feel is most pressing (not necessarily the most important). Once votes are tallied, divide the class into small groups of three to five students. Direct each group to come up with four possible ways the Church can respond to the challenge the class chose. Afterward, call on a member from each group to summarize the group's responses. Ten Challenges for the Church in the United States Ecumenism. How can the Church reach out to people of other faiths, including Islam? Gospel witness. How can American Catholics remain true to the vision of Jesus in a pluralistic and increasingly secular society that accepts as "normal" behaviors and lifestyles contrary to the Gospel? Immigrants.How can the Church help immigrants, especially the fat growing number of Hispanic-Americans, adjust to American society and give them important roles in the Church herself? Leadership. How can the bishops strengthen their credibility among the laity? How can they most effectively share the best of American's societal and cultural values with the universal Church? Parish life. How can the Church reanimate the person in the pew through a better appreciation of the Eucharist? Religious education. How can the Church reach out to Catholics of all ages, especially to disaffected Catholics who have dropped out of the Church? Schools. What is the future of Catholic schools on all levels—elementary, secondary, collegiate? What is their specific Catholic identity and mission? Vocations. How can the Church call and train priests to provide vision for the laity who will assume even greater roles of leadership? How can the Church mobiles the laity to support those in religious life? Women. What role should women have in the Church? Self-identity. How can the Church in America be American yet Catholic? How does Catholicism in American remain faithful to the Roman Catholic Church as she continues her life and witness in the pluralistic American culture? Invite the students to add other questions to each of the challenges. Also, ask them to identify other challenges facing the Church in America today.

I know what you are thinking: "Tumblr?! We're just figuring out Facebook for the classroom and now we have to figure out another social network? No way!" I know, I know...it is a lot to ask. It is so tough to stay on top of the ever changing and new technologies. But the fact is as more and more adults get on Facebook, less and less teenagers will spend their time on there. Facebook becomes less cool with every mom posting her latest Farmville update. So many teens have headed over to other social networks and blogging platforms like Tumblr. In fact, I was shocked by these numbers from a recent Nielsen report. Based on the amount of time people spend on each social network or blogging platform, Tumblr ranks #3: The Growth of Tumblr: Teens and Tumblr How does Tumblr stack up against the other social media sites for younger ages? The percentage may seem small compared to the other groups, but when you consider 2-17 actually only includes around 13-17 year olds or a span of five years, the percentage is striking. Teens love Tumblr because of the amount of customization they can create. Their Facebook profiles look like everyone else's profile, but their Tumblr pages uniquely suit them. Consider what venture capitalist, Fred Wilson, said (source Socialistic.com): “My daughter came home from college on Thursday night and showed me all of her friend’s Tumblrs. All the cool kids have them at her school now. Had nothing to do with me. I can assure you of that. They use Facebook as a utility. They check Facebook when they wake up and check it before they go to bed. But their profile on Facebook looks just like everyone’s profile. A Tumblr is self expression.” Using Tumblr in the Classroom I am pretty active on social media sites. I love Twitter (@jareddees) and I'm now all about Google+ (+Jared Dees), but I haven't quite figured out Tumblr. I joined the service about a year ago and didn't touch it until preparing for this article. I did some experimentation and research to offer some tips below for using the service for educational purposes. You can see what I have posted recently on my Tumblog: jareddees.tumblr.com. Consider incorporating Tumblr into the classroom in the following ways: Questions and Answers In Tumblr, you can ask a question that anyone can answer. Students can go on and answer your questions to give you a quick idea of how well they learned material or to assess prior knowledge. Reblogging One of the most unique features of Tumbrl is reblogging. Reblogging is a simple way to share great ideas from other people's Tumblr blogs. If you like the content and want to reshare it, just click the reblog button. Using Tags Like Twitter, Google+, and blogs you can add tags to your posts. Create a unique tag (#mrdoeassignment1) and have students post information related to that topic or question. Gather and discuss the various links, quotes, videos, etc. in class and discuss the most meaningful and helpful information. Share Music Students can share music about a certain topic. Have them search for or upload songs related to a topic you are discussing. Other students in the class can experience and comment on the music themselves. You can also have them upload Christian music for meditation or praise and worship during class. Create a Class Blog Although I haven't done this yet, you can create a group blog using Tumblr. Mashable gives a good tutorial on this. I can see multiple classes or sections of a course you teach sharing content between one another. You could turn this into a fun group project as well. Getting Started with Tumblr It is easy and free to sign-up, but it takes a little while to "get it." Get to know the tools by: Sign up Go to your Dashboard. Click "Explore Tumblr" Click on the Education tag and scroll through and start following and reblogging people's content. Click on a tag like #edtech or #teachers to see what people are sharing. Or go for a religious theme like #Catholic. At the very least you are bound to find some new kinds of content and teaching advice from the educational community on Tumblr. Warning: Like any social network, sexual content can be an issue. There are unfortunate posts with inappropriate images on Tumblr that can be found while exploring the various Tumblogs.

Engaging Faith

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Challenges for the Church in the United States

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Introduction to Using Tumblr in the Classroom

Picture Meditation