Anniversaries are always good opportunities for educators to work on our subject in a different way. Different because, first of all, they give it a new air, breaking -at least apparently- the usual curriculum. But they also allow students to perceive the subject in connection with what society is living and celebrating. On the other hand, it is a good opportunity for interdisciplinary work because normally this event can be illuminated from different points of view (history, language, science...) with more or less incidence of one or the other depending on the event being celebrated, of course.
In the case of the year of St. Joseph Pope Francis has proposed to us, I have rescued an initiative that may be of interest to teachers in the area of Religion.
Based on the song Joseph, he of Mary by Jesús Morales (Chito), member of the well-known Catholic music group 'Brotes de Olivo', a video clip has been prepared with drawings by Ángel Ortiz, cartoonist and Religion teacher, and animation by Milo Jiménez. A fresh song with friendly and suggestive drawings that, for sure, will delight students of different ages and that has been made to spread the figure of the holy carpenter.
With this base song, different songs have been prepared didactic materials (download them here) that teachers can use and adapt to their classes. The layout was done by Rubén Montero. The pedagogical team was formed by Juana Sánchez, Montse Morell, Montse Aguilar and Gerardo Sánchez.
The challenge for Catholic educators is that this year of St. Joseph can have a real impact in the classroom.
It is a interesting material with didactic units for different educational levels, from kindergarten to high school and including material for special education students, something unfortunately not usual in this type of work. In addition to the video clip of the song, several games have been incorporated (word roulette, memory, goose game, tic-tac-toe...) and a gallery of pictures related to St. Joseph that serve as support for the didactic units.
There are sure to be more initiatives to work on this figure throughout the year. The challenge for Catholic educators is that this initiative of Pope Francis can have a real projection in the classroom and that this universal reference reaches the new generations. Because tradition has to be alive and has to be updated and put in dialogue with each generation if we do not want it to remain stagnant, become museum material and not serve for life. This material prepared by this enthusiastic group of teachers is undoubtedly a good contribution in this direction.
