My subject specialism is Religious Education and I am sharing here an exercise which I find very useful when presenting students with information about a new subject. They work in groups of three. This is designed to improve listening skills and understanding. The exercise is by no means only useful in an RE setting so I am sharing it with other subjects too. I also include here two articles forwarded from some my business mentor emailed to me - one on listening and one on leadership. I hope you find them helpful. Do give some feedback.

Continuing blog. Will add more later. 12th - Moiza the cat 13th also - Quaker Meeting and visiting Mum's friend B now in a different hospital. 14 - 15 + an outline of my son's presentation on how to combat stress (which finished the College term off in a great way) quotes from Ch 2 of Gita 21st about Camden Market and Tagore 22-3 about gas charges 24th about family and Christmas, love and forgiveness Christmas Day about carols and a wild 'cheerfulness challenge' successfully met. 27th includes poems and readings about love and change from my Teacher's online library

Starting with an article from the Guardian 'A World Ruled by Money Has Failed. It's Time to Reclaim Love.' by Jeanette Winterson I will add other relevant articles as I find them. Please suggest your favourites.

a great example of the importance of looking at translation when seeking to understand any scripture. several articles from the Web give different perspectives on the way that translating ekklesia as church (a word that is derived from Kuriakon) has distorted the meaning of the Bible and given power to the institution, not the people. Because many reject religion in response to the misuse of power, this is particularly important to explore in RE. File on William Tyndall added. He was put to death because his correct translation threatened those in power.

16 - 17th Jan - Homophobia and sex-education 18th - 20th parking frustrations + gratitude to friends for helping my daughter . 20 - 23 outline only - 24 - 25th includes comment on competition and ‘excellence’ in school and on some of the atrocities committed by the British Raj in India + news of the rest of the day. An article about Lahore and Partition with interviews. 26th - flier and business card for Silk-Painting + Monsanto. Is it the world’s worst company? 29th Jan + ‘Against all the odds.’ 6th Feb is about the snow and 7th about Mum and being independent.

Someone sent me a PM asking if they could quote me in an article they're writing about RE. I sent an outline of my approach and will add bits from old posts relating to my experience of teaching RE. Sharing this here as colleagues may find some useful ideas. As always, my only aim is to give support and encouragement to all my lovely colleagues and stay working in the field that I love so much and care about so passionately. I'm always happy to come in school to support you. And I offer great slide-show based reflective Assemblies and role-play workshops.

copy of the article (Express 27th Nov 2011) which reported on starvation in Britain - over 100,000 people going hungry at the moment and the way that charities are giving food parcels to many of them. Also info about The Trussel Trust - one such charity, with contact details for London. Updated with four more links including an article from the Independent 16th Oct 2013. The use of Food Banks has tripled this year. Massive suffering is being caused by the gov'ts changes to the benefit system and increasing numbers trapped with low pay and cost of living rising.

This is not really part of the Meditation-Blog as that was something quite unique, to share my experiences in New York and my my daily meditation at the beautiful Meditation Garden I loved to visit every morning. But if there are any experiences here - back in England - which relate to issues which I mentioned or explored in that blog, I feel it is useful to share these as part of the 'appendix.' For now I feel inspired to continue to share my life in a small way here. The one about 13 - 15th relates to Remembrance Sunday. With love and thanks for all your encouragement. DMC

This is a really great resouce created by niamhmcguinness which gives an outline of how to revise and prepare for exams. I can't recommend it too highly as our exam system creates tremendous pressure, stress and distress for many students and this is set to get a whole lot worse as Course Work is being phased out. The second version includes the advice I give my own students about exam revision. Many thanks to niamhmcguinness for permission to share this resource. It is not just good for RE but for all subjects.

Here is info about the Taise Community and how to take a group there. Certain weeks are specially designed for school groups. I have wanted to organise a trip to Taise for years. They recommend groups of age 15 and over to come for a full week. They ask for one adult per five students. So if you do plan to take a group and are short of adults, contact me! I'd love to come.

This film asks 'what is wrong with the world?' and &'What can we do about it?&'; It impressed and moved me so deeply that I would like to see the film shown at the start of Autumn term to all RE classes across the country. Each year the pupils would get more from it, as their own experience and understanding develop. Annoyingly these links have been removed - some copyright infringement. I have bought the film and will send you a copy if you give me a pm. It really is worth having and showing - in 'bite-size chunks&' for younger classes.

commenting step by step on a lesson plan for a lesson on war and peace: Learning objecitves are - To express your own opinion about war and peace. To explore religious attitudes to war and peace. To inform your peers about Christian and Muslim beliefs about war and peace. I mention some of the factors underlying some of the so called 'religious wars' and give a few examples of conflict situations which I have met in school as both a teacher and parent.

Since I have a spiritual teacher who I consider to be very wise, I have gone to his website and looked on the free library site, using the words, arguments, atheists and God Realisation in the search. This file is what I found particularly interesting / relevant to the current argument on the forum. I think there are passages here which you may use with KS4 and Post 16 - as well as possibly within the staffroom and for your own enlightenment.

There are over 20,000 Christian Denominatins This first list gives some of the main ones. I will add to this with some basic info about them. I've added some diagrams showing the way that the denominations branched out from Catholicism and the denomination tree.

Rabia is just one example of a great and much loved and respected Muslim saint who did not follow the traditional 'pattern of behaviour' recommended in Islam. For one thing, she never married. This is a passage about her from Wikki.

A collection of resources including youtube video which tells the story of a South African woman who forgives the policeman who killed her son and husband A poem and reflection on love A Role Play exercise based on Jewish practise partucularly suited to Yom Kippur

In response to a non specialist asking about the best way of approaching teaching RE I have collected the web-addresses for some of my most popular resouces and listed them grouped under headings to hopefully make them easier to find. First are the Exploring Religion and Reflections on Life slide-shows which are most popular. Then there are the poems and quotations, some files grouped with others from that religion, and finally some role-play exercises. I hope this will be useful especially for nonspecialists and NQT's

A play about the life of Buddha, staged in a small Off Broadway theatre last year. I give a brief outline of each episode and links to the episodes found on Youtube. This is and amateur video but still manages to capture something of who Buddha was and what he taught. If anyone would like a copy of the full video I can supply it if they contact me on a pm. As always it would be great to get some good feedback, comments or rating etc - as a guide for anyone else who may be interested in this.

Another in this popular series, no commentary. 212 slides C 20 minutes. Some disturbing images. Explores natural beauty, spirituality, family diversity, peace, war, poverty, harmony with nature, Global Warming, responses to suffering, diversity of age, disability etc with some great quotes. 'If you made a slide-show, reflecting on life from your perspective - what would you change- (add or take out?) What other causes of suffering can you think of? Collect relevant poems and quotes, etc Listed as video = use it with music. Contact me if you would like a list of music that works well.

These articles and other items come from an amazing kaleidoscope record that the educationalist, journalist and spiritual seeker Phil Hall has put together to celebrate the lives of his parents. They were journalists and anti apartheid campaigners in South Africa, his mother was imprisoned and later the whole family exiled. They worked in Africa, the Middle East and India. Great rich store of resources to aid discussion and make RE relevant and alive.