How One Parish Used Flocknote For Online Religious Education Classes

It is always such a joy to hear from someone who wants to celebrate how Flocknote is making a difference at their parish! Amanda McAlarney, the Social Media Coordinator for St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, reached out to us recently to share a win.

In addition to coordinating her parish’s social media, Amanda is the lead catechist for 2nd grade Sacramental prep. Faced with the challenge of moving her religious education instruction online this past year, Amanda found success in using Flocknote to engage her young learners, and wanted to share that success, because she believes that a similar approach could be utilized by churches and catechists across the country.

“One of my goals in developing this program for my students (one of which is my daughter) was to make it easy to navigate, so that the average second grader could complete the lessons as independently as possible.”

Amanda schedules her class communications to go out to the parents of her students. Then, after the lessons are sent, she relies heavily on the Note Analytics to keep track of who is or is not opening her class communications. She also finds it beneficial to see the date and times when the questions are completed.

Amanda has really leveraged what Flocknote’s Note Composer has to offer to make reaching her program goals possible:

“The first reconciliation curriculum that we used this year had a workbook and videos available on the company’s website, allowing me to access the direct links and input the URL into the buttons of my emails. It looks great and is very easy for the children to navigate.”

Amanda also mentioned that she utilizes the quote feature to highlight meaningful quotes that relate to the lessons, and the survey feature to help assess her student’s understanding.

“One unexpected blessing of our virtual program has been the ability to welcome students into our program who are registered with other parishes. We are able to provide sacrament preparation without the constraints of the current environment. I can see this being an opportunity for many parishes across the country.”

Beyond all the creativity and functionality of Amanda’s lessons is a true spirit of evangelization. We are so thrilled to be a part of it!

Click the button below to see one of Amanda’s notes (shared with her permission).

Pictured above: Amanda with her daughter, Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s First Communion

Ready to use Flocknote for Religious Education at your church? Click HERE to learn how you can use this powerful, but simple tool to reach your youth and stay organized.

*Pro Tip – At the end of every school year you can even move your students from one grade to the next super easily in Flocknote! Check out how to do that here. 🎉