Hallow’s Head and Heart Summer Content Contest

Head and Heart Contest Hallow App

Outline

Project Overview

In a world where students are leaving the church at younger and younger ages, Catholic school educators, administrators, staff, and parents are faced with a fundamental challenge: how to sow the seeds of faith in a way that produces “good fruit” (Matthew 13:8).

At Hallow, we believe that the necessary foundation for catechesis, in order to nurture a lifelong journey of discipleship, is a personal relationship with Christ. It’s not enough to learn about God; we also need to know Him. The path to sainthood must involve both our heads and our hearts.

We believe that a theological education ought to be, first and foremost, a process of falling in love with God. Much like in dating, we don’t sit down and try to memorize a long list of facts about our beloved. Instead, we meet them, we ask questions, we listen, we laugh, and we share about ourselves; we get to know them as a person. Our knowledge of them grows as our love deepens.

Providing students with opportunities to deepen their love of God is paramount to everything else we do in our Catholic schools. The truth about God’s creation, the nature of the sacraments, the beauty of scripture: all of these things are best understood within the context of a loving relationship with our Creator.

The Catechism affirms this approach in Part IV, The Life of Christian Prayer, “Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower…Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ.” (CCC 2707-2708)

That is the vision we are building at Hallow, and, as an educator, we would love your help in building “head and heart” experiences for students across the country (and world).

Yours in Christ,

The Hallow for Schools Team

Contest Timeline

This summer contest will have two phases.

Phase 1: Applicants will create an outline of their proposed content along with samples to demonstrate the style of what they envision producing. The Hallow for Schools team will evaluate these proposals and invite the winning creators to produce the full scope of the proposed content.

Key Date: All proposals are due on or before June 9, 2023, at 5 p.m. CT.

Phase 2: The winners of Phase I will work over the summer to produce their content, with support and direction, as needed, from the Hallow for Schools team. Individual completion dates may vary, but all materials must be submitted for final review by July 15, 2023.

Submission Materials and Instructions

Proposals should be scoped at the level of a “Unit” consisting of multiple lesson plans. The range of media and types of supporting materials can vary, but must include some audio-content that lives (or would live) in the Hallow app.

Proposals should include (1) a comprehensive outline of the content you envision creating and (2) one actual sample of each content type you are proposing. 

For example, if you are proposing a Unit consisting of 4 lesson plans featuring new audio reflections for the Hallow app, in-class group activities, and homework assignments, you would submit:

  • A bulleted outline of the entire Unit including a breakdown of each lesson plan, as well as outlines of each supporting audio reflection, in-class group activity, and homework assignment.  
  • Samples for:
    • 1 lesson plan
    • 1 audio script or file
    • 1 in-class activity
    • 1 homework assignment

Each Unit/lesson plan must have an associated curricular learning standard. The specific learning standard may come from your diocese, your religion/theology curriculum, or the national USCCB standards.  

Each Unit/lesson Plan should also have a learning objective (ie. “Students will be able to…). This should be related to the associated curricular learning standard, but can be articulated however you prefer.

Submissions of proposals can be made using THIS FORM and should be in whatever file format (e.g., pdf, excel) that you feel best captures your vision for the content. See attached Proposal Checklist for an overview of what your submission should include.

Submit Proposal Here

Awards

Winning proposals will be awarded $1,000 upon delivery of the final product.

Review Criteria

Initial Proposal: Initial Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Comprehensive: Does the outline conform to all of the requirements stated above and do the samples provided fully convey what the final content will look like?
  • Complete: Could the final content be immediately usable by a teacher “off the shelf” with minimal additional preparation?
  • Multimedia: Does the proposal include a range of lesson activities to support both a holistic understanding of the content and a range of learning styles?
  • Head and Heart: Does the proposal include a mix of content that both increases a student’s catechetical knowledge and creates moments of encounter with Christ?
  • Accessibility: Is the content proposed accessible to students regardless of where they are on their faith journey?

Full Submission: Final content will be evaluated on the same core criteria list above, with support provided by the Hallow for Schools team along the creation process to provide feedback.

FAQ

  • Can I submit something that I already have created and use in the classroom?
    • Yes. So long as it is original content that you created yourself, we welcome any content that you and your students have already found valuable.
  • Can I submit more than one proposal?
    • Sure! Each proposal will be evaluated independently of author so if you have multiple big ideas and would like to work on a few projects over the summer, we would love to support that.
  • Do I already need to be a Hallow user / does my school need to be using Hallow?
    • Nope. While there is the requirement to have Hallow content (either existing or new) associated with your proposal, you do not need to have used Hallow in the classroom before.
  • What grade levels is this for?
    • We are accepting proposals that speak to students K-12.
  • Can I share this contest with friends?
    • Absolutely! The more, the merrier.

All submitted material must be original. Copyright of all awarded materials will be held by Hallow, Inc. This does not preclude the private use of materials in one’s own classroom. Hallow, Inc. reserves the right to edit materials as it deems appropriate to adhere to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Hallow, Inc. reserves the right to design materials to fit within the Hallow app. Attribution will be given to the author of the original material.

Contact: schools@hallow.app

Proposal Checklist

Required

  • Unit Overview
    • Grade level(s)
    • Curricular standard and learning objective(s)
    • Outline of lesson plans
  • Lesson Plans
    • Curricular standard and learning objective(s)
    • Outline of supporting content/activities (see below)
      • Samples of each supporting content type proposed.
    • In-App Hallow Audio Content
      • Does it already exist? If so, which sessions specifically?
      • If it does not exist, an outline of the proposed new sessions and 1 sample script or audio file.

Supporting Content/Activities

Lesson plans may consist of any of the following. You don’t need to include all of these options in your proposal but should include a sample of each type you intend to use:

  • Lecture materials
  • In-class activities
  • Homework exercises
  • Teacher assessments (ie. tests/quizzes)
  • Performance assessments (i.e. projects)
Hallow for Schools

Phase 1 of the contest closes June 9, 2023, at 5 p.m. CT. Winners of Phase 1 will be notified via email. By entering, entrants confirm that they are at least 18+ years of age.

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