What a surprise we had when we rolled up to my mom's house and found my nephew Nathan inside! For those of you not family, Nathan has been in Iraq for the last 11-ish months. He is HOME. Well, in the states, at least, until he is done with his enlistment (several months). I don't think any of us could have asked for a better present this year (or any!). Welcome home! God bless you!
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I am teaching junior church this month, with today being my last lesson. It has been a difficult thing for me because not only is the range of ages broad (approximately 5 years old to about 4th or 5th grade), but the subject matter is difficult. Also, I've never even witnessed a junior church lesson before, so I wasn't sure what level I should be bringing this down to (the curriculum doesn't say what age it's geared to, so I am playing it by ear. Sometimes the kids get a concept, sometimes it's so far out of reach I have to abandon it). We are studying Proverbs (wisdom and foolishness), and my first lesson was about the importance of reading Proverbs and the importance of wisdom. How do you teach on that for 20+ minutes? Despite the fact that there were FIVE helpers in the class, no one was with me making sure the kids were quiet (they were working on a craft we didn't get time to do anyway), so what probably should've taken 20 minutes really lasted about 35. Grrr.
Last week went far better. Instead of the 5 or 6 kids I had the first week, I had 11. Instead of five helpers not helping, I had one helper who was. The concept was a little bit easier for me to get across: We must put off foolisness if we are going to put on wisdom. The wording of that statement is awkward, but it is how they have been learning it, so I think it works in some strange way. I had to battle with kids blurting out answers despite raising their hands--and the older kids seemed to be the worst (with the exception of Logan, who thinks he can talk because I'm his mom). Hmmm.
Today's lesson is about a type of fool, the mocker. It's going to be another stretch, but hopefully will turn out okay.
I think I may be stressing people out by foregoing the crafts to actually finish my lesson, but, in my opinion, I don't think the crafts are worth it. The crafts end up in the trash, usually, so I might as well get my point through instead of saying, "Oops! I need to stop now so we can glue these popsicle sticks together!"
Or maybe I'm feeling too important for my own good. =)
....and then there were 5.
11 years ago
4 comments:
Teaching is so hard, Jen! And I can't imagine (well, actually I can) having to get across something that abstract in 20 minutes. And you are most certainly right- the bigs kids are by far the worst when it comes to blurting. But kudos to you for caring this much about it! :)
Yes, teaching is hard.... which is why I am not cut out for it any any other scale than a Sunday School class. =) The first week I taught was horrible.... I was more frustrated than anything else because the kids were wild. The second week was better because, even though there were more kids and they were still wild, I felt like they understood what I was trying to say. Yesterday went well, and I only had four kids. They got the idea of the mocker (like I had any doubt! Mocking is something they *know*! Hahaha). I review the past few key ideas with them, and they really do seem to remember better than I think they should.
Anyway, to all the teachers out there, thank goodness we've got you. What an exhausting profession!
Yeah, it is tough. If you want, you can teach my teen class. They ask all sorts of questions and they usually are pretty difficult.
No, thanks. I was blessed to have Jon R. helping in junior church last week, and I am pretty sure I can't handle him as a student. =)
The kids see me too much as a peer still, so I don't think I'd do so well in that role (even though I do the teen group).
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