Sewing with Kids

Amy over at Amy's Creative Side is doing a series on sewing with kids. Check it out by clicking the button below:

This weeks project:

Teaching for Life Change

        

        Many teachers approach their class as teaching lessons rather than teaching students.  The pitfall of this is that it focuses on covering content rather than meeting the needs of individuals.  It is important for the teacher to get to know and understand his students.  The teacher should know the common characteristics of the age group he is teaching.  Moreover, the teacher needs to know each of his students on a personal level.  If the teacher’s goal is life-change, then he must know where his students are coming from and what direction they should be moving in.

         A creative Bible teacher will seek to teach in ways that promote life change.  If he merely teaches the Bible as content, he is implying that to know God and to know about God are the same thing.  Learning must be brought to where it has meaning to the student’s life and experience.  The teacher must use a vocabulary that the students understand.  When teaching unfamiliar terms or concepts, the teacher should carefully explain and illustrate to give meaningful understanding.  The closer an idea or concept is linked to something with which the student is already familiar, the more meaningful it will be.  A creative teacher will have his students take part in exploring the meaning of a passage.  When a student personally thinks through how Biblical truths may be applied, he will be more likely to respond on a personal level.

Jungle Bulletin Board Ideas

Ideas by Sophia from "Frugal Ideas from the Parsonage"

Influence vs. Control

By Cary Schmidt

Sometimes we get mixed up in ministry. We forget that our responsibility is not control it is influence. God never gave us control of people, their lifestyles, or their choices. He created free will, and gives each individual responsibility for their choices. I fear, out of good intentions, some spiritual leaders cross the line and actually try to control behavior rather than influence the heart. There are a lot of reasons this well-intentioned approach to ministry is really bad...read more

How to Teach Math (Just for fun :)

Tips for Evaluating Bible or Sunday School Curriculum

It is essential that curriculum enhance the teaching of the Bible, not obscure it. Teachers must take care to ask if the curriculum is actually teaching the Word of God or simply seeking to meet the objectives of a curriculum writer.

To teach content without reference to the student's need for personal response is not teaching the Bible in a way consistent with its nature and purpose.

A good curriculum will teach what the passage teaches and will call for responses that are rooted in the text of Scripture...It's easy to set up our rules of conduct and then to find passages that seem to indicate some biblical support. But this isn't teaching the Bible. It's teaching a legalism that can become crushing. Such teaching obscures, for teacher and learner alike, the God who reveals Himself, and who demands not conformity to a code, but response to a Person, a life lived not in cold conformity, but in willing and flexible response to God the Spirit.

Questions to ask:

1. Does the material gain attention and draw the learner to the subject being addressed?

2. Does the material present solid biblical content and explore the central principle of the passage accurately?

3. Does the curriculum reflect an awareness of the gaps that block response to God?

4. Are the lesson aims clearly stated and life-response oriented?

5. Do the aims exhibit a structure that leads into the Word, explores the Word, and guides students to explore relevance and plan response?

Taken from Creative Bible Teaching by L. Richards & G. Bredfeldt

Thought Provoking Quotes

“In order to teach the Bible creatively and with authority so as to change lives, we must begin with a high view of Scripture. Such a view mandates that the Bible teacher recognize the inspiration of Scripture and understand something of the literary nature of the inspired text” 

 (Creative Bible Teaching, p.35)