Educator Forum: The Networking Tool We All Asked For! (And No One Is Using)

We are so grateful to Sunday School staffer Edie Johns for her query and resource idea. We’re also embarrassed! After 3 months of no questions or comments in the Educator’s Forum we so delightedly launched after repeated requests from teachers. I stopped checking regularly. Well, lo and behold, Edie’s wonderful remarks were logged on a month ago.

Edie was looking for classroom ideas for kids with ADHD or a behavior defiance issue. We shared our ideas and want to hear from you. If you have ideas to share with Edie, please do so ASAP.

While she was on the forum, she also shared a new board game which sounds great. Log on and check out her ideas and share yours. It's easy as pie to use.

Please follow her lead and log in with questions, problems, or great ideas as often as you like. This is a wonderful way that Sunday School staffs across this vast Diocese can work closely together. You can access the form at any time by going to www.armenianchurch.net/education.

Before you can join the discussion, you first need to register. If you have any questions, please e-mail us.

Moving Up With Your Class

Occasionally, the question is raised as to whether it’s okay for teachers to teach a particular grade, then move up the following year with the same class. This can happen when a teacher feels a special bond or affection for a certain group of students, or when a teacher insists and the superintendent wants to “keep her/him happy,” or when a small school decides this is an acceptable policy. Here are two observations we hope will discourage such a policy:

Teachers need to develop and mature with their curriculum.
Teaching a grade for the first time is the barest of bare beginnings for a teacher. That initial year becomes a foundation opon which teachers add additional resources (current events, books, games, discussion ideas), added attractions (guest speakers and teachers, trips or visits), and new features (additional curriculum material). One is rarely a master of the curriculum until the 5-year mark. By that time, a teacher has repaired the weak spots, removed the extraneous, added components where necessary, and come to know what this age group is all about. From there on, it’s a matter of continuing to modify and develop the curriculum around the edges – the core is a beautiful, finished product. And always, of course, one makes all the necessary changes to accommodate to each new specific group of students. That being said, living with a curriculum for a single year, then moving on to the next, and then the next, is a guarantee that you will not be able to hone your grade-specific craft and be the teacher you could be with practice.

Students need to experience different Christian models and teaching styles.
As effective as you may feel in the classroom, as much as you love this specific group, as great a rapport as you may have established, students deserve the chance to see other adult Christians in action. Every teacher is gifted in different ways, and their activities, discussion style, focus, temperament, talents, and outlook will, happily, vary. Some teachers have very touchingly shared that because of being with the same group year after year, their students feel comfortable and “open” to share what’s going on in their lives (especially in the case of adolescents). While this a lovely thing, it is not the most important goal of the Sunday School year nor is it necessarily true of every student (some may indeed feel uncomfortable with that same teacher). And there are other ways of remaining in touch with a class even after the year is over; those meaningful conversations can continue next year at Assembly times, at church fellowship, and at every other of the many occasions parish families congregate.

Soul Search: Weekly Scripture and Reflections for Teachers

Teachers: Try reading these on Sunday mornings before leaving for Sunday school or Saturday night or any time at all. You might even find them useful in the classroom. The readings are not necessarily from the liturgical calendar.

Try the following routine. Open your Bible and read the day's verses. Sit quietly for a minute, reflecting on the text. Then read the commentary. End with a brief prayer. Click here to download a PDF with some suggestions.

Creating a Preferred Future: Building the Sunday School of Your Dreams Together

Unless you’ve been living in a remote cave for the last decade, the expression “preferred future” must have a familiar ring to it. It’s the term development officers and strategic planners use when they invite you to think ahead and like what you see: a future you’ll be happy about instead of one you’ll be stuck with.

And that takes planning and commitment and work to achieve. Click here to download a PDF with some ideas to guide your planning.

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