5
December
2007

Our Dancing Elfs from Elf Yourself0

Click on the link below for our holiday elf dance party.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1165123280

Merry Christmas

30
November
2007

Top Ten Teaching Tips0

Below is my compilation of the ten best teaching tips that I shared in class. These are from various sources, and I have personally experienced the practicality of them all. Keep in mind, these are things a teacher does, not who a teacher is, which is another list altogether.

Top Ten Teaching Tips

1. Pray

2. Know your aim or objective.

3. Use your student’s names.

3. Start preparing early.

5. Listen to your students.

6. Experiment with teaching methods.

7. Arrange the classroom to meet your needs.

8. Use visuals.

9. Tell stories.

10. Give a one-sentence answer to the following questions:

What is teaching?

What are you trying to do to your students?

Why do students come to your class?

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21
November
2007

Chapel Service at Rusk State Hospital0

I had the honor of preaching today at the annual Thanksgiving Chapel Service at Rusk State Hospital. It has been 23 years since I did my Clinical Pastoral Education there. It was amazing how much had stayed the same.

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13
November
2007

New RE Class Next Semester0

The Spring schedule is out and I just wanted to point out that I will be teaching a couple of Special Studies classes, RE 422 and RE 631, Interpersonal Communication and Conflict Management. The course will cover such topics as; how to speak so others will listen, how to listen when others speak, principles of peacemaking, and church discipline. The class will meet from 6 til 9 on Monday evenings.

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1
November
2007

Lesson Example Video0

After viewing my lesson example taped in class last week, I decided not to post it. No really, I had some technical difficulties. There is value in evaluating your own performance as a teacher. I hope the videos will help.

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18
October
2007

Mid-Term Exam for Creative Teaching0

Here are pictures of the exam the class created. Good job!

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15
October
2007

The Guru’s Cat1

I have been using the following poem in Christian Education classes for years. It suggests that some teaching methods continue to be performed in a given way because they have always been done that way. Tell me what you think.

When the guru sat down to
    worship each evening,
The ashram cat would get in the way
    and distract the worshippers.
So he ordered that the cat be tied
    during evening worship.

After the guru died, the cat continued
    to be tied during evening worship.
And when the cat expired, another cat
    was brought to the ashram
so that it could be duly tied
    during evening worship.

Centuries later, learned treatises were
written by the guru’s scholarly disciples
on the liturgical significance
of tying up a cat
while worship is performed.

Anthony de Mello, “The Guru’s Cat,”
The Song of the Bird,
Doubleday: New York, 1982, p. 63.

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4
October
2007

AWANA Outcomes0

Below is the reference and abstract to an article about AWANA Timothy award winners I mentioned in class. I will report the findings of the study in class. You are welcome to look it up in advance. What effects have you observed in AWANA participants?

Volume 4; Issue 1; Spring 2007, Series 3Three-Year Outcome: Effects of Former AWANA Timoth-Award Recipients Michael W. Firmin
and Grant E. Knight page 100

Abstract
The present study follows Firmin, Kuhn, Michonski, and Posten (2005) in a series of empirical investigations regarding residual effects of former AWANA participants. We selected 24 Timothy award conducted in-depth interviews with each participant, utilizing a rigorous qualitative research method. Four themes were evident in analyzing the data: salient AWANA influences during the time of the child’s participation in AWANA, the current life of the participants, social trends of the participants through their time in AWANA to present day, and the participants’’ thought and feelings on how they perceived AWANA to have been conducted.

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24
September
2007

MySpace2

The link to my MySpace page is www.myspace.com/ronniejohnsondotinfo

In class we discussed the powerful social phenomenon of MySpace. It has a lot of danger as well as potential. There is potential especially for ministry to youth and young adults. What are some of the positives?

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13
September
2007

Tailgate Teaching1

After class today I got to thinking about creative ways to reach out with Bible study. In chapel, Bro. Everett spoke about having AWANA meetings in a public park. Below is a slide show about a Bible study I observed in Mexico last January. What do you think about Tailgate Teaching? Do you have any examples of creative methods that takes the Bible to people instead of expecting them to come to your Bible study?