Week 9

This blog is a make-up for week 9, due to the dedication of the new College Church building. This is what a class would have looked like if it would have been a normal week at the splash service, but this is all from my imagination.

1. This week I spent 1.5 hours at the dedication service at College Church.
2. For this week, everyone seemed to be very excited about coming to splash. As I arrived, some kids had already started to arrive. As they normally do, the kids were playing games and being crazy, playing on the drum set and dancing on the stage (not good Wesleyan Children). I played a checkers with a boy named Christian. Christian seems to be that child that likes to try and get attention. He is always making noises and talking during the kids service.

But today, Christian was somewhat quiet and wanted to play a game. This was a fun time because I am an expert at checkers and taught Christian some sweet new checker moves. To which he really enjoyed.

Well, after the game time, we then started the time of worship. The kids were very attentive to the worship today because ewe had a guest band in to lead worship, Sonicflood. The kids really enjoyed this time and the band was glad to be there to help out. This ended with the offering time where the kids gave some money that they brought for tithing. We then moved into the lesson time.

Richele taught on the fruits of the spirit this week. She really gave an emphasis on how our lives, if we are Christians, should be showing some good things giving evidence that we have faith in Christ. The kids seemed to pick this up very well, this was evident when she asked the question, “what are some ways we could see God work in us to help others?” Christian actually spoke up and said, “we can help by giving food to homeless people.” This was cool for me to see Christian understand the lesson and that he was getting something out of the lesson. I believe that getting students involved with questions like this is important when having them understand how the principles we talk about should be and can be applied to our lives.

3. Questions.
1. Should the kids be given something, a physical object, to help them remember what they learned during the week?
2. How do we, as ministers, design a lesson a direct it to an age group as wide as 1^st through 5^th grade?

Week 10

A. This week I spent 2 hours with the splash kids teaching and helping with the special music and an hour and a half in the main service.

B. My Lesson Plan.

Prayer

We opened with prayer, I had a young girl pray and she did a wonderful job, thanking God for the day and asking Him to teach us.

Scripture - 1 Peter 1:3-9

Discussion Questions

• What is blind trust?
• Vs 8:
• What are some examples from your lives of times you’ve had to trust people even though you don’t know what the out come will be.
• Examples:
• Parents – basics
• Vs 7:
• Do you still follow the rules when your parents aren’t there to watch you?
• What (should) makes us do this?
• Vs 9:
• Why does God want us to follow Him even though we can’t see Him?

Trust Fall

1. Joel and Sean – We used this as an illustration to show what trusting without seeing.

Activity

2. One person is blindfolded. Everyone has to direct that student around the room without talking. Only the blindfolded person can talk. After everyone gets around the room, they are all rewarded with fruit snacks.

Wrap-up

3. This person had to trust everyone to lead them around without getting hurt. Even though we don’t do everything perfectly, we can still be rewarded for following God in the end. Ws need to trust God, even though we cannot see what the outcome will be in our lives. Jesus is going to lead us, He doesn’t tell us where to go, He takes us and shows us.

Evaluation for Joel Stone

April 13, 2008

Ministry:

SPLASH morning worship

Age of Children:

K-5

Number of Children Present:

45

Task Given:

Teach a lesson

Interact with the kids

Help with classroom management

Work with Sean Myers in teaching a lesson.

Teacher Assistants:

5 volunteers

Teaching material used:

Joel and Sean prepared the material

Expectations:

Prepare a Bible lesson

Manage a very active classroom.

Supervise the children in the sanctuary before and after they children performed in the sanctuary

Evaluation:

Joel and Sean were well prepared as they introduced the concept of blind faith to the children. The two worked together on this project and it proved to be very affective. I observed the response of the children and they were attentive to the lesson. Joel and Sean chose an age appropriate activity that was applicable to the lesson. The two proceeded to conceptually break down each verse and used examples to explain the scriptures. This lead to an activity in which one child was blindfolded and another child lead them around the room and could only give verbal commands. I must say that when they started the activity I wasn’t sure how the kids were going to handle this because the children were unusually hyper. But all apprehensions were settled when they successfully lead the activity and were able to use the energy of the children for good! I was please and impressed by their ability to do this! They concluded by reviewing the basic concept of blind faith.

Joel and Sean were valuable to have in SPLASH this semester. Please send me ten more practicum students like Joel and Sean!

D. What I did well.

a. I think that I did well preparing the lesson plan. This was somewhat difficult when thinking about how to communicate this message to the splash kids.

b. Today it was easy to have fun with kids, this was good because they were able to have fun while learning.

c. I feel that I am getting better when in front of a large group of young kids. Today I had more confidence when I was in front of the kids.

d. I think that the activities related well to the message and I think I did a good job explaining how the activity related to the message.

E. To Improve

a. I think that I need more time in front of people. I need to be more confident in what I am saying.

b. Along with the last one, I need to be more rehearsed when teaching. I think that I need to be more well prepared, which would have helped with confidence and being a bold teacher.

c. I need to work on coming up with good questions to engage the students. They needed a little more with the questions.

F. Questions.

a. How do you think the children would have responded to not having the promise of a snack? Is it important to not always have a snack when teaching children?

b. How do you relate the message of faithful trust to 3^rd grade kids?

week #8

1. This week I spent an hour and a half working with the splash youth service and an hour and half in the worship service and fellowship.
2. This week was just the same as every week in splash. We arrived and played games, and talked with the kids as they came in. We started with the teaching time and learning. Richele started giving the lesson on John 4, sharing with the kids that Jesus wants us to love others and how we can love others. The students seemed to be receptive to what was being presented. Richele talked about how since Jesus was loving and accepting to others that were different and rejected that we need to be accepting to those kids of people.

As a part of this lesson, the kids had to go around to different stations and do different activities. One group read some scripture together and talked about how they could implement that into their lives. I’m not sure what the second group did, but they got fruit snacks and I didn’t get any which I was a little upset aboutJ. Then the third group played a game with four different colors and we should call out a color and they had to go to that color and do a different act of kindness for each other. I think that this activity did not accomplish what it was intended for. I think that the act of loving one another was supposed to be illustrated, but I think that the game was not designed in a way that was portraying that message. Although, the kids were enjoying it, so does that make it a good game?

I think that the kids did get the overall message, because we came back together in the end and had a discussion about loving and the kids gave practical examples of how they could love one another.

3. Do you think it is appropriate for young children to give an offering since they really don’t have an income? Or should this come at a later point in life?

What do think about showing a video for Sunday school instead of teaching?

Week #7

3-19-08

1. This week I spent an hour and forty-five minutes with the splash children’s service and I also attended the 747 service for about two hours.
2. This week in Splash we did not have a teaching time, instead this time was replaced with the continuing of a movie that has been being watched over several consecutive weeks. As the kids came in they were directed, as most weeks, to find a game to play while everyone was getting there. When I arrived there were already several kids there playing some games. I find this time interesting because this seems more like just a time to keep the kids entertained and not really having any substance. I guess that is needed in a service and although some weeks they have an activity for the kids during this time, most weeks that I have been there the kids have just had time to play games. ( a funny but not needed story, I was watching some kids play chess and one of those kids is Morgan. Morgan was watching the two guys play chess and several times say in a loud voice, “WOW that was a terrible move!” and then continue to tell them why. Genius.)

After game time had concluded, they gathered together and had a time of worship. At the end of the worship time they always take offering. I like that they use this time in the children’s lives to demonstrate the importance of the offering. Although they did take the offering, I noticed that no one really gave anything and it seemed like none of the kids cared about giving. Although I do not know if they have explained the importance of offering, I think it would be beneficial if they maybe they took one Sunday and had a lesson on tithing and challenged the kids to maybe bring money from their piggy banks or had they look for change in their couch cushions to encourage them to remember to give back to God.

After the time of worship they then watched a movie for the remainder of the service time. I am not really sure of the importance of the movie because it didn’t seem to have a overarching spiritual application.

After the movie they joined the rest of the church watching the baptism of about 5 kids on the screen. I think that the kids were really following this because they all stayed quiet as they watched some of their peers get baptized into the Body of Christ.

3. Do you think it is appropriate for young children to give an offering since they really don’t have an income? Or should this come at a later point in life?

What do think about showing a video for Sunday school instead of teaching?

Week 6

2-27-08

1. This week I spent an hour and fifteen minutes observing the splash program, and an hour and forty-five minutes sound checking and participating in the service.
2. This week the attendance seemed to be down compared to the other weeks that I have been observing in splash. I think this was due to the weather. The students came in and like they always do, they played games and were crazy before the service actually started. Then, the service started with worship, and as I say every week, the students are crazy when it comes to worship. I still really wonder if the children know what worship is. The words to the songs have some really good material such as scripture and universal truths, but as for a worship experience that is a connection to God, I sometimes doubt that is happening. I’m not saying that is bad, I just think that there can sometimes be too much of an emphasis on the knowledge and not on the relational connection that can come through worship.

After the time of worship, Richele reminded the kids of the message from the week before by asking them as a group what the theme from the week before was, to which most replied with transformation. This was the theme for this week as well. They then had an activity where the children had to go around the room and ask each other questions and fill out a card saying with those peoples names that answered yes to those questions. The questions were mostly like “do you like…” and if they did, then they would write their names in the square. This message seemed to goo of of the message of transformation from last week. Richele did a great job talking to the students and explaining the message that she had prepared. The students always seem to understand and add into the discussion. The kids always seem attentive and interested at what they are hearing. The students are engaged and I find that they are very smart and actually have an interest in the Bible and what is taking place in the lesson.

3. What do you think is more important for kids to learn, sentimental songs that allow the kids to have a feeling, or have informational songs that allow the kids to learn scripture?

How would you respond to students that are not engaging in discussion? Especially kids who are young, as in first and second grade?

Week #5

2-20-08

1. This week I spent an hour and a half in the splash and an hour and a half attending the 747 service.
2. The class this week went pretty well. When I showed up, a young boy named Christian kind of latched onto me and spent about the first ten minutes of the game time with me as we would take turns throwing a single dice and guessing which number it would land on. Pretty much this whole time Christian was being completely ridiculous. He was going places in the room that he wasn’t suppose to, throwing other things; he was crazy. After the game time, we went into a time of worship. Worshipping with the splash kids is quite the experience. We sing songs that I recognize, and some that I don’t, either way, most have motions or they do some sing language to keep them involved.

The message this week was about transformation. This is a great idea, the church as a whole, is teaching on the transformation that comes through Christ. Richele got up and talked about a passage, I think it came out of 1 Corinthians, which talked a lot about being made new in the image of Christ. She then showed a video which I thought related to the message rather well, about butterflies. The video explained in detail about how butterflies begin as eggs, hatch and become caterpillars, then finish their transformation by making a cocoon and transforming into the final, beautiful product of a butterfly. This is a difficult process, which takes a good period of time, but has the best effects in the end.

Richele then talked about how our growth in Christ is just like how the butterfly changes and grows. Then she read through the new transformation in Christ verse and while she was reading, a boy named Bradley got very excited because he had this whole passage memorized so he got up and recited this verse. He was able to relate this teaching to his own life because he had been working on memorizing this verse. They then discussed how we change to become like Christ, and how we should be looking for this transformation. One way that Richele was helping the students was by having them repeat the word “transformation” over and over throughout the morning, trying to get them to remember the word and what means to us as Christians.

3. How should we as teachers respond when it seems like the students are just not understanding what we are trying to teach?

Should we have students be working on memorizing scripture during the week while they are at home?

Week #4

Week #4 – 2/10/08

Teaching Lesson #1

A. For this lesson, I taught on the Great Commission to the students. This was nice because we normally have a large group of kids, but this week we split them up into three groups and taught a different lesson in each group. The lesson began with about seven pictures, spread on the floor, of modes of communication, such as a cell phone, books, pens, TV and a computer. Then I had the kids look at the pictures and tell what the similarities were between all of the pictures. And what I was looking for was that they all were modes of communication. One student named Morgan was quick to say that they all were ways to give information. When Then discussed how information is passed from one person to another and that lead into how information is passed to others about Christ.

I then asked the question how they heard about Christ. They were quick to answer with the typical, “my parents told me,” “church,” and “pastors.” We then read the great commission and discussed what Jesus commanded us to do with sharing about him to others and discipling them. And we also talked about Jesus’ promise in the Great Commission to be with and what that meant to them.

To finish it up, we talked about ways we can communicate the promise of Jesus to others outside of our words.

B. For this lesson, I taught it twice on this morning, to two groups of students, from first grade to fifth grade. These kids seemed like they were regulars who came. They seem to be made up of mostly professor and staff students from IWU.

The students seemed to understand the point of my message. As I asked questions, they always had an answer. A young girl named Hannah said that we should communicate Jesus with others by the way we live, in our actions. The students gave some specific examples of how they could share Jesus with others, some of those were; be nice to people, be nice to their parents and give to people.

Evaluation for Joel Stone

February 12, 2008

Ministry:

SPLASH morning worship

Age of Children:

K-5

Number of Children Present:

40

Task Given:

Teach a lesson

Interact with the kids

Help with classroom management

Teaching material used:

We write our own that follows the teaching of Pastor Steve

Expectations:

1. Prepare a Bible lesson and tell the story of the Great Commission
2. Manage a very active classroom.

Evaluation:

Joel was well prepared for his lesson. I had a child that I had to deal with so I was not able to be completely attentive to his presentation. I was impressed with what I observed. Joel was well prepared and the kids were listening very attentively to the lesson. Joel’s tasks were to use pictures demonstrating different ways that people communicate with each other and to also compare and contrast ways that we can communicate the Great Commission to others. He was responsible for explaining the concept and then preparing questions that would encourage deeper thinking of the passage. Joel encouraged the kids to share with others about the hope of Jesus Christ!

He is at ease and very natural with the kids. He is doing a great job!

D. I think that I was able to get the kids to understand the main idea that was to be communicated in the lesson. I believe that I was able to bring the meaning from the first idea of communication to how they communicate Jesus to others.

E. Things I need to improve on. I think that I could be better at keeping the attention of the students. Although there are young, I feel that I could have been more ingaging with the words and tones that I used to keep those who were being loud, quiet and those who were paying attention more engaged. The students seemed like the didn’t really take me serious. So I think that one thing that I need to do is to build better relationships with them in order to build credibility.

F. Questions:

What would you do in a situation when the students don’t seem to be paying attention?

How should I approach the students when trying to build a relationship? They are young kids, mostly 1^st through 5^th grade.

Week 3

Week #3 – 2/3/08

This week I observed and helped with the splash service for the children and I also attended the worship service. This was my three hours for the week.

This week in the splash service, the normal teacher was there, Richele Miller. She had a message about missions. As the children came into the service time, they were instructed to take twelve pieces of paper, punch a whole in them all, tie them together and to write one word on each page of a Bible verse that they were working on memorizing. After that, they started with a time of worship. This was an interesting time where the students either jump around, talk with there friends and on rare instances, sing along. But when they started singing the last song, How Great is Our God, the majority of the students stopped what they were doing and sang along. I was touched with how the kids sang. I could tell that most of them were engaged and were understanding what was happening.

We then went into the teaching part of the class. As I said before, this week was focused on missions. Richele shared a story from the Congo in Africa about a farmer that was not a Christian. A pastor wrote the farmer a letter and told him that he had a dream and that God wanted a church built on his farm. The pastor got angry and was not going to build the church. Although a couple days latter, as the farmer was trying to fall asleep, he heard a voice saying to build the church. This happened every night until the farmer relented and built the church and had the pastor that had written him the letter come and teach them how to worship.

This story seemed to have a great impact on the students. They were attentive and showed great interest into the story. Along with the story, the students were given an activity to have the kids engage and understand a little of what missionaries are about. For this, I had to help the kids translate some directions for a treat from French into English. This was to help the kids understand how missionaries have a hard job of taking the gospel message to a native people. This was difficult because my group was made up of mostly kindergarten kids who weren’t able to read, so I had to do most of the work. I could tell that the kids were learning because they were able to relate the message to what there own lives.

Do you think that children should have times of serious worship or just do songs that keep them engaged?

What is the best way to portray a missionaries lifestyle to children?

Week 2 1-27-08

1-27-08

I spent my time this week observing in Splash, with Jil Mazellan. I was there for prep time, the service and then the big people service.

This week I observed in Splash, which is the children’s (1^st – 5^th grade) service at College Wesleyan. This week, I was told, was a little different because the normal teacher was not there, so the head of the Children’s ministry, Jil Mazellan, was teaching the in the service. Today I was able to take part and help direct the children as they were coming in and working on a worksheet. I don’t think this was very effective. The sheet itself was not bad, but it was basically a verse from Acts that the letters in the words were all mixed up and the children had to unscramble the words. This wouldn’t have been bad if it would have been mostly forth and fifth graders, but the younger kids were having a difficult time. And they ended up not even referring back to this sheet in the main story time or at the end. So this worksheet ended up basically being busy work. Like a little girl whose name was Katie, she was one of the younger kids and she was barely half way done with this worksheet before they went on to something else. I believe if I were doing that, I would have used the sheet and given more time for the children to fill it out. I would have incorporated this very into the story, referring back to that verse and possibly making it a memory verse.

During the teaching time, the lady teaching (She didn’t say her name) did a good job expressing the message. She used students to act out the story from Acts of when Cornelius sent men to go and get Peter and bring him back to him and God offered the animals to Peter but he wouldn’t eat them because they were unclean. She had a boy named Morgan play the part of Cornelius and had other students play the parts of Peter and the people who went to get him. I believe that this was effective in creating a bridge of understanding to the children because she had them share with one another about times in their lives that they had seen people treating others badly. She had only stated her question once when a boy named Ethan spoke up and talked about how a girl he knew was mean and punched one of his friends and how that wasn’t right. I was a little confused on the direct correlation between the story and her teaching point, but the kids were able to recognize her message and relate it to their own lives.

The students seemed to be inattentive during the time they were filling out the worksheet. Should they use one worksheet for such a broad range of ages? Should they not use one at all? Or should there be age appropriate worksheets?

Is it a good idea to have kids from 1^st through 5^th together in one service? If so, what how do you make a message simple enough for the young ones yet not too boring for the older ones?

Week 1, 1-20-08

1-20-08

This week I observed at my home church because I was at home for a family gathering.

I spent three hours in church, to observe Sunday school, take part in the worship service and for fellowship time after the service.

I had the opportunity to observe this Sunday school class that was taught by Mrs. Chamberlin, who is also my good friend’s mother. This class was comprised of about ten first grade students. As I came into the class, it was funny to see the reaction that the students had. Most of them seemed confused and others laughed (I don’t know why). But I was introduced and the children took turns telling me their names. It was interesting because in a class that small, there were actually two sets of twins. They had been given a paper to color as they came in, so they were intently working on coloring. After they were done coloring, they went into the lesson time.

It has been a long time since I was this age, so I don’t remember much of what happened when I was in Sunday School, but this seemed different. Each student was given an age appropriate Bible in which they took turn reading out of. I thought this was interesting because at this age it takes a child what seems like forever to get through one paragraph reading out loud. The kids were more disruptive during this time. (I think they liked looking through the Bible at the picture drawings that depicted different stories.) But Mrs. Chamberlin only had to say “hey” somewhat loud in order to regain their attention. After that, they seemed to follow the message out of the book of Matthew very well.

At the end of class, there were several volunteers to pray. As they were praying I couldn’t help notice how funny their prayers were. For example, one girl prayed for her brother to be nice to her, haha :). But overall I thought this was a very good class, the students seemed to comprehend and it seemed like they had a good relationship built with Mrs. Chamberlin.

I am curious about these age appropriate Bibles that they were using. I would like to know if it is better to use an age appropriate Bible, or just to use a set curriculum. What would the advantages or disadvantages be?

Also, Is it better for students to read and interact at that age, or is it better to read a lesson to them and have a different type of interaction?