3rd Blog
To: Stephen
From: Caleb
Subject: Practicum Report 3
Time Spent this Week: 3 Hours total (SS=1; AM worship=1; preparation=1)
My class this week
Preparation: This week I taught the Bible study, so I had to do some preparing for the lesson. For the lesson I prepared to talk about Saul on the road to Damascus, and getting his name changed to Paul. This was relatively easy to do because of the study that Kevin and I have chosen to use for our Bible study. This lesson was pretty much straight out of a serendipity Bible.
Lesson: This week I taught on Saul’s journey to Damascus to persecute the Christians, and then how he was converted. This lesson came out of Acts 9:1-19. It was hard to get everybody to talk a lot during the discussion at first, but the questions out of the Serendipity Bible helped to spark a lot of questions. I also found however that even with these questions there were many times when only Kevin or I would say something. One of the questions that I asked was what changed the most in you when you became a Christian. I went first because nobody was really talking, and I told them that I accepted Jesus at a very young age, and there was not any major change at such a young age. Chelsea went next and she pretty much had the same answer as me. Mostly everybody else had the same answer of a slow and gradual change, and not something that was extremely noticeable. Then a guy by the name of Charlie brought up an interesting point when he asked if this story was the reason why Catholics use their “Christian names.” I thought that this was interesting, so we had a little side conversation about this question, and we really did not find an answer to it.
Questions:
1) Should I as the teacher be the first person to answer the questions that I have posed?
2) How can I keep people from getting too sidetracked during the study?
3) Should I rely on Kevin to help me get everyone back on track?
1 comment:
RE: 1. Answer own question first. That is an interesting thought. In some cases, answering the question for yourself first helps to give an idea as to what you are looking for. At the same time, under some circumstances, that may prevent them from being able to answer the questions or may deter them from wanting to. In many cases though, if the question you are asking is more of an open ended question with a personal idea it may be good to give your thoughts first. If the question has a definite answer obviously you want them to answer. If the question is a hotly debated topic, it may not be a good idea to answer first. They may be given the impression that that is the right answer or the answer you expect from them. This may deter them from saying what they truly feel. It is important to understand the nature of your question and the group before you decide to answer your own question first.
RE: 2. Sidetrack. It always helps to keep the group active. To keep them reading, talking or doing activities helps keep them on target. To give them too much time to think or down time between things opens the opportunity for sidetracking. Also, allowing wild answers to persist allows sidetracking. It helps to try to keep their answers on target and not too goofy.
RE: 3. Using Me. I can only do as much as you can. Together, we can work to get the group under control. But the same goes for either of us leading; it is up to us to keep the group active and on track. Keeping them active and bouncing questions off each other at them to constantly keep them doing things can go a long way towards keeping everyone on track.
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