Teacher Meeting 12/6/09

We started a new curriculum this fall, and all grades are using it, in addition to one adult class, and one Bible study. It was time to evaluate how it is going, and to share tips and suggestions.

Many teachers of all age groups are putting in much more time in preparation. A lot of this is in an attempt to supplement the material to make it more fun. Some of the lessons have it all there, but some are really tough. However, the stories covered are not always in the mainstream 15-20 stories all children become familiar with.

The younger grades shared some frustrations with the materials, in that the handouts are not colorful or eye-catching in any way. Overall, for this age, the material seems more educational, and less fun. And for the youngest grades, covering less familiar stories before becoming familiar with the common, familiar ones seems a strange choice.

Action plans coming out of this meeting include:
Checking the print version of the current curriculum (which we are only receiving the online version) to see if it has flyers that are colorful and more fun.
Looking at combining some smaller classes in future years, to be more efficient about use of time of the teachers.
Looking at the possibility of some age group clusters -- having the youngest kids, through 2nd grade, following a more traditional curriculum with colorful flyers and familiar stories (maybe a modified lectionary?). 3rd through 5th grade might develop into topic-focused classes. Suggestions included 3rd grade focusing on learning the Bible - how to find things, how it fits together, 4th grade focusing on the history, geography, and culture pieces, to give kids a context for the stories, and 5th grade perhaps focusing on trivia, taking them all around the Bible. Starting with 6th grade, they would work on the lectionary curriculum.
The idea of age group clusters will require some thought and planning and research. We will continue with the current curriculum through this year, taking note of ideas, and pulling together these ideas for next fall.

Finally, we did agree to have another teacher meeting in March, to check in again and get more feedback.

The final discussion was about the stations for the younger groups. The general consensus was that once a month is too often... perhaps once per quarter (or season) would work better.

The feedback from this meeting will be brought back to the education committee meeting, to be held this week.