Each person is Divine and Eternal

This weeks lesson had a strong spiritual influence.  I wanted the young women to take home a core value from this lesson - treat others as you would like to be treated.

A quick recap of the lesson I had planned.  I used pictures (of young women from different countries to show that they may look different, but they are all the same in the eyes of God), a story (about a girl who befriended a girl who was all alone), discussion questions (knowing the worth of someone, would you want to make even one person feel that he or she is not of worth?), and an activity (getting the girls to write their name and the top of a piece of paper and pass it to their right around in a circle until it comes back to them with nice things that every person in the class has written on the same piece of paper).  In the moments of preparing this lesson I truly felt that this activity of preparing sunday school really does influence the young women to be the best they can be.  The things I teach my girls in sunday school will hopefully stay somewhere in their memories forever, so it important to invest the best of myself and personal judgement into what I teach these young women who will grow up to be their own unique person.

T.F. Green definition of work sum's up my occupation as a Sunday school teacher - "Work: Activity producing an enduring object.  Work requires self-investment, skill, craft and personal judgement.  Work is purposeful and meaningful.  Work is distinct from labour and often must be discovered indepently from one's job."

Another quote that expresses how I feel about teaching Sunday school is from a story by Larry Lawhorn - "The love and the pride that humans put into thier hands as they work on intrinsically motivated projects is what OT is all about."

I love preparing to and teaching Sunday school.  It challenges me and leaves me with a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Please find bellow my responses to four other student blog posts:

References

Green, T. (1968). Work, Leisure, and the American Schools. New York:  Random House.
 
Lawhorn, L. (1994).  Just a little christmas story.  Occupational journal. USA

Service in the Community

Service - The act of helping or doing work for someone. An act of assisstance.

When I found out the topic for this lesson I went straight to the lesson manual and read through the material.  I found a number of good participation activities such as getting the young women to create their own community by drawing an outline of the north island, and getting the girls to write up what they thought was a part of their community e.g. schools, health services, etc.  I decided I'd use some discussion questions as well such as why they think it is important as members of the church to give service in their communities.  My husband also gave me the fantastic idea of applying the work that superheros do to service.  In was planning to show different clips of superheros from some of the lattest films, and quiz the girls on how they were serving following the clips.  For example, I would show a scene from the film 'Hancock' staring Will Smith giving service by assissting keepers of the peace (police), a clip of Superman protecting his city, and Captain America defending his country.   My husband and I thought this might be a good way of keeping the young women interested in the lesson.  To end my lesson I thought I would share a story from the lesson manual, a team building game, and a quote from a church leader.

In relation to ambience and aesthetics I was able to establish a sense of meaning of the word service in this context, and an opportunity for service within the community was apparent.

Here is a clip of members of our church giving service in a community in California.  Helping hands is a world wide Mormon event that occurs annualy.  If you want to see more you can check out more youtube clips by searching Mormon helping hands, and a number of helping hand projects from all over the world will appear.  Enjoy!

 

References
Definition of service. Retrieved October 2, 2011 from http://www.google.co.nz/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=518&gbv=2&source=hp&q=define+service&btnG=Search#hl=en&sa=G&gbv=2&q=service&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&ei=ZbqLTr7oAtCNiAf-5_jqAw&ved=0CB4QkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=d9f40c6ce565c41d&biw=1366&bih=518

Mormon helping hands.  (2011).  Retrieved October 2, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj0YYpuhUqI

Service in the Church

The purpose of this lesson was to teach the young women about how the church was organised and established on the earth, who helped organise it, and what they went through to make that possible.

In preparing this lesson I focused on communicative and productive relationships afforded by the work I was doing.  According to Hagedorn (2000), affordance is "anything which the environment can offer the individual which is pertinent to the role challenge and can facilitate role competence".

The first I encountered upon was the primary relationship I have with the young women I teach.  This is the relationship of teacher/pupil.  I wanted to make sure the information I was obtaining for the lesson was factual and beneficial to the young women.  I considered the sacrifice I had made to be able to prepare and teach this lesson.  The sacrifice was time, and this is the small sacrifice I will need to pay to continue planning to teach Sunday school.  As for the affordance factor of how preparing a lesson can be done in relation to an individual or as a group.  I tend to prepare the lesson on my own, but at times may ask my husband for any input he may have or good ideas for games and so forth.

In the lesson itself I used a range of discussion questions, quotes from present and past church leaders, I decided I would use a DVD of the pioneers of the church, a game that I had made up (snakes and ladder idea but instead of snakes I used the trap of laziness and instead of ladders I used clouds for the girls to jump up when they had given some sort of service in the church), I also decided to leave time for any experiences the girls wanted to share about giving service in the church.

References
Hagedorn (2000). Tools for Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Structured Approach to Core Skills and Processes. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Marriage Standards

In preparing this lesson I first referred to the lesson manual and read over what was to be covered.  Everything seemed to be quite plain and to the point.  Now as the last lesson I taught, the topic wasn’t very applicable to my 12 & 13 year old girls which always makes it a harder to teach.  

In relation to ergonomics and the task of preparing this lesson, I had to take into account the age of the group I would be presenting to, the time available (30-40 mins), the relationship this lesson topic had to the girls personal timeline, place in the environment (class room at church), and the spirituality of the setting and affect the lesson would have on the girls internal motivations and individual values.

On account of age I decided to introduce the lesson with a story about a badminton player who was looking for a partner to play as a duo.  I thought by giving a scenario the girls could relate to would help them understand the importance of choosing a partner for life.  The next ergonomic factor to consider was the time frame available.  Whenever planning a lesson I always plan to go longer than the time allocated.  It’s much easier to round up a lesson if about to go overtime, but trying to make the lesson last longer is a bit trickier.  In relation to the girls personal timeline, marriage is a fair way off, never the less it is good to have some idea of what you want in the person you’d like to be with in the future.  In taking this into account, an activity I incorporated into the lesson, was for the girls to make a list of the characteristics they would like to see in their future husbands.  The environment I had to teach in was a class room with a black board, a large window, a table for me to put my resources on, and enough seats for my class of nine to sit on.  Finally, in my last connection to ergonomics, the spiritual side I took into account when preparing this lesson was whether these young woman would be able to, when the time comes, choose a partner that would respect and help make and keep them as happy as they can be.  All I want is the best for these girls, they deserve it.

 

References 

Wedding Rings.  Retrieved October 2, 2011 from http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=marriage&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=518&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=6vQoEZHyZiU0MM:&imgrefurl=http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/category/marriage/&docid=YrAuJBIN2BWHjM&w=1280&h=853&ei=sbGLTsWkLfHRmAXt8bCPBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=1043&page=10&tbnh=134&tbnw=186&start=125&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:125&tx=109&ty=37 

Dating Decisions

This weeks lesson was on dating decisions.  In preparing this lesson I took highly into account one of our church values, which is that youth should not be dating until they are 16 years of age.  This allows time for an individual to grow and mature before entering the dating scene.  Hopefully church values and morals are accepted by youth at this age and a stronger sense of who they are and the person they really want to date is established.

One of the first things I did when getting ready to start preparing this lesson, was get myself into a comfortable position to read through the lesson outline in the young womens manual.  My chosen space was my bed.  I lay down with a bunch of pillows under my head  The resources I had to help me prepare this lesson were as follows:

• standard exercise book
• Young Womens Lesson Manual
• pen
• highlighter
• Young Womens Personal Progress book (achievement book for girls in the young womens programme)

The lesson covered scriptures and quotes by church leaders regarding the topic of dating.
Now 12-13 yr old girls don't really want to talk about this kind of stuff with their Sunday school teacher, so I decided to incorporate a technique that would relax the teaching envrionment - food.   I decided I'd take some pop-corn for the girls to pass around in a circle to help open the girls up to sharing thier thoughts on dating.  I also made up an idea for a dating game in which I would ask the girls one at a time to tell me what they would do if they were in a sticky date situations.  Some of the dating scenario were - "If a boy you don't know asks you to dance, what do you say?" , or "If a boy you've been on a couple of dates with leans in for a kiss, how would you react?".  Real cute and simple stuff like that. The girls love games, and learn sometimes more from them.

The girls absolutely loved it.  They were laughing and gigling and really opening up to the awkward topic of dating. I loved teaching this lesson.  I felt relaxed and confident with what I was teaching, and was happy with the end result - smiling faces leaving the room.

My Chosen Activity: Preparing to teach Sunday School

My chosen occupation is teaching sunday school to 12-13yr old girls.  I find it challenging at times to make the lessons interresting for the girls, but at the same time I love being a teacher because it pushes me both spiritually and mentally (to be creative).  The first lesson was a success which set me off to a great start at being the 'new' teacher.  There is no limit as to how long you are assigned to be a teacher at church, could be anywhere from a few weeks to a number years.  I have found that the girls, being typical teenages enjoy activities/games more than the essential lesson doctrine itsef, so it is important to apply both into each lesson so that the girls go away having learned something of worth and wanting to come back next sunday for more.

The most recent class I have taught was on Sunday 4 September.  The lesson was on avoiding dishonesty.  I taught this class to a slightly larger group of girls as this was a combined lesson with girls aged 12-17yrs. As a side note, there are three main age groups in the Young Womens Programme at church: 

• Beehives  12-13yr (this is my main young womens class)
• Mia Maids  14-15yrs
• Laurels  16-17yrs

In preparing for this lesson I looked at the lesson guidelines which are in our church Young Womens teaching Manual.  After reading through the information in the manual, I wrote out in my own excercise book how I would like the lesson to flow.  By taking ideas from the manual and other church magazines I was able to plan out what I wanted in my lesson.  I also added an activity to the lesson which was from my own memory of engaging in it at some point in my life.  I related the activity to a web of lies.  I wanted to ask the girls to split into two or three groups of  five and link hands in the middle.  The aim was then to attempt to get out of their tangle and into a circle without letting go of eachothers hands.

The class went well.  It was a little nerve racking as the teachers of the other two young women groups were there also, but I feel the lesson went o.k and benefited the girls spiritual learning in a positive way.

Tutorial Eight: Assistive technology

"Assistive or Adaptive Technology commonly refers to '...products, devices or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that are used to maintain, increase or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities...', according to the definition proposed in the Assistive Technology Act of 1998" (Gerard, 2001).

My interpretation of assistive technology is that it is an enabling tool used in a of settings such as a rehabilitation setting, the work place, or the home that assists those with disabilities. 

The assistive technology I have chosen from this tutorial is the 'Talking Tins' which are made to fit on tin or can lids.  I have chosen this device as it has a number of great benefits for the user, such as it being an affordable product ($25-$30), it can also be of use to those that need to be verbally told what is in a tin or jar,  another amazing feature is that the talking tin can be used for sequencing and planing the order of a task i.e. 'get out peaches'...'now get out a bowl' etc.  This is a function that could assist those with cognitive issues such as poor memory.

   References: Assistive Technology Act. (1998). What's assistive technology? . Retrieved from www.rehabtool.com on the 13/04/2011. 

Picture retrieved from http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003TT1UD0/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=