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