Blog 10

As I read chapter 9, Educating and Curriculum Delivery, in our textbook this week I was flooded with memories (mostly happy!) of my time working in the church. For almost thirteen years, I was the Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries at a United Methodist church in Delaware. I was 25 years old when I began there and felt like I "grew up" there in some ways. We had a fantastic team of dedicated professionals and I loved the collaboration that occurred between us. Under the guidance of our senior pastor, we were allowed a great deal of autonomy and while in hindsight I wish I had had some more direction sometimes, it gave me a lot of room to be creative. The last few years we had a senior pastor who came to us  with a multitude of personal problems and our staff struggled and several of us left the church. It was a very different working environment than I was used to and it was extremely difficult and  depressing at times. I was also feeling like it was time to do something different as I had gotten married and had Sydney in my last few years. When Sydney was 18 months old I resigned and we moved to Lancaster where I was a stay-at-home Mom for the next several years.

All this to say is that I was reminded of thinking up lessons, looking for resources and creating my agenda for youth group. I worked with a 7-8th grade group and also a 9-12th grade group. I think I used a lot of the teaching strategies and lesson planning ideas our textbook mentions but how great would it have been to have more information on this and on the multiple intelligence piece. I did try to incorporate a variety of activities in the lesson plans ( eg. go to one corner of the room if you agree with this statement, the other corner if you disagree) not because I knew the reason behind it but just that it seemed to work better with my students. I am sure my lessons would have served others better if I had known about and incorporated the "logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist intelligences."  (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p. 146), into my own lesson plans.

The reflection moment on pg. 144 of our textbook caught my eye. It asked about a time when my diversity was not accepted. I immediately thought of my three years (6-8th grade) at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was there because of my creative writing and art interest. It was a big school with students from 4-12th grade. We were a very diverse school in many ways. The students came from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some were very rich while others came from nearby very poor neighborhoods. The racial diversity was incredible when I think back. I was aware of the diversity to a degree, but since I always went to city schools it was "normal" for me to see a wide variety of colors of skin and hear a number of accents. To get to the city bus stop that I used, we had to walk through a particularly rough neighborhood. It was primarily a neighborhood where blacks lived and I remember some residents making fun of us as we walked to our bus stop and one day someone (don't know if it was a neighborhood resident or a fellow student) hacked up a huge spitball onto the back of my raincoat. I did not feel welcome. Even then, I remember walking to and from the bus stop was the least favorite part of my day and I always made sure to walk with others as I was a little on edge. While I don't remember feeling that aware of my ethnicity in school, I do remember being cognizant of it on the streets.

Back to my time working for the church. I read the section in our textbook on "Educating Adult Stakeholders" with interest as I actively worked to educate parents in my role. Over the years I organized many sessions for parents on a variety of topics. I had experts speak on Heroin (for a few years it got bad in our area), Human Sexuality (a joint parent and child group), and Parenting Strategies. I also incorporated service opportunities for families into my yearly schedule. I observed that parents were looking for educational opportunities to do as a family. I was always keen on service and planned work nights at the local Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity work sites, Read Aloud DE, homeless shelters etc. These were always well attended and very meaningful. People were educated about a subject and or place they usually didn't know much about and we helped with a project or two. I guess this is why service learning appeals to me so much. I have seen it make a difference. So my experience educating adults has been quite positive. Sometimes I was frustrated that the parents I thought really should attend a particular event wouldn't make it. That's life and I learned you can't force someone to attend something even when you think it would be beneficial for them. I look forward to drawing on my previous experiences working with youth and their families as I look to being in a school setting. I know there will be many challenges and I will strive to educate myself and hone my skills as I prepare to work in my new school.




Dollarhide, C.T. & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.