FROM: Adam
TO: Randi and Kelly
DATE: 12-2-07
SUBJECT: Practicum Lesson Report #2
Time Spent: 2½ hours (SS=1; Morning Worship= 1½)
A. My Lesson
I taught Pastor Dales’ class on the doctrine of the Trinity. I had never even attended this class before so I did not know what to expect. They turned out to be a great group, and we really had fun. They lightened the atmosphere by actually participating, making jokes, and taking interest in me before class began. My objectives for the lesson were to show, from the Trinity, how we are to love with other focused love. My objectives were to: 1. Teach them about God’s other-oriented love. 2. Relate the Trinity to community/fellowship.
This is how the class went minute by minute:
Fellowship 9:30-9:40: The class began to file in around 9:30. Most of them said they were running late and that the class does not normally start at 9:40. This made me a little more nervous because I had planned on having a full hour and I knew the lesson would probably require every bit of that time. After fellowshipping over donuts and chocolate milk, Pastor Dale signaled for class to start.
Announcements 9:40-9:45: A man I had never met or seen before in church did the announcements; although, he seemed to know everyone in the class. I overheard that he was doing some kind of probationary work with Pastor Dale. After he read and did announcements, Pastor Dale, along with two others, prayed.
Introduction/Testimony 9:45-9:50: After the prayer, Pastor Dale introduced me and why I was teaching. He explained that one of his goals is to help raise up the next generation and that I am doing a practicum for a class at IWU. After my introduction, I asked the class to say their name around the circle because I had never attended the class before. This turned out to be a fun time; they tried to go faster the second time and the first guy started to introduce the whole class. This lightened the mood, especially in my mind. Next, I shared part of my testimony of the last year. I shared how God had opened my eyes to the selfishness in my life and is progressively purging me of it.
Lesson on Trinity 9:50-10:20: I tied my testimony into the doctrine of the Trinity. I explained that true love is not self-seeking. True love is other-oriented or other-focused. God did not simply create the idea of love; He is love. Love stems from His very nature and being. The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son loves the Spirit and the Father, and the Spirit loves the Son and the Father. To get to the point, I explained how our one God exists in a community of three Persons who share complete and perfect other-oriented love.
Application Chart 10:20-10:30: After also sharing several analogies of the Trinity with the class, I led them through the application chart I had made. The first application was on selfishness. I related how selfishness is the root of all kinds of evil and that we need to be less selfish in our relationships. The second step on the chart was love. I explained that God is love. True love is other-oriented. I made applications to specific relationships. Since it is a family foundations class, I made applications to marriage and family. The next step on the chart was community/fellowship. The truth was that God exists in a community of Persons who share fellowship with each other. One application was that we need to take our church family more seriously. I had to skip the next step on the chart, identity, because we were running out of time. I skipped to the last step on the chart about the two greatest commandments given by Jesus. Also, Romans 13 says that the whole law can be summed up in this one commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. I explained how this does not mean that we must love our self before we can love others. Verses like this operate out of the assumption that we already know how to love our self; therefore, we need to love others that way. Finally, I closed in prayer.
B. Response
For the most part, I felt the class responded very well. There was a time in the middle of my lecture on the Trinity when I noticed I was losing people. I did not lose everyone, but I noticed I lost a little under half. This is exciting to me just to realize that I am now able to recognize when people’s attention is straying. Before, I do not think I would have noticed as quickly. I was able to bring their attention back to me when I switched topics. I was surprised on the amount of response I received from the analogy part of my lesson. I shared two analogies of the Trinity, the family and the mind analogy. They asked questions about the analogies and wondered which Person in the Trinity correlated to which part. They also shared at least five other analogies with the class that I had never heard before. I explained two wrong analogies, and they were able to tell me why they were wrong. After class, at least four people encouraged me and told me it was a great lesson. They said it was very thought-provoking.
C. Supervising Teacher’s Evaluation
I talked with Pastor Dale over the phone the following Monday. He had a lot of useful advice. He first encouraged me by what I did well. He said I had a great introduction with my testimony by created curiosity of how my testimony related to the Trinity. He said my use of the overhead as a visual aid was very helpful and that my application handout was also helpful and easy to follow. He also said that I dressed appropriately, but the biggest compliment I received was that Pastor Dale thought that I shared deeper truths, not shallow. I value this more than the others because it does not matter how well one presents the lesson if there is no substance.
After he encouraged me, Pastor Dale gave me some helpful pointers on how to improve the lesson. He said that I made several true statements, but they would have carried more weight and power if I had used Scripture to back them up. Another thing he noticed was that I had a lot more material than the class time could allot, but he also said that it was not my fault because the class started late. He also told me to ask more strategic questions. He pointed out one instance where I asked if there were any questions when I could have asked a more specific and strategic question. Like we had discussed in Local Church Education class, he said that these questions help people to retain information because they actually came up with the answer themselves. The last piece of advice Pastor Dale gave me was to try to help the class follow where I am going. He suggested giving them an outline of the slides I used to help students to visually see the flow of the lesson.
D. Things I did well
1. I did not rely on my notes
2. I made eye contact
3. I used my hands
4. The application chart was easy to follow and helped the class to grasp the information and significance of the lesson.
5. I made use of the overhead projector to use as a visual aid.
6. I stressed the significance and relevance in our lives today.
E. Things I need to work on
1. Come better prepared for the lesson in terms of clearly understanding the flow and where I am going next.
2. I could have been clearer, especially on the flow or my thoughts, explaining the distinguishability of the Persons in the Trinity and how they retain their unity.
3. I could have made more specific and more practical applications
4. I wish I could feel free to act more freely in an acting sort of way
F. Questions
1. What is the best way to draw the class’ attention back? If you lose some, but not all, and believe that what you are teaching at the time is very important, should you change topics to something else or stay on the same topic for the sake of the people who are paying attention?
2. When the class is engaged in the lesson and is actively participating but the lesson is not moving on, when is it a good time to move on and what is the best way to do that?