Practicum Report #7

From: Adam

To: Randi and Kelly

Subject: Practicum Report #7

A. Time Spent this Week

11/18/07- 2 1/2 hrs. (SS=1 hr; AM Worship= 1 1/2 hrs)

B. My Class this Week

We finished up our lesson on pain this week. We looked at four different passages that dealt with pain the Jesus experienced, and we answered three questions in each passage: what type of pain did Christ experience, how did Christ respond to the painful situation, and why did Christ have to experience this pain? Steve is a psychology professor at Taylor University; so naturally, his lessons frequently have a psychological twist to them. It is really interesting to look at the Bible from a psychological point of view. For example, he explained to us the reason that girls are more emotional than guys. Girls seem to be more emotional because they are wired to express their emotion physically. They actually have more tear ducts than guys do. He also give us options of what is most likely running through the minds of the people in the Bible stories we discuss. This is helpful because it makes the story come alive and helps me to relate to the characters on a personal level.

Since Steve is a college professor and mentors many college-age students, he knows how to relate to us and discuss things that are relevant to us. He is able to take a topic, like the pain of Christ, and show us concrete ways to handle it. For example, he knows that college students do not get enough rest so he proposed one way to deal with pain is to rest and to not be afraid to ask help from others. We respond well to this kind of teaching.

This was the attendance this week: Alyssa, John, Stephanie, Morgan, Kay Ellen, Colt, Lydia, Connie, Dave R., Dave, Krista, Lydia, Lydia, and Benjamin. Two of the regular attendees were not there, Rebecca and Emily.

1. Connie

Connie has a genuine aura about her. She has shared with me some of the things that have happened to her in the past, and she has not had the best record. Despite this, she has an eagerness to learn because she volunteers to answer even though she may be wrong. She has changed, and she is a joy to have in class because she is real. She is not weary of people; she seems to accept everyone just the way they are. I think this is a great quality and is something that most definitely strengthens the class.

C. My Questions this Week

1. How do we achieve relevancy as teachers. More than simply understanding our students, how can we understand our students better? What are specific things we can do to be able to relate to them better?

2. What can a teacher do to facilitate or cause people to have the same attitude as Connie does, one that accepts everyone, is real, and does not hold any suspicions? How much control does the teacher have over this issue? My class is not even close to this point, but what if the class was so fake that there was an extremely high level of distrust and animosity in the class? How far could a teacher go to break and destroy that problem? How blunt could a teacher be, or should this problem be dealt with elsewhere? (sorry for the long and somewhat complicated question)