Week 1
I went to the Bow Valley Sunday School today. I sat right at the front, two pews behind the teacher, David Salmon. I am curious about how the new program will work. I watched him carefully. He tried to connect with his audience, using a hand microphone, though he thought he could speak loudly enough for all to hear. But those at the back signalled, not loud enough. Use the microphone.
He used the microphone. He used his whole body. Sometimes he even knelt on the front bench, moving into it to get closer to a chapel that was filled in the centre set of pews. I think they asked everyone to move to the middle while I was out putting Sumarga in the nursery because people don't move to the centre automatically.
I heard very few of the comments by people behind me. I have no idea how that is going to be handled. I don't have impaired hearing yet so my hearing isn't what the problem is.
At any rate, at the end of the his lesson, David had many visual aids, showing people other places they could go to supplement their scriptural study – lesson guides, New Testament Guides, his personal videos, on-line videos – he may have had 20 suggestions. He had begun his lesson by saying that the purpose of the lesson was to have us realize we are responsible for our own learning. And in fact, with that said, he wondered why not have everyone go home and begin doing that. Still he continued on.
Two things stood out for me during his lesson. One is that he held up a beautiful coffee table sized book about the New Testament. He said that in 2006, President Millar gave it to him as a Christmas present. Then David said, “I haven’t even opened the cover of it yet.”
The second memorable thing he said he that he and his wife decided to read right through the Old Testament. They are at Psalms right now. They are bogging down on the reading. He is wondering if they are getting anything out of it or if they are reading it just for the sake of reading it.
I liked his object lessons. From the first I learn that we all have material available that we haven't had time to get at. What I learned from his second vignette is that I often take on projects that take twice the time I have allotted for them.
The ward has no more manuals to give out, he said. If you missed getting one last week, then please use the on-line manual. There is nothing like turning me off, having to go online for something when it could be in paper, though even this blog is online. I love paper. I can write on the side of it, keep my ideas going, go back to it, grab it out of the shelf when I need it, tuck it away. Now I suppose I could do all of that if I just had a note book and read on-line. But it is just not the same (for me).
And by the way (as a further note to me), I would have to have a stack of note books 12 inches high if I had one for every topic in my life.
I have got to figure that out, since the days seems to be going by, and I am needing such a high stack of notebooks.
Now back to Online Sunday School.
I want my Sunday School lesson to be about the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s charge – for churches to teach about Indigenous Canadian history and about how we can do reconciliation with Indigenous people.
Here is my plan for Sunday School this year. I will read along in the New Testament with the rest of the people in my faith community.
I am taking on a side project that has extreme interest for me. I am going to re-read the Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this year. As well, I am going to read along with the University of Alberta Blog. They only blog during semesters, so I have to fill in the rest of the time. For your information, they are starting this week. See https://ualbertalaw.typepad.com/
As a third thing, I am going to read other books on this subject of learning about indigenaeity. Right now I am reading Decolonizing Mormonism, edited by Gina Colvin and Joanna Brooks. As a fourth item, I am going to watch for news about Indigenous happenings. And fifth, I am going to use our family blog to talk about what I am learning.
Arta
I went to the Bow Valley Sunday School today. I sat right at the front, two pews behind the teacher, David Salmon. I am curious about how the new program will work. I watched him carefully. He tried to connect with his audience, using a hand microphone, though he thought he could speak loudly enough for all to hear. But those at the back signalled, not loud enough. Use the microphone.
He used the microphone. He used his whole body. Sometimes he even knelt on the front bench, moving into it to get closer to a chapel that was filled in the centre set of pews. I think they asked everyone to move to the middle while I was out putting Sumarga in the nursery because people don't move to the centre automatically.
I heard very few of the comments by people behind me. I have no idea how that is going to be handled. I don't have impaired hearing yet so my hearing isn't what the problem is.
At any rate, at the end of the his lesson, David had many visual aids, showing people other places they could go to supplement their scriptural study – lesson guides, New Testament Guides, his personal videos, on-line videos – he may have had 20 suggestions. He had begun his lesson by saying that the purpose of the lesson was to have us realize we are responsible for our own learning. And in fact, with that said, he wondered why not have everyone go home and begin doing that. Still he continued on.
Two things stood out for me during his lesson. One is that he held up a beautiful coffee table sized book about the New Testament. He said that in 2006, President Millar gave it to him as a Christmas present. Then David said, “I haven’t even opened the cover of it yet.”
The second memorable thing he said he that he and his wife decided to read right through the Old Testament. They are at Psalms right now. They are bogging down on the reading. He is wondering if they are getting anything out of it or if they are reading it just for the sake of reading it.
I liked his object lessons. From the first I learn that we all have material available that we haven't had time to get at. What I learned from his second vignette is that I often take on projects that take twice the time I have allotted for them.
The ward has no more manuals to give out, he said. If you missed getting one last week, then please use the on-line manual. There is nothing like turning me off, having to go online for something when it could be in paper, though even this blog is online. I love paper. I can write on the side of it, keep my ideas going, go back to it, grab it out of the shelf when I need it, tuck it away. Now I suppose I could do all of that if I just had a note book and read on-line. But it is just not the same (for me).
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| Photo from Deanna Brown-Nolan's Blog post Re news item: Wet-suset'en Access Point on Gidumt'en Territoru |
And by the way (as a further note to me), I would have to have a stack of note books 12 inches high if I had one for every topic in my life.
I have got to figure that out, since the days seems to be going by, and I am needing such a high stack of notebooks.
Now back to Online Sunday School.
I want my Sunday School lesson to be about the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s charge – for churches to teach about Indigenous Canadian history and about how we can do reconciliation with Indigenous people.
Here is my plan for Sunday School this year. I will read along in the New Testament with the rest of the people in my faith community.
I am taking on a side project that has extreme interest for me. I am going to re-read the Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this year. As well, I am going to read along with the University of Alberta Blog. They only blog during semesters, so I have to fill in the rest of the time. For your information, they are starting this week. See https://ualbertalaw.typepad.com/
As a third thing, I am going to read other books on this subject of learning about indigenaeity. Right now I am reading Decolonizing Mormonism, edited by Gina Colvin and Joanna Brooks. As a fourth item, I am going to watch for news about Indigenous happenings. And fifth, I am going to use our family blog to talk about what I am learning.
Arta
A fantastic plan. Can't wait to read what you write on the blog. I look forward to you doing all the hard work and me benefiting from your summaries.
ReplyDeleteSincere thanks,
Mary
Right now I am reading a chapter by Rolf Straubhaar called "Unpacking White-Heritage Mormon Privilege: A Latter-day Saint Pursuit of Critical Consciousness".
ReplyDeleteHow do you like the line in this chapter, "[W]hite heritage Mormons [should be] willing to commit `class suicide', or to give up the privileges associated with their identity and upbringing."
You can see I am not going to be able to really summarize what he is saying, unless I did it in just that quote.