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I've spent the weekend teaching a class for Baha'i Sunday school teachers. While the training is ostensibly for the purpose of training them in using the national curriculum, it's really much more than that. As I was leaving today, one of the participants told me she was expecting that we'd be spending the entire time looking at the lesson plans and talking about how to use them. In actuality, only one of the four days of training focuses on curriculum. The rest of it deals with concepts surrounding the curriculum, teaching it through example activities. Hmm... it's hard to explain. Maybe it will be clearer if I describe it.
There are four days (9 to 5 days) of training, and each day focuses mainly on a core concept or theme, drawn from Baha'i scriptures. The first day starts by introducing the organizational schema, drawn from the quote: "Ye needs must deck the tree of being with fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech." Everything in the program is supposed to express one of those four aspects of learning (knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech, which is in this case defined as any form of outward expression of learning, whether through behavior, arts, writing, etc.) and ideally, one would incorporate all four into any given topic or theme. The trainers (we work in teams, usually two facilitators, sometimes more) lead participants through an activity which illustrates using the four. It's a favorite activity, because it's fun and moving and utilizes multiple senses.
The Rose Activity
We start by asking participants to imagine that they come from a planet where they have never even heard of a rose, and their first inkling of the rose is from a dictionary definition. Then we show them pictures and perhaps share some rose oil. Then petals, asking them how each new thing increases their knowledge as we continue through the steps. Then we share a bunch of roses with them (I made an effort to find multi-colored ones this time, because I think it adds more to it). I pass out scrolls with quotes from Baha'i scripture on them, printed on fancy rose paper, all of them with the rose as an element.
For example: "O friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love and from the nightengale of desire and affection loose not thy hold." Then we discuss what the rose represents in the readings. (By we discuss, I mean I ask them what they think it represents and everyone shares their thoughts in a respectful manner. There are no wrong answers here, since there are many possible meanings to be gleaned and no one is allowed to interpret for another.) Once we've done that, we give them blank greeting cards and envelopes and encourage them to write a card for someone who they think would benefit from an expression of love or warmth, and give them rose stickers and stamps and other art supplies to decorate the cards with.
The dictionary definition and the pictures and experiential knowledge of the rose is the knowledge part. Understanding the relationship between the definition, pictures, etc., connecting them together into a bigger picture is wisdom. Reading the quotes is technically more knowledge, but sharing insights about them, discussing it together, is spiritual perception. The cards are eloquent speech.
This is getting long so I'll probably continue later, describing the rest of the weekend and sharing some of the thoughts that have come to me as a result.
I will say that one of the nice results of doing this recent training is realizing how competent I've become at doing these, and how aware I am of myself as a teacher, and what specific skills I have as a teacher, especially comparing myself to my co-facilitator. She's a very experienced professional teacher who taught in public schools in San Francisco for many many years, but this is her first time facilitating this course, while I've done it several times now. Both of us have the basic organizational and communication skills vital to effective teaching, but have somewhat different styles of teaching. It was interesting to me to observe that my style is much less directive. I present the question in as open a manner as possible and allow the participants to approach it, while she was more directed in her questions. I can see advantages to both approaches; mine gives people a bit more space to formulate their own thoughts about things and sometimes makes it easier for them to do the emotional processing necessary, while hers is less likely to lead to confusion and makes it somewhat easier to stay on task. I'm trying to think of ways to incorporate some of her techniques in my own style, so that when I can tell things are bit unfocused, I can bring everyone back together. I'm glad that I am able to leave things open and allow space for people to answer, though. I remember reading (or seeing in documentary) somewhere that on average, teachers allow students less than 3 seconds to respond to their questions, and then answer the question themselves. I made a conscious decision then to make an effort to allow more time than that, and I started counting breaths before deciding additional prompting was necessary. It's difficult sometimes with younger students, who haven't yet learned all the social skills adults have to indicate they're listening. Many times it will seem like they're not when they are.
Anyway, enough for now. Likely there will be more later.
There are four days (9 to 5 days) of training, and each day focuses mainly on a core concept or theme, drawn from Baha'i scriptures. The first day starts by introducing the organizational schema, drawn from the quote: "Ye needs must deck the tree of being with fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech." Everything in the program is supposed to express one of those four aspects of learning (knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech, which is in this case defined as any form of outward expression of learning, whether through behavior, arts, writing, etc.) and ideally, one would incorporate all four into any given topic or theme. The trainers (we work in teams, usually two facilitators, sometimes more) lead participants through an activity which illustrates using the four. It's a favorite activity, because it's fun and moving and utilizes multiple senses.
The Rose Activity
We start by asking participants to imagine that they come from a planet where they have never even heard of a rose, and their first inkling of the rose is from a dictionary definition. Then we show them pictures and perhaps share some rose oil. Then petals, asking them how each new thing increases their knowledge as we continue through the steps. Then we share a bunch of roses with them (I made an effort to find multi-colored ones this time, because I think it adds more to it). I pass out scrolls with quotes from Baha'i scripture on them, printed on fancy rose paper, all of them with the rose as an element.
For example: "O friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love and from the nightengale of desire and affection loose not thy hold." Then we discuss what the rose represents in the readings. (By we discuss, I mean I ask them what they think it represents and everyone shares their thoughts in a respectful manner. There are no wrong answers here, since there are many possible meanings to be gleaned and no one is allowed to interpret for another.) Once we've done that, we give them blank greeting cards and envelopes and encourage them to write a card for someone who they think would benefit from an expression of love or warmth, and give them rose stickers and stamps and other art supplies to decorate the cards with.
The dictionary definition and the pictures and experiential knowledge of the rose is the knowledge part. Understanding the relationship between the definition, pictures, etc., connecting them together into a bigger picture is wisdom. Reading the quotes is technically more knowledge, but sharing insights about them, discussing it together, is spiritual perception. The cards are eloquent speech.
This is getting long so I'll probably continue later, describing the rest of the weekend and sharing some of the thoughts that have come to me as a result.
I will say that one of the nice results of doing this recent training is realizing how competent I've become at doing these, and how aware I am of myself as a teacher, and what specific skills I have as a teacher, especially comparing myself to my co-facilitator. She's a very experienced professional teacher who taught in public schools in San Francisco for many many years, but this is her first time facilitating this course, while I've done it several times now. Both of us have the basic organizational and communication skills vital to effective teaching, but have somewhat different styles of teaching. It was interesting to me to observe that my style is much less directive. I present the question in as open a manner as possible and allow the participants to approach it, while she was more directed in her questions. I can see advantages to both approaches; mine gives people a bit more space to formulate their own thoughts about things and sometimes makes it easier for them to do the emotional processing necessary, while hers is less likely to lead to confusion and makes it somewhat easier to stay on task. I'm trying to think of ways to incorporate some of her techniques in my own style, so that when I can tell things are bit unfocused, I can bring everyone back together. I'm glad that I am able to leave things open and allow space for people to answer, though. I remember reading (or seeing in documentary) somewhere that on average, teachers allow students less than 3 seconds to respond to their questions, and then answer the question themselves. I made a conscious decision then to make an effort to allow more time than that, and I started counting breaths before deciding additional prompting was necessary. It's difficult sometimes with younger students, who haven't yet learned all the social skills adults have to indicate they're listening. Many times it will seem like they're not when they are.
Anyway, enough for now. Likely there will be more later.
