So during the summer, I was talking with my mom after church when the youth director walked up and asked me if I wanted to teach Jr High Boys Sunday School. At the time I was thinking of becoming a teacher eventually. I did not even think about it, I just accepted. The way it works is we get emailed a curriculum each week that’s usually some current event and how it ties into some Bible verses. For Jr High kids though, the current event topic does not always apply. One week was about having a job. One week was about TRON though, which was cool because I got to give a background on what TRON was about. A lot of times though the topic would be something lame or very loosely related to some verses. I started to use it as a baseline for about a 5 minute discussion, then move on.
At first I was thinking I’d find some kind of way to get through to these kids and talk about God and Jesus and everything would be awesome. It did not really turn out that way. The first few weeks I would read the curriculum and then look up all the verses. Then I’d ask the questions to go along with the verses and try to get a discussion going. The discussion did not really happen. I would read the verses and ask the corresponding question and get silence, either that or the same kids would answer. It seemed very awkward. I felt inadequate. I did feel accomplished when we’d stay on topic and talk about the Bible for the whole hour, but those weeks were few and far between. I could talk to the kids about football or school, but I kept thinking I should be keeping on topic all the time. Then one day I went and both Jr High classes were combined, so I got to talk to the girls’ teacher. I told her about how I did not feel good enough, and she shared my sympathies. It was good to talk to a fellow teacher about stuff and realize I was not alone.
Over the past couple of months, we’ve had more combined classes, and the other teachers have noticed I have a good rapport with the kids. I had no idea I was one of the only teachers not going to the youth leader exasperated about teaching. I just figured all of that came with the territory. I like the combined classes, because other people are usually doing most of the leading and I get to goof off with some of the boys. For example, a couple of weeks ago the class broke into groups to play games, and I ended up playing Texas Hold Em with three boys using markers to bet with. One of the things I don’t like about the classes is the boys that usually share in the separate class don’t always share in the combined class. I’m not sure if we’ll go back to having separate classes. There’s a rule where we’re supposed to have two teachers for every class, something about having a witness to say you did not mess with a kid or something. My second teacher hardly ever shows up. When he does come, he leaves halfway through the class to go practice with the praise band. I can’t remember the last time he showed up, but I think it’s at least two months.
Wednesday night we got a book for a new study we’ll be going through this spring. From the looks of it I think it’ll be alright. There’s a video and then discussion after that, so I think it should be easy to keep on topic. Lately the topic has been the Saints and LSU football after the initial talk about that week’s curriculum, so it probably will help to talk more about God.
