Teaching Report #1

Time Spent: 4 Hours (SS: 2, Prep: 1, Worship:1)

1. My Lesson
   

I. Primary Goal of the Lesson

To make the students understand that God has created and is in all things.

II.
Specific Outcomes

People, places, words…God has created and put His "breath" into all things.

• Cognitive: I would love for the students to know and understand that they and everyone around them are a sacred creation of God. I hope they will truly understand how God is in everything.
  
• Affective: After the lesson, I would love for the feelings and attitudes towards everyone change. Not just their friends, their family, and even their enemies. If they can see and understand that God is there in everyone maybe that will affect their behavior towards others.
  
• Behavioral: After knowing and seeing the God is present in everyone, I'm hoping that they will change how the treat and behave around everyone they run in contact with. Hopefully, people will notice this change in them and ask them about it. This creates a great opportunity to tell them about Christ.
  

 

III. Materials

• Bible
  
• Nooma Video
  
• List of Questions
  

 

IV. Lesson Sequence

9:00-9:20

Students arrived and talked.

9:25-9:30

1. Introduce Bible verses (Have students read)
   
   1. Everyone is created by God: Genesis 2:7
      
   2. Everyone breathes the Spirit: Ephesians 4:6
      
   3. God is Everywhere: Exodus 3:5-6
      

 

9:30-9:50

1. Nooma Video – Breathe
   

 

9:50-10:15

1. Discussion
   
   1. Everyone take a breath with me. Listen to what it sounds like. Your breath sounds like Yahweh, and so does your neighbor's. This is God's breath inside of you that was breathed into you when you were born.
      
      1. Do you ever think about your breathing?
         
         1. I do now. (Sitting, Running, short breaths calm, quick breaths scared).
            
         2. Everyone breathes…and God created everyone…
            

            
             

   2. God created Everyone (Read Genesis 2:7)
      
      1. Imagine it kind of like coming up out of the water after holding your breath. God breathing life into a breathless body.
         
      2. Ever since Adam, the breath of God is breathed into each new baby.
         
      3. Knowing that the breath of God is in you, how does that change the way you see yourself as a person? Every breath you take, you are breathing the name of God, how are you using that breath? What kind of things do we do that "abuse" the name of God in our actions and speech?
         
         1. In your speech (Ephesians 4:29) - Gossip, slander, hate.
            
         2. In how you see and hear yourself (You are created in God's image)
            

         
          

         
          

   3. Everyone breathes the Spirit (Ephesians 4:6)
      
      1. Knowing that the breath of God is in everyone (friends, parents, enemies, nerds, etc.) How does this affect the way you see others?
         
         1. Professor "Anonymous" example. Don't agree with what he is saying, but it is so much easier to love him and listen to him if I think about this idea of him breathing God's name.
            
         2. Example from the video (Atheist friend). I think of it as God encouraging me to stick with him and to not give up. Instead of hearing, "There is no God"…we hear…"God is in me".
            

            
             

   4. God is Everywhere (Exodus 3:5-6)
      
      1. What do you think it means to be "standing on Holy ground" And what are some of the "burning bushes" we might be passing by every day?
         
         1. Burning bushes are opportunities to do something amazing for God (Moses and leading the Israelites). But simply saying "Hey" to the kid no one likes at school (who is breathing the name of God) is a burning bush opportunity. You don't need to lead a nation to the Promised Land in order to do something amazing for God.
            
      2. Are we standing on holy ground all the time, but are not aware of it?
         
         1. I think we are. As Christians, we need to be more aware of the fact that we are standing on Holy ground all the time. God is everywhere and in everyone.
            
      3. Now that we know this, let's not forget that in everything we say or do, we are breathing the name of God.
         

         
          

2. Prayer Requests and Closing Prayer
   

 

1. Response
   

   There were about 25 students there. Because this is only my second week at the Sunday school I do not know many of the students very well. That is not the most ideal thing for me, because I would like to know at least of few of the students well enough to know how they would respond to certain subjects. But because I didn't know them, I decided to just go for it and throw caution to the wind.
   

   
    

   I think that the students responded pretty well to the lesson. But that is always hard to tell with High School students. I know in High School, I never really listened at all. But it was encouraging for me to see a couple of students nodding their head in agreement. I challenged them to encourage at least one person this week and a couple of people looked up at me and nodded their heads. That was really encouraging. I just hope they actually do it.
   

   
    

2. Supervising Teacher's Evaluation (Self Evaluation)
   

   Well, as I mentioned in my first response from last week: the normal teacher is not here. So that means it is kind of up in the air as to who is going to be my supervising teacher. In today's case, it was the same volunteer from last week. I had asked if he wouldn't mind critiquing me after I taught the lesson, and he said that wouldn't be a problem. But as I was teaching, I started looking for him, but I didn't see him. It turns out that he was only there for me praying at the end. This was discouraging because I really did want to hear some advice on what I could do better, but he wasn't there. So instead, I'm going to give a self evaluation.
   

   
    

3. Things I Did Well
   
   1. Related to the students well. I'm not a big fan of acting like I am the smart college student. I was in high school only a little while ago, I'm no better than these students
      
   2. I kept their attention. There were only a few students who weren't looking at me out of the 30 present.
      
   3. I tied the video in with the topic pretty well.
      
   4. I gave them a challenge to do this week before we meet again next Sunday.
      
   5. I felt comfortable up there, not nervous at all
      

      
       

4. Things I Need To Improve
   
   1. I relied a lot on the video to make my topic. It would be good if I could have had an original idea.
      
   2. I think I repeated myself a lot and made the same point a lot. Which is fine, but if they already understood it, then I didn't need to do that.
      
   3. I better conclusion. I kind of gave them the challenge and then prayed.
      
   4. Have more opportunity for discussion and response. The students really never participated other than the Scripture reading.
      

   
    

5. Questions
   
   1. What are some ways to involve the students? High school students are never really responsive to anything. How do we get a response out of them?
      
   2. What are some other ways, besides videos, to spice up a lesson or make it more interesting?