A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I’m in Orlando today connecting with a potential employee for Sonlife. For some reason the hotel I am staying in had delivered to them the Sunday edition of the Orlando Sentinel today (Monday)! Somebody made a mistake somewhere down the line…

It actually ended up being cool. I found an article on brain-based teaching. I haven’t really heard much about brain-based teaching but it is very interesting. Click the image below to go to the online article…

The basic idea of this relatively new teaching technique is that teachers do their best to stimulate as many of the areas of the brain as possible in order to help the students better remember the lesson. Teachers also try to ensure they are stimulating both sides of the brain. The left side of the brain controls word formation while the right side of the brain controls abstract reasoning. So, instead of using a more rote method of helping a lesson stick with the student, teachers might lead the class in singing all 50 states and students might learn punctuation by running– slowing down at commas and stopping at periods. I guess that gives new meaning to run-on sentences, eh?  Anyway, I thought that the article was intriguing for several reasons. 1) I have a daughter in first grade and I am curious what type of new teaching techniques are emerging 2) we work with the children’s ministry at our church a bit and 3) I am always looking to the educational system to see what ideas I can rip for working with children and students within the context of the church.

I am not sure how different this method of teaching is then what most of us might simply call ‘experiential learning’ but I am sure there is a ton of help that the church can get from the educational system. Read the article…

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-brainteach

0707jan07,0,3186904.story

…you might find it helpful and it might stimulate you to think about new ways to work with your students. Let me know what you think. You can email me at chrisfol@mac.com.