Performance and the Classroom: Part 2—Community of Learners Posted on January 24, 2014 by David RhoadsYou never know where ideas might come from to enhance the teaching-learning experience—a choir concert, a kindergarten teacher sharing her philosophy of child development, a grade school instructor excited about a new way to teach math, a middle school tutor for special education, a CEO talking about new structures of management….
Performance and the Classroom: Part 1—My First (Misconceived) Effort Posted on December 24, 2013 by David RhoadsI got the idea to incorporate performance into the classroom from the choir director at Carthage College. I went to the annual concert of the choir, a magnificent Christmas concert held each year in December. The concert was repeated several times on the weekend and drew thousands of people from the college and from the area. As always, I was awed by the quality of the student performances….
Why The Simpsons and Mashed Potatoes Matter Posted on July 24, 2013 by Lea SchweitzTrue confession. In a systematic theology class, I may have encouraged a student to use mashed potatoes as a metaphor for the Trinity. In my own defense, it allowed us to talk about the integrity of three separate flavors (salt, butter, potato) that together made up the unified thing we know as mashed potatoes. A concrete, if untraditional, example of three-in-one. Even better, it allowed us to explore other themes like modalism and the economic/imminent Trinity with a working metaphor to anchor an abstract discussion.