It's the kids who are important

Hello there. It's been a while since I've last posted. The youth and I have been taking it easy on the activities lately. We were real busy there for a while when we were preparing for Six Flags and whatnot, but lately, most of the kids have been getting ready for the start of school, so attendence has been low. Regardless, I have been continuing with my series of the 9 Fruits of the Spirit and the 7 Deadly Sins. We just recently talked about how peace and joy come from Jesus as a result of His death upon the cross. We also talked about love and how it is a verb and not necessarily a feeling. And we talked about envy and how we struggle with the 10th commandment of not coveting our neighbor's belongings. As I mentioned before, we are preparing for a poetry slam. This will take place on Wednesday, September 23rd. Although several of the kids were not thrilled about having homework during the summer, they have been getting their poems written. I have also been writing poems on the fruits and the sins. I assured them that their poems do not have to rhyme, though all of mine do simply because I find rhyming poems amusing. I really just would like to see the kids come out of their shells and get to know each other better. We will be celebrating the poetry slam with coffee, lots of different creamers, and doughnuts. Now, I just need to find some sort of platform to use as the stage. I know that most of them are nervous about performing in front of everybody, but I think they will enjoy it. Goodness knows, I would have loved to do something like a poetry slam when I was a high schooler in youth group! As a teacher, I like to give my students the opportunity to share their own views, opinions, and information because that is what I wanted when I was a student. However, the majority of my teachers, if not all of them, did not give us students such opportunities. It was always lectures and the viewpoints of the teachers that were important. I think the viewpoints and thoughts of the students are the most important when it comes to learning.