Dear friends,
REGISTRATION BEGINS for 2013-2014!
It is time to register for religious education classes for the 2013-2014 church year! It really helps for planning purposes if you register sooner rather than later, so please fill out the easy and fast religious education registration form below. PLEASE sign up all children in your family, birth to 18. Even if you aren’t sure they will be attending, we would like to send you information at the very least about programming.
Our registration is entirely online, and takes about 5-8 minutes of your time. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO FILL OUT BOTH PAGES of the form. Thank you, dear parents. Your cooperation helps us plan for everything from supplies to curricula!
The RE Registration form is found here:
http://religiouseducationsherborn.wufoo.com/forms/religious-education-registration-20132014/
Do you want to know what you are signing your child/youth up for? Next year’s prospectus is also online on this very blog. Please read more about the classes and offerings here.
2013-2014 PROSPECTUS:
http://uuacreligiouseducation.wordpress.com/welcome-to-the-2012-2013-religious-education-program/
TEACHING COMMITMENT: PLEASE READ
“It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools – friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty – and said ‘do the best you can with these, they will have to do’. And mostly, against all odds, they do.”
― Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
So you’re interested in teaching, or feel like it might be your turn? Great! We only ask that you give our children your own rusty best tools, and do the best you can with them. Our kids thrive from being offered your human wisdom and friendship more than anything else.
Just so’s you know, my friends, some things have changed this year. In an effort to recruit fewer teachers to teach in the Religious Education program, and to improve the experience of teachers and students with fewer transitions during the year, we are going to a semester system vs. our previous trimester system.
This means we will have two semesters: Fall and Spring, with a January Winterim session in between. Believe it or not, we are asking you to teach for approximately the same amount of Sundays as you always have (about 8-10) per semester, with at least one (and sometimes two) Sundays “off” per month for children’s church or multigenerational worship in the sanctuary.
This means a few things:
1) Not everyone has to teach this year. I will let you know this summer (the sooner you register, the sooner I’ll know!) whether or not you have been assigned to a classroom, but don’t assume that you have been assigned unless I tell you. You may just get the whole year off!
2) if you have a special skill that you would like to teach for four weeks in January in a “workshop” that children in mixed age groups will have the option to choose, please indicate your interest on the registration form. For instance, you love to do potato paintings of biblical scenes, or you are a yoga instructor, and you have always wanted to try out child pose with real children. The sky’s the limit. Please let me know if this is something that interests or excites you.
3) The fall semester teachers will be teaching from September 15-December 15. Again, you will have about 8-10 teaching Sundays, with Sunday(s) off every month. Per usual, if you have a date that you can’t make it, we have term subs who can fill in for you.
4) The spring semester teachers will teach from February 2-June 1. You will have about 8-10 teaching Sundays with Sunday(s) off every month. Per usual, if you have a date that you can’t make it, we have term subs who can fill in for you.
5) Non-parents, empty nesters, elders…we are particularly interested in YOU! If you have always wanted to nurture the younger generation and their spiritual lives please fill out the RE Registration form above (skip the children’s names/ages and go straight to the second page).
Thank you for your investment in and support of our religious education programming for children and youth!
Please register early and often.
With every good wish,
Robin Bartlett
Interim Director of Religious Education