President Eyring

Our Hearts Knit as One was an amazing talk, and reminded me why I love President Eyring! I liked how he started out with talking about how we each come from different circumstances. I think as teachers we need to be aware of that from our students, not that we judge them or expect more or less from them based on that information, but that we know where they have come from in their life. It also stood out to me when he talked about unity that he said "The need for that gift and the challenge to maintain it." I want to remember to maintain the unity that we have, so it's something I am constantly working on and building with my students. He mentioned praying and working for unity in the Lord's way, I wonder what that means specifically. How can I work for unity in the Lord's way? There was a promised blessing that when we are blessed with unity we will have joy, I want joy in my classroom and to feel joy when I work with students to accomplish tasks.

Our Hearts Knit as One

This was a very interesting article. I love the way that president Eyring addresses the congregation. He has such power in his words. As I read these words again, I was thinking about how our religion and how our faith really plays into our teaching. Even though we know that we can not preach what we know to be true, we can still live it. We can be an example of it everyday of our lives. We can be that shinning light that president Eyring described. It can be the litericy used in our classrooms. Much of our beliefs are based in moral life principals. If we live in the way we know to be right, we will be blessed as people. We will see how our decisions influence us around us and people will take notice. This is important for teachers to remember. We are working with very influentail kids. They need that role model that will teach them how to be a good person, a good adult. This comes not from the words you use, but from the way that you treat the people around you.
I also really enjoyed the part that talked about judgement. It reminded us not to judge to quickly. As teachers, we will be constiantly judging the situation of our students and the classroom. We need to look at the situations that arise with love, compasion, and justice. My favorite concept is that God loves us with justice and mercy. We also need to find that balance in us as we teach our students. If we live it, they will see that, and hopefully apply it to their lives.

kristy #13

I really liked reading this talk and relating it to my future classroom. Elder Eyring says, "We are moving toward becoming one. The miracle of unity is being granted to us as we pray for it in the Lords way." I think that in the classroom unity really is a miracle sometimes. and something that we individually will have to hope and pray for. because "joy comes when we are blessed with unity". It really is a joyful and exciting thing then there is unity among students, more is accomplished and a greater level of success is achieved. In his talk Elder Eyring speaks about gathering together so we can seek and qualify unity with others, because it cannot happen alone. I think that in the classroom as well its not about groups or cliques either, but the class as a whole. This has started me thinking about ways that I can "gather together" my students to help them create this unity within our classroom. The talk also points out that everything that Alma and his people did was inspired to help people choose to have their hearts changed so that they could be one. That is something that I need to be able to do as a teacher. Help others choose. It is the students choice - yet I can assist the class in the way that I direct them and teach them and am an example to them to put away differences and be one, unified as a classroom. I remember In Jr. High and High School drama classes that were not as unified and didn't work as well together and other classes that were together and unified and the support and encouragement and strength that was found there. What an amazing difference it makes!
Even though this is an educational setting where we cannot talk about the gospel which is the main source of people being knit together- I believe that there are basic principles of human truth that can be brought up and discusses and discovered in our classrooms- respect, love, tolerance, service, etc. As these important things are discovered, discussed and implemented into our classrooms the students will be knit together as one! And even though its not a gospel based situation a great blessing is we always have the Holy Ghost to guide us and help us to achieve this.

Spiritual Literacies

Understanding that "literacies" is the "how to" access a text, I think there are a couple of literacies to teach our theatre students. The other day, I was actually reading about spirituality from Elder Oaks and I think the things he discussed can be found in a theatre space. As a result, I think one thing that I can teach my students is following through with their impulses. Theatre is the one time that you don't need science or logic or rationale. Instead you just have your emotions or your "gut feeling" to go by. However, if my students are not use following through with those impulses, much of their progress could be stiffled. Therefore, in addition to teaching them things of the text book, I can teach them how to "listen" to themselves as theatre instruments.
As far as teaching spiritual princples without over proselytizing, I think it's actually very possible to do. I first think that Heavenly Father's princples are eternal, therefore they are intended and designed for all of his children to access - not just His Saints. Therefore, with humble prayer asking for guidance in how to make spiritual principles more palletable for the nonmember, I'm confident He will answer. Also, when you think about it, the Gospel is really basic. (e.g. Love one another, strive to do your best, serve each other, develop talents and abilities). All these things can easily be taught in a classroom; there just might have to have slight semantic adjustments.

Krystle's 18th and final post

Spiritual literacies are a part of theatre. I believe this because I think we use theatre to present values and ideas that we believe in. It's important to have beliefs and to be able to support them but it's important to remember not to make it about who's right. We need to find our commonailites rather than our disagreements. I really enjoyed reading President Eyring's talk. I even read it to my husband and one of the first things he said after was something to the effect of "well that's good. Usually we are being told what we are lacking". I would agree that it is encouraging that President Eyring is telling us "...that we are doing better" and we then telling us how we can do even more. We are often bombarded with what we need to do better and what we are doing well isn't as acknowledged. I think this is really important to remember in the classroom as well. Improvement is good but it's also important to recognize what is being done well. We need to be unified in a cause. This will effect everything from our personal lives to our classrooms. When our classes are unified and in agreement of what they are working for they will work harder. It's like President Eyring's example of how the church is always the first to serve and take care of others. It is because "their hearts were knit, they were magnified in their power." I believe that honesty is a part of this. When we are honest in our dealings it shows. I think that teaching our students to be unified and honest will help them become better people as well. It's not enough to just have the beliefs but we have to life them and encourage our students to do the same. I believe that a way to show this is by service. There are so many way for students to serve one another and the community and providing those opportunities for them is our responsibility.

Briana's Response #16

The past few days we've really been talking about different ways to make our classrooms unified. Unity can come from finding a safe space for students where religious, culture and sexual backgrounds are not a deciding factor for friendship and love. These safe spaces are a new community we create for our students and have spiritual literacies inherent in them. I think a major part of being spiritually literate comes from the talk by Pres. Eyring when he said "We become disciples who are meek, loving, easy to be entreated, and at the same time fearless and faithful in all things. We still live in different countries, but we come into the Church through a process that changes us." Being meek, loving and fearles are the qualities that are required to be an active member of that safe and open community in a theatre classroom. I think those qualities should be present in a teacher, and therefore present in any type of classroom. Learning is a universal thing and therefore should be open to all. These qualities can be further be applied in a theatre classroom because of the self-sacrifice that can sometimes be required in theatre. In order to perform and to delve into theatre, one sometimes has to place one's self in a vulnerable situation. If others present in the classroom have these qualities and practice them, the vulnerability does not have to be felt more than necessary. A trust can be placed within the community and further strengthen that community.

Spiritual Unity

In this article President Eyring talks about unity: unifying the family and the church in order to be able to be more prepared and be able to accomplish more. Both of those things are a necessity for the theatre classroom. The class has to be working together and united for a common goal in order to get work done and do the projects assigned. All the projects should be leading up to a show, and if everyone working on that show is doing their own thing without any regard to the group as a whole, the show will be a mishmash of things that don't fit together. In directing that's one of the director's key jobs: creating unity for a show so it makes sense. I loved the example that President Eyring gave about the church members who are always first to arrive on the scene of a disaster. They are organized and able to accomplish more than anybody else, quicker than anybody else. This is because they are united in their common goal and everybody focuses on that goal. As they do their part, they recognize how important their individual work is and how it contributes to the group as a whole. They feel the satisfaction in this and work harder to accomplish more. If the students in a class or cast are able to accomplish this same feeling of unity, the show they put on, and the environment in the classroom, will be amazing. So much can be done when everyone is focused on the same goal and objective. I think by promoting how much more can be done, and the importance of trusting your peers to do their part, will bring about that spiritual unity without having to ever explicitly talk about it. Promote from day one the absolute necessity for people in groups to work together, or else the show will be a disaster.