The Simpsons
Just poking my head up to share this fantastic resource I stumbled across – a whole stack of detailed lesson plans and activities that combine The Simpsons and Religious Education and Philosophy. I have to admit – I’m not really a fan of the Simpsons. I was a huge fan in year 5 when they [...]
Atheism
I’ll be the first to admit that I find philosophy incredibly difficult. I wish I found it easier, because it is fascinating, but unfortunately my brain doesn’t seem to work the right way! My reason for admitting to this is at the moment I’m taking a course ‘Teaching the philosophy of religion’. I love it, [...]
Teaching World Religions – essay
Judaism, Islam and Christianity are believers in one God while Buddhism and Hinduism are seekers after Truth. Discuss this with reference to one religion from each category. Judaism, Islam and Christianity are considered to be Abrahamic religions, or, religions which all stem from the same ancestry – Abraham. As such, there are some fundamental [...]
Some useful/interesting resources
I’m paddling to keep my head above water at the moment, but wanted to quickly log two things I came across tonight. First is the Australian Poetry Library. It has thousands of poems which are free to view, but have a small copyright fee if you want to print them out. It’s a win/win situation [...]
Teaching the Bible
This course had two major assessments, one being an essay, and the other being a teaching unit. Additionally we were required to participate in a weekly online discussion. Overall I received a HD for this unit. For the essay, I had to write on one of the following topics: a) An exploration of some aspect [...]
Essay: Using popular culture to teach the Bible
The Bible is a difficult text for anyone to study and interpret, particularly high school students. The text is very removed from their everyday lives and experience, having been written in and about a very different time and place to modern Australia. A superficial view and understanding of the Bible leaves students struggling to find [...]
Food for thought: Philosophy
Changing your beliefs is not necessary, but challenging them is. As the British philosopher, John Stuart Mill taught us, you don’t really know for sure what you believe until you see how well those beliefs stand against opposing or contradictory opinion. From D. Elliot 2007, Ethics in the first person: A guide to teaching and [...]
David & his affair with Bathsheba
I promise this blog isn’t turning into a big religous thing – I just find the Old Testament fascinating from a literary point of view I had to read from 1 Samuel 15 through to the end of 2 Samuel, and there are some juicy bits in there! First off, the tutorial questions 1. How [...]
The ascension of Saul
I have to do weekly posts for a stack of my subjects, and usually they’re pretty crap, but I actually had fun doing this one for a change so thought I’d share. If anyone has any info on the questions I have down the bottom I’d love to hear answers. Also – if you don’t [...]
Podcasts I love #2
Just a couple for this week because I’ve barely had time to listen to any that I haven’t babbled about prevously! 1. SBS Insight. Great for everyone, but there have been 2 recently that will be of particular interest to teachers/pre-service teachers: Top of the Class Part 1 and Religion in the Classroom part 1. [...]