Rotation.org News

Introducing our 1000th Supporting Member: 

Lynn Yost

Read her Rotation story below!

What does "1000 members" mean?

It means God is good! 

1000 members also means the bills for our amazing site service get paid and we can concentrate on making the site better.

1000 members means we can think of adding new resources and new improvements.

1000 members means we have 1000 awesome people who believe in the value, uniqueness, and revolutionary thing we're doing up here.

1000 Supporting Members means thousands of small churches, solo pastors and volunteer teachers with ZERO budgets can continue to find the lessons and help they need. Thousands do every day from all over the globe. Our Supporting Members are truly "Sunday School missionaries."

Here are some unique facts about our Supporting Member:

-Our 1000 Supporting Members represent about 10% of all "registered" members here at our site, and about 5% of all total visitors.

-HALF of our Supporting Members have been with us for more than 5 years, --before all the big changes and improvements we started on two years ago, and back when our only approach to funding was an annual email!

-90% of our Supporting Members are frequent users of their site.

-25% of our Supporting Members joined within the past year.

It has taken us quite some time to get to 1000 Supporting Members, and with your continued support and God's goodness, we expect it will continue in the right direction, allowing us to continue improvements and dream new dreams.

To all 1000+ Super Friends, thank you.

Become a Supporting Member Today! 

Supporting Members can "reply" to this email in the newsletter section of our Supporting Member Lounge. We'd love to hear from you.

About our 1000th Member, "LynnY"  

Late in January 2014 we eagerly watched the Supporting Member counter creep towards 1000, and jumped for joy when LynnY signed on and became our 1000th Supporting Member. Lynn was surprised by the attention, but nevertheless, was happy to tell us her story.

Lynn Yost is the Christian educator at the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Valdosta Georgia (paumc.com) where they've being using the Workshop Rotation Model since 2006.  (Note: Many of our Supporting Members don't use the Rotation Model, but we were sure pleased that our 1000th SM did!)   Lynn has been a DCM for 12 years and is in the process of becoming ordained as a Deacon in the UMC.

A photo of the 2nd graders and their teachers at Park Ave UMC, showing off the quilt they made for a local women's shelter as part of their Good Sam Rotation.

WORMY: How did you find out about the Rotation Model? 
LYNN: A colleague of mine helped start it at her church in another city.  She convinced me to look into it and her group guided us as we set ours up.

WORMY: What attracted you to the Rotation Model? 
LYNN:  I love the concept of hands-on learning and directing teaching to the fact that everyone learns in a different way.  I also love that we are not firing off a new Bible lesson each week and we are giving the children several weeks to absorb and retain the Scripture.

WORMY: How has the Model been received by the church and kids? 
LYNN:  The church has been very supportive and the children love going to the different rooms.

WORMY:  What are your kids two favorite workshops? 
LYNN:  Pretty much the ones where they get to eat !!  ...MGM studios(popcorn) and Solid Rock Café, where they make food to reinforce the lesson.  They really enjoy all of the workshops though.

WORMY: What motivated you to become a Supporting Member? 

LYNN:  I wanted access to more lessons/ideas and I am happy to support a website that supports valuable ways of teaching children Scripture.

WORMY:  What Rotation.org features/content do you like most?
LYNN:   I like that everything I need is in one place, such as articles and lessons.  It is nice to be able to search for what I am specifically looking for and find it.

WORMY:  Thank you LynnY for letting us celebrate you and all our Supporting Members.

Supporting Members can post a message on Lynn's Profile Wall

The Difference Between "Joining" and Becoming a "Supporting Member"

Everyday on our homepage's "Activity Stream" you can see a list of people "joining" our site .

"Joining" means they are filling out our registration form and creating a log-in.  
"Joining" is free and gives them access to all public forums and posting privileges.

Supporting Members are people who have "joined" and then taken the next step in membership by donating $30 to the site.

Become a Supporting Member today.

Questions about Rotation.org? Need to Unsubscribe?
Do not reply to this email. Instead, post your questions in our Support Forum.

The following was emailed mid-May to all Supporting Members.

Rotation.org News

Does your Sunday School take the summer off?

Supporting Members are voting and discussing the question here.

The Rotation Tribe Has Spoken!

Here is the order of stories that our Writing Team will be working on:

1. Kingdom Parables: Mustard Seed, Leaven, Pearl, Treasure (68%)
2. Paul's Missionary Journey (58%)
3. Elijah and the Still Small Voice (34%)
4. Ezra and Nehemiah: Return from Exile, Rebuilding (25%)
5. Peter & Cornelius and the Vision of Clean/Unclean Foods (12%)

Thanks to everyone who voted. Thanks also to our many new Writing Team Members! Looks like a very talented and experienced group.

See a menu of all the Writing Team's Lesson Sets.

Share Your Workshop Photos

Email your favorite photos of your creative workshops to webmaster.rotation@gmail.com and we'll include them in our Photos Forum. 

You can also post them there yourself if you wish.

Classrooms, decor, hallways, signs.

Include details about your church and photo.

The "Science Workshop" in the Rotation Model

Excerpted from the article at our website.

We don't teach "science" in the Science Workshop. Rather, we use science-inspired demonstrations as "object lessons"  to illustrate points in our Bible study. 

The "Science" Workshop properly named would be the "Demonstration" Workshop, but it wouldn't sound as fun. 

Children's sermons are the more familiar venue of "object lessons." Object lessons are lessons with actual objects or props that when manipulated help teach/illustrate something. 

In children's sermons, the object is often simply used as a PROP, whereas, in the science workshop, the prop is CHANGED or is the agent of change.  Red water become clear, for example. Or a tough object becomes flexible after being treated or heated.

It is the CHANGE which creates the memorable "a-ha!" moment in the lesson.  The scientific principles behind the change, while perhaps interesting, are only quickly mentioned, if at all. BIG changes and surprises = fun + memorable. 

Science "Experiments" or Demonstrations are usually led by the teacher, with the children being able to get in the act at some point.

Good Science Workshop lesson plans will have more than one experiment or demonstration.

You don't have to have a Science Workshop to use science-inspired demonstrations in your teaching. Many science workshop lesson demonstrations can be used in any classroom.  The Rotation Model enshrines this type of teaching activity in its own workshop space so that it can become a regular part of our teaching. We also create science "labs" so we can do some of the MESSIER experiments!  In fact, it's not uncommon to see students in the Science Workshop getting into the role by wearing lab coats and goggles.

Read more

Spring into the Book of Acts and Pentecost at Rotation.org

Go to our Pentecost and Paul's Conversion forums.

Support the Work!   Become a Supporting Member.

Rotation.org is 100% volunteer funded. Join today!

NEWLY POSTED RESOURCES at ROTATION.ORG

• VIDEO Ideas - Peter's Vision link
• VIDEO CLIP - Baptism of Cornelius and his Family link
• PHOTO - Large Tilting Maze Game Board link
• WEBSITE UPDATES & IMPROVEMENTS link
• VIDEO REVIEW & NOTES - Paul's Conversion link
• SCIENCE/STORYTELLING IDEA - Parable of Talents (Gifts) link
• VIDEO IDEA - Fiery Furnace link 

Rotation.org News

A Few More Things Our Members Support!

In addition to paying for our web-hosting bills and for the professional curriculum writer working with our Writing Team, here are a few more things  our Supporting Members support!

- No blinking advertisements assaulting our eyes!  Membership donations keep our site ad-free. How refreshing is that!

- Daily Content Monitoring. Member donations help us keep our open forums free of spammers and their crud.

- In addition to having an editor perform regular "fluffing" and improvement of key content, lessons, and articles, our web-editor works daily to improve site navigation, forum organization, and help members.

- Because our Supporting Members pay the bills, we are able to keep the majority of our lessons and resources open to all. This is an extra special blessing to small churches.

Supporting Members: You are awesome.

Focus on The Cooking Workshop

What is the Cooking Workshop?

(Excerpts from the full article at rotation.org)

A Cooking Workshop is a lesson where the main learning activity is food related in the same way that an art workshop's main learning activity is an art project, or a video workshop's main medium is video.

When we say "cooking" we mean creating something edible by baking, stewing, freezing, sizzling, geling, cutting, mixing, layering, frying, drinking, assembling, toasting, arranging and, of course, EATING!   In the Rotation Model's Cooking Workshop, we don't just "make something to eat after the Bible study." Instead, we help students understand how ingredients can represent key concepts in the study, and how the process of preparing, cooking, and sharing them can help tell the story, remember the story, and explain the story.

Cooking touches our senses in a unique way.

The tastes and smells of food tap into our brain's amazing ability to turn smell and taste into memory and emotion. The smell of your Samaritan pie and tastes of the Fruits of the Spirit cake are deep anchors for your Bible study.

Cooking is extremely hands-on, as well. Rotation Modelers know that getting their students' hands into the dough or dicing carrots, and tasting herbs helps create a rich stew of memories about the lesson content and happy memories directly associated with the content and experience of learning God's Word.

Wherever and whenever possible, the students in the Cooking Workshop should be DOING. And where safety is an issue, such as, cutting up fruit, Rotation Modelers look for ways to make their hands-on activities SAFE for the kids to do, rather than doing it for them.

More Cooking Workshop Benefits:

♦ The act of cooking and tasting can create a unique sense of well-being, focus, and anticipation. Cooking and eating helps our student relax, listen, and learn.

♦ Following a recipe provides structure which kids readily buy into. The step-by-step pace is perfect for the volunteer who might be a little unsure of their energy level or their ability to maintain classroom discipline. Cooking's familiar techniques and tools put the volunteer at ease. And its outcome is usually delicious and appreciated by all.

♦ Cooking adapts well to different spaces. You can cook in small spaces, borrowed spaces, classrooms, or the church kitchen.

♦ All ages love to cook, and cooking lessons tend to easily adapt to a wide age range.

♦ The tasty results of the Cooking Workshop are easily shared outside the classroom where they can encourage discussion and are much better received than glitter-covered crafts and take-home flyers.

Read the full article at rotation.org

New Lessons and Resource Highlights

A few recent posts at Rotation.org

Rotation.org Pop Quiz!

See what U.S. States have the most

Registered Rotation.org Members.

The list may WILL surprise you!

No matter what State, Province, or Country you live in, thank you for being part of our community.

Rotation.org News

5 Great Reasons Why the Rotation Model is Superior to the Traditional Mode

1. Great Bible stories deserve more than one Sunday.

Traditional curriculum gives one Sunday to important stories. Rotation believes important stories deserve several weeks.

2. Great kids need to learn the story more than once and in different ways to really understand and remember it.

"One and done" is no way to really learn. Pencils, worksheets and construction paper every week is not great teaching.

3. Great lessons and activities deserve to be shared with more than one grade.  

Traditional curriculum publishers made us believe that 3rd and 5th graders need different activities, even different stories, when in reality, we just need great lessons and to make age-adjustments.

 4. Great teachers should be shared with more than one grade.

Why should just the ____ graders benefit from your best teacher? (And conversely, why should one grade be exposed to your new or least talented teacher every single week?)

 5. Even great lessons get better when you repeat, -and so do the teachers and children.  Repetition is the cornerstone of all learning. And allowing a teacher to repeating their lesson for another grade reduces their preparation time and improves their delivery.

 You may also enjoy reading the new article, "Rotation's Dirty Little Secrets."  (How the Rotation Model accepts and works around the limitations of our volunteers.)

New Lessons and Resource Highlights

A few recent posts at Rotation.org

Answer to our Rotation.org Pop Quiz!

Here are the TOP FIVE Rotation.org Member States:

TX, OH, PA, NC, MI

Read why most people got the answer wrong, and why Wisconsin may ACTUALLY be the #1 Rotation.org state. 

No matter what State, Province, or Country you live in, thank you for being part of our community.

Focus on "Video" Workshop in Rotation

Sunday Schools have been showing videos for decades, but in the Rotation Model most of us create a special movie theater-themed space, -complete with comfy seating, popcorn, big screen and big sound.

In Rotation we don't just show video in an impressive way, we intentionally teach with it as part of a lesson plan. It's not a break in the schedule, or occasional event, the Video Workshop is a much-looked-forward-to part of our regular "rotation" of workshops for each story.

Need ideas for designing your Video Workshop?

Need Video Lesson Planning ideas?

Here's our free manual!

Did you know that the original Rotation Model church also CREATED audio-visuals in their Video Workshop?  Many still do.  That's why we call it the "A-V/Video Workshop here at Rotation.org. The manual has a list of A-V ideas to make in your workshop.

The Manual also discusses:

All Our Lesson Forums are full of video suggestions. And we invite you to continue to add your video suggestions and teaching ideas.

Join Our "Lesson Holes Strike Team" Project

We're putting together a "Lesson Strike Team" to fill in some lesson holes on our site. The team will descend upon two Bible story forums a month to post some creative teaching ideas and resources. 

Join us by posting your "YES" in the Lesson Strike Team forum. 

It's a great way to get involved and share with thousands of other churches at Rotation.org. Your "yes" is for as much and as long as you want to help

Learn more here