The First Day School’s Corner of the World: August 2021

By Charlotta Koppanyi

A short RE article from “Sommar Sverige” Summer Sweden) for this month!

The above two photos are from Sigtuna Foundation’s garden and from their outdoor church, worship space. At Sigtuna Folkskola (Folk high school, an independent adult education college), located just next to Sigtuna Foundation, where we are working with art and spirituality, I was fortunate to have been asked to be an assisting teacher for two groups, each group one week.

Norma, Camille and Raphael are leading our summer RE program while I am traveling, and Camille is sending me updates. Last Sunday, they read “Seven Blind Mice” and talked about seeing the bigger picture. While our own perspective is important, and a part of the bigger picture, it is just that, our perspective. When we listen and share everyone’s perspective, we can get a bigger picture and sometimes even the whole picture. As always, art followed and so did snacks, and watering of our garden.

As we moving into August, and I will soon start to prepare for our 2021-2022 RE program, we are looking for teachers!

Nursery: We need someone to be available to help out in Nursery as needed.

Primary: Story Tellers and Door Keepers are needed – and yes, we do provide a short training. We have a set scheduled for our Stories, and the story baskets are complete with items/objects and text (both hard copies and electronic). Teacher teams can work either every other week or continuing weeks for a set time period. We will work with you and your availability!

Intermediate: We will be studying World Religions for the 2021-2022 year. Most likely I will be the lead teacher, unless we are starting a Middle School class as we are looking for a co-teacher. You can also be a guest teacher, attending one or more classes, talking about a specific religion or religious practice, or the Quakerism perspective to different religions. Materials will be provided. Art is a part of our classroom learning and teaching.

Middle School: If we start a Middle School group, we will need a team there. The theme for 2021-2022 is World Religions and the setup is the same as in Intermediate Class.