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Priscilla Hull and third-grade bloggers

It's Always Better When We're Together

Check out the blog for St. Paul third-graders>>

Crank up your speakers. And log on to a community with a heart for third-graders.

Welcome to 3rd Grade Divers, the blog of Priscilla Hull’s Sunday morning class. This web-based journal (web-log or blog) is a contemporary tool for communicating the faith in the vernacular and images that appeal to kids.

On the blog, you may hear a song that declares that “it’s always better when we’re together… mmmm …we’re somewhere in between together.” A slideshow is populated with images of eight-year-olds proudly clutching their new Bibles. Catch the “question of the week” on the screen, then thumb through the Book of Genesis to discover the names of Jacob’s sons.

And best of all, you’ll witness a teacher’s love for kids and for sharing the faith. Last week, Priscilla Hull wrote to young learners who are trying to navigate their Bibles: “You did such a great job, helping each other and being patient learning a new skill. Soon you will be whizzes at finding verses, stories, and favorite passages in God’s Word.”

Kristy Fuller, the mother of third-grader Ben, effuses: “If you get Ben Fuller excited about Sunday learning, you have really done something! He’s connecting with his teacher during the week. He’ll say, ‘Mom, let’s check our blog spot.’”

On a Saturday night, Ben logs on and types: “Mrs. Hull, I went to a pumpkin patch on Friday night. There was a corn maze. We had s’mores. It was fun! I will see you tomorrow. Ben F”

Says Priscilla, a school teacher by education and experience, “The blog is part of the whole welcoming feeling that is part of St. Paul. For third-graders, this is a year of practicing their skills, dealing with adults and their peers. They like fun, and the fact that an adult is interested in them.” When kids discover the liveliness of their very own blog, they just may think, “Gee, my teacher wants me in her classroom. I like being there.”

Armed with her Mac laptop, Priscilla mastered the creation of the blog. A learner at heart, this new skill was “a way for me to grow,” she says. “I hoped that I could build it and they would come.”

In the classroom, connected to the church’s wireless network, Priscilla cradles the laptop to show kids how the blog works. The Bible. Online access to their teacher and friends. A little community where they belong with someone who cares enough to record their experience. It’s all new and technologically cool to these kids.

The church offers special milestones in learning for kids, notes Priscilla. “I was surprised to see how excited they were to get their Bibles (a gift from the congregation). I want to get them into some of the great Bible stories that they can carry through life. We’ll learn the Old Testament stories of how people made mistakes and grew, how they still had a relationship with God.”

When Priscilla first walked through the door at St. Paul, she found an “active, living, growing place where people are welcoming and joyful in their service. I think the Holy Spirit is here. Where else does your heart connect like that?”

A sermon, a song, a conversation — Priscilla says she seems to always be “challenged in worship to go out and do something, to find a place to use what I’ve been given.” St. Paul life seems to ignite her natural inclination to reflect on new ideas, to grow deeper.

Priscilla is passing that zest for learning on to St. Paul kids. How lucky are we as a congregation, to be blessed by committed and faithful people sharing their lives with our kids?

Imagine Grace Budde at the family computer. On the blog, Louis Armstrong is crooning What a Wonderful World. Oh, and there’s a photo of Grace, studying a worksheet about the books of the Bible. From home, she taps out a note to her teacher:

“I love being in your class. I am having lots of fun so far. I hope that you are having fun too. I like that you know my parents. Have you met my brother? Do you want to meet my brother? I loved getting my Bible.”

Priscilla Hull taps a note in return. She’s having great fun.

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"The first duty of love is to listen." ~Paul Tillich