What We’ll Keep

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Reflections from the MLC Faculty & Staff

Gathered by Laurie Gauger-Hested

We’ve all learned a lot during this strange time: new ways of teaching and connecting and being. These lessons learned are certainly not worth the pain and loss of life this virus has wrought. Still, we don’t want them to go to waste.

I asked the MLC faculty and staff what new corona-inspired habits they’d like to keep when (or if) things get back to normal. Here are some of their thoughts on teaching. Yes, they’re college profs, but many of these ideas apply at every level of education.

  • I would like to use video chats with students to answer questions they have about assignments. When we can both see the same document on our screens and talk through it, it could be even more beneficial than typing comments on the side of their document. Jonathan Roux
  • I’d like to have my organ students occasionally record themselves and watch it to see what they can improve and also to appreciate what they are doing right. I think it’s a great tool for self-assessment. They could also share the recordings with family who don’t get the opportunity to hear them play. Kate Carlovsky
  • These emergency procedures have forced me to examine what’s vital in each of my courses and trim what’s less vital. That’s always a good exercise. Dan Fenske
  • The materials I’m creating will help me “flip” more and more of my communication class. Delivering content outside of class time will open up wonderful spaces to be all the more unscripted and interactive when we’re together. Mark Paustian
  • I’d like to keep using video meetings like Google Meet when I can. Dave Biedenbender
  • Distance learning does force a teacher to do a better job of clarifying expectations for students. John Boeder
  • Posting notes and explanation videos ahead of class time. Intentionalized check-ins about workloads and emotional stability. James Carlovsky
  • Distance teaching has manifested my belief about the student-centered approach, where learning happens teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher, and technology to people. For example, Introduction to Minority Cultures deals with a variety of controversial topics related to the dominant and minority groups. Moodle Forum demands that I craft questions that challenge students’ critical thinking without imposing my personal stance and allows all students to voice their in-depth opinions without feeling judged. Tingting Zhang Schwartz
  • I’ve created over a dozen alternative projects for my communication students to choose from according to the varied challenges they’re facing: write a short story, produce a documentary of your life right now, collaborate on a skit, support the people around you and tell me how and why you did it the way you did, etc. They are tapping into their wonderful creativity and then drawing the lines from their projects to the terms and concepts of communication theory. Mark Paustian
  • The “Big Brother” aspect of Moodle is powerful—being able to know who’s actually accessing the material and when they’re accessing it. This would be nice to know even for non-Moodle coursework, of course. At the same time, I would not trade the dynamic of face-to-face contact. Paul Koelpin
  • I’d like to keep the even greater appreciation I now have for the privilege of working with the wonderful students that God sends to be a part of his workforce in sharing the gospel with future generations. Steve Thiesfeldt
  • I hope that our graduates and students see clearly now more than ever that good teachers are essential! They can be proud of the path they are on! Bethel Boeder
  • I think I’ll want to maintain a newfound level of patience and understanding as it relates to students’ and co-workers’ individual circumstances. Pandemic or no, quarantine or no, stay-in-place or no, there are always extenuating circumstances in their lives that affect the big picture. I need to heighten my awareness of, listen to, and work with these circumstances as a professor, as a colleague, and as a vice president. Jeff Wiechman

Some faculty and staff members also shared the small but significant transformations they’ve made in their daily lives, the new habits they’re adopting as God’s children on God’s planet:

  • Just taking one day at a time, because I’m really not the one in charge. . . . “Give us this day our daily bread.” Wendy Ristow
  • I’ve been spending more time outside with my family. I would like that to continue. John Meyer
  • I have spent more time in devotion with my spouse. I would love to keep that up. Diane Tracy
  • I hope to continue to reach out daily to a different friend or family member to reconnect and offer scriptural words of encouragement. Lisa Fenske
  • Our family wonders why, with everyone in so many different parts of the country, we didn’t do more virtual gatherings as we do now. So we definitely will keep meeting regularly as a family through videoconferencing. Scott Schmudlach
  • This maybe sounds silly, but meal planning! Beth Scharf
  • I’ve rediscovered the Lutheran Chapel Service (now available online on demand) and plan to use it for a weekly morning meditation. Steve Balza
  • I’d like to keep a renewed passion for personal Bible reading and prayer, as well as a sense of urgency for sharing the gospel with my unchurched neighbors. Elizabeth Wessel
  • I’d like to continue to play and sing hymns as a family. Leah Matzke
  • I love how we don’t have to limit church to Sunday. If I wake up on a Tuesday morning and want a worship service, all I have to do is click, and the Word is filling this place. While I can’t wait to come to church again soon, I will continue to access these formal worship opportunities more often. Kelli Green
  • I’m always going to sing the ABCs while I wash my hands. Although I might use the Greek alphabet. Joel Thomford

What about you? If crisis is the cradle of change, what changes have you made? And when the world goes back to normal—or some kind of new normal—what corona-inspired habits would you like to keep?

Laurie Gauger-Hested (DMLC ’86) currently serves at Martin Luther College as a writer/editor.

2 thoughts on “What We’ll Keep”

  1. Thank you for your reminder and encouragement, Kenn—and for your writing ministry devoted to developing excellent gospel-saturated materials for families.

    You mentioned, “We are in one of those extraordinary moments.” You’re right! The pandemic is certainly a crisis that’s taking us out of the ordinary and giving us pause—actual and metaphorical.

    This blog post about COVID-19 was written and scheduled several weeks ago—long before the other crisis occupying our thoughts and prayers. The murder of George Floyd and the aftermath of that horrific event has thrust us into another “extraordinary moment” requiring reflection and response. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m asking our heavenly Father to help me learn what I need to learn, confess what I need to confess, and do the good I should have been doing all along.

    As you expressed so clearly, families need to be in the Word. We need to equip parents to lead their households in walking and talking with Jesus on a daily basis about all these extraordinary moments—and the ordinary ones as well. Please keep encouraging us to do so.

  2. So, I just read through the list. The comments were valuable, even profound. Thanks to Laurie for bringing these good thoughts forward in her article.

    One comment, in particular, resonated with me. I’ll quote it here: “I have spent more time in devotion with my spouse. I would love to keep that up” (Diane Tracy). Diane’s comment reminded me that parents have also been dragged through a knothole experience. Many households are struggling in the midst of a crisis that, in one way or another, involved members of their own families. The support our churches have provided in terms of spiritual messaging, videocast encouragements, and pre-printed online materials have been a big help to parents who want to use them. But there are many WELS families that will go another week or two or six without having the benefit of a father or mother gathering family members together each day with a Bible in hand and a prayer on their lips. Some are lacking leadership tools. Many have chosen to outsource their spiritual influence, leaving faith-training to the professionals. Many no longer have the confidence to engage in any kind of faith talk. Not a small number struggle to avoid offending an unbelieving spouse. Some are new to the faith. (See Romans 15:14).) There are other reasons; none of them legitimate. None of these families will be able to relate to the joy that Diane expressed in her comment. Nor will they experience the blessings that a daily, active, family faith-life would garner. Worse, as a church body, we continue to struggle to even discuss these issues in the light of day. Its embedded in our DNA and our synod’s history. We seem to have tacitly accepted this flaw, deciding to ignore it and move on.

    This pandemic experience is not only an opportunity for God’s people to serve others with good materials, it is also an opportunity for our church’s leaders to learn. Teachable-moments theory also applies to us. We are living in one of those extraordinary moments. This is a time to do some serious soul-searching regarding our ministry approach to training and equipping parents with the appropriate tools, attitudes, and Bible know-how to carry out their God-given role in their own homes. Yes, let’s be thankful for those households that have rediscovered their need for daily contact with God through his Word and in prayer. At the same time, let’s seize the moment and open a conversation to consider a new ministry posture designed to encourage, train, support, and equip parents. As a church body, let’s rediscover the profound wonder of what can happen when families learn to walk and talk daily with their Savior.

    Thank you, Diane.

Please, share YOUR thoughts!