On August 16, Diocesan Sunday School teachers and superintendents gathered via ‘Zoom’ for the 2025 Christian Education Council (CEC) Workshop. Participants represented parishes from throughout the Diocese. The workshop was opened by the CEC Spiritual Advisor, Rev. Fr. Mashdots Keshishian. After welcoming all, Zaroohi Der Mugrdechian, the CEC Coordinator, invited Archbshop Hovnan Derderian to share his thoughts about the Sunday School Program.
Participants were informed hat this year is Year C in a three year curriculum cycle. The Younger students will be learning about the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Older students will be learning about Armenian Christian Identity, Morality and Apologetics this school year. Compiled by Hayk Madoyan, under the leadership of Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, a comprehensive and integrated curriculum has been created. Student and teacher materials are sent to each teacher prior to the Sunday the lesson is taught. The lessons are also found under the ‘Educate’ tab of the CEC website, cecwd.org. Lessons include resources for Feast Days, Saints Days, as well as online videos, etc. to augment the theme of the day. A suggested start date for this year is September 14th.
The first presenter was Jeanette Tabor a retired special Education Teacher from Big Bear. She shared the experiences she had had success with as a teacher in the classroom to be inclusive with all students. She divided her Powerpoint presentation into three areas. As a teacher gets a new student into the classroom, he/she needs to communicate with parents to see if there are special needs of the child. This should be done in a private setting or on the registration form for Sunday School. An atypical child should be integrated into the classroom to the best of his/her ability. Gaining insights from parents assists the teacher to accomplish this.
Understanding behavior of a child is extremely important to integrate them into the classroom setting. Collaboration with the parents in exchanging strategies that are successful at home to have the child stay on track need to be shared. Mrs. Tabor shared the characteristics of a child who might be having difficulty attending in the classroom.
A teacher can be prepared by creating an ‘activities box’ which a child could be invited to go to, if they need some time to themselves, during the lesson. This box would be filled with quiet activities that could be used as the rest of the class is listening to the lesson. There could be a quiet corner with a box of books that a child could go look at for a time, until they are ready to rejoin the classroom. She gave a number of strategies to help the teacher give alternative ways for a struggling student to integrate into the classroom.
Next, Sevag Derderian of the Institute of Armenian Sacred Music was introduced. The participants were very interested to learn of the new resources that had been developed.
Sevag shared the wonderful audio resources available on sacred-music.org which will assist teachers to teach the Sharagans of the Badarak to our students. Each Sharagan has been thoughtfully recorded for young learners to become familiar with the sacred music.
He also announced that on Saturday mornings, starting September 13th at 9:00a.m., via ‘Zoom’, an innovative program to teach the Sharagans, music theory and more. The program is free to students. Check out their website sacred-music.org.
A visual tour of the updated cecwd.org website was given. There are resources of the First and Second Edition of the ‘We Believe’ curriculum, information and activities on many topics that have to do with our Faith, Services and Sacraments, a section for leaders of a Sunday School, plus many other topics which can be used by all Sunday School teachers.
A breakout session divided the participants into two groups to brainstorm about ‘Best practices for teaching multiage classes’. Discussion and ideas flowed as participants collaborated to share ideas on how to handle this common occurrence.
Archbishop Hovnan who was present during the Workshop closed the meeting with his thoughts of the urgency and importance of this church ministry. His closing prayer reflected his strong conviction that the Sunday School is necessary in all parishes and as he prayed for all the teachers and students to have an inspiring year together In the classroom.
The CEC and all Sunday Schools thank the Ladies Societies of the Diocese who help underwrite the costs of running our Sunday Schools. That is truly appreciated and they become stakeholders in making strong and ongoing Sunday Schools. The presence of Vahe Sargsyan was highly appreciated as he shepherded the Workshop through with his expertise of ‘Zoom’.
