Confirmation With St. Michael

The following is an introduction of the 2000-2001 confirmation program at the McVille Lutheran Parish of McVille N.D.

Tami Trostad    	Pastor Michael D. Fiske 3224926 or 4952 	Warren Ophaug

Confirmation on the INTERNET.

•	Class October - April, Wednesday 4:15- 5:45 p.m., 8th & 9th grade.
•	October & April students rode the school bus to church where they experienced a good old fashion lecture in the sanctuary. They had a golf tournament in the fall. In the spring, they had memorization practice to recite the Apostles' Creed and its meaning from Luther's Small Catechism for Confirmation Sunday.
•	November - March confirmation class was held at Dakota Prairie Grade School Computer Lab. Every other Wednesday they viewed a video on the Animated Stories Of The Bible or about Luther and our Lutheran heritage On the other Wednesdays they each had a computer and worked off of our Confirmation Web site:
http://www.geocities.com/pastorfiske/
•	The following links from this web sight provide students a variety of opportunities to grow in the knowledge of the wisdom of God to serve the Lord, because of the Internet.

ELCA
Provides students with current events and timely information about such topics as provided by the Lutheran Magazine, information about LYO, WELCA, LMM, and many other subjects of interest as can benefit a person because of our Lutheran heritage.

Bible Tutor
An introduction of the Bible as directed by Professor Craig Koster of Luther Seminary of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Encyclopedia
A link for good information about our Christian history.

Pastor Martin Luther
A link provided by Washington State University titled "World Civilization"

Luther's Writings
Documents by or greatly influenced because of Martin Luther.

Scripture
A link provided by the American Bible Society that enables students to do word studies in the Bible.

Jesus
A link provided by "Front Line" of Public Television about the life of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul
Another link provided by Craig Koster about the travels of the Apostle Paul.
 
Challenges
•	It is new, and some adults seem to have a difficult time trusting or understanding the use of computers in class.
•	A teacher did not have any previous standards from which they could get ideas to use in their own curriculum.

Benefits
•	Students enjoyed their class time and were quite eager to explore their web sights.
•	They were able to gain a greater appreciation for their baptism into Christ
•	Write reports in class with the use of a word processor and decorate their reports with color, and correct their work with spell check.
•	A notebook was kept containing 3 1/2 disks, for each student to keep a file of their work.
•	Wrote reports on the Apostle Paul and other current events.
•	Assignments on the Bible with the "Bible Tutor".
•	Above all, they were able to build a better relationship with their pastor, the other teachers and the CHURCH.

Note: "Confirmation With St. Michael" and the use of computers at the school computer lab is not designed to replace the good teaching venues of the past. Rather. it is meant to add a new and contemporary way to help teach students about baptism to serve the Lord. 

Thus, the use of computers is added to the student's work sheets, memorization, sermon notes, lectures, field trips and relationship building.