UU religious education has never been my strong point, but I’ve worked hard to expand on my growing edges in this field. Also, I spent six years in secular education, and seek to translate those skills into moral and religious curricula that is encouraging of multiple modalities of learning and rewarding kids for solving real world problems with creative and peaceful solutions. I believe strongly in project-based-learning, and I know that by doing and experiencing for themselves, our kids learn best. I think that we learn best when we have committed and enthusiastic teachers and we’re free to fail in a safe environment, to find what interests you about our faith and what we can share together in it. We learn from our mistakes and can courageously and curiously explore our limits to find how much our spirits can grow in that wake. Regardless of age, I’m committed to developing spiritual maturity and comfort with a wide swath of theological language in a congregation, embracing diversity and pluralism to become a more rainbow congregation in every sense.
I’m exploring Renaissance models that help me hone by whole-child view of education theory and I hope to do a little curriculum work on applying some of the Build Your Own Theology to work with high schoolers and Young Adults. I’m partial to teaching an Adult Education class on the Historical Jesus, and I enjoy teaching young kids the words to “Spirit of Life” while I strum on the guitar. I’m working to expand my repertoire to include other musical elements.
Rev. McKinley L. Sims, M.Div. 