Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Resource Roundup

Resource Roundup: 5 Resources for Holy Week

As we enter Holy Week, we wanted to share some resources for the days leading up to Easter. We especially tried to choose resources that may help you enter into worship and reflection in a moment when most of us cannot gather together in person as usual. Our hope is that these resources, including visual art, a dance performance, and poetry, will help you find a deeper experience of Christ’s death and resurrection this year. 

Wednesday: An online art exhibition with commentary written for this day of Holy Week, from The Visual Commentary on Scripture (scroll down to Wednesday if you are reading it later in the week but still want to see this reflection)

Thursday: Maundy Thursday Part 2, Lament, dance for this day from Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet (scroll down page until you reach it)

Good Friday: Sonnets by Malcolm Guite

Holy Saturday: Making the Second City Church Lenten Cross by Ted Prescott

Easter Sunday: An Easter poem by David Parry

Image credit: Bartolo, Andrea di, -1428. Resurrection of Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55333 [retrieved April 8, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_di_Bartolo_-_The_Resurrection_-_Walters_37741.jpg.

Resource Roundup: 5 Posts to Help Cope with Disruption Right Now

monastery photo
Image Credit: “Stone” by Mihai Lucîț is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0). Photo by Revoltatul

Whether the topic is working from home with kids, figuring out how to do science right now, or staying in touch with communities, we thought readers could use some posts highlighting strategies individual academics and institutions are using to manage challenges right now. Today, we share a prayer from ESN Associate Director Hannah Eagleson, 5 external resources we found helpful, and a bonus video with a little humor.

Prayer: Oh Lord, You know how disrupted we are at this moment. Things feel chaotic and unpredictable. We are torn in many directions by our responsibilities to our work, our students and colleagues, and our friends and families. They are all important, and sometimes it feels as though we cannot give any of them the energy and attention we long to offer. Lord, in all this, remind us that our greatest responsibility is to You, and that You care for us. Let us bring our burdens to You and place them in Your hands. Let us strive faithfully to honor You, but let us remember also that You told us to come to You, for You will give us rest. Let us offer our whole selves to You, even our weariness and the troubles we carry. And let us see that You are working through this temporary affliction an eternal weight of glory. Though we may not fully understand that, we trust that even in great trials You will be with us, transforming our struggles into something better than we can now imagine. In Jesus’ Name, amen. 

1. Faculty Home Work

It’s challenging to adjust to working from home, especially if one is caring for children or other family members. We thought readers would be encouraged to hear some commiseration from others and some news of how institutions are working to support faculty right now.

2. How Institutions Are Approaching Scientific Research During COVID-19

This one shares some helpful approaches different institutions and scientists are trying, as well as some parameters as to what’s wise and possible.

3. Graduate School Prepared Me to Self-Quarantine

Good news! The challenges of writing a dissertation equipped this academic with a toolbox for this challenging moment. She shares some tips that may help you too.

4. A 2-Minute Video of Faculty Sharing Advice for this moment

It’s short, it’s encouraging, and it ends with Dr. Seuss. What else can we say?

5. Staying Connected in Grad School

A digital humanist shares some fun ways to stay in touch with friends and family.

Bonus: “I Will Survive” for grad students and professors moving their classes online. You’ve probably seen this already, but sometimes a good laugh helps a lot. This article has the video and some background info.

Resource Roundup: Teaching Online During a Crisis

 

home office photoImage Credit: “Photo: Office, Notes, Notepad, Entrepreneur” by Pixabay user Firmbee (William Iven) is licensed under the Simplified Pixabay License.

As coronavirus concerns grow and many universities are experiencing deep disruption of their usual routines, we recognize that this is a difficult time for everyone, and we want to support you. We’ll be sharing ideas and resources at the blog and on Facebook, and we’ll have a special webinar on Responding to COVID-19 Monday March 16 at 8pm ET. Contact bob.trube@intervarsity.org for a weblink. We’ll try to include resources that remind you of God’s love and power even in frightening moments, and resources that help you practically in this disrupted semester. In that spirit, ESN Associate Director Hannah Eagleson shares a prayer she wrote for this moment, and a roundup of some resources for those working to adapt in person classes to online ones. They’re arranged roughly in order of more general overviews to more specific explorations of a particular issue like building community, so you can start at the top if you’re looking for an intro to the topic of teaching online on short notice, or scroll down for more specific suggestions. 

Prayer

Oh Lord, In this time of trouble we look back to Your faithfulness to the church in all times and places, and we look forward to the day when all will be well in the fullness of Your Kingdom. In the here and now, we live in Your Kingdom already, and still we experience the “not yet” of waiting for all to be made whole in the new heavens and new earth. In this moment of danger and hardship around the world, let us faithfully love our neighbors, be wise in our management of risks to ourselves and others, and be unstintingly generous no matter the cost. Let this moment be the occasion to worship You wholeheartedly, to love You more deeply with all of ourselves. We ask this of You, the Trinity: Christ, who became vulnerable precisely in order to give everything to and for us; the Holy Spirit, who is ever with us and pleads for us with groanings beyond what we can utter; and the Father, whose love is over all His works. Grant in this moment that we may love our neighbors with wisdom, endurance, joy, and complete commitment to You and to the people You have made in Your image. Thank You, oh Lord. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Some external resources we found helpful:

A helpful quick guide to making a rapid transition to online teaching, with useful links and ideas. 
In case you’re feeling overwhelmed, this post has ideas for making the transition to online learning as smoothly as possible, and a few thoughts on the contexts students may face in a crisis and how to adapt your strategies.
This one has some great specifics on figuring out what’s essential, communicating with students, and setting up your own space for online teaching. 
Looking for ways to build a sense of community in those online classes? Meryl Herr, part of our ESN community, generously shared this helpful 16-minute presentation, with some great communal learning strategies, suggestions on supporting students emotionally, and even some clever ideas for using memes. 
Offers some thoughts about how teaching online requires different methods than teaching in person, and one very doable strategy to help teachers create community.