Merianna Harrelson

I am the Pastor of Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, SC and the Director of Consulting at Harrelson.Co. I am always looking for a good cup of coffee and a great book.

Preaching Prep Week

I’m winding down my semester and am faced with the daunting task of preaching as a requirement for my Intro to Preaching class in a week. “It’s just like teaching. You’ll be fine,” are the responses that I’ve gotten from most people. But it’s not like teaching. My personal faith and my personal beliefs about …

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Depth vs. Breadth

The continuing question for teachers is do you cover more less deeply or cover less more deeply? It’s a hard question to answer especially within the context of the high-stakes testing emphasis. Will Richardson is trying to challenge his own thinking in his post What Do We Absolutely Need to “Teach”: [W]e could probably do …

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Thanks for listening

But these stories don’t mean anything without someone to tell them to I think Brandi Carlile has it right. The stories of our lives: what we’ve experienced; what we’ve seen don’t mean anything without someone to listen. So here’s to you! Thanks for listening to my stories and my ramblings.

Backwards Thinking = Backtracking

“The challenge we face is nothing less than transforming our schools from assembly-line factories into centres of innovation,” said the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who warns that the US school system is falling behind international rivals. Education is a mirror into where our society is going. As of now, our public schools are saying that …

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Teacher Contractors

In the corporate world, it is not uncommon when offered a new position to be offered a signing bonus (around $10,000), full paid moving expenses and even a place to live. Are there any teachers who have been offered any of these “perks?” I think that teachers will soon become teacher contractors. Schools, especially independent …

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