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.

Restless Spirit

I am a runner. I can say that now that I have run in a number of races and completed two half marathons. Notice I didn’t use an adjective to describe what kind of runner I am. I didn’t say good or fast, but rather just said I am a runner. I have a nice …

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The End of An Era or Not?

For one of my German lessons today, we read an article about Steve Jobs’ resignation. Jobs said: Es ist nicht die Aufgabe der Verbraucher, zu wissen, was sie wollen. (It’s not the responsibility of consumers to know was they want) when asked why he didn’t do market research about what consumers would buy. It’s radical, …

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Creature Comforts

When I was young, I had a blanket that I took everywhere with me. I use the term blanket loosely. In reality, it was a full length silk nightgown. I called it my night night because I had to have to go night night. Pretty clever, right? My night night and I were inseparable. I …

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Ask Why

Arne Duncan in today’s Town Hall Twitter Meeting said: When you have a school with that big of a gain, then you either have a shining star that should be replicated or you have to deal with the tough reality that something bad is going on. He was referring to schools that have been caught cheating on …

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I am changed.

Dear Merianna, The call changes everything. The called leave one classroom to enter another. . . The called leave home. This is the beginning of the email to notify me that I was accepted to Divinity School. One of my friends recently said to me, “I admire you so much for taking the risk and …

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Dear Teachers

Although I’m a big believer in personally designing my curriculum each year, there is one lesson that I have always and will always teacher whether I am teaching 5th graders in America or 12th graders in Germany. John Mayer wrote “Waiting on the World to Change.” The first two verses and the chorus are: “Waiting …

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Digitally Literate Teachers

So often, we talk about our technology expectations for students and we talk about what kind of digital literacy we want to foster in students, but are we as teachers and administrators holding ourselves to the same expectations? The leadership in the school should be modeling the use of technology and helping to build community …

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Church Hopping

I am a church hopper. I almost never at the same church on Sunday morning. I want to see and get a glimpse of the different communities that are a part of Greenville. I also am extremely interesteed to visit a church when I know people who go there. I like to experience what they …

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