Division's program benefits parents

Sfory by Tammy Putnam

I lemember the stories you loved as a child?Classics such as "The Three Bears," "Sleeping Beauty," and "The Three Little Pigs" were favorites of many. Though these popular stories are still in circulation today, they are in company with a much larger selection ofchildren's literature Many parents now find choosing reading material for their childrendifficult

This year, LBC's division of education continued a program begun several years ago to help parents toward a solution.It is not a program in the sense of a three-step plan,but anactual television program pro- duced on-campus for local viewing.

"Miracle Mountain House" was taped six times this year It involved education students inthe various children'sliterature courses;they presented books togroupsof local children using a variety ofways, including puppets, characterization,flannelgraph and chalktalks Following thepresentation, thechildren participated in an activity which related to the book so it would notbeeasily forgotten.

Students who presented books onthe program were volunteers who had theprevious semester presented the book totheir college classmates or theclass in which they were student teaching. This year, Jo Ann Woods, a senior from Standardsville, Va., presented a book which she had written about her dog— a dachshund with a plastic backbone putinby a veterinarian several years ago She brought the dog for the children tosee andalso clay for them to fashion their own dog from

The purpose of "Miracle Mountain House" is to "effectively communicate Biblical principles," according to Carolyn Diemer, originator of the program "The Bible isrelated to all life; andeven though we aren't presenting Bible stories,aBiblical principle is always at work."

Inaddition to communicating principles to the community, the program gave education studentsan opportunity toshow the skills they had learned in preparation for their future years as educators "Miracle Mountain House" also provided TVRF students with experience in directing and in camera work which will be beneficial for future resumes

The goal for the future is "to get programs edited more closely," said Diemer New equipment was purchased this year which should bring about the accomplishment of this goal and thereby bring the program up to a more professional level "We want toget the programs into such a shape thatparentsand other schoolscould purchase tapes," Diemer said "Possibly even other stations may want to use them."

With such high hopes,there isno limit tothe possibilitieslyingahead for"Miracle Mountain House." Someday parents

Education

across the nation might be watching LBC's program daily todetermine what their children should read staff photo/Woody Tripp

Area schools and teachers who worked with LBC's studentteachers throughout the year were invited to theFair. Thefair gave thecollege students an oppor tunitytoshow thecommunity and their peersthe quality ofwork they were doingandenabled teachers togain ideastousein their own classrooms.