Seminary

[Anonymous UserParticipant]

Hi, this is my first year teaching seminary, and boy have I learned a lot. I wish I could say that my students have. I have tried everything to be interactive and not give boring lessons, but at 0600 am it's hard to get them awake and motivated.

any suggestions ???

[Jenny SmithParticipant]

Are the students tired?  You might need to give them a chance to move around a little.  We stand to sing, and then move after the prayer from one area of the room to where I set up the tables.  That movement helps get the blood pumping, and I think it has really helped in our class.

I love to study the gospel, and it's very easy for me to get caught up in the awesomeness of the scriptures and get very excited.  It takes a lot of effort for me to adjust my study for preparing lessons instead of studying to learn new things myself.  I try to focus on coming up with ideas that will help me get the students to discover the most important parts of a lesson themselves, instead of me telling them what is cool.  If you're a regular here, you know that I've posted a lot of my ideas and ideas I've collected from other teachers in the Teaching Tips section.  I use ideas from the list several times a week to help students interact with the material more.

I will think some more and see if I  can come up with some more ideas….

[Anonymous UserParticipant]

try and change things up…

what do I mean?  Well, set the class room up differently – semi-circle one day – 2 rows of chairs the next – sometimes I do it with a purpose (maybe I'm dividing them into different groups) other days I do it just for the heck of it. That way they are never sure. But it makes them curious and hopefully that makes them a little more awake.

I bought cheap (from Dollar Tree) small dry erase boards. I use these quite a bit. If I ask a question and one person answers – that allows everyone else off the hook. By giving them all a board – I might ask the same question – then ask them to write on their board and then show me. This allows kids that are quieter to express themselves – plus it allows all to participate. I use them in scripture mastery – in stead of shouting out the answer – they must write it down – this allows everyone to think – I don't worry if they end up looking off their neighbor – at least they are writing it down and hopefully that helps them to learn a little better.

Instead of just sitting and reading – ask them to stand when it's their turn. I have a bean bag – if they answer a question – they get the beanbag and they get to toss it to someone else – that person then gets the next question or the next scripture to read – after they've read or answered the next question they toss it again – that person is next up… I've used hangman… I've put an object in a bag and handed it around the room and have them feel the bag and tried to have them figure out what the object was… I've even brought cereal and milk – and let them pour themselves a bowl of cereal and eat while I taught – they all stayed awake that day – and were in a good mood. (of course I only have about 12-15 students so I can do that occasionally)

short video clips – I love all the video's on "mormon youtube" (I even downloaded the clip of Linus reading Luke chapter 2 from the Peanuts Christmas special- they loved it)

basically – I use a lot of stuff from my days teaching music in primary. It's hard early in the morning. I just keep praising them for their efforts and know that if they happen to fall asleep occasionally – it might be because I'm not that interesting or it may be because they are truly exhausted. There are days when I leave and feel good about my lesson and there are days I leave and feel like things didn't go like I had hoped. If they get nothing from my lesson I know they will be blessed for being obedient and sometimes that's good enough.

Good luck!!!!!

 

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