Recommended Books

I’m too new at this to recommend many books, but I have to say that so far, Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov has been the most helpful for me. I don’t have any formal training as a teacher, and this book helped me understand why the techniques I’ve accidentally discovered while teaching before work, and it gave me practical tips that I can actually use. I don’t need philosophies, I need tools. And this book provides tools. It comes with a DVD so that you can see some of the techniques in use in a classroom. This is a book intended for public school teachers, and not every word is applicable to Seminary, but the vast majority of ideas will help you. I bought mine at Amazon, but you may find it cheaper at http://www.half.com/.

Friends’ suggestions

My friends who teach Seminary suggested the following books to me, and I am passing along those titles to you:

The Made Easier series

DeAnn recommends that The “Made Easier” series by David J Ridges. She says she uses these books alongside her manual and scriptures when reading the scripture block to help her understand passages better. There are several of these books out there:

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 1
The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 2
The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 3

The Old Testament Made Easier Part 1
The Old Testament Made Easier Part 2
The Old Testament Made Easier Part 3

The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 1
The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 2
The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 3

The New Testament Made Easier Part 1
The New Testament Made Easier Part 2

Isaiah Made Easier in the Bible and Book of Mormon

The Apostles

Brent suggested New Testament Apostles Testify of Christ: A Guide for Acts Through Revelation by Kelly Ogden and Andrew Skinner. At this writing, this book seems to be out of print, but it is available very inexpensively used.

Teaching

Stop Struggling, Start Teaching – This is my favorite of the LDS teaching books. It is the only book that really has a list of help for teachers trying to help disruptive students. I was surprised at the quality of the help.

Becoming a Great Gospel Teacher: Bringing the Gospel Classroom to Life was recommended by DeAnn and sounds like a book much like Teach Like a Champion in that it is full of practical gospel teaching advice in a Q&A format.

New Seminary Products

More Seminary Help

Scripture Mastery

START HERE: Be sure to check out our new scripture mastery games database, full of categorized scripture mastery game ideas. Other scripture mastery ideas I've collected lots of ideas for memorizing the scripture mastery scriptures for the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Old Testament and New Testaments here. Some are ideas shared by other...

Seminary Teaching Tips

Following are some teaching ideas from various teachers, especially as regards Seminary. The New Files Check out the new Teaching Techniques database! We've got ideas for lesson openers, getting everyone to participate, avoiding disruptions, asking better questions, and much more! The Old List This is the old list based off our old menu item of...

Structure of a Seminary Class

I've recently been called to teach Old Testament for Seminary next year. I'm pretty confident about how to teach a lesson, but since I've never actually been to a daily seminary class before, I have/had a lot of questions. After speaking with several other teachers (I hope you will talk to other teachers, too) I've...

A Century of Seminary

Janet Thomas, "A Century of Seminary," New Era, Jan. 2000, 26 In the early days of the Church, stakes in Utah actually operated their own schools. However, in the 20th century, the schools became public, and religious education seemed to be pushed aside. Seeing the need to teach young people about the scriptures, the stake...

Quotes for Seminary Teachers and Leaders

Below are some inspirational and uplifting quotes for LDS Seminary. Seminary is fun "But seminary is not all study. There are some fun and games." -- Elder Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, May 1990, p. 38 Blessings for Seminary Teachers "I pray that he will bless you in your homes and in your families, that as...