When you are preparing to paint
a room in a home, there are a few steps that are well-advised
to ensure success. First, you need to prepare the surface
that you will be treating. Second, you need to have the right
equipment. Then you paint. Then you clean
your equipment in preparation for the next project.
An excellent seminary teacher does
much of the same, only in spiritual ways some of which are listed
here. For after all, we're not about painting homes; we're about
helping our students to determine to create and "paint"
personal lives of eternal masterpieces.
1. Prepare the Surface for "Painting."
As you wind down from teaching
the Doctrine & Covenants in seminary this year, soon enough
you will be winding back up to teach the Old Testament to a
new batch of kids. Here are a few things to consider as you
prepare future spiritual surfaces for "painting."
- Review your stake's policies
on tardiness, makeup work, and so on. Each CES area has
its own policy regarding tardiness, makeup work, and so on.
Make sure you have reviewed the policy and other seminary
operations (this is where attending your in-service meetings
is must). I'm surprised sometimes how much I re-learn by reviewing
the CES Policy Manual each year, in addition to my stake's
policies.
- Work in tandem with your
team teacher. If you are team-teaching, make sure that
both of you share the same understanding regarding tardiness,
makeup work, classroom expectations, and so on. If you are
not in sync with your teaching "buddy," it makes
for a confusing experience for the youth and a frustrating
one for you and/or your companion teacher. In a team-teaching
scenario, brief weekly meetings with your teaching "buddy"
could be quite helpful to make your spiritual paint strokes
of unified fashion.
- Encourage seminary enrollment.
Over the summer break, why not take time to visit with any
youth who will be of new seminary-attending age next year?
Make sure to speak with your leaders, first, to obtain permission
to sit in on a Young Women class or a Young Men activity.
Begin to appropriately friendship these kids by learning their
names and their likes or dislikes, where they go to school,
and so on. As you do so, be sure to invite them to enroll
and attend seminary the coming year. Assess their individual
situations. Share with them some of seminary's fun and exciting
highlights. Extend an appropriate hand of fellowship and excitement
about the seminary program. Information makes for greater
inspiration as you work with these youth next year.
Just as in preparing a wall before
you paint it, this is one of the most important ways you can
prepare youth for next year's spiritual "painting"
lessons. Just as a designer carefully selects color layouts
and plans for intended rooms, as seminary teachers it would
behoove us to understand the lives of our students as we design
our lessons for them.
These are just a few things to
consider as you prepare spiritual surfaces for "painting."
No doubt you've thought of others. Take just a few minutes to
jot down any additional ideas that have come to mind. Then over
the next few weeks, begin bringing them into play. Not every
room that needs paint requires the same amount of preparation.
This is where prayer and fasting factors in.
2. Get the Right "Equipment."
Just as the right paint brush can
make all the difference in applying your paint, so too for the
proper spiritual "equipment."
- Obtain your lesson materials.
Attend all in-service meetings during the course of the summer.
Make sure you've "prepared" the equipment of your
heart and mind for these meetings by prior study, prayer,
and perhaps even fasting. By attending these meetings, not
only will you receive your lesson materials at the earliest
possible moment, but you will be richly rewarded with scintillating
instruction from your CES coordinators and supervisors. That
instruction is priceless.
- Obtain a printout from your
Bishopric as to the seminary-age youth in your ward for next
year, hopefully before the first in-service meeting of the
summer. This handout is integral to preparations for
the coming year. Not only will you know the general amount
of students to expect, thereby helping you have sufficient
materials on hand, but you may also begin praying for the
students by name. Ancient Israelites used "frontlets"
to keep scriptures ever present in their mind, wearing them
on their bodies (forehead or arm). If we, as seminary teachers,
kept our students' names ever present in our mind (by keeping
that printout close at hand), just think how much more readily
we will include these youth in our prayers. Think of the difference
this will make as we prepare to teach them at the start of
the year! This printout is such an important piece of "equipment"
for those who paint in the seminary classroom.
- Invite the students to obtain
their own personal set of scriptures. Although seminary
students are the ones responsible for making sure they have
scriptures, we as their future teachers can encourage them
in this. For some new to the Church, this might be news to
them! Most people want to do what is right. So take the time
over the summer to speak with the parents of these new seminary
kids. Let the parents know that it is highly desirable that
their children have a set of scriptures for seminary. If the
parents experience hardship in this, you can always refer
them to chat with the bishop for ideas.
- Ensure that you have a set
of scriptures that will see you personally through the school
year. This goes without saying, of course. Some seminary
teachers have one set of scriptures; some have multiple sets.
The number does not matter. What does matter is that you are
familiar with them, including all of the additional equipment-tools
contained within them, such as the Gazetteer, Bible Dictionary,
and other features. The more comfortable you are with these
excellent study tools, the more likely you are to use them
in class. And the more likely your students will learn to
rely on them and use them to their spiritual gain.
These are a just a few of the important
"equipment" pieces to aid your spiritual "painting"
endeavors. No doubt you have thought of others. List them now
and take some time over the next few weeks to obtain them and
become familiar with them.
3. Paint.
It is true that while painting,
we experience paint splatters and spills. But as we persist,
the room being painted takes on an exciting glow of fresh color
and renewal.
During the seminary school year,
we also experience spiritual paint splatters and spills. We
otherwise call these highs and lows. But as we persist, we can
begin to see a renewal in our students through this spiritual
painting process.
We begin the year with empty surfaces
of hearts, minds, and souls of our students. As the year proceeds,
and as we lay on the new "paint," the spiritual surfaces
of our students' lives take on a vibrancy that can be quite
exciting. It makes the paint splatters worthwhile.
It is during this time it would
behoove us to keep a journal of our painterly activities. What
brought about the brightest of spiritual colors for our students?
We would want to record that in our teacher's journal for the
next time we might need a similar activity. For example, some
students learn better from interactive exercises. Others learn
from student-driven activities. Others are best inspired from
worksheet/research moments. Notice what paint strokes bring
about the brightest hue for your particular group of students.
On the other hand, what dulled
the spiritual "paint"? It would be important to record
the experience so as perhaps to avoid it in the future. As we
keep a record, this will help us avoid any future "blemishes"
that we may have encountered previously.
Yes, indeed, a journal can be a
spiritual painter's/seminary teacher's best friend. Because
when the room is finished (or in our case, the school year),
we will want to know which of our painterly techniques served
us best. That way the next year we will be able to do it all
over again with hopefully even less paint splotches and marrings
as we go along!
4. Clean Your
Equipment.
It makes no sense to paint beautifully
a room and then leave all the paint equipment sitting out, with
paint hardening and brushes stiffening. Just
as we must prepare a surface, so too do we need to "clean
up" when we're done. Here are a few suggestions
for the end of a seminary school year. Take time to:
- Write thank you notes to
adults. Gratitude pleases the Lord. It is important at
the end of each school year to take the time to thank those
who have helped you throughout the year. For example, even
if you'd previously written a thank you for a parent's helpful
acts early on, you still might consider writing him again
to let him know how much he or she contributed to an overall
successful school year.
- Write thank you notes to
the students. Now might be a good time to write an individual
letter to each student, highlighting the talents and abilities
they brought forward to help the class. Pray before writing
these letters. You may be surprised at how the Lord inspires
you while writing them to touch each student's heart.
- Organize materials. Quickly,
with what energy you have left, throw out all miscellaneous
scraps of paper, files, handouts, and other items that you
no longer need. Set a time goal to help you finish this part
of cleanup quickly. Clean out cupboards, drawers, and other
places. The cleanliness will help the Spirit flow as you begin
preparations for the new year. Then
for the remaining materials, organize them carefully so that
when the new school year begins, you'll be ready to "paint"
again!
These
are just a few ideas. What others have come to mind? Make sure
you jot them down and follow through so that your "clean-up"
has been thorough.
Summary
Of all the painterly terms we could
use in reference to seminary teaching, the most important one
very well could be:
