This lesson opener helps members understand what they might feel if they are deceived.

By Scott Knecht One night in graduate school I went to the opening session of a new class. It was a bit of a different schedule - 2 nights a week for 4 hours per night for 4 weeks - so I had to get mentally prepared to endure the length each night. Little did […]

Courtesy of John Bushman: As a coordinator for S&I, it has not been my style to be very controlling.  It has been my goal to give great tips and helps, but in the end, the teachers decide what works for them or not. BUT… now I want to mandate something because it can be so […]

This post was adapted from the original at http://seminaryatsixam.blogspot.com/2012/11/seminary-in-my-pocket.html Classroom In My Pocket  During an early Seminary lesson, I gave each student a rock to keep in their pocket as a reminder of our lesson that day. Little did I know that "Seminary In My Pocket" had been born. During my first lesson, I shared a story with [my students] about an […]

I am teaching the 14-18 yr old youth in Sunday School.  One idea I have used seems to be working: I bought a composition notebook and pen for all the kids.  Every handout (I try to have one every week) is given to them with a piece of sticky Velcro.  They put one piece on […]

Have students come up with a single word that best describes a verse(s) or principle/doctrine. (Adapted from Panning for Gold: Various Methods to Understand and Apply the Scriptures to Ourselves by Eric Bacon, Northwest Area Seminaries)  

I use the phrase "Today We Learned..." to help establish direction in my lessons. First, I determine a lesson objective. Most of my lesson objectives start with the phrase "Students will ..." Here are some lesson objectives I've used this week during our study of Luke: Students will understand that friends and relatives of Jesus […]

Before class, invite a student to prepare a short talk or devotional about a topic or scripture passage. You should give the student clear instructions about what you're looking for in the talk. For example, don't just assign a student to read Moses 7:18 and give a talk on it. Explain to the student that […]

I learned this extremely versatile teaching technique from Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. Basically, you assign a writing prompt. Everyone writes the answer. Then, as many people as you choose are invited to share. Sometimes I have each person share their written response. Other times, when there's a big group, I assign a […]

You can do this as a group activity or as an individual activity. I generally do it as a group activity. Assign students a passage to read. Have students imagine they are newspaper reporters who are going to write a headline for this passage. What will they write? What headline will tell your readers the […]