Ken Alford This information was originally published at http://kenalford.com/semlist/2002/02jan13.htm and sent out as part of Ken Alford’s email list to Seminary teachers.   It’s helpful for teachers who may be struggling with tardiness in the classroom: Punctuality always seems to be a challenge in the church, but it is especially so when you add teenagers and early […]

I attended SVU's Education Conference this weekend. What a strange experience that was!  It was part fundraising convention and part spiritual feast.  So bizarre.  At points it actually seemed like we were at a timeshare sales pitch or an Amway convenction.  Other times it was just like BYU's Education Week, and sometimes even better.   I […]

The people at Thessalonica must have been pretty great bunch of folks.  Paul gushes over them, and then their faith is so strong in the second coming that they literally quit their jobs in anticipation of the event they thought would be soon!  These were fun books to cover. 1 Thessalonians 1-5 I spent a […]

Vanessa S. shared this on the Come Follow Me Facebook Group, and I asked her permission to share it here.  She said: "[A]fter some initially rather disastrous experiments having my girls teach, I eventually came around to this handout, which the girls told me has been very helpful. It outlines the steps for preparing a […]

In Explaining Exemplars, you take a good example of something, like a general conference talk, and examine it to find why it was effective. Give pairs or small groups of students examples of good practice, and perhaps some examples of bad practice or examples containing a few common errors. They may have the same, or […]

Use LDS.org's website to help students hear and read a talk. EXAMPLE: I asked the students if they had ever heard the story about "What have you done with my name?" Some had. I told them we'd watch a movie about names, and I asked them to listen for the role that commandments play in […]

When I teach, I try to apply the law of witnesses: "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established," (See D&C 6:28, 2 Corinthians 13:1, Deuteronomy 19:15, 2 Nephi 29:8, Matthew 18:16) to my Lesson preparation. The idea is that as teachers, we're always looking for "witnesses" to the word. […]

Luke 15 While we were watching this fantastic movie this morning: all of the students were commenting on how talented this sand story artist, Joe Castillo is. Then, one of my least introspective students asked himself aloud: "I wonder what I'll be good at?" Another Freshman turned to him and said, "I know man! Me, […]

I've posted both the full lesson and the object lesson part here in case Seminary Mom's (rather long) lesson doesn't fit with the message you're trying to get across in your lesson: The Object Lesson I brought out a muffin tray with muffin liners, but no actual muffins inside the liners. I explained I'd planned […]

As a prelude to the lesson, I began by calling a student volunteer to the front of the room. As it happened, it turned out to be the tallest student in the class. I asked him to show how high he could reach. He went over to the wall and rested his verrry long arm […]