Latter-day Village Square

For some time now, we have not been able to get our knowledgebases indexed by the major search engines. Due to our membership management system, which restricts access to our subscription areas, anyone or anything (e.g., a search engine-indexing spider) without a login password cannot view the knowledgebase content. That software company tried to provide a programmatic fix, but it has never really worked. With no access to the article pages, the major search engines do not know of all the wonderful content we have available.

As we became increasingly aware of the importance of keywords and search engine placement as part of our site marketing efforts, I finally worked out a solution. Our membership system has a protection method designed specifically for PHP files, which powers our knowledgebases. I finally figured in during one night of tossing and turning over this issue, that I had enough PHP troubleshooting (very different from actually writing code) experience to give the method a go.

I was finally able to make the change work, although there is one hiccup. The first time a registered member visits a newly configured knowledgebase (KB; e.g., Seminary, Primary, Primary Music, Sampler) they will see an obscure error message. This is due to the new handling of the information in their login cookie. If the member hits backup and tries the article link again, they should get a good response. I have not been able to find a solution for this; however, the workaround is easy enough to figure out; Go back, retry.

The result of this change is that non-registered users can traverse the category trees of the KBs mentioned above, where they can view up to 400 characters of the article contents. Previously, they could not even see the KB home page. These same article previews (almost 7000 counting all KBs) should now eventually appear in the major search engines, increasing our visibility and search page ranking accordingly.

We just finished adding the entire line of LDS scrapbooking rubber stamps from Sunbeam Stamps to our online store. Laura Cooke, the designer of these unique stamps has created products that help you LDS scrapbookers and crafters add an LDS flair to your creations. There are over 150 new stamps in the line; here are a few samples:

There is a stamp for almost any occasion or LDS theme, from Primary to Relief Society and Aaronic Priesthood/Young Men to Missionaries. You can create special remembrance scrapbook pages; invitations, place cards, bookmarks … the list is endless. We invite you to look over the whole line.

In our online store, click Scrapbooking in the category list and then Rubber Stamps. Here you will see that we have organized the new stamps by LDS organization or purpose.

You can also click Sunbeam Stamps in the Authors / Brands list to see an ordered list. Be sure and set aside plenty of time as there are over 15 pages of stamps to look at. Please select a few to kick your creativity up a notch!

Today, April 1 (this is NOT a joke) we switched to a new online store and shopping cart system based on Zen Cart, a popular open source product. After an exhaustive search we determined that Zen Cart’s flexibility, extensibility, and feature set made it our best choice, even better than some system was evaluated that cost thousands of dollars. One of our main criteria was the ability to support and even expand our drop- ship and download sales capability. We believe Zen Cart fills the bill.

NOTE: the new cart system requires that every shopper create an account. Rather than integrate this cart with our membership management system and create a login for all of our members, we chose to keep them separate. Why? Simple, we have many store customers that never register for our other site features. We felt it was not necessary for them to create a full site membership simply to shop in our store.

However, creating a store account does have some advantages over our old cart system:

1. Customers can log into their store account and check that status of any order.
2. Customer who purchase download products can login and re-download a product, up to five times or for 14 days, whichever comes first.
3. We will offer account holders special discounts and can transfer gift certificate values to their store account.

Some additional Zen Cart benefits.

• Better classification of products. We revamped the store category system to make it easer for shoppers to find what they need. You can find most products using more than one category.
• A list of Artists / Brands allows shoppers easy viewing all of the products that we offer for a particular vendor.
• We display specials and reduced items on the main page, in the side boxes, and with every category page displayed. We are committed to aggressive pricing and this new interface allows shoppers to more easily find our bargains.
• Email lists – we can inform you of specials and discounts based on your purchase history. We promise not to constantly fill your email inbox, and you can always unsubscribe.
• Gift Certificates - we will be offering gift certificates, which we believe will expand our sales opportunities.
• Permanent Cart - Any products added to your online cart remain there until you remove them, or check them out.
• Address Book - We can now deliver your products to another address other than yours! This is perfect to send birthday gifts direct to the birthday-person themselves.
• Order History - View your history of purchases that you have made with us.
• Products Reviews - Share your opinions on products with our other customers.

Finally, we will be expanding our product lines by adding more and more manufacturers. There are also many other Amazon like features (e.g. others bought this and similar items, purchase items together and save) we will be adding as soon as we have the cart tweaked for maximum performance.

I hope you take a look around.

http://latter-dayvillage.com/store/

Warning, this is still a work in progress, so you may see missing images and a few warts/knots here and there. Do not hesitate to write us about your impressions and with any questions you may have.

This is a bit late in the season, but we are still getting snow storms here in Wyoming.

Are you struggling with colder weather, morning darkness, and lack of student attention? It’s the wintertime blahs. Warmer weather and sunlight always help to solve these problems, but what co you do in the mean time. We present just a few teaching strategies here that can shake things up enough in your class to re-stimulate those young minds you are nurturing, and help both you and your students have meaningful teaching moments.

Remember, telling is not teaching. Teaching is ‘presiding’ over learning. You preside and are charged with orchestrating learning classroom situations. Here a few suggestions to change up your normal teaching routine; in essence shed to bright light on what can be learned and taught at such an early hour.

SEMINARY HIGH SCHOOL

Seminary High School is a method of presenting your lesson concepts using a rotating class schedule, based on ‘subjects’ that you students might be studying during their regular school coursework. E.g., teach a mini class in History, going over the historical settings and happenings in your lesson block. Then teach another mini class in English, reviewing the writing techniques employed by the author in several verses. Get into the meaning of words, any similes, metaphors, etc. Give a vocabulary quiz. Teach another mini class – PE. Go to the gym for a short session of Sm Messy Basketball or SM Broom Hockey.

Well maybe you get the idea. Yes,this takes lots of prep time, but spring it on a Monday and your students will be engaged differently for the rest of the week. Follow up with mini-high school class sessions for the remainder of the years.

Here are several example outlines to help you plan your Seminary High School:

1. Isaiah 36-47 Seminary High School
2. Seminary High School - Sections 129 and 130
3. Isaiah 48 - 52 Seminary High School

SILENT LESSON

Can you teach an entire lesson without uttering a word? Silence is golden, especially as a change up from the sometimes normal boisterous seminary classroom. Key to this type of lesson; you NEVER utter a word, but give directions to your students through overheads, flashcards, or a PowerPoint presentation. But NEVER SAY A WORD. E.g., create flashcards with pre-printed questions and answers, such as “Read Verse :12 and tell me what Joseph was instructed to do.” The silent lesson is most effective if you maintain the silence throughout the class period. Here are a couple of examples:

1. PowerPoint: Gethsemane Silent Lesson
2. Silent Lesson

Be sure and close with your written testimony, perhaps in a handout or card that they students can take with them.

I can tell you from personal experience that this technique can also work with a group of stodgy old High Priests. After I once taught a silent lesson to our HP group, several came up afterwards and thanked me for the most spiritual lesson in years. This can really work!

OUTSIDE TEACHER

Students tire of the same droning voice day after day (did I really write that? You don’t drone on do you? Remember, telling isn’t teaching, in many cases it is droning). Well change the voice at the head of the class. If you have a special topic and there is a spiritual giant or giantess in your midst, get them to each your lesson for one day. You could use your Bishop or a bishopric member, a member of the Stake Presidency, a Relief Society president, a Ward Mission leader, or even full time missionaries. The most important points are to

• Select the topic well in advance.
• Provide lesson materials, even photocopy the manual pages if necessary,
• Announce for several days prior that a special teacher is coming on (insert day).
• Make sure you are there to introduce the guest teacher and to help with class discipline (chances are there will no problems out of respect to the new teacher).
• Follow up in the days following the lesson with quizzes and quotes from the presentation.

STUDENTS TEACH THE LESSON

Assigning a student to teach a particular lesson has multiple benefits. Your students will pay different attention to a peer who is teaching, you can get a small break, and the student assigned will gain more from preparation and teaching than will ever get from just being a student. It is a proven fact that teaching a subject dramatically increases retention. If you have a student who might be struggling with a topic, assigning them to teach is a perfect opportunity to gain special knowledge.

Lots of advance preparation is required; you must provide a full set of lesson materials and lots of follow up as the student prepares to teach. You must also be there to provide classroom help and reinforcement. Any student who acts up during the presentation is a perfect candidate for the next student presentation, which is something you might announce to a more rambunctious class…

Lots of praise in front of the other students is very positive, as well as a private ‘atta boy or atta girl.’

Here’s how I solved a problem using this strategy. I had a particular female in one of my classes who was so bright, articulate, and dynamic, that she could frequently hijack an entire class period. She reveled in asking obscure questions that lead the class into off-subject discussions. She was a handful. I asked her to teach a lesson. She accepted the challenge with the look on her face of “this will be a piece of cake.” It was, until I asked her patented kind of obscure, off-topic question from the back of the room. In an instant I could tell from the look on her face that she got it. Her actions were causing chaos in the classroom and disrupting my efforts to lead her class though teaching moments. She now felt it. In the simple turn of the tables, and without a word being spoken between us, she changed completely and never again did lead us off the path. She turned out to be a wonderful contributor from that point forward and her lesson was pretty great too!

Examples:
Outline: Helping Students Teach Lessons
Students Teach Prophets
Student Taught Object Lesson

You can use this method to bring out some of your shy students as well as give your prospective missionaries a taste of teaching the gospel. It works!

MARCH MADNESS

If you have not started already, March Madness is a scripture mastery activity from Linda Harper, a master teacher in South Carolina. I will not take the time here to explain all of the rules, but here is a link to the Old Testament version: OT SM March Madness Scripture Chase. I will say that the March Madness theme plays on the NCAA (and high school to some point) basketball tournament and the way that some Cinderella teams can make it through the bracket.

Classes that I used March Madness with got so caught up in learning the scripture masteries and their subjects in general, that is was like a shot of nitrous oxide into our classroom (that’s NOS in student language). NOS supercharges are engine for a short powerful burst: March Madness can do the same for scripture mastery in your classroom.

The most important things I have learned in using March Madness:

• Make it a reward. It is so fun and chaotic that I used it as an end of day activity when the class was engaged and cooperative. If they weren’t, no MM.
• The more Madness the better; nothing causes more fun and confusion than outrageous consequences. If you class is super competitive, MM is ideal, teams are so much in flux that strong students are always paired with weaker students. Make them participate together.
• Use a nerf basketball and something to shoot into. It has to be real, the basketball portion. I had a basketball team starter that could NOT get that nerf ball into the waste basket from three feet. He could hit three pointers on the court all day long, but was completely inept with the nerf ball. That just added to the madness and thrilled non-athletic kids who could outshoot the star, in a good natured way. It is all in how you handle the class.
• Have a good reward for the winning team. I usually hosted the wining team for breakfast at my house, with mini-candy bars for everyone else. Of course that winning team and it’s members was not decided until the very last shot and question, so everyone stayed in engaged.

Well, that’s it enough for now. I hope these ideas will give you something to try with your classes and that you will have some special experiences in the coming months!

We have a new friend in our Club! Bunster Bunny! The February Seasonal Collection in the Village Download Depot Club is all about Bunster! Illustrated by Dustin Pike, Bunster comes hopping right off the screen with his adorable cuddli-ness. Dustin has been creating these delightful whimsical clip-art characters for many years, and we are excited to introduce some new pals here at LDV.

I had a lot of fun designing some special projects and scrapbook papers and borders for this collection. The artwork is so cute and colorful, I found I couldn’t sleep at night just itching to hit my computer and photos-hop Bunster into action. I admit - I came up with the name Bunster. Along with his feminine counterpart - Bet.

Last Thursday I had some time on my hands while waiting for my husband to have some medical work done, which required me to be the driver. So I moseyed on over to Foothill Village near the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City. There is an educational toy store there - I love those places! It made me want to be a kid all over again. They had some fun little activity books, and I picked one up as inspiration for doing a Bunster Bunny Activity Book. That is one of the best things about this collection. Dustin sent me line art drawings that are perfect for coloring pages and activity books so the kids can do the coloring themselves!

This is a great collection for teachers, parents and grandparents - as well as anyone who enjoys whimsical art!

~Debra

With new resources for LDS Relief Society at LDV, and plans for a lot more, we decided to create a free Relief Society Membership at LDV to keep RS sisters informed of what is available for them, as well as gather new material “from the field” to share.

We’ve added a Relief Society menu item to our horizontal drop down/fly out menus that appear on nearly every page of LDV. The Relief Society home page explains more about what RS is and LDV RS resources.

Membership is FREE! If you are new to LDV - join the RS Membership here . If you are already a member, add the RS Membership on your membership page.

Right now, we have a little gift - a lovely February Visiting Teaching Bookmark pdf file - for those who join and answer a few questions:

• What is your RS calling?
• What enrichment groups do you have in your ward/branch?
• What RS resources are you looking for online?

Please send your answers directly to me at debra@latter-dayvillage.com

You can always use our submission form to submit your RS ideas to be added to the Free Sampler.

~Debra

We have just launched a new subscription product that I am really excited about. Donna McAllister of Belle Vista, California is writing LDS Sunday School Lesson Plans based on the Gospel Doctrine manual for this year - The Book of Mormon.

What is significant about Donna’s plans is that she has geared them for the youth Sunday School courses - 14-17. These youth classes use the same lesson manual that is used for adult Gospel Doctrine lessons, and there is no additional material to help focus the lessons on the youth. I have to admit, I was unaware of this situation. I have never taught youth Sunday School classes, and assumed there was a set of youth SS manuals! Or if the same manuals were used, there would be suggestions for ways to present the material to youth. That isn’t the case.

Donna recognized this problem years ago when she was called to teach youth SS. So she has been preparing new plans for youth based on the adult lessons - and now she is sharing her work with us - and with you! The response so far has been very positive! One teacher wrote in:

I am a Sunday school teacher and am absolutely thrilled about “Donna’s Lesson plans” I used the sample lesson in my class today and it was perfect.

Another user wrote in:

I wanted to THANK [Donna] for sharing the SS lesson plans. My husband started teaching the youth ages 13-17 back in the summer. He tells me almost every week how difficult it is to put the lesson on a youths level, especially now that the course of study is the Book of Mormon. He says he knows it’s sometimes above their heads, but he has a good group.

Tonight I showed him Donna’s lesson help and he loved it. Men don’t always think about word strips and posters of the quotes. He was excited to know that he’s a step ahead with Donna’s lesson.

Donna includes a very detailed lesson plan, and the visuals, posters, word strips, puzzles, handouts, supplemental articles from the New Era, etc that fit into the lesson. It is great to have all of this at your fingertips, ready to go to present a lesson to our youth each week.

You can find Donna’s Lesson Plans at http://latter-dayvillage.com/pages/ss/gdbm1.html

We’ve added a new Sunday School Menu item from our horizontal menu bar that appears on almost every page of LDV. And we’ve also added additional Sunday School resources to our Free Sampler. http://latter-dayvillage.com/sampler/category.php?id=119

The Sr. Primary, Youth Sunday School, and adult Sunday School classes are correlated so families should be studying the same basic material in their various classes each week - but without a doubt, the material needs to be presented at the level of the class - and so we are excited to offer this great tool for helping our youth SS teachers do that.

~Debra

Tis the season for updates. Many of our site component licenses renew at this time of year, so it’s an ideal time to make sure the software is current. With all of the security concerns these days, keeping software up to date is a must.

We recently updated our:

• Shopping Cart
• Photo/clipart gallery
• Forums
• Knowledgebases

If you have not taken the time to visit/use our image/clipart gallery, there are over 4000 images/photos and clipart selections available for your use. All that’s required is a free membership registration. Of course any of our paid memberships also include access to this resource.

NOTE: a huge portion of the clipart available came from the open source clipart library, which I (Tim) spent many hours converting from the open source .svg format to the more usable (for Windows) .jpg format.

While doing research on Google AdSense ads displaying on your site, I ran across another LDS online merchant that is offering an 2008 Primary theme vinyl wall lettering. However, their product only lists the theme; ours includes the scripture reference in a contrasting font. Additionally, our version is cheaper, $17.50 versus $19.95. Ours is shorter, 3 feet vs. 4 feet, but in our opinion, is a much better value due to the secondary font and the verse inclusion.

I’ve had a blast designing and preparing the designs of our talented artists for new digital scrapbook collections in our Village Download Depot. I have something to admit - I have little experience making scrapbooks the way most people do. I have a very old fashioned scrapbook from high school, and long before the scrapbook craze began, I made scrapbooks for both my babies (now 27 and 23) and for their missions. But I haven’t bought scrapbook paper or embellishments etc to do it. I decorated them by hand or designed them on my computer myself.

Over the years I have noticed the scrapbook section of the local craft stores I frequent getting larger and larger - taking up more and more floor space. One store has devoted well over 50% of their store to scrapbooking products. It blows my mind.

But right here in the heart of the seedbed for this international passion for scrapbooking, where it all started - along the Wasatch Front - you can hardly find any LDS-themed scrapbook paper or embellishments/tools anymore. The general market is so immense, our little LDS-niche is hardly worth sneezing at - even for scrapbook companies I drive past along I-15, owned and operated by latter-day saints who once catered to their LDS customers.

Well, we all have birthdays and holidays and vacations and other memorable occasions we want to scrap like the general population - but what about those uniquely LDS aspects of our lives that we also want to make a permanent and beautiful record of?

That’s where LDV steps in. We have a growing array of LDS-themed scrapbook products, along with the traditional general/seasonal themes, and we can offer it because our products are digital! We leave the printing, if you even decide to print - to you! That allows us to design to our hearts’ content without worrying if we can sell 10,000 of any design. Printing and manufacturing prices go down with volume - so most companies have to pick and choose what products they will feature with that high-volume requirement.

Problem - not everyone knows how to use digital images to make beautiful scrapbooks! I do my designing with Adobe Photoshop - oh what cool things I can do with that robust program! But average Josephine scrapbook enthusiast isn’t going to pay the high ticket price for that high-end professional software, nor have the time to learn how to use it.

Well - I decided to test some affordable digital scrapbook software out. I wanted to see if it was easy to use, could do cool stuff, and if I could import images from our Village Download Depot collections into a scrapbook page using it. I read reviews about various products - and it was very hard to tell if they allow you to import images from outside their programs - so there was nothing to do but buy a package that sounded good and try it. I picked Nova Development’s Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory Deluxe Version 3.0. It got the highest ratings in the reviews I read and only cost $29.95 direct from the manufacturer (you might find it cheaper elsewhere).

It arrived in a timely fashion and installed easily onto my computer. They have good documentation to step you through the process. It comes with tons of templates and clipart for unlimited designs, and has easy to use tools that do really nice things you would need scrapbook software to do. But the true test for me was, of course, could I use my own Village Download Depot images and Fonts to create scrapbook pages with it?

WAHOO! YES! It worked - and was so easy! With any project open in the editing window, click on the INSERT menu option and choose GRAPHIC then FROM FILE. You then find the image you want to insert from your DownloadDepot folders and viola! It is inserted and can be edited as needed! Now, granted, I am used to Photoshop - so the ease of use of this software seemed dreamy to me - but I really believe anyone could use this to create lovely digital scrapbook pages, import our great LDS scrapbook elements into it - edit them freely so they are just the right size, shape, direction etc - and print out beautiful pages, or simply save them in a form anyone can view them and email them to your family and friends.

As much as most people spend on their scrapbook supplies, this software is a small price to pay for a great tool.

Since most people have home printers that only print on 8.5×11″ - Scrapbook Factory templates are for that size paper - but they also allow you to select 12×12 layouts - and if you have a wide format printer, you can print those yourself, or send the files to a copy center that does wide format printing, or use an online service that will print your 12×12 pages and ship them to you. I am researching printers, scrapbook papers for inkjet printers and scrapbook printing services and will write about those more in a future post.

Debra