Donna McAllister was born to teach. As a child, she liked nothing better than sitting her brother and neighbor kids down for a session of “school”. She is now a stay-at-home mom and is home schooling the last of her 7 children. She also teaches him early morning Seminary because they live so far from their ward building in Belle Vista, California. She is currently the Gospel Doctrine teacher and Young Women Personal Progress Advisor. She has developed an entertaining way of teaching the youth.

“When I received a calling to teach Sunday School to the 13-17 year olds in a small ward years ago, I was eager to see the manual. The Primary and Young Women manuals that I had used in the past were so full of great ideas that I was sure that would be the case with a Sunday School manual for the youth. I was disappointed to find that there was no specific manual for the youth. Instead, I was given the adult Gospel Doctrine manual. As I thumbed through the lessons, I could see right away that it would be very hard to hold the attention of a class of young people without some additions to the manual. So each week I would search for stories and quotes in the New Era and ideas on LDS web sites. I would also make games to go along with the lessons, and posters to display on the board. The youth loved the entertaining lessons, and the Bishop didn’t release me from that calling for years!”

Donna has brought her great ideas to Latter-day Village. Her Sunday School lesson plans follow the outline of the Gospel Doctrine manual, but are geared to the youth’s shorter attention span. Each lesson plan is actually a script for the teacher. It tells them what to say or talk about each step of the way. Donna also includes posters, stories, handouts, word-strips, and usually a game or two with each lesson.