[Teachldsseminary] QUESTION: Small class suggestions?

[Barb]

Two ideas. 
First is the daily challenge. We haven't talk about it much this year but
one of our greatest teaching tools is to be able to challenge the students
each day to apply a principal from the lesson in their activities during the
next 24 hours. The larger the class the more generic these challenge
sometimes have to be, but with such a small class you would be able to
extremely personalize the challenges. The key to success is taking the time
each morning to review how each student did on the previous day's challenge.
What can be even more effective is to have the students develop their own
challenges at the end of a day's lesson. This would not only take up some
time but is a great way to make the gospel "real."

The second idea is having the students teach a lesson. Perhaps not each week
but maybe every other week, giving each student a chance to teach twice a
month. The home study lessons marked with the "weekly icon" are great for
this. You could allow a prep day where you would give each student their
lesson materials from the teacher's manual, the student manual, the
Institute Manual, videos, game ideas, object lessons, etc. At the same time
you get to be a "student" four times a month coming prepared, giving great
devotionals, answering questions in an insightful way :>) The blessing of a
small class is that you can sometimes be more creative than you can in a
large class. I only had the opportunity to do this one year but found that
we were able to build such trust that they were willing to share and apply
and accept challenges that were not successful in a larger class. 


-----Original Message-----
From: teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com
[mailto:teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com] On Behalf Of Debbie
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 5:22 PM
To: teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com
Subject: [Teachldsseminary] QUESTION: Small class suggestions?

I read all of the WONDERFUL suggestions on devotionals, class presidents 
and all, BUT.........what do you do when you have 4 students that came 
the first day and TWO VERY dedicated students that come everyday.  
Today, Friday, I had ONE student.  We had class as normal....from start 
to finish.  I can only rely basically on these two girls, so our morning 
consists of the three of us doing opening/closing prayer and 
thought/devotional.  We are in a very small branch...can you tell?  ;-)  
I usually come prepared with a thought just in case the one I assigned 
doesn't show up.  Of course, with only 2 active students, I had to admit 
that our class time doesn't last the entire hour.  I mean....you can't 
make it stretch when only 2 of them are answering the questions.  Our 
classes have been lasting 45 min. and that's almost a stretch.  I teach 
the entire lesson and usually have something for them to do that deals 
with the SM, or the section of D & C we just studied.  Don't get me 
wrong, I'm VERY thankful for these two girls that come constantly.  They 
make my morning. 

So, any suggestions when you don't have enough students to pass out all 
the SM to and tell them to prepare their devotional around it, or the 
same people give a prayer daily?  I'm not complaining at all, I would 
just like to hear some ideas on how some of you deal with 2 or 3 
students.  Am I the only one that teaches a VERY small group?  lol

Thanks for your help,
Debbie

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