[Teachldsseminary] Students with Attitudes/Help Ideas (long)

[Mc Gina]

I don't know if this is too late in the year, or if the idea has already been brought up, but I did some different things with my students this year and there is a huge difference in attitude.   I make the students accountable for much of what we do in class.  I have 14 students.  Here are 4 things that seem to have the greatest impact:

1.  I go to class early on Mondays and put out their folders and scriptures for them (in essence, I assign seats).  This way the students can just come to class and not worry about who they sit next to, a social tension is removed (I remember what is was like worrying about who I sat with at their age).  No one has to worry if they're accepted by their peers when they look for a place to sit.  I switch them around every week.  I know which students don't go well together and never sit them next to each other (no more bickering or flirting distractfully!)  And I don't have to worry about late-comers digging for their scriptures and distracting the class before they sit down.  The students can come right in and be ready to feel the Spirit.  

2. We also have a "prayer box" with the students' names on little items (they're plasic stars).  For closing prayer, I draw a name, and then that student must draw a name.  The student then says the closing prayer and asks a special blessing for the student whose name they drew.  They seemed to feel awkward about this at first, but now they really look forward to see whose names will be drawn.  I hear them sometimes wishfully saying, "pick me! pick me!"

3.  A different student is assigned the devotional each day.  To make sure the devotionals stay at a high quality, I made a poster for the front of the classroom they can refer to when they are giving their devotional.  If they miss something, I ask them about this:  "How might we apply this?  How does this make you feel? "etc.  Here is my poster:

Preparing a Devotional:  Each student will have several opportunities to present a devotional.  This is a meaningful time (3-5 minutes) to share with the class an insight gained through the Holy Spirit.  
 
Devotional Guidelines:  
EXPLAIN the doctrine or principle
SHARE insights, scriptures or stories from your life
INVOLVE class; use chalkboard, lists, diagrams, objects, questions, etc.
APPLY to your life as a modern teenager
TESTIFY of the truth (I feel…, I love…, I believe…, I know…)

4.  I assign STUDENTS to teach a scripture mastery each week.  They have guidelines:

Mon -- Repeat the scripture 3 times with the class and mark it.
Tues -- Use some memorization technique to learn it (like writing in on the board and erasing words)
Wed -- Explain what the scripture means
Thur - Discuss the application in our lives
Fri - Pass off day
This is also a poster in the room.
I help them by making copies of the exercises for their scripture mastery from Ken Alford's Scripture Mastery Resource.  I give the handouts (inlcuding glue quotes) to the student in charge of the scripture mastery that week, and they manage what they want to hand out and when.
    [To eliminate the little paper pieces falling everywhere, every so often I have the students give their completed exercise papers to a "banker" who is a student with a paper-recycling receptacle.  She gives each person who hands all their completed papers in some funny money.  If they don't turn their papers in on time (so if they're absent or for some reason don't fill them out) they don't get "money."  I have the class divided into two teams.  At a predetermined date, we'll see which team has the most moolah and wins. ]

I have seen that by doing these things the students have made the class "their" class.  They keep each other in line -- I hardly ever have to.  They make sure no one makes disturbances.  They push each other to learn, and I have a higher rate of passing off scripture mastery than I ever have in years past.  Sometimes they squabble like siblings, but I'm really amazed at how comfortable they are with each other.  They are from 3 wards and 5 school districts.  

(As far as acting up and messing with classroom items and supplies, I firmly told the students the classroom rules at the beginning of the year which were not to do anything stupid and not to encourage anyone else do anything stupid.  Luckily, it came across in a way that to do something disrespectful would put that student in danger of looking "stupid."  We also had a lesson on how showing reverence to the Lord included being reverent in seminary.  Even the most notorious trouble-maker kid in my class has been a good and respectful student.  The peer pressure to do good comes from the students "owning" the class.)

Of course, fasting and praying helped a lot too.  

I am grateful for God's hand in my life and for various seminary teachers/coordinators that gave me these ideas.  This year in seminary has been such a wonderful blessing.  I hope these ideas can help someone.  I wish I had thought of them earlier.  (Barb G--I know what it feels like!  Hang in there.) 



============
Responding to:

I am a first year, early morning seminary teacher.  There are 8
students in my class.  There are 2 freshmen girls that are very
enthusiastic.  Then, there are 3 sets of 2 siblings each (2 of which
are my own children) that are upper class-men.  Does anyone have ideas
and suggestions on how to deal with the rotten attitudes of these
upper-class students?  I am beginning to see the value in dividing the
class by grades.

My fear is that their poor attitudes will rub off on the younger
students.  Our seminary program has truly struggled for the past few
years for various reasons, so I've really been putting a tremendous
amount of effort into making the lessons interesting, getting the
students involved, and making it enjoyable, but most importantly,
being on time and being prepared.

But, this morning, when I arrived, some of my visuals had been
tampered with, the clock that we use to sign in everyday is completely
gone, and someone had glued my scripture mastery aids together, making
them unusable.  Now whether it was my students or not, I don't know,
but it was the breaking point for me and I lost my composure.
Ironically, I was teaching the lesson about Moses not feeling
confident about his calling to lead the people of Egypt out of
captivity.

Has anyone else experienced this type of struggle, and if so, what did
you do to get through it?

Thanks for your help
Barb G

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