[Teachldsseminary] QUESTION: bulletin boards

[Kim]

This year I have taken a poster board and wrapped it in some nice off-white
wrapping paper and put some nice ribbon on it to make it look like a
beautiful present.  I have the words "Unwrapping Christ in the Old
Testament" on it with a picture of Christ.  I think it is sometimes hard to
see Christ in the OT and my goal is to help my students find him in there.
Periodically, particularly here in the beginning to teach them, I am going
to give them a block of scripture and have them read through it and tell me
where they see Christ.  I did this as part of our beginning of the year
fireside with the youth and the parents using Genesis 1:1-4 - we were able
to pull out the obvious, god created . . ., as well as a couple of other not
so obvious ones - light, and in the beginning.  Each of these could have
been a full lesson.  As we do this in class, we are putting a label with the
scripture reference on this board.  By the end of the year the board should
be covered with references where we've found Christ.  My hope is that by
doing this in class that it will spur them into doing it more in their own
reading and they will eventually bring them in to class on their own for
devotionals.  

This year I have 3 freshman and 3 sophomores in addition to my senior son.
Four of my six younger students do not come from strong homes where they
have been taught the gospel.  I felt it was very important to review the
plan of salvation before heading into the bridge demonstration.  It was a
great review for the four who were in my class last year and I saw a lot of
lights going off as they prepared their portion.  We made a poster while
reviewing the plan of salvation (I think it is idea #2) that I also have
displayed and plan on keeping up for a while.  I also have a poster of the
bridge presentation of the plan of salvation that we are currently working
on building as we study Moses.  It is helping the kids to visually see these
while we study this.  

I rotate different Mormonads up - the one in last month's New Era with the
cell phone is a classic.  I had that on display and didn't even have to say
a word this year.  My student that I had to frequently remind last year
immediately noticed it and commented on it and I have not seen her phone
once this year so far.  They teach powerful sermons without you having to
say a word.  You don't even need to purchase the big ones, just tear the one
out of your magazine or print it off the computer.  

I also have an OT hero board going.  I am hoping to be able to find a
picture for all of our heros and then post the picture and have the students
tell me the qualities they admire in that person after we finish studying
them.  I will then type qualities they admire with a smaller copy of that
same picture and post it on the board for a reminder.  

One final one I have done this year for the first time.  I have found that
my students over the years really do not understand how to do a devotional,
a talk, or a class presentation.  After watching Elder Eyring's talk on
ldsces.org as well as a different talk (education week or something else -
it wasn't related directly to seminary or devotionals), I made a poster that
gives the steps to a well-prepared devotional.  I know that I have steps
that I go through before, during and after a lesson to make sure my lessons
have what they should have.  I have these steps on a poster at the front of
the room and we talk about them, particularly right now as the students are
just learning them.  Yesterday one of the students commented that she
thought the person giving the devotional did a great job with step xxx.
When I have them give presentations in class, we talk about which steps on
this chart would be good to have in their presentations.  I am finding that
having something visual and an acronym is helping them to understand better
how to explain, share and testify.  

I also post quotes that I have used in different lessons.  Because I am
teaching in my dining room now, I tend to rotate those periodically along
with the Mormonads.  I simply do not have the room to keep too many up at
once.  When I was teaching in a church building, I tended to leave them up
all year.  Let's face it, all our minds wander from time to time.  My
feeling is that if we have things up it will give them a place for their
mind to wander to.  I put them in expected and unexpected places.  Right now
I have glow-in-the-dark stars all over my ceiling after studying Abraham 3.
Every time we turn off the lights to watch a DVD (which is a lot right now
with studying Moses) it reminds the kids of that lesson and the
Ashton-Benson quote that went with it.  

~Kim
 Savannah


-----Original Message-----
From: teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com
[mailto:teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com] On Behalf Of Debbie
Ditto
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 4:36 PM
To: Free Email list for LDS Seminary Teachers
Subject: [Teachldsseminary] QUESTION: bulletin boards


It is time for me to start getting my room set up and I was wondering if you
guys have any great ideas for bulletin boards.  I am in the RS room and
there are two bulletin boards at the front that they let me use ........ so
what do you do ......... I realize that the kids look at those boards
everyday so I am hoping to make them speak volumes!!  ....... thanks .... d