Transcript

When I prepare lessons, I'll usually have gone through the chapter pretty extensively to get all that I can personally get. The manual is a nice--we were talking about a reference spot to get me the springboard for my lessons. And that springboard leads to--maybe it's acting out. If I can teach them how to find it themselves now, I've done the prep. You talk about paying the price. I've paid the price in my prep time. Now how do I lead them to it? And this gets to be the fun part. I want them to have that chance to discover. And sometimes there are answers that I hadn't anticipated because we'll go into a different take on a lesson or they'll present a different take on a lesson that's amazing. It would be easier for me to get up here and read out of the manual. They would just die in here. The real power comes in the students discovering on their own. And we've all had the experience of sitting in a class when students started to teach each other and we saw it happen. That's when real powerful teaching takes place. There are times when I've asked a question and there's silence in the room. And I'm kind of going, "OK." I start this little technique of first counting to five slowly, not one, two, three, four, five. Wait, because sometimes they're thinking about it. Sometimes re-ask the question another way. And in a case today, I think I did have to go back and re-ask a question in a little bit different take. I could still see--as you go through, there was silence. And I'm going, "Hm, OK." Then it hit me that Marie had this experience. She is willing to share. And I knew that any of these kids are willing to share about their lives. I'm just going to lead the bait and ask the questions because I know them personally. I think I engage the students in the scriptures because I love the scriptures. This is an amazing generation of students that I cannot even begin to tell you how well they know. If you will give them just even a little opportunity to open up their scriptures and let them find it themselves, they will find it if you will give them some guidelines. In the case of today's lesson, OK, this lesson was already broken up. We already went through it, reviewed it very quickly. They knew where to find it, so they were covering a matter of verses. Then they could share it. Let them have that opportunity to share because they may bring something in. They need to know how to get up in front of people. They need to know. If you're not giving them the opportunity in early morning seminary, you are robbing them. If you're not giving them the opportunity to find those principles themselves, you are robbing them.

A Student-Centered Classroom: A Teacher’s Reflections

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Sister Weller talks about her experience as a seminary teacher.
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