How's My Teaching

Matt Maka developed a wonderful Teacher Feedback Form. I would encourage each of you ask some of these questions of your volunteers. What a wonderful way to both humble yourself and grow as a teacher. 1 Peter 5:6

Thank you for your example Matt!

1. Was the material age appropriate?
2. Was the Gospel clearly communicated and connected to the OT passage?
3. Were my emotions appropriate for the topic at hand?
*It seems like children really pick up on emotions.
4. Did I seem tempted at any point by a misbehaving child?
*Was I impatient or short or angry in my words or tone?
5. Were the children pointed back to their parents when possible and
appropriate?
6. Did I repeat the "prop" enough/too much and did I explain it well?
7. Was I punctual with beginning/ending/bathroom break?
8. Were any of my comments/illustration not helpful?
9. Was there application?
*Application regarding the need to respond to the gospel
*Application regarding encouraging them to share with dad/mom what
they learned.
*Application regarding how they should live differently as a result
of this passage of Scripture.
*Was the application relevant for their age?

The Learning Pyramid

I came across a helpful learning pyramid that caused me to think about the way I seek to teach our children.

Consider the following facts about learning from David Sousa in his book, "How the Brain Learns".

Average Retention Rate of knowledge after 24 hours:
Lecture 5%
Reading 10%
Audio-Visual 20%
Demonstration 30%
Discussion Group 50%
Practice By Doing 75%
Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning 90%

May this learning pyramid guide us in the activities we prepare so that we are positioning our children to retain the truth we are privileged to teach them.

God Rescues Lot, "Grown-Up Sheet", Lesson #12

The Lesson 12 Grown-Up Sheet is now available. If asked for a password, please enter: narnia. I trust this resource will serve you further in your preparation.

Teacher Lesson Help

Two books that have really served me in my lesson preparation from "God's Story" have been:

1. Genesis: A Commentary for Children by Nancy Ganz

2. The Child's Story Bible Old Testament 1 by Catherine Vos

Both of these resources can be borrowed from me whenever you'd like. I have multiple copies. Just email me at mbradshaw@covlife.org.

Please stay tuned for the Library of resources that soon will be available.

Online Resources for Parents/Teachers

The Married Life Blog is featuring a review of the children's ministry lesson each week. They have also assisted us in developing a password protected page that contains the "Grown Up Sheets". Soon all of the "Grown Up Sheets" will be available to you as an electronic resource for your lesson preparation. Take a look at this helpful link. The password for the link is narnia.

Parent Resources

Eric Stewart raised a great question at our Teacher Training Meeting last week, "Do the parents know the significance of the 'Grown-Up Sheet'?" For those of you who aren't sure what the "Grown-Up Sheet" is, it's a simple 5 day devotional based off of the lesson plan that you teach from. Hardcopies of this are handed out at the door when parents pick up their kids. There is a general understanding that many parents don't understand how this tool is to be used or even the significance of it.

The Married Life Bloggers hosted by our own Brian Chesemore have asked me to post weekly to our parents. Look for it each Sunday afternoon. I soon will have links to electronic versions of our "Grown-Up Sheets" available online (both for the parents and you all). There are also plans in place to send a note to parents helping them to see the significance of this resource along with my weekly thoughts posted on the Married Life Blog.

Today I did my first guest post on their blog where I share with the parents of Covenant Life Church the significance of this resource. Check out my first post here.

Week 3 Teachers

December 18th we will proceed with Lesson #12 entitled "God Resuces Lot". Please note that we will not dedicate that Sunday to Christmas as we have done the past few years. The Christmas Eve Services coupled with the Christmas songs for the month of December will make up our teaching on the Savior being born.

Notes: Teacher's Training

This was an amazing time together. Thank you Eric, Al, Paul, Steve and Solomon for your participation!

The following is a summary of what we covered and material that was shared:

Your role as a teacher is two fold:

1. Coordinate the timing of teaching, singing, drama, puppets and so on to create a unified program in your classroom. *This requires communication with band leader, drama leader, and puppet leader ahead of time.

2. Take one truth from your lesson and apply it to one area of the kid's life. *Age appropriate application

A suggested order of preparation from the "God's Story Lesson":

1. Find your lesson plan book or CD (about a week before you teach).
2. Identify which lesson you are scheduled to teach.
3. Read the passage of Scripture your lesson is based on.
4. Pray
5. With a pen in hand, read through the entire "God's Story Lesson".
6. Write helpful ideas/illustrations/stories in margins.
7. Talk to someone about the lesson (Wife/Child/Friend)
8. Add any additional thoughts from those conversations.
9. Do the hard work of summarizing your lesson into a simple sentence (or one word statement for the Preschoolers). *Take your time here.
10. Use the "God's Story" material plus your ideas and summary sentence to create your notes for teaching.

I personally have found the "God’s Story Lessons" difficult to teach from. You are not expected to cover all the material that in included in the lesson plan. Remember that your job is to help the kids to take one truth and apply it to one area of their lives. The parents will take this lesson even further through the use of the "Grown Up Sheets" handed out at the end of class. One thing must always be clear, the gospel. Make sure you are making gospel connections. The "Where is Jesus?" section of the lesson provides clear direction in this regard.

Teachers sharing ideas and resources. How can we make this a reality?

This blog will be a vital tool in sharing ideas and resources. Bookmark it on your internet browser and reference it often. In the coming months I plan to develop a Children's Ministry Library with resources that will assist you in your lesson preparation. It will be located in one of our Children's Ministry Classrooms. Stay tuned.

Additional comments made at the meeting.
Are the parents of Covenant Life sufficiently aware of the “Grown Up Sheets" and it's importance?


Answer: No! I will be blogging to the parents of Covenant Life Church each Thursday beginning next week on the Married Life Blog. I trust to get the news out to parents through this tool coupled with stratgic announcements on Sundays.

The men who attended today's meeting had a number of great ideas related to what can be posted on this blog. I plan on posting some of their suggestions in the near future.

Greatful to God for you all!

Our job and the parent's role

Unless we equip the parents for the work of ministry in the home our efforts on Sunday are often met with minimal fruit. I'm sure many of you have noticed the "Grown Up Sheets" that we have begun handing out to our parents at the end of class. This sheet provides short devotional for our parents to take their children through related to the lesson their children learned on Sunday. Please be encouraged by the following email from one of our parents:

"..I am especially thankful for the new curriculum. Each day, we begin school with that day's "Get Into The Story." It is such a blessing to have this and have a guide to not just teach him of the Word but how the
Gospel is woven throughout scripture and to do so in a way a child can understand. Also thankful for the questions and especially the answers :)

But today was special...we read Isaiah 1:18 and went through the whole devotional and did the prayer, thankging God for making a way to wash our sins and asking for grace to want to wash our sins away. I pray and Keenan repeats. When we were done, he surprised me and said "Mommy, I want to pray." So I told him to go ahead. And he prayed this: "Jesus, please forgive me of my sins and make me be like you."

Your efforts are bearing fruit and I as a parent am eternally grateful!
Thank you for all your hard work!"

Be encouraged teachers!

Attached is a quote by Richard Baxter on the importance of enlisting the parents in the work of ministering to children.

Richard Baxter in THE REFORMED PASTOR (1656),
abridged and translated by my Pastor John Swanson

"How can a church be successful at building spiritual life in the people if that work is done by pastors alone? How can a church flourish spiritually if parents (especially fathers) neglect their duty of training their own children, when this is the primary way they can help their pastor? If God uses the work of a pastor or other leader to begin to awaken a person spiritually, a family that doesn't care about spiritual life, never seeks God in prayer together and spends all its time together pursuing pleasure in this world will often smother God's Word and always hinder it. However, if you could get parents to do their duty, what an abundance of good might be done! I plead with pastor and church leaders, therefore, if you desire the spiritual growth of the people in your church, do all you can to motivate and equip parents to seek God as a family in Bible reading, instruction (in doctrine), worship and prayer"

Teacher Training Meeting 12.3.05

Our very first Covenant Life Children's Ministry teacher trainning event is this Saturday (9am, Spurgeon Room). Looking forward to being with you all.

Below are the topics I plan address and get your input on. For those of you who are unable to make it, notes from the meeting will be posted at the conclusion.

1. Clear instruction on what is expected of a Children's Ministry Teacher. Answering the question: What is my role in the classroom?"
2. Practical direction on how to prepare your lesson from the "God's Story" notes. What to cover/What not to cover/What can I add?
3. Starting the conversation / Lending a hand: Teachers sharing ideas and resources. How can we make this a reality?

See you Saturday!