The Mini Experiment- Part 2

I knew when I started teaching early morning seminary again this year, that my blogging would suffer but I had no idea that it would actually just stop. This year of seminary has required a lot of creativity and sometimes I feel that I don’t have any creativity left to write and blog. With that said, I am trying to be better because I want to record these memories. I need to do so many posts but I will start with the last one that I left hanging. I have received a few inquires, “What ever happened with the students and the teaching experiment?”

So finally, here is the follow-up (better late than never).

At six o'clock in the morning, everything just takes a bit longer. So, when I presented the class assignment, I got a mixed reception but soon each group was working away.

The first group got up and took the information I had given them, read through it, and presented the information in much the same way as it was given to them.

(It's an action shot!)

The second group had a hard challenge because they had similar information to the first group but they had to present second. This group amazed me in the fact that the wrote out the scripture references and passed them out before their presentation (something I do most class periods) and they put together a game. The lesson as you remember was on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy so group 2 had written out different activities and put them in a bag (i.e. go shopping, visit a friend, go to a movie, etc.). You had to pull out an activity out of the bag and put it in the right category (Good vs Bad or Not Appropriate).

It was fun watching them present but it was more fun learning about how they teach.

Here are some things I would do differently.

1. Assign each group a different aspect of the same topic. That way there would be some overlap but hopefully you would not get two identical presentations.
2. I would also give them less information. I gave out quotes, scripture references, other references but I should have let the students search for the information in the reference material. I think that they would have had more buy-in to the presentation and learned more if they had to find their own information.

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I should be flattered that the students took a few of my teaching techniques and made them their own. However, this made me realize that every time I teach, I need to not only focus on teaching the subject matter but I need to focus on different teaching techniques. The second group taught their lesson much like I would have taught it and it occurred to me that I am being the example for the future teachers. No pressure there...all in all, it was a interesting lesson and I will probably try something similar again. Luckily for me, I got the whole year:)