Natural Principles: God made people to learn certain ways and so we must work within that design.
In teacher training, don’t be afraid to introduce natural principles that line up with God’s design and purposes. Always run the natural principles through the grid of Scripture. Just because something seems to work or is used widely in public education, doesn’t mean it is right or profitable in Bible teaching.
Supernatural Power: Only the Holy Spirit can change people from the inside out.
In teacher training, don’t present only natural principles in the teaching-learning process. If you only work within the natural, your end result will be behavioral modification, not heart transformation. Always encourage teachers to pray through both the preparation and presentation of the Bible lesson, to trust God to bring the growth, and to see the Spirit as the true teacher.
The membership section of TrainBibleTeachers.com has a two page worksheet for children’s teachers called “Application: Heart Transformation or Behavior Modification?” that addresses this issue.
The introduction is a very important part of a Sunday School or other Bible study lesson. A three page worksheet included as part of a membership on TrainBibleTeachers.com suggests that the introduction is necessary to get students’ attention so they step out of the world from which they came and into the Word. As the worksheet says,
They come into class with a lot on their minds and hearts that can potentially distract and block them from hearing God’s Word.
- Do your teachers understand the importance of developing a good attention-getting introduction?
- Do your teachers realize that if time is short and they must cut something from the lesson, they should still provide a good introduction?
- Do your teachers feel free to adapt the introduction provided in their curriculum to their students, if necessary, to make it a better fit?
- Do your teachers understand how to develop an introduction that connects with their students?
- Do your teachers know different means of capturing students’ attention?
- Do your teachers know that the introduction is the last part of the lesson to be developed, if they are writing their own lessons, as they should first know where they are going in order to plan a good introduction?
(The worksheet is also available to non-members in the MinTools.com Store.)
Ministry descriptions, often referred to as job descriptions, can be good tools in teacher training. We often think of them for recruitment purposes to let people know what their responsibilities would be as teachers. They can also be used for evaluative and accountability purposes. Here are some ways they can help with teacher training:
- Go over the ministry description with new teachers, line by line, to determine where they most need help and then tailor pre-service training to their specific needs.
- Distribute a copy of the ministry description for all teachers to evaluate their teaching in light of these expectations, perhaps including a scale on which they can rank themselves in each area. Provide training for individuals where they ranked themselves the lowest.
- Part of the way through the teaching year, observe teachers in action and later sit down in private consultation with them. Use the job description as an assessment tool to review how you perceive they are doing in accomplishing the various responsibilities and what kind of training you believe could help them.
- Use the broad responsibilities listed in the ministry as an outline or framework around which to build an on-going teacher training plan during teachers’ meetings.
The membership section of TrainBibleTeachers.com includes a page in the administrative section with links to samples and lists of responsibilities for teachers. A template is also provided from TrainBibleTeachers.com with a basic outline of what can be included in a ministry description that you can fill in to tailor to your situation.
As suggested in a previous post, it is a disservice not to train teachers about the age they teach.
Here is another reason why:
Without an understanding of the age level they teach, teachers might not make truth relevant to their students.
Teachers must tap into the needs and interests of their students, which will vary according to age development, in order to make truth relevant. We are not talking about compromising truth, just looking at from an angle that will tend to matter more to your students, that will relate to their lives.
The same truth, taught in different age groups, will have different slants to make it relevant to the various groups.
The membership section of TrainBibleTeachers.com includes a 3 page worksheet on how Understanding Age Level Characteristics & Needs Helps You Make Truths Relevant for Students. It is based on an article in the MinTools.com blog, Making Even Well-Known Truths Relevant.
