Tips for Teachers

Simple suggestions and reminders to help anyone who teaches children do their best.

 

1.       Good Teachers Are Pressed for Time.

-       There is always time to do what we think is important – All of us have time commitments and have more on our schedules than we can do. Good teachers make their class a priority. You have to plan and prepare and that means we give time during the week as well as when we teach our class.

2.       God Uses Our Efforts for His Good

-          Your efforts are worthwhile and may change be life-changing – You have no idea what God might do with something you do or say in the life of a child on any given Sunday morning. You make more of difference in the lives of those you teach than you realize.

-          Jesus is the Master Teacher – Follow His example of loving those we teach, always pointing others to God and using simple stories and illustrations and you’ll do great.

3.       What is Teaching?

-          Teaching is one person relating to another – One of your goals is to “connect” with your class each time you teach.

-          An effective children’s teachers knows the Lord, cares for kids, knows the Bible, and knows something about teaching methods – That’s the four basics of being a good teacher.

4.       Why to Kids Come to Your Class?

-          Adults come to belong – children come because they are brought – Give them a reason to want to be brought

-          Know your students’ names – It’s easy thing to do but it means a lot when every child knows you know them by name.

-          Look at everybody during the lesson – Eye contact helps you connect.

-          Include prayer in your class session – Let the class share their prayer needs and let them that God and you are both concerned about the things for which they are praying. Make your class a safe place for kids to open up and disclose their needs and apprehensions.

5.       When Teaching Kids, Help Them Apply The Bible

-          Assume nothing – Sometimes we think kids understand what we are sharing or that they are familiar with certain Bible stories but that’s not always true. We say things like, “You remember what David did in a similar situation. Well, it’s the same thing here,” Don’t take for granted they know anything about the Bible.

-          Point out the big picture – Help them to understand what this Bible story or truth means to their life. It’s one thing to know Bible facts and another thing to know why those truths are important to how we live and our relationship with God.

-          Model your lessons with your life – Personal examples help kids (and adults) understand how the lesson is relevant to them and their lives. However don’t always make yourself the “hero.” Sometime our students need to know we are human too and that we make mistakes just like they do.

-          Learning is not complete until it’s applied – Know something is of no value until we make it real and personal and practice it in our lives.

6.       What is the Objective / Central Theme?

-       Write your objective / central theme for the lesson – It will help you focus on what you want the kids to understand and what teaching methods, object lessons, material etc. to include and exclude.

-          Base your objective / central theme on one question: “What do I want the student to be able to do when the lesson is finished that would not do when the lesson started? – If you can answer this, you can concentrate on making your lesson real to the class.

-       Let the kids know your objective / central theme for the lesson – It will help you to focus your teaching and help the children know what they should be looking for as your teach.