1. LDS Seminary Teacher Helper Podcast Overview

Welcome to LDS Seminary Teacher Helper. This episode introduces you to me and my efforts to teach the gospel through seminary and to help teachers. Hopefully this channel is helpful to you. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  Please check out my other podcast, "Walking with the Savior," for daily inspiration on your walk with the Savior. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2414656/episodes/19150246

email: seminaryhelper@gmail.com

Please leave a rating and review and share with all your fellow seminary teachers. 

Transcript

0:01

Welcome everybody to my new project, the LDS Seminary Teacher Helper Podcast. My name is John Merrill Kirkman. I've been teaching seminary for nearly thirty years, and I wanna share some of my great ideas that I've worked with and adapted and compiled over the years to help you succeed in your seminary classroom. Now, all of these ideas are my own. They are coming from my own innovations and developments. Some I've stolen from other teachers, but none of them are official doctrine or teachings, and this is my own, and I'm responsible for the ideas that I share. But with that being said, I've used all of these strategies and found them successful and desire to share them with other people because I know they work. The intention of this podcast is to be short clips where I share my ideas strategies and teaching tips that you can implement in your class. The design is that they'll be short, brief. Listen to them on your way to seminary or on your way home from seminary with the intention of giving you an idea to get 1% better day by day, and may we reach our students and bring them to Christ. I must start with these two defining quotes that have defined my teaching style. So if you understand these quotes, you will understand what I'm striving for, what I'm aiming for in my teaching style

Track 1 1:35

Let's start with the first CES teachers and leaders. And this is the quote. Sometimes students come to the learning setting thinking that the responsibility for their learning rests only with the teacher. They want to sit passively and have education happen to them. This cannot be. Participation is one of the principles of edification. So the first thing is that I've got to create lessons that invite learners to not sit passively. but to be active participants, The quote goes on. One person cannot learn a gospel principle for another. The scriptures tell us that each person must work out his or her own salvation with fear and trembling. Parents cannot live the gospel for their children. Each person has a responsibility for his or her own learning and living, and each will ultimately be judged by how they fulfill that responsibility. The difference between focusing on the learner and focusing on teaching Or the teacher is illustrated by the difference in a teacher who says, What shall I do in class today? And one who says, What will my students do in class today? Or, What will I teach today? And, How will I help my students discover what they need to know? We want to be learner focused, which is, what will my students do, and how will I help them discover? Wow, love that. In around 2008 or 2009 ish, Gospel Teaching and Learning Handbook came out. And this great quote impacted my career so much. Under Decide How to Teach 4. 3. 4, it says, It is common for teachers to become excited about the Scripture block they will be teaching and the truths they have discovered. Through diligent effort to study, understand, and be taught by the Spirit, teachers are edified and naturally feel a desire to communicate what they learned. During their preparation, while this may be appropriate, it should be remembered that the purpose of any lesson is for students to understand the scriptures, be taught by the Holy Ghost, and feel encouraged to apply what they learn. This almost always requires more than teachers telling students. What they themselves have learned from the scriptures, and why they feel it is important. It also involves more than a teacher reading a verse, commenting on it, than reading another verse. Students are edified when they are led through a learning process that is similar to what the teacher has experienced during the course. Lesson Preparation Students should be led to search the scriptures for understanding and discover the truths of the gospel for themselves. They should be given opportunities to explain the gospel in their own words and to share and testify of what they know and feel. This helps to bring the gospel from their heads down into their hearts. As students consistently experience learning the gospel in this way, they gain confidence in their ability to study the scriptures for themselves. and learned by the Spirit. They feel a desire to apply what they are learning in their lives. They are also better prepared to explain what they believe to others and to bear testimony of the doctrines and principles of the gospel. So this quote, Students are edified when they are led through a learning process similar to what the teacher has experienced during lesson preparation. Students should be led to search the scriptures for understanding and discover the truths of the gospel for themselves. My whole intent and purpose is to lead, Students through a process of study to help them have a scripture study experience in my class. So that they are led to search the scriptures. for understanding and to discover the gospel truths for themselves. Those truths are monumental in my classroom i'm looking for participation, but I'm looking for participation that leads to connection with each other, connection with the Lord, and connection with the scriptures. Thanks for joining me and continue for more activities that engage students on the learning process.

6:01

And remember, you are awesome