Training for Teachers--Oct. 25 Leadership

Providing on-going Teaching for Teachers

In counseling with teachers, leaders should allow the teachers’ needs and concerns to guide the direction of the discussion. To help teachers think about how they are doing and what they can do to improve, leaders may want to ask questions that prompt careful thought, such as those in the following list. Such questions can also help leaders discover specific ways to help.

-- How are you feeling about your calling as a teacher?

--Are there some experiences you have had with your class that you would like to talk about?

-- Will you share some examples of how class members are responding to the lessons you teach?

--What are some specific needs of individual class members?

--What are some of your goals as a teacher?

--What can I do to help you accomplish your goals?

--What are some topics that you feel should be addressed in teacher improvement meetings?

--Create Clear and concise expectations concerning SUBS—emergent and non-emergent

--Treat Them Like Royalty by Asking about Their Lives

Leaders should listen carefully to teachers’ responses and help them find answers to their questions and concerns. Leaders can encourage teachers by helping them see their strengths and the good things they are accomplishing. When they offer suggestions, they should do so with humility and love. They should keep in mind the following statement by President Spencer W. Kimball:

“I find myself hungering and thirsting for just a word of appreciation or of honest evaluation from my superiors and my peers. I want no praise; I want no flattery; I am seeking only to know if what I gave was acceptable” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 489)

LINK---Orienting Teachers---LDS site

Improved Gospel Teaching—A Leader’s Guide

Teaching Guidebook—For Teachers

Scheduling Building

"Thus, none shall be exempted from the justice and the laws of God, that all things may be done in order ..." Doctrine and Covenants 107:84 (emphasis added).

The Church, our Stake, and our Wards are great due to many reasons, one of which is that there is order in God's house. As Bro. Anderson has informed me that the 2010 Stake calendar is 99.9% complete and that I can now begin to accept 2010 Resource calendar requests from the Wards for the Stake center, I beg a moment of your time to cover several items:

1. Activities on the Stake calendar do not generate a building reservation on the Resource calendar. If an activity requires a building (or portion of a building), a Resource request must be sent in by the organization that wants to use the facility. While the Stake takes first priority for Resource reservations, Stake organizations are not exempt from submitting a Resource request for their activities. This should be done by each organization as soon as possible, as the Wards are already planning their own activity calendars and need an accurate Resource calendar to select potential dates.

2. Bro. Anderson has been generous enough to enter a number of the main Stake events on the Resource calendar. As your organization goes through the process of submitting Resource requests, please review the Resource calendar to see, first, if there is already a Resource reservation for your event and second, if the details in the reservation are as you need (time, rooms, contact information, etc.). Please send an updated request if needed. The more accurate the information, the smoother the system runs.

3. It is possible that all the details that go into your 2010 Resource request (exact time range, all needed rooms, etc.) may not be finalized at this point. If this is the case, when sending a Resource request, use your best guess to set an approximate time range (including set up and take down time)and the rooms needed. A contact person and their phone number should always be included in a Resource request. A secondary Resource request can be submitted later if the time range and/or rooms need to be updated. This will allow the Wards and other groups to have a good idea of what is available on any given date.

4. Please request only what is needed. There is nothing wrong with scheduling the entire building if need be. However, each building is a valuable asset that often can accommodate multiple users to accomplish the mission of the Church.

5. The "Make this a repeating event" feature should not be used if you will be deleting Resource requests throughout the year. For example, the Youth dances will be on the 3rd Saturday of each month (if memory serves me correctly). However, at this point it is not known which Stake will host the event each month. Bro. Ramsey will submit a Resource request for each month and notify me which dances will be held at other Stakes, I, in turn, will be able to delete that month's dance from the Resource calendar, freeing the building for others to use. The Church's system is not sophisticated enough to allow one event in a series to be deleted.

6. As we have not been in the new Stake center as we move across the end of a calendar year, any standing events from 2009 (that would not be addressed in item 1. above) should be submitted as a Resource request, if the activity will occur at the new Stake center.

7. The Stake offices (the HC room, in particular) are not able to be scheduled by me. Any such request would be covered directly with Bro. Shipp, outside of the Resource request process.

I greatly appreciate your patience and understanding. While these items may seem rudimentary, we know that by small and simple things great things come to pass. Through meticulous application of a few procedures, unity in the Stake is fostered by limiting scheduling conflicts, avoiding misunderstandings, and circumventing possible resentment. From the point of view of the Stake center building scheduler, it might also make my job a bit easier :-) It will also assist the other building schedulers if Stake events are to be held at their facilities.

Bro. Pfeil