General Conference Preparation

By the way my students reacted when they received this assignment, I am anticipating an exciting General Conference preparation season in my Seminary class.


At the beginning of this week, each of my students drew a piece of paper out of a bag that contained the name of one of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Starting Monday, September 22, we will have 2 students per day report on the person they chose.

Each student has 3-5 minutes to present information in an interesting and informative way. I believe this is time well spent each day.

They are welcome to use props, visual aids, snacks, etc. as long as they are directly related to the person they are reporting on.
We discussed how/where to research
(great way to teach how researching on lds.org and other LDS Church sites)
and what details they may want to include, such as:
where/when born
education
profession
hobbies
family, etc.
Each presentation should include 1 quote from the person they research.

What was already fun for me to see was how excited some of them got at the very thought of doing this.
The goal is to create recognition and familiarity with the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles prior to General Conference.

We will do this later in the year with Latter-day Prophets and others from Church History.

On the Friday before General Conference, I will serve some of my family's favorite General Conference foods.

How are you preparing your class for General Conference?
Please share...

UGOTTAWANNA

Doctrine and Covenants Sections 11-12
Forms of the word, 'desire', are the recurring theme in section 11 given to Hyrum Smith, yet meant for all who have good desires.

We discussed desire, how do have desire, what good and righteous desires are, and what it means and how to be a part of the "UGOTTAWANNA" club.

This time of year, many of the students are joining clubs and school, participating in extracurricular activities, etc. We discussed how being part of the "UGOTTAWANNA" club brings eternal blessings, opens the mysteries of heaven, and blessed the lives of others.

If time had allowed, I would have had them make their own "UGOTTAWANNA" club poster

OR

As my friend, Cathy Borchardt suggested, take the word D E S I R E and write it across the top of a page, let the students come up with words under each letter relating to desire and have them explain and testify about the power of desire.

UGOTTAWANNA.

Happy Teaching!

President Gordon B Hinkley

This was shared by a Seminary teacher on our LDS Seminary Teachers Facebook page. Oh how I love and miss President Hinkley. This is a tender sweet message he delivered at BYU-Idaho in 2002 at the dedication of the new Gordon B Hinkley Center (which is an amazing facility we had the pleasure of visiting this past summer)

Oh, how I miss and love President Gordon B HInkley.
Click HERE for his sweet message.
It is on Youtube so if you want to show it to your students in an LDS Building, you will need to download it first.

Forgiveness-9/11

Forgiveness

When I first read this, I was not certain which lesson to use it with.

Tomorrow is 9/11 and this is a wonderful message.

So much forgiveness had to take place as we healed as a nation and as families and individuals.

God Bless America 

19 Questions

"19 Power Packed Questions to Help you Know For Yourself"

Thank you, Becky Edwards at Purpose Driven Motherhood for taking time to share

THIS

Scripture Mastery Posters

Three weeks in to teaching and these Scripture Mastery posters have proven to be money well-spent:
Click HERE for link.
The past 2 years, I have printed the posters myself and they were not as effective or durable.
The first day of the week, I post the Scripture Mastery verse on the front wall where it is visible to all. Each morning we repeat it, using various memorization techniques, and work toward having in memorized by Friday.
Something I find effective for reciting Scripture Mastery verses is:
We always stand while we are reciting the verse.
If the students know the verse, they face the back wall, if they are still working on it, they face the front wall and read the parts the need to. By then end of the week, most students are facing the back wall.

Church History Timeline

This week, my class will begin making a Church History timeline that will be added to for the balance of the year.
It will go from 1800-2015, including a spot for them to note when they were born.
(They are making "mini-me's" to post.

I found this Church History and World History Timeline that is very helpful for this project.
Click HERE to see.
Do you have any suggestions for making an effective timeline?