Frankly Forgive

1 Nephi 7
The phrase that touches my heart in this chapter is "frankly forgive"
After Nephi's brothers and some of the sons and daughters of Ishmael tied him up in the wilderness with the intent to leave him for the wild beasts to devour, his faith enabled him to loosen the cords and be set free.
His brothers were still hard hearted, but eventually, they bowed down to him and asked for forgiveness.
Nephi said he did "frankly forgive" them. Meaning he honestly and clearly, with no  strings attached, forgave.
At the beginning of the lesson, I had "Nephi" come to the front and sit in a chair. Then I invited "Lamen", "Lemuel" and the "rebellious daughters and sons of Ishmael" to tie Nephi to the chair (use good judgment if you try this and make sure the "Nephi" you choose is good-natured (mine was) We talked about the natural man reaction to being tied up and left in the wilderness to die vs Nephi using his energy to call on the Lord for a miracle and extending forgiveness.
After this discussion on 1 Nephi 7, I reinforced the principle of forgiveness with this beautiful message by President James E Faust relating the tragedy of the Amish school killings in Pennsylvania and how the Amish community extended pure Christ like forgiveness and love. It is an example of forgiveness that is not often exhibited in the world today.
Because my husband has Amish "roots", I have had the blessing of being around the Amish community up close and personal over the years.
I set up 2 Amish quilts in front of the class today and displayed small painted wood blocks with scenes from the small town of Sugarcreek, Ohio where there is a large Amish population. I explained how the quilts were made by hand and that a true Amish quilt is always made purposely with a flaw that is not easy to detect but the creator knows it is there. (I have never found them in my quilts). This is a reminder that we all have flaws and need to be forgiving of each other.
This set the tone for watching this message from President Faust.
This is a great message to use during the Book of Mormon study this year any time the subject of forgiveness and love is addressed.
Here is a post I wrote a few years back with this same theme

Happy Teaching!

*Amish quilt image from HERE

Seminary Mornings

You know you are an early morning Seminary teacher when you enter the building with the moon still out and when you exit, you are greeted by amazing skies like in the photos below.
Each morning after Seminary, as I am filled with the spirit and my mind is on the tender mercies of God, nature seems more beautiful. I try not to rush too much to the next part of my day or I may miss the beauty around me.

This was from the Church parking lot right after class:

 I saw this rainbow from the main road next to my house.

It was a tender mercy for me that morning.

I love the clouds and sky in South Florida. I love them even more during the Seminary year when I am out early.
Happy Friday to a my fellow teachers!

The Student's Role in Learning and Seminary In My Pocket

Using The Proper Tools
The first week of class, we discussed the each student's role as they attend/participate in class, read scriptures, and study the gospel.
The following activity illustrates the importance of using the proper tools of prayer, obedience, an open heart, an open mind, inviting the spirit to our lives,listening to the spirit, an application of the principles taught in the scriptures
When you use the correct tools, you will get the full blessing.
Just having the scriptures (the pudding) is not enough.
We need to open them, pray, invite the spirit, apply the principles, etc.


I asked the class if any one would like to have some pudding. They could even choose...chocolate or vanilla. After the enthusiastic hands went up to volunteer, I chose 3 students to come up front to eat the pudding.
I gave each student a container of pudding that was still sealed tight and told them to go ahead and start eating.
Make sure whatever food item you use is still closed and needs to be opened and eaten with a spoon in order to get it all out of the container.

The obvious was first: They need to open the pudding before they can eat (compare to opening their hearts and minds when they open the scriptures)
Once they were open, I told them to go ahead and eat.
The next observation: They need something to eat with. So I gave them some utensils (tools) that I brought from home and told them to go ahead and eat...

Of course I gave them utensils (tools) that were larger than the opening of the pudding cup and were nearly impossible to eat with.
Next I gave them utensils (tools) that were somewhat smaller but still awkward.
Finally, I gave them a small plastic spoon and they were able to eat all of the pudding.

At the end of the lesson, each student received their first
 *Seminary in My Pocket item for the new year...

Yes, plastic spoons (your local ice cream shop may give you a few of their small sample size spoons if you say please and buy a scoop of ice cream in the process)

*Seminary in My Pocket is back by popular demand. I had almost decided to NOT continue with this but how could I not when most of my students brought their pocket filled with items from last year on the first day of class. They were explaining each item to some of the new students. So, yes, it is back, and yes, it must have been effective.

What Did The Golden Plates Look Like?

This article from the July 2007 New Era is a wonderful resource as an introduction 

to the Book of Mormon study.

"What Did The Golden Plates Look Like?"

Several of my students are very creative and artistic. Based on the descriptions given in the New Era article, I gave my students the challenge to draw, paint, sculpt, build, etc. a replica of the golden plates. Some of them are running with this challenge and it will be exciting to see what they do.

Moroni 10:4-5 Activity

Post-it notes are this teacher's best friend. 

Every word, comma, semi-colon, period, and number is on a separate post-it note. I bought the 3x5 size at the dollar store over the summer so that large words would not be crowded on a square post-it. For smaller words and punctuation, I cut them in half.

I place the Post-it notes with all over the wall in random order and they have to place them in order on the wall next to them.

Two other ideas using this same concept:

1)When I do this again, I will hand each team a Zip-loc bag with the Post-it notes mixed up in random order and placed inside the bag. 

2)I have also done this in "Scavenger Hunt" style where I tell the students that there are 45 (or whatever number there are) Post-it notes hidden around the building. They have to find them and bring them back to the Cultural Hall where they must put them in order to determine what the scripture is and that all the words and punctuation marks are in the correct place. (This works better with shorter scriptures as it can take too long if there are a lot of words to find and put together)

I find it is important that the students work in smaller groups so everyone participates. Because it is the beginning of the year, I allowed them to use their scriptures to put the words in order. No, wait, I required all of them to open their own copy of the scriptures and check their work. No looking over someone else's shoulder or depending on your team mate to do all the work. Once they had their scripture words in order, they rotated to the next group to check their work. Several of the students have memorized this scripture already as we started the year with reading Moroni 10.

Scripture Mastery Wall and Room Set Up

I bought the download for these Scripture Mastery Cards from

Shannon at The Redheaded Hostess. It was worth every penny to have

great color and picture clues to go with the key words.

Above the Scripture Mastery Cards is the Book of Mormon timeline.

In a perfect world,  I would love to leave my classroom set up all the time but this

is the Relief Society Room so everything (except for these cards and the timeline)

is stored in the cabinets. 

Below  is how our room looks each morning as the students enter and exit.

The exception is if they want their journal locked in the cabinet, they place it in

a bin near the door and I lock that bin up each night. When they enter, they retrieve

their journal from the bin rather than having it sit at their seat.

I tell the students that if they leave the room neat and orderly, others will respect

our room during the week and leave it the alone. Generally, this is true.

Our building is used by two wards, but the members and leaders are very 

supportive of Seminary and keeping our room neat and clean.

Below is our white board easel. 

This greets the students each day with a quote, questions, or review facts.

We usually read the quote together and underline key words or phrases.

Tuesday, starts week 3, already! 

Welcome To Seminary 2013

Seminary is in session!

Below is the quote that met my students on the first day of class.

As they arrive each day, they open their journals and copy down the quote and questions I have posted on the easel. Usually the quote is something from our lesson that day, but I thought that this was a great thought as we start the early morning Seminary routine. Each day, I feel like I am getting a better sense as to how to incorporate classroom journals more effectively.  They are taking notes during class discussions and many are taking their journal and note taking very seriously. I expect that several students will fill more than one journal during the year.

 This is how my students were greeted on the first day.

S.T.O.M.P.

(Scriptorians Trying Out Moroni's Promise)

 Above the drinking water fountain

 On the way to a fabulous year!!!!