These kids are incredible! They came in cheerful and talkative. They sang! They followed directions! They didn't groan too loudly when I took their picture! I noticed some neighborhood kids walking to school do double-takes at the group of beautiful teenagers coming out of our home this morning! They are impressive, and a powerful group for good.
Pillows are allowed for the hard metal seats, yes. Young Men walking to the High School will be encouraged to be gentlemen and carry music instruments and book bags of the Young Women. I actually insist on it. (Nothing romantic or dating about it, just the proper thing to do. Encourage the YW you know to BE ladies, and encourage them to encourage the guys to act their part. If we hop out of the cars before they have a chance to physically get to our door to open it, we rob them of the chance to be gentlemen. Sit and wait for it. It is worth the respect, I think.)
Did you know they changed the name? Instead of "Early Morning Seminary" it is now known as "Daily Seminary." Suggesting, perhaps, that it become a daily habit that we take on after high school, to our missions/marriage and throughout adulthood. Daily spending time with the scriptures is a great goal for all of us!
Students chose reading charts today. One is a pretty color-in-as-you-read fun one, the other has check boxes that encourage 10 minutes a day of reading the Book of Mormon. They will finish the entire book in 36 weeks of daily seminary with no problem. Or, they can do a Parley P. Pratt and read it straight through without stopping until they finish it several hours later. Either.
Students have all "adopted" a Scripture Mastery verse. Refer to the attatched Devotional calendar for reminders. They should be able to tell you what their verse says/means. If you have ideas on how they can visually illustrate a memory trick for that verse, please make suggestions! Each student is responsible for creating a visual clue, and giving a devotional on that verse in the coming month.
Special guest speaker tomorrow morning! Please be on time. Seats are slightly shifted to pull the tables out from the wall, just look for your large/small/tiny plates and scriptures and Scripture Mastery pictures to find your spot.
And students, think of another something you are thankful for to add to your blessings list (to put in the "Tiny Plates").
24 students---so for the time being, we are going to postpone Friday "breakfasts" and do something else. There will be educational food sharing on this Friday and I will talk to the students more about new traditions.
Thanks for your support!
(I had thought of making small & large plates during the summer, and then last Saturday was shown a website selling Small and Large Plate journals, but for more than I could spend on our budget, even reimbursed...Hack your own with composition books and Ensign/New Era pictures! Every day I want them to write something in at least one of the books. Assignments will be glued in for them. Trying different teaching methods to get the students into their scriptures and WRITING down their thoughts and feelings, without calling it a "journal" or making it scary.
8 comments:
You are so cut out for this calling! You are going to have an awesome year. Love you!
Love it! Sounds like you are doing so many fun good things! I wish I could come to seminary and learn from you!
Impressive group and ideas. I like the "Daily Seminary" change. I really like the idea of adopting a scripture mastery scripture. I'm curious about your guest speaker. Sounds like a great start.
I might have actually pulled myself out of bed if I had been a teen in your seminary class. I can't believe you have such a LARGE group of kids. What a blessing for them! There were two other LDS kids at my high school, one was my age. We had about 8 others in YM/YW but they went to another high school. Being the new convert was hard at times because the other kids had grown up together. Keep up the good work! I look forward to following along!
It is a joy to have been a part of such a successful first day. Tomorrow, I should take a picture of you teaching!
I had an institute teacher who had us turn in our journals after class every day and he would read them, and write back to us in them and maybe ask if he could share a thought with the whole class. We were encouraged to write down promptings or thoughts we had during class.
What a great Seminary teacher you are going to be. I worked so hard last year with my class, but wish I had more good ideas to inspire them to write in their journals. I wish I could have had a teacher like you when I was going to Seminary! Betty O. (Jessica's mom)
You inspire me, all the time!
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