Follow Him

This past week taught me knew insights about teaching.  I am in the middle of teaching a seminary class at Timpview High and have learned about the importance of following the Master Teacher in preparing my lessons.  I know the subject matter is different but I feel the same principles of faith that I have been learning this week apply to teaching English as well as Seminary.

I spent a lot of time preparing the first lesson I taught the kids.  We are in Isaiah and so I wanted to help them understand how he switches time periods without warning so that they would better understand when they read him on their own.  I made up mnemonics, planned a jigsaw activity, and worked on my management.  Everything as good teacher should do, except one thing.  I did not take the time to think if this is what the students needed and how I could make it relevant to them.  Because I omitted these two items in my excitement to teach them something that I knew, I limited the help that the Lord could give me in my preparations and in consequence the lesson did not take root in my students.

I went about preparing for lessons two and three differently.  First, I sought the help of the Lord, and acknowledged to him that I was insufficient and needed his help.  Having this kind of attitude changed how I prepared my lessons.  There were still well thought out and well managed, but now I have the guidance of the Holy Ghost to know better how to reach the hearts and minds of the students.   The change really was night to day.  The students became excited, participated, and learned. 

I know that as we prepare to do our student teaching/internships, if we seek the guidance of the Lord, He will reach out and touch us so that we can in turn touch our students lives and help them prepare for their futures.  He wants them to succeed even more than we do and He will help.  With Him, we cannot fail!