Maintaining a positive attitude in your classroom --
both you and your students -- is important.
Here's a great quotation from Elder Richard G. Scott's
14 August 2008 Commencement Address at Brigham Young
University:
"Radiate a positive attitude. Let your attitude be that
of continuing happiness. The challenges you face, the
growth experiences you encounter, should be like
temporary scenes played out on the stage of continuing
peace and happiness. Don't become so absorbed in a
single event that you can't think of anything else.
Challenges are not intended to be the substance of
life. It is by understanding and obeying the teachings
of God that your life will fulfill its glorious purpose.
That perspective keeps challenges confined to their
proper place -- stepping stones to further growth and
attainment. Life should and can be wondrously
beautiful."
It is very much a work-in-progress, but it already contains interesting information about all of the Standard Works.
I think that you will particularly enjoy the sections pertaining to the New Testament. For example, from the Main Menu, select the "Jesus Christ and His Gospel" item, and then the "Images of Salvation" menu item. You can read detailed explanations and information about several great New Testament works of art.
The "Joseph Smith and the Scriptures" menu option includes the text of the complete Joseph Smith Translation, and sections are being added to include comments made by Joseph Smith about various passages in the Bible.
In addition to resource information about each of the Standard Works, there is a growing selection of church history information, as well. There is even an "On This Day in Church History" database -- that you can search by date or by keyword. (I learned, for example, that Elder Dallin H. Oaks and I were born on the same day and month.)
Oh... And did I mention that it a tri-lingual website? In addition to English, materials are also available in Spanish and Portuguese.
I have no doubt that this website will continue to grow in usefulness in the future.
[Seminary-Notes] ==================================== FOR YOUR INFORMATION... ====================================
Finding and using just the right quotations from church leaders can emphasize and clarify gospel principles and help students to see practical applications, as well.
Glue-ins -- quotations from prophets and general authorities -- can be a wonderful take-aways from Seminary lessons. I like to share quotations, in the form of glue-ins, with students during class.
I find that glue-ins are the most useful to students when they have been linked to a specific scripture and then are glued into their scriptures near the linked verses.
Summer is a great time to prepare many of the glue-ins that you plan to distribute throughout the Seminary year. You can photocopy, cut, store the glue-ins. (Make two extra copies of each glue-in so you can easily handle any new students). Then annotate your lesson manual (for example, "Glue-In for James 2:17-18") so that you will remember to share your glue-ins during the appropriate lessons.
Additional information about glue-ins can be found in the online [Seminary-Notes] Newsletter Archive:
To possibly save your some lesson preparation time...
Please note that hundreds of New Testament glue-ins (each linked to a New Testament scripture) are available in the New Testament Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource Volume 1 and Volume 2 packets. The Table of Contents in both volumes list the specific lessons when the glue-ins in that volume can be given to students. (The lesson handouts from both volumes have been formatted so that you can easily turn them into glue-ins, if desired.)
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FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
==================================== In a 14 July 1981 devotional at Brigham Young University, Robert J. Matthews (who was serving as the dean of Religious Instruction), shared a comment written in 1969 by Elder Hugh B. Brown, one of the Twelve Apostles:
I am impressed with the testimony of a man who can stand and say he knows the gospel is true. What I would like to ask is, "But, sir, do you know the gospel?" I say it is one thing to know the gospel is true, and it is another thing to know what the gospel is.
Mere testimony can be gained with but perfunctory knowledge of the Church and its teachings, as evidenced by the hundreds who are now coming into the Church with but bare acquaintanceship. But to retain a testimony, to be of service in building the Lord's kingdom, requires a serious study of the gospel and knowing what it is.
Our responsibility this coming year is to help our students better learn and live the gospel -- not just to know that the gospel is true. Best wishes,
[Seminary-Notes]
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FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
==================================== Last week I shared some summer birthday card ideas...
Here are two additional birthday card preparation ideas that you may wish to complete during the summer months:
Prepare Seminary birthday or half-birthday cards for students who start Seminary NEXT YEAR (in the U.S. -- 8th grade students).
Prepare cards for your bishopric, stake Seminary supervisor, Seminary high councilor, CES coordinator, and anyone else you wish to recognize and thank during the year.
Add each of their birthdays and half-birthdays to your master Seminary calendar. Best wishes,
[Seminary-Notes] ==================================== FOR YOUR INFORMATION... ====================================
Summer is a great time to prepare for the coming Seminary year. Periodically over the summer I will share some ideas for ways you might prepare and "get a jump" on the coming year.
This week's suggestion involves birthdays.
After you find out who your students are for the coming year will be, ask your ward or branch clerk to print you a birthday roster from the ward membership records.
For students who have summer birthdays figure out their "half birthday" (six months after their birthday) and celebrate their birthday on that date.
Use summer time to print or create birthday cards for each of your students. Address the envelope and write a personal message in each card. I also recommend that you include a "little something" in each card -- perhaps a favorite General Authority quotation, a scripture mastery card, etc.
In the upper corner of each card, write (in light pencil) two dates -- the student's actual birthday or half-birthday and the "presentation date" (the closest Seminary day before their birthday when you will actually give them their card).
Then write the presentation dates on your Seminary master calendar.
But... what if your students change during the Seminary year? No problem! It's easier making a few cards instead of all of them!
To possibly save you some preparation time...
Please note that the following teaching resources are available in the New Testament Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource packets -- a birthday card master (Volume 2), scripture mastery first letter cards (Volume 2), hundreds of glue-in quotations from apostles and prophets (Volume 1 and Volume 2), numerous handouts and scripture-based activities (Volume 1 and Volume 2 packets).
[Seminary-Notes]
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FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
==================================== When you turn the page from Malachi in the Old Testament to Matthew in the New Testament, the little swooshing sound you hear is the rapid passing of more than 400 years of Jewish history.
Understanding the period between the Old and New Testaments is extremely important to understanding the New Testament.
Much of the Apocrypha was reportedly written during the missing 400-year period, and it is worth your while to become familiar with it. Each time I have taught the New Testament, I have received questions from students about the Apocrypha.
Doctrine and Covenants 91 notes that the Apocrypha "is mostly translated correctly" and includes the important counsel that "whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom;"
Here are two useful things you can do to start learning about the Apocrypha:
Read the excellent entry in the Bible Dictionary. It also contains short summaries from each book in the Apocrypha.
If you have time to read one or two books from the Apocrypha, I recommend reading First Maccabees (for some of the "missing" Jewish history) or Ecclesiasticus (for some excellent advice that you can share with your students).
To possibly save you some time...
You may wish to note that there is a large glue-in entitled "Changes in the Land of Israel" in the New Testament Volume 1 Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource packet that lists changes in government, language, location of the Jews, religious authority, priesthood, religious unity, idolatry, and religious centers that took place in Israel between 587 B.C. and 30 A.D.
There is also a handout entitled "Section 91 -- The Apocrypha" in the Doctrine & Covenants Volume 2 Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource packet. It lists almost two dozen excellent quotations from the books of Ecclesiasticus and 1 Maccabees in the Apocrypha. Best wishes,
