MR. D'S NOTES ON TEACHING
Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
COPYRIGHT 2001

Chapter 1

Maintaining your qualities as a good teacher.

Pray for your students. "The minister who does not earnestly pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts as if he thought himself sufficient of himself and therefore need not appeal to God. Yet what a baseless pride to conceive that our preaching can ever be in itself so powerful that it can turn men from their sins and bring them to God without the working of the Holy Ghost." Chrarles Haddon Spurgeon

Pray for yourself. God wants your intercessions on the behalf of others yet he is interested in hearing what YOUR needs are and how He can help you.

You must keep up with the times. Stay up on what is happening in the world. You can sometimes use current news items as illustrations in your teaching. You might use the murder in New York City to illustrate the depravity of man etc.

Keep up on the town events for the same reason. Taking the hometown newspaper may give you insights into what is going on at the public schools and give you topics of conversation with the students.

Get up a little earlier in the morning and catch the news on the radio or tv.

Another method of keeping up is to read books, magazines, etc. Keep up on what books are good etc. The more you read the more resource you have for illustrations. Magazines and newspapers are also a great sources for all sorts of pictures for your files. Use them for bulletin boards - lessons - etc.

As you are reading jot down notes about quotes that you might be able to use in the future. Start a 3x5 card file or a computer database of illustrations by topic. There are illustration services available that make these cards up for you with quotes from many different sources. They are a bit expensive but good. There are a number of illustration CDroms for computers as well as online illustration listings.

You might try writing down stories that you make up or ideas you have and develop them into lessons of your own. You never know how you will do until you try it. Some of your writing may very well be useable.

Another good way to be a good teacher is to socialize with your students. Take them out for a coke or something now and then to see how they are getting along.

By getting to know your students you may begin to understand why they are bored or disinterested. I've known for a long time that older adult classes are a drag when I am a student. I realized why in the early 90's. I'm a college age person inside. I've always worked with young people. I'm not really an older adult in mind set due to my socializing.

Be sure to conserve your time. Be a wise steward of the 24 hours per day that God gives to you. Use it wisely. There are many ways of saving and using time in a proper manner.

God seems to like busy people!

Moses was busy with his flocks.
Gideon was threshing wheat.
Saul was searching for his father's lost beasts.
Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.
David was caring for his father's sheep.
Nehemiah was bearing the king's wine-cup.
Amos was following the flock.
Peter and Andrew were fishing
James and john were mending their nets.
Matthew was collecting customs.
Paul was persecuting Christians.

And what are you doing?

You will realize as you get older that as a human being, you fill the time you have. If you organize yourself and find you have an extra twenty minutes a day, you will find something that fills that twenty minutes.

Being a good steward, you should be sure that you fill that time with something that is beneficial to you or the Lord, otherwise it may well be filled with inconsequential things.

Being a student yourself is a necessity. Not only your Sunday School lesson but be in the Word on your own for your own nourishment. Study other things - secular things. This keeps your mind sharp and ready to think.

Older folks as they retire find that if they just sit around that their mental as well as physical abilities tend to decrease. Those that find things to do or become involved in seem to keep sharp and healthy.

A teacher needs to know humility. You will never arrive so don't wonder when you will, nor should you announce that you have. "He that is down, needs fear no fall;" John Bunyan

We all continue to improve our teaching abilities if we only are open to try. We continue to learn as long as we use our mental faculties.

Be sure you are trying to minister to your students. Many parents have no concept of how to raise a child spiritually. You may be the only spiritual influence in the students life. Take time to read Deut. 6:4-9; Deut. 11:18-21.

God's design says all day - every day. Many children have it one hour per week - YOU! Be sure you are the best that you can be.

Be sure that you are used by the Spirit in your preparation and your interaction with the student.

Be a leader.

In leaders we see several types. The cattle herder - Drive them into the coral - feed them and kick them onto the truck, the cat owner - pretty please - won't you eat this niiiicccee food? Pleeeeasseeee, and the shepherd - feed trusting the flock and leading them to water - food and home.

BE A SHEPHERD!