Active Training

Your teachers are a key link between your curriculum (hopefully a good one) and your students. It will pay to train them as much as they are willing to be trained.

It used to be that weekly (or at least monthly) teachers' meetings were the norm for Sunday Schools, just as weekly rehearsals were normative for choirs. In addition, quarterly training courses and regional workshops, and an annual or triennial national conference, were provided. These days it is rare that I hear of a Sunday School that offers a teachers' meeting once a quarter.

Your staff may be small enough, or so hard to assemble, that regular face-to-face group training seems impossible. What can you do? First browse the collections of ideas I offered in June 2011; you'll find it here.) Then consider what you can do one-on-one.

• Send an article to your teachers and meet briefly to discuss it after Sunday School or in individual phones calls with your staff. You'll find many to choose from at teachersinteraction.cph.org under "Read Some Featured Articles."




• Spend a few minutes before class reviewing the features of the teacher guide and other resources with each teacher, one each week.




• Invite teachers to suggest areas of need, locate and provide resources, and follow up by phone to discuss them.

You get the picture. If you just send or give the resource, it is passive; the teacher may or may not benefit from it. It is the active contact that provides accountability and feedback.

God bless you as you help others teach God's children His Word.

How do you provide training for new or continuing teachers?

What resources have you found most helpful?