Month: November 2013

Jacob 5 Part 1 and 2

Jenny Smith / November 18, 2013

I did Jacob 5 differently than the manual.  The manual is set up for students who have not read Jacob 5, but as you know, the kids in my class read the text and so “discovery” type activities just don’t work for them.  How horrible would it be for me to ask kids to slog through Jacob 5 and then make them reread it again in class??? So anyway, I took the two days for Jacob 5 and changed it into a two part lesson with day one focusing on helping kids understand what they would read, and day two hearing their observations on what they read.   It took some finessing of my Seminary lesson chart to make this happen…

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Cell Phones in Seminary Class

Jenny Smith / November 15, 2013

Electronic Device Use of Electronic Scriptures Survey Report, 2012-2013 By Jenny Smith Note from the Author: I originally gave Russell Simon permission to publish this paper on his blog this past summer. Due to some (frankly silly and inconsistently applied) requirements from Seminaries & Institutes, Brother Simon set all Seminary related items on his blog to private.  I’ve decided to post the document here in case it offers any help to teachers who are wondering if they can or should allow the use electronic scriptures in the classroom. Introduction: I am a Seminary teacher in the Fredericksburg Stake located in the commonwealth of Virginia.  My current class of sixteen LDS Seminary students meets daily in my home before the regular…

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2 Nephi 31-Jacob 4

Jenny Smith / November 15, 2013

This has been a fun few days for me in class.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m back in the groove or because the stress level is back down or what, but things have been good.  The only issue has been that I’m barely keeping ahead of the lessons.  I did get two lessons planned yesterday, so I am now a single lesson ahead.  I’m hoping to get some more lessons planned today so that I can get back on track and stay ahead.  This last minute stuff has got to go. 2 Nephi 31 On the board I drew the gate with the path from the manual.  I followed the manual pretty closely on this lesson, but I…

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Hey, God

Jenny Smith / November 13, 2013

So this was quite a day.  My investigator asked to be included in our devotional and prayer rotations, so I added her name to our prayer bucket.  Today her name was drawn for opening prayer.  I asked if she was okay praying, and she said “Yeah, but don’t be expecting a fancy prayer.” I laughed and said we don’t have any fancy prayers in here — had she ever heard one?  The kids all agreed that we have a few kids who do give fancy prayers.  I think they meant formally-worded.  None of the kids give insincere prayers. Anyway, she opened up her prayer with “Hey, God.  So I don’t know exactly how to do this except that I should…

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2 Nephi 29-30, Flex Day

Jenny Smith / November 7, 2013

2 Nephi 29-30 Today I used the ideas from Teaching the Book of Mormon Part One to teach my lesson.  I loved the Fred example from the book and modified it into a comic strip form so that every kids could participate in finding a respoonse to someone who may not be interested in the BoM because they believe God has not shared any of His word anywhere besides the Bible.  I also used the twisty wood object lesson from the book (page 145), too, to show how the Bible and Book of Mormon work together to anchor the Word.  I had a couple of shims around and so I used those.  Easy.  I love TTBoM1! I used a couple…

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2 Nephi 27-28

Jenny Smith / November 5, 2013

2 Nephi 27 Due to some unforseen circumstances, I was completely unprepared ahead of time for this lesson. I had prayed to the Lord to let him know I had been doing my best, but I just could not get the lesson prepared, and went to bed.  I HATE having the kids come without a real lesson prepared. I just feel if they are willing to come sacrifice at that hour of the morning, I ought to have some spiritual meat to help them prepare for another day of school.  I was concerned, but I slept like a baby. Then I woke up fully awake and alert at 4am. I was able to prepare a solid lesson from the manual…

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2 Nephi 20-26

Jenny Smith / November 4, 2013

Tomorrow is election day which is a holiday here in the Commonwealth, and so I’ve got a bit of a break tomorrow.  Time to catch up on the blog. 2 Nephi 20-24 This morning a couple of kids had questions about BYU applications and Seminary endorsements.  I showed them the form I filled out and told them how I do it.  I explained that Seminary graduation is NOT a requirement for acceptance at any of the BYUs, but it is a factor. If two academically equivalent kids apply for a spot and one has graduated from Seminary and the other hasn’t, it’s likely the Seminary graduate gets it, but they know students who did not graduate from Seminary who attend…

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