One month or more in advance:

• Invite participants and plan/book the space you will use.
• Ensure that the curriculum guides participants need are on stock or that participants will bring their own.

Three weeks in advance:

• Obtain the length of cloth you will need.
• Prepare the clay pots for the devotional activity. Cut clay pots out of brown construction paper. Glue three brightly colored half-circles protruding from the top of each pot to be the treasure.
• Photocopy the Bible verse (appendix I) and glue to each pot.

Two weeks in advance:

• Review and practice the devotional activity and presentation.
• Will you need nametags? Refreshments? If so, prepare them.
• Prepare the posters for the presentation:
• Workshop Agenda  (click here)
• Classroom Set-up  (click here)
• Sample Lesson Objectives  (click here)
• Sample Lesson Recipe  (click here)

One week in advance:

• Plan how you’ll organize the small groups in terms of people and logistics.
• Prepare and copy the handouts and worksheets. Plan how they will be distributed.

Day of:

• Set up the room you will be using. Display agenda.
• Display or prepare to display posters.
• Arrange the clay pots, writing utensils, handouts and nametags you have prepared and plan when and how to give these out.
• Spend some time in prayer. Ask that you will be an encouragement to each participant. Make your own clay jar and allow God to work through you, just as you are.

INTRODUCTION (15 min)

Introduce yourself.
 
Display agenda:

• Introduction (10 min) Devotional Activity
• Presentation (15 min) Who are your students? How do you work with  Space, Time and Curriculum?
• Activity (15 min)       Make your time and space work for you

Devotional Activity:
Leader’s comments: “I’ve given each of you a clay pot of treasure. God has crafted you like a pot, unique, with strong points and weaker or cracking points. Use the clay pots provided and write one strength that you bring to the task of teaching Sunday school on the front, and on the back, write one weakness you may bring to the task.”

Give participants three minutes to write one strength they have, and one weakness.

Leader’s comments: “While I read two scripture passages listen for the gifts God gives us and on the treasure write three gifts God gives you to enable you to serve Him in this way.” (Allow three minutes for this task.)

Read Bible verses: 2 Timothy 1:9-14
                         2 Corinthians 4:7
Allow participants to share briefly what some of the gifts recorded were.

Leader comments: “Our weaknesses and mistakes are good in that they reveal our human-ness. God works through ordinary people with all of their failings as well as their strengths. The disciples are examples of this. God often uses our mistakes and weaknesses for his purposes. (Give a personal example if possible) The children we teach are not perfect either, but deserve our love and respect as children of God.”

Prayer: “Dear Lord Jesus, You have entrusted us with a wonderful treasure to guard and to pour freely into the lives of the children in our classes. Thank you for the treasure you have stored up in our hearts – your love, your grace, your saving death, and the model of your godly life. Let us hold that treasure with humble reverence and share it lavishly.  Thank you for making us unique as your children. Bless us and use our strengths and our weaknesses for your glory. We offer ourselves and our teaching as gifts of service to you. In your holy name we pray and in your footsteps we walk. Amen”

PRESENTATION (10 min)

Leader comments: “As teachers we have four major items to mange with any given lesson: Students, Space, Curriculum and Time.”

Students: The first task of any teacher is to get to know their students.  To know people’s names is the easiest way to make them feel comfortable and cared about. Here are some suggestions for learning and remembering children’s names. (distribute ‘Crowdbreakers’, appendix V) There are also countless ideas on the web.
As you get to know students, some things to think about are are: Age characteristics, learning styles, and faith development characteristics. Allow one minute for questions.

Space: Use of space is a powerful determiner of how people feel and what they are able to do and yet it is the most neglected aspect of Sunday school preparation. Many teachers arrive at their classroom, find it set up like this: (display poster) and leave it that way.

Classroom Set-up
 

This set-up is great for in-seat activities, typically fine motor academic type activities and discussions. It gives the teacher physical control because students are compelled to remain seated throughout the class. Over the long term, however, it reduces lesson effectiveness because it limits the types of activities you can do.

Be creative and arrange your space to enable you to accomplish your objectives. Rearrange or even remove furniture if desired. You’ll have a chance to practice this with your own space in mind in a few minutes.  

Curriculum: Your curriculum guide will provide you with lesson objectives such as: (display poster)

Knowing why we are teaching a particular lesson determines what we will do and how we will do it.

Show the length of fabric and explain, using the following illustration:

Objectives help us choose appropriate activities:
Suppose we have several meters of beautiful wool fabric. If the objective is to keep warm, what will we do with it? If the objective is to express creativity, what will we do? If the objective is to clean out our cupboard, what will we do?

Objectives help us interpret the activities:
Suppose the objective with the fabric is to keep warm. What would be a suitable activity? How would we use the finished product? (We would wear the coat or put the blanket on the bed, not hang it in a display case.)

Objectives allow flexibility:
Suppose the objective were to help someone in need. What might we do with the finished coat? If on the way to deliver it, we met a shivering child, we could give the child the coat and still fulfill our purpose.

An objective is the main idea or experience we wish to guide the children through.  When the lesson is planned, each activity is chosen because it contributes to teaching that main idea.  With the main idea in mind, you can be flexible when unplanned questions or events occur, and use them to contribute to reaching your objective.

Time:  Your baking is more likely to turn out if you follow the recipe – In the same way, your class will more likely turn out if you follow a predictable routine. Sunday school classes meet infrequently and are short, often one hour or less. If you keep to a consistent routine you will spend less time on transitions and explaining expectations and routines.  This will give you more time for developing personal relationships and sharing Christ!

Keep to basically the same routine every time and the children will know what is expected of them. This is less stress for everyone. Within that routine you can still have a lot of variety.

Here is one Lesson Recipe that works: (Display poster)

Each week you can put into each slot your own ideas or those from the curriculum guide that work towards your objective. In this way your class is different every time and yet predictable. The kids know where to sit and how to participate in each type of activity and you know what to plan and what comes next. 

ACTIVITY/DEBRIEF (20 min)

Help participants group up with their team teachers or other teachers who work with a similar age group.

Leader comments: “Now you’ll have the chance to apply what you’ve just heard to your own classroom. Using the following worksheets: (Space Worksheet: appendix II and Your own Lesson Recipe: appendix III)
Worksheet one is a sheet of space layouts. Use the sheet to sketch your own classroom with two different layouts.”

“Worksheet two is your chance to develop your own lesson recipe. Using your curriculum guide, work with your partner to develop a predictable class routine. Then each week when planning you can just plug in specific items into the general slot for the class.”

(Tell participants what time the session will end. Allow them to work but circulate in case there are questions. Give a five minute warning and then close in prayer.)

CLOSING PRAYER (2 min)

“O God, we thank you for being present with us today. Make us continually aware of your presence in our daily lives. Bless our efforts as teachers, helping us always to remember that you can work through us, through our weaknesses as well as our strengths – to nurture the faith or your children. Let our faith also be renewed and nourished through our experiences as teachers. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”