This last week I taught my Elder's quorum a lesson on Teaching. We had been hitting home teaching pretty hard the last few months and so I wanted to bring a fresh angle to the table. My lesson was taken directly from my Geoff's lectures. It's funny how we don't really appreciate how well something is taught until we try and recreate it ourselves. I did notice, however, that I was instantly a better learner when I decided that I wanted to reteach what was being taught. I used several mixed methods of presenting information to break up the monotony of a typical EQ atmosphere and also used group work to give everyone a chance to participate.
Jerry is a middle aged man with several mental and physical handicaps. He is allowed to attend church when accompanied by a full time staff from his 'halfway home.' Jerry had no fear of speaking up, whether invited to or not. His hand came up every time that I asked the class a question. In the beginning I honored his hand raise each time and called on him to speak. His comments weren't always related and he was incredibly difficult to understand. I felt a little foolish when I couldn't fully validate his comments by summing up what he had said or agree/disagreeing with him. Soon I learned that if I wanted the flow of my lesson to improve I would have to stop calling on Jerry. I felt a little bad, not calling on him as often... But the flow of my lesson improved dramatically.
I think that as a teacher facilitates learning that there has to be a structure with boundaries in place even during an 'open ended' style lesson that is so prevalent in the modern LDS Elders Quorum.
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