I enjoy teaching, and have worked hard to develop teaching skills! Over the years I’ve taken dozens of education “how to teach” classes at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and the University of Phoenix. They’ve helped me hone my skills as a teacher, lecturer, and choral conductor.
I’ve been teaching gospel topics for decades. Obviously, I taught missionary principles and topics as I served as a full-time missionary in Central America. As a Seminary teacher in Bountiful and Lehi, Utah, and in Burley and Rigby, Idaho, I developed a lot of supplementary handouts. Lots more of them during the 25-plus years I’ve served as a Sunday School Gospel Doctrine teacher in the several wards where we’ve lived.
Back in 2000, when my wife and I arrived in Mexico City as full-time missionaries, we attended the only English-speaking ward in the city. On our first Sunday there, we were called into the Bishop’s office just as Sunday School was beginning. The Bishop welcomed us, then called both of us to be teachers—I in the Gospel Doctrine Class, Jean in the Relief Society. “But,” he said, “our present teacher has to leave in about 20 minutes to catch a plane. Can you please start today and teach the rest of the class period?” Fortunately, the lesson was on 4th Nephi, so it was a simple challenge.
Helpful Handouts Work for Diverse Audiences
But I soon recognized the classes’ real challenges: those attending the class included the Area President, several other area-level Church officials, and two current mission presidents. But along with their high levels of knowledge and experience, more than half the class were their spouses and several dozen “regular-level” members. How to teach the class on such diverse levels each week? I taught the regular assigned curriculum each Sunday but supplemented each lesson with a “Helpful Handout” to provide information on a more advanced level. The handouts, very definitely, were much appreciated.
For more than a decade I’ve taught “non-preaching” lessons in the adult-level school evening sessions sponsored by our local school district. I’ve taught the history and geography of the Old and New Testaments, the life of Christ, world history, personal-history writing, novel writing, last-days prophecies, life-after-death experiences, emergency readiness, music singing and conducting, and several other subjects. I’ve enhanced all those classes with “Helpful Handouts”—lots of them!
This blog is intended as an outlet to share the wealth of knowledge contained in those handouts with you. Here’s hoping you’ll enjoy them.
Where to Download Helpful Handouts?
Abraham, Isaac & Jacob—Event Line
The complete 9-page Abraham, Isaac & Jacob Timeline provides in-depth access t all their lifetime details recorded in Genesis 11-50 and the Pearl of Great Price Book of Abraham. It can be downloaded here for free for 30 days following this blog post.
Prophecies of Christ’s Birth Plus Names and Titles from Those Prophecies
Scriptural prophecies of Christ’s birth and ministry are a listing from all the Standard Works, pertaining to those prophecies. The Names and Titles of the Lord Jesus Christ is a listing of all the names of the Savior from the above prophecies. It can be downloaded here for free for 30 days following this blog post.