At the beginning of my third year as a director of an LDS Institute of Religion, I feel like I am actually getting the hang of the job, well, kind of at least. Here is the best comparison I can come up with: For several years I served as a Forest Service Smokejumper. My first year was really tough, the "Rookie Year." The training was intense, but I got through it like many of my peers. But still, every time the fire horn went off on the base my belly was filled with anxiety, and when it was time for me to jump from the airplane to fight a fire, I was nearly sick with anxiety. My second year, the "Snookie Year," was a little better, I felt a little more comfortable under the parachute canopy. I hit the spot most nearly every time. By my third year, I felt good. Still some anxiety when I went out of the airplane, but I was confident in my ability to manipulate the parachute to the spot safely and accurately. My fourth year I owned the business of smokejumping. When I stepped into the door to jump out there was no anxiety and no doubt I knew my business and I knew it better than anyone around me. Smokejumping was mine, I owned it.
Now starting my third year as an institute director I feel pretty good. I have a little anxiety at times, like whether I am going to drive my institute choir director nuts, or if I will actually have any students in my classes.... But I feel pretty good about how things are going and more importantly where we are going.
Here are some thoughts I put out to my faculty today, these thoughts are really principles, which if practiced, will help my teachers and I have great "jumps" if you will, into our classrooms and into the lives of our students:
Principle One: Enroll each student. “…And their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God…” (Moroni 6:4). Please ensure each student who comes to your class is enrolled, if they have not signed up online at www.ldsces.org/cs already, they need to complete the registration sheet in class (please see attached). Far too many students will tell you they will take care of it online, but do not. The registration sheet then needs to be given to Sister Michelle Cooke or me so they can be input into our system.
Principle Two: Keep an accurate roll. “…All things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:35). Please treat each class as if it is not over until you have accounted for every student who comes to your class by taking roll and recording it in WISE. This can be a revelatory experience if you allow it to be.
Principle Three: Reach one more person. “…Succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5). Please reach out to students who have attended your class but are not coming regularly. Please also reach out to young people who have not come to institute who need your invitation. A simple text, email or phone call will often make all of the difference.
Principle Four: Help your students study the scriptures. “…It is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity” (D&C 72:3). Please take care to collect daily reads weekly and record it in WISE under “Schedule Details,” then input the number of reads in “Title” or “Description.”
Principle Five: Yearn for improvement. “And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church…” (D&C 82:18). Teach great lessons by the power of the Spirit so students want to come, but please do not ever be satisfied. Ask the Lord what went well in your lesson and what could have been done better, be humble and He will help you improve. See pp. 78-79 of the Gospel Teaching & Learning Manual for more.
Every day I learn something new, a better way to do something, a more efficient way of doing things. I don't have it all perfect, no way, not even close, but I am striving and the Lord is teaching me.
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