All-Hands Institute Orientation January 9, 2014

All students and faculty are invited to attend an institute orientation for the spring semester 2014 on January 9, from 7:00-8:30PM at the Jamboree building. The purpose of the orientation is to direct all students to available opportunities for institute throughout the Colorado Springs area. After the orientation, the Pathways Book of Mormon class will meet for a few moments.

Faculty and Seminary & Institute of Religion missionaries will be introduced to students. Please plan to attend. Classes will convene the following week beginning on Tuesday evening. The important part: REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED!

More On Makeup Work

Another reminder: We are getting soooo close to the end of the term! Please help your students complete and receive credit for their institute course.

This is what I am sharing with all my classes regarding completing their courses this semester:

If you have fallen below 75% attendance in your institute course, you need to complete makeup work to receive credit for the course. There are a lot of things I will consider for makeup work, it really is a matter of you and I working together to get the work done. The key thing I will be looking for is equal work for class time lost; that means that if you miss a class, what you do for makeup work should be commensurate in time, effort, and related to what you missed in class.

Here are some examples of makeup work I have accepted in the past:

1. Service project brief reports. The report should connect the service to the course you are enrolled in and doing makeup work for. And I do mean "brief." A short write up, no more than a typed, double spaced page is sufficient. 
2. Talks given in Sacrament Meeting or in Stake Conference. Show me your notes and tell me how it went, and show me connections to the material missed from class.
3. Abstracting General Conference talks. This means writing a brief paragraph for General Conference talks and turning them into me. Typically for an institute class, which are usually about 90 minutes, I would expect a student to read and abstract at least two general conference talks. Remember, I need to see how the talks connect to the class missed. 
4. Independent study work. Completing assigned independent study work for the class periods missed and emailing your completed work to me.
5. Hard labor. Yup, you read that right: Hard labor. I had a student once who had missed just one too many classes to receive credit and graduate from seminary. It was a nice day and I needed to move some wood from one place to another, so he came over and helped me. Took us about an hour and a half, we got the job done, we talked about things he had missed in seminary, and he got credit for the class. I must admit, this is actually one of my favorite memories of my days teaching seminary! 

There are lots of ways to complete makeup work for institute! Here is the key: If you have an idea of something you would like to do for makeup work, get it approved with me before you do it! Below is the Seminary & Institutes of Religion policy on makeup work.

S&I Policy on Makeup Work: “When makeup assignments are required, they should be given to bless and not punish the student. Specific assignments are determined by the teacher and should generally be related to the work missed. The assignments should be meaningful, reasonable, and individually suited to the needs and abilities of the student. Please be aware of the following:

• Attendance above the minimum requirement in one term may not be used as makeup work in another term.

• Students not meeting the attendance requirement and not completing the makeup work should not be given credit for the course.

• Teachers should take the initiative to work with students who have not yet received credit to assist them in completing the course.

• Students are permitted to do makeup work during the years they are enrolled in secondary education and up to one year after completing their secondary education.”

Explain, Share & Testify

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving! This week I am working on explain, share and testify, section 2.6 of the Gospel Teaching and Learning Handbook (GTLH) for Seminary & Institute Teachers. I tried to focus on just "explain," but I did not feel like I did a very good job at that simply because it needs connected closely with it's sisters, share and testify.

As an overview, the GTLH states, "Explaining doctrines and principles, sharing insights and relevant experiences, and testifying of divine truth clarifies a person's understanding of gospel doctrines and principles and improves their ability to teach the gospel to others. As students explain, share, and testify, they are often led by the Holy Ghost to a deeper testimony of the very things they are expressing. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, their words and expressions can also have a significant impact on the hearts and minds of their peers or others who are listening" (GTLH, p. 31).

Here are some brief definitions and explanations we will use to help us better practice explain, share and testify:

1. Explain: "Understanding of the scriptures is increased when students and teachers explain the scriptures to each other" and "Preparing to clearly and simply tell what a passage of scripture means encourages teachers and students to ponder the verses, organize their thoughts, and invite the Holy Ghost to teach them" (GTLH, p. 32). 
2. Share: "Both teachers and students should have the opportunity to share their insights and understanding as well as personal experiences they have had with a doctrine or principle. They can also relate experiences they have witnessed in the lives of others" (GTLH, p. 32)
3. Testify: "When students have explained gospel principles and shared their experiences in applying them in their lives, they are better prepared to testify of what they have come to believe....Testifying gives opportunity for the Holy Ghost to bear witness of specific doctrines and principles of the restored gospel" (GTLH, p. 33). 

Here are two great video clips from the New Youth Curriculum which might help you better understand "share" and "testify." 

Share Stories and Examples*

Invite Us to Testify*

On Monday evening in my AFA institute class, we studied the Articles of Faith. After providing a brief history of the origins of the Articles of Faith, I told the students that I desired to invite them to practice explaining doctrines and principles, sharing insights, and testifying of doctrines and principles from the Articles of Faith. Here is how I accomplished that:

1. I started by selecting an Article of Faith, and with one student, explaining what I thought a particular Article of Faith meant to the student. 
2. Then I shared a personal experience from my life demonstrating a way I have applied the Article of Faith to my life.
3. Next, I simply testified of what the Article of Faith has come to mean to me. 
4. As we went along, I asked students if they could clearly see evidence of explaining, sharing and testifying, and listened to their thoughts.
5. Then I turned it over to the students; I asked them each to pick one Article of Faith, and do what I did, but better. I showed them the videos above to help further their understandings as we went along.

One thing I was most pleased about was it was probably the most active I have ever seen this particular class. Every student participated, every student was involved, and the Spirit of the Lord was present. At the end of our practicing, I extended an invitation.

As students participated, naturally the invitation to act followed. In this case, the invitation was to memorize an Article of Faith this week, and then to find a nonmember of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to explain the Article of Faith to, share why it is meaningful to them, and to testify of it's truthfulness and then to report back to me when they complete the task. I am excited to see how that part goes! 

May we never forget to extend invitations to act! This is where so much of the growth will occur in our students. Below is another video from the New Youth Curriculum on inviting our students to act. 

Invite Us to Act*

I invite you, each of you teaching institute to act, now. Help your students explain, share and testify of gospel doctrines and truths. I know that as we do so, the Holy Ghost will teach them and give them insights and understandings specifically catered to them, to their individual needs. And I promise you, the Lord will enhance your efforts! He does so for me all of the time, I am just not good enough on my own. He will not fail you as you put forth your very best efforts to enable your students. I so testify of this!

*If you have any trouble watching the videos, they can be found at: https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/train?lang=eng