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Had a successful Teacher’s Council last week. Spirit was present, in spite of my unorthodoxy…and not being set apart (part of the deal). Since it was the first, one, I focused on Loving your Students. Subsequent lessons will be driven more by attendees’ agenda… I won’t go into the details but everyone but one person was fully engaged with the topic — in both councils. They presented some problems they face in their classes, and everyone gave suggestions. I came out with some zingers based my decades of full time teaching that seemed to really enlighten people. They wanted to do it again….
As far as how I felt — recognizing I have a battered testimony and a less than enthusiastic attitude toward the LDS experience — I felt like I was in the right place. Helping teachers be more interesting and engaging to address the boredom we often feel at church. I didn’t have to hold any altar calls (I’m exaggerating), testify about JS as a prophet, or go on about how great the church is — it was about the concepts and mechanics of teaching. Loving people is a very generic, wholesome topic.
I left feeling connected to the Ward, for the first time. Only one of all the people in the two councils was someone I knew back before my own commitment crisis — everyone else was new to the Ward since we had left it three years ago. It was a fresh kind of experience.
So, I guess I’ve shown myself that even disaffected people who are not fully into the LDS experience can find a niche to belong. If their experience is like mine. And it happened partly because I had the courage to tell my Bishop “no” 4-5 times when he came at me with callings that weren’t suitable for me. I have boundaries, self-awareness, and self-assertion to thank for that one…
I’m glad it went well. You said future topics would be chosen by the participants. Are you all choosing ahead of time or sort of showing up and deciding what you want to talk about? Our ward, as usual, is behind the curve on this one. I really do like our bishop and his counselors, but they are generally not leaders and have a hard time getting things done. They’ve been a bishopric for a couple years now and still are planning next Sunday’s sacrament meeting this Sunday, including calling speakers (which sometimes happens as late as Wednesday or Thursday). So I don’t have a lot of confidence teacher councils will be underway in our ward anytime soon, despite the stake president’s push.
I asked them at the end of the meeting what topics they would like to know more about. I wanted topics deeply relevant to them right now in their roles as teachers. I had a list of them on a whiteboard I brought with me as inspiration, but told them they were not limited to those topics. One person indicated they wanted to know how to ask inspired questions. Yet another asked if we could dedicate time, right in the middle of the meeting, to dealing with a specific youth who has a bit of a know-it-all complex and puts the teacher down a lot due to her perceived lack of knowledge.
I will also be sending them the manual via email and asking for topics they want to discuss. Then I will ask everyone to come with ideas on those topics to share with everyone.
Too bad about your Bishopric. Sounds like they need some experience/tutoring in a) strategic planning b) project management c) execution and probably delegation. Oh well, that’s what you get with lay ministry sometimes. It’s a crap shoot.
I think starting with loving the class was a good choice – it is important to recognize teachers are teaching people, not lessons or classes, and it’s also the first thing in the manual. I also like that you have asked the participants for input on what they want to talk about because it makes it relevant to them and I think relevance is what is going to make the councils work. Likewise, that you allowed the discussion to go where it needed to go was good – again, that was relevant to at least one teacher. There are some great houses for sale in our ward and real estate in this part of the country is cheap if you might be considering moving. 
I chuckled — I love investing in real estate — best thing I’ve ever done. Only beginning to enjoy investing in church though 
Hooray for Silent Dawning. I am glad you had a personal success. The whole thing sounds wonderful. Well done. Can’t wait to hear how well they go in the future. Thanks Mom. i want to also give some credit to my Bishop — he responded to my probably frustrating refusals of callings and boundary setting by respecting those things. And he kept trying until he found something that floated my boat. Plus, he was willing to let me serve without a setting apart or formal calling. I think he deserves a lot of credit. This is the way I think a good, non-judgmental leader SHOULD behave to someone who is still recovering from a spate of abuses suffered in the church. So, hooray for my Bishop as well. He was not without mistakes, but I give him credit for being persistent, being willing to deviate from time-honored church policy on settings aparts, and not giving up on me…
Double win for both of you. Well done. SilentDawning wrote:Thanks Mom.
i want to also give some credit to my Bishop — he responded to my probably frustrating refusals of callings and boundary setting by respecting those things. And he kept trying until he found something that floated my boat. Plus, he was willing to let me serve without a setting apart or formal calling. I think he deserves a lot of credit. This is the way I think a good, non-judgmental leader SHOULD behave to someone who is still recovering from a spate of abuses suffered in the church. So, hooray for my Bishop as well. He was not without mistakes, but I give him credit for being persistent, being willing to deviate from time-honored church policy on settings aparts, and not giving up on me…
Sounds like some behavior at some point that needs to be verbally acknowledged in order to increase the chances of it continuing (and show that you areNOTjust just a finicky person they have to deal with) LookingHard wrote:Sounds like some behavior at some point that needs to be verbally acknowledged in order to increase the chances of it continuing (a
nd show that you are just just a finicky person they have to deal with) Think you mean “and show that are you are NOT just a finicky person they have to deal with” — correct Lookinghard?
Opps. Correct (and I corrected and boldedthat in my post). 😳
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