When I look back at my journey from a new "green" teacher to a more experienced and mature one, it wasn't mainly the books I read or simply "doing it" that caused me to grow and develop. In fact, before I ever taught a single lesson to a classroom of children, I spent a year simply observing a wonderful teacher. It was the beginning of my mentoring.
Does your children's and youth ministry have an intentional and structured program for developing and training teachers? Consider a formal mentoring program that pairs up experienced mature teachers with new teachers and guides them through a model and process to encourage greater effectiveness in imparting spiritual truth to children and youth.
Connie Oman (Coordinator for Training and Classroom Support at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis) has developed a very helpful and practical model and process that can be easily implemented in your church. For more information, download a summary of her model and process, as well as a "Training Check-Off Form." You can also listen to her seminar.
(Image courtesy of Franky242 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)
