The end of the school year is a good time to look back and evaluate the joys, surprises, challenges, and shortcomings of your classroom experience with children and youth. If at all possible, before your team heads out for summer vacation, set aside an hour or so to gather together and evaluate the year. Consider using the following questions as discussion starters, or email them as a survey:
- Did you begin the year feeling fully equipped and trained for your specific role? Explain.
- Was there a Christ-honoring atmosphere in the classroom in all of the various activities? How so?
- Was the teaching of the Word prioritized over and above other activities?
- Did the teaching time reflect the seriousness of studying God’s holy Word? Did it reflect the immeasurable joy that is found in studying God’s holy Word?
- Were the students (of reading age) encouraged and equipped to more readily read and study their Bibles?
- Do you believe that the students ended the year with a more majestic view of who God is and what He is like? Explain.
- By the end of the study, were the students taught truths that led them to see their need for salvation through faith in Christ? (2 Timothy 3:15)
- What evidences of God’s grace did you see in the lives of the students? In your own life?
- In what ways did you personally grow this year?
- Did the students see the love of Jesus through the teaching team’s demeanor, words, and actions?
- As a team, do you think you spent an appropriate amount of time in faithful prayer for each other and the students?
- What were some of the greatest joys you experienced in the classroom?
- Did your team establish good lines of communication with the parents? What could you have done better?
- What challenges or shortcomings did you encounter? Were they resolved? What could you improve upon?
- Is there anything that you believe should be communicated to the leadership of your department, pastors and elders, or the wider church?
This type of evaluation has many benefits. It can (and should) give rise to praise and thanksgiving to God for all that He has done through the year. It can be a means of expressing love and gratitude to the other members of your team. It can help provide valuable feedback to the leadership regarding future staffing, training, curricula choices, room assignments, parental involvement, and more.
So, end the year well. Gather your team together. Maybe even add a little food into the mix for good measure. Above all, end with a time of prayer—giving all glory and honor to Christ for all that He has done, is doing, and will do. By God’s sovereign grace, may the children and youth you have ministered to this year become faithful followers of Jesus all their days!
