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Gaining Respect from my Sunday School Students
Hello everyone,
I serve a 3rd grade Sunday School class at my church with another servant. I am 18 years old and the other servant is 19. We have about 4 or 5 students that come regularly and we seem to have a hard time gaining their respect and attention. They misbehave and yell and scream at each other for maybe 60-70% of the time in class (1 hour). We try to teach them with love and care but they just basically walk all over us. They don't care what we have to say and I have even resorted to temporarily removing a student from the class. We try to teach them as much as we can but they just continue to misbehave and talk as if we're not even speaking. At the end of the class only maybe 2 of the students can tell us what the lesson was about but without many details. They don't even respect the 2 minutes of prayer time at the end of the class and they continue to talk regardless of what we tell them. But sometimes one of the older servants of the church walks into the class and the kids immediately start behaving and they pay attention to the lesson for a few seconds. But once the older servant walks out of the class they continue to talk and scream as if nothing happened.
All I ask is if anyone has any advice for me and my fellow Sunday School servants who are struggling. Thank You and pray for me and my students.
I serve a 3rd grade Sunday School class at my church with another servant. I am 18 years old and the other servant is 19. We have about 4 or 5 students that come regularly and we seem to have a hard time gaining their respect and attention. They misbehave and yell and scream at each other for maybe 60-70% of the time in class (1 hour). We try to teach them with love and care but they just basically walk all over us. They don't care what we have to say and I have even resorted to temporarily removing a student from the class. We try to teach them as much as we can but they just continue to misbehave and talk as if we're not even speaking. At the end of the class only maybe 2 of the students can tell us what the lesson was about but without many details. They don't even respect the 2 minutes of prayer time at the end of the class and they continue to talk regardless of what we tell them. But sometimes one of the older servants of the church walks into the class and the kids immediately start behaving and they pay attention to the lesson for a few seconds. But once the older servant walks out of the class they continue to talk and scream as if nothing happened.
All I ask is if anyone has any advice for me and my fellow Sunday School servants who are struggling. Thank You and pray for me and my students.
Comments
I wish I had more advice to give you. I'm not sure if anything I've said is helpful in any way, but when I read what you wrote, my heart went out to you.
I'll be praying for you and your class.
And don't forget to be fun too.. not too strict, not too much of a softy. Games every now and then, candy, ice-cream.. all this attracts their attention.
One other thing.. ask them what they want to hear in sunday school. Topics that interest them. What do they want to do? They'll more likely listen to those!
Hope that helped shwaya
Peace.
I don't know what I would say to Abouna because he is very strict against kids who misbehave.
~~try asking if you can get an older servant to teach (or supervise) your class.
That scenario isn't reasonable in my situation. The older servant goes around to all of the classes to help and it would not be fair to ask him to stay with just my class. And btw there are other classes that behave just as bad or even worse.
Thank You for all of your advice so far.
Pray for me and my students.
when they get unruly, have some routine, like, be quiet now, hands on your head, now fold your arms, now turn around, now lets see who is the first person to be sitting down quietly? they would all go back to mum and dad with a picture of the Bible story we had discussed. (we would do drama to act out the story or use puppets etc.) after this they were quite calm. we were exhausted but the kids loved sunday school so much they would trust us with their personal problems etc.
obviously you need to change these ideas a bit with older children.
i think the most important thing is to pray for every child in your class a least once in the week by name and to spend as much time preparing to do the 'story' as if you were preaching to the whole congregation (like more than a couple of hours).
being a children's teacher is equally as important as being a priest, hmm, maybe we all need more training in this!
Maybe you can try by making Sunday school a fun experience. Try to involve them as much as possible and have them contribute to the class, more of an interactive thing. If the weather is good maybe have it outdoors. Ask them what sort of things they would like to do, get their feedback on what they like and dislike.
You pretty much answered your own question.. try asking if you can get an older servant to teach (or supervise) your class. I also recommend trying to toughen up. It seems they dont listen because they're not scared of you (not saying that they should be.. but they should fear you somehow). Yell at them, threaten them, punish them.. sorry if I sound harsh, but this should be done in every sunday school class. The teachers should be respected, and if they're not then you are being too much of a push-over. Show your kids that your the boss.. if they talk then don't give the lesson. Tell them we are going to stay here until your quiet, I'm not gonna start until EVERYONE is quiet. That usually works, because they want to get out early. If you still have trouble then talk to the parents of the kids. Tell them their child is being disruptive in class and you don't know what to do with them. Most parents will be shocked b/c they think their child is the most perfect thing ever, so when you tell them they'll realize and punish the kid.. sometimes.
And don't forget to be fun too.. not too strict, not too much of a softy. Games every now and then, candy, ice-cream.. all this attracts their attention.
One other thing.. ask them what they want to hear in sunday school. Topics that interest them. What do they want to do? They'll more likely listen to those!
Hope that helped shwaya
Peace.
Yelling at them and threatening them is the worst thing you want to do, keep loving them and just try to do more activities. I taught a class for a short while and that got me no where. I'm not saying be completely lenient but give them a little space to be children. Like user00 said, they might only see each other once or twice a week so they just want to have fun with each other. They actually responded more to showing them love and acting as a friend. Don't be so strict that they can't laugh or have a little fun, remember they are children. When someone is out of line, instead of embarassing them, just sit with them after class and talk to him one on one to show that you are actually concerned about this ONE person. You have to realize that even if you only get to one kid in that class, thats at least one more person you have brought to Christ. You can't save all and forget about the ones who actually pay attention. Then they will see that you don't care about them and then they have no motivation to be good either. I do like the small reward system that user00 said. They are little kids so anything simple like chocolates or little toys or even a sticker will make a difference. Hope this helps
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
[quote author=Tεκcoνι μέσα Πεχριcτoc link=topic=7610.msg99914#msg99914 date=1233540750]
You pretty much answered your own question.. try asking if you can get an older servant to teach (or supervise) your class. I also recommend trying to toughen up. It seems they dont listen because they're not scared of you (not saying that they should be.. but they should fear you somehow). Yell at them, threaten them, punish them.. sorry if I sound harsh, but this should be done in every sunday school class. The teachers should be respected, and if they're not then you are being too much of a push-over. Show your kids that your the boss.. if they talk then don't give the lesson. Tell them we are going to stay here until your quiet, I'm not gonna start until EVERYONE is quiet. That usually works, because they want to get out early. If you still have trouble then talk to the parents of the kids. Tell them their child is being disruptive in class and you don't know what to do with them. Most parents will be shocked b/c they think their child is the most perfect thing ever, so when you tell them they'll realize and punish the kid.. sometimes.
And don't forget to be fun too.. not too strict, not too much of a softy. Games every now and then, candy, ice-cream.. all this attracts their attention.
One other thing.. ask them what they want to hear in sunday school. Topics that interest them. What do they want to do? They'll more likely listen to those!
Hope that helped shwaya
Peace.
Yelling at them and threatening them is the worst thing you want to do, keep loving them and just try to do more activities. I taught a class for a short while and that got me no where. I'm not saying be completely lenient but give them a little space to be children. Like user00 said, they might only see each other once or twice a week so they just want to have fun with each other. They actually responded more to showing them love and acting as a friend. Don't be so strict that they can't laugh or have a little fun, remember they are children. When someone is out of line, instead of embarassing them, just sit with them after class and talk to him one on one to show that you are actually concerned about this ONE person. You have to realize that even if you only get to one kid in that class, thats at least one more person you have brought to Christ. You can't save all and forget about the ones who actually pay attention. Then they will see that you don't care about them and then they have no motivation to be good either. I do like the small reward system that user00 said. They are little kids so anything simple like chocolates or little toys or even a sticker will make a difference. Hope this helps
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
haha, stickers don't make much of a difference, ΙΙδιακον. Anyways, these kids are taking advantage of their teacher. And if the teacher continues to be a softy and just play games to "make things better" then this will get the teacher no where. Actually they might lose the little respect they had from the children to begin with. Playing games, having fun and treats are all good when the kids ALREADY behave and respect the teacher. I still say you need to toughen up a bit on them. Trust me on this!
Peace.
Hello everyone,
I serve a 3rd grade Sunday School class at my church with another servant. I am 18 years old and the other servant is 19. We have about 4 or 5 students that come regularly and we seem to have a hard time gaining their respect and attention. They misbehave and yell and scream at each other for maybe 60-70% of the time in class (1 hour). We try to teach them with love and care but they just basically walk all over us. They don't care what we have to say and I have even resorted to temporarily removing a student from the class. We try to teach them as much as we can but they just continue to misbehave and talk as if we're not even speaking. At the end of the class only maybe 2 of the students can tell us what the lesson was about but without many details. They don't even respect the 2 minutes of prayer time at the end of the class and they continue to talk regardless of what we tell them. But sometimes one of the older servants of the church walks into the class and the kids immediately start behaving and they pay attention to the lesson for a few seconds. But once the older servant walks out of the class they continue to talk and scream as if nothing happened.
All I ask is if anyone has any advice for me and my fellow Sunday School servants who are struggling. Thank You and pray for me and my students.
Hello,
Well, first of all, I think it is good that you've asked for advice. That's a sign of humility and that you do in fact care about your class.
You must remember ONE thing though. There's a huge difference between a sunday school teacher and a school teacher. Although both teachers convey knowledge, a sunday school teacher is different:
He or she is different in that what you must convey is Christ's love. Not your personality. You must make them love Christ. Don't worry too much if they don't respect you, or listen to you. Make sure that you are longsuffering, and kind with them. Never hit them, and NEVER ask someone to leave for being naughty. Never do that.
We were in a similar role, and I can tell you, the naughiest kids in our sunday school class, those that made our lives HELL - are now priests and really good servants. We all had to patient with them. They used to take the cymbals from us and throw them on the floor. They used to hit us for trying to pray. We all endured them.
You must be longsuffering, but you will never reach your goal if you focus on "me". Your question has the "me" in it, which you need to remove when you decide on becoming a servant. You need to focus on Him (Christ). That's it. Don't think of yourself, nor if they respect you or not, nor if they love you or not. They are not really meant to love you - who said? They are meant to love Christ from you.
Pray for your class, but pray more that you can be an instrument of the Holy Spirit. That God works through you to enlighten the lives of these children.
I'm in a high school class (I'm a student), and i notice that some of our Sunday school teahers gain the respect of the class easily, while others struggle. The only difference is that some of the teachers act as friends and instead of always scolding us they try and have fun. Other teachers are always uptight, and by doing this they loose our respect by trying to display there authority.
Please keep this in mind. Its not a matter of who has more authority or if the servants are older, its a matter of respect. If they truly consider you as a friend, and not a teacher, you will begin to gain their respect very easily.
Hope that helped :)
Try to not make your lessons monotonous or boring. Try to make it fun and do different activities with the kids for them to stay interested.
Hello again,
We do try to make the class fun, but its hard to have fun with a class that obviously does not want to learn. And we do give them crossword puzzles every week and give them pictures of saints as prizes for them when they finish. So we actually try to have fun but nothing seems to keep them motivated, all they want to do is to yell at each other and run around. We even acted out a few of the lessons but it didn't work very well. It also seems like towards the beginning of the year when we first started serving this class, they had more respect for us than they do now and they actually listened to us for a little bit longer. So we tried to be friends with the kids and they just took advantage of the friendship. Thanks for all of the advice, I really appreciate it.
Pray for me and my students to love and serve the Lord.
I have stopped giving candy out because i find that giving the children candy everytime allows them to always expect candy every class. They get used to candy and if you dont give them candy you become the "mean" teacher. Instead I do arts and crafts with the children on occassions.
I used to kick children out of class for a couple of minutes for misbehaving but never after reading the following:
H.H. Pope Shenouda mentions a story in his book "The Release of the Spirit" Page 124-125.
A conversation between the Angel and the Sunday school teacher:
The Angel said:
'There was a boy whom you dismissed from the Sunday Schools for his disobedience and for not following the discipline; this made him more obstinate and led him to the street and to wicked company.. Thus he became worse and many serious harms befell him due to your behaviour.. especially after he had lost guidance and care.. Certainly you were responsible for that because it was your responsibility,
- I answered the angel, 'But sir, he used to interrupt the lesson and was a bad example for the others!"
Here the angel replied bitterly,
- 'Then, you dismissed him for that reason? Oh, you are poor! Did the Lord Jesus Christ send you to call the righteous, or the sinners, to repentance? ...
- I said to the angel imploring, 'What do you think I ought to have done for that boy?
- He answered: 'You ought to have served him as far as you could.. to have examined his interior and dealt with him according to his state.. You ought to have prayed much for him.. and if you had done all this but it was useless, you ought not to have dismissed him but sent him to another class.. Perhaps another minister would have succeeded to achieve what you have failed to do.. If this solution had not been of any benefit, you could have allocated one or more classes for such naughty children where they could have had a special care according to their condition.. Such children ought to have been visited frequently and given sincere care making them near to your hearts.. and not dismissing them in any case..
GBU
Honestly the answer to your question is quite simple. Instead of being there Sunday school teacher, be there freind.
I agree strongly with "of all nations"
im a student in sunday school and i have found that sometimes my classmates are not always as behaving as they should be. but once we became friends with our teachers, and talked to them outside of class, and hung out with them, like when we went on a really fun and memorable camping trip, and got really close., once this happened, we felt compelled to give them our complete respect. sure every once in a while the class gets a bit out of hand, but we all have fun in the end. it seems like your students have some walls up, and you gotta break them down with friendlyness and love :) and prayer. but kids will be kids, there will be a "hyper" moment from time to time. and the whole candy thing, i foudn that in my classes, its better if theres no candy, cause then its more about the answers then the reward. hope this helped. rabinah mahakoom
To be honest I can relate. I teach Gr. 1 and 2. and i have children who run around the classroom and who tend to all of a sudden get hyper-active and try to impress the other children. And they would be disrepectful when praying. I personally didn't mind it when they were "hyper" during the lesson. But when it came to prayers, I had to step my foot down. I wasn't harsh, but at the same time, i wasn't lenient. Something that worked for me was when I created a lesson out of their behaviour and began to teach them how to behave in the House of God. My whole lesson that day was on how to pray. we first mentioned the theory asspect of prayers, which the children mentioned themselves. (standing still, no talking, no laughing...etc.) Thus they understood the theory part. When it came to applying it to prayer, they began misbehaving. So i began to remind them that God is here and is looking at them. Every time they would start moving or talking or laughing, i would have them start over. I also pointed out who was doing it correctly and began praising them for praying the right way until all of them got it.
I have stopped giving candy out because i find that giving the children candy everytime allows them to always expect candy every class. They get used to candy and if you dont give them candy you become the "mean" teacher. Instead I do arts and crafts with the children on occassions.
I used to kick children out of class for a couple of minutes for misbehaving but never after reading the following:
H.H. Pope Shenouda mentions a story in his book "The Release of the Spirit" Page 124-125.
A conversation between the Angel and the Sunday school teacher:
The Angel said:
'There was a boy whom you dismissed from the Sunday Schools for his disobedience and for not following the discipline; this made him more obstinate and led him to the street and to wicked company.. Thus he became worse and many serious harms befell him due to your behaviour.. especially after he had lost guidance and care.. Certainly you were responsible for that because it was your responsibility,
- I answered the angel, 'But sir, he used to interrupt the lesson and was a bad example for the others!"
Here the angel replied bitterly,
- 'Then, you dismissed him for that reason? Oh, you are poor! Did the Lord Jesus Christ send you to call the righteous, or the sinners, to repentance? ...
- I said to the angel imploring, 'What do you think I ought to have done for that boy?
- He answered: 'You ought to have served him as far as you could.. to have examined his interior and dealt with him according to his state.. You ought to have prayed much for him.. and if you had done all this but it was useless, you ought not to have dismissed him but sent him to another class.. Perhaps another minister would have succeeded to achieve what you have failed to do.. If this solution had not been of any benefit, you could have allocated one or more classes for such naughty children where they could have had a special care according to their condition.. Such children ought to have been visited frequently and given sincere care making them near to your hearts.. and not dismissing them in any case..
GBU
But I said the same thing!
Listen, I'll say it again. Please do not EVER dismiss a child from sunday school. No matter what. Its not your house, it is the house of God. And secondly, you must make them love Christ, not your personality, not even you.
Don't worry about them if they don't even love you or give you the time of day.
And then finally, if they are disrespectful when they pray, then may I suggest that you pray respectfully. Be an example.
A lot of Sunday School teachers think of themselves as Teachers. Unfortunately, this attitude is so self-righteous. You are NOT teachers, you are SERVANTS!!!!
If you have a problem with being a servant, then you yourself need a sunday school servant.
I'm sorry for sounding harsh, but I'd prefer to be harsh with you, as a servant of the Church, rather than with the Children.
Also, bear in mind, you do not know the life of these kids at home. Do you pray for them? You should!
When I was young, I ended up in a foreign country at a young age, and it was the sunday school servants who made my life miserable. In fact, I regret even going to CHurch since I met them.
just to clarify, I only sent that child right outside about 3 feet away from the door of the classroom and I was standing at the door so he could still hear me and benefit from the lesson. I only told him to stand outside because I wanted him to just get away from the other kids so I could teach them something. And also whenever I see these kids at Church, I usually go to talk to them and see how they are doing (the problem is that many of the kids that come to sunday school go to other churches for liturgy so i dont get a chance to talk with them as much as i could if they came to our church liturgy).
Thanks for all the advice. I will try harder to become a friend of my students but also be firm with them when needed.
Please pray for me and my students.
Hello,
just to clarify, I only sent that child right outside about 3 feet away from the door of the classroom and I was standing at the door so he could still hear me and benefit from the lesson. I only told him to stand outside because I wanted him to just get away from the other kids so I could teach them something. And also whenever I see these kids at Church, I usually go to talk to them and see how they are doing (the problem is that many of the kids that come to sunday school go to other churches for liturgy so i dont get a chance to talk with them as much as i could if they came to our church liturgy).
Thanks for all the advice. I will try harder to become a friend of my students but also be firm with them when needed.
Please pray for me and my students.
Listen, I didnt give you the advice about being their friend. That was someone else. My advice for you is that you be their servant. Serve them. Don't teach them anything. Just serve them.
As for keeping them away from the other kids, it seems that you've changed the sunday school into a class for those with "no problems".
But the entire Church is for children with problems. You've focused on everyone else except for the child that actually PROBABLY needed you the most.
I'm sorry if I'm sounding harsh with you, but you must understand, I had very bad sunday school teachers. They made my life miserable. Really miserable. And in some ways, this tends to remind me of them.
Thanks for the advice again and please pray for me and my class.
Yes I agree, i guess putting him outside the class was a bad idea but at that point of the class i was not even able to grasp their attention no matter how loud i yelled. So i guess I just didnt think about the consequences for the child. I mean the things these kids do ye ganen el katkoot!!!
Thanks for the advice again and please pray for me and my class.
How old are they?
Are they all boys? or mixed?
If they are around 10 to 15 years of age, and all boys, may i suggest that you start with some alhan.
You can teach them Apenchoise for the fasting period. Sing with them.
Perhaps some would like to learn the symbals?
The one that you threw out of the class - ask him what he likes? Does he prefer to read the Bible or sing or just pray from the agpeya. Ask him which of these 3 activities he enjoys the most.
There's also something you could try that is really beneficial:
Why not ask the kids in your class to learn the Pslams? The one learns the most off by heart gets a prize? I know some people may not agree with that. I'm exactly PRO prizes for learning stuff, but in some cases it works.. it turns out quite beneficial for everyone.
Above all, you are not their teacher. You are their servant.
They are in 3rd grade so i guess they are about 7 or 8 years old, they are boys and girls.
Dude,
That is the BEST age!!
At that age, kids always tell you what their problems are. You just have to listen to them. In fact, at the age of 7 or 8, all they do is tell you what they've heard. If they are in a environment at home that has no love nor peace, they'll make it known to you by what they say and what they do. The older someone gets, the more good they are at hiding problems. The younger they are, the more good they are at reflecting the problems they've had.
So, if some kid is swearing a lot, it is most likely that they have friends etc that may swear often, or perhaps their parents could be aggressive at home and use bad language. Either way, by just listening to them, you would know exactly what they need.
once a 4 year old kid told me some stuff she saw between her parents which was not too positive, i was just chilling after dars kitaab (Bible study) and started playing with these kids and she just opened up. later on her parents got sorted out, but it was a bit heavy at the time.
i pray for all sunday school teachers in your hard job, God will bless u for all the time and effort you spend with these kids who you care for.
rabina ma'akum
God Bless!! :)
+mahraeel+
I have no experience with this whatsoever, but from what I remember from this age, I think children like to be treated like that and once they feel they have an important role, they might focus more..
(but if this doesn't make sence, feel free to ignore it ;) )
God bless
ask abouna to supervise.. and reward those who answer correctly. etc...
God Bless!! :)
+mahraeel+
Yes! Well done! This is very wise advice. I agree 100%. If you feel they are beginning to lose respect for the Church and for prayer and reading the Bible, and you cannot cope, ask Abouna to supervise.
But, I'm cautious about the advice to be their friend. Its as if you want to make yourself popular. I AM NOT saying that this is the case, its just.... what you want to be careful of is not having them love you - but having them love Christ from you. That's all. But, sure, be their friend!! Its a good thing. Just bear that in mind.
There's a really good book on Jonah's fast written by H.H Pope Shenouda. You should get this book for your class, and if you cant explain the story to them.
You know when you talk to the kids, u need to try to captivate their attention. Are you good at story telling?
Anyway, focus on Apenchoise if u cant tell stories. Just sing with them the hymn until they learn it.
http://tasbeha.org/content/community/index.php?topic=7623.new#new
Its about humility and showing off..
If everything else fails, perhaps you could give this a try?