Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'convert called to primary'.
-
I was just called to teach Valiant 8/9, but I was never in Primary because I didn't grow up in the church. I have no idea what the kids are expecting from a class, or what a successful class looks like. I don't have kids old enough to be in Primary - just a 5-month-old. And I've never really known anyone who taught Primary. The Presidency didn't really introduce me to it (my first class was the day of my daughter's baby blessing and I was late getting to class), I had to just sort of go into my classroom and wing it. I had the book beforehand and everything, so I had prepared the lesson to the best of my abilities, but I've never taught kids, especially not 8&9 year olds. They're not old enough that I can just have a conversation with them, ask them to find Scriptures, or many of the other things that happen in the adult classes, but they're not young enough that I can talk to them like little kids. They don't focus well and there are a few kids, one in particular, that just won't sit down and be quiet, no matter how many times I tell them. There has been paper airplane throwing, writing "butt" in the chalkboard dust, turning chairs upside down and sitting on them, yelling, deliberately repeating things I tell them to stop doing or saying...I just, truthfully, don't understand how or why some of these things are issues. How do they think this behavior is appropriate in the first place? I try to be nice and pleasant with them, but I feel like I'm just getting steamrolled. During the second half of Primary they're better but often disruptive, and I feel like it has to be obvious that I have no idea what I'm doing, but everyone disappears after Primary is over and I don't feel like there's anyone there I can talk to about this. It's embarrassing how bad it is. Long story short, can anyone tell me a little (or a lot) about what Primary was like (or is supposed to be like) and what these kids are expecting from me? How do I get them to sit down and be reverent without spending the entire class repeating it? My husband suggested sending kids who commit the same misbehavior repeatedly to sit with their parents in their classes. Is this effective, or does this result in confrontation? Or both? Help...