"come Follow Me" Experience And Feedback

[rongo]

All are welcome to respond/post on this thread, whether they have experience working with the youth curriculum or not.

 

This is a survey I am using in my stake for discussion and feedback with the stake presidency (I am currently stake Sunday School president). I am interested in how our feedback compares with a broader net and wider geographical variation.

 

Thanks!

 

-------

 

1) How long have you worked with "Come Follow Me?"

 

2) Please rate your satisfaction as a teacher with "Come Follow Me" compared to "the old way," from 1-10, with 1 being "I hate it" and 10 being "best curriculum in the history of the world."

 

3) Please rate what you perceive your students' satisfaction with "Come Follow Me" to be, using the above 1-10 scale.

 

4) What do you really like about "Come Follow Me?" Positives/good experiences.

 

5) What do you really dislike about "Come Follow Me?" Negatives/challenges/struggles.

 

6) Can you think of any ways ward and stake leaders can help improve how "Come Follow Me" functions in practice?

 

7) Do you think student engagement and interest (paying attention, thinking, applying) under "Come Follow Me" is better, about the same, or worse than with "the old way?"

Edited July 21, 2014 by rongo

[Scott Lloyd]

All are welcome to respond/post on this thread, whether they have experience working with the youth curriculum or not.

 

This is a survey I am using in my stake for discussion and feedback with the stake presidency (I am currently stake Sunday School president). I am interested in how our feedback compares with a broader net and wider geographical variation.

 

Thanks!

 

-------

 

1) How long have you worked with "Come Follow Me?"

 

2) Please rate your satisfaction as a teacher with "Come Follow Me" compared to "the old way," from 1-10, with 1 being "I hate it" and 10 being "best curriculum in the history of the world."

 

3) Please rate what you perceive your students' satisfaction with "Come Follow Me" to be, using the above 1-10 scale.

 

4) What do you really like about "Come Follow Me?" Positives/good experiences.

 

5) What do you really dislike about "Come Follow Me?" Negatives/challenges/struggles.

 

6) Can you think of any ways ward and stake leaders can help improve how "Come Follow Me" functions in practice?

 

7) Do you think student engagement and interest (paying attention, thinking, applying) under "Come Follow Me" is better, about the same, or worse than with "the old way?"

If your survey shows the respondents don't like the new youth curriculum, what do you intend to do about it?

[rongo]

Address it!

 

It's tricky, because teacher training was taken away from Sunday School and put with priesthood leaders and auxiliary presidencies. My "mandate" is to "offer support," which is difficult because we no longer are over teacher training.

 

My presidency will visit and observe classes as well (trying not to be "threatening" or obtrusive) within the stake to see what is happening, and will address what we see from there ---- one-on-one. What I'm not going to do is hold any meetings or trainings that all are invited to, because nobody comes to those (and I don't blame them).

 

I'm hearing rumors that "Come Follow Me" is being piloted in some stakes for the adult classes as well. Smaller, multiple GD classes to help reduce "wallflowers" and passive participants. It would be interesting to see how having "The Godhead" for a lesson topic for a full month with minimal lesson resources would go over for adults . . .

[Scott Lloyd]

Address it!

 

It's tricky, because teacher training was taken away from Sunday School and put with priesthood leaders and auxiliary presidencies. My "mandate" is to "offer support," which is difficult because we no longer are over teacher training.

 

My presidency will visit and observe classes as well (trying not to be "threatening" or obtrusive) within the stake to see what is happening, and will address what we see from there ---- one-on-one. What I'm not going to do is hold any meetings or trainings that all are invited to, because nobody comes to those (and I don't blame them).

I agree and took pretty much the same approach when I was stake Sunday School president. We would try to meet individually with ward Sunday School presidencies twice a year, once in connection with ward conference. The challenge is that you are pretty much one level removed from the teachers and have to make your influence felt through the ward Sunday School president.

 

I'm hearing rumors that "Come Follow Me" is being piloted in some stakes for the adult classes as well. Smaller, multiple GD classes to help reduce "wallflowers" and passive participants. It would be interesting to see how having "The Godhead" for a lesson topic for a full month with minimal lesson resources would go over for adults . . .

 

 

When the new Sunday School general presidency was sustained at last April's general conference, the Sunday School president was quoted in the news media to the effect that the adult curriculum would be revamped to be similar to the new youth curriculum.

 

When I interviewed Brother Callister for a Church News profile I asked him about that. He said it would be the case, but the media kind of jumped the gun and it won't be happening for a while yet. He told me to say it was "still in development."

 

Here's a link to my profile.

[rongo]

Thanks for that, Scott!

 

The interesting thing, so far, in looking at the responses from the one ward that I've given the survey, is that almost all rate their satisfaction and success high (8-10). But in the comments part, they almost universally indicate that some students continue to participate a lot, and others seek not to (I'm not sure that any curriculum will ever fully overcome this element of human nature and culture. As a secondary school teacher, I know there are things teachers can do to foster more participation, but they aren't 100% panaceas).

 

"The biggest challenge is there are kids who overshare, and then ones that don't share at all."

 

"About the same. Some jump at the opportunities, and others conveniently forget everything or don't want to help."

 

"We have little to no participation from our class. It is really hit or miss."

 

I am curious how the youth perceive the curriculum, but I don't want to survey them and put ideas in their heads that weren't there before. I'm afraid that by surveying them, they might get the idea that they might not like things or are critical when they maybe weren't at all before.

[mtomm]

I teach a combined class of 14-17 year olds. When I am not on my iPad I will respond. Probably tomorrow.

[Rain]

I think the answers to your last question could get skewed depending on how well the teacher is implementing the program. In my last ward there was a little bit if training. Some teachers really loved the program, some not so much, but all used it enough that I could see a change in participation with my children.

In my new ward I sometimes wonder if they are just using the new resources to teach in the old way. Both kids have commented on not being able or even be allowed to participate much. These are not children who take over and so need to be cut back on participation. Through the years we have had a lot of compliments on their behavior from church teachers.

From what I can see the teachers just need more training on how to do it - love the idea on more personal training with them after visiting their classes.

It will be interesting to see what happens when it reaches the adults. I think some of the teachers will have a very hard time, especially older generations. They have spent so much time in lecture classes that they just don't have a lot of examples to see how things could work. Maybe one reason for the wait is so the youth can come in with a little practice under their belt and start to show how to be not only a teacher, but also the responsibility as students to participate.

[mtomm]

1) How long have you worked with "Come Follow Me?"

 

I think I've been teaching since January of this year. I took the place of a teacher who wasn't interested in continuing to use the new curriculum. She found it too difficult.

 

2) Please rate your satisfaction as a teacher with "Come Follow Me" compared to "the old way," from 1-10, with 1 being "I hate it" and 10 being "best curriculum in the history of the world."

 

8

 

3) Please rate what you perceive your students' satisfaction with "Come Follow Me" to be, using the above 1-10 scale.

 

5

 

4) What do you really like about "Come Follow Me?" Positives/good experiences.

 

I am a fan of the flexibility I feel it gives me as a teacher. But I think I'm pretty much to the age where even if I had a manual I would be flexible in both the style and content of my teaching so I'm not sure if the new program  is why I feel that way.  I like that the lesson outlines are on LDS.org and I can access them almost anywhere.  I like the monthly themes because sometimes you don't cover everything in one lesson so then you can pick up the next week and discuss things you missed previously.

 

5) What do you really dislike about "Come Follow Me?" Negatives/challenges/struggles.

 

I didn't know that they had these same lessons last year and that they were the same lessons taught in YM/YW until recently.  Ugh. I hope they don't go a 3rd year.  Sometimes you feel like you are beating a dead horse covering the same basic theme all month.  If I feel I've sufficiently covered a subject I'll branch out and do something off-topic or more object lesson based.  The lesson is only an outline so it does require the teacher to figure how/what to teach.   I do not use the media portions. Not because I'm not technologically capable I just feel they are often a distraction in the lesson rather than adding much. The students have mentioned that they feel they often get the same lesson twice in a Sunday. When I commented that next week was a lesson on the Priesthood, one girl called out exasperated, "Not another priesthood lesson!"  

 

6) Can you think of any ways ward and stake leaders can help improve how "Come Follow Me" functions in practice?

Only specific to my ward/stake but I received no training on how to apply the "Come Follow Me" lessons.  I'm sure they thought I could figure it out.  What I would find helpful would be if a stake did a few sample lessons of how they see it should be taught.  I do use an outside/non-approved source for handouts, chalkboard displays and to help me organize lesson flow because those are area in which I'm weak and so is the curriculum.  A stake leader could certainly be proactive in helping their teachers in this way.

 

7) Do you think student engagement and interest (paying attention, thinking, applying) under "Come Follow Me" is better, about the same, or worse than with "the old way?"

 

I don't really have a comparison to before as this is the first time I've taught this age group in Sunday School.  I pretty much have to ask specific questions and wait for answers. I have a feeling it probably hasn't changed much. It seems much like when I taught the Laurels years ago.  I'm not sure it needs to change. Everyone has different learning styles. I love to engage, it is how I learn but I know others who are loathe and very uncomfortable speaking up in class. I think it is important that we don't run off youth because we want to force them into being something they are not or making them uncomfortable in class.  

 

It also may be that I don't see a difference because it is very hard to change my own style of teaching.  We tend to fall back into our old habits of student/teacher interaction.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2014 by mtomm

[rongo]

Very helpful, mtomm! Demonstration/modeling of "good" how-to's is an excellent idea.

 

I agree that simply doing "wash. rinse. repeat." year in and year out is brutal (i.e., having the same topics and outlines every month every year). Especially  when the youth get *two* hours of it every Sunday (Sunday School and YW/YM).

 

5th Sunday months can be brutal, too.

[mtomm]

Very helpful, mtomm! Demonstration/modeling of "good" how-to's is an excellent idea.

 

I agree that simply doing "wash. rinse. repeat." year in and year out is brutal (i.e., having the same topics and outlines every month every year). Especially  when the youth get *two* hours of it every Sunday (Sunday School and YW/YM).

 

5th Sunday months can be brutal, too.

 

I consider the 5th Sunday my optional lesson -- I taught the last one on how a pizza is like a testimony and we each made our own mini pizza.  The fuddy-duddy bishop said I couldn't cook them at the church so we had to do it at my house. Luckily I'm only a block from the church and had room for all 10 of them.  It was a spectacular hit, they might have even remembered something I taught. I stole the idea from our R.S. lesson.  (Sadly, we didn't get to make the pizzas in R.S.)

[rongo]

LOL!

 

When we had an open house in our city when the second ward building was built, we were assigned to bring 1000 cookies. The bishop told the RS to bake them in the Church. When informed that this is against church policy, he said we weren't preparing food --- we were just warming the dough at 350 degrees for 10 minutes . . .

[Scott Lloyd]

  The fuddy-duddy bishop said I couldn't cook them at the church so we had to do it at my house.

I think it's a liability and insurance issue, but someone better acquainted with Church administration than I will have to confirm that.

[Calm]

I think it's a liability and insurance issue, but someone better acquainted with Church administration than I will have to confirm that.

I think it is coding...at least it was in Canada. A kitchen where food is prepared for that amount of people has to meet cleanliness and other standards while just warming and serving food has much lower standards.

[Rain]

When I was activities director I was told the same thing. I looked long and hard for it written somewhere and couldn't find it. Then I was told it was a state of Utah issue, but I called and found out they only gave a problem if you are selling food.

So either I just didn't find it or perhaps it was once a written rule or is now one, but wasn't then. Or it could be personal liability for the bishop. I know the handbook suggested I get personal liability insurance.

Sorry for The hijack.

[mfbukowski]

LOL!

 

When we had an open house in our city when the second ward building was built, we were assigned to bring 1000 cookies. The bishop told the RS to bake them in the Church. When informed that this is against church policy, he said we weren't preparing food --- we were just warming the dough at 350 degrees for 10 minutes . . .

Now THERE is a bishop who knows how to get things done!!

 

Better to ask forgiveness than seek permission. 

[Scott Lloyd]

When I was activities director I was told the same thing. I looked long and hard for it written somewhere and couldn't find it. Then I was told it was a state of Utah issue, but I called and found out they only gave a problem if you are selling food.

So either I just didn't find it or perhaps it was once a written rule or is now one, but wasn't then. Or it could be personal liability for the bishop. I know the handbook suggested I get personal liability insurance.

Sorry for The hijack.

I found it:

 

21.2.11

Serving Areas

The serving area in Church meetinghouses is not intended for food preparation or cooking unless it is part of a lesson, demonstration, or other instruction. When food is to be served in the building or on the grounds, it should be prepared elsewhere and brought to the meetinghouse, where it may be kept warm or cold until it is served.

 

 

Doesn't give the reason, but it definitely states in there that we're not to prepare or cook food at the meetinghouse.

[mfbukowski]

I think it's a liability and insurance issue, but someone better acquainted with Church administration than I will have to confirm that.

There are a whole host of very good reasons not to do it- one never knows if there is a new problem with the oven, that some youth may have played with the gas line, etc- many possible unimaginable problems.  It's a good policy generally speaking.

 

On the other hand, life is full of risks.  People actually ride motorcycles and save money and live to tell the tale.  So as a policy is it best to follow regulations?  Absolutely!  But sometimes does it make sense to "adjust guidelines " for the sake of common sense and efficiency?  Of course.

 

But don't tell my stake president I said that. 

[rongo]

When they were finishing the above-mentioned building (second of now three in our city), some of the protests surrounding it turned to people telling planning and zoning that LDS churches have fully-functional kitchens that fully prepare food, but the Church doesn't have people get food handler's permits. The city was initially concerned, and Church officials quoted the policy. Protestors/critics said that despite the policy food gets fully-cooked in LDS churches (and we all know that this is true, despite the policy). A Kirton-McConkie attorney came and met with the city and protestors and informed them that the Church would sue if this were held up for zoning because of the complaints about kitchens and zoning.

 

The building was quickly approved . . .

 

For my part, I think it's ridiculous that we can't cook meals in the kitchen, and I don't like how beholden we have become to the "liability nannies."

[Scott Lloyd]

When they were finishing the above-mentioned building (second of now three in our city), some of the protests surrounding it turned to people telling planning and zoning that LDS churches have fully-functional kitchens that fully prepare food, but the Church doesn't have people get food handler's permits. The city was initially concerned, and Church officials quoted the policy. Protestors/critics said that despite the policy food gets fully-cooked in LDS churches (and we all know that this is true, despite the policy). A Kirton-McConkie attorney came and met with the city and protestors and informed them that the Church would sue if this were held up for zoning because of the complaints about kitchens and zoning.

 

The building was quickly approved . . .

 

Maybe it's the natural man coming through in me, but I relish hearing about such push-back.

[BookofMormonLuvr]

I found it:

 

Doesn't give the reason, but it definitely states in there that we're not to prepare or cook food at the meetinghouse.

 

Uh, not exactly. Perhaps you missed...

 

unless it is part of a lesson, demonstration, or other instruction.

 

[Scott Lloyd]

 

Uh, not exactly. Perhaps you missed...

 

As I read it, it differentiates between a lesson or demonstration and the actual serving of food.

 

It is the latter that I was referring to.

[Rain]

I found it:

Doesn't give the reason, but it definitely states in there that we're not to prepare or cook food at the meetinghouse.

That CHI was after I was activities chairman, but the old one could have had it as well. Doesn't matter now.

Back to the topic:

I asked my 13yo for his input. I also looked at the Come Follow Me website and found our current ward could be following the program more than I thought, but it's hard to tell. This is what he says about the differences in the last ward where I know it was being done and this one where just the subject matter may be followed.

1) How long have you worked with "Come Follow Me?" He has been in for a year as a student. Basically 6 months where I know they had more student participation and 4 months where I don't know.

3) Please rate what you perceive your students' satisfaction with "Come Follow Me" to be, using the above 1-10 scale.

He rates our first ward at a 6. "It was fun and you learn more because you have to do some of the teaching"

He rates our second ward at a 4. He felt it was kind of like being in primary class again except the students are more mature.

4) What do you really like about "Come Follow Me?" Positives/good experiences. As a parent I like that when it is done well it requires the teacher to listen to the student. I noticed when I was a missionary that most people don't listen to the student so they don't know what concerns the student has. Then don't know where the struggles and strengths lie. I've found it to be true in every teaching situation since. And when teachers listen and teach students to find the answers then conversion is more likely to happen.

5) What do you really dislike about "Come Follow Me?" Negatives/challenges/struggles. This is tricky. I think it takes more work to teach this way and I am OK with that. I love how much more effective it is. The only problem lies in the teacher and training - some teachers jump at the chance, others will continue to teach the old way because it is easier to just rely on the manual. Then there is the training. People are not familiar in teaching this way. They have been raised with the old way and it just doesn't come naturally to everyone. To be effective there needs to be some training involved for most teachers.

6) Can you think of any ways ward and stake leaders can help improve how "Come Follow Me" functions in practice? Set up training. If there is a full time seminary teacher in your area they might be a good one to ask to do the training. Many of the classes taught on teaching at education week (another good option) are taught by former and current seminary/institute teachers. I've learned a ton from them.

7) Do you think student engagement and interest (paying attention, thinking, applying) under "Come Follow Me" is better, about the same, or worse than with "the old way?" SOOOOO much better when teaching/facilitating is done well.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Rain

[rongo]

Thank you, Rain! I had 9/10 typed mine, when I lost it (I can't paste or quote on this site, and when I'm typing, it randomly highlights everything. If I happen to hit backspace to correct when it's randomly highlighted, it's all gone. I'll include my own personal response to my survey at a later time.

 

The responses from my stake and from on here have been very helpful.

[The Nehor]

When I am not on my iPad I will respond. Probably tomorrow.

 

Ironically this is also my response when asked a question in Sunday School.

[Tacenda]

My son must have been listening well to his teacher, hey a first! Because he came home upset after a lesson on marrying in the temple in order to get to the CK. Apparently she left out the part about there being levels in the CK where all that is needed is baptism. I was surprised at his strong reaction, I guess he thinks that eliminates most of his siblings.

Does anyone know about this lesson taught last week? Did it not get into depth about the CK?