Sunday School

Last week my class was very silly and unfocused and we did not finish the lesson on James 3. No one was trouble enough to send out, but when you get 12 "slightly unfocused and silly" kids, you get a lot of distractions. In the end, I gave them homework to finish the lesson.

This week...
1 student did an excellent job.
1 student did an acceptable (barely) job.
4 students were told to complete the work properly (they did what they though was the bare minimum to get by and what I thought wasn't good enough). They finished it at the beginning of class.
1 student forgot his work at home; his mom assured me that he had done it so I let him into class but told him to bring it next week.

1 student was off sick (although his grandparents assured me that he did the work).
1 student was away for Easter (we'll see next week if he did it).
2 students were somewhat ill so their parents kept them in the adult Sunday School so they didn't disrupt my class (I'm not sure how that worked for the adult class, although at least there they can sit away from everyone else). One of those girls showed me her homework, and it was done well. I didn't get a chance to talk with the other girl.

2 parents checked with me about how class went this week. They assured me that they had spoken with their children about the need for obedience and respect in class. One of them told me that they also talked about why we have Sunday School and how the teachers weren't there just because we have nothing better to do. She also told me that they pray for the class regularly.
1 parent give the impression that I was making too big a deal of her son forgetting the work, but that may have been some regular Sunday rush and business coming through.

This week they were more settled and listened better. I actually had them do most of the work. I paired them of and had them complete a worksheet on James 4 (giving them the relevant verses for each question). They did pretty well, although most of the pairs were students working alone and forgetting to help/discuss with their partner until I reminded them (frequently)! One of them worked alone (there were 7 students). They also had to be reminded to read the passage to find the answers, and even then found a couple of them challenging, mostly because they didn't read.
Seriously, check out this one: what is sin, according to James 4:17? This gave some of them trouble. Of course, a couple of them were getting confused because when they looked back at the Bible, they forgot to make sure they were still looking at chapter 4.  I had one pair tell me that the passage had nothing to do with the question until I showed them that they were in chapter 5. One student answered the above question based on 5:17 and his answer made no sense. Obviously thinking was not his strong point today!

Overall, though, they did a good job. I really like teaching them and I like watching them learn. One week I will have to email the parents about how good they are so they don't come to dread messages from me!