Good teaching is planned teaching. Planning is important for church educators. One who fails to plans to fail. Consider the following:

1.What do I want to happen? Christian education is like a pilgrimage and the sense of God's presence. Planning and teaching begins with prayer and remembering.

2.Scripture is the church educators' map that provides directions for the way. Who are these people I am teaching? What are their needs and interests?

HOW DO THEY LEARN?

3.Curriculum materials sometimes forget the concern for openness to ministry . The quality of relationships is our uppermost concern.

4.Check your map from time to time. Many times when I am traveling on a new road pull into a gas station to ask for directions. There are times when experienced travelers are a great help along the way. It saves time to ask experienced educators for their advice.

5.Remember that teaching is art rather than a science. Be creative. Be original. Remember no one is born a teacher.

6. Be aware of the environment of your room. In the classroom, we learn differently when we sit in a circle or around a table than when we sit in rows.

7.Teach with abundance. The art of life is the result of play, wonder, amazement, and the ability to see connections.

8.Planning is like putting together a puzzle. Teaching or learning in the church reminds me of assembling a large puzzle. Each of us has one small piece we attempt to fit into the greater puzzle. Paul used the metaphor of the body. The foot, the head, the ear, the eye all need one another. Church educators are unique pieces in the puzzle!

9.Becoming a better teacher is to discern and define what we need to learn and why, to act rather than react, and to train more than one's head. Every teacher and sometimes we are amazed by the emergence of hidden gifts of creativity and imagination

10.Remember what we see. When God said let there be light God set in motion the sense of seeing. Yet how often in our classes and worship services do we only employ the sense of hearing?