When the Group Studies for New Life in Christ and the Personal Studies for New Life in Christ are implemented as designed, the potential for impact in the lives of your students is tremendous. In my last “offensive” article I addressed a few GSNL best practices. In this article we’ll take a look at just a few best practices to effectively impact students in the PSNL classroom.
- Teachers: There should be a minimum of 1 PSNL Certified teacher for every 5-10 students in the PSNL classroom. The teachers should be in the classroom with the students during class. The Accreditation Standards require a minimum of 1 teacher for every 20 students. However, that is not an acceptable ratio for operating the PSNL effectively, in a manner that honors the students and allows for proper engagement.
- Time: PSNL should be no less than 1 ½ – 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, and it should not be when they are exhausted (Just sayin’.) Teachers need additional time outside of the classroom schedule to research, build and organize their resource library, and to review student work and create contracts.
- Balanced Contracts: Contracts address specific life issues that are relevant to each individual student’s needs. One contract includes Bible reading, book reading, Scripture memory, character qualities and lessons (workbook) that can be completed in about one month.
- Study Carrels: Each student should have their own study carrel; a desk that is just for them. This will decrease distractions and increase focus and retention. Google “study carrel” for a plethora of other ideas.
- Libraries: You need two separate libraries:
- A student library in the classroom for easy access to reference and research materials.
- A secure resource library for books and student materials utilized in creating student contracts.
- Engagement: Teachers must be in the classroom to review and approve student work. This is not a simple process when it it is done correctly. Students need feedback, coaching, counsel, encouragement, prayer and more. Individual engagement is a necessary component to ensuring that PSNL contracts positively impact the lives of our students.
There are many other details to creating an effective PSNL classroom and the issues addressed in this article could be discussed in much greater detail. If you are interested in going deeper, consider hosting a Teacher Training Conference that enhances GSNL, PSNL and teaching in general. Call or email me for details.
Remember this: Discipleship is relational.
Discuss – Evaluate – Execute:
- Score your ministry on a scale of 1-10 on each item listed above.
- Which item received the lowest score?
- Work with your team to develop a strategy to bring that item to a 10.
- Begin working on the next lowest scoring item.
Why might this article offend you? I can honestly say that I am not intentionally trying to offend anyone, however you may be offended if:
- You’ve developed a set way of doing things in the PSNL classroom and you’re not willing to consider practices that could be better.
- Or it could be that you’ve made compromises and shortcuts rather than striving towards providing the highest quality discipleship possible.
