We just recently held a teacher In-service meeting with all our primary teachers. It was a complete success! Everyone but three people attended. We also included the nursery, music staff and Activity days.

A couple of the things that I think made it so successful was that we included the teachers in the "program/lesson" portion of our night, we made it more of an appreciation of our teachers night, and we provided dinner (potato/salad bar) and dessert.

Our theme was "Feed My Lambs" John 21: 15. We used the picture that was on the cover of the April New Era (Jesus cradling a lamb). We put that on the invitations and had a framed picture on display that night. Another part of our display was a table full of items that teachers can use to "feed" their primary classes during lessons (lesson manuals, videos, teaching no greater call, children's song book, hymn book, the Friend etc.)

We decided on a couple of crucial things that we wanted to convey to our teachers and then assigned those issues (2-3 minute talks) to the teachers to discuss. We were able to include almost everyone. This is what we included:

* Thoughts about Sister Menlove’s Conference address this last April - it was a good one!

* How they brought reverence into their class and in sharing/singing time.

* Discipline in the class and in sharing/singing time.

* Child-sizing the Gospel

* Teaching tolerance/acceptance of others and safety in Primary

We as a presidency spoke of a couple of small issues we felt the teachers needed to be more aware of. We also asked them if there was anything we could do to help them and they let us know a few things that we could change.

It was a great evening. The teachers were so prepared and said everything we wanted conveyed and more. We ended the evening by letting them know how much we appreciate them and that we could not do our callings without them. We gave them a small plant with John 21: 15 printed on a card. We made bean bags in the shape of sheep for each teacher. We printed out the 24 things you can do with a bean bag - on the other side of the handout we printed "Sheep, Shepherds, and Sheepherders".

Additional Resources:

Ben B. Banks, “Feed My Sheep,” New Era, May 2001, 10
David B. Haight, “Feed My Sheep,” Ensign, May 1979, 62
"Feed My Lambs" by Richard P. Lindsay