Oh, hello. Sherm Sunday, Sunday School tour guide. Since by now you have already watched the video on how to conduct a teacher council meeting from start to finish, and you're pretty much experts, you may not need to know the answer to the question "How do we practice during a teacher council meeting?" But just in case, we are going to spend this entire video exploring that very subject. You excited? I sure am. Now, why? Why do we practice? To get better, to improve. Those of you who are already perfect and need no improvement can shut this thing down right now. For the rest of us, let's chat. What if we never practiced? Take a look. Come on, fellas! Come on! Yeah! Ball! Ball! Nice! Hey, coach, where do you need me? Excuse me? Like, what position am I playing? Position? I've never seen you at a practice before. But I've seen, like, a bazillion games. No, no, that's not how it works. Just give me a chance. I could school all of these guys. Now listen ... hey! Hey! Wrong goal! Other side! Wrong goal! Other side! Other side! Other way! Let's go! That was the wrong goal! What do you mean? Dude, this was our goal! How do you know? This is our goalie! Well, he's wearing green. Have you not been to practice? We wear maroon!

You wouldn't let your team down, would you? Don't let your class down either. Practice! And now, ladies and gentlemen, we give you the world-famous Quintessential Quartet, who will delight us with their joyous strains.

Thank you very much for that warm welcome. We are actually going to be doing a little of an experiment for you this evening. Yes. It's called "A Little Bit of Sight-Reading" because ... well ... funny story. We actually didn't practice this arrangement before our performance. So prepare to be enlightened.

Is that what you want your class to think? "What are we even doing here? They didn't practice!" As teachers and leaders, you may not think of practice as something valuable or applicable in your position as a volunteer doing a good service. It may even seem a bit awkward. Consider this: What if teaching is a new experience for you or you are learning a principle you have never applied before? Or what if your participation in a specific practice could help someone else in the teacher council feel better prepared to apply a certain principle? "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear," right? Did you know that in every section of the Teaching in the Savior's Way manual, there is a suggested practice? Right here it has "Share and counsel together"--some ideas--"Learn together"--a few suggestions. And it also has either a "practice" or "invite" to apply during the practice portion of your teacher council meeting. Now, not every single council will include a practice where you role-play or pair off. Some practices will consist of an invitation to prepare something at home that can be shared and discussed during the council. But all teacher councils should include an opportunity to apply the principles discussed through practice.

Now take a look at this practice example related to the principle "Invite diligent learning" and the subsection "Ask Inspired Questions." Let's see what they do: Thank you so much for that discussion, as we've got to talk about asking inspired questions in this "learn together" portion. We're now going to take what we've learned and practice it together. Did you notice how the Sunday School president introduced the practice as it relates to the principle that they just learned together? So I know some of you have prepared questions. And for those who haven't prepared questions, we're going to take a moment and write down some questions. And especially think about lessons that you have coming up, and write some inspired questions. And then what we're going to do is, we're going to partner up, share those questions, and offer feedback to each other. All right. So let's go ahead and turn to your neighbor and share those questions with each other, and offer feedback on those questions. I'm going to be teaching about ministering to the young men pretty soon here. So one of the questions I asked is "Who does God want me to minister to today?" That one could lead to prayer as well, because they probably should be asking that question in their prayers.

Basically it says, you know, "How does taking the Lord's name upon you change your behavior?" Oh, yeah, that's great. Something introspective for them to think about. Yeah, what does that look like? Yeah, their own behavior. And then the last question I wrote was "What do you think Jesus Christ was thinking about when He was in Gethsemane?" Hmm, I don't think I've ever thought about that before. I haven't either. So you need to be my teacher. I want them to, you know, I want them to use their imagination and really think about it from a lot of different points. So asking them to think about this question is not too far of a stretch. I love that. But see, if you can get an adult to think of something new, that's a really great question. All right, we're going to bring it back together now. I heard a lot of great conversation and wanted to be able to hear some of the questions as a council and continue offering some feedback on them. And so what were some good questions that you heard from the people you were working with? Something Sister Wood brought up that the two of us were kind of blown away by was asking--you were planning a lesson about the Atonement, and she was asking the question, going to pose the question to the children, of "What do you think Jesus felt? What was going through His mind as He was"--I don't know, Garden of Gethsemane or on the cross? And we both thought, "Nobody ever really talks about what they thought the Savior might be thinking." And I thought, "Boy, that sparks a spirit of sympathy or empathy among your students." Just some things you just don't usually turn your thoughts to, oftentimes. Awesome. And so let's continue with that one. If someone did give an answer, they offered an emotion, what would be a good follow-up question to that?

Are there times in your life that you have felt what you think the Savior might have felt at that time, or that you can relate to what He might have been feeling? Asking them to put themselves in His shoes and how that would make them feel. Yeah. Along with that, "How does that impact you to know that the Savior felt that?" I think is an important question to think about. It looks like it's a great example of--you get that initial question, initial question that lets someone go out on a limb and answer it, and that follow-up question allows them to bear their testimony. So, based on the interaction and practice that we got to do today, did it allow you to reconsider some of the questions that you have for your upcoming classes? I think I need to think a little bit deeper than just asking people how technology works in their study. So that was actually a really good exercise for me to think, "OK, maybe I need to go back and pray about that question a little more and broaden it and make it a little bit--give it a little more depth than it had in the beginning." So thank you! Thanks for sharing. What else, yeah? One thing, just taking the time to, like, really contemplate your questions beforehand. Like, we spent a significant amount of time just talking about what questions we might ask. And I think there's a big temptation to just wait till you're in the lesson, teaching, to think of questions to ask, where it's really much more effective to, like, stop and think about it beforehand and to receive that revelation. You can receive it now or in the moment, and I think it's better to receive it beforehand if we can. I agree, because then you're planning with a purpose, like we're supposed to do. And if we are not asking inspired questions, then the questions we ask are just not going to evoke the feeling or the testimony from our students, you know? But if we, like he said, think about it ahead of time and plan and write them out, you know, we can just really put a lot of substance into those questions. Definitely. That's so much more useful for our students than a yes-or-no question or random trivia from the lesson that we learned. So I think, yeah, inspired questions are super important to our lesson. Note how the Sunday School president observed what each group was doing and then gave opportunity for feedback and further discussion about how the council could improve and apply what was practiced.

You see, practice in a teacher council isn't just a fun activity, am I right? It is intended to lead to learning and improvement. Otherwise, why do it at all? So we're talking about practice! It may feel awkward or seem to some unnecessary. Listen to some of these thoughts from our teacher council group after having gone through this exercise and the things they learned and felt as a result: One more thing is that I am always--we were just talking about it--uncomfortable role-playing. Once we did it, it wasn't that bad, and now I feel more confident, you know? And it will, you know--if you do it one time in a practice setting, then you can do it in real life, I think. And it's easier. Even though you hate doing it at first, we did it! Practice to improve your skills. And as you improve your skills, you invite the influence of the Holy Ghost and, ultimately, revelation. And who doesn't want that?

In the Savior's work, it is often by small and simple means that "great things [are] brought to pass." We know that it requires repetitive practice to become good at anything. Whether it's playing the clarinet, kicking a ball into a net, repairing a car, or even flying an airplane, it is through practicing that we may become better and better. The organization our Savior created on earth--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--helps us to do just that. It offers a place to practice living the way He taught and blessing others the way He did.