Seminary March Madness

I came across what I thought was a great idea for my seminary students - Doctrinal Mastery March Madness! We had a selection day where each of my students picked doctrinal mastery verses out of a bowl and then, for the next two weeks for devotional, two students played a "game" against each other. Through pictures, power points, object lessons, or pure testimony, each student would explain the importance of their doctrinal mastery verse and what it meant to them. Great idea, right? Except the very first morning, after the two students had done their presentations and everyone was voting on who had "won", I had the worst feeling in my heart. How do you determine whose testimony is better than another's? How can one vote on which doctrine is better? Both Harrison and Grace had done an amazing job preparing and both shared fabulous witness to the truthfulness of the doctrine they presented. I felt terrible and wasn't quite sure what to do.

I was in a quandary and prayed for an answer. The next day, one of my students was late so I quickly did a different pairing and, with that one change, the tournament was now set up to have every student win one game and lose one game. There would be no ultimate elimination, there would be no supreme winner or loser. My answer had come. However, I didn't tell the kids anything, I just let them prepare, present, and vote. Over the next two weeks my students did a fantastic job bearing testimony of their doctrinal mastery verses. The spirit in our classroom was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed our wonderful devotionals each morning!

I love getting new artwork for the classroom!

Using treats to sway the voters!

On the final day I told them about what had happened - how on the first day my heart just sank to my toes when I realized the direction this activity could take us. I bore testimony that Heavenly Father had answered my prayer and had turned the whole thing into an amazing experience. I have a few highly competitive students who I could tell were a little disappointed that there wouldn't be an ultimate winner but I think the majority of them understood and felt good about what had taken place. I truly do love teaching seminary!