One of my favorite teachers, Dr. Howard Hendricks, used to say, “Experience doesn’t tend to make you a better teacher – unless it is evaluated experience.” What a great insight into the complicated world of teaching!

If you regularly teach the Bible, a great discipline is to keep a journal of the experiences you have as you teach. Reflect on your entries often. Keep the journal handy as you prepare your new lesson plans.

Some things to pay attention to and journal include:

• The activities that your group members enjoyed
• The activities that did not appeal to your group
• The length of time it takes your group to accomplish certain teaching procedures
• The kinds of teaching procedures you used in a session (over time, you’ll see a pattern); this allows you to intentionally vary your teaching methods
• The things you wold do differently if you could teach the study again
• Questions your group members asked that may need more follow-up at a later time

Remember, experience is not always a good teacher. Evaluated experience, however, is.