This week for my practicum, I spent 4 hours (1.5 at Sunday service, 30 minutes at worship music practice practice, 1 hour at Sunday school, and 1 hour at our Wednesday night class). 

In Sunday school class we started our new series on Ephesians. The pastor talked about chapter 1 within that book; however, he pretty much just read the chapter and talked about it...it was like a sermon. There was no group discussion at all. Because of this I had a hard time focusing in on what was happening during the lesson. I hardly remember anything that he said during Sunday school. As a result, however, I learned more about running a Sunday school class than I did about Ephesians chapter 1. A Sunday school teacher should keep a class discussion oriented to engage the students. Otherwise, students are in danger of zoning out. I was one of those students this week, and I was also not the only one. I noticed about to other students flipping through other books in the Bible, one student looking out the window the entire class period (or so it seemed) and even a student who fell asleep! As a teacher, you have to get the students involved in the lesson or engaged in discussion or the teaching will completely be lost in my opinion. 

Questions:

1) How are we supposed to engage students in Sunday school?

2) If you do have a lesson that requires a lot of talking on your part as the teacher, how can you keep the lesson informative while also keeping the students engaged in the lesson?