Feb/081
A personal approach
This year I am involved with the church youth group.
One of my jobs as a youth leader is to be in charge of a small group of boys. It’s about building relationships with them, and mentoring them.
The guys I have are okay. I mean, there are a few of them that are a bit ratty. They’re still young (grade 8-9) and going through that whole ‘be cool in front of my friends’ stage. I guess when I really think about it, I got stuck with the ratty ones.
Here’s why I think it will be good though…
Building close personal relationships with these kids is great. We can focus on individuals, where they are spiritually, socially, or anything else, and build these kids up to be great people of God. I feel that this is a much better foundation for a youth group, as opposed to the normal weekly games and fun that usually happens at youth groups.It’s a more personal approach.
I’m looking forward to this challenge. I feel as though I would make a good mentor (that’s mentor, not Mentok) (ooh-eee-ohh). So stay tuned, you will probably see some of the stuff we’re doing posted here. There are some good times to be had.
I just have one question that I hope my readers will be able to help me with.
My guys play up a bit and aren’t always listening. What are some behaviour management strategies that will allow me to retain a mentoring, friendly role with these kids, not the hard-ass mean teacher guy that I’m starting to come across as.
February 12th, 2008
do you think any of your ratty kids have internet access? haha. I hope they don’t read this.
I know, i hate discipline. You just want to be friends with them… I thought you were very into the whole ‘respect them and treat them like equals’ thing. in high school ppl mucked up because teachers expect them to be stupid. in Uni, people dont because they are expected to be adults.