We’ve all been through it. We inherit a volunteer who you think you can work with and then you notice you can’t. Why? In my case it was about getting the volunteer to teach the curriculum given to him
My standards for the teacher were simple, teach, connect with new students, show up to appropriate meetings and actually teach from scripture, ya know, little things like that.
Of course, this kind of friction is never easy. This volunteer had taught for a long time, he was entrenched. The kids liked him (of course, what teen wouldn’t like to goof off for an hour each week in Sunday School.) I tried to work with this volunteer and he just wanted to do what he wanted to do.
Disclaimer: I liked this teacher as a person. His son was on our leadership team (he takes after his mother).
My choices for dealing with a rogue volunteer teacher were
1. Get rid of him outright (you’re not doing the job)
2. Try to get him on board again (I don’t like this option, he’s not going to play ball)
3. Talk to the parents of students in this group (not a fan of this either, makes me look petty, us vs him)
3. Install an independent evaluation group. Just like public school teachers who don’t make the grade. I could have other staff members or parents, sit in the class and evaluate the teacher/class. I liked this option best for two reason
a) Parents see what I’m talking about.
b) They see I am not making it up
c) The teacher(s) do not get the backlash from me; they’re getting it from independent people.
I could have created a teacher evaluation sheet and this is what would have been on it,
1. Did the appropriate lesson get taught?
2. How was class discipline?
3. How did the teacher/class respond to new guests?
4. Was there prayer (you would think that I would not have to ask this)
5. How did the discussion go?
My desperate attempt at control only made me more unhappy and the distance between this teacher and I get wider. I should have sought more honest conversations and prayed through it more. Don’t be me.
I’m not say saying you should ignore a rogue volunteer, but I would tread far more carefully and prayerfully than I did.
I, eventually, designed an evaluation sheet that I could be given to a parent, etc. and ask them to go into a small group or SS class and tell me how it’s going. I would recommend the teacher be told they’re being evaluated and when this would happen.
I think this type of evaluation works best if
The teacher is new-ish.
The evaluation is then a check in not a check up and a process to help the teacher get better, not a “Are you good enough to do this” type of evaluation.
The teacher knows what the standards are
If the teacher has never been given a job description, it’s hard to hold them to a standard they know nothing about. Take whatever you think should be evaluated and turn it into a job description (see below). You should make it clear that an evaluation will happen every X months.
There have been problems
If you are getting complaints from parents or admins, you have to take action. You can do the evaluation, but I would suggest having an independent part do it.
Sound like a lot of work? No worries, I did the work for you. Sign up for my newsletter and grab the Small Group Leader/Teacher Evaluation which I have broken down into a job description and two kinds of evaluation forms. This is also included, along with many other management tools, in my Youth Ministry Playbook resource.
If you’re looking for Sunday School or small group material, check out my store here and then click #smallgroups
If you’d like to learn more from my 35 years of mistakes, join my Ministry Mind Coaching group.