One of our focuses before putting anyone up in front of kids by themselves to teach or lead a segment is to make sure they understand the importance of what I like to call “keepin’ it goin’.” Keepin’ It Goin’ is when you’re on stage leading a segment and you continue to talk to kids and keep things rolling.
For example, picture someone on stage explaining a game to a couple of kids, and that’s it. There’s no joking around. There’s no interacting with the audience. There’s no pumping kids up. Nothing. There’s just explaining the game, and that’s it. That is not very exciting or engaging for the kids. Obviously, this would happen because the person on stage does not feel comfortable or does not know how to engage kids in the segment.
Before we put anyone on stage, we want them to feel comfortable with what they’re doing. Here are a few things we do:
1. We make sure anyone on stage feels comfortable with what they are doing. In other words, they are prepared. As the leader or director, it’s our job to make sure that we are equipping our teachers with the necessary tools (lessons, props, etc.).
2. We make sure the person on stage is in his or her element. We don’t want to place a boring person on stage teaching or leading a game. Why? Because they are boring. We sometimes see some hidden potential and encourage someone to try something out. But even with that, there is plenty of support before, during, and after they tried the stage.
3. I just mentioned it—support. We want to support those who are on stage. It’s an art form to have to constantly engage kids (and volunteers). At our church, we just brought on board an excellent communicator and creative person (Jesse Kretzu—Kid Studios Director) who will be working closely with our teaching team and helping us to expand. We have determined to provide the encouragement and support that’s needed to make people feel confident on stage.
For every person who needs help with “keepin’ it goin’,” there are people who are a little outrageous on stage and never get to the point or stay on topic. These people usually do not feel confident in teaching serious stuff so they overcompensate by trying to make everything “fun.”
When you’re on stage, you need balance. We do our best to coach our stage teaching team to have balance. Don’t be boring on stage, but don’t be crazy and, as Jonathan Cliff mentioned, be a stage “ninja.”
Here’s how we coach our stage “ninjas”…
1. I like to make sure they understand what they’re teaching. A lot of the reason they overcompensate on the “fun” side is because they don’t feel confident in teaching the serious stuff. They struggle with making the serious stuff fun and interesting. These people are creative with games and being funny, but we coach their teaching creativity.
2. We remind these types that we’re here for the kids and not to boost our own egos. Well, we don’t quite say it that way. However, that’s the gist of it. These ninjas while on stage enjoy entertaining themselves and enjoy the attention. I don’t necessarily blame them because it is fun to see the kids have fun because of what you’re doing. But it’s about them and not us!
3. Our ninjas need to feel confident that the material they have is entertaining without them going berserk and going off-track. This kind of ties into the first one. Point One focuses more on them, while this focuses more on us as the leader. We have to provide them great material. Admittedly, I’ve taught some material that was lame and so I did some improvising.
What are your thoughts? Do you or have you had any ninjas? How do you stay away from awkward silences? How do you encourage your teachers to “keep it goin’”? 
