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Customizing Lessons

This guide walks you through customizing a lesson for your classroom. Customizations let you remove or reorder content so your volunteers see exactly what they need -- nothing more, nothing less.

Before You Begin

Opening the Customization View​

  1. Log in and navigate to your Portal.
  2. Select the classroom that has the lesson you want to customize.
  3. In the classroom's schedule, find the lesson and click Customize below its name.

The Customize Lesson page lists the lesson's sections, with each section's roles and each role's actions below it. Every row has buttons on the right:

  • Up arrow and Down arrow -- Move the item one place up or down among its neighbors
  • Delete (trash can) -- Remove the item
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Customize only appears for Lessons.church lessons. Lessons scheduled from an external provider show View Lesson instead and can't be customized.

Choosing Where a Change Applies​

Each time you click an arrow or the trash can, a menu asks Apply selected customization to:

  • This Classroom -- The change applies to just the current classroom. Other classrooms are unaffected.
  • All the Classrooms -- The change applies across every classroom at your church.

Pick one and the change is saved right away. There is no separate save step.

Removing Sections​

If a section does not apply to your classroom, you can remove it entirely. This is useful when a lesson includes content for multiple age groups and you only need one. For example, if a lesson has both a "Preschool Activity" and an "Elementary Activity" section, you can remove whichever one does not fit your room.

  1. Find the section you want to remove.
  2. Click its Delete (trash can) button.
  3. Choose This Classroom or All the Classrooms.

The section is shown as removed, along with all of its roles and actions, and volunteers will no longer see it for this lesson.

Removing Roles or Actions​

Within a section, you can remove specific roles or actions. For instance, if a section includes a "Worship Leader" role but your classroom does not have one, you can remove just that role without removing the entire section.

  1. Find the role or action in the list under its section.
  2. Click its Delete (trash can) button and choose where the change applies.

Reordering Content​

You can rearrange sections, roles, and actions to match the flow you prefer:

  1. Click the Up arrow or Down arrow on the item you want to move.
  2. Choose where the change applies. The item swaps places with its neighbor.

Repeat until the items are in the order you want. The new order is what your volunteers will see when they view the lesson.

Undoing a Removal​

To bring back an item you removed, click its Delete button again. The menu now also offers None. Choose None to clear the removal and show the item again, or pick the other option to change where the removal applies.

tip

Start by customizing a single lesson for one classroom. Once you are comfortable with the process, you can apply customizations more broadly across all classrooms.

When to Customize​

Customization is most useful when:

  • A lesson has content for multiple age groups and you want to show only the relevant parts.
  • Your classroom does not use certain roles (like a dedicated worship leader or tech volunteer).
  • You prefer a different order for the lesson flow than what is provided by default.
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You do not need to customize every lesson. If the content works as-is for your classroom, you can skip this step entirely and go straight to presenting.