Assignment: Share reflections on the initial readings of the course texts in the context of responding to the courses initial questions: Toward what specific and transcendental ends should teaching and learning be directed? How can these ends shape concrete practices of teaching and learning?
Ok. I am not familiar with blogging, so hopefully this is going to work. What am I learning from my course reading so far? I would say that what I am reading has been very deep and has caused me to think. I am already grateful for this course, as I see it as a spiritual growth springboard. As I am taking it, I am regretting not having my university training in a Christian school where I could have been emmersed in minds as the ones that are mentoring me now through texts and videos. Nevertheless, here I am now considering my readings and listenings:
I am a slow reader by nature and take time to absorb things and make them mine. So at this point I am in chapter three of Living at the Crossroads. I have been shifted in my thinking from a more diestic view of God to a more concentrated effort of meditating on the fact that He is all around in every moment. I am thinking that if I really believe the gospel, that I need to open my students eyes to the realities of what I believe. I have always incorporated prayer, worship, a love of God and the reality of Him as Creator into my teaching, but I see that it is more fundamentally important to frame all of my teaching and focus on learning upon a more whole Christian worldview. This I believe I can incorporate by unit planning. I have focused my research to this aim.
After reading Parker Palmer's, 'Teaching with Heart and Soul' and hearing him speak about the undivided life and listening to Ken Robinson speak about changing educational paradimns and fostering creativity in schools, I am beginning see a more concrete way to shape practices of teaching and learning to the ends of a more Chrisian worldview. It is related to teaching the child more so than teaching the content. I think the concrete way I can offer this end is by my assessment practices. I am thinking of offering more ways for students to show learning and more ways to celebrate their particular achievements and abilities.
These are the beginning reflections I am having by absording and contemplating the thoughts and ideas presented to me by Goheen, Bartholomew, Palmer, and Robinson.
