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.
Hi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteAfter I assigned Living at the Crossroads for this course, I found The True Story of the Whole World: finding your place in the biblical drama. This book is a shortened version of Living . . . - by the same authors. They left out many details & eliminated almost all of the explanatory footnotes. Additionally each act is followed by a section on the contemporary significance of that part of the story.
You might benefit more by reading The True Story of the Whole World instead of Living if you can locate a copy.
Shalom,
Elaine
Hello Jasmine
ReplyDeleteWay to go in setting up this blog Jasmine. I think it would be a great practice for you to continue for your students. I have done a bit of blogging in the past and I want to get back to it. I think that it is important for teachers to publish and in that way model the practice for our students. If we change the culture by creating more of it, than blogging would be one small way of making a difference.
You also mentioned that assessment is a concrete way of helping your students and that you want to offer your students more ways to show their learning. I can relate to this as I am also taking the online course Educ 545 Christian Approach - Assessment and Evaluation. This course has reminded me of the importance of formative assessment or assessment for learning. In my evaluation of students in the past I have mainly concentrated on summative assessment or assessment of learning which does not give the students much opportunity to improve midstream. This is a practice I will have to change in the coming school year.
Regards,
Fritz
Jasmine, I am excited especially by what you were saying toward the end of your response about assessment practices. What a wonderful opportunity to showcase individuality and not force all our students into the same little box! The authors we are reading (and watching) are rekindling for me as well a desire to lean more toward the life of the child and less toward the content.
ReplyDeleteAs you seek to wrap your mind around embedding worldview in your units, I want to encourage you with something Mark encouraged me with the other day, and I have been thinking of much more as I read Palmer: who we are may be just as, if not more, important than what we teach. This isn't, I think, to let us off the hook from doing due diligence in planning and weaving Christian worldview into our curriculum, but to free us to let our faith and our light shine and speak to our students as we engage authentically with them.
Katie