OnPractice – TeachBeyond Argentina

The Educator’s Spiritual Health

December 13, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

To talk about teacher spirituality is to talk about human spirituality. According to Judeo-Christian anthropology, a human being is an inorganic matter that becomes a living soul by the breath of the Spirit of God. Therefore, this yearning for the transcendent, which we call spirituality, is an intrinsic condition of being human. We thirst for the eternal, and biblical words attest that God “has also set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).^[i] No matter how many people deny the possibility of knowing and relating to spiritual beings, the longing and the search for transcendence still remains.

That being said, what is the relevance of addressing this matter that is usually seen as a private concern? After all, some believe and others don’t, and still others fight any kind of religious manifestation. Here I make an important distinction between mere religiosity and true spirituality. The first is related to dogmas, empty rites and traditions; and the second is about the personal and unique expression of each individual in his or her relationship with the Transcendent. Based on the Judeo-Christian premise, we understand that God, the Creator, is a spiritual and personal being, endowed with rationality, affection, volition and relationality, as it is expressed in the Scriptures.

Although spirituality is a universal experience, each person expresses it uniquely. For those who call themselves as Christians, followers of the Way (as they were known in the past), what would this be like when we are teaching or carrying on with our daily life? I would like to propose three possibilities: personal devotion, social coherence, timely proclamation. Let’s briefly look at each one of them.

Personal Devotion

We said earlier that Christian spirituality has a relational component. We believe in a personal God who still communicates with his creation today and, in a special way, with those made in His image and likeness. Meditating on the Holy Scriptures, engaging with contents that reveal the person and action of God in history, and praying as a way to express desires, doubts, confession, gratitude, and adoration to our Father are daily spiritual disciplines that nourish the soul and give meaning to life. In the New Testament, the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us: “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him,” (Hebrews 11:6) That is, we need to come before the Holy One with all of our being—body, mind, and heart—full of faith that rests on the certainty of His existence and immanence! Do you believe it?

Social Coherence

The other side of this issue is found in James’ letter which says “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2:18) Our salvation from eternal death comes through a declaration of repentance and faith in the atoning work performed by Jesus on the Cross. This is the confidence of all Christians, without them having to do anything to earn it. It’s just by faith! However, the expression of this faith occurs through good works performed later, as a consequence of a new and generous heart given by God. Good works, therefore, accompany faith! In other words, Christian teachers will be attentive to opportunities to serve in their work environment, expressing their spirituality through a well-prepared class and a commitment to students’ learning. They will look carefully at the signs emitted by their students of any difficulty in learning or behaviour that needs to be dealt with, respecting their individuality and looking for the best time. Christian spirituality, therefore, is not restricted to a private or merely religious experience, it is coherently related to all aspects of life. Have you been coherent?

Timely Proclamation

In my understanding, Christian spirituality is primarily incarnational. Our preaching or proclamation of what we believe begins with a minimum of coherence between believing and living out the faith in Christ. Love, respect, honour, forgiveness, sacrifice, and empathy are some of the marks of those who are called Christians. But Christian spirituality, and therefore that of the Christian teacher, is purposeful and does not miss out on opportunities to clearly express one’s faith. There is a revealed content that involves both the understanding of Jesus’ life and work, his coming, teaching, death, resurrection and return, but there is also the challenge to proclaim this content with the expectation of making new disciples of Jesus who will make other followers of Him! In some contexts, spirituality is addressed explicitly at school in the context of Religious Education. However, for the Christian faith, spirituality permeates all subjects and gives us a sense of urgency as we seek the opportunity to bear witness of our faith! How does evangelism happen at your school?

I conclude with a provocation: How have we lived out our spirituality? How is our alone time with God, the expression of our faith in the school environment and the communication of the Gospel among colleagues, students, management and other collaborators? We don’t live in an alienated “spiritsphere,” nor do we agree with some sort of spiritual schizophrenia, where we live one spirituality in the church, another one at home and another one at school! May our God give us the balance, the will and the boldness to live what we believe in a healthy spirituality, which is blessed and a blessing.

Erlo Saul Aurich

Board Member TeachBeyond Brazil

Erlo is a theologian, pastor and family therapist located in southern Brazil. He is the founder and pastor of the Biblical Alliance Church in Gramado and serves in the counselling ministry and board member for TeachBeyond Brazil, a volunteer with Youth for Christ and a faculty member at Eirene do Brasil.

Photo Credits:

Contemplation. Trevor Harder (Instagram: @trevorjharder). Used with permission.
Prayer. Morning Glory Christian Academy
Chapel. E Burnham

What’s In and What’s Out: My Circle of Control

November 29, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

The deadline was looming: write an article on helping students learn to live within their ‘Circle of Control.’ I was delaying the process, making excuses, letting the urgent displace the important, fretting about what others would think about the article. That’s when I had a deeper revelation about my own circle of control and what I actually had control over.

I am passionate about coming alongside others, nurturing and encouraging them to walk in their God-given identities. Working as a school nurse in a cross-cultural setting is providing opportunities to teach and speak into the lives of children and staff about their whole selves: body, mind and soul. I want teachers and students to know who God has created them to be and be the healthiest version of that self. I am also eager to implement tools that build self-awareness, increase resilience, improve self-esteem, and develop a love of learning.

While searching for resources, I encountered My Circle of Control on Big Life Journal’s website.[1] The ‘Circle of Control’ is a tool that helps students identify areas where they do and don’t have control. Students learn that they do not control what others think, the weather, past mistakes, what teacher they have or what school they attend. Instead, focusing on what they can control helps them feel good about themselves and empowers them to make choices that will impact them personally.

Let me share how I used the ‘Circle of Control’ to provide students with tools to pursue their own personal growth. Perhaps this example will give you ideas to use in your school.

I chose to introduce the ‘Circle of Control’ to primary students during morning meeting time, a 15-minute block at the beginning of the school day when our students and staff connect as a large group. We created a tangible circle that students could step into and hold around themselves by using a hula hoop as a visual and tactile symbol of their personhood and separateness from others.

I distributed to the students laminated words and phrases from Big Life Journal’s Circle of Control poster. These cards had phrases of ‘Things I can Control’ (e.g., my behaviour, my words, my effort, my actions, my attitude, asking for help, taking care of myself) and ‘Things I Can’t Control’ (e.g., my grades, my school, my past mistakes, my family, my teachers, other people’s words, other people’s opinions, other people’s behaviour). Collectively the students decided which words belonged either inside or outside the ‘Circle of Control.’ Having students dialogue about where the different ‘things’ belonged helped reinforce the distinction between ‘self’ and ‘others.’

We then displayed the results on a bulletin board that was visible to both students and staff, providing common language and visuals to use when discussing specific situations. Since the bulletin board was also visible to parents during drop-off and dismissal time, it served to raise awareness even among parents. Several parents commented on how the ‘Circle of Control’ concept was impacting them personally, challenging them to think about areas over which they did and did not have control in their own lives. They were able to share personal experiences and convey empathy and understanding as they engaged their children in conversions about ‘My Circle of Control.’

Helping students learn to live within their ‘Circle of Control’ nurtures their growth in understanding themselves and others. It assists them in developing and establishing healthy boundaries necessary for engaging in loving, intentional, purposeful relationships with those around them. Students with a maturing self-awareness are better able to cope with everyday challenges, which impacts their academic success and improves their social health.

As important as it is for us to help students understand their ‘Circle of Control,’ we as educators also benefit by applying this concept to our own lives. Parker J. Palmer in his book The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life, reminds us that “the personal can never be divorced from the professional. ‘We teach who we are’…”[2] Even in writing this article, I needed to recognize and be honest about the things inside and outside my circle of control. For your circle, what’s in and what’s out?

Janice B.
School Nurse

[1] Find resources at the Big Life Journal website at https://biglifejournal.com/. This website has a plethora of Growth Mindset tools. Check it out and sign up for their weekly free printables.

[2] Palmer, Parker J. (1997) The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Jossey-Bass.

Photo Credits:

Encouraging a Student via Bingham Academy
My Circle of Control by Janice B.

An Invitation to Integral Health

November 29, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

Every profession has its inherent challenges, difficulties, frustrations, and setbacks. Besides not being exempt from these, teachers are also susceptible, in many contexts, to health problems due to precarious working conditions, complex relationships with administrators, colleagues, and school community, and changes imposed on their role because of recent social transformations. If, in the past, the teacher’s main function was to facilitate the learning of his or her students, today teachers also participate in school management and planning and in meeting the demands of their students’ families. In other words, more and more is expected from teachers, but the necessary means and resources to accomplish these expectations are not always offered. Unfortunately, many times it is the teacher’s health that suffers the consequences of all this pressure.

According to surveys carried out in Brazil, the biggest cause (about one-sixth) of work absenteeism for education professionals is related to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, burnout syndrome, and suicide.[1] Even when the situation is not as serious, it is estimated that up to 55% of teachers suffer from MPDs (Minor Psychic Disorders).[2] These are common mental disorders such as insomnia, fatigue, irritability, forgetfulness, and difficulty concentrating that affect the teacher’s productivity and good performance, and that can lead to more serious problems. When it comes to physical health, the main problems reported by teachers themselves are related to back pain and voice (about 30% each).[3] As Christian teachers, we are not exempt from these problems, which raises some questions: What does the Christian faith have to say about health? And what resources does it offer us?

When it comes to health, we usually think about its physical aspect first, but according to the WHO (World Health Organization), health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”[4] The Bible, due to its antiquity, does not contain an equivalent word to our modern understanding of “health.” Medical knowledge at the time was quite limited, being restricted to what could be observed or felt by the patient. Furthermore, some biblical texts have been misinterpreted, spreading the mistaken notion that the Christian faith is against conventional medicine, or that if we have faith, we will never experience psycho-emotional problems. Unfortunately, we are all subject to these things, there is nothing wrong with getting the help you need. In the rest of this article, we’ll explore some biblical ideas that suggest that as Christian educators we should, indeed, take care of our health.

Though the Bible doesn’t have a specific word for health, it offers something even richer—the concept of shalom. Shalom is the Hebrew word commonly translated as ‘peace,’ but its meaning goes far beyond the absence of conflicts and wars. It refers to a deep sense of security, well-being, physical integrity, and wealth (both tangible and intangible) that comes from having a right relationship with God, with yourself, with others, and with the rest of creation. In Genesis 43:27, for example, Joseph “asked them [his brothers] how they were, and then said, ‘How is your aged father?’”[5] In Hebrew, the original language of the text, it says literally, “he asked them about shalom and said, ‘What about your father’s shalom?’” By asking this question, Joseph wants to know if his brothers and his father are doing well, not only in terms of their physical health, but also in terms of their health spiritually, emotionally, socially, economically, and so on.

Furthermore, the Bible offers us an integral vision of the human being. Contrary to the modern tendency to reduce the human being to its material dimension and to some philosophical and religious tendencies that overemphasize its spiritual dimension, Genesis 2:7 states that we are a “living being” made from the “dust of the ground” (material) and the “breath of life” (spiritual).[6]Therefore, biblical teaching invites us to make a commitment to the Creator that includes all of our being – spirit, soul, and body (1Thessalonians 5:23) – and to grow in our devotion to Him with all our heart, soul, understanding, and strength (Mark 12:30). This does not mean that we should draw solid lines to divide these aspects, but that whatever dimension of human life we come to identify, there we want to be healthy, or rather, there God wants us to experience shalom.

In future articles, we will address different aspects of teacher health: spiritual, psycho-emotional, and physical. Obviously, these dimensions are not the only ones, nor will they be dealt with exhaustively. However, we hope that they will serve as encouragement and build awareness for all those who work in education or who care about the teachers of our children, neighbours, and friends.

Raphael Haeuser
Educational Consultant
TeachBeyond, Brazil

Note: This article was first published in Portuguese at Didaquê, TeachBeyond Brazil’s educational resource website. Click here to access the original article.

[1] Approximate data, based on the article by GASPARINI, Sandra Maria; BARRETO, Sandhi Maria; ASSUNÇÃO, Ada Ávila. “O professor, as condições de trabalho e os efeitos sobre sua saúde” (Teachers, their working conditions and the effects on their health), in Education and Research, vol. 31, no. 2, p. 189–199, 2005 and in the SINPRO/RS digital booklet organized by MONTEIRO, Janine, “Saúde/Adoecimento Mental dos Professores da Rede Privada do Rio Grande do Sul: como avaliar e cuidar” (Health/Mental Illness of Private Network Teachers of Rio Grande do Sul: how to assess and care).

[2] According to the article “Pesquisa revela dados da saúde mental dos professores do ensino privado” (Research reveals data on the mental health of private education teachers). Available at: www.sinprors.org.br/comunicacao/noticias/pesquisa-revela-dados-da-saude-mental-dos-professores-do-ensino-privado. Accessed on: 15 Jan. 2020.

[3] According to research carried out by SINPRO/RS, mentioned in ROSA, Stela. “Saúde do professor e ambiente escolar” (Teacher’s health and school environment). Available at: www.extraclasse.org.br/saude/2006/10/saude-do-professor-e-ambiente-escolar. Accessed on: 15 Jan. 2020.

[4] World Health Organization. Constitution. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution

[5] Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[6] See Genesis 2:7, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®

Photo Credits:
Planning by Arbor Christian Academy
Integral Health by Raphael Haeuser

Safeguarding for Online Learning

November 29, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

Throughout this past year and a half, so much teaching has moved to platforms like Zoom or Google Classroom. Even this year, many schools are continuing with online learning. With this being the case, how can teachers remain in touch with the needs of their students, especially when it comes to safeguarding?

I hope many of you have already taken TeachBeyond’s Introduction to Safeguarding training on Moodle (our members with a TeachBeyond email can access that here), but here’s a reminder of how TeachBeyond defines safeguarding: it’s a term to denote measures taken to protect the health, well-being, and human rights of individuals, which allow people—especially children and vulnerable adults—to live free from abuse. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent and reduce the risks, occurrences, and impact of harm.

Keeping this definition in mind, we want to promote 3 principles whenever you interact with children or vulnerable adults. These principles are Visibility, Accountability, and Power Balance (VAP). It’s easy to only think of these when interacting with children in person, but they are just as applicable when teaching children online.

We all know that teachers are some of the busiest people on the planet, so I want to get straight to the point and give some practical examples of ways to promote each of those principles.

Visibility:
- Online lessons take place with a minimum of 2 students.
- Emails from teachers are sent to a minimum of 2 students.
- Where an email from a teacher is to only 1 student, their parent/the director will be copied on it.
- All lessons will be recorded and retained for 1 month.

Accountability:
- Lesson days and times will be consistent, and any changes to these will be communicated to the director.
- The teacher will use the waiting room facility and only allow students into the meeting once there are 2 or more students ready to enter the lesson.
- Where the written chat facility is used, the teacher will keep a copy for the record until the end of the academic year.
- In the event that the teacher is concerned about something said in a lesson—whether or not it was unintentional—they will report it to the director/safeguarding specialist anyway, for sake of transparency.

Power Balance:
- The teacher will be referred to by title and name to indicate a working rather than personal relationship. This will also be reflected in the screen name of the teacher.
- Teachers and students will wear clothing that is appropriately modest in the country/location of the school.
- The teacher will avoid sensitive subject matter when there is only 1 student in attendance (if having a 1-on-1 lesson or meeting is unavoidable).

General Safeguarding:
- If the teacher is teaching in a public location or other environment where they cannot control who is walking past, the background should be blurred.
- The waiting room facility will be enabled, so as to ensure no unwelcome attendees log onto the meeting.
- The teacher has an email account that will be used exclusively for school business.

As you can see, a lot of these suggestions have overlap between categories, and not all of these suggestions will be possible all the time. For instance, perhaps you need to mentor or tutor a student 1-on-1; you cannot achieve visibility in a situation like that, but you could promote accountability by letting your director and the student’s parents know when you’ll be meeting, for how long, and an overview of what you’ll be discussing. Please continue to remember that when it comes to VAP, 1 is good, 2 is better, and 3 is best.

Now that you know some practical tips, here’s a scenario for you to consider:

          You’re teaching online and 1 of your students is having a hard time
          paying attention. One of their parents comes in and sees them
          struggling so they grab the book the student has on their desk and slams
          it down in front of them. You can see that this distressed the student.
          How could you handle this situation, keeping in mind the VAP principles?

Take a moment to consider this before reading on.

In a situation like this, ensuring that you let the director or the safeguarding lead at your school know that this has happened is crucial. They will be able to follow up with the student. However, you can only do this once your class is over, so until that happens, you should focus especially on the area of Power Balance. A huge part of power balance is making sure that children and vulnerable adults feel safe in your presence. Ask yourself how you could specifically interact with this child in order to ensure that they feel safe with you. Perhaps you could mention to the class that you understand online learning can be hard because it’s so easy to get distracted, and then lead the class in stretches. In addition to communicating the need to pay attention, this action communicates to the struggling student that you understand and that you want to do something to help them. Showing care and a healthy power balance can lead to the student telling you more about their situation at home, which could be significant. Becoming a trusted adult within your school community is worth the effort you need to put in.

Putting these principles and suggestions into practice will look different depending on where you are and your context, but I’m sure you all have different and great ideas on how to deal with a situation like this within your specific context. Start a conversation with your school staff about this to share your ideas and hear those of others! Talk about which actions promoting visibility, accountability, and a healthy power balance would work best for your school community. The best part about safeguarding is there’s always more to discuss and learn, and this learning leads to children and vulnerable adults being better cared for.

Alison Neumann
Safeguarding Team Specialist
TeachBeyond Global

Photo Credits:
Learning Online via Startup Stock Photos
Online Meetings via Startup Stock Photos

God’s Big Story

September 22, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

After drinking my morning coffee, scarfing down a muffin, and almost getting lost on a convoluted university campus, I finally made it to the classroom of my first graduate class. The course was Mineralogy for Science Teachers, and I was taking it as a part of my summer professional development. It was my first time visiting America in 3 years, and part of the reverse-culture shock experience was not just switching from Germany to America, but switching from a missionary school context to secular academia.

The well-respected professor stood at the front of the class and began his 6-hour lecture (you know, as summer courses do). It was Mineralogy, so I was expecting him to start with an introduction on perhaps igneous rocks, or crystal shapes, or maybe the components of granite. But the professor started off with a much bigger perspective. “Minerals tell us the story of our earth’s past, and ultimately our past,” he said. “When you consider our earth’s place in the universe, we really are just an insignificant speck. Humans are simply evolved star-stuff. But our evolutionary history is amazing. You can try to find purpose in the pedestrian affairs of life, but there’s a much Bigger Story—a story that’s cosmological. That Big Story is science.”

Heads all around me nodded in agreement. All my classmates were fellow science teachers, and their wide-opened eyes told me they were excited to share this Bigger Story with their students. As others agreed, I felt something disagreeable within me, and it wasn’t the muffin.

What makes a science teacher with a Biblical worldview different from a secular science teacher? As a Christian, what are the things I want my high school students to know? And more importantly, what is the Big Story I’m telling?

To a surprising degree, I was reminded by my non-Christian professors that humans are not special, but are simply an animal product of Darwinian evolution. Scripture has a different take. In the very first chapter of the Bible, we find “God created mankind in his own image,” (Genesis 1:27)^[1]. But what does “in God’s image” really mean? I actually spend a whole week on this in my science class, because I think it is so crucial to how we relate to the world. Part of imaging God means acting towards his earth like He would. Just as He rules over every living creature, so we are to rule over His creatures as His stewards (In fact, it’s one of God’s first commands. Just read Genesis 1:28, 2:15).

During an outdoor ecology class, my professor and I stood under a shelter during a thunderstorm and debated about the management of threatened mammals in the American West. “But WHY do you want to save these animals?” I finally asked. “I guess I just like the thought of them still being around,” he replied. I didn’t find his answer to be that compelling.

So much of science comes down to stewarding this planet. But as a Christian, I have something the secular scientist doesn’t have: a commission to do so. You cannot endow yourself with the responsibility of stewarding the animals while maintaining the idea that humans are in no special position. When the same people who tell me that humans aren’t special are also trying to save species from extinction, I often ask, “And who put you in charge of that?” Only the Christian has the answer to that question, and as a science teacher, I want my students to know that answer, not just in their heads, but in their lives.

To agree with my mineralogy professor, there is in fact a Bigger Story—a story that’s cosmological. But, to take issue with my professor, that Big Story is not science. That Big Story is God’s Story. That Big Story tells of a God who created humans as a special Imago Dei—a representation of God’s loving care on earth. That theme drives why I teach science. It’s why I want students to know how God’s earth works. Science is one way of understanding one part of this Big Story. But science will only be amazing (and fun) if it is put in its proper context in that story.

So, what Big Story are you teaching your students? What will you do to introduce them to God’s Big Story (through science or any other subject you teach) this year? What will you do to better familiarize yourself with how God’s Big Story relates to your subject area?

Harrison Elkins
High School Science Teacher
Black Forest Academy

Click on this link to see Harrison explain more about the connection between God’s Big Story and Science.

Photo Credits:

Sea Between Trees by Jeshu John via designerpics.com

Granite Stairs on Moro Rock by National Park Service via npgallery.nps.gov

2016 White-Tailed Deer Fawn in a Field by Jim Roetzel via npgallery.nps.gov (cropped)

Triangles, Trains, and Excellent Teaching

September 20, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

As an administrator responsible for overseeing instruction, I could tell when good teaching was happening in classrooms. Yet while I could see and feel it, I had great difficulty articulating it. Every teacher is different. Every class is different. There is no one way to teach. And certainly no one way to create an excellent educational environment. So what was it that I was seeing and feeling that suggested I was observing an excellent educational environment?

Thankfully I found an answer in the work of Parker J. Palmer, a long-time educator and activist. Palmer makes this profound statement in his book, To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey:^[1]

“The teacher, who knows the subject well, must introduce it to students in the way one would introduce a friend.”

This was my “Aha!” moment! It made sense! Here was a statement around which I could articulate my understanding of excellent teaching. Teaching is all about relationships. Observing the relationships between the teacher, students, and the subject brought great clarity to what I was seeing and feeling in excellent classrooms. I began doodling triangles that visualized the relationships of teachers, students, and subjects. I walked into classrooms looking through the lenses of these triangles, testing to see if they could hold what I was observing. After many years, I still draw these triangles and find that, yes, they can hold together the most important elements of excellent teaching practice. In this simple framework, there are 3 specific characters and 3 specific relationships between those characters.

The students, the teacher and the subject are the 3 main characters. Though we could take time to discuss each character, in this article we will look specifically at the 3 relationships among them, all three of which play a significant role in good teaching. Emphasizing any one while ignoring another will not lead to good teaching. We’ll look at this triangle of relationships along with a metaphor of trains illustrating the dangers of over-emphasizing any one relationship.

Teacher – Subject relationship

It is critically important that the teacher know his or her subject well. We know that a teacher needs a good grasp on the subject to be an appropriately prepared guide for students. Yet, we also know that we don’t always have the privilege of providing for students a teacher who is an expert in the subject. In many cases, the teacher may be doing his or her best to stay one step ahead of students in knowledge of the subject. Yet, whether experts or not, we don’t want to mislead or misteach students.

Though critical, the teacher–subject relationship is not everything. An over-emphasis on the relationship between the teacher and the subject can be like a train leaving a station right on time, arriving at the next station right on time, but with no passengers left. The engineer (teacher) arrived promptly at the proper destination, but the passengers (students) had jumped off along the way. If we focus on the subject without building a relationship with students, they will disengage from learning.

Teacher – Student relationship

This relationship is truly the foundation upon which all excellent teaching grows. While teachers must know their subject well, they must know their students even better. Students need to know that their teachers are interested in them, care for them, know them, and will take good care of them. Excellent teaching means that the teacher knows the students well, the students know the teacher well, and there is a real level of trust all around. Without a strong, caring relationship, a teacher will have much greater difficulty engaging students in the subject.

Yet, an over-emphasis on the teacher–student relationship can be like party trains at Disney World. They are a great deal of fun but go round and round without ever getting anywhere. The main purpose of teaching has been missed. We can’t focus on the teacher-student relationship to the neglect of the subject.

Student – Subject relationship

The ultimate purpose of our work is to build as strong a relationship as possible between the student and the subject. When we know our students well enough to understand the level of relationship they have with the subject, we can design learning experiences that will allow them to grow into new challenges without defeating them. This is where accurate assessment and engaging instruction take place. Ultimately, excellent teaching occurs when students develop strong relationships with the subject matter.

An over-emphasis on the student-subject relationship, however, can be like an old steam engine train, where students work so hard to feed the furnace with coal or wood that they are not even aware that they are part of a caring learning community. It is important to remember that we teach the whole student and that students’ learning happens in a community experience.

Trains in India – All Three Relationships

My family and I spent a year in India, and I was very impressed with their train system. They were very proud of the punctuality of the system: trains left on time and arrived on time. Even more remarkable, we had several journeys where there were more people on the train at the end of the journey (even without stops!) than there were at the beginning. This is a wonderful picture of excellent teaching. The teacher knows the destination (the subject) well, enjoys great relationships with students, and masterfully builds new relationships between the students and the subject. The learning train arrives at the intended station full of passengers who have enjoyed a great journey!

As you plan lessons this year and seek to grow your students into all God has designed for them, consider how you can foster excellent teaching by strengthening these relationships.

Randy Dueck
Educational Consultant
TeachBeyond Global

^[1] Palmer, Parker J. To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey. HarperCollins, 1993.

Photo Credits:
Toy Train by Jeshu John via DesignerPics.com
Teaching-Learning Process by Randy Dueck.
Girl Painting by Jeshu John via DesignerPics.com

Developing a Heart for Transformation

August 25, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

Dear Friends.

I know this greeting isn’t a normal way to start an article. It is more personal to remind us that how God develops our hearts for transformation is personal. Personal, not because it is based on how you feel—we must still soak in objective truth. And not because it depends on you—the Holy Spirit works in you as well as your learners. It just means that how God develops your heart for transformation is often different than how God may work in your friend.

Yesterday someone wanted to know why I try to ask questions when I talk with friends. We are on home assignment and meeting lots of people. When I ask questions, friends tell stories about their lives. Asking questions is an effort to show we care.

Yet I was asked again, “Why do you want to do that?” The best I could say is that we feel like God wants us to love others in this small way. I hope there aren’t selfish reasons behind asking questions and maybe there are. But the only reason I could give is because of God’s love for us. First John 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.”[1] Stepping into other lives is because God stepped into ours.

Why do you want to be used by God in transformation?

Transformation is messy. It involves lives and life touching life. The whole lives of learners. Praying, watching and working hard to find ways to connect and bring truth into each life. It’s about people, not about a subject. It’s about giving the gifts God has given you to your learners and making truths alive for them. Even though it is God who does the transformation, the work is not for the faint of heart.

He First Loved Us

As we begin to understand the depths of depravity from which He has brought us and continues to transform us, we begin to have a glimmer of His love and the same need others have.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ…in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Please take some time to consider His love. Maybe start with the passage in Ephesians 2:1-10. Even right now…

We and our learners need to know this love. Lives are messy, yet by God’s grace each can be a new creature and make sense of life. Your learners need your unconditional love, love that does not depend on a transaction that sounds like “You do this, and I will love you.” They need someone who is committed to the best for them, even when you have to say and do hard things. They need someone to sacrifice for them, to love them the way God has loved you.

Moving from His Love to Loving

How do we move from knowing we are loved to having a heart for each of our learners? Three things seem to help:

Call. There are different ways to look at “call,” but basically it is recognizing how God is moving you to a place, a people, or a position. Your call often plays a large part in sustaining your heart and moving you to be with real people and real lives. What is your call?
Conviction. Sometimes what drives our heart to act is conviction. Not just believing but believing enough to act. Often God places a conviction in your heart that brings you to the work of transformation in certain other lives. What are your convictions?
Commitment. When you see real, unique learners, it is easier to love as God loves, committing to the best for each one. There is nothing that helps your heart more than looking into the faces of each learner, faces that reflect messy and rich lives made in God’s image. Lives that need you to give yourself to them. To whom are you committed?

Friends, I do not know how God is working in you so that you have a heart for transformation and can sustain it when things are hard. I do know it starts with Him: “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

Paul then says in 2 Corinthians 4:1: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart.” It’s by God’s grace.

By His love and grace, let’s pursue transformation in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Blessings,
Joe Neff
Director of Education Services
TeachBeyond Global

Photo Credits:
Prayer Time. Belize Christian Academy/TeachBeyond, 2017.
Personal. Icon made from http://www.onlinewebfonts.com/icon. Icon Fonts is licensed by CC BY 3.0. Resized.
Love of Teaching. Lighthouse Primary School/TeachBeyond, 2020.

August 23, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

**Welcome to OnPractice!**

At TeachBeyond, one of our distinctive characteristics is our commitment to cultivating a learning community. When serving in a context outside our passport country, it can sometimes be difficult to find the resources (or the time) to pursue vocational excellence. To help address this, Teacher Education Services (TES) publishes OnPractice, a bi-monthly e-mail publication designed to help TeachBeyond members share ideas, resources, and practical applications as a way to encourage professional and vocational excellence in the classroom.

Each month we highlight a practical element relating to teaching (usually the second Wednesday of the month) and a reflection about biblical integration or transformational education (usually the fourth Wednesday of the month). Past practical topics have included ideas for classroom management or supporting language learners, use of technology in the classroom, and professional practices. Transformational education and Biblical worldview topics have included resources for connecting God’s world and Word, transformational education, and the application of TeachBeyond’s core values in the classroom. All members are welcome to share ideas, resources, and suggestions related to teaching practice by e-mailing onpractice@teachbeyond.org.

We publish OnPractice newsletters twice a month during the traditional Western academic calendar (August to June). Please feel free to share this publication with others as well.

Look for this year’s first article on August 25th!

Many of our members have expressed gratitude for the ideas and tips included in this publication. We welcome any feedback or contributions you would like to give. It is our pleasure to serve you!

Teacher Education Services
TeachBeyond Global

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On Practice is a bi-monthly e-mail designed to help TeachBeyond members share ideas, resources, and practical applications as a way to encourage professional and vocational excellence in the classroom. It is produced by the Teacher Education Services Department. Comments and contributions are welcome: onpractice@teachbeyond.org.

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Confessions of a Stressed-Out Teacher

August 23, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

I took a break from my teaching at one point to pursue further studies. While studying, I worked part-time as a waiter. I missed many things about the teaching environment: interacting with colleagues, watching students learn, preparing for class, and sometimes even grading. Yet, there was one thing I did not miss at all: I NEVER had to take work home!

Perhaps taking work home simply comes with the territory. As teachers, we are concerned about our students’ well-being and look for ways to make their learning experience better. We often have assignments to grade and materials to prepare for tomorrow’s class.

While several good things may come out of all this hard work, there is also a side-effect: we’re worn out. And when we’re worn out, we lose the joy of teaching and become less effective at what we do. We get more impatient, irritable, and bitter, displaying character traits that resemble the works of the flesh more than the fruit of the Spirit.

I decided to write on this because, more than anything, this pandemic has left me tired. I’ve seen many teachers tired as well. So, what can be done?

The biblical answer is Sabbath-keeping, not as a rule but as a day to rest. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were directed to separate a day dedicated to rest and worship every seven days. The word “Sabbath” comes from a Hebrew word derived from the verb “to stop” (shabat), which sounds similar to the number seven in Hebrew.

In the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8–11), we read that we were created to work, but also to rest. Keeping a Sabbath is not a random command, for the rhythm of work and rest is embedded in the created order. God rested after He had completed making the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2:2–3). On one hand, He was expressing the satisfaction we also experience after successfully accomplishing a task or project. On the other, there was still much work yet to be done! After all, God delegated to us the ruling over creation, the filling of the earth, the tilling of the ground, and the naming of the animals. So I wonder, if God didn’t do everything that could have been done, why do I have the urge to act as if everything is up to me?

Interestingly, in the other version of the Decalogue (Deuteronomy 5:12–15), there’s a different reason for Sabbath-keeping. Here, the practice is grounded on God’s redemptive work of setting Israel free from under Egypt’s thumb. Having experienced God’s grace, Israel was not to act in oppressive ways. Not only was the head of the household entitled to rest, but also his children, servants, foreigners that worked for him, and even his animals. Everyone was entitled to catch their breath (Exodus 23:12). I wonder, how often is my drive for effectiveness making my students stressed?

In New Testament times, Sabbath-keeping became distorted. The Pharisees, through their misguided understanding, managed to change what was meant to be a source of joy and refreshment into a legalistic burden. They believed they couldn’t walk more than 500 yards to visit a friend or start a fire to cook a meal on a Sabbath. Jesus corrected them by saying “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Having a day of rest is not a rule we obey to please God; it is a gift we receive from Him. It makes me ask: is my lifestyle a source of stress and tension, or a fountain of blessing and grace to the people around me?

In the Hebrew mindset, a day was not from midnight to midnight, but from sunset to sunset. When we wake up to go to work, we are not starting anything, but merely joining God in what He’s already doing. God is always at work in the world, even while we sleep (Psalm 127:2). Perhaps, our rhythm should not be seen as work-then-rest, but as rest-then-work. We can only properly work when we are well-rested in our Father’s arms. Taking this into consideration, does my reluctance to having proper rest reveal my lack of faith and dependence on God?

So what can we do to establish a healthier life rhythm? First, we must realize that Sabbath-keeping is a weekly rhythm. Vacation time is important, but we must also create resting spaces in our weekly planners.

Second, we need to acknowledge different kinds of rest. I need time to rest…

my spirit, by taking time to connect to the Spirit of God individually and with my brothers and sisters;
my body, by getting enough sleep and having proper physical posture at work (and if you lead a sedentary lifestyle like me, physical rest might also mean exercising a few times a week);
my mind, by slowing down my thoughts and not thinking about my work all the time, and by disconnecting from the constant stimuli of social media, music, online meetings, group chats, etc.

Finally, resting is not only about not doing things, but also about doing different things. It’s about going on a hike and enjoying God’s creation, or developing your creative or artistic side through a hobby, or taking time to visit a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Slowly I’m learning that God has called us to work, but not to be stressed. I guess I’ll stop here and have some rest.

Raphael Haeuser
Educational Consultant
TeachBeyond, Brazil

Photo Credits:
Teacher’s To-Do List. E. Burnham
Working Overtime. Piqsels.com
Sunset. E. Burnham

Supporting English Language Learners Online

August 23, 2021/in OnPractice/by admin

Transitioning to online lessons has been hard for all students and teachers, but even more so for ESL students. They don’t always have the language to express their needs, and now there is even more distance and disconnect between them and their teachers. Fortunately, there are ways you can support your ESL students and close some of that distance in online learning. Here are some suggestions for doing so:

Stay focused on what is most important. Nick Fotopoulos said it best in “Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language-Learners Online,”[1] “I was trying to build these great engaging lessons all while online, but in reality, I needed to give short, pointed assignments that clearly taught the concept at hand.” Too much information or too many new systems can be overwhelming. Evaluate your online lessons and resources to make sure they are absolutely necessary for students. Shorter, more direct pieces of content will keep your ESL students from feeling overwhelmed and will keep them focused on what they need to learn from your class.
Train students to use a speech to text app (or Chrome extension) to write out their answers. ESL students can be intimidated by any kind of writing in any subject. Allowing them to talk it out first takes off some of the pressure, and reading over the transcription is just another opportunity for students to review the concept and make sure they understand it correctly (while reviewing grammar at the same time).

Chrome Extensions:

Speech to Text by Keller
Voice in Voice Typing by Dictanote
Voice to Text by SpeechTexter

Phone Apps:

SpeechNotes (Android only, but also a web-based option)
Just Press Record (Apple only)

That whiteboard you have been missing from your physical classroom is back! Make any webpage a virtual whiteboard using Chrome extensions like Web Paint or Page Marker. Underline, highlight, draw diagrams, or direct students to specific sections or ideas.
You have probably heard it before, but it is priceless to record yourself explaining a concept. It feels intimidating, and having to listen to your own voice can be uncomfortable, but it is so worth it. Students can pause and replay as many times as they need to, and it brings some of the human element back to teaching. You do not even have to show your face; you can use a PowerPoint or presentation on your computer as the background. These videos can be a supplement to what you are teaching in a virtual meeting or allow you to create a flipped classroom. Screencastify (5-minute limit) and Screencast-O-Matic (15-minute limit) are both great, free options.
Of course, a simple check-in with your students can work wonders. You know them best, and your efforts are making a difference!

The great thing about all these suggestions is that in addition to supporting your ESL students in developing tools for success in the classroom, you will also be helping out all your students! And when the time comes when you are able to be back together in the classroom, your students will have developed additional skill sets that will help them close the distance in a variety of learning environments.

Shelby Harbour, M.A. TESOL
Teacher, LinGo
Central Europe

[1] Ferlazzo, L., Fotopoulos, N., Vassiliou, H., Okraski, C., & Olbes, S. (2020, March 22). Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language-Learners Online. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-ten-strategies-for-teaching-english-language-learners-online/2020/03

Photo Credits: Language Learner. via piqsels.com. cc. Phone Apps. via piqsels.com. cc. Computer girl. via piqsels.com. cc.Tags:Best Instructional Practices, Language Learning

Welcome to OnPractice!

Look for this year’s first article on August 25th!

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**Welcome to OnPractice!**