by Lindsey Ralls (Summit Christian Academy)
| I learned something this week that has been happening all year and I wish I’d known about it earlier! Our first grade teacher has been focusing on a unique attribute of God every week throughout the year in first grade. She began with the letter A and has made it all the way to W this week (worthy). In addition to discussing this with her students throughout the week, she sends an email to the families as well that addresses the attribute, it’s definition, some specific verses related to the attribute and then a few worship songs that connect as well. Not only do the parents get a sneak peak into the classroom but they have a chance to learn as well, and extend what’s happening within the classroom into the living room. I’ve frequently heard that “illustrating how the content reveals something about who God is” is one of the more difficult items from our teacher evaluation sheet to incorporate into a lesson. Specifically, it can be challenging to incorporate this without it sounding cliché, or like we’re just checking a box. This is what I love about what Meredith has done; she created a framework that focuses on revealing something about who God is so that her lessons naturally make sense within that framework. The Upper School though, is different from the Grammar School. We have subject-specific courses where it can be more challenging to naturally weave this concept into our lessons without sounded forced. Yet, I think we can still learn from this idea of creating a framework.One idea I considered this week is asking my students to select an attribute of God at the beginning of the year and then assign them to a class day where they open class with a devotion focused on that attribute? This year when my 7th graders read The Hiding Place, I had each one open class with a devotion they had created that they felt would have been encouraging to the ten Boom family. Next year, I think I will shift this assignment slightly and require them to highlight a specific attribute of God that the ten Boom family would be encouraged to remember. Opening class with a student-led devotion should feel natural and not forced. Additionally, this option allows students to grasp something about who God is, while also thinking more deeply about the content being taught. Another change I’d like to make for next year is to include certain attributes of God into my weekly vocabulary lists. When we read the Hobbit and discuss where the ring originated from, one of our vocabulary words can be “infinite” and we can discuss how the ring was not infinite but that our God is. Or, we can discuss how some of our favorite characters in book are those that change (like Anne of Green Gables), yet God is immutable. For languages this might look like translating an attribute and digging into the history of that word (for example did you know that in Latin, Holy is translated Sanctus and that Bach wrote and performed a mass called Sanctus in which he required three trumpets, three oboes, three sopranos, three tenors, and three basses (because to him the triune God displayed true holiness?). For math, wouldn’t it be fun to spotlight the attributes of math (characteristics or features of an object that allows for grouping of it with other similar objects) and compare those with the characteristics of God? Which attributes of God do we also share (like how a trapezoid and a rhombus all have four sides) and which attributes of God are completely unique to God (like how the sides of a rhombus are all equal). We never want our students to feel like we’ve reached the ‘Bible part of the lesson’. My encouragement for today would be for us to ask ourselves how we can create a framework by which our students view everything else they encounter. |
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Practical Paideia 
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