Beyond Good Teaching
July 19, 2011A good teacher must ask, “Why do I teach in the first place?”
A good teacher plans well, executes to the learner’s capacity, and truly knows the content. A great teacher discerns when and how to take advantage of those “teachable moments” even to the point of setting the lesson plan aside.
The aim of Educational Care (EC), the Worldwide Christian Schools (WWCS) teacher enrichment series, is based on encouraging great teaching. The EC content is more about the teacher than those he or she is blessed to teach. EC empowers the learner by fostering confidence in teachers to look for these teachable moments and turn them into life lessons.
No good teaching goes without an example. Here is a recent one from Uganda.
I had just completed the initial master trainer EC course with a group of 17 teachers who are on the path of becoming EC trainers themselves. Among the 17 was Prossie Nabakooza, a member of the WWCS-Uganda national team. Only two weeks after going through the EC training herself, Prossie had an opportunity to conduct her first training on “Biblical Worldview”.
The opportunity came when members of the WWCS-Uganda team traveled to the north near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to a village called Paidha, formerly rebel-held territory during the occupation of the Lords Resistance Army, which has since retreated into Congo and parts of Southern Sudan.
Prossie took the occasion to practice her newly acquired EC training skills out with a small group of teachers at a new community-based Christian school.
“How did the training go today?” I asked at the end of the first day’s training.
“Well, we didn’t get very far in the manual,” she replied with a grin.
She then told me about what I am sure will be her most memorable EC training experience. It all began with Lesson One.
“I noticed right away the teachers, though teaching in a Christian school, had no idea where anything was in the Bible as we got into the lesson,” she reported.
Then she unwrapped what I believe was a gift from the Holy Spirit. Stopping the “EC lesson” right there, she put down the manual and simply began asking the three teachers about their own faith walk. What did they know about the Christian faith? The Bible? Whether they were believers in Jesus Christ?
One by one, she said, the teachers explained they only know of the Bible from hearing sermons and some Bible stories but, in fact, did not own Bibles themselves, nor were they ever asked to fi nd a Bible passage and read it. Prossie then saw her opportunity to tell them about her own faith journey and how she came to know and believe in Jesus.
“By the end of the day, all three wanted to profess Jesus as Lord and Savior,” Prossie said. “So, no, we didn”t get very far with EC in the manual.”
“Prossie, you did more for the Kingdom of God today than all the EC training I have ever done,” I said. “This tells me you are a great teacher, one who is aware and willing to put the manual down and teach teachers on the ‘why do I teach, in the first place?’ inquiry.”
“You have learned the first great teaching lesson: to forget the lesson and focus on the learner,” I added. “If EC has opened your eyes to these occasions, and if the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to see how the Bible itself convicts people wherever they encounter it, through an EC event, you have demonstrated the greatest teaching Educational Care can offer anyone.”
We look forward to many more such accounts of when, where and how Educational Care sessions started with an action plan and ended with a profession of faith