SPH JOURNAL 4

Among all the four observations that we have had successfully at SPH I found

this being my highlight, because it totally changed my understanding of teaching

and what a good teacher should be like. Though it also gave me a chance as a

future teacher to point out the good and what I could all he distortions.

I started my observations in grade twelve with their home room class teacher

asking his class to get organized, late on he gave them the program of the day and

information of the following day, just before they could leave the class room the

teacher played a video for the students that had been acted out by fellow students

at SPH from grade eight and in this video these students who acted it they were

acting out how to be good to people and encourage their fellow students and people

around them. For example in this video they showed this student who was walking

up stairs and the books he was carrying fell and a friend who was walking from

behind helped him pick these books up and said am sorry after this video the

teacher asked them what they had learnt from the video, and they said that they

had learnt to be helpful to others and just before the teacher could dismiss them he

said ,today I want you to help out someone on the compound or encourage

someone.

Later on I had had another chance of being part of this class again and I

realized that students were using their phones in class and some of them even had

their ear sets in their ears and it was okay with the teacher he continued teaching

chemistry to the class, those who wanted to be serious did and others were just

talking to each other as the teacher explained the concept, according to my

understanding of the book Teaching RedemptivelyI would evaluate this class as

not being a creative redemptive classroom to a greater extent from the start when
the students entered class ,the teacher did not take time to greet the students as

teachers according to the book we are supposed to reflect the character of God, and

God is love but this particular teacher does not reflect the character of God to these

students, My reasoning is as a teacher you cannot assure me that you love these

students if you cannot even greet them to find out how they are doing, building a

strong relationship with your students create s a better environment for learning as

emphasized in the book can only be built by a teacher starting with these some

things like greeting your students as the first thing in the morning then creating the

relationship would be easy to cultivate, This kind of understanding led me it a

conclusion of this being a distortion, because the teacher is not concerned with lives

of his students, is only fulfilling his duty as any other secular teachers elsewhere

,who teach to get a salary at the end of the month.

Then as a Christian school I expect this teacher to start off this class with a

devotional scripture, unfortunately he preceded into the program line up, chapter

14 emphasizes teachers to be prophets and their work here as teachers acting this

role they are meant to speak to these student and interpret Gods truth which

involves helping these students grow up spiritually in knowing the word of God. This

is because at the end of the day if you dont these students are only gaining

academic knowledge only which distorts the true meaning of the true task of

education. Then I also realized that students carry their phones to class and they

are using them while the teacher is busy teaching and the teacher is okay with it,

which in my own view it is a distortion ,because phones are among the main

distractors of every person and now to a student who needs to capture the concept

that the teacher is trying to teach, and these students being on their phones

answering messages and learning at the same time I take it as divided attention for
the students, and the teacher continuing to teach I believe this teacher is not

viewing these students in the image of God, because if he did he would feel sorry

for these students who are missing out on the concept he is teaching, so love is not

showed here yet as Christian teachers we are supposed to reflect his character and

trust me by this teacher leaving these students to use their phones in class at the

expense of learning its a distortion. One of the reasons why this happening is

because of the too much grace that has been given to these student, now these

students have gone ahead to misuse this grace given to choose what is right, so

now these students are as well misusing freedom because grace comes with

freedom, hence according to my understanding and cultural background what these

students are doing to be on their on their phones while the teacher is teaching its a

sign of disrespect the teachers, because grade 12 students they are mature they

should be in position to respect their teachers by looking at them while they are

teaching them. However I would want to give this teacher credit for showing the

video that I discussed in the beginning, displayed character being good to other

people and after asking these students to be kind to someone that day. This is what

Donovan Graham emphasizes in chapter 5, to focus more on process and not the

content, because content becomes controlling beliefs and its what with and thats

what this teacher was doing by asking these students to practice what they had

learnt which can also be talked of as a professed belief.

I also had an opportunity of visiting grade 10 and this particular class ,before

the lesson started ,the teacher asked the students to lead others in prayer and after

she went ahead to share a devotion with the class of the book from the book

Romans 12;1-2 and later on she precedes with her lesson but she kept referring

back to Romans 12,in the middle of her lesson she decides to give back the exam
after marking and she starts by saying well-done to everyone then she calls

students on her desk to go over corrections and encourage those that had not done

well. According to the book teaching redeptively, this teacher is playing the role the

prophet that Donovann.L.Graham describes for us in her book, she is explaining the

scripture. By this teacher sitting with each of the students to discuss corrections it

shows that she views these students in the image of God and she is practicing

Gods character of love, and she is as well establishing a relation which is

fundamental in the learning environment of these students. Weighing these two

teachers the grade 10 teacher is practicing Christian teaching norms this is because

most of her teaching practices in class encourage both the spiritual and the

intellectual growth which will enable these students to develop knowledge of God

and his created reality and to use that knowledge in exercising a creative

redemptive dominion over the world in which they live, which the true purpose of

education. whereas in grade 12 the teacher mainly is focusing on the intellectual

growth of these students, which changes the meaning of true education in the

Christian context as emphasized by Donovan.L.Graham in his book teaching

redemptive. In conclusion my view of teaching and education has changed, this is

because my background of who a good teacher is was different, I understood a good

teacher as one who has content and up to now in my country to employ a teacher

the greatest quality they look at is having the content, able to make students excel

in their academics. These SPH visits and the book Teaching Redemptively my

thinking as changed, I now view education as being redemptive to the students we

teach, and I have also realized that as a Christian teacher my primary goal is to

spiritually and academically impact the lives of my students and I can do this
through cultivating a relationship with my students and teaching my students using

the bible as a framework for any inquiry.