First, thanks to Jailer for introducing me to this particular Blog format - much more user friendly than my previous blog and hopefully, it will generate much more discussion than the other. I'll be learning as I go and welcome your feedback as we grow. This blog is designed as a forum for Christian teachers, public and private who want to interact with other teachers in any of the myriad disciplines that are part of our educational system - anywhere in the world! Primarily, my discipline has been History but this forum is welcome to any and all who share the vision of Christian teachers who want to encourage and sharpen one another in our calling to train the next generation of Christian citizens and lovers of Jesus Christ. Originally, my vision came out of my isolation. At my previous school (Pine Castle Christian Academy, Orlando) I taught alongside only two other high school teachers. Now, I am one of only two social studies teachers who manage the entire social studies curriculum for the middle and high school grades. I often wonder if there is anyone else out there who feels as isolated as I have for the past three years. I've looked for a venue to share ideas, frustrations, snippets of what I've been reading, and have found nothing really for anyone in the social studies arena. So, here it is. Still, I'd like to emphasize that this blog isn't limited to scholars in my discipline. If you have a heart for God, for your students, and for honest scholarship this is the place for you. Sure, there are organizations such as the NCSS and many Christians are a part of them, but there is nothing that truly allows Christian teachers to network informally. So, if there is anyone out there, help me end the isolation and in true koinonia, use this forum to strengthen each other. Each of us has strengths, gifts, insights, and experiences that we can all profit from to make ourselves better scholars and better disciples of our Lord. So, if you have insights to share, this forum is for you! Let's hear from you!One of the first entires I'll be making in the very near future will deal with Christian historiography. What does it really mean to be a Christian and a historian? What are the opportunities and dangers inherent in a Christian interpretation of history?More to come on that!
Oh, by the way, Clio was the Greek muse of History. Imagine that! We have our very own muse. Very cool! And we intend to keep her.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Resources to keep your Christian Integration sharp
Here is an excellent resource just for the US history teacher. http://www.amazon.com/Religious-History-America-American-Colonial/dp/0060630566/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215181409&sr=1-8
This next is one is primarily for the students. Unfortunately, it is out of print but is written by the best Christian scholars (Mark Noll, George Marsden, Harry Stout, Edwin Gaustad, etc.). As you can see, you can get it used for very little cash. It has loads of primary sources and discusses aspects of America’s religious history as no secular text would even touch. If you decide to get a copy, I’ll be glad to send you the questions I use for several of the readings. I recommend practically anything by the above authors. Marsden is superb on the history of American fundamentalism and Mark Noll's specialty is antebellum America (Check out his book America's God from Jonathan Edwards to Lincoln - pretty detailed treatment). Harry Stout wrote a book a couple years ago called Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War. If you go to Amazon you'll find a mint. http://www.amazon.com/Eerdmans-Handbook-Christianity-America-Mark/dp/0802835821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215181685&sr=8-1
Now here's an author that is controversial but a superb historian and an evangelical Christian too. His name is Steven Keillor (no relation to Garrison although he is from Minnesota!) and has written several books, the most recent being God's Judgments: Interpreting History and Christian Faith. Well-documented and poses some fascinating questions on how we can look at the judgment of God as an aspect of history. Case studies include 9/11 and the Civil War among others.
There are many others I could recommend - several anthologies about interpreting history from a Christian perspective but these will keep us all busy for a long time.Enjoy!http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Judgments-Interpreting-History-Christian/dp/0830825657/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215612161&sr=8-1
This next is one is primarily for the students. Unfortunately, it is out of print but is written by the best Christian scholars (Mark Noll, George Marsden, Harry Stout, Edwin Gaustad, etc.). As you can see, you can get it used for very little cash. It has loads of primary sources and discusses aspects of America’s religious history as no secular text would even touch. If you decide to get a copy, I’ll be glad to send you the questions I use for several of the readings. I recommend practically anything by the above authors. Marsden is superb on the history of American fundamentalism and Mark Noll's specialty is antebellum America (Check out his book America's God from Jonathan Edwards to Lincoln - pretty detailed treatment). Harry Stout wrote a book a couple years ago called Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War. If you go to Amazon you'll find a mint. http://www.amazon.com/Eerdmans-Handbook-Christianity-America-Mark/dp/0802835821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215181685&sr=8-1
Now here's an author that is controversial but a superb historian and an evangelical Christian too. His name is Steven Keillor (no relation to Garrison although he is from Minnesota!) and has written several books, the most recent being God's Judgments: Interpreting History and Christian Faith. Well-documented and poses some fascinating questions on how we can look at the judgment of God as an aspect of history. Case studies include 9/11 and the Civil War among others.
There are many others I could recommend - several anthologies about interpreting history from a Christian perspective but these will keep us all busy for a long time.Enjoy!http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Judgments-Interpreting-History-Christian/dp/0830825657/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215612161&sr=8-1
The Courage to Teach
The Courage to Teach is probably the most significant book about teaching I've ever read. Parker Palmer first wrote this 240 page gem ten years ago and received such favorable acclaim from teachers that he, along with colleagues formed the Center for Courage and Renewal which has reinvigorated thousands of teachers all over the US.
The current edition (just came out in 2007) also includes a CD featuring Palmer and others discussing both his book, its impact, and the work of the Center.
What first attracted me to the book was the back of the jacket. I'd like to share it with you:
"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy...But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused - and I am so powerless to do anything about it - that my claim to be a teacher seems a transparent sham....If you are a teacher who never has bad days, or who has them but does not care, this book is not for you. This book is for teachers who have good days and bad, and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves, It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life."
Palmer delivers what he promises. I think he is a believer (see his other titles on Amazon) and the principles he discusses are certainly biblical. One of the things I most appreciate is that Palmer doesn't speak from an ivory tower. He confesses his own perplexities and failures as an educator. Although Palmer's experience is largely with post-secondary social-science students, much of the work he has engaged in over the years has been with elementary and secondary teachers. In many ways, as he himself states, they have been his mentors.
One of the sections of the book that has meant the most to me is his discussion of paradox. As the book's subtitle indicates, the focus of the entire work is not about technique (there are a thousand and one of those out there) but on the "inner landscape of a teacher's life." Part of the paradox, Palmer says, is about the gifts we possess that we bring to our teaching profession that makes us what we are. The other aspect of the paradox is what happens when I use my gift and it backfires. Here's a passage that scratched where I itched:
....I learn that my gift as a teacher is the ability to dance wth my students, to co-create with them a contaext in which all of us can teach and learn, and that this gift works as long as I stay open and trusting and hopeful about who my students are.
But when my students refuse to dance with me, my strength turns to weakness. I get angry, although my relational nature often keeps me from expressing my anger in clean and open ways. I become sinently resentful and start steppping on the toes of my unwilling dance partners, occasionally kicking their shins. I become closed and untrusting and hopeless far more quickly than need be, simply because they have rejected my gift.....
I need to learn that the pain I sometimes experience in teaching is as much a sign that my selfhood is alive and well as the joy I feel when the dance is in full swing. If I learn that simple but profound truth, I might stay closer to my gift and farther from repressed anger and be more likely to teach in ways that will work for both me and my students.
The root cause of this low point in my teaching was not a failure of technique, though there are techniques that could help me in such moments. The root cause was a sense of self-negation, or even self-annihilation, that came when my students were unwilling to help me fulfill my nature.
It is embarrassing to put it that baldly. I know, intellectually, how naive it is to assume that other people, especially students, are here to help me fulfill myself-naive at best and arrogant at worst. But that assumption is what did me in as that class unraveled and my own growth as a teacher requires that I face such awkward facts.
To become a better teacher, I must nurture a sense of self that both does and does not depend on the responses of others - and that is a true paradox.
Okay, it took months for me to really understand what this meant. But I think I'm beginning to grasp the concept of paradox. I like to do creative things and fun things and have small group discussions instead of lecturing all the time - things I know won't bore the students. That's because I really care about the students and have a passion for my subject as all of you out there do. That is my gift (I hope!). That is also one side of the paradox. I care, I create, teaching and learning matters. Now the other side of the paradox is what happens to me if the students don't cooperate. For me, for example, if I am trying to do something creative and it isn't appreciated I grow resentful. I get hurt and say to myself "why knock myself out for this crowd?" I should just do the minimum and then sling the test their direction. Then I'll just relax and take it easy." But the other side of the paradox is that the reason I get hurt in the first place is because of my gift - because I care. If I decide to just do the bare minimum I am also negating my gift. If I decide "I won't let this bother me" I am also negating my gift and becoming someone completely different than what God created me to be. So, instead of denying that I am hurt or upset and protecting myself against further hurt by not caring anymore, I need to face the paradox head on. Face it, and find creative ways to deal with my hurt without denying either who God created me to be or the needs of my students.
This is a magnificent book - the kind of volume that you can come back to again and again for inspiration and hope and doesn't offer unrealistic quick fixes but principles for the rest of your life.
Here it a link for the book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Teach-Exploring-Landscape-Teachers/dp/0787996866/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215438075&sr=8-3
Here's another link for the Center for Courage and Renewal:
http://www.couragerenewal.org/
The current edition (just came out in 2007) also includes a CD featuring Palmer and others discussing both his book, its impact, and the work of the Center.
What first attracted me to the book was the back of the jacket. I'd like to share it with you:
"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy...But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused - and I am so powerless to do anything about it - that my claim to be a teacher seems a transparent sham....If you are a teacher who never has bad days, or who has them but does not care, this book is not for you. This book is for teachers who have good days and bad, and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves, It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life."
Palmer delivers what he promises. I think he is a believer (see his other titles on Amazon) and the principles he discusses are certainly biblical. One of the things I most appreciate is that Palmer doesn't speak from an ivory tower. He confesses his own perplexities and failures as an educator. Although Palmer's experience is largely with post-secondary social-science students, much of the work he has engaged in over the years has been with elementary and secondary teachers. In many ways, as he himself states, they have been his mentors.
One of the sections of the book that has meant the most to me is his discussion of paradox. As the book's subtitle indicates, the focus of the entire work is not about technique (there are a thousand and one of those out there) but on the "inner landscape of a teacher's life." Part of the paradox, Palmer says, is about the gifts we possess that we bring to our teaching profession that makes us what we are. The other aspect of the paradox is what happens when I use my gift and it backfires. Here's a passage that scratched where I itched:
....I learn that my gift as a teacher is the ability to dance wth my students, to co-create with them a contaext in which all of us can teach and learn, and that this gift works as long as I stay open and trusting and hopeful about who my students are.
But when my students refuse to dance with me, my strength turns to weakness. I get angry, although my relational nature often keeps me from expressing my anger in clean and open ways. I become sinently resentful and start steppping on the toes of my unwilling dance partners, occasionally kicking their shins. I become closed and untrusting and hopeless far more quickly than need be, simply because they have rejected my gift.....
I need to learn that the pain I sometimes experience in teaching is as much a sign that my selfhood is alive and well as the joy I feel when the dance is in full swing. If I learn that simple but profound truth, I might stay closer to my gift and farther from repressed anger and be more likely to teach in ways that will work for both me and my students.
The root cause of this low point in my teaching was not a failure of technique, though there are techniques that could help me in such moments. The root cause was a sense of self-negation, or even self-annihilation, that came when my students were unwilling to help me fulfill my nature.
It is embarrassing to put it that baldly. I know, intellectually, how naive it is to assume that other people, especially students, are here to help me fulfill myself-naive at best and arrogant at worst. But that assumption is what did me in as that class unraveled and my own growth as a teacher requires that I face such awkward facts.
To become a better teacher, I must nurture a sense of self that both does and does not depend on the responses of others - and that is a true paradox.
Okay, it took months for me to really understand what this meant. But I think I'm beginning to grasp the concept of paradox. I like to do creative things and fun things and have small group discussions instead of lecturing all the time - things I know won't bore the students. That's because I really care about the students and have a passion for my subject as all of you out there do. That is my gift (I hope!). That is also one side of the paradox. I care, I create, teaching and learning matters. Now the other side of the paradox is what happens to me if the students don't cooperate. For me, for example, if I am trying to do something creative and it isn't appreciated I grow resentful. I get hurt and say to myself "why knock myself out for this crowd?" I should just do the minimum and then sling the test their direction. Then I'll just relax and take it easy." But the other side of the paradox is that the reason I get hurt in the first place is because of my gift - because I care. If I decide to just do the bare minimum I am also negating my gift. If I decide "I won't let this bother me" I am also negating my gift and becoming someone completely different than what God created me to be. So, instead of denying that I am hurt or upset and protecting myself against further hurt by not caring anymore, I need to face the paradox head on. Face it, and find creative ways to deal with my hurt without denying either who God created me to be or the needs of my students.
This is a magnificent book - the kind of volume that you can come back to again and again for inspiration and hope and doesn't offer unrealistic quick fixes but principles for the rest of your life.
Here it a link for the book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Teach-Exploring-Landscape-Teachers/dp/0787996866/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215438075&sr=8-3
Here's another link for the Center for Courage and Renewal:
http://www.couragerenewal.org/
Dr. Noll on America and the Bible
Here's a video from one of my favorite historians and thinkers. I recommend any of his books but start with The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
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