Everyday Christian Teaching | Teacher’s Desk with David I. Smith (Ep. 191)

How might everyday classroom moments become places where God’s presence is made known? In this conversation, Dr. David I. Smith invites teachers to see their ordinary practices, from prayer to assigning work, as sacred opportunities for faith to shape learning.

• Learn more about Dr. David I. Smith
• “Getting a job at a Christian school doesn’t instantaneously transform the way you think about how to teach your discipline or the way you think about how to organize your classroom or how to manage classroom relationships [...] Becoming intentional about that is a lifelong project.”
• “If I’m going to have integrity as a Christian teacher, I have to figure out how I’m going to live with the teaching process wherever I teach.”
• 1 Corinthians 12
• Acts 2:44-45
• “What story am I providing for my students about what it is that they are doing right now?”
• “Assignments [are] about trying to be intentional about how I actually want my students to grow - intellectually, morally, spiritually, socially - through the task that I’m giving them.”
• “What is my vision for how students grow?”
• “The way you use pauses are part of how you communicate what you value and who you value.”
• “Talk yourself out of the idea that your faith is primarily your words about faith.”
• 1 Peter 3:15
• “What human being are you becoming? Who are you going to be in five years, and how is what we are doing here contributing to who you are going to be in five years?”
• Practical next steps:
• Which of my assignments actively and explicitly teaches students how to care for one another while doing the work?
• Identify the student who might be finding it hardest to learn in your class. Take him/her out for coffee to hear their perspective.
• What pictures do my students see on the screen during the semester, and what vision is that giving them about who human beings are?
• Ask a fellow teacher to try this with you!

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What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Sister getting married
• Heather: Participating in the trial for the new terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport
• David: Spending sabbatical reading and translating the works of Comenius

Weekly Spotlight: Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center

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