Prayerful Teaching is Walking with God during Lent

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Prayer and Meditation

Justice. Mercy. A humble walk with God.  All lead to living out the will of God.  All define my calling as a teacher.   I still find it challenging to stop and treat each student justly and to love tenderly those students I deem difficult.  With students pulling me in all different directions all day long, I find it more expedient to loosen my grip and scamper away from the Lord’s hand. During Lent I will strive to allow the Lord to take me by the hand so I can feel His love pulsate within me.  With my hand firmly planted in His, I can take the steps necessary to treat my students justly and with the mercy of tender love.

The Actions of Prayerful Teaching

• Pause and take a deep breath at stressful times.  This may sound like an overused adage, but it has strength.  Firmly squeeze one hand with the other and pray, “Lord, send your strength to me and through me.  Take my hand and lead me in this moment to calmly respond to (Name the situation e.g. the current uproar in my classroom, the argument over who owns the pencil, the students who are off task) with justice and love. While this action takes only a couple of seconds, it gives you a few precious moments to pause, reflect, and compose yourself.

• Tenderly love all students.  Disapprove of student behaviors, not the student.  Make sure students know you are rejecting their behavior and not them. You might say, “Maria, usually you know that your friends cannot be disturbed when they are working, but you seem to be forgetting that right now.”  “Lukas, you know I think you are a great student, but please get back to work.”

• Provide students with opportunities to allow the Lord’s hand to guide them.  Afford students the opportunity to responsibly correct their behavior.  This works best after you discuss appropriate and inappropriate classroom behavior and post options of how students can correct inappropriate behavior.  Students need to see this technique modeled.  (You will never be short of volunteers to model inappropriate behavior.)  After the inappropriate behavior is modeled, the class can brainstorm how the behavior might be corrected.  A list could be posted in the classroom or given to each student to keep taped in their desk or class folder.  Just concentrate on two to four important behaviors.  This is a model and not intended to cover every minor infraction that occurs in a normal classroom.

• Ignore minor problems instead of disrupting the entire class and drawing attention to one student.  Practice the “teacher look” in the mirror.  It is one of the most powerful tools of a master teacher.  Be sure to use it.  Since teaching is action, you are most likely always moving around the classroom.  Walk over to the child and put your hand on his desk for a second.  You need not say anything.  Make it a habit to keep a clipboard handy.  Tell students you use it to note positive behaviors and unfortunately, at times, to record other types of behavior.  Picking up the clipboard, glancing at a student, and writing on the clipboard often solves the problem.  If the student reacts in a positive manner, after what you deem a sufficient amount of time, make sure the student sees you using an eraser on your clipboard.  You need not share what you wrote or whose behavior you detailed.

• Define student behavior and exercise consistency in your expectations of those behaviors. Students need to have expectations of behavior clearly defined and upheld with consistency.  If not, chaos will reign and amid that chaos you might find it easier to ignore your humble walk with the Lord and to let go of His supportive hand.

Challenge of the Week

Draw a simple path on a sheet of poster paper.  Separate it into five sections.  Label each section with a day of the week.  Before you leave for the day, reflect on and record how you walked on the path with the Lord as you were tending to your students. You may even decide to set a goal for yourself to reach at the end of the week.  If you do, be sure to write the goal at the end of your path. 

Blessings and Prayerful Teaching,

Elizabeth A. Wink

prayerfulteaching@gmail.com