The exciting yet challenging work of guiding students through science and faith discussions is done primarily by teachers in the classroom. But teachers can be truly successful only if they have the full support of their administration.
From God’s Genius to Human Frailty: The Adventure of Teaching Science (and More) Christianly
From the very start of my career, I simply loved teaching. The fact that I was teaching in a Christian school was a plus, but as a rookie, I could not articulate a clear philosophy of Christian education. By the time I retired from full-time teaching two years ago, I had come to love teaching Christianly. I describe teaching Christianly … Read More
Why Teach the Nature of Science?
Research shows that K-12 students, undergraduate students, graduate students, and even science educators themselves struggle with nature of science (NOS) concepts. Despite being identified as a critical component of science education, NOS teaching remains underemphasized in classroom settings.
Cheating and the Christian Teacher
If we ask questions that the student can google the answer to, we should not penalize the students if they do. It’s the same as asking the students to spell a word correctly and penalizing them if they use a dictionary. Instead, we should appreciate and praise their skill in research, their resourcefulness in exploring, and their shrewdness in best utilization of time.
How to Use a Textbook for Deeper Learning: A lesson for our times
I always used textbooks in my classes … but never how they were intended. They were valuable for me, as the teacher, to identify the important ideas in whatever subject I was teaching. We didn’t have state standards then, so I relied on the wisdom of the experts to break big topics (Ancient History, Simple Machines, Colonial Life, Force and … Read More
Is There Such a Thing as Teaching Christianly?
There is power in the naming of things. I imagine that when God gave Adam the task of naming the animals, Adam didn’t just think up sounds for what to call them. He connected with the genius of what God made each creature to be, and out of Adam’s discernment of “Christ in all things,” each name came forth from … Read More
You Are What You Teach
“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Jesus Christ) I have just returned from spending ten days working with a school outside New Delhi. I had worked with them years ago on how to engage their students … Read More
Teaching, Coaching, Administrating…Synonyms?
Earlier this year, I had a unique opportunity to accompany my father-in-law (Dr. Len Rhoda) on a trip to Southern California, to Valley Christian High School in Cerritos where he and my mother-in-law (Lee) began their teaching and coaching careers. The purpose of this trip was to meet up with a team he coached to the 1967-68 CIF State Basketball … Read More