SPH observation journal 3

Had a great experience interviewing the SPH teachers and getting to learn more

about the field of teaching, different ideas of teaching and understanding better where am

headed as a future teacher. I had a chance of visiting grade six and having time to talk to

the teacher I was blown away by her view of teaching ,she explained that teaching is not a

job where you go to fulfill your obligations and earn a salary. After her telling me that I

took off time to digest it and I finally came up with my conclusion that teaching with a

Godly view we ought not to see teaching as a responsibility but it should be viewed as a

call from God, therefore as Christian teaching as a call from God to nature, parent and

disciple these students that God has entrusted in our care and our view towards salary

should be looked at as a bonus.

Also went ahead to ask what led her into this profession of teaching and she said that

since her high school years she felt a strong feeling of becoming a teacher because she

loved being around children and she had this kind of peace in her heart when it came to

choosing the course to do at college she knew that God had called her to be a teacher .In

her explanation she mentioned something that I found fundamental, she said that teaching

is a calling from God; when God calls you into teaching he gives you whatever it takes to

glorify his name, though the choice lies in our hands and thats how she ended into this

profession of teaching .My understanding according to what she said was clear that when

God calls us to teach we cannot have any excuse and it got me thinking of Moses in the

bible and all the excuses he gave but still God used him, so it is the same thing with us as

teachers and God gives us grace as teachers. Through her explanation it came to my

attention that teachers who quit this profession have not been called by God to be teachers
and this helped me understand what Donovan.L.Graham meant in his book, teaching

redemptive chapter 10 when she said that our calling and task of humankind as originally

decreed by God has never changed. With this statement I finally came to understand that

we can never run away from the profession that God has called us to be .When it came to

asking her about her biggest struggle, it was that, some students are not fast learners while

other students are fast learners and this slows her down in keeping up with her lesson plan,

because she will need more time to help the slow learners to catch up with the rest of the

other students. Though in saying this, I stopped and tried to think about what she told me I

took this as a distortion because I believe she is focusing more on content rather than

process, if her motivate was to focus more on process then this could not be an issue to

struggle. I also had a chance of interacting with other teachers and I asked them about what

their joy is in this profession and I realized that they have a common goal that gives them

joy in their profession and their source of happiness is seeing their students understand

things that they previously struggled with in class and this particular teacher told me that

she finds her joy in staying in touch with her students that has finally left the school and

they call to tell her they are doing well in their lives and applying the lessons that she

taught them while in school or meeting them in different places like malls and they thank

her for the lifetime lessons that she passed onto them in class. This helps me understand

that the profession of teaching is about impacting lives for the glory of Lord and doing it

faithfully is what makes God happy, we bring glory back to him, through parenting the

students that God has entrusted to us. I was in position to interview one of the teachers,

about how she manages to discipline her class, and she told me about this method that I

have found useful in the growth of the students. She said that in case a student is
 misbehaving in her class, she makes him or her remain behind after class and make them to

write a reflection about what they have done during class time, and after that, she speaks to

the students and praise with the student. Ive found this mind blowing because in my

understanding that the teacher is living out grace that the book Teaching Redemptively

has emphasized by Donovan.L.Graham. After I interviewed another teacher about what I

should expect as an upcoming teacher in the field of teaching, and she said that teaching is

a calling from God, and when He calls you to be a teacher He gives the grace to handle the

profession of teaching. She went ahead to mention that teaching is a process that we will

keep learning as teachers from the students we are teaching and fellow teacher that we are

working with. She concluded with saying that, we should be praying about three things;

our students, their future and most importantly grace to see us through. This is because

without grace we cannot handle the students, because most of these students come from

rich families and, then they tend not to care about their studies while at school.

In conclusion, SPH teacher and administration has embolden the aspect of learning is by

self, as emphasized by Donovan.L.Graham in his book, teaching redemptively, because they

give their students, a choice to choose what is right or just ignore. In this one classroom, the

teacher told the student, that it was up to them to write the essay about athletic game or not to

write about it and I found this as a distortion, because these students are going to grow up with

this sense of permissiveness which might affect them in the future. I totally understand that

freedom should be there, but these students should be directed on what to do and what is more

important than the other but if we just give them freedom and not directing them, then we are

ruining their future indirectly.

 The most important lesson of the day was to be a good teacher, i need to take the priestly

role for my class such that am are able to intercede for my students and this will help me build a

strong foundation of personal relationship with my students and always try to create tension for

these students so that they can have the ability to think and how to solve realistically.