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Are you a “teacher of redemption” in your classroom? Explain.
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I try to be. I often speak to the students about the Gospel and try my best to model an attitude of grace and love for them. There even have been times when I have had to ask for forgiveness because of things I have said in anger. Not because what I said was not right but the way I said it was not in love. I pray that as I model humility my students can see my christian character, that I’m not perfect but I desire to live according to the will of God.
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Yes, the redemption plan of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the only pedagogy a Christian educator can effectively reach and teach their students. The prefix re- means to do over again, so for it to be placed on the word deem, which means to regard or consider in a specified way reflects God’s providential care for humanity’s salvation- His most beloved creation, who had and now have the capacity through the blood sacrifice of Jesus for eternal life, fellowship, moral discernment, self-consciousness, speech, and worship.
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Yes, I never hold anything a student did or said against them. There have been times when students were rude to me and I dealt with it but I never treated them differently afterward. I continued to show them I cared. Some days can be challenging but I have prayed for patience in many instances to be able to handle difficult students in the classroom. I have just finished my third year as Bible teacher at my school and the course that were the freshmen when I started are now going to be seniors and I have seen considerable growth in them and my rapport with them has improved. Praise God!
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I certainly need to be better at this. However, that being said, when I have a student that has done wrong and they repent and are sorry, I always give them the grace they deserve.
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I set the expectations in the classroom from the first day of school. A student is always aware of what is expected of them. Yet I also understand that those rules of expectation are as applicable to my behavior toward the students as they are to the student’s behavior toward me. So yes, I am a “teacher of redemption” willing to go whatever mile it takes for the student to choose success. Much like God cannot force us to obey his will, I also cannot force a student to make the right decisions, I can certainly present those options as the “preferred” route to take, but ultimately the decision is there’s.
This year at graduation, among the senior course were students I taught the first year I came to my school. Seeing that several of these “characters” were growing up to be quite respectable young men and women was affirming to me. God never gives up on any of us, and as Christian educators, we must never give up on any of our students.