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How does your understanding of mankind’s fallen nature impact your work in the classroom?
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My understanding of mankind’s fallen nature will help me teach my students the importance of obedience and following God’s plans. It will help me to teach them of what caused man’s fall and how to prevent it when it may happen to them.
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My understanding the we are all fallen and need salvation impacts my classroom. I know that we are all sinners and expect there to be issues. I know I am not perfect and don’t expect my students to be either. I attempt to teach my students better ways to handle negative reactions to things.
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I understand that the students I teach are made in the image of God, but also suffer the consequences of man’s fall and are therefore sinful. I must not expect my students to have perfect actions and reactions all the time because they are imperfect beings. However, instead of just making rules and punishing them when they break the rules, I focus on trying to get them to recognize the sin in their life and repent of it. We discuss how repentance is both asking for forgiveness and not engaging in that sin anymore. It’s making a conscious effort to remove that sin from our life. I also recognize that I myself am part of man’s fallen nature and I don’t always have the appropriate actions and reactions. When I do make a mistake or respond to a situation in a way that I could have done better I will admit that to the course, ask their forgiveness, and then ask them if I can redo the action. This teaches them how to do this with each other and with me as well.
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I don’t expect students to automatically or intuitively do the right thing. I understand that students need to be taught and given some chance to implement into their psyche. I always want to give students the benefit of the doubt. I may let some things go too long with the best intention of giving them some space to figure it out. I know I need to be more clear on my classroom rules. I try to be gracious. I know that usually bad behavior that is the habit will resurface. I don’t mind giving a second or third chance, because I know character will show itself. In that process some student may be a great success story.
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My work in the classroom involves a set of classroom rules and consequences for not following those rules. Our school has a student life team to call if a student is disrupting the learning environment and needs to be removed for a few minutes or for the day. They are there to counsel with the children and communicate with the families. We have restorative discipline procedures and circle time in our classrooms to deal with sinful choices, the impact those actions or words have on others and ourselves, and how to recognize the wrong that was done, how to make an apology, how to grant forgiveness , and how to bring those that choose to sin back into the fold of the group. The fallen nature of man has made work in the classroom much harder than if we did not live in a fallen world.