Teacher Workshop: Reasons for Our Choices – The Role of Faith in Curriculum Decisions
Carla Stevens, Ed.D.
Why do you select one thing to teach rather than another? What principles and values guide your choices of what to teach or to emphasize? In this workshop, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on your own decision making process and to consider a biblical approach to curriculum planning.
Topics include:
- Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation
- The Nature of the Learner
- The Mission of Our Schools
Teacher Workshop: Planning Learning Experiences: Biblically-Informed and Strategic
Carla Stevens, Ed.D.
Through research, scientists have uncovered truths about God’s creation, including truths about how children learn. Although sinful man often perverts what he uncovers to match his God-denying worldview, we can study and learn from research into effective instructional strategies. We must, however, use our “biblical glasses” to filter out those strategies that fail to honor the image of God in the learner. In this workshop you will examine and learn to use a wide variety of instructional strategies that researchers say are most likely to promote student learning.
Parent Workshop: Raising Children Who Think Christianly, Part 1
Dale McLane, M.Ed.
The biblical mandates concerning the role and responsibility of parents in the discipline and instruction of their children is discussed with an emphasis on how a biblical view of parenting differs from the world’s view of parenting. Practical implications from passages like Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, and Psalms 78 are offered and a strong case for a renewed commitment to both family worship and corporate worship is presented.
Parent/Teacher Sermon (40 minutes) or Seminar (2 hours): Shepherding a Child’s Heart
Dale McLane, M.Ed.
This presentation is based on Proverbs 4:23 that states, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” A child’s life reflects his heart. Too often in teaching and in parenting we look at controlling and changing outward behavior, but the key to growth in children, and indeed all of us, is changing hearts.
Teacher Workshop: Teaching With the End in Mind: Biblically-Informed Lesson and Unit Planning
Carla Stevens, Ed.D.
How can you make it more likely—by design—that your students really understand what they are asked to learn? And, how can you know if your students have truly understood what you have taught? This very practical, hands-on workshop will help you design coherent units of study shaped by an understanding of how God’s Word can and should inform all curriculum planning. You will leave the workshop with a two-week, faith-integrated unit for your classroom.
Parent Workshop: Worldview Table Talks
Carla Stevens, Ed.D.
In this interactive workshop, participants read vignettes that depict students sharing something learned in school with family members around the dinner table. Each vignette subtly conveys elements of an unbiblical worldview and ends with an unfinished response from a parent. Small groups discuss each vignette and then write and share what they believe to be an appropriate response for the parent(s) in the scenario. After a whole group discussion guided by the facilitator, each group writes their answer to the follow-up question: “What is learned if NOTHING is said?” This second question and the whole group discussion emphasize the power of unchecked, erroneous worldview thinking and the importance of daily interactions with children regarding the content learned at school, as well as the worldview approach of the teacher presenting the content.
Parent Workshop: Raising Children Who Think Christianly, Part 2
Dale McLane, M.Ed.
A biblical view of the purpose for education is presented and the important role of Christian schools is discussed. Participants are encourage to consider the merits of a partnership between the home, the school, and the church in the task of raising children who think Christianly about all of life.
Parent/Teacher Workshop: How to Start a Christian School
PS78Teachers Team
Should we start a Christian school? What steps should we take before starting a school? How do we make a budget? Where do we find our teachers? This practical workshop is designed for those prayerfully considering starting a Christian school.
