How Are You Feeling?

I gave the first test of the semester in my World Regional Geography course this week. I've started marking them, but I'm not done yet. So far, so good, overall.

For many of the students taking the course, this is the first time they are taking a test with me. And there is a little bit of a learning curve there, I think. This is something we talk about quite a bit in the Education courses I teach: every teacher has his/her own preferences, quirks, and foibles that come out in a myriad of ways in our teaching practices. But one place this happens specifically is in the assessment vehicles we develop.

Students have agreed with me when I have asked them about this. Different instructors have different ways of putting tests together, for good or ill. And until you've taken a test with a particular instructor? You just can't be 100% of their assessment style.

I've said before that I take my work very seriously, though I try not to take myself too seriously as a teacher. Perhaps this is one way this shows up in my teaching practice in the assessments I write: I often ask my students how they are feeling at the beginning of a test. Here's what the top of the test paper looked like for this first exam of the semester in World Regional Geography:

Getting Better

I was recently reading the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John. There is a famous story in this passage of scripture; Jesus here heals a paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda.

In this story, Jesus is in Jerusalem for a religious celebration, and stops by the pool, where there is a crowd of people with a whole range of disabilities. My study Bible tells me that the tradition of the day held that an angel would stir up the water in the pool from time to time, and that the first person into the pool after the water was bubbling would be healed from whatever infirmity they suffered.

It's here that Jesus meets up with the man. He is paralyzed, or lame, or has some other problem that prevents him from easily getting up. Until Jesus, comes along, that is. Jesus commands, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." And, of course, the man is miraculously healed! He jumps up, takes his mat, and heads off.

There is more to the story as the chapter continues. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, and this brings up a whole exchange between the man, the religious leaders, and Jesus. But I want to go back to one small detail that I had always glossed over in this story.

When Jesus first meets the man, he asks him a question:

Teaching Freshmen

Sometimes I look at the freshmen I teach and think back to what I was like in the fall of 1994...with my mop of California-blonde hair, and wearing flannel everywhere I went, and listening to Dave Matthews, and Hootie & the Blowfish, and Blues Traveler...and I smile.

I smile because I thought I knew so much then, and didn't realize how much more I had to learn. ("Wise in my own eyes," as the writer of Proverbs so often cautions against...)

It's humbling to serve as a professor, because I think of how very much my professors had a hand in shaping how I think, and act, and LIVE today. I wonder sometimes if I'm doing enough in the service of helping them grow into the people God is calling them to become.

But these students? Wow. What a blessing to teach them. They ask such great questions, they (usually) throw themselves into the weird learning tasks I ask them to try, and most of them truly want to learn. And yet, strangely, I sometimes catch glimpses of the freshman I was coming out in them, the kid who thinks he is so wise, but has so much yet to learn. But I know that it's part of their growing and maturing process too, just as it was for me. In those moments, I feel like the work I'm doing is somehow holy, and nothing to be taken lightly. Makes me wonder if my professors maybe felt that way about working with me too.

Maybe I'm just feeling a little nostalgic today, and maybe I'm just feeling the burden of being a little behind on my marking, and maybe I'm just grateful for the opportunity I have to be teaching at my alma mater, helping freshmen discern if becoming a teacher is part of their calling, just as my professors did 20-some years ago, changing my life in the process.

I think I'm going to go put some Collective Soul and grade papers...

I must have listed to this album a hundred
times in my dorm room during freshman year.

Wondering

I recently came across this quote; like so many, it is attributed to Albert Einstein.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

 (And this one appears to be a legitimate Einstein quote, from an essay in Living Philosophies.)

This is so quotable, isn't it? I sort of want a poster that says this to hang on the wall of my office.

This has me thinking about my role as a Christian educator. How am I making space for my students to "experience the mysterious?" To wonder? To stand in awe?

Would making space for "wondering"--in every sense of the word--bring life to my classroom? What kind of learning atmosphere would result if I sought to include time to wonder in ever lesson I taught? Would students learn more? Would they be more engaged? Would they be more curious? Would they care more deeply about the content? Would they feel like it was a waste of their time? Would it begin to lose it's luster if we "wondered" all the time?

I wonder...

Teaching Who We Are

Photo via Dordt College. All rights reserved.

Facebook told me that it was eight years ago yesterday that I graduated with my Master of Education degree. That was an important personal and professional accomplishment! I learned so much about myself as a teacher through the coursework and research that was behind that degree; the professors I worked with helped me to review, rethink, ...and perhaps even redeem my teaching practice. I am the teacher I am today thanks to their work with me.

On Teaching "Christianly"

It is the end of the semester, and I have students beginning the review process for their final exams. In Intro to Education, this means reflecting on all that they have read and discussed and studied in light of our essential question for the course: "What does it mean to teach 'Christianly?'"

This is a novel concept for some students. Most all of my students would self-identify as Christians, and most all of them are planning on becoming teachers. So they might well wonder, "Why does Mulder make such a big deal about this 'teaching Christianly' stuff?" And I do make a big deal about it in class. While I don't specifically ask that question each week when we meet up, I allude to it often, and I strive to both challenge their thinking through the things we read and discuss as well as model a distinctively Christian approach to teaching when they see me at work in class.

Welcome to Intro to Ed. Image by Dave Mulder [CC BY-SA 2.0]

I don't do this perfectly, of course. I'm still figuring out how to teach Christianly myself. I've been thinking about this for some time now, and I even shared my thoughts about teaching (and living) "Christianly" on inallthings.org this spring. But I am far enough down this path that I am convinced this is the right way to work out my own discipleship within my teaching practice, and I am trying to demonstrate it for my students.

Sometimes I think they are even starting to "get it." :-)

The Importance of Modeling

Some days, I know that teaching is for me. And I had one of those days recently.

In a recent post, I was wondering about the nature of teaching, and whether teachers are actually "teaching" if their students aren't learning. I sometimes doubt my own efficacy as a professor--am I really cut out for this work? What really qualifies me to teach someone else how to teach? Am I really that effective at this business?

And then I have a moment where I see things coming together...

I have been visiting student teachers throughout this semester, and I have been so proud of my students--seeing them putting into practice the things they have learned throughout their work in our teacher preparation program is gratifying to say the least!

But recently I had an almost surreal experience on a visit one of my student teachers. She was particularly eager to have me visit for this lesson--it was a science lesson. I teach the science methods course for elementary and middle school majors, so she was right: I am always excited to see student teachers leading a science learning opportunity.

The lesson? Part of a unit she was teaching about states of matter. The third graders had already learned about solids, liquids, and gases, and how it's possible to change from one state of matter to another, and what makes these different states function as they do. And today's lesson was a chance for them to check and extend their understanding.

My student teacher began by asking questions of the students, helping them review the characteristics of the different states of matter. I was so proud already at this introduction; in science methods I had emphasized the importance of asking a variety of different kinds of questions--some basic, recall questions, but also higher-order thinking questions--and here she was, using all sorts of questions to engage her students and help conduct them in to the lesson of the day.

And then: a Magic Question...

Awe and Wonder: Space is BIG

In my science methods class today, we were talking about how to foster a sense of awe and wonder in students. I was sharing with my students how I hope science teachers help their students to have moments in which they simply stand amazed at the way this world has been shaped and created.

As an example, I shared with them this illustration of just how BIG the distances are in astronomy. I actually had all of the balls I describe here collected and ready for illustration. I hope this might foster a bit of awe and wonder for you too!

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Space is BIG.

How big is it? Let’s make a model…

Image that the Earth is a super-ball about 1 inch across.

On that scale, how big is the moon? Bigger than Earth? Smaller than Earth?

Beginning...Again...

Today is my 18th first day of school as a teacher. Add to that 4 years of college, and 13 years of K-12, and one of preschool, if you want to count that too...and this is my 36th "first day" of school.

I still love school. I still love to teach.

It still terrifies me.

God Loveth Adverbs

This morning I had the chance to sit in on a conversation with a hero-of-sorts for me: Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff. I've been reading things written by Dr. Wolterstorff since I was an undergraduate student 20 years ago, and it was fascinating to hear his thoughts on Christian Higher Education in this rather informal session.

Dr. Wolterstorff (right) in conversation with President Hoekstra.

Stretching Minds and Stretching Hearts

This morning I came across a quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes that I think is a fitting reminder for teachers:

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

Any implicit gender-bias aside, I hope and pray that this is what is happening in the courses I teach.

Image (modified) by Gregory Marton [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

I Hate Christmas

I went through a really low period in my spiritual life about seven years ago, and I was tremendously cynical about almost everything faith related. I wasn't walking away from my faith or anything like that, but I was really wrestling.

The Christmas season was especially challenging for me. In fact, I know I went so far as to say I hated Christmas. I was disgusted by all of the commercialism, and sparklyness, and blaring Christmas carols in the mall, and cheesy decorations, and all the demands and expectations and outright busyness of the season. Taking note of the ridiculous mismatch between what our broader culture says the Christmas season is about (STUFF!) and what I know Christmas is really about (celebrating the birth of Christ--the fullness of God wrapped up in human flesh!) I was disgusted. I was disgusted with how much the church has bought into the cultural message about Christmas. And I was really disgusted with how much I had bought into it as well.

I was angry.

I was fed up.

I was sick of it.

Something had to happen.

A Cold and Soaking Mist

A cold and soaking mist began to fall, chilling him through. The breeze picked up and he began to shiver, even as he was trying to keep moving, trying to warm up. His shirt began to cling to his skin with the damp, and soon droplets were shaking loose and falling to the ground. Alone, in the pre-dawn gloominess illuminated by passing headlights, he longed for home. A place to dry off. A place to warm up. A place to melt away the misty misery...

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I'm describing my bike ride this morning. It was 47 degrees and fully dark out at 6:00 a.m. as I pedaled away from the house. By the time I reached the corner, the mist was just beginning to fall. By a mile in, I was shivering, and water was dripping from my handlebars. And as my shirt soaked through, I did decide to cut my ride short and head home. I was miserable out there.

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I wonder if this description could also refer to classroom climate? Do students feel warmly enfolded? Or are they shivering in the drenching mist?

Called to Follow

It's the beginning of the semester and we're thinking about "calling" in Introduction to Education, as in, "Am I called to teach?" This is a big question! I believe that teaching is a calling, and that God equips those called to teach with the gifts needed for the challenges of this vocation.

But I know that I've struggled with this notion of calling, and I can see it in some of my students too. Sometimes I have really struggled with whether I am following God's call. It sure would be nice if He would paint His message to me in blazing letters across the sky! Or at the very least, send a direct message to me in a way that I can't possibly miss...

Image by garryknight [CC BY 2.0]

My Best Thinking Right Now

When I was taking my first class for my Masters' degree back in 2004 or so, our professor, Dr. John Van Dyk, asked us to craft a concise, personal faith statement and philosophy of education. This was a challenging task for me at that time, but it was so valuable. I eventually posted it on my school website as a way of helping parents understand where I was coming from.

John invited us to share our statements in class if we were willing. I was thankful that he also shared his own, and I especially loved the title he gave to his. In fact, I loved it so much, I asked if I could borrow it as a title for my own:

"My Somewhat-Tentative, Though Pretty-Sure-Most-of-the-Time, 

Open-to-Revision, and Somewhere-on-the-Road-to-Sanctification 

Statement of Faith and Philosophy of Education"

That seems about right, doesn't it? I love this because it acknowledges three truths:

1. I am striving to continually learn and (hopefully) grow, so my thinking and beliefs might change over time.
2. That said, I am quite confident of my thinking at this point, even though it may change in the future.
3. I will never have it all figured out on this side of glory...but that doesn't mean I shouldn't keep working, learning, and developing.

And honestly, that's what I'm trying to do with this blog. The intention is to share "my best thinking right now" with an audience that can give me feedback, encouragement, pushback, and affirmation in turns.

So I finally got around to creating an "About this Blog" page that hopefully acknowledges and explains my purposes for the writing here.

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As a final note, and in case you are reading this, John:

I am so thankful for John's influence in my professional life. Certainly there have been a great number of educators who have left fingerprints on my teaching practice, but if I had to choose one person who has had the greatest impact on the way I think about the integral nature of faith and learning, it is Dr. John Van Dyk. His influence on both how I understand the craft of teaching as well as how I carry it out in my classroom is pervasive. Thank you, John, for your encouragement to teach well! 

An End-of-the-Semester Blessing for my Students

It is the end of the semester. I have a four-inch pile of papers in need of marking, and I haven't even given any exams yet.

In the midst of the busyness and craziness, I'm also wrapping up teaching for another semester.

I have had the privilege of working with a dozen future middle school teachers this semester; I've taught a course entitled "Middle School Curriculum and Instruction." But the course is really about a lot more than just writing lesson plans. We had conversations about all sorts of things related to teaching middle schoolers throughout the course:

• how uncomfortable desks can be for middle schoolers
• great books that all middle school students should read
• what to do with a student who asks to go to the bathroom every day during your class
• ideas for planning lessons around themes instead of around textbooks
• what to do when you have an angry parent on the phone
• the shortcomings of grading on the curve
• spiritual development of young adolescents
• what snapchat is for (okay, that was my question, not theirs...I'm still just not seeing the value...)

In short, we learned--all of us, me too--about what it means to teach Christianly. To apply our faith, our ground rules to teaching and learning in the middle grades.

A Technology Sabbath

I.

I was camping with my family this weekend. Actually, with quite a few of my wife's relatives. Which is great, really. (My in-laws are pretty fantastic.)

By design, I left my iPad and laptop at home.

This was, I confess, a challenge for me.

7th Grade Police Officer

I ran into a former student last night. He was in my 7th grade homeroom 12 years ago. Sharp kid: smart, hard-working, great sense of humor; he was the sort of student that makes teaching a joy. I was leaving the grocery store and he was on his way in...wearing his uniform.

He's now a 25-year-old, and serves as a police officer here in town.

He smiled as soon as he saw me: "Hi, Mr. Mulder!" with a wave.

I said my hello in return, and got into my van with my peanut butter and aluminum foil and potato chips and memories of this former student.

And this realization: he still calls me "Mr. Mulder."

I haven't been his teacher for more than a decade, but I'm still "Mr. Mulder" to him.

That was a bit of an eye-opening experience for me. I wonder what would happen sometime if I rolled through a stop sign, and he happened to pull me over? Clearly, he would have authority in that place, and I would surely get the ticket I deserved.

But this was a good reminder for me of the Office of the Teacher. Teachers have a high calling; we have a tremendous impact--for good or ill--on the lives of the students we encounter each year, each day, each class period. And for distinctively Christian teachers, this takes on an even deeper role, perhaps: are we being Christ to our students? Maybe this is why James admonishes the church: "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3:1)

Teachers, remember your Office!

Overwhelmed

There are moments when I feel that my vocation as an educator is way, way too big for me. There are moments where I feel so ineffectual and small that I don't have what it takes. There are moments that the classroom feels oppressive and the students feel strange and distant and the marking feels insurmountable and I feel inadequate.

There are moments when I am overwhelmed.

But, thanks be to God, it isn't all about me.

Created to Create

My twitterfriend, Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) tweeted a great image tonight: "I WAS CREATED TO CREATE."

I've been thinking a lot about creativity and giftedness and the uniqueness of students and teachers and how that all holds together. Or maybe, how it ought to hold together. If I say that I believe all of my students are uniquely talented individuals, that should show up in my teaching practice, right? This is something I continue to work on in my own teaching practice.

I've blogged some of my thoughts on this before. But this graphic captured the idea so well: created to create. That sums up much of what I believe to be true about the nature of students.

That should make a difference for the way we organize our classrooms, right fellow educators? What opportunities do we give our students to practice their creativity and continue to develop their gifts?

After all, "creating" is the top of Bloom's Taxonomy... Something worth thinking about!

By Xristina la  [CC-BY-SA-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons