Teaching Truth in the 21 Century Classroom...Teaching Truth in the 21st Century Classroom Session 1: The Truth-Centered Teacher ... of life and the world.” (Del Tackett) •Everyone

Teaching Truth in the 21st Century

Classroom

Session 1: The Truth-Centered TeacherSession 2: The Truth-Centered LessonSession 3: The Truth-Centered Classroom

The Truth-Centered Teacher

Session 1

Memphis,

Tennessee

About me...

My home away

from home!

Classroom Introduction











Overview:• Session 1: The Truth-Centered Teacher

o Part 1: What is a biblical worldview? Why a biblical worldview? The 7 Essential Questions of a Biblical Worldview

Learning Task 1: Comparing biblical worldview with the 21st

century worldview

o Part 2: Examining the Themes of the Bible

Learning Task 2: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration

o Part 3: Growing Truth-Centered Teachers

Learning Task 3: Personal reflection

• Session 2: The Truth-Centered Lesson

• Session 3: The Truth-Centered Classroom

Overview:

• Session 1: The Truth-Centered Teacher



century worldview







What’s a Worldview?

• “A worldview is the framework from which we view reality and make sense of life and the world.” (Del Tackett)

• Everyone has a worldview!

• It affects your response to every area of life!

What’s a Biblical Worldview?

• Viewing all things through the lens of the Bible. You believe the Bible is entirely true! “…Thy Word is Truth.” (John 17:17)

• Typically this includes our view of issues such as the nature of God, man, the meaning of life, nature, death, right and wrong.

• There is absolute Truth found in the person of Jesus Christ!

Why Biblical Worldview?

• Our changing world – Unchanging Truth!

• Research indicates that only 9%of all American adults have a biblical worldview including those who describe themselves as “born again” Christians.

• Media, movies, commercials, television, video games, music, technology…all shape our worldview and that of our children!

• The 4-14 window!

Teaching Biblical Worldview

• “Our concern for the purpose of education goes well beyond the immediate function of providing students with an opportunity for better jobs and more of the “good life”..[or]to score well on tests….All these earthly tasks and purposes should be carried out within the framework of an eternal purpose, a purpose given to us by God, thus greatly affecting what we try to do and why.”

Donovan L. Graham (Teaching Redemptively)

Resources!

“We don’t want our students to begin to compartmentalize but to begin to

learn to make connections between the transcendent and the particulars

in their own life….We need to be careful that our worldview travels from our

heads (knowledge, beliefs), to our hearts(values, convictions), to our hands

(actions, service).”

Steve CollumsECS Headmaster

2001-2009

Learning Task 1 – 7 Essential Questions

According to the World

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

According to the Bible

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

7 Essential Questions

1) What is the nature of God or ultimate reality?

2) What is the nature of the world around us?

3) What is a human being?

4) What happens to a person at death?

5) Why is it possible to know anything at all?

6) How do we know what is right and wrong?

7) What is the meaning of human history?

Biblical Answers








Biblical Answers


There is a God

He rules of all things, both visible and invisible

Biblical Answers


The world is orderly, spiritual, and dependent upon God

Biblical Answers


Man is a unique image bearer of God

Man is spiritual, relational, rational, creational, and moral

Man is the only creature made in the image of God, therefore, all men can’t help but reflect some attribute of their Creator (thus in art, science, literature, music, even other theologies, we see glimpses of the Judeo Christian God!)

Biblical Answers


Death is the end of life on earth as we know it, but also the beginning of another existence – an eternal existence with God for believers, or complete separation from Him for non believers.

Biblical Answers


All wisdom and knowledge comes from God.

He is Truth

Romans 1:20 – “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so men are without excuse.”

Truth is revealed in God’s Word (Psalm 19)

Biblical Answers


God is good and just (both the holiness and mercy of God)

Through Him we understand the difference between right and wrong.

“It is man who makes the moral decisions which should be based upon not what he can do but what he ought to do!” (Steve Collums)

Biblical Answers


History is his-story

History is linear. It is going somewhere.

Overview:




century worldview







Learning Task 2: Biblical Worldview Themes

Creation Fall Redemption RestorationGenesis 1-2 Genesis 3

Romans 5:12, 18-19

Genesis 3

Matthew 27:45-54

Colossians 1:15-22

II Corinthians 5:17-19

Isaiah 65:17

II Peter 3:11-13

Romans 8:23

Revelation 21:1-2

How does viewing my students, my teaching, my classroom

change when I put on the lenses of creation, fall, redemption,

restoration?

Creation

• God speaks

• It is GOOD!

• It was made to reflect the GLORY of God (Romans 1:20)

• Man was made in the image of God.

• We were made to worship.

• We were made to be in relationships.

The Fall

• Seed of sin

• The need for a blood sacrifice

• Shame, blame, irrational fear, improper desires, broken relationships, conflict, individualism

• All of creation has fallen

• Death

• “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.” (Blaise Pascal – 1660 mathematician/philosopher)

Redemption

• Global and individual atonement

• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (II Corinthians 5:17 - 20)

• The cross is the central point of history (His-story).

Restoration

• New heaven and a new earth

• A world “renewed” or “made new”

• “Thy Kingdom come!”

• New bodies

• No more pain, sorrow, death, difficulty, or rebellion.

Overview:




century worldview







The Heart of the Matter!

First and foremost we must recognize

that a proper Christian worldview will

be formed in our students’ lives

through a relationship with Christ! The

one who is Truth!

My Testimony

To know the Bible is one

good, to know the

author is better!

“To know the Bible is good;

to know the author is better.”

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Growing Truth Centered Teachers

“… the crux of the problem lies with

the teacher. The fact is

inescapable, the world view of the

teacher, in so far as he is effective,

gradually conditions the world view

of the pupil..”

(Frank E. Gaebelein

The Pattern of God’s Truth)


“In all honesty, it must be admitted that no

teacher or minister who does not have the

Bible at the center of his life and thought

to the extent of living daily in this book can

hope to develop a Christian frame of

reference.”

(Frank E. Gaebelein

The Pattern of God’s Truth)


The effective teacher always teaches from the

overflow of a full life….If you stop growing

today, you stop teaching tomorrow.”

“Kids aren’t looking for a perfect teacher, just

an honest one, and a growing one…”

Dr. Howard Hendricks

Teaching to Change Lives

Dr. Howard Hendricks –Teaching to Change Lives

“Spiritual growth should not be

compartmentalized, but integrated

with every other aspect of

life...[We]cannot fully develop spiritually

unless [we] develop in life’s other areas

as well – intellectually, physically,

socially, and emotionally.”


Growing Intellectually:

1. Maintain a consistent study and reading

program.

2. Enroll in continuing education courses.

3. Get to know your students.


Growing Physically:

1. Is your money under control?

2. Is your use of time under control?

3. Is your diet under control?

4. How about exercise?

5. How about rest?


Growing Socially:

1. Who do you have in terms of friends?

• Do you know any lost people?

• Friends in different age groups?

Learning Task 3: Personal Reflection

How am I doing?

1. What are my strengths?

2. What are my weaknesses?

3. What do I have to change?

Write down a plan of action to improve in the

intellectual, physical, social, and emotional

areas of your life.

Session 2 – The Truth-Centered Lesson

Please sit with other teachers who teach the same grade or subject that you teach.

Documents

Teaching Truth in the 21 Century Classroom...Teaching Truth in the 21st Century Classroom Session 1: The Truth-Centered Teacher ... of life and the world.” (Del Tackett) •Everyone