Praying in Class

Biblical Integration is not just prayer. 


Over the past few years, this concept has been reinforced at many of our training sessions. And it's so true! But, while saying a prayer at the beginning of class isn't Biblical Integration, I do feel like it serves an important purpose

Last year, I began trying something different when it comes to class prayer. On the first day of class, I have all my students write their name on an index card (are you beginning to get how much I love index cards!). Each day, when class begins, I draw a name at random and ask them what I can pray for. A few students say "nothing", but most of them will fill you in on something going on in their life. I also noticed that last year, as the year went on, students who were initially hesitant became more open.

I do this for a few reasons. 

1. It helps you get to know the students. Early in the year, I'm still trying to master names and this is a big help! Additionally, I will usually learn something about that student and their family. Today, one of my students asked us to pray for her sister who was starting her first day at UVA today. In a matter of minutes, I went from knowing nothing about her to knowing her name, that she had a sister, and that her sister was important enough to her for her to lift her up in prayer. 

2. It helps your students get to know each other. Every year there are new students in each grade. This serves as a subtle icebreaker and helps students get to know each other on a deepter level without needing to be too bold. 

3. It tells your students that they matter. I always follow up their response with a few questions of my own. Where does your sister go to college? What is her name? Let them know that what's going on in their life matters to you.

4. It teaches them how to pray. In previous years I've asked a different student to lead our class in prayer each morning. There's nothing wrong with this, and I think one of the benefits is that students learn how to pray in public and lead their class in prayer, which is a necessary skill to have (and one few adults are comfortable with).  But, I think it is equally beneficial for a student to hear someone in a leadership role pray. For them. Who knows what they are going through, or even if they've had an adult ever take a few minutes to ask them what they need prayer for. This is an excellent opportunity to do just that. 

Image result for prayer

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"The Pearl" - A lesson on parables

Image
We recently began reading The Pearl , by John Steinbeck in 8th grade English. For those who haven't read it (I hadn't before last week), The Pearl is a a short story (novella) that is also a parable. As the gospels are full of parables, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for deeper biblical integration. While biblical integration is something I try to do to some extent in every class, the kind of biblical integration that encompasses an entire class period can only be done ever so often. Today was one of those days. I began by breaking the students into groups of three and then had each group select one of the following three parables from Matthew: Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:1-9 Parable of the Weeds - Matthew 13: 24-30 Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25: 14-30 Yesterday in class, we discussed the definition of a parable as well as some of the key characteristics that all parables have. Today, with that information fresh in their minds, eac...
Read more

How do you do it all virtually?

Image
I work at a classical Christian school. We tend to stray from a any significant use of technology in the classroom.  Our students are not allowed to have their phones in school.  Last month, our parent teacher association hosted an event for parents to better understand the negative effects of screen time on adolescents.  We're big on discussion, Socratic circles, and relationship building. Today we started teaching online because the governor closed all the schools in Virginia through the end of the school year. We took last week off to prepare and plan. We had 8 days to go from a school that intentionally does not embrace technology to a school that is teaching 100% through distance learning.  What. An. Adjustment.  So how do you maintain a classical model while teaching virtually? Here are some suggestions...but I'd love to do hear your thoughts as this is incredibly new for me.  Diversify the assignments: We know that stud...
Read more

Interviewing, Esther, Moses, and Argument

Image
One of our goals this year for our dialectic grades (7th-9th) is to incorporate the "art of argument" into the classroom. While the students take a logic class during this time, we want them to articulate, defend, and persuade outside of that course as well. So what does this look like outside of a formal logic course?   In personal finance this week, the class is learning about interviewing and resume writing. The essential question for the day is: " What is the purpose of an interview?" As I initially thought about how to biblically integrate this lesson, I did a google search of "interviews and the Bible". As you can imagine, I didn't' come up with much. Mostly, there were links to Bible verses that might encourage you before heading into an interview...not exactly what I was going for.   But then I thought about how often God "hired" a particular individual for an important job. What is that, if not an interview? That got me thin...
Read more