Teaching for Transformation Blog Series: Formational Learning Experiences
Dear Parents and Friends of SCS,
On Friday, March 13th, our school will be hosting Oostburg Christian, Brookfield Christian, Randolph Christian, Delavan Christian, Racine Christian, and Central Wisconsin Christian in an all day in-service to continue our training in the Teaching for Transformation framework. Specifically, we will be learning about how to design Formational Learning Experiences – exploring and imagining how teachers invite, nurture, and empower students to play their role in God’s story.
Invite – Through daily lessons, teachers invite every student to explore their role in the Kingdom story. God created each of us for a specific purpose to fulfill His plans. What an invitation to be a part of His Kingdom story! In 4th grade science, students are currently wondering and learning about how God’s design of human anatomy has a specific role in helping the body to function. So too, our role in God’s world is important and has a purpose. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:15-16
Nurture – Through building relationships and opportunities for deep conversations, our teachers nurture every student to desire to be a peculiar person. This comes through teaching students that their identity is in Christ rather than what the world promotes. Just as Christ was a peculiar person in His time, so we too can be a people who love the unloveable and reach the unreachable. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18
Empower – Through projects and student engagement, SCS empowers every student to practice their life’s expression. We don’t want our students to just learn about their role in the world; we want them to practice it, even at young ages. Our students can express their part in God’s story through a variety of opportunities in and outside of the classroom. During this season of lent, students at the elementary school are expressing ways they will spread joy, just as Jesus’ sacrifice spread joy to the world. “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” John 17:13
As a community, what is your role in inviting, nurturing, and empowering our students to play their role in God’s story? Please join us in this important work! You have upcoming opportunities through spring programs, Grandparents Day, and other events to have powerful conversations with our students. Please continue to pray for our work and for these students.
In God’s Story,
Ann Steenwyk
Director of Academics & Instruction