Heart

Teacher Institute has officially begun!  It was a great treat to welcome the Christian Light School teachers to our second summer training.  There were lots of smiles and hugs as we greeted each other after a year apart.  

It was exciting to hear about the growth that has happened in the school over the past year, including meeting some amazing new teachers who have joined the CLS staff.  

Our topics for discussion during this four week training are based on the feedback the teachers gave last summer.  They wanted to talk more about behavior, classroom management, and assessment.  We have planned out a summer that will hopefully be fun, useful, and encouraging to these wonderful educators.  

Monday we started with a review of the work we had done together last summer.  We watched the video that we created last summer with each of the teachers sharing their personal philosophies of education.  Their beliefs about God calling them to teaching and their hopes for a change in Haiti springing from an educated youth are inspiring themes that continue to come up again and again.

On Tuesday we dove right into our first new topic of study- behavior.  We started brainstorming ideas about behavior and discipline.  It was great to laugh together at the challenges that are common to all teachers.  When one teacher would share a behavioral concern, a collective sigh of agreement and frustration would echo across the room.  It was also good to hear the teachers sharing words of encouragement with each other after a long and sometimes difficult school year.

Our first major "assignment" was to chart one of the behaviors we struggled with this year in the classroom.  We wanted to follow the Biblical concept of the heart being the "wellspring of life."  If we can determine the heart motivation behind an action, we can help counsel the child toward a change of heart.  We spent a long time talking about how Jesus calls not for a change of behavior, as if an exterior shift could lead to permanent change.  Rather, we discovered that over and over again in Scripture, God provides for a changed heart which then overflows with changed behaviors.  

As always, the teachers dug into the new material with thoughtfulness.  We had a good discussion about how to help our students discover their heart motivation for their actions.  We recognized that any permanent change can only come from Christ's work in our hearts.  It is a great treat to be able to think and share and pray and learn together with this group of Christian educators.  I am already feeling encouraged by these dear brothers and sisters!

Thank you to my friends and family back home for your  prayers and encouragement!  Love in Christ, Jessie