Today, we started with “Teach Something 3.” Seeing what it was like was starting to give me an idea of how I should set up my lesson plan. However, I was, at first, thrown off by the fact that the group itself did not teach, but one person at a time was teaching. It intimidated me because I had just gone over my own teaching with MediaNotes, and seeing all the errors that I had made, I almost signed myself off as someone who cannot teach.
Yet, I cannot give up. I was reading in Alma 9 today, and after reading it, I went back and looked at certain verses. They are as follows: “For there are many promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them and prolong their existence in the land.... And not many days hence the Son of God shall come in his glory; and his glory shall be the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, equity, and truth, full of patience, mercy, and long-suffering, quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers. And behold, he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name” (Alma 9: 16, 26-27, bold added).
Now, I put in bold two words that stood out to me: 'ignorance' and 'redeem.' I ask the question as teachers, are we not redeemers? While we are certainly not the Redeemer, we redeem those from ignorance by teaching them. I know that I'm definitely stretching the meaning of these verses, but this is what came to me after reading them, and considering my teaching approach. I just cannot give up, because I am a redeemer, who leads others to our Redeemer.
Teaching is a way of redeeming others from destructive behaviors and downcast lives. Remember what the Gong book said multiple times? It talked about how many students' lives were changed because of a teacher (it also mentions this a few times in the Wong book). Their lives were changed. Their lives were redeemed from ignorance. We give knowledge and truth, which comes from Light, the Light of Christ. In a sense, we do God's work as teachers. Maybe we will not teach religion, or gospel principles, but the students will see it in the way we act, speak, and teach. Hopefully, they will see Christ in us.
That is why I cannot give up. I've got to try again, and this time, it'll be better.
Over the past week, I had the opportunity to teach others as well. Last week, for TEE 125, we had to design a website. Many, many people asked me questions about web design, especially trying to differentiate HTML from CSS. I was not frustrated, but I was happy; happy to help them learn how to make a website. I was not nervous, quiet, or teaching the computer, but I was teaching them. I'm not boasting here, merely giving an example of how my teaching has improved. So, I cannot give up. I cannot give up at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment