Sunday 23 October 2011

Teaching Observations and Life


During my CELTA [training to become an English as a foreignlanguage teacher] one of the very first things we did was to take part in a sample lesson where we could see the methodology we would eventually teach with being done on us. The next thing was to watch a lesson on some students fromour course supervisor.

These initial observations were very useful as sometimes words can only go some far and it can be a lot simpler to just show how to do something than explain it.

I think the apostle Paul understood this, he didn’t just preach [Although he certainly did that! Remember the in Athens or what about when he bored a boy to sleep who then fell to his death after he had beenpreaching for “some time”] but he also demonstrated with his actions.

In fact he even goes as to say that he shared his entire life with the church in Thessalonica. And that they became imitators of him whilst he was there.

Now whilst I certainly haven’t observed as many teachers since finishing my CELTA I still continue to do this.

These observations are still good.

Sometimes there is a revelation about teaching that I hadn’t thought of until I saw another teacher do it.

In the same way as Christian we should continue to observe the lives of other Christians. We should continue to be challenged by their example, and become imitators of them and ultimately God.

So who are you imitating?