Tips 4 Teachers
By Mrs Alison Wheldon
Posted on 16 January 2009
If I only had more time...
A student once gave me a gift on which was inscribed the following:
Time spent teaching is never lost.
This hangs in my study and I see it every time I open the cupboard door. Teachers know that more and more is being expected of them and there never seems to be enough time to fit everything into the teaching day.
Take just a tiny bit of your time to complete this sentence: “If I had more time I would ………..”
It’s something worth thinking about. If God in his wisdom decreed that from here on in, every day would have a few more hours in it, I wonder how we would spend them? … With friends and family? … Programming? … Sleeping? … Leisure activities? … Shopping? We would all have something we could be doing, if only we had more time!
We all have the same amount of time available to us – 24 hours each day - but it is what we do with that time that matters. Many teachers spend much of their holidays getting organised for the next term, preparing units of work, organising their classrooms, meeting with colleagues to do some collaborative planning and just generally ensuring they are ready for their students. Teachers know how crazy things get, particularly at the beginning of the school year, so anything they can do to be prepared can only help. How true for teachers especially is the saying,
For every minute spent in organising, an hour is earned.
We would all agree that using time wisely is an investment.
Take a few minutes to consider the whole area of teaching christianly. I’m amazed at the number of people who remark to me, “I would like to write some teaching units from a Christian perspective, but I never have enough time.” True, it takes time, but we do seem to find the time to complete other tasks. It means a change in mindset. It means making a conscious decision to make every minute count. As teachers, we have the opportunity to transform a generation.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks of how Jesus’ return will be unexpected. We don’t know the time. What we do know is that time is ticking away and we would all desire that our students come to know Jesus and share in eternity with him. How urgent is our job?!
Napoleon Bonaparte said,
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
Is it time for you to ‘take action’? Yes, it will take some of your time. Yes, it is easier just to pull out the unit you taught last year and go with that. But it’s do-able if you set yourself a realistic goal, like writing just one unit from a Christian perspective for the new school term. Take the time to show your students how all of creation belongs to God.
Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16: 3
Our Christian Studies Mentors, Alison and Jenni, can help you with many aspects of teaching Christianly. Contact Us.
