Stump the Teacher

Welcome to my on-going series on Christian Perspective in the classroom.

Last time I shared one example of how I apply Christian Perspective in the classroom.

After doing that example with the students I challenge them to "Stump the teacher". They are to bring in any strange or unusual object they can find and I have to demonstrate how to apply Christian Perspective to it as part of my devotions. I put them all in a box and a few times a week I pull one out and do devotions on it.

To do so I use three themes.

Creation: What is good about this item? How does it show the awesomeness of God's world?

Fall: How is this item affected by sin? In what ways is this item used poorly?

Renewal: How can we, as Christians, work to use this item to serve God? How can we make the world a better place with this item?

The students have brought in all sorts of interesting items; toys, tools, food, feminine products... But I can always demonstrate at least one of the three themes and most of the time I can easily do all three.

I hope that by demonstrating this I can encourage students to see that our Christian Faith should influence all of our lives.

Of course, some of you will recognize that this is simply an adaptation of the classic Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration themes. I've simply modified them to fit more easily in an elementary classroom.

Next time curriculum connections and what the students should do with it.