TEACHING FOR TRANSFORMATION (TFT)

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS – Provided by Prairie Centre for Christian Education

Introduction: Continuing Christian Education at Home

Teaching for Transformation is a model for how to integrate Christian faith and learning. For several years Edmonton Christian has been using this model to guide teachers and students through what it means to play our roles in God’s story.  Some of what we do can get a bit technical but essentially it means that we are asking each other to see God’s story and then to live that story. Teachers have been using deep hopes and storyline and something called Formational Learning Experiences to help students play their role in God’s unfolding story.

TFT offers 10 ways to think about how we play our roles in God’s story.  These 10 things are called Throughlines. You have probably heard about them already.  There are lots of ways to be on the lookout for these throughlines but it’s not enough to simply list them or just talk about them.  We are invited to BE those throughlines.

The Prairie Centre for Christian Education, an organization that supports our schools, has put together some resources that will help to integrate the throughlines into this new online learning journey that you are going through.

As we go through the weeks we will attempt to provide you with some of these resources that will help your family dive into a throughline.  There will be an overview of the throughline, scripture connections, related songs, activities and digital resources. There will then be suggestions for how you and your family can BE the throughline.  As you engage in the activities we invite you to post pictures to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #edmchristianathome of your family engaging in the throughline.

Hopefully, this resource will be helpful for you and your family.  Feel free to pick and choose activities as you see fit. Perhaps, as families, you can find creative ways to integrate some of these activities into a lesson that was presented by a teacher.  Perhaps teachers have already been using some of these resources and suggested this already. This resource is only a suggestion but it can be a great part of the learning.

Week One – Community Building

SUMMARY: Students will be active pursuers and builders of communal shalom. Our classrooms will be communities of grace where students will walk and work together in a spirit of shalom.

GOING DEEPER

In our hectic, fast-paced, consumer-driven society, it’s common to feel overwhelmed, isolated and alone. Many are re-discovering the healing and empowering role that community can bring to our lives. The sense of belonging we feel when we make the time to take an active role in our communities can give us a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.  – Robert Alan (American artist, writer and social activist)

BIBLICAL REFERENCES 

Could be used for devotions or memory work.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
– 1 Corinthians 12:12

There is one body and one Spirit…
– Ephesians 4:1-6

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (This comes from Jesus’ prayer for believers.)
– John 17: 22-23

Other Passages to Ponder:

  • 1 Peter 4:10-11
  • Psalm 133:1
  • Ecclesiastes 4:10

SONGS

You can use these as part of your morning devotions or to play in the background during work.

ACTIVITIES

Ideas that you can connect to the learning that is happening or encourage in your student’s free time.

  • Pray together
  • Forgive someone
  • Talk about the meaning of “shalom”
  • Clean up together
  • Make something for someone (food, building/fixing something)
  • Encourage someone
  • Giving people compliments
  • Singing together
  • Teach something new to someone (helping a sibling with school work)
  • Play something someone else wants to
  • Join #caremongering online – share good news, make people laugh, sing, dance, encouragingBible verse
  • Resolve a conflict
  • Sharing (skills, knowledge, work, possessions, etc.)

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Digital books, devotion ideas, online resources, blog articles, etc.

Elementary:

Junior High/High School/General:

FORMATIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES (FLEX)

These are experiences that connect our learning/work to real people/problems (to go beyond our normal classroom walls). These are authentic opportunities for students to practice living the Kingdom story.

Think/pray together to decide on someone that may need encouragement/connection/love at this time (e.g., nursing homes, hospitals, medical care professionals, etc.). Reach out as a family (or if a student is old enough have them reach out themselves) and see how you can help them through this time. Some things you could do: write a letter, make a card, shovel their driveway, phone interview them and write a short biography to read back to them, set up a daily video chat and read to them, etc. Use this as an opportunity to build community with someone that needs it.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS/SENTENCE STARTERS

  • It is said that we don’t learn from doing, but from reflecting on what we do. 
  • Give students time and space to reflect on their experiences and learning this week.
  • How have you pursued shalom this week?
  • When was the most difficult time for you to build community this week?
  • What has God taught you about being in community this week?
  • Why do you think building community is so important to God?
  • Where in your curriculum did you learn more about Community Building this week?
  • Who should we try to build community with?