Integration of Faith & Learning

Faith has always been at the very center of my learning. Attending a Christian
school since kindergarten, there hasnt been a day that has passed without a prayer or the
mention of our awesome God. However, this unit and these lessons were not created or
designed with a Christian school in mind. In fact, they were written for a public school
classroom, and as a result I was unable to explicitly include my personal faith within the
lessonsa very hard adjustment, at least at first, for me.
The complete inability to incorporate my worldview within the unit was a foreign
concept, or so I thought. In due time I finally understood that this restriction was not
absolute and that it did not limit me, but rather pushed me to further explore my Christian
worldview as a whole. I came to realize that my faith influences much more than simply
what I teach and the things I say, and as a result I finally discovered my goal as a
Christian teacher in a public school settingto live like Jesus and to invest in each of my
students lives, acting with justice, mercy, compassion, and respect.
My first tactic for incorporating this idea into my classroom began far before my
first lesson plan did. I spent the first month of the school year intentionally trying to talk
to each studentcalling them by name and asking them about their passions in school
and outside of school just like my own high school teachers did. In doing this I was able
to discover what subject areas they were interested in and which they found difficult,
which helped the students became more and more comfortable having me in the
classroom as well. I also carefully observed my students, noting which classroom tasks
they struggled with as well as those that they enjoyed. In doing both of these things, I

became familiar with my learners, showed them that I was invested in more than just
their grades, and became better prepared for designing my unit.
Perhaps most importantly, throughout the process of creating the activities for the
unit, I kept each of my learners in mind. I thought of those that enjoyed visual and
creative activities like mapping and acting as well as those that loved English and had a
knack for writing. My main goal was to make sure that there was at least one activity
within the unit that each student would find enjoyable and be comfortable with
completing. However, that being said, I also wanted to push my learners, finding ways to
nudge them out of their comfort zones in order for each of them to realize their full
potential and their otherwise undiscovered talents and abilities as learners and maturing
adults. As freshmen and sophomores they each have so much room to grow into the
people that God created them to bewhether that be with or without Him in mindand I
wanted to be a part of that growth.
Now, though my personal Christian worldview could not explicitly be part of the
content of the unit, I still maintained the ability to discuss themes of justice and mercy
and respect as well as the introduction and spread of Christianity in Ancient Greece with
my students. For example, during the discussion of the Greek Empire and Alexander the
Great, I have the ability to push students to consider justice and mercy through posing
questions about the justification behind empires, like Alexanders, conquering lesser
nations. Similarly, though this is not explicitly a part of any of the lessons within the unit
due to time constraints, during the class discussion about the exchange of goods and ideas
in Big Era 4 I could discuss the spread of religion, particularly Christianity, in the ancient
world via contact through trade.

In fact, the more I thought about incorporating my worldview within this public
school classroom, the more I found creative ways to do just that. While I had to come to
terms with the fact that many of my students may never connect my actions with my
faith, it was my hope that at least a few were able to. My students know that I attend a
Christian school, in fact they even know that I went to a Christian high school and attend
a church here in Grand Rapids, so I hope that my actions inside of the classroom served
as my silent testimony and that in everything I did, I exemplified Jesus and his teachings
through my own teaching.