Teaching from the Heart

Recently 16 teachers and administrators who are “early adopters” of Teaching for Transformation (TfT) met to begin making plans to integrate TFT into our work and learning at here at DCS.

What exactly is Teaching for Transformation? Mr. Covey wrote this about TfT last spring: “TfT is a model that is helping us reach our goal of shaping our students’ faith within the context of world-class teaching and learning experiences.” 

We’re committed to providing our students with world-class learning experiences, and that means that we as teachers remain committed to learning and growing as well.  As Mr. Covey noted, “TFT doesn’t replace academic rigor; rather, it enhances it by purposefully situating academic curriculum within the larger context of God’s plan for our lives.”  

Throughout our time learning about Teaching for Transformation together as a team of Early Adopters, we spent time collaborating, planning, setting intentions, and building our relationship with each other.  We also spent time learning about the TfT “Habits of Learning”:

  • curious thinking
  • courageous designing
  • gracious communicating
  • joy-filled collaboration

We each chose one of those four habits to grow into either in our professional journey or in our classroom communities and shared with colleagues why we chose it, some practical practices we planned on implementing, and the way we were going to see evidence of this.  Naming our intentions not only expressed the desires of our hearts but it meant that we now were accountable to intentionally trying it out and making it happen. 

We also spent time reflecting on our ‘deep hopes’ for our students. Not just our wishes or a few new activities but rather what we hope students and even parents take away from their experiences in our classrooms and school.

It was challenging to format the truest, deepest things that you desperately try to convey and live out as a teacher — that also align with DC’s mission and vision — into a mere sentence or two. 

We shared our deep hope statements with our colleagues, received feedback from them, and I’ve printed it out and hung it by my work area in my classroom to dwell on it and live with it for a couple months in order to see if its really true to what I live out and long for with my messy, beautiful, profoundly simple, peculiar (in the best way) little friends.

Here at Denver Christian, educating students is about more than just imparting ideas and information; education is about continual transformation.  

Learn more about the transformational learning environment at Denver Christian!  Click here to schedule a tour, speak with someone from our admissions team, or attend an upcoming parent preview night.

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