After almost 9 week of school my student are getting to know me very well but there are some room for growth. My students know I love positive energy from saying something nice to other students or doing some nice for someone. My students and I acknowledge we deal with negative energy daily. So I require the students to leave the negative energy outside of my door. Well, this week my class was filled with so much positive high energy. After I finished the lesson for the day I had a male student to shout" I have an announcement to make" Hey everyone I would like to invite everyone to our church for family and friends day. My pastor said invite everyone I see and I see all of you." I FROZE, I didn't know what to say about mixing religion in the classroom offending others, etc. To not destroy the positive energy and crush his happiness. I said with a smile, class take it the way you want. Thank God the bell rung after that. What a surprise!
Angel
Angel I think you handled that situation well; it gives new meaning to old the old addage "saved by the "bell" (lol). Like you I am often uncomfortable with the entire religion / school crossing paths thing.It isn't because I am a non-believer, it's because of what is interpreted by students and their families. I have a host of ethnicities and religions in my class and when we begin discussing the history of our Laws or US courts I am careful to insert disclaimers in my lessons. What did help me [get beyond this]however was the mere fact that we have student based clubs such as the "Fellowship of the Christian Falcons" and "Fellowship of the Christian Athletes" that are student center and appear to the faith of many of our students. Announcements are posted and made orally during the morning announcements about locations for prayer and fellowship and they always invite all who are interested to attend (staff included). It is very open ended and they are always careful to say "All" are welcomed to attend (and breakfast will be served). With that I think you handled it well. After all you didn't invite the students to your place of worship, you didn't offer extra credit to those who attend, nor did you force the students to attend. We are not responsible for the outburst made by our students so hey you should be okay. You never know, kids are so silly (in a good way). He was merely doing what his pastor asked him to do and what better place than any then in your class....he was able to do a "mass invite" (get it "Mass") in one breath (lol). I thought it was cute and maybe even effective for the young man.
ReplyDeleteHi, Angel - I agree with AJ that you handled that right, and sometimes we just have to roll with what students do on the spur of the moment. Isn't teaching fun?
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