Beautiful Work Events
The Beautiful Work modules invite your entire faculty to spend a day deepening the learning in your school. They fit seamlessly as both a why and how for many initiatives that schools are embarking on today. They can be used to launch an initiative or as a mid-year refresher on work that is already started. Each day includes instructions for how an administrator can follow up and celebrate the learning that your teachers are doing.
About Beautiful Work Events
Which Beautiful Work module is for your school this year? This section describes what initiatives each module can enhance and lists the learning target of the module. If you want to know more or schedule a day, contact Jim Peterson, director of operations and membership.
Module 1 – Building Community
If you are launching any kind of initiative to increase the quality of the relationships between teachers and students in your school Beautiful Work Module 1- Building Community is for your school. Many schools use programs like PBIS and Capturing Kids Hearts to train their faculty to increase the quality of relationships, but Module 1 – Building Community will ground this work in a biblical worldview and enhance and inspire teachers to use your programs in a deeply Christian way. By participating in Module 1 – Building Community teachers will state:
- I can establish the connection between belonging and learning.
- I can explore and experience practices that build community and a sense of being known.
- I can design community-building structures for my classroom.
Module 2 – Keeping the Promise
Is your school looking at its mission and vision statements? Are you starting a new school year with a new mission statement and searching for a way for it to come alive in your school? Beautiful Work Module 2 – Keeping the Promise will build on your mission and make it come alive in your classrooms. By participating in Module 2 – Keeping the Promise teachers will learn:
- I can explain what it means to teach Christianly.
- I can explore my school’s mission statement, and how it is viewed by key stakeholders in our school community.
- I can reflect on my own faith journey and how it equips me to live into the promise of my school’s mission statement.
Module 3 – Forming Curriculum
Is your school looking to refresh your Christian perspective? Would you like to better ground your teaching and learning in the Big Story of the Bible? This module works as a launch to such an initiative or a stopping point early in the year to maintain momentum. By participating in Module 3 – Forming Curriculum teachers will be able to say:
- I can explain a meta-narrative (Big Story) of scripture—Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.
- I can describe the integral nature of a biblical worldview and how it impacts curriculum planning.
- I can develop a Big Story curriculum frame for a course I will teach to guide my planning and implementation of the curriculum.
- I can integrate my Big Story curriculum frame as I plan a learning segment for my students.
Module 4 – Engaging Learning
Are you embarking on an initiative to create more engaging classrooms? Are you looking at formative assessment or differentiated learning? Engage teachers in a wide variety of protocols and procedures to engage students in deeper learning all while rooting these engaging practices in Christian tradition. By participating in Module 4 – Engaging Learning teachers will say:
- I can consider why learner engagement is a vital part of my practice as a Christian teacher.
- I can explore a variety of practical ways to increase student engagement through protocols and differentiated strategies.
- I can design and try new practices for my classroom.
Module 5 – Assessing FOR Learning
Are you looking at assessment this year, either formative or summative in your Christian school? Do you want more clarity around learning outcomes, or are you looking at increasing the use of learning targets in your school? Ground these essential educational practices in our shared Christian faith and give your teachers a solid start on the work. Teachers who participate in Module 5 – Assessing FOR Learning can say:
- I can compare assessment of learning practices to assessment for learning practices in terms of their impact on student achievement.
- I can reflect on my own assessment practices and their impact on my students.
- I can plan strategies to actively involve my students in assessing and improving their work.
Module 6 – Impacting Community
Do you want to see your students applying their knowledge to the world? Would you like your school to be an integral part of your community? Christian education answers the call to engage and transform the world beyond the walls of the school; it is learning that can be shared and lived out. Student learning that embodies quality, complexity, and authenticity can engage the real needs and problems that exist locally and globally. As students apply their learning to renew school, community, and the natural world, an internal renewal and character development mirrors this external “making of all things new.” Teachers that participate in Module 6 – Impacting Community will be able to state:
- I can appreciate how student engagement and formation is amplified through learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom.
- I can identify common elements of effective learning experiences designed to impact our community.
- I can imagine learning experiences that impact our community and apply required curriculum.
Module 7 – Celebrating Learning
Do you walk around your school amazed by the work going on and wonder how this can be shared more widely? Do you ever wonder about changing the audience that students reach through their creative work for? If your school wants to celebrate the work of students (and teachers) more, then this module is for you. Teachers who participate in Module 7 – Celebrating Learning will say:
- I can describe the power of celebrations of learning to engage and motivate students.
- I can explain how celebrations can encourage quality work and spiritual development.
- I can apply the concept of “hierarchy of audience” to the work I assign my students.
Module 8 – Reflecting on Our Practice
Learners (students, teachers, and administrators) should have a rich inner life of reflection and self-knowledge, learning ways to cultivate experiences and leverage them to improve practice. Building in rich reflection opportunities for your students and staff so that they can understand the rich rewards that come with reflecting on experience will change your classroom and deepen the Christian practices taught at your school. Teachers who participate in Module 8 – Reflecting on our Practice will be able to say:
- I can consider why reflection and self-knowledge are crucial to my practice as an educator.
- I can learn concrete steps for reflecting on an instructional strategy, lesson, or unit.
- I can implement reflection strategies for students in my teaching
Schedule a Beautiful Work Event
If you are interested in learning more about Beautiful Work Events or would like to schedule a day at your school, contact Jim Peterson, director of operations and membership.
