Close the Gap Now

How can you better prepare seniors for their culminating event?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-05-21T08:39:22+09:00

It's 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon. Each of the 46 seniors has just completed the final part of the senior culminating event—a 20-minute presentation to a teacher panel regarding biblical analysis of and response to an issue of his/her choosing (for example, child displacement, video game addiction, nuclear proliferation, media bias, and obesity in geriatrics).

You were on a teacher panel for presentations on video game addiction. You enjoyed seeing each student shine; you enjoyed seeing each senior using his/her learning to impact the world for Christ. As you finish your written evaluations, you wonder, "How can high school teachers better prepare seniors for this culminating event?"

Good question. Here's a suggestion—backwards design each part of the culminating assessment (paper, project, presentation). In other words, develop papers, projects, and presentations for students in grades 6-11 that developmentally prepare students for the senior culminating event.

If seniors are to write a 7-15 page paper in which they use research and a biblical perspective* to analyze and respond to an issue:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing them for this culminating paper? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating paper?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of papers would they need to write in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating paper? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How many pages would the paper be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the papers?

If seniors are to do a hands-on project that contributes toward a biblical* solution for their issue:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing them for this culminating project? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating project?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of projects would they need to create in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating project? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How big would the project be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the projects?

If seniors are to do a 20-minute presentation in which they use research and biblical perspective* to analyze and respond to an issue:

What classes should be involved in preparing them for this culminating paper? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating presentation?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of presentations would they need to give in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating presentation? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How many minutes would the presentation be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the presentations?

*If seniors are to use a biblical perspective in their papers, projects, and presentations:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing students to apply a biblical perspective? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students to apply a biblical perspective?)
What biblical principles (in each subject area) would it be helpful for students to be grounded in by the end of grade 11?
What skills do students need for researching and applying a biblical perspective? How will students learn these?

How do you prepare your students for an assessment?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-05-08T08:35:00+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Kim wants her students to make connections, including connections between God's world and God's Word. So, at the end of her course, she gives her students the following assessment:

Give a presentation (5-8 min. individual; 8-10 min. group) on something from 2nd semester English class that grabbed your attention in which you demonstrate 3 connections (literature, Bible, life), using your project as support. (Your project is worth about 1 week’s work / 5% of semester grade.)

One way she prepares her students for this assessment is by providing them with a list of the Biblical principles they studied in each unit, the questions they reflected on during the course, and questions about creation-fall-redemption-restoration framework they used. She does this to help her students review what they learned, use what they learned, and avoid prooftexting. Here's what she shared with her students:

Biblical principles we studied in English 10:
1. Meeting Image Bearers: Introduction

1.1. Because people are in the image of God (Gen. 1.27; 9.6; Jas. 3.9), we are creative (Gen. 2.19; Gen. 4.21-22; Exod. 35.30-36.1), communicative (Gen. 2.20-24; Exod. 4:10-12; Jer. 1.4-9) truth-seekers.
1.2. God charges us with developing the potentials of creation, including language. This is called the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1.26-28; Ps. 8.5-8; Heb. 2.5-9).
1.3. All truth is God’s truth: truth people can deduce from creation (Ps. 19.1-6, Rom. 1.19-20, Rom. 2.14-16) as well as truth God reveals in scripture (Ps. 19.7-11, 2 Tim. 4.16-17).
1.4. The Bible is the clearest revelation of God’s truth, the touchstone for all other truth claims (Isa. 8.20; Acts 17.11; 2 Tim. 3.16-17).

2. Restoring Shalom: Cry, the Beloved Country. God calls us to join him in His work of restoration (person with self/God/others/creation). (Mic. 6.8, Isa. 1.17, Jer. 22.16, Hos. 6.6, Matt. 23.23)

3. Disregarding Human Dignity: Night

3.1. Because people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1.26-27), every human being is worthy of honor and respect and should not be murdered (Gen. 9.6) or cursed (Jas. 3.9).
3.2. Because the Bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must seek the good of anyone it is within our power to help (Lev. 19.18, Matt. 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke10.27, Rom.13.9, Gal. 5.14, Jas. 2.8).

4. Being Image Bearers: 1st semester project/presentation. Because speech is a gift of God (Ex. 4.11-12, Jer. 1.6-7, Acts 7.22), and we are called to serve others (I Cor. 10.24, 12.12-26; Mark 10.42-45; Phil. 2.1-11), a Christian speaker seeks to serve her neighbor/audience.

5. Weightlifting with Language: Grammar—As a person redeemed by God (John 3.16), you can learn and use different languages (Acts 2.5-12) to serve God and others (Gen. 39-41, 45.7; Acts 7.22; Dan. 1.3-4) by reducing alienation and restoring shalom.

6. Dancing with Language: Poetry

6.1. God values poetry: a large part of the Old Testament is poetry. (All of Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon; most of Job and Ecclesiastes; vast portions of the prophetic books. Even the books of law and history contain passages of poetry.)
6.2. Poetry can communicate truth. Paul quotes it on several occasions to connect with his audience and support his point (Acts 17.28, 1 Cor. 15.33, Tit. 1.12).
6.3. Anything that sounds like truth must be checked against God’s Word—even if it comes from a Christian source (Acts 17.11). The writer of Acts praises the Jews of Berea because everything they heard from Paul about the gospel, they checked against the scriptures to see if it was true.

7. Experiencing the World: Short stories—Human search for belonging is ultimately fulfilled in God (Psa. 90.1, Phil. 3.20, Heb. 11.8-10, 13-16).

8. Finding Myself: A Doll's House

8.1. Every individual has value (Gen. 1:27, Psa. 139, Matt. 10.31, Luke 12.7, Rom. 12.3-9).
8.2. Secure in her worth in God's eyes, the Christian follows Jesus' example of service, humility, submission (I Cor. 10.24, 12.12-26; Mark 10.42-45; Phil. 2.1-11; Eph. 5.21).

9. Finding Love: A Midsummer Night's Dream

9.1. Romantic love is a good gift from God when used according to directions (Gen. 2.18-25, Song of Solomon, John 2.1-2, Eph. 5.25-32) but devastating when used otherwise (Dinah, Gen.34; Samson, Judges 12 & 16; Amnon & Tamar, 2 Sam. 13).
9.2. The love God intends for a man and woman is a lifetime determination of the will to seek the good of the other person (Gen. 2.20-25, Matt. 19.3-9 [esp. The Message], Mal. 2.13-16, Eph. 5.22-33, I Cor. 13). Are you becoming the type of person capable of this type of determination?

Course questions that framed English 10:

Who am I?
Who is my neighbor?
What’s wrong with the world?
What is the significance of words?

To analyze something using the creation/fall/redemption/restoration framework, pick 1 or more of the following questions:

What was God’s intention for this thing when He originally created it?
How has this thing been affected by the Fall? How do humans misuse or abuse it? What difference does Jesus make? What reason is there for hope?
How can we be involved in God’s work of restoring this to His original intention?

These essays make me smile

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-04-12T08:48:10+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, celebrates what her students are learning:

I want my students to understand the words they hear. I want them to understand the song lyrics they hear, especially in terms of the theme and how poetry enhances the theme.

So 2 weeks ago, I asked them to write an essay on the following: “Your task is to write an article for a Christian teen magazine analyzing the poetry and truth of the lyrics of a song of your choice.”

It’s now Friday afternoon. I’m grading those essays. And I’m smiling.

I’m pleased because my students learned how the poetry of a song lyric affects the theme. One student wrote on the reflection that he handed in with his essay, “As a fan…I [previously had]…not noticed the depth of the song…. I myself learned that poems/songs still have deep meaning these days.”

I’m especially pleased because my students used creation-fall-redemption-restoration to critique the theme, for example:

“The poet may not be aware of it, but the only rescue to a broken situation on Earth is through the hope God provides….”
“Because of Christ’s act of redemption for us...we are able to forget these past wrongs and move forward; just like Bedingfield’s lyrics say, we have a blank page before us.”
“The lyrics of Macklemore’s song ‘Wings’ allude to the meaning behind brand-name shoes…. Society continues its attempts at materialistic satisfaction, which can’t restore the broken relationship with God.”

In 3 more months, my 48 students will be leaving my class. And in 2 more years after that, they’ll be leaving CAJ. By God’s grace, they will be equipped to impact the world for Him.

Try using the 4Rs

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-03-08T12:05:53+09:00

Do you want to help your students learn even more? One way you can do this is by leveraging your unit maps on an ongoing basis. How can you do this? Try the 4 Rs:

Review your unit map before starting each unit.
Reflect on how each unit went.
Revise each unit map, based on your reflection.
Regularly talk about your unit maps.

Let me explain further:

(1) Review your unit map for 5 or more minutes before starting each unit—this will help you focus on what you want your students to learn:

Look at your learning targets, enduring understandings, and essential questions. Ask yourself, "What do my students need to learn?"
Look at your content and skills. Ask yourself, "How are the content and skills connected to my learning targets and enduring understandings?"
Look at your assessments, noting which learning targets a given assessment addresses. Ask yourself, "To what extent do these assessment give high quality evidence for student achievement of the learning targets?"
Look at your resources, making sure you know where all of them are. Ask yourself, "How helpful are these resources?" and “Do I use anything that is not documented in my map?”

(2) Reflect on how each unit went. Do this as soon after a unit finishes as you can. You might want to consider the following questions:

What did your students learn during the unit?
What is encouraging/discouraging about what your students learned?
To what extent did you carry out your unit plan?
To increase student learning, what changes could you make to your unit map?

(3) Revise each unit map, based on your reflection. I like to make changes immediately, and others like to make changes right before teaching the unit again. The important thing is not when you make the revisions, but that you make the revisions before teaching the unit again.

(4) Regularly talk about your unit maps—this is fun and will keep you focused on your unit maps. Each year, talk through at least 4 units with a colleague. As necessary, talk through various parts of your unit maps, for example, enduring understandings, essential questions, and assessments.

To find out how you and your colleagues are using the 4Rs, rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4: Strongly Agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly Disagree

___ Before starting each unit, I take 5 or more minutes to review the appropriate unit map.
___ I reflect on how each unit went, noting possible ways to improve the unit.
___ I revise each unit (as appropriate) before teaching the unit again.
___ I regularly talk about my unit maps with colleagues.
___ Before starting each unit, my colleagues take 5 or more minutes to review the appropriate unit map.
___ My colleagues reflect on how each unit went, noting possible ways to improve the unit.
___ My colleagues revise each unit (as appropriate) before teaching the unit again.
___ My colleagues regularly talk about their unit maps with others.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s are there?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What can I do to increase the practice of the 4 Rs (review, reflect, revise, regularly talk)?
What will I do?

Now what?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-01-07T07:49:19+09:00

You are chatting with Henry, an employee you supervise. Just a regular conversation. But then Henry gets defensive and starts talking loudly. You wonder what happened and so quickly review what the 2 of you have said. You realize that Henry reacted to your comment about Project Z not being on schedule and that now is the time to address how to get this project back on track.

So, you clarify your comment: “Henry, when I said that Project Z is behind schedule, I didn’t mean that it was all your fault. I was just stating the fact.” Then to establish common ground, you say, “We both understand the importance of the project, and we both want to meet the upcoming deadline.”

Henry calms down and nods. And you think, “Now what?” Good question.

When you find yourself asking that question, try using the SALT framework:

Share
Ask
Listen
Take

This framework will help you avoid getting aggressive or defensive, preserve your relationship, and do something to improve the situation. Let me explain:

(1) Share facts (instead of giving interpretations). Why? Because sharing facts helps you moderate your tone of voice—when you’re frustrated or angry, it’s all too easy to talk in ways to cause others to react negatively. Because sharing facts helps you avoid saying volatile things (like “You always do that”) that can cause others to get defensive and stop listening to you. And because sharing facts helps you focus on what actually happened—the facts.

(2) Ask questions to learn about the other person’s thinking (instead of saying what the person is thinking). How do you feel when others say what you’re thinking? Personally, I don’t like it—it seems that they don’t really want to know what I’m thinking and that they’ve already made up their minds. I much prefer that others ask me questions. This shows they are interested in me and my thinking, and questions help me provide quality feedback, questions like “From your perspective, what happened?” and “What am I missing or not understanding?”

(3) Listen to understand (instead of listening to judge). People who listen to judge are more likely to be thinking about how they disagree with what the other person is saying or about what they are going to say next, to interrupt the speaker, and to come across as critical, all of which can shutdown a difficult conversation. People who listen to understand, instead, ask questions and then just listen. They don’t talk, they wait patiently for the other person to speak, they focus on what the other person is saying, and they use eye contact and body language to show interest in what the other person is saying.

(4) Take action together (instead of leaving the matter unresolved). Too often in difficult conversations, we target being heard, rather than resolving the matter. We operate on the assumption that if both side share, the matter will be resolved, only to find out later that it is not. Instead of targeting being heard, target taking action together. How? By collaboratively developing a SMART goal and determining how you will follow up.

Bottom line: SALT difficult conversations.

What about you? Think about a difficult conversation you’ve had:

What were the facts? How well did you share just the facts?
What questions did you ask? What questions could you have asked?
How well did you listen?
What action did you both take?
How could you apply this article in a difficult conversation you need to have or are likely to have?

Want to learn more? Read Crucial Conversations, especially chapters 7-9.

Now what?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-01-13T08:10:32+09:00

4 ways to lead change even more effectively

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-02-07T08:24:35+09:00

You are sitting at a coffee shop, thinking about a change that would make your ministry more fruitful. You are pumped. Then you remember what happened with previous changes you tried. Like when you pushed for working in teams, but no one really understood why. Or when you proposed changing your mission’s organizational structure—everyone seemed like they were on board, you developed a plan for the change, but no one followed up.

You want this change to go better, and you are wondering what you can do. Here are 4 suggestions:

(1) Make your case, instead of announcing the change. I’ve tried announcing. It doesn’t work. For example, I remember emailing a team leader, instructing her to have her team to use a tool. I did not explain why. The result? After 8 years, the team has yet to fully implement the tool.

What should I have done? I should I have made my case by having the team (1) examine the data I had looked at, (2) compare their conclusions about the data with mine, (3) identify how my proposal could help and what might happen if the proposal wasn’t adopted, and (4) give additional feedback on my proposal. Doing this would have taken time, but doing this would have resulted in the team using the tool more.

(2) Once you have made your case for change, you’ll need to collaboratively develop a plan for change. First, get the group involved. The more involved they are, the more they will implement the plan. Next, make sure the group develops a plan that answers these 5 questions: What is our goal? What action steps do we need to take? Who’s responsible for what? What resources are needed? How will we report progress?

(3) Recognize that different people have different responses to change. A few people love change and are ready to try anything new (like those who lined up for hours to get an iPhone 5 the day it came out). Some people will consider the change and implement it. The majority of people, however, will need to see the change being implementing before they take action. Finally, some people might resist the change. Bottom line? Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get everyone on board immediately.

(4) Talk with others before developing policies and procedures. This came home to me while taking a graduate class with school administrators. In teams, we were doing a simulation to see who could implement change the fastest. My team was moving across the board at a good clip, developing policies and procedures.

We were about half way across when another group shouted, “Done!” I was stunned. We had done all the “right” things. How had they beaten us? Simple. They realized that change starts with people, so they talked with others before developing policies and procedures. I’ve never forgotten that lesson.

What can you talk about with others? You can ask how they feel about the change and tell stories about people implementing the change.

What about you?

What is one way you lead change?
What is comfortable/uncomfortable about leading change?
How could you lead change even more effectively?
What will you do?

Remember: You can find ways to lead change even more effectively.

5 ways to lead when you’re not up in front

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-12-06T08:07:00+09:00

You don’t have to be up in front to lead. You don’t have to be the team manager, meeting facilitator, or workshop presenter. You can lead without being up in front. This is good news for those who would like to lead but prefer not to be up in front. And this is good news for those who enjoy leading from the front and are looking for more opportunities to lead.

But don’t leaders by definition need to be up in front so their followers can follow them? Not necessarily. Without being up in front, leaders can still lead in a variety of ways, including providing staff support, building confidence, provoking reflection, encouraging partnerships, and helping others grow.

Let me explain. If you want to lead when you’re not up in front, you can . . .

(1) Support others by praying. Ask God to help your ministry team live for him, pursue their callings, and use their gifts. Ask God to help those in your mission and church have good life balance, have healthy relationships, and regularly read the Bible.

(2) Build confidence by believing in others. When people are confident, they serve more effectively. How can you demonstrate that you believe in others? By acting like they can do it, instead of micromanaging. By asking, “What progress did you make?” instead of asking, “Did you make any progress?” By saying, “You have good ideas,” instead of saying, “Here are my ideas.”

(3) Provoke reflection by asking open-ended questions. Reflection helps people to focus, solve problems, and achieve their goals. If a ministry team is having trouble focusing, ask, “What’s your team purpose? What’s it take to achieve that purpose?” If a Sunday school teacher is struggling with how to cover all the material in 45 minutes, ask, “What do you really want the kids to learn? How can you help them learn that?” If a fellow missionary is proposing new activities, ask, “What’s causing you to propose new activities? To what extent will these activities help you achieve your goals?”

(4) Encourage partnerships by connecting people. I’m grateful that friends have connected me with key people. For example, Valerie connected me with Dan, a school consultant. As a result, we’ve refined our odels for Christian education and developed better training materials. I’ve connected house church leaders, providing them with a venue to talk on a regular basis. As a result, they clarified the pros and cons of house churches and identified ways to empower house church members.

(5) Provide resources to help others grow. I’m glad that colleagues recommended books like Crucial Conversations and An Essential Guide to Public Speaking. These books helped me work more effectively with others and focus on serving. I’ve helped others grow by sharing books like Leadership Coaching, blogs like missionalchallenge.com, and online training from leaderbreakthru.com.

Other ways you can lead without being up in front include modeling servanthood, modeling zeal for God, showing you care, spending time with others, and listening.

What about you?

What is one way you lead when you’re not up in front?
What excites/concerns you about leading when you’re not up in front?
How could you lead more effectively?
What will you do?

Remember: You don’t have to be up in front to lead.

How can you encourage safety?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-11-05T08:51:12+09:00

You’re in a serious conversation with Steve—and he’s not saying much. You’re thinking, “What’s going on? I mean, we both agreed we needed to talk about the status of this project. We’re not going to get anywhere if he doesn’t talk. Why isn’t he saying anything?”

Then you recall times where you didn’t feel like saying much, either because you found a situation stressful or because you didn’t see the point. Like when you were in a recent planning session and Jim kept interrupting you. Or when your supervisor said loudly and without any warning or explanation, “It’d be good for you to stay in the office more.” Or when you were really looking forward to a quiet weekend and your wife planned a big dinner party without asking you.

Why did you go silent? Because you didn’t feel safe—you didn’t feel respected or you didn’t feel like others cared about your goals.

You look back at Steve, and you ask yourself, “What can I do to encourage Steve to feel safe?” You haven’t been rude or said anything wrong, so you don’t need to apologize. You both care about getting this project done, so you don’t need to show you care about the goal. But you did say something that needs clarification. You said, “Your team isn’t on schedule to meet the project deadline,” and then he stopped talking.

Then it hits you—Steve’s team has really been working hard and prides itself on getting things done on time. And the delay was caused by Mark, a supervisor in another department, making incorrect decisions. As a result of your comment, Steve is thinking that you don’t respect his team.

You say, “When I said your team isn’t on schedule to meet the project deadline, I didn’t mean that your team hasn’t been work hard or that it was your team’s fault. I recognize Mark made some decisions that caused delays. I just meant that the project isn’t on schedule. I said that because I wanted to talk with you about how I can help your team as it works to get the project done on time.”

Steve sighs and re-engages in the conversation.

Bottom line: Encourage safety.

What about you?

What is a conversation you’ve had in which you did not feel safe?
How do you behave in a conversation when you feel safe/unsafe?
What helps you feel safe?
How can you help others feel safe?
How could you apply this article in a serious conversation you need to have or are likely to have?

Want to learn more? Read Crucial Conversations, especially chapter 5.

Difficult conversation?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2013-01-07T08:38:14+09:00

Looking for a model to use when having a difficult conversation? Try this one:

Heart (How is your heart?)
Be aware (What do you need to be aware of?)
Encourage safety (How can you encourage safety?)
Share, Ask, Listen, Take (Now what?)

What do you need to be aware of?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-10-04T08:17:22+09:00

What do crossing the street and hitting a tennis ball have in common? They are both situations in which you need to be aware of yourself and others. Let me explain:

(1) Crossing the street: You want to cross the street at an intersection without a stoplight. You pause and look both ways to check for oncoming traffic. You see a single car moving slowly toward you about 3 blocks away, determine that you can safely walk across the street at your usual pace, and proceed. Being aware of yourself and the location of the oncoming car helps you get across the street safely.

(2) Hitting a tennis ball: You’re playing a singles tennis match. It’s the third set, you’re down 4 games to 5, and you need to win this game to stay in the match. Your opponent hits a hard cross-court shot to your forehand and rushes net. As you move to hit the ball, you consider how you will play it. You can go for a passing shot or a lob. You remember that your opponent is a pretty good net player and that earlier in the match you won a point by hitting a deep lob. You hit a deep lob to his backhand corner. Being aware of yourself and your opponent helps you win the point.

Being aware of yourself and others is also helpful when you are having a serious conversation. Imagine you are a math department chair at a high school. You are talking with a teacher about one of her curriculum maps so you can learn about the extent to which she is applying the Understanding by Design framework. You keep in mind that this is the first time the teacher has talked about her maps with someone and that she tends toward perfectionism.

You start slowly, letting the teacher explain her map. Everything seems to be going fine until you ask, “How do your content and skills align with your big ideas?” With an edge in her voice, she replies, “Does everything have to align? Can’t my content and skills just align with my objectives? This is getting to be a hassle.” She stares at you, waiting for a response, and you get uncomfortable.

You think, “Here we go again. She always stonewalls. I’ve talked with her before about aligning content and big ideas—and it’s right on the checklist. All I did was ask a simple question, and she gets snippy, snippy, snippy. Typical. What am I supposed to do now? Maybe I should just let this go. It’d be easier to just move on to another part of the map.”

Then you recognize this is your usual response to conflict and that her defensiveness isn’t aimed at you—it’s just that as a perfectionist, she’s put a lot of effort into this map and has fallen short. You say, “When I asked about the alignment, I wasn’t trying to point out errors. I was trying to learn more about what you are thinking and how I can help. OK?” She replies, “OK,” and you continue your discussion.

Bottom line: In a serious conversation, be aware of yourself and others.

What about you?

What is a serious conversation you have had?
What is comfortable/uncomfortable about serious conversations?
How aware are you of how you behave in a serious conversation?
How aware are you of how others behave in a serious conversation?
How could you apply this article in a serious conversation you need to have or are likely to have?

Want to learn more?
Read Crucial Conversations, especially chapter 4
Take a free self-assessment about your interaction style when you’re under stress

How is your heart?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-08-16T10:23:16+09:00

Each time, I should have asked myself a question. Just one question. But I didn’t. And that resulted in ill will, disharmony, bad stuff. Bummer.

It’s 1987, my wife and I haven’t been getting along all morning, and I hear myself say in a loud voice, “That’s not the logical way to wash the car.” Not one of my better moments—she has washed way more cars than I have, she is more patient and understanding than I am, and here I am pontificating on the logical way to wash the car. My wife replies with understandable vehemence, “There’s a logical way to wash a car?” Before speaking, I should have asked myself a question.

It’s June, the end of the school year. I’m in my office, and I realize I have not yet gotten a curriculum document from a high school teacher. Classes are over for the day, so I head to his classroom. I knock, step in, and see him sitting at his desk, marking papers—report cards are due in a few days. But since I’m not teaching, I don’t pay attention to this. Instead, I ask, “Could I get that curriculum document from you?” (Again, not one of my better moments.) He says, “It’s not yet done.” I reply, “You should have had it done by now,” and leave the room. Before speaking, I should have asked myself a question.

What question? I should have asked myself, “How is my heart?” If I had done so, I would have reflected on what God says and what I really wanted; consequently, I would have handled things better.

If I had asked myself “How is my heart?” I would have remembered that God says the human heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9)—when I thought I was talking with my wife about the logical way to wash the car, what I was really doing was getting back at her for the morning’s disharmony (which in all probability I caused). I would have kept in mind God’s command to love Him with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:37-39)—when I was asking the teacher for the curriculum document in June, I was focused on myself, used bad timing, and took out my frustration on the teacher, instead of being supportive.

And maybe if I’d have asked myself “How is my heart?” I would have focused on what I really wanted:

What I wanted to avoid (ill will and disharmony)
What I wanted to preserve (unity in Christ)
What I wanted to achieve (pursuing my calling by having a good morning with my wife and by supporting the teacher in developing the curriculum)

Instead of asking myself the question to get me reflecting on what God says and what I really wanted, I blew it. Plain and simple.

Bottom line: The next time you’re about to express your frustration (or when you know you’re struggling with how to handle a key conversation), ask yourself, “How’s my heart?”

What about you?

What is a conversation you didn’t handle well?
How did you feel during that conversation?
How was your heart? (How well did you remember what God’s Word says? How clear were you on what you wanted to avoid, preserve, and achieve?)
How could you apply this article in a key conversation you need to have/are likely to have?

Want to learn more?

Study God’s Word: Jeremiah 17:9 (and Matthew 7:1-5), Proverbs 4:23 (and Matthew 12:34), Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 6:33, and James 3:1-12.
Explore using avoid, preserve, and achieve.
Read Crucial Conversations, especially chapters 1-3.

Student reflects on biblical perspective

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-07-13T15:44:29+09:00

Anneke Essenburg, a recent graduate of Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on Biblical perspective assignments and questions.

Here are 8 assignments I have had that helped me to understand and apply a Biblical perspective:

Project: My friend and I wrote a narration mimicking Sophie’s World that explained the Christian ethical system.
Project: As part of a semester presentation, I had to actually live out the biblical principle I used in my presentation in one specific way.
Project: In groups, we created posters that analyzed different worldviews’ perspective of a crime.
Essay: I wrote several papers on different philosophical topics (e.g., souls and free will), explaining and supporting my view.
Essay: I analyzed a piece of media (first a song and then a movie) to discern its worldview.
Discussion: My classmates and I watched short video clips of people reacting to different situations (e.g. an unconscious homeless man and a child bride) and then discussed which ethical system each person acted by.
Debate: My partner and I debated another pair over several topics (e.g., smoking and lying) for two minutes each, being randomly appointed to the pro or con side for each argument.
Presentation: In a group, we presented on an ethical system, including elements such as a short skit enacting that system and a comparison between that system and Christianity.

Here are 7 questions that these assignments pushed me to answer and that all high school students should consider:

What do you believe and why?
How will you live out your beliefs?
What do other people think and why?
Why do people act in certain ways?
If you thought in a different way, how would you act?
How would different perspectives view one event?
What are the similarities and differences between the way I think and other people think?

Teachers, use enduring understandings

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-07-13T07:24:02+09:00

As Christian school teachers, we want to help our students develop a Christian worldview. An effective way to do that is using enduring understandings that help connect the part of God’s world that they study with God’s Word.

Here are 31 sample enduring understandings used in secondary English at Christian Academy in Japan:

A Christian speaker seeks to serve her neighbor/audience.
All truth is God's truth.
An author's personal values and ethical beliefs shape the worldview presented in his/her writing.
An identity rooted in God allows for the flexibility to listen carefully to others.
As God's creatures, we exist within nature in a special role as stewards; a role that is often neglected or distorted.
As image-bearers, we're responsible to seek out and listen to the stories of others so that we can better understand the world we live in, and better understand ourselves.
Because people are in the image of God, we are creative, communicative truth-seekers.
Being made in God's image means that we must learn to communicate to the best of our ability with a variety of audiences.
Belief systems set the precepts from which we live our daily lives and understand the world around us.
Christians must act whenever and wherever human dignity is disregarded.
Comparing motivations and actions of literary characters from different historical eras reveal man's sinful nature.
Creation was designed to function according to God's design and those patterns are still visible despite the fall.
Defects in society are directly related to the defects in human nature.
God created people to exist in shalom: flourishing in right relationship with God, others, creation, and ourselves.
Greed affects everyone, regardless of racial, gender or financial positions.
Humans long for restoration and search for transcendence.
Humans make sense of the world around them through various art forms, including narrative.
Knowing grammar helps us learn other languages, giving me opportunities to restore shalom by increasing understanding of, collaboration with, and responsibility for the neighbors I am to love, regarding both salvation and justice.
Knowledge implies responsibility. (If you know a biblical principle, it should make a difference in how you live.)
Leaders set the pattern for the whole group, leading to sin or to righteousness.
Nature is part of the created order, worth caring for but not worth our worship.
Personal belongings and riches do not bring satisfaction; satisfaction lies in being content with what one has.
Reading and talking about literature helps humanity understand how to restore what is broken in the world.
Romantic love is a good gift from the Creator that has been twisted by the Fall, but can be redeemed through Jesus and restored by his followers.
Seeking God's perspective in the midst of chaos brings cosmos and heals the human tendency to escape or blame God in the midst of chaos.
The same disregard for humanity that allows for slavery also allows for much more common-place problems like gossip & bullying.
Though fallen creatures, we're significant because we bear the image of God.
Truth is not relative; the basis for truth can only come from God and His Word.
Understanding God's nature offers a healing response to the problem of evil and suffering.
We are called to care for and develop culture--Knowing how to engage information is part of this cultural mandate outlined in Gen. 1:26-28 and 2:15-25.
We are fallen and incapable of achieving God's standard of goodness (perfection) on our own. Our instinct itself has been corrupted, and our "natural" drive is to satisfy and serve ourselves.

Question: What’s 1 enduring understanding you can use to help your students connect God’s world and Word?

My revised plan is working!

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-06-21T07:04:00+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on changing her instructional plan.

She isn’t connecting what she studies and what the Bible teaches. Hiroko, a Japanese student from a Christian family, is talking with me about a book she has read.

I ask, “What is the theme of the book?” Hiroko says, “It’s about friendship and how giving your life for someone is the ultimate act of love.” I respond, “What’s a biblical perspective of the book?” And she says, “The book didn’t talk about God, so I don’t think there’s a biblical perspective.” Bummer.

Clearly, my instructional plan hadn’t worked for Hiroko. I had modeled making connections between what we read and the Bible. I had taught a biblical principle for every short story, novel, and play we studied—for example, that people’s desperate search for belonging can only be completely fulfilled in God. I had then required students to articulate each biblical principle and how it connected to the work we studied.

But I hadn’t actually taught them that God created everything with a purpose and for His glory. I hadn’t actually taught them that there is nothing to which God and His Word are irrelevant. Bummer.

My revised plan? To start by teaching a biblical principle about the possibility and necessity of seeing every piece of literature through the lenses of Scripture. And then to teach several broad scriptural themes to which every piece of literature could connect—creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

The result? Book talks are now about the brokenness of the world and about the importance of pursuing biblical justice, reconciliation, faithfulness, and wholeness! And not a single student says, “The book didn’t talk about God, so I don’t think there’s a biblical perspective.” My revised plan is working!

Find ways to more effectively carry out your mission

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-03-03T05:35:39+09:00

School improvement can help you find ways to more effectively carry out your school’s mission:

Start with your mission. Consistently link everything back to how it helps you carry out your mission. Keep everyone talking about your mission—including students! In other words, focus on your mission.
Next, implement your school improvement process. Make your process is centered on your mission (student learning) and is ongoing (meaning, the process gets used every year, not just in reaccreditation years). Make your process collaborative (have people work in groups and use Google Docs/online data). And make sure everyone understands the process—using a visual aid helped us.
Finally, work on your report. For focus group reports, make a list of questions each group can respond to. Use a set of criteria to develop your school improvement plan. Publish your report in a wiki.

Students make connections in essays

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-01-21T15:21:48+09:00

Check out how Kim Essenburg's English 10 students apply a biblical perspective in their essays about Night, a Holocaust memoir:

"Selfishness, pride, and the desire for power are the driving forces for one to ignore, insult, hurt, and kill others. That is why Christians have been called to carry out the only thing that can rise above these troubles and give hope to life: love."
"Within my own life I can see myself disregarding others' importance compared to what I want to accomplish and do. The most clear example for me is when friends ask me for help on homework. Some of the time I find myself thinking that as long as I understand it, it's fine; what a waste of time to teach. In these times I am placing myself and my own convenience over someone else's learning. I am stating that they are not worth my time and effort....In his letter to the Philippians Paul clearly states, 'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves' (New International Version, Phil. 2.3).”

Students make connections in presentations

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-03-02T14:16:24+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, shares about presentations her students gave on human rights, morality, and taking action.

S, T, C, and K gave a presentation on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. When another student asked about their personal application, S said that we can't right now do anything for people in Zimbabwe, but the most important thing is to learn empathy for the people around us. Then we will become people who will someday do something for people across the globe.

M, J, and T gave a presentation on the disregard of women's human dignity. They had started with the introduction to Half the Sky I had available for jigsawing, and each of them researched abuse of women in a given part of the world. They did a great job and were quite informed and passionate.

They had quite a full-orbed biblical perspective, including that the subjugation of women to men was a part of the curse, that the creation story includes the statement that both male and female are equally in God's image, and that the word for helper that women were created to be is also used of God as a help to us—so not necessarily subordinate. They also told their classmates in no uncertain terms that while sexist jokes are funny, in the long run, they communicate that women are inferior and are not appreciated.

Their concrete application, though, was to write "thankful" at the top of their agenda for each day of this past week, to remind themselves to be thankful for all the opportunities they have as females in a developed nation that others don't have. They had a powerful quote about a black man knowing the fear of walking down a dark street in a white neighborhood, and a white man knowing the fear of walking down a dark street in a black neighborhood, but a woman knows the fear of walking down a dark street in any neighborhood, because it is someone else's territory.

C, B, S, and K tackled the tough topic of morality. They ended up saying all humans share a common sense of morality, but we use our frontal and prefrontal cortex to decide to do what we know is right or what will benefit us.

For their personal application they each talked about being metacognitive about that decision-making process in themselves—whether it was S sitting on the train after an exhausting wrestling practice and struggling with whether or not to give up his seat for an old woman who was having problems standing, or C making excuses to himself for why he didn't have to pick up trash he saw on the ground next to the trash can when it was not one of his mornings to be on the job.

A, M, K, and E presented on the topic of taking action—not being a bystander. A had a lovely personal application. She said an old people's home was recently built near her house. Before, she had just complained about the noise of construction and then ignored the new residents when they moved in. But because of this project, she had started saying hi to them when she saw them on the street. And there's one old woman who she always talks to now. M also told about trying to speak up for someone who was being dissed in a group, though she didn't feel terribly effective.

The audience asked questions like, "Does it ever happen that taking action makes things worse?" A asked for clarification, "Do you mean for the person intervening, or for the person being targeted?" Several girls answered about the person intervening that in a fallen world, yes, often it does make things worse. But that shouldn't stop us because it's what God wants us to do.

How can you lead groups more effectively?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-01-12T08:00:05+09:00

Like you, I want to lead groups more effectively. Something that has helped me improve my effectiveness is reflecting with others on questions about leading groups.

Try this—ask yourself the following 5 questions:

What helps a group function effectively?
What’s your role in a given group? (Are you a facilitator/coach, consultant, or presenter?)
How can you promote thoughtful group conversation?
What's the purpose of the conversation? (Do you want the group to explore a topic? Do you need the group to make a decision?)
How can you get everyone involved? (How can you help reticent people contribute? How can you help talkative people make room in the conversation for others?)

Action step: What 2-3 things can you do to more effectively lead groups?

Related resources you might want to explore:

How can we more effectively prepare students to connect God's world and Word?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-12-09T08:43:37+09:00

I'm smiling. I'm reading an introductory paragraph of an essay written by an alum of Christian Academy in Japan (who is now in her senior year of college):

There are over 27 million image bearers of God enslaved today.1 Twenty-seven million men, women, and children whom Jesus died and rose again to save are trapped in an existence in which they are told that they are not human, that they have no worth, that they cannot escape, and that they do not even own themselves. This invisible population is woven into our global economy and touches most of the products we buy—"[h]uman trafficking tears apart the structure of local economies, adds to the bureaucratic and law enforcement burden at all levels of government, and destroys people's lives."2 And because of the complicated nature of supply chains in our world, casual consumption indirectly supports slavery by buying products that were in part made by slave labor. In order to faithfully live out our Christian call to justice in this new global society, it is necessary to carefully evaluate our consumption practices in order to be faithful stewards of our resources in the restoration and bring shalom.

2 questions:

How can we more effectively prepare students to connect God's world and Word?
What can we do to make it possible for students to write essay introductions like this at an earlier age? Say, during their senior year of high school?

Related resources you might want to explore:

----
1 K. Bales. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 8.
2 E. M. Wheaton, E. J. Schauer, and T. V. Galli. "Economics of Human Trafficking." International Migration 48.4 (2010): 114-141, esp. 132.

Develop a Biblical perspective standard (4 of 4)

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-04-11T11:15:00+09:00

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Tom, who teaches 7th grade English, wants to more effectively help his students develop a Christ-centered worldview. He walks down the halls and see his instructional coach.

How are you doing, Tom?
Long day—grading essays. My students are doing better on their thesis statements, which is good, since that’s what we worked on. But I wanted to tell you that our department adopted a Biblical perspective standard!

Students connect God's world (standards 1-9) with God's Word (creation-fall-redemption-restoration).

Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of creation—God’s creational purposes and what creation reveals about God.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of the fall—the impact of sin on God's creation and how we misuse God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of redemption—Jesus' work and its impact on God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of restoration—how we can apply God's Word to restore His broken creation.

That’s great! So, I take it that your presentation to your department about this went well. Good for you.
And good for our students. Having this standard will focus us more on helping our students connect God’s world and Word. I think we’ve started something. A couple of teachers in other departments have talked to me about this. They want to learn more about how and why we developed our Biblical perspective standard.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Questions for discussion:

Do you want your students to connect God’s world and Word?
What can you do to help your students better connect God’s world and Word?
How can you help your colleagues help their students make connections?

Related resources you might want to explore:

This blog entry addresses the following Biblical perspective teacher training benchmarks:

2.2. Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
4.4. Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
4.6. Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.

Ask questions

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-10-03T07:45:52+09:00

Do you want to...

Be a more effective leader?
Help others focus, work smart, and/or pursue excellence?
Help students connect God's world and Word?

If you answered yes to 1 or more of the above questions, keep reading. I have a simple, user-friendly, time-tested tool you can use. When you use this tool, people engage, think, and find ways to take action. What's the tool? It's a question.

Does asking questions work? I think so. Asking questions has helped me lead change, empower others to clarify ministry goals and to get organized, and get students to apply a Biblical perspective.

Would you like to learn more about asking questions? If so, try these resources:

Coaching/Leading

75 Coaching Questions
Ask Open-Ended Questions
Lead by Asking Questions: Article • Self-Assessment • Tutorial
Sets of questions you can use to empower others pursue excellence, reduce frustrations, get organized, target strengths, pay attention to goals, and prioritize.
Using Reflection to Leverage Results

Christian Education

Teacher incorporates creation-fall-redemption-restoration into grammar unit

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-07-27T13:53:17+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher, shares how she plans to incorporate creation-fall-redemption-restoration into her grammar unit.

What’s the focus of your grammar unit?
Kim: The content and skills focus of the unit is identifying the various parts of speech, parts of a sentence, phrases, and clauses. One of the unit’s essential questions I use to give a reason for learning the content and skills is “How does knowing grammar help me learn other languages?”

What led you to incorporate creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
Kim: One of my English periods is first period. We have an extra 5 minutes at the beginning of the period to allow for attendance and devotions. I do a 2 or 3 minute devotional every day that connects somehow to what we are studying.

As I came up with Bible passages that had to do with languages, I found that what was new and intriguing to my students was contrasting the 2 stories of Babel and Pentecost. At Babel, God made people unable to understand each other to separate them in order to prevent greater rebellion. At Pentecost, God made people able to understand each other to bring them together in order to hear His solution to separation and rebellion.

I thought, “That sounds like the core of a creation-fall-redemption-restoration pattern.” I also thought that I’d like to articulate that pattern clearly and concisely enough to be able to teach it in the other sections of my class that didn’t have the extra minutes at the beginning of the period.

What do you want your students to learn?
Kim: I want them to learn God’s purpose for languages, how sin impacted languages, the difference Jesus makes, and how we can use different languages to help restore God’s broken world.

Here are the specifics:

Creation: At creation, language was used to build shalom...

Between people and God: God used language to bless people and give them a job (Gen. 1.28-30), to give guidance (Gen. 2.16-17), and to supply people’s needs (Gen. 2.18)
Between people and other people: Adam used language to greet Eve (Gen. 2.23).
Between people and creation: Adam used language to carry out his God-given job of naming the animals (Gen. 2.19-30).

Fall: At the fall (Gen. 3), language was used to break shalom...

Between people and God: Satan used language to twist God’s words (Gen. 3.1), contradict God’s words (Gen. 3.4), and question God’s good intent (Gen. 3.5). Eve used language to exaggerate God’s words (Gen. 3.3). Adam used language to equivocate and to blame God (Gen. 3.12). God used language to curse people and to make the job He had given them difficult (Gen. 3.16-19)
Between people and other people: Adam used it to shift blame to Eve (Gen. 3.12). Eventually, at Babel, God put a cap on united rebellion by creating language barriers and thus separating people (Gen. 11.1-9).

Redemption: Jesus died to redeem us from the alienating force of which the diversity of languages is a sign. The Holy Spirit miraculously demonstrated this at Pentecost in order to proclaim Jesus’ redemptive work (Acts 2.5-12) and in the early church in order to demonstrate the unity that Jesus’ redemptive work makes possible (Acts 10.46 and 11.15-18, Acts 19.5-6, 1 Cor. 12.4-31).

Restoration: God’s ultimate plan is to restore shalom. Overcoming language barriers is both a sign of and a tool for doing this.

Both Old and New Testaments picture God’s ultimate plan for people of many different languages to worship him together (Zeph. 3.9, Rev. 5.9, 7.9).
To join with God in bringing this plan into being, Christians are to go to people of all languages to proclaim the redemption from isolation from God and each other made possible by Jesus (Matt.28.19-20, Mark 16.15, Acts 1.8, Romans 14.11-12).
In the meantime, God also wants people to use gifts of different languages to serve Him and others, as many Bible characters did, including Joseph (Gen. 39-41), Moses (Acts 7.22), and Daniel (Dan.1.3-4).

This blog entry addresses the following Biblical perspective teacher training benchmarks:

2.2. Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
4.5. Articulate a Biblical perspective of the content and skills they teach.

Develop a Biblical perspective standard (part 3 of 4)

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-08-15T10:05:31+09:00

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 4

Tom, who teaches 7th grade English, wants to more effectively help his students develop a Christ-centered worldview. He schedules a coaching session every 2 weeks to help himself make progress.

Tom, good to see you again!
Good to see you, too. Sorry I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago. Glad my flu wasn’t too bad—I only missed 2 days of school.

How’s it going?
I’m still focusing on helping my students better connect God’s world and Word. Last time we talked, I said I’d teach my students a Biblical principle related to creation and to speaking. I taught them that we should use speech to love God and our neighbors. We discussed the principle, including how we can use presentations to serve those around us. Went pretty well.

I also talked with Mark and Judy. I shared how I used the Biblical perspective standard to crosscheck my 4 Biblical principles and what I learned from doing that.

Students connect God's world (standards 1-9) with God's Word (creation-fall-redemption-restoration).

Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of creation—God’s creational purposes and what creation reveals about God.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of the fall—the impact of sin on God's creation and how we misuse God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of redemption—Jesus' work and its impact on God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of restoration—how we can apply God's Word to restore His broken creation.

They responded by asking for help in crosschecking their principles. Mark had principles that addressed creation and the fall, while Judy had principles that addressed the fall and restoration. Like me, neither of them had principles for redemption and neither of them had principles that addressed the majority of the standards. We all agreed that having the Biblical perspective standard was helpful, and we talked a little about next steps.

Like what?
Like how to move the discussion to the department level. That’s what I want to think about today. We think it would be good to get our department to consider adopting the Biblical perspective standard. Before doing so, I want to think about how we can do that effectively.

OK. What would help you do a good job of getting your department to consider adopting the standard?
Well, the process I used with Judy and Mark seemed to work well—talking about how to help kids better connect God’s world and Word, then having them use the standard to crosscheck their Biblical principles.

Sounds good. What else?
I probably need to be prepared to answer some of their questions.

What questions do you think they’ll ask?
Maybe why we’re proposing this. I know of at least one person who’s concerned about turning off kids by pushing creation-fall-redemption-restoration too much.

What else?
Well, how much work this is going to involve. I probably should think about my responses to those questions.

Would you like to do that now?
Yes. Could you ask me those questions so I can think through my responses?

OK—why, turning kids off, and amount of work, right?
Right.

So, why make this proposal?
We need to treat connecting God’s world and Word like we treat the other parts of the curriculum—by having a standard for it.

Won’t pushing creation-fall-redemption-restoration too much turn kids off?
It might. But using this standard won’t necessarily result in overkill. We’re not suggesting that we talk about creation-fall-redemption-restoration every time we teach a Biblical principle.

How much work is this going to be?
We’re not sure. But we think it’s worth it for the kids. Doing this will help us help them develop a Christ-centered worldview.

How do you feel about your responses?
Pretty good. Before our next session, I’ll talk with Mark and Judy about how we can do a good job of getting our department to consider adopting the Biblical perspective standard. Once we settle on an approach, I’ll ask them about scheduling a date to present this to our department.

Highlights or insights?
When I take action, things happen. When I work on helping my students, they make better connections That’s encouraging, and it’s scary—it means when I don’t work at helping my students, they don’t make better connections.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 4

Questions for discussion:

How could you get your department to consider adopting the Biblical perspective standard?
What questions do you think department members might ask? How would you respond
What’s next?

Related resources you might want to explore:

This blog entry addresses the following Biblical perspective teacher training benchmarks:

2.2. Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
4.4. Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
4.6. Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.

Develop a Biblical perspective standard (part 2 of 4)

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-08-15T09:53:07+09:00

Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4

Tom, who teaches 7th grade English, wants to more effectively equip his students to impact the world for Christ. To move forward, he schedules a coaching session every 2 weeks on Tuesday afternoon.

How are you, Tom?
I’m doing OK. My students wrote good essays on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. A lot of them addressed the question “What’s wrong?” And I’m excited about the progress I made on my 2 action steps.

Good!
Since our last session a couple of weeks ago, I talked with Judy and Mark. It was kind of exciting to talk with them about helping kids connect God’s world and Word. I got an idea from Judy—when teaching a Biblical principle, start by having kids get into small groups to read and discuss at least 3 supporting Bible verses. Then state the Biblical principle and have them discuss the connections between the verses and the principle.

I also got an idea from Mark—have my students ask all 4 of my bulletin board questions when discussing something, not just 1 or 2 of them. Using 4 of them at once will help them get the creation-fall-redemption-restoration framework.

Both Judy and Mark were excited about the idea of developing a Biblical perspective standard. Excited enough to schedule a lunch meeting so we could continue the discussion. Things just seemed to come together. Before I could suggest it, Judy said we should try using the creation-fall-redemption-restoration framework. Mark liked that idea, and we generated an initial draft on a napkin! I agreed to type it up on a Google Doc, and we all agreed to get feedback from at least one other person and use the feedback to make revisions. We actually made quite a few revisions. I’m really excited about the progress we made!

We wrote it so that it connected our standards with the Biblical perspective standard. Here’s what it looks like:

Students connect God's world (standards 1-9) with God's Word (creation-fall-redemption-restoration).

Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of creation—God’s creational purposes and what creation reveals about God.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of the fall—the impact of sin on God's creation and how we misuse God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of redemption—Jesus' work and its impact on God's creation.
Students connect God’s world (standards 1-9) with God’s Word in terms of restoration—how we can apply God's Word to restore His broken creation.

You really made a lot of progress. How can you leverage your progress?
I want to use the ideas I got from Judy and Mark. But I want to think about those at a later date because I want to build on the momentum we have for a Biblical perspective standard. And I want to see how a standard could help me know what, if anything, I need to do to more effectively help my students make connections.

For example, I could check which parts of creation-fall-redemption-restoration my Biblical principles address. And I could check which standards my Biblical principles address. That might help me know if I’m missing something. I teach 4 Biblical principles—you can see them on the bulletin board over there.

What would you like to think about now?
I think I’d like to go ahead and check my principles against creation-fall-redemption-restoration and against the other English standards.

OK. Which parts of creation-fall-redemption-restoration do your 4 Biblical principles address?
Let me see. The fall has 2 principles, and restoration has 2 principles.

Implications?
I’m addressing the fall and restoration. I’m not addressing creation and redemption.

Which standards do your 4 Biblical principles address?
Let me pull up my standards online. Just give me a second. OK.

There are 9 English standards—3 for reading, 2 for writing, 1 for listening, 1 for speaking, 1 for research, and 1 for media analysis. Looks like my principles address standards 1 and 2 on reading and standard 5 on writing.

Implications?
My Biblical principles address standards 1, 2, and 5. They don’t address standards 3, 4, and 6-9. They don’t address listening, speaking, research, and media analysis.

So, to what extent does your Biblical perspective standard help you know how you’re doing?
It provides me with helpful information. Looks like I need to add Biblical principles that address redemption, restoration, listening, speaking, research, and media analysis—you know, standards 3, 4, and 6-9.

To be honest, I’m not sure I wanted that much helpful information. And on the other hand, the standard does give me a way to measure if I’ve done a good job.

What’s next?
I’ll commit to adding 1 Biblical principle that addresses creation or redemption and that addresses something related to listening or speaking.

Can you make that more specific?
That’s a good idea. In the next unit, my students will be giving a presentation. I’ll commit to adding a Biblical principle that addresses speaking and that addresses creation in terms of God’s purposes for speaking.

What else would you like to commit to?
I’ll commit to talking with Judy and Mark about how I used the Biblical perspective standard to crosscheck the 4 Biblical principles I teach. Maybe they’ll want to give it a try.

Highlights or insights for today?
Another blinding flash of the obvious—having a Biblical perspective standard actually does help me know how I’m doing and what I need to do.

Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4

Questions for discussion:

In one of your classes, what Biblical principles do you teach your students?
What’s satisfying about teaching those principles? What’s unsatisfying?
Which parts of creation-fall-redemption-restoration do your Biblical principles address? Implications?
Which standards do your Biblical principles address? Implications?
To what extent does your Biblical perspective standard help you know how you’re doing?
What’s next?

Related resources you might want to explore:

This blog entry addresses the following Biblical perspective teacher training benchmarks:

2.2. Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
4.4. Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
4.6. Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.

More talking = more improvement

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-07-11T15:54:00+09:00

It’s July 2000. I’m in London, taking a leadership course from the Principals’ Training Center. And the instructor gets us into small groups, tells us to set up the game, and explains that the goal of the game is to get our game piece across the board by achieving organizational improvement.

Then she tells us to start. The atmosphere is electrically competitive. My group implements policies and moves our piece! We implement procedures and systems and move our piece! We are moving across the board and feeling good! Until we see how far across the neighboring teams are. Many are already 50-75% across the board, while we are a measly 30% at best.

So we focus even more on implementing policies, procedures, and systems, believing that this will propel us across the board toward successful organizational improvement. We move our piece 2 more spaces, and a team announces, “Done!”

I’m stunned: “Done? How could they be done? We did what you need to do to achieve organizational improvement—we implemented policies, procedures, and systems. Why didn’t it work? What did they do?”

During the debriefing, I learn what the winning group did. They didn’t start by implementing policies. They didn’t start by implementing procedures or systems. They started by talking—and they continued talking in order to move their piece across the board toward organizational improvement. I just don’t get it. In my heart, I suspect that the makers of the game, and perhaps the instructor, are mistaken….

But in the ensuing years, I found out how mistaken I was and how right they were. In my organization I saw improvement initiatives founded on policies and systems flounder; I saw improvement initiatives founded on talking flourish.

It’s now July 2011. I’ve (finally) learned my lesson: more talking = more improvement. When all staff members—not just the leadership—talk together about organizational improvement, the organization improves. When all staff don’t talk about organizational improvement, the organization doesn’t improve as much.

(I’m not saying that there is no place for policies, procedures, and systems when working to achieve organizational improvement. What I’m saying is that these should not be the primary strategy—talking should be. Without talking—without dynamic conversation—policies, procedures, and systems lead to temporary improvement, not the lasting improvement your organization needs to carry out its God-given mission. And remember, God uses talking—He talked creation into being and talked with His disciples, who then talked with others about the Gospel.)

You might be thinking, “How do I get people talking? Talking sounds good, but I’m not sure how it would work in my organization. Getting people talking about organizational improvement sounds difficult, and I’ve already got enough going. Just how do I get people talking?”

Good question. I know a way to get people talking. It’s easy. It’s effective and time-tested. And those you’re trying to get talking will like it. What it is? It’s asking questions.

If you want to get people talking, ask questions. Ask open-ended questions like:

Regarding this improvement initiative, what progress are you seeing?
What excites you about this improvement initiative? What concerns you?
What helps us improve? What hinders us?
What can we do to move this improvement initiative forward?

If you want to get people talking, get them to ask each other open-ended questions. At a meeting, pass out the following set of questions for staff to ask each other. Give them 15-30 minutes:

What improvement initiative do you want to talk about?
What progress have you experienced? What’s been satisfying?
What roadblocks have you experienced? What’s been frustrating?
To leverage your progress and minimize your roadblocks, what do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
What do you think you’ll do?

Bottom line: If you want increased organizational improvement, ask questions to get people talking about organizational improvement.

Here are related resources:

Develop a Biblical perspective standard (part 1 of 4)

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-08-15T08:44:27+09:00

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Tom, who teaches 7th grade English, wants to more effectively equip his students to impact the world for Christ. To do this, Tom knows he needs to do some careful thinking. So, he schedules a coaching session every 2 weeks on Tuesdays at 4:00pm.

Hi, Tom. How’d your classes go today?
Pretty well. We discussed the ending of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. My students were really into it, especially in 4th period. And at the end of 6th period, Kento asked for help on his writing—a real breakthrough. He’s new this year. He hasn’t been happy, and he hasn’t taken me up on my offers to help. I told Kento I’d talk with him tomorrow before school!

Sounds like you had a good day. It’s been 2 weeks since we talked last. How about sharing progress you made on your action steps?
OK. My goal is to help my students better connect God’s world and Word. My first action step was to make a bulletin board featuring 4 questions I want my students to think about—What’s God’s purpose? What’s wrong? What difference does Jesus make? How can you join God in restoring His broken creation? I made the bulletin board. I used school colors—blue and gold. I used large lettering so it’s easy to read the questions from any part of the room.

My second action step was to ask my students my 4 questions at least once. Well, seeing the 4 questions on the bulletin board reminded me to ask my students those questions—which I did twice as we discussed Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Glad you made progress. It must have felt good to see your students responding to your questions. What do you want to accomplish as a result of our conversation today?
Well, based on the training I got on teaching from a Biblical perspective, I think I’m doing what I know how to do to help my students make better connections. I’d like to do more, so today I want to find another way to more effectively help my students connect God’s world and Word.

OK. How are you currently helping your students connect God’s world and Word?
I’m teaching my students Biblical principles and helping them connect those principles to the part of God’s world they study—language, literature, stuff like that. I’m giving my students assessments that require them to connect God’s world and Word. And to prepare my students for those assessments, I’m asking questions—like the ones on my bulletin board—and meeting student learning needs.

How do you feel about the student learning results you’re getting?
Actually, I’m feeling good about the learning results—kids are making connections in discussions, journal entries, and essays. The connections they’re making are for the most part heartfelt—not fake or shallow or because I assigned it. I’m looking forward to reading their essays on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. In the essay, they have to apply 2 Biblical principles we studied and answer 1 or more of the questions on the bulletin board.

Seems like you’re doing quite a bit and you’re feeling good about your learning results. What’s causing you to want to find more ways to help your students connect God’s world and Word?
I do feel pretty good about what I’m doing and about the learning results. But then I get these thoughts in the back of my mind: Maybe they should be learning more Biblical principles. Maybe I should be giving a Biblical perspective assessment in every unit. Maybe I should do more.

How do I measure if I’ve done a good job?

That’s a good question. How do you usually measure if you’ve done a good job?
I make sure I’ve taught and assessed the appropriate learning targets. We’re using curriculum mapping software, so that’s easy to check. I also look at learning results.

How do your usual ways of measuring compare with how you’re measuring connecting God’s world and Word?
I’m looking at learning results, but I can’t check on the learning targets. We don’t have a standard and learning targets on students connecting God’s world and Word. Hard to believe I missed that. I mean, we have standards and learning targets for other parts of the curriculum, so why not this part?

So, what can you do to help your students connect God’s world and Word?
I could talk with other English teachers to see what they think about how to better help students connect God’s world and Word. And when we’re talking, I could see what they think about developing a Biblical perspective standard. To develop a standard, I think we’d need to settle on a framework.

What do you mean by “framework”?
A way to frame the standard. For example, I could use worldview categories—God, people, morality, death, and history. I could use a basic set of Biblical principles like loving God/neighbor, caring for creation, making disciples, and being part of the Church. I guess I could also use the 10 Commandments or the Beatitudes.

But come to think of it, the framework I’ve been using most often is creation-fall-redemption-restoration. So have my colleagues. We got that training last year, and I think our department statement is based on that. My bulletin board questions fit creation-fall-redemption-restoration, and I saw a 9th grader give a good presentation at a PTA meeting in which she connected creation-fall-redemption-restoration to plants.

OK. What else can you do regarding developing a Biblical perspective standard?
The only other thing that comes to mind is actually developing a draft of a standard and learning targets.

What will you do?
I think I’ll talk with 2 other teachers (probably Judy and Mark) to get ideas about how I can help my students make connections. And I’ll see what they think of developing a Biblical perspective standard. Given my schedule, I don’t think I want to commit to developing a draft of a standard.

Sounds good. Highlights or insights for today?
I kind of had a blinding flash of the obvious—to develop a Biblical perspective standard. I can’t understand why I didn’t think of it before. Having a standard will help me measure my efforts.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Questions for discussion:

How are you currently helping your students connect God’s world and Word?
How do you feel about the student learning results you’re getting?
What excites/concerns you about developing a Biblical perspective standard?
If you were to develop a Biblical perspective standard, what framework would you use?
What’s next?

Related resources you might want to explore:

This blog entry addresses the following Biblical perspective teacher training benchmarks:

2.2. Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
4.3. Develop, document, and explain a Biblical perspective of their academic discipline(s).
4.4. Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
4.5. Articulate a Biblical perspective of the content and skills they teach.
4.6. Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.

People grow as they take responsibility

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-05-17T08:15:00+09:00

I grow when I take responsibility. I grow when I take responsibility to define, commit to, and achieve my goals. Defining my goals helps me understand how I can more effectively pursue God’s calling. Committing to my goals helps me know what to focus on and what not to focus on. And working to achieve my goals results in things like a growing spiritual life and better life balance.

How about you? How does taking responsibility affect your growth? And how does taking responsibility to define, commit to, and achieve goals affect the growth of the leaders you’re developing?

Want to help others grow by empowering them to take responsibility? If so, do these 4 things: (1) To empower others, listen to them. Help them take responsibility by listening to them, instead of talking. Listen a minimum of 80% of the time. Listen in order to help them talk through what their goals are. And when you listen, be sure you look interested and sound interested.

(2) To empower others, inquire about their goals. Help them take responsibility by asking questions, instead of suggesting goals. Ask questions like: What are your goals? How can you pursue God’s calling even more? Where are you and where do you want to go? What can you do to move forward on your goals? What will you do?

(3) To empower others, focus them on their goals. Help them take responsibility by encouraging them to identify their goals. You can do this by inviting them to take 5-10 minutes to list their goals for areas like spiritual life, relationships, leadership, work, and life balance. After they have identified their goals, invite them to select a goal and identify the action steps they can take to achieve that goal. Encourage them to make their action steps SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound.

(4) To empower others, encourage them to achieve their goals. Help them take responsibility by encouraging them to talk about progress on their goals. It’s easy to do—when you see a leader, say, “Tell me about the progress you’ve made on your goals.” And when they achieve their goals, encourage them to celebrate!

Remember, people grow as they take responsibility.

Reflect on responsibility:

What is one way you encourage leaders to take responsibility?
What is satisfying/unsatisfying about getting leaders to take responsibility?
How does taking responsibility affect the growth of leaders?
What can you do to help leaders increasingly take responsibility?
What will you do to help leaders increasingly take responsibility?

Growing is more about motivation than information

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-02-16T08:12:43+09:00

In my experience, people grow as they take action to achieve their goals. And in my experience, taking action is more about being motivated than about having information. When I’m motivated, I take action and grow. When I’m not motivated (even if I have good information), I don’t take action and don’t grow.

For example, I wanted to get in shape. I had information about a variety of exercise programs, including weight lifting, biking, walking, and jogging. I had information that weight lifting would be good for my upper body and that biking would be easy on my knees. But I wasn’t motivated to lift weights or bike. I was motivated to walk and jog. And now I’m walking and jogging. I am getting in shape—even though according to the information, walking/jogging might not be the optimal exercise program for me.

How about you? What happens when you’re motivated and unmotivated? And what happens when the leaders you’re developing are motivated and unmotivated? My guess is that both you and the leaders you’re developing grow more when motivated.

Want to grow by targeting what motivates you? Get a coach. Your coach will focus you on what motivates you and encourage you to take action on what you’re motivated to do.

Want to help others grow by targeting what motivates them? If so, here are 4 things you can do: (1) Listen to others. Really listen. When people feel listened to, they share. And as they share, they clarify their motivations. (2) Ask questions to provoke reflection. When people reflect, they identify what motivates them. Ask questions like “What 3 dreams do you want to make real?” (3) Focus others on what motivates them and on turning their motivations into actionable goals. (4) Encourage others to talk about their interests and dreams. As they talk, say things like, “Tell me more.”

Remember, growing is more about motivation than information.

Reflect on motivation:

What was one time when you were motivated/unmotivated?
What is satisfying/unsatisfying about focusing on what motivates a leader you want to help grow?
How does motivation affect a leader’s development?
What helps you target motivation? What hinders you?
What will you do to target motivation?

Believe in others to empower them to grow

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-11-11T08:10:00+09:00

You and I both want to grow. We want to grow so we can pursue God’s calling even more. So, we target growth areas like leadership, spiritual disciplines, conflict management, life balance, and Japanese language proficiency.

You and I both know that people who believe in us empower us to grow. I’ve experienced it in my own life. You have, too. When people believe in me, I can do more. I remember talking with my regional director about a workshop. He invited me to lead workshop sessions about focusing on the mission’s purpose and on asking open-ended questions. I felt hesitant. So, I asked some questions. He responded, “Do what you want. I trust you. You’ll know what to do.” I was energized to develop and deliver quality workshops.

I’ve also experienced that believing in others empowers them to grow. For example, I was working with a missionary who was serving in a new ministry, one that really stretched him. I was listening as he reflected on the past 9 months. And then he said, “One of the biggest things you did for me was believe in me. You thought I could do it. That gave me confidence to accomplish new things.”

As a result of these and other experiences, I’ve become increasingly convinced that believing in others helps them grow. I now work to interact with others in ways that show I believe in them. For example, I target helping others become better problem solvers (instead of targeting solving their problems). I also strive to listen (instead of talking), ask questions (instead of advising), focus on drawing out (instead of on putting in), and encourage (instead of critiquing)—remember, Barnabas encouraged Paul.

Empower God’s people to pursue their calling. Believe in someone. Today.

Reflect on believing in others:

Who is someone who believed in you? What was the impact of being believed in?
Who is someone who didn’t believe in you? How did he/she communicate this?
What excites/concerns you about believing in others?
How does believing in others empower them to pursue God’s calling?
How could you show that you believe in others?
How will you show that you believe in others?

God is growing His people

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2012-09-13T08:07:00+09:00

Imagine you’re sitting at a coffee shop. Across the table from you is a Christian leader you want to help grow. As you sip your coffee, you both share about your families and ministries. You notice that he seems a little anxious, so you ask, “How’s it going? Really?” He pauses, looks at you, and says that he’s discouraged and wondering if he should continue his ministry.

And now you start to feel a little anxious. Questions race through your mind: What should I say? How should I say it? What advice should I give? How can I help?

My advice? Remember three things. First, remember that God is growing His people, and the Holy Spirit is at work in each believer. God is already at work in the life of this leader. To help him grow, God saved him, gave him key relationships, blessed him with abilities and character qualities, and provided him with education and useful ministry experiences.

Second, remember that while God may use you to help this leader grow, it’s God who is actually growing this leader. God can do it!

And third, remember that because God is at work in this leader (Romans 8:28-29), you’re free. You’re free not to give suggestions or advice to him. And you’re free to invite him to listen to the Holy Spirit, to inquire about how God is working in his life and what the Holy Spirit is saying to him, to focus him on what the Holy Spirit wants him to do, and to encourage him to consider his goals in light of God’s Word and leading.

So, how should you respond to this leader who is discouraged about his ministry and wondering if he should continue? How about asking questions? You could ask: How’s your relationship with God? What’s the Holy Spirit been saying to you? What might God be teaching you? How might God be using this to help you grow?

Remember, God is growing His people, and the Holy Spirit is at work in each believer.

Reflect on the Holy Spirit’s work:

How is God growing you? How is the Holy Spirit working in your heart?
How do you feel about the Holy Spirit working in the lives of leaders you work with?
What happens when Christian leaders focus on what the Holy Spirit is saying to them?
To help Christian leaders focus on what the Holy Spirit is saying to them, what do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
How will you demonstrate that you believe the Holy Spirit is at work in each believer?

Reflect on the big picture

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-06-08T15:58:52+09:00

Part of being a Christian educator is reflecting on the big picture. Here are 3 questions I invite you to consider:

(1) What do you want your students to learn? I want students to achieve our school’s learning outcomes. Here are videos of our seniors giving presentations in which they demonstrate our school’s learning outcomes, in part by applying a Biblical perspective to media, violence, journalism, and tobacco.

(2) How do you help your students apply a Biblical perspective? Ways I’ve helped students is by targeting Biblical perspective, giving Biblical perspective assessments, asking questions, and meeting student learning needs. Want to learn more?

Read about how teachers are helping students apply a Biblical perspective: Science 5, Social Studies 6, Science 8. and English 10.
Watch videos about a curriculum framework and a Biblical framework you can use to help your students apply a Biblical perspective.
Take a tutorial.

(3) How do you foster students understanding of God’s world and Word? I’m excited about using the Understanding by Design framework to foster student understanding of God’s world and Word. Here’s what an English teacher and a math/science teacher think about using Understanding by Design.

English teacher reflects on using Understanding by Design

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-06-08T08:10:42+09:00

At Christian Academy in Japan, we’re excited about using the Understanding by Design framework to foster student understanding of God’s world and Word. Kim Essenburg, high school English teacher, reflects on using Understanding by Design:

Through their study of English, I want my students to understand that God created a good world so that we could enjoy it and participate in developing its potential. I want my students to understand that in this fallen world, God calls us to join Him in working to restore peace and justice. Language helps us all understand God’s truth and communicate it to others. Understanding by Design has helped me focus more effectively on helping students actually attain those goals.

In English 10, my students hone their thinking, writing, reading, and presenting skills as they grapple with world literature. I want them to connect this content with enduring understandings based on biblical principles they learn, for example:

Human search for belonging is ultimately fulfilled in God (Ps. 90.1; Phil. 3.20; Heb. 11.8-10, 13-16). —short story unit
God calls us to join Him in His work of restoration (Mic. 6.8, Isa. 1.17, Jer. 22.16, Hos. 6.6 and note, Matt. 23.23). —Cry, the Beloved Country unit

It is exciting to see students make real connections between the content we study and the Bible. Here’s an example of what I mean, taken from an essay on Camus’s short story “The Guest”:

“In contrast to what Camus and Daru experienced, there is inherent meaning and moral guidelines in life given by God—a conclusion based on a Biblical principle. Truth, which is God’s teaching, is apparent everywhere…(New International Version, Romans 1.20). In fact, the truth of the only God is accessible…(Acts 17.20). We must learn what God’s truth is and apply it to our lives because as Daru understood, human wisdom is faulty…. Humans must establish God’s truth as their anchor and base their decisions on his truth, which may not yield the obviously ‘good’ consequences in this life, but are right because they are part of God’s perfect will.”

Articulating enduring understandings ensures that I’m focusing on what I really want students to know. Asking essential questions helps me engage the students with the enduring understanding. And as I use backward planning, I design the assessment and teach the content and skills that I know will enable students to perform well.

Math/science teacher reflects on using Understanding by Design

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-06-08T09:10:08+09:00

At Christian Academy in Japan, we’re excited about using the Understanding by Design framework to foster student understanding of God’s world and Word. David Marshall, high school math/science teacher, reflects on using Understanding by Design:

I am a more enthusiastic teacher than I used to be. Mathematics and science are courses traditionally loaded with content and light on connection to anything. I have been increasingly dissatisfied with this. Understanding by Design has given me the tools I need to turn this situation around.

The six facets of understanding have helped me to see what I really want my mathematics and science students to "get" by the time they leave my class. I especially like the facet that looks for how the students gauge the relevance of what they are learning to the world in which they live.

Focusing on enduring understandings has helped to weed out some content that has been there just because it is in the textbook. I now deal with what is really important and do not get tripped by extraneous detail. For example, our geometry course has often dealt with some obscure properties of quadrilaterals. They are interesting to mathematicians, but not necessary in a 9th grade course. Once we understood that measurements with quadrilaterals were more important, we only did that material. This left us time to deal with proportions and trigonometry in more depth, something we knew was important but had consistently not managed to reach in one year.

Mathematics and science do not have great track records with Biblical connection either. Adding an enduring understanding about, for example, how the extreme order of the periodic table supports the existence of a Creator and Designer of the universe, makes me address this and similar issues. The students then have a real connection to what they learn in Bible.

The whole Understanding by Design process has also helped my partner teacher and me plan effectively together. We have common goals, we have common assessments, and we have 47 students who are much more engaged in science classes than I have seen for a long time! We are hopeful that some of them will take their interest in science, combine it with a solid Christian worldview and impact the world of science for Jesus.

How can peer coaching help your students apply a Biblical perspective?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-04-15T21:01:00+09:00

You just finished your peer coaching session. During your peer coaching session, your peer coach helped you to focus and work smart by asking questions, questions that provoked you to think. You really appreciate that your coach asks you questions, instead of giving advice—because getting asked questions really gets you thinking and helps you take responsibility to achieve your goals.

You think that using peer coaching with your students might help. And you’re thinking, “How could peer coaching help my students apply a Biblical perspective?”

To find out, explore the following list of 5 questions:

How can peer coaching help your students use relevant Biblical principles?
How can peer coaching help your students use relevant Bible verses?
How can peer coaching help your students include Biblical perspective in their thesis statements?
How can peer coaching help your students apply a Biblical perspective throughout their essays?
How can peer coaching help your students apply a Biblical perspective to issues?

Remember: The real question isn't "How could peer coaching help your students apply a Biblical perspective?" The real question is "How will you use peer coaching to help your students apply a Biblical perspective?"

Help your students apply a Biblical perspective. Use peer coaching. Today.

*To learn more about coaching, click here.

How focused are you on your God-given mission?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-04-15T21:04:00+09:00

How focused are you on your God-given mission? To find out, take the following self-assessment (download). Rate each item in terms of how it describes you and your situation. Use the following scale:

4: Definitely • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ I’m comfortable reciting the mission verbatim in casual conversation.
___ Each day I talk with others about the mission.
___ I tell stories about the mission being implemented.
___ I provide opportunities for others to tell stories about the mission being implemented.

___ I know what it takes to achieve the mission.
___ I can readily explain how each of my daily activities contributes to achieving the mission.
___ I help others understand how they contribute to achieving the mission.

___ I know the current level of mission achievement.
___ I measure the achievement of my mission.
___ I use a scorecard to to measure the achievement of my mission?
___ I use meetings to celebrate progress on achieving the mission.

___ I focus on closing the gap between current and targeted levels of mission achievement.
___ I get the training I need to carry out the mission.
___ I provide others with the training they need to carry out the mission.
___ When making proposals, I explain how the proposal targets mission achievement.
___ When others make proposals, I ask, “How will this help us achieve the mission?”

___ To increase my focus on my mission, I know what I need to keep doing, start doing, stop doing.
___ I’m focused on achieving the mission.

Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about the data?
What helps me increase my focus on my God-given mission?
What hinders me?
What will I do?

Increase your focus on your God-given mission. Today.

Resources:

Video
Tutorial: To learn more about achieving your mission, explore these 4 questions
Know where you are and where you want to go
Want to achieve your goals?

To learn more about enhancing organizational improvement, explore these 6 questions

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-05-17T22:26:00+09:00

You want to close the gap. You know that enhancing your organization’s improvement system can help. So, you want to learn more.

Question: How can you learn more enhancing organizational improvement?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 6 questions.

How well does your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?
How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?
What drives your organization’s improvement?
To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?
To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?

*To learn more, take this self-assessment.

To enhance your organization's improvement system, take this self-assessment

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-05-17T22:28:00+09:00

You want improve your organization’s improvement system. You want to target things like stakeholder involvement, staff focus, and staff accountability. And you want to start by analyzing what’s currently going on.

Question: What can you do?

Answer: You can take the following self-assessment (customized for a school). Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

Stakeholder involvement
___ Students support the improvement plans.
___ Parents support the improvement plans.
___ Staff support the improvement plans.
___ Leaders support the improvement plans.

___ Students are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Parents are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Staff are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Leaders are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Stakeholders support and are involved in implementing the improvement plans.

Staff focus
___ Staff talk about organizational improvement.
___ Staff make proposals regarding organizational improvement.
___ Staff work on organizational improvement.
___ Staff hold each other accountable for organizational improvement.
___ Staff are disappointed when improvement goals are not reached.
___ Staff focus on organizational improvement.

Mission-driven improvement
___ Our improvement plans are documented.
___ Our improvement plans target mission achievement.
___ Our improvement plans drive organizational improvement.
___ Our organization’s improvement is driven by documented plans that target mission achievement.

Improvement plans guide work
___ Staff understand the improvement plans.
___ Staff know which improvement plans they are to implement.
___ Staff can explain their role in a given improvement plan.
___ Staff implement the improvement plans.
___ Improvement plans guide staff work.

Staff accountability
___ Leaders hold staff accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold each other accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold themselves accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff are held accountable to implement the improvement plans.

Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
In terms of enhancing organizational improvement, how would I prioritize the 5 areas?
What might happen if I addressed the top priority area?
What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Enhance your organization’s improvement system. Today.

What 3 things can you do to help your students?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T16:02:00+09:00

To help your students increase their understanding and use of a Biblical perspective of course content, answer 3 of the following questions:

What 3 behaviors will you model?
What 3 questions will you train students to ask?
What 3 questions will you ask students?
What 3 Bible verses will you help students memorize, understand, and apply?
What 3 Biblical principles will you help students understand and apply?
What 3 skills will you help students improve?
What 3 types of assessment will you use?
What 3 engaging instructional strategies will you use?
What 3 student learning needs will you meet?
What 3 ways will you decorate your room?
What 3 things will you put on your course handouts?
What 3 classroom guidelines will you use?
What 3 ways will you involve parents?
What 3 things do you want from your principal or colleagues?
What 3 things will you do to stay focused?

Now that you have answered 3 questions, use your answers. Use one of your answers today. Right now.

Remember, success is using your answers to help your students, not having the answers in your head.

How can you manage yourself more effectively?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T08:50:00+09:00

By focusing, working smart, and pursuing excellence. To get an idea of how you can manage yourself more effectively, take the following assessment (download). Write the number in the blank that comes closest to representing how true a given statement is for you right now. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely

Focus
___ I focus on joining God in what he is already doing.
___ I focus on doing right things, before I focus on doing things right.
___ I focus on my God-given mission.
___ I have defined my mission in terms of SMART goals.
___ I understand how my mission, goals, and daily activities are connected.

Work smart
___ I ask God for help.
___ I think big. For example, I ask myself questions like “What 3 dreams do I want to realize?”
___ I think clearly.
___ I think outside the box.
___ I document my goals.
___ I determine the actions steps I will take to achieve my goals.
___ I take SMART action.
___ I schedule my action steps.
___ I schedule my big goals first.
___ I plan backwards.
___ I track my progress on my goals.
___ I reflect on my goals.
___ I find better ways to achieve my goals.

Pursue excellence
___ I pursue my goals.
___ Before I start working on my goals, I get the resources I need.
___ I get the support, encouragement, and accountability I need to achieve my goals.
___ I pay attention to my goals (because I know that what I pay attention to gets done).
___ I target my strengths.
___ I eliminate my frustrations.

Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What helps me increase my self-management?
What hinders me from increasing my self-management?
What will I do?

Work smart. Increase your self-management. Today.

How can you more effectively use questions to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T08:52:00+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively use questions to help your students make connections, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Strongly Agree • 3 Agree • 2 Disagree • 1 Strongly Disagree

___ My Biblical perspective questions are effective.
___ I ask my Biblical perspective questions.
___ My Biblical perspective questions are posted in my classroom.
___ I talk with my fellow teachers about using questions to help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ I am committed to using questions to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What can I do to more effectively use questions to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What will I do?

*Here are additional resources that can help you target Biblical perspective:
Tutorials
Videos
Self-assessments
Testimonials

What makes a good meeting good?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-11T08:35:00+09:00

Meetings are an important tool you can use to achieve your mission. I’ve participated in good meetings. If you want to participate in good meetings more often, answer this question: What makes a good meeting good? Good meetings are on TARGET in terms of:

Team purpose
Assessment
Results
Guidelines
Effective facilitation
Types of meetings.

To get an idea of how you can make your meetings even more effective, complete the following assessment (download). Use the following scale:

4: Strongly Agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly Disagree

Team purpose
___ Our team’s purpose is documented.
___ Our team’s purpose targets mission achievement.
___ Our team’s purpose is understood by each team member.
___ Our team’s purpose statement is user-friendly.
___ Our team’s purpose is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda.

Assessment
___ We assess completion of assigned tasks.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of team purpose.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of achievement of targeted results.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of abiding by meeting guidelines.
___ We use assessment at each meeting.
___ Each team member is involved in assessment.

Results
___ We identify results for a given meeting before the meeting.
___ We use the SMART goal format to list our targeted meetings results on our agenda.
___ Our targeted meeting results target mission achievement.
___ We achieve our targeted results at each meeting.

Guidelines
___ We developed our meeting guidelines collaboratively.
___ Our guidelines define our desired team dynamics.
___ Our guidelines support the achievement of our team purpose and our mission.
___ Each team member abides by the guidelines.

Effective facilitation
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the team purpose
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the targeted results.

Types of meetings
___ Our team members understand that there are different types of meetings.
___ We use a schedule of different types of meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What satisfies/frustrates me about the data?
To improve your meetings, which 1-2 of the 6 TARGET areas could you address?
What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Improve your meetings Today.

How can you empower others even more effectively?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-21T17:43:29+09:00

Through Christian coaching, you can empower others to pursue God’s call. To get an idea of how you can empower others even more effectively, complete the following self-assessment that addresses coaching beliefs, skills, and process (download). Write the number in the blank that comes closest to representing how true a given statement is for you right now. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

The coach’s heart
___ I trust that the Holy Spirit is working in the heart of every believer.
___ I believe others can define and achieve their goals.
___ I target motivation, not information.
___ I empower others to take responsibility.

LIFE skills: Listen • Inquire • Focus • Encourage
___ I’m interested in what others say.
___ When listening, I look interested.
___ When listening, I sound interested.
___ I target understanding, not judging.
___ I don’t talk more than 20% of the time.

___ I ask open-ended questions.
___ I make inviting statements.
___ I don’t ask “why” questions.
___ I don’t give advice.

___ I focus others on developing their own SMART action steps.
___ I don’t suggest action steps.

___ I encourage others through clarification.
___ I encourage others through affirmation.
___ I encourage others through restatement.
___ I encourage others through “encouragers.”
___ I don’t criticize.

GROW process: Goal • Reality • Options • Will do
___ I’m clear on what the other person wants to accomplish for the session.
___ I don’t suggest goals for the session.

___ I empower others to explore the current reality regarding their goals.
___ I don’t describe others’ reality.

___ I empower others to brainstorm options for taking action on their goals.
___ I don’t suggest options.

___ I empower others to develop 2-3 SMART action steps per goal.
___ I don’t advise others on what actions to take.

How often do you refrain from suggesting goals for the coaching session?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-06-14T21:21:00+09:00

You ask your client, “What would you like to accomplish as a result of talking today?” Your client responds, “I didn’t really think about what I wanted to accomplish today. Nothing’s coming to mind. Got any ideas?”

This has happened with this client before. You quickly process through previous coaching sessions and think of 3 possible goals for the session. And you say, “How about how to handle email more effectively, how to make more time to talk with the kids, or how to more effectively target personal strengths?”

After asking the question, you realize that you’re suggesting goals for the coaching session. This is something you don’t want to do. Why? Because your client grows as she takes responsibility for identifying goals for a coaching session.

Question: How often do you refrain from suggesting goals for the coaching session?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently refrain from suggesting goals for the coaching sessions. Things that help me do this include the following:

Sharing with new and current clients that they are responsible for setting goals for coaching sessions and that setting goals helps them grow.
Recognizing that if a client doesn’t have a goal for a session, now is a good time to have the client develop a list of goals.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from suggesting goals for the coaching session?

Want to empower others to reduce their frustrations?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-06-14T22:33:00+09:00

Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

What are 5 frustrations you have?
How do you feel when these frustrations are present/not present?
How would you feel if you could reduce 1 or more of these 5 frustrations?
How would reducing 1 or more frustrations impact your ministry?
If you reduced all 5 frustrations, what might happen?
What helps you reduce your frustrations? What hinders you?
What’s 1 frustration you want to reduce?
What can you do to reduce that frustration?
What will you do?

To get more energy, reduce your frustrations

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-06-14T19:45:00+09:00

You know it takes energy. You know it takes energy to ride your bike to church. You know it takes energy to buy bananas at the store and to lead a Bible study on Romans 12. And you know it takes energy to write an email to your donors about Sachi’s baptism and to talk with Thomas and Kim about the culture shock they’re experiencing.

You’re wishing you had more energy—10% more, 5% more, even 1% more. Just more energy. If you had more energy, you could work on balancing your personal/professional life, developing relationships with 3 neighbors, and translating training materials on house churches.

While it’s true that if you had more energy you’d be able to work on these goals, maybe the issue isn’t having more energy. Maybe you have all the energy you need, but some of your energy is being sapped by frustrations.

Maybe your energy is getting sapped by frustrations you have with email. You’re frustrated that your thinking keeps getting interrupted by the sound email makes when downloading. You’re frustrated that you don’t have big blocks of time to work because you have to attend to email throughout the day. You’re so frustrated about email that you use energy to talk with others about your frustration and to listen to their frustrations.

Instead of using your energy to tolerate your energy-sapping frustrations, use your energy to reduce your frustrations. For example, use your energy to turn the sound off for downloading email and to schedule doing email twice a day.

Question: What can you do to reduce one or more energy-sapping frustrations?

Remember, reducing your energy-sapping frustrations frees up energy you can use to pursue God’s calling. Reduce one frustration. Today.

Want to empower others to reduce their frustrations? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

What are 5 frustrations you have?
How do you feel when these frustrations are present/not present?
How would you feel if you could reduce 1 or more of these 5 frustrations?
How would reducing 1 or more frustrations impact your ministry?
If you reduced all 5 frustrations, what might happen?
What helps you reduce your frustrations? What hinders you?
What’s 1 frustration you want to reduce?
What can you do to reduce that frustration?
What will you do?

How can you more effectively use questions to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-06-14T20:24:00+09:00

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What can I do to more effectively use questions to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What will I do?

*Here are additional resources that can help you target Biblical perspective:
Tutorials
Videos
Self-assessments
Testimonials

How effective are your Biblical perspective questions?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-16T20:26:00+09:00

Asking questions is good way to help your student connect what they study and what the Bible teaches—provided that the questions you ask are effective. Here are 5 examples:

How can you use your learning to serve others?
How are God's mercy and justice related?
How aware should you be of culture?
How can art express your beliefs?
How can you be a good caretaker?

(Here’s a list of 99 effective Biblical perspective questions.)

Effective Biblical perspective questions:

Grab your students’ attention
Require upper-level thinking
Allow a variety of acceptable answers
Help your students connect course content, life, and a Biblical perspective
Are essential—universal, timeless, at the heart of learning

So, how effective are your Biblical perspective questions? What can you do to make your questions even more effective?

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Use effective Biblical perspective questions. Today.

How often do you ask your Biblical perspective questions?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-14T20:27:00+09:00

You want to want to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. So, you’ve worked to develop a list of effective Biblical perspective questions to ask your students. Questions like “What’s wrong with the world?” and “How should Christian respond to suffering?” Good.

Question: How often do you ask your Biblical perspective questions? Once a day? Week? Month? Semester? Year?

To help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, how often do you need to ask them? Remember, the goal is not to have a list of effective Biblical perspective questions. The goal is to help your students make connections—and to do that, you need to ask your questions.

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Ask Biblical perspective questions. Today.

Use questions to help your students connect God's world and Word

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T14:09:00+09:00

To connect God’s world and Word, your students need to think. Asking questions is an effective way to get your students to think and to make connections. Watch this video to learn 5 things about using questions:

Want to work with your colleagues to get better at using questions? If so, then purchase Use Questions (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions. These 7 interactive sessions will help you…

Evaluate and improve your use of questions to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Analyze and explain why God asks questions.
Analyze and explain how questions help students connect God’s world and Word.
Understand and apply the characteristics of good questions.
Document and then ask your students questions to help them connect God’s world and Word.
Get your students to respond sincerely to the questions you ask.
Increase your commitment to using questions to help your students connect God’s world and Word.

Download a sample session.

Purchase Use Questions (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
Use Assessment
Use Questions
Meet Student Learning Needs

How important is it to post your questions?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T09:28:00+09:00

You’ve identified the 3 Biblical perspective questions you want to use:

What is the significance of words?
How does God want you to live?
What’s your responsibility?

(Here’s a list of 99 effective Biblical perspective questions.)

Reflect: Want to help your students who are visual learners reflect on your Biblical perspective questions? Want to receive a daily reminder to ask your Biblical perspective questions? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then keep reading.

I want to share a strategy that I’ve used. I’ve used it with secondary students in Bible, social studies, and English, and teachers I know have used it with K-12 students in all subjects. We think it works. We find helps visual learners; in fact, we find helps all learners reflect on Biblical perspective questions. We also find that it helps us as teachers to ask our questions.

What’s the strategy? Post your Biblical perspective questions in your room. Put them on a colorful bulletin board, making sure the print is big enough to be easily read from anywhere in the room. Once your questions are up, your visual learners can see them. Once your questions are up, you can see them—which will be your daily reminder to ask your questions.

I’ve found that as a result of posting my questions in my classroom, I asked my questions more consistently. And when I asked my questions more consistently, my students made more connections between what they were studying and what the Bible teaches.

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Post your Biblical perspective questions in your classroom. Today.

How can you learn to use questions more effectively?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-02-16T09:32:00+09:00

Do you want to learn how to more effectively use questions to help your students make connections? If so, keep reading.

I’ve found a way to more effectively use questions. It’s time-tested. It doesn’t cost any money. It’s easy and fun. And it works.

What is it?

Talking to your fellow teachers. Talking to your fellow teachers about how you can more effectively use questions to help your students make connections.

Need a place to start? Ask your fellow teachers questions like:

What questions do you ask your students?
How do you feel about using questions to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
How do you use questions to help your students make connections?

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Learn to use questions more effectively. Today.

How committed are you to using questions?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T20:32:00+09:00

For me, commitment results in action. So when I want to know how committed I am to something, I look at what I’m doing. At Christian schools, we’re committed to helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. And in my experience, teachers who are committed to using questions to help students make connections take action:

They have identified effective Biblical perspective questions like “How can you relate to culture?”
They ask their Biblical perspective questions.
They frame each of their classes (and each of their units) around their Biblical perspective questions.
They use one or more of their questions to start a unit.
They have their students journal on a question.
They use questions as a springboard to having their students read the Bible and articles by Christians.
They use their questions to review a unit.
They use Biblical perspective questions as the basis of unit and semester assessments.
They post their questions on a bulletin board.
They prominently feature their questions on their course syllabi and Web site.

Question: How committed are you to using questions? (In other words, how are you using questions?)

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Use questions. Today.

How can you more effectively use assessment?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-11T00:24:00+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Strongly Agree • 3 Agree • 2 Disagree • 1 Strongly Disagree

___ My assessments require my students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ My assessments require my students to connect what they study, what the Bible teaches, and their lives.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are exemplary assessments.
___ I use my Biblical perspective assessment data to help my students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ I am committed to using assessment to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about my data?
What can I do to more effectively use assessment to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What will I do?

Use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

*Here are additional resources that can help you use assessment to target Biblical perspective:
Tutorials
Videos
Self-assessments
Testimonials

Do your assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T20:27:00+09:00

Me: Yes or No—Do your assessments require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I can see why you’re asking that question. I mean, I did say that I want more of my students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Assessment is way to get them to make connections. But some of my students already make connections, even though I don’t ask.

Me: So, are you saying your assessments don’t require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I’m saying that some of my students already make connections. Why can’t all my students just do that? Do I really have to require them to make connections on my assessments?

Me: I’m sorry. I’m not sure I got an answer to my question. Do your assessments require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: Well, no. My assessments don’t require my students to make those connections. They don’t actually have to make those connections in order to do a good job on my assessments. They could even get an A without making any connections.

Me: You said that you wanted to help your students to make connections and that assessment is a way to do that. What might happen if you developed an assessment that required your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I guess more of my students would make connections. I mean, they’d have to if they wanted to do well—and I think my students want to do well. If I required connections in my assessment, I’d probably spend more class time on helping kids make connections. And if I spent more time helping kids make connections, more kids would make connections.

Me: So, what’s next?

Joel: Could you show me some assessment prompts that require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Me: Sure. Take a look at these 3 prompts:

Social Studies 6: Teach your classmates about the aspect of ancient Egyptian culture/history you researched. Show what the Bible teaches about it and how it connects to you.
Science 8: Give a five-minute presentation on a piece of electricity-related technology in which you present the electrical device, the science of how it works, and a response to the following questions: How has this device impacted society? What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?
English 10: Compare/contrast how 2 characters from Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom and apply that to a current event or personal situation.

Joel: I teach 8th grade, so seeing the Science 8 assessment prompt helps. Putting in something that requires students to make connections doesn’t look that difficult. The Science 8 teacher put in “What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?” I think I could do something like that. And I think that if I require my students to make connections, I’ll make progress toward my goal of having my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Bottom line: Use assessment to require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

Use assessment to help your students connect God's world and Word

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T14:07:00+09:00

Assessment helps your students learn. Assessment can also help your students connect God’s world and Word. Watch this video to learn 5 things about using assessment:

Want to work with your colleagues to better use assessment? If so, then purchase Use Assessment (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions.

These 7 sessions will help you…

Evaluate and improve your use of assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Analyze and explain how assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Identify and explain what types of assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Make one assessment even better.
Prepare your students for and give an assessment that requires your students to connect God’s world and Word.
Use your assessment data to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Increase your commitment to using assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word

Download a sample session.

Purchase Use Assessment (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
Use Assessment
Use Questions
Meet Student Learning Needs

Do your assessments require students to connect their lives and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-11-19T09:29:00+09:00

You: Got a minute?

Me: Yeah. What’s up?

You: I just had a great conversation after class with Josh, a senior in my English class. Do you know Josh?

Me: Yes, I do. He’s on the wrestling team, right?

You: Yes. Well, I told him that I really wanted to help him and the other seniors connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. And I asked him what I could do to help.

Me: What’d he say?

You: He looked at me and sat there thinking. I tried another approach that tied into wrestling. He’s on the wrestling team, you know. I asked him, “If I wanted to help you make connections as well as you want to wrestle in the tournament, what would I need to do?”

And he said, “You need to help me connect my life to what we’re studying and what the Bible teaches.”

Me: I can see why you said you just had a good conversation. What do you think about Josh’s emphasis on tying in life experience?

You: I think it’s a good idea. I mean, things make more sense to me when I can make connections to my life. So, I think things would make more sense to my students. I think they’d better understand what they’re studying and what the Bible has to say about what they’re studying.

Me: Makes sense. What are you doing to do?

You: I think I’ll put a “life” component into my next writing assessment. Instead of having my students analyze a designated poem and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective, I’ll have them analyze a favorite song lyric and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective. And if I let them know that they’ll be analyzing a favorite lyric at the end of the unit, they’ll probably pay more attention when we work on literary conventions and so forth. And they’ll probably be more vested in thinking through what the Bible has to say about their favorite lyrics.

Bottom line: Use assessment to require your students to connect what they study, what the Bible teaches, and their lives. Today.

Students give great presentation

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-08T14:48:00+09:00

I’m excited. I'm watching Ria, Christina, Riyako, and Yukiko (4 of my English 10 students) give a presentation. They're using a display (see photo above) to explain how sin affects us. Specifically, they're describing how war (as depicted in Elie Wiesel's Night) results in hatred, a loss of human dignity, and a loss of faith. Presentations like this make teaching worth it!

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Students learn from writing essays

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-14T11:55:00+09:00

On the top of the final draft of the human dignity/Night paper that 10th graders handed in today, I asked them to reflect on 1 thing they had learned in writing the paper. (See below for the paper prompt.) It was fun to read the reflections. Here are some of the things they said they learned:

I learned that doing devotions can help form my Biblical perspective in both my life and in essays.
Writing this essay really got me thinking. It scares me that so many people passively disregard human dignity. What's scarier is that I'm one of them.
I was able to acknowledge and see clearly how we so often do put others down to try to feel better about ourselves, but how that actually has the opposite effect. I re-learned once again that in God alone can we truly know (not only feel) that we are valuable.
A Christian perspective helps any essay bring its points to a satisfying conclusion.
I have known the words "human dignity” for really long but never knew what it truly meant till I had to write this essay.
I learned that we don't have to kill millions of people to disregard human dignity. It happens every day when we gossip or bully.

Paper prompt (750-1000 words): Part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others. Analyze this tendency, using examples from literature, history, current events, and your own experience, and articulate a Christian response. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment. Quote Night and the Bible at least three times each.

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

How exemplary are your Biblical perspective assessments?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-20T09:30:00+09:00

To get an idea of how exemplary your Biblical perspective assessments are, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Definitely • 3 Usually • 2 Sort of • 1 Rarely
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are standards-based.
___ My assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments give students opportunities to make choices.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are rigorous.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are even worthy to be taught to.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are student-friendly in terms of vocabulary and length (prompts are 75 words or less).
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are exemplary assessments (SCORES).

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about my data?
What can I do improve my Biblical perspective assessments?
What will I do?

Use assessment. Develop an exemplary assessment. Today.

How can you use your Biblical perspective assessment data?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T20:34:00+09:00

You designed your Biblical perspective assessment for your unit on short stories: “For one of the short stories you read, write a 500-word essay in which you identify a theme, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate it, and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective.”

You prepared your students for this Biblical perspective assessment. You helped them identify themes. You gave them opportunities to analyze how authors use foreshadowing, irony, mood, plot, symbolism, characterization, and setting to communicate themes. You gave direct instruction on relevant Biblical principles and supporting verses, which you then had them apply to the short stories they were reading. And then you had your students write rough drafts, on which you gave feedback.

Earlier this week, you collected final drafts of the essay, used a rubric to score them, and provided written feedback.

Question: How can you use your Biblical perspective assessment data?

If you want your students to better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, I suggest that you:

Give your students time in class to read your comments, review their rubric scores, and think about 1 thing they can do to make better connections.
Review your data and ask yourself, “How can I help my students make better connections?”

Use your assessment data. Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

How can you more effectively meet student learning needs?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-11T00:08:00+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively meet student learning needs to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Strongly Agree • 3 Agree • 2 Disagree • 1 Strongly Disagree

___ I know what my students’ learning needs are regarding connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ I meet my students’ learning needs regarding connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ I know what my own learning needs are regarding connecting what I teach and what the Bible teaches.
___ I meet my own learning needs regarding connecting what I teach and what the Bible teaches.
___ I am committed to meeting my students’ learning needs in order to help students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What can I do to more effectively meet my students’ learning needs regarding connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What will I do?

Bottom line: Help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Meet their learning needs. Today.

*Here are additional resources that can help you target Biblical perspective:
Tutorials
Videos
Self-assessments

What are your students’ learning needs?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T20:09:00+09:00

You want to help your middle school students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. You know that meeting their learning needs is a good place to start. And you know that in order to meet your students’ learning needs, you have to know what they are.

Question: What are your students’ learning needs?

To help get you get started on identifying your students’ learning needs, ask yourself, “Which of the following 10 items might I hear my kids say?”

This doesn’t seem important. My teachers don’t grade me on this. When I wasn’t doing well in science, my teacher talked to me—I don’t think I understand a Biblical perspective, and no teacher has talked to me about this. Do teachers really think this is important?
This doesn’t come up at my church or at home. My family and my church talk about being a Christian. We talk about living for Jesus, doing devotions, and telling others about Jesus. I don’t get what my faith has to do with the Greeks or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The teacher did mention this in the beginning of the year, but that was a long time ago, and I kind of forgot how it all connects. I think other students might get this, so I don’t want to ask.
I don't know what it looks like. I know what telling others about Jesus looks like—we read missionary biographies at school and I go on mission trips with my church. What does doing a good job on using a Biblical perspective look like in an essay? And what does this look like in the computer world? I want to work for Apple.
My teachers say they teach from a Biblical perspective, but I don’t understand how that works. I believe them, but I don’t get it. They have us work in groups and learn parts of speech, but they don’t explain how this is part of Christian education. We seem to mostly do the same things my friends do at schools that aren’t Christian. What’s the difference?
I don't understand the vocabulary—Biblical perspective, integrate faith and learning, image bearer, temple of the Holy Spirit, worldview. Teachers talk, but I don’t always understand the words. Could I get vocabulary list with definitions on it?
Learning what the Bible teaches is boring. Well, Bible class isn’t boring, but the way teachers teach about the Bible in other classes is boring. Mostly lecture–this doesn’t really help me understand a Biblical perspective of what I’m studying. I like discussing things. So do my friends.
I need to think through answers for myself. I listen to teachers talk. They give good answers. But to really understand the answers, I need to think them through for myself. Maybe the teachers could ask more questions. Questions that have more than one right answer. One of my teachers asks us “Where do you belong?” all the time.
I need time to think about what I’m learning. We don’t really do this in class, and I’ve got sports after school and homework at night. When am I supposed to find time to reflect? Could we do some journaling during class?
To really get this, I need to connect the Bible with my life, not just with what I study in class. If my teachers would give me chances to connect the Bible with my life–my music, my relationships, my problems—I think I could get it. One of my homeschooler friends got to analyze a CD from a Biblical perspective. That sounds pretty cool.
I need more chances to practice. It’s hard for me to get good at using a Biblical perspective when I don’t get enough practice. Using a Biblical perspective takes skill. I get repeated skill practice in math, and I’m good at it. Can I get more skill practice?

Question: So, what are your students’ learning needs?

Bottom line: Help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Identify their learning needs. Today.

Meet student learning needs

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T14:11:00+09:00

If you want to help your students to better connect God’s world and Word, meet their learning needs. “Learning needs” are anything your students need in order for learning to happen. Watch this video about meeting 5 learning needs students have:

Want to work with your colleagues to better meet student learning needs? If so, then purchase Meet Your Students’ Learning Needs (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions. As a result of completing these 7 sessions, you will…

Define and meet your students’ learning needs.
Help your students better understand the importance of connecting God’s world and Word.
Help your students better understand that God’s Word can be connected to the part of God’s world they are studying.
Help your students understand more biblical principles that connect to what they study.
Provide the engaging instruction your students need in order to connect God’s world and Word.
Provide time during class for your students to reflect on how God’s world and Word are connected.
Demonstrate your commitment to meeting your students’ learning needs.

Download a sample session.

Purchase Meet Your Students’ Learning Needs (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
Use Assessment
Use Questions
Meet Student Learning Needs

How will you meet your students’ learning needs?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-11-19T09:11:00+09:00

Here are 8 ways to meet your students’ learning needs:

To help your students see the importance of Biblical perspective, give them an assessment that requires them to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
To help your students understand that a Biblical perspective can be applied to course content, show them an example.
To help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective, explain how you use a Biblical perspective to choose instructional strategies.
To help your students learn key vocabulary words, do a vocabulary lesson.
To help your students experience engaging instructional strategies, use case studies and questions.
To provide time during class for reflection, have your student journal during class.
To help your students connect what they study, what the Bible teaches, and life, give an assessment requiring students to connect all 3.
To give your students more practice connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches, give more assessments

Bottom line: Help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Take action to meet their learning needs. Today.

How can you better connect what you teach and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-20T08:15:00+09:00

“I’ve got to find ways to help them.” You’re sitting at your desk, thinking: “I’ve got find ways to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. But how can I help when I don’t really get how what I teach is connected to what the Bible teaches?”

Question: What can you do to better connect what you teach and what the Bibles teaches?

Start by identifying your own learning needs. To help get you started on identifying your own learning needs, ask yourself, “Which of the following 10 items describe how I feel about helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?”

(1) Speaking practically, this doesn’t seem to be a real priority. I mean, teachers model Christlike behavior, talk with students about Christ, and do devotions, Bible class, and chapel. Students get this part of a Biblical perspective—they encourage each other, help lead devotions and chapel, and participate in Bible class. And parents like what we do—seems pretty good as is. Is increasing student understanding and use of a Biblical perspective of course content a real priority?

I’m not asked to grade my students on this. It’s not part of ITBS, PSAT, SAT, or AP tests. It’s not on college applications. If my students don’t master a certain skill, parents are concerned—no parent has ever talked to me about how well their child understands a Biblical perspective of my course content. When my students don’t master certain content or skills, I hear about it from the teacher above me—I don’t think I really teach a Biblical perspective of my subject, and no teacher above has talked to me about this.

Neither has my principal. And my principal has not asked to see sample assignments in which my students demonstrate their understanding and use of a Biblical perspective. I think I could get this if someone would work with me and if I was held accountable to do this.

(2) This doesn’t come up at my church or at home. My family and my church talk about being a Christian. We talk about living for Jesus, doing devotions, and telling others about Jesus. I’m not sure how my faith is related to my subject area. I’m not sure I could explain a Biblical perspective of my course content. I think other teachers might get this, so I don’t want to bring it up.

(3) I’m not sure what it looks like. I know what telling others about Jesus looks like—I read missionary biographies and I go on mission trips with my church. What does teaching a Biblical perspective look like? How do you assess student understanding and use of a Biblical perspective? And what does quality student work look like when a student is demonstrating that she understands a Biblical perspective?

(4) My colleagues say they teach from a Biblical perspective, but I don’t understand how that works. I believe them, but I don’t get it. They have their students work in groups and learn muscle names, but I don’t understand how this is part of Christian education. They seem to mostly do the same things that my non-Christian friends who teach do. What’s the difference?

(5) I don't always understand the vocabulary—integration of faith and learning, worldview, just war theory, year of Jubilee. Could I get a vocabulary list with definitions on it?

(6) Teaching what the Bible teaches is boring. I mean, it’s black and white, and I mostly lecture—that’s not fun for me or for my students. Sometimes I do object lessons. I want my students to experience engaging instructional strategies. Any ideas?

(7) I need to think through the answers for myself. I hear answers at meetings and workshops. But to really understand the answers, I need to think them through for myself. I probably need to write out what I think.

(8) I need time to think about what I’m teaching. I teach all day, am involved in after school activities, and mark papers at night. When am I supposed to find time to reflect on my teaching? Is there any way reflection time could be built into my schedule? Into the meetings I attend?

(9) To really get this, I need to connect the Bible with my life, not just with what I teach in class. If I could connect the Bible with my daily life, I think I could get a better handle on teaching from a Biblical perspective. I read about current events, and I’m not always sure how the Bible applies.

(10) I need more feedback. I like getting feedback about my teaching from my colleagues and principal. To get better at teaching from a Biblical perspective, I need more feedback on my content, assessment, and instruction. And I need a way to know how many of my students are at or above standard on understanding and using a Biblical perspective. I know that everyone is busy, but I could really use some help.

Question: So, what are your learning needs?

Bottom line: Meet your own learning needs. Start by identifying them. Today.

What will you do to better connect what you teach and what the Bible teaches?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T20:21:00+09:00

Want to help your students to better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? If so, make sure you can make better connections.

Question: How can you do this?

By identifying your own learning needs. And then by developing an action plan to meet 1 of your own learning needs.

To develop your action plan, ask yourself the following 7 questions. Better yet, invite a colleague to ask you:

What subjects do you teach?
What excites/concerns you about connecting what you teach and what the Bible teaches?
Which learning needs do you have?
Which learning need would you like to meet?
What are some ways you could meet this learning need?
What action step will you take to meet this learning need?
When will you take this action step?

Bottom line: Meet your own learning needs. Take action. Today.

What 3 classroom guidelines will you use?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-16T20:25:00+09:00

You know good discussions help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. And you know that classroom guidelines can help create an environment that encourages good discussions.

Question: What 3 classroom guidelines will you use for discussions?

Here are sample discussion guidelines:

Work to understand what others are saying (before your critique what they’re saying).
Ask open-ended questions.
Once you’ve participated in a discussion, encourage others to participate.

Question: What other guidelines can you use?

Target Biblical perspective. Use classroom guidelines. Today.

How can you more effectively target Biblical perspective?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-14T20:26:00+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively target Biblical perspective to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale:
4: Strongly Agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly Disagree

___ My target is for students to apply a Biblical perspective to course content they have mastered (not to master course content).
___ My unit plans and lesson plans demonstrate that my target is for students to apply a Biblical perspective to course content they have mastered (not to master course content).
___ I provide value-added content by teaching students new Biblical perspective content and/or helping them make new connections between what they are studying and Bible knowledge they already have.
___ I am committed to targeting Biblical perspective.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about the data?
What can I do to more effectively target Biblical perspective?
What will I do?

Target Biblical perspective. Today.

*Here are additional resources that can help you target Biblical perspective:

Help your students connect God's world and Word

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T14:05:00+09:00

You want your students to connect the part of God’s world they study and biblical principles. This is a significant challenge. Want some help? Watch this video to learn about helping your students connect God's world and Word:

Want to work with your colleagues to better help your students connect God’s world and Word? If so, then purchase Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions. As a result of working through the 7 discussion-based sessions, you will…

Evaluate and improve how you help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Analyze and explain the importance of helping students connect God’s world and Word.
Identify and explain what connecting what God’s world and Word looks like.
Document biblical principles you want your students to connect to the part of God’s world they are studying.
Get your students even more engaged in connecting God’s world and Word by having your students learn new biblical principles and/or helping your students make new connections between biblical principles they already know and the part of God’s world they study.
Prepare for and teach a lesson designed to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Increase your commitment to helping your students connect God’s world and Word.

Download a sample session.

Purchase Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
Use Assessment
Use Questions
Meet Student Learning Needs

What’s your target?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T09:31:00+09:00

You’re excited about teaching 7th grade social studies at Faithful Christian School. And you’re excited about helping your students learn about the world.

Question: What’s your target?

Is your target for your students to master course content about the geography and history of Asia, North American, and South America?
Or is your target for your students to apply a Biblical perspective to course content they have mastered?

I want to encourage you to target having your students apply a Biblical perspective to course content they have mastered. Why? Because targeting this provides rigorous, Christ-centered education. Because targeting this will help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Because targeting this will help your students develop a Christ-centered worldview.

Target Biblical perspective. Today.

To what extent do your unit plans and lesson plans target Biblical perspective?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-02-16T09:33:00+09:00

You want to target Biblical perspective. You want to help your students apply a Biblical perspective to the course content they have mastered.

Question: To what extent do your unit plans and lesson plans target Biblical perspective?

Do your plans include essential questions that help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? Questions like the following: What’s God’s purpose for ___? What wrong? Who is your neighbor?
Do your plans include Biblical perspective enduring understandings?
Do your plans include assessments that require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
Do your plans include engaging instructional strategies that get your students connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Target Biblical perspective. Make sure your unit plans and lesson plans demonstrate that you target Biblical perspective. Today.

To what extent do you provide value-added content?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T20:38:00+09:00

If you want to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, provide value-added content. How? By providing new Biblical teaching. And by providing new connections between what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Question: Why valued-added content? In other words, why “new” Biblical teaching? Why “new” connections?

Because students attend Christian schools to learn new things.
Because in my experience, students are more likely to get engaged when studying new Biblical teaching and are more likely to get turned off by going over the same Biblical teaching.
Because students like learning about new connections, like making new connections, and dislike overusing the same connections.

Target Biblical perspective. Provide value-added content. Today.

Meet the needs of workshop participants

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-29T09:17:00+09:00

To help workshop participants learn and apply their learning, meet their needs. Give them support, concrete examples, opportunities to apply their learning, reflection time, and engaging instruction.

Facilitate from your heart

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-29T09:18:00+09:00

Facilitate from your heart, from beliefs you have about personal growth.

Facilitators use skills

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-30T00:05:00+09:00

When you facilitate, make sure your listen, inquire, focus, and encourage.

Reflect on your goals

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-04T00:18:00+09:00

Reflect on your goals daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually.

Think outside the box

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-16T20:52:00+09:00

You’re stuck. You’re not making progress on your goal. You’ve tried the things that have worked before, and you’re still stuck.

Time to think outside the box. For example, imagine that your goal is to more quickly peel a boiled egg. You’ve tried rolling the egg on a plate to crack the shell and then peeling it—too slow. You’ve tried hitting the shell with a spoon, inserting the spoon between the egg white and the shell, and then using the spoon to peel the egg—still too slow.

What can you do? Find an “outside the box” solution. Try watching this video.

When you’re stuck (and even when you’re not), try thinking outside the box.

Schedule your action steps

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-14T20:54:00+09:00

You’ve reviewed your projects and project deadlines. You’ve put the deadlines into your calendar program, and you’ve brainstormed action steps for each project. Good.

Later, the calendar alarm goes off, signaling that a project is due, and you find that you haven’t completed the necessary action steps. Bummer.

Question: What can you do?

Answer: Schedule all your action steps. Put them in your calendar program. This can help you get all your action steps done before your calendar alarm goes off for a given project deadline.

Plan backwards

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T09:54:00+09:00

You’ve been assigned a project. You know planning is important, and you know that you need to get started so that you can complete the project on time.

Question: What can you do?

Answer: You can plan backwards. You can treat the project like a dinner party. You know, the guest will arrive at 6:30, so the food and table setting need to be completed by 6:25. In order for the food and table setting to be completed by 6:25, you need to…. And so forth.

You try: Imagine your project completed. Then ask yourself, “Right before my project gets completed, what do I need to do? And what do I need to do right before that? And what do I need to do right before that?” And so on.

Plan backward. Streamline your planning process.

Track progress on your goals

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-02-16T08:57:00+09:00

You’ve developed goals. You’ve documented them, and you review your goals from time to time, thinking that reviewing them will help you know what to do next. Reviewing does help, but not enough.

Question: What else can you do to determine what to do next?

Answer: Track progress on your goals. In addition to reviewing your goals, track progress on your goals. Tracking progress will help you understand where you are in terms of achieving your goals. And when you know where you are, it’s easier to determine what to do next. For example, imagine my goal is to memorize the alphabet. In tracking my progress, I know that I’ve memorized A-M. So, I’ve determined that next week I’ll memorize A-P.

Track progress on your goals. Today.

Leaders, find ways to work smarter

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T21:37:00+09:00

You’re in ministry. You’re faithful, you’re working hard, and you’re concerned that key tasks aren’t getting done. You wonder, “What can I do? I don’t think I can work harder, or my health and relationships will suffer. What can I do?”

Well, what can you do? You can focus on working smarter, not harder. Here are 5 things you can do to work smarter:

(1) Join God in what He's already doing. God has a plan. He’s already at work. And He’s prepared ways for you to join Him in His work (Eph. 2.10). So, you have the opportunity to be part of God’s plan and work. You don’t have to go figure it all out by yourself or do it all by yourself. You can work smarter by joining God in what He’s already doing.

(2) Ask God for help. God knows everything and wants to help you. So, ask Him for help. Ask Him what your ministry goals should be. Ask Him to help you carry out your ministry goals effectively and efficiently. And ask Him to help you work smarter, not harder. Work smarter by asking God for help.

(3) Document your ministry goals. Having documented goals makes is possible for you to easily review your goals, to schedule your next action steps, and to find out what your goals are when you can’t remember them (something which happens to everyone).

(4) Take time to reflect. Take time to step back, review progress, and determine next steps. You can do this for 5 minutes at the end of each day, for 1 hour at the end of each week, for 2 hours at the end of each quarter, and for 4 hours at the end of each year. Work smarter by taking time to reflect.

(5) Empower others to solve problems. The more others can solve problems, the less you have to solve the problems. You can empower others to solve problems by asking questions like the following: What’s the problem? How do others see this problem? What criteria do you want to use to solve this problem? What can you do to solve this problem?

Bottom line: Find ways to work smarter.

*How can you help others to work smarter? By asking questions like:

What’s your ministry?
How do you feel about your ministry and your workload?
How interested are you in getting more done in the same amount of time?
What helps you work efficiently and effectively? What doesn’t help you?
What can you do to work smarter?
What will you do?

Reflect on your goals

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T20:58:00+09:00

I think it’s true. I think it’s true that what you pay attention to gets done. So, if you want to get your goals done, pay attention to them.

How?

Take 30 minutes each week to review what your goals are, track the progress you’ve made on each goal, and determine the action steps you’ll take in the next week.

Take 30 minutes. Go somewhere you won’t be disturbed. Bring along whatever you need to help you reflect on your goals—paper, pens, computer, post-its, whatever. Then reflect on your goals in order to determine what to do next.

Reflecting on my goals has helped me achieve them. I think it will help you, too.

Leaders, pursue excellence

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-10T21:43:00+09:00

You’re grateful for what God has done for you. So, you want to serve God, in part by pursuing excellence for Him. As a ministry leader, you know that one type of excellence you want to pursue is organizational excellence. Good.

What can you do to pursue organizational excellence? Here are 4 things you can do:

(1) Make sure staff are cared for. To care for staff on a personal level, demonstrate interest in them, have fun together, and provide life coaching to help staff balance work/home. To care for staff on a professional level, demonstrate interest in their ministry, encourage them to reflect, and provide support, encouragement and accountability.

(2) Make sure staff participate in professional development. What kind of professional development? In professional development that addresses current job responsibilities and that helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals. In professional development that involves staff in reflection and follow-up. In professional development that helps your staff do ministry more effectively.

(3) Make sure staff meetings target mission achievement. Make sure each meeting’s purpose is documented, targets mission achievement, and is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda. Have those attending the meeting collaboratively develop meeting guidelines that define desired meeting dynamics. And schedule separate meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.

(4) Make sure staff understand, are involved in, and are focused on organizational improvement. How can you do this? By explaining organizational improvement, encouraging ownership, involving staff in developing improvement plans, and providing the support and accountability staff need to carry out improvement plans. Here's the acid test: If ministry leadership dropped of the planet, would the plans still get implemented? If so, then you have an effective organizational improvement plan.

Bottom line: Pursue excellence.

*How can you help others pursue excellence? By asking questions like:

What’s excellence?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about pursuing organizational excellence?
For your ministry, what does organizational excellence look like?
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence?
What will you do?

Clarify team purpose

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-10T23:54:00+09:00

To help team members work even more effectively, clarify your team’s purpose. To do this, you can do 3 things:

(1) Assess your team's purpose statement. How? By rating the items below. Use the following scale: Yes • Maybe • No

Our team purpose statement...
___ Was developed by the team.
___ Is documented.
___ Identifies the team name.
___ Targets mission achievement.
___ Identifies how the team contributes to mission achievement.

___ Is understandable to those on the team and those not on the team.

___ Uses active verbs.
___ Uses precise wording.
___ Is user-friendly.
___ Is 25 words or less.

(2) Use your assessment data to enhance your team's purpose statement. Here’s a pattern you can use: The [Team Name] contributes to achievement of [Organization Name]'s mission by...

(3) Use your purpose statement to identify 5 things your team addresses and 5 things your team doesn’t address.

Help your team target mission achievement. Clarify your team's purpose statement. Today.

Good meetings are on TARGET

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-04T00:16:00+09:00

Good meetings are on TARGET in terms of...

Use assessment to improve team meetings

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T20:55:00+09:00

You've just finished a team meeting. The meeting went sort of OK, and you're wondering, "How can we improve team meetings?" Good question.

I've found that using assessment has improved team meetings I participate in. At the end of each meeting, I recommend you assess meeting effectiveness in terms of things like:

Completion of assigned tasks
Achievement of targeted results
The degree to which team members abided by meeting guidelines
The degree of focus on the team’s purpose
Team member involvement in meeting assessment

Need a place to start? At your next meeting, schedule time for team reflection. Use the time to:

Share your desire to improve team meetings.
Have team members brainstorm characteristics of an effective meeting (you might want to include items from the list above).
Ask team members to assess on their brainstormed list: What helps us __ (characteristic of a good meeting)? What hinders us from ___ (characteristic of a good meeting)?

Help your team target mission achievement. Assess team meetings. Today.

Design meetings to target results

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-11-16T09:56:00+09:00

How can you design meetings to target results? By requiring that each agenda item have the following information:

The item title
Who is responsible
When the item will be addressed (start and end time during the meeting)
The targeted SMART result(s)
How the targeted result(s) will be achieved (Decide • Discuss • Inform • Train • Work)

Here’s an example:

Title: January 22 training objectives
Who: Michael
When: 11:15-11:45
Result: Generate a draft of the January 22 training objectives and 1 or more activities that support each of those objectives
How: Discuss

Help your team target mission achievement. Design meetings that target results. Today.

Use meeting guidelines

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-20T20:57:00+09:00

Guidelines define how a team will work together. Developing meeting guidelines can help your team work even more effectively. As a team:

Review sample guideline categories—like time and materials. Also review sample meeting guidelines—like “We start and end on time” and “The agenda is sent out ___ days ahead of time.
Brainstorm additional guideline categories and meeting guidelines.
Choose 4-6 meeting guidelines.
Use the guidelines.

Help your team target mission achievement. Use meeting guidelines. Today.

*Here are sample meeting guideline categories and guidelines:

Time: We start and end on time. We start when everyone is present.
Meeting materials: The agenda is sent out ___ days ahead of time. Meeting minutes are distributed ___ days after the meeting.
Focus: We complete assigned tasks on time. We stick with the agenda. We don’t get off topic.
Collaboration: Everyone participates. We invite discussion. One person talks at a time. We seek consensus.

Enhance the facilitation of your team meetings

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T20:58:00+09:00

Effective facilitation focuses team members on 3 goals:

Achieving the targeted results.
Abiding by meeting guidelines.
Achieving team purpose.

Want to enhance team meeting facilitation? If so, do the following 3 things:

Select 1 or more goals from the list below that you want to make progress on.
Identify options for taking action.
Determine which actions you will take.

Here's the list of goals and options for taking action:
Goal 1: The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the targeted results:

Use an agenda that identifies the targeted SMART results.
Send out the agenda and other meeting materials ahead of time.
At the meeting, review the targeted results. Invite meeting participants to focus on achieving the targeted results.
Invite someone to serve as the timekeeper. The timekeeper lets the group know how much time is left for a given task.
Invite someone to serve as a recorder. The recorder writes out discussion notes on a whiteboard or big piece of paper.
Keep people engaged. Ask questions. Use small group discussion and frequent breaks.
When discussing meeting materials, encourage participants to ask questions after reading the materials.
Use a whiteboard, LCD projector, or overhead projector to show changes being made to a proposal.
Intervene when there are sidebar conversations and personal attacks, when the discussion is getting off topic, and when participants are not keeping to the schedule.
Have participants assess meeting effectiveness in terms of achieving the targeted results.
Other: _____

Goal 2: The facilitation focuses our team on abiding by the meeting guidelines:

As a group, review the team’s meeting guidelines. Invite meeting participants to abide by the guidelines.
Establish a humorous way to signal that a meeting guideline is not being adhered to.
Have participants assess meeting effectiveness in terms of abiding by meeting guidelines.
Other: _____

Goal 3: The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the team purpose:

Include agenda items that are aligned with the team purpose statement.
As a group, review the team purpose statement. Invite meeting participants to use the meeting to achieve the team’s purpose.
Ask those responsible for a given agenda item to explain how it helps the team achieve its purpose.
Have participants assess meeting effectiveness in terms of achieving the team purpose.
Other: ___

Help your team target mission achievement. Enhance the facilitation of your team meetings. Today.

Match the task with the type of meeting

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-11T21:01:00+09:00

Teams address tactical tasks, strategy-related tasks, and big-picture tasks. Optimally, each type of task should be handled in a separate meeting:Tactical tasks should be addressed in daily, weekly, or bi-weekly tactical meetings.

Tactical tasks include sharing information, giving progress reports on assigned tasks, and gathering input on pressing issues.
Strategy-related tasks should be addressed during monthly or bi-monthly strategy meetings. Strategy-related tasks include considering key issues, finding better ways to achieve the mission, and making strategy-related decisions.
Big-picture tasks should be addressed in quarterly or semi-annual big-picture meetings. Big-picture tasks include reviewing the mission, the definition of mission achievement, and current trends.

If it is not possible to schedule separate meetings, group similar tasks together for a given meeting, for example:

Group all the big-picture tasks together. Big-picture tasks are vital and are best addressed when people are fresh. Do these at the beginning of the meeting. Begin with a big-picture task that will start the meeting off on a positive note.
Group the strategy-related tasks together. Do these after the big-picture tasks. Get these done before addressing tactical tasks.
Group the tactical tasks together. Do these last.
Conclude the meeting with a task that will end the meeting on a positive note.

Help your team target mission achievement. Match the task with the type of meeting. Today.

Want to serve more effectively? Get focused!

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-06-14T21:11:00+09:00

You want to serve God more effectively. So do I. God has done great things for me, and out of gratitude, I want serve even more effectively.

One thing that helps me increase my effectiveness is focusing. Focusing on God, on what He’s calling me to do, on what’s going on, and on action steps I need to take so I can serve effectively.

Questions help me focus. Questions like:

What’s your organization’s God-given mission?
What’s it take to achieve your organization’s God-given mission?
How can you measure mission achievement?
How can you identify key performance indicators?
How can you use key performance indicators to achieve your mission?

To get started, how about discussing the above questions at a team meeting?

Get focused. Reflect on some questions. Today.

What’s your organization’s God-given mission?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-16T21:12:00+09:00

If you and your fellow staff want to further understand what God wants your organization to achieve, ask Him. Get together and ask Him. Relentlessly. Then, listen. And when God answers, reflect on what He’s saying.

Then as a group capture what God is saying in a short, memorable, easy-to-memorize statement. A statement that helps everyone remember what God is calling your organization to do—your organization’s God-given mission statement. Here’s an example: Christian Academy in Japan, a school for the children of evangelical missionaries in Japan, equips students to impact the world for Christ.

And when you’ve finalized your mission statement, keep the focus on what God is calling your organization to do by talking about the mission, asking people what excites them about the mission and how their work contributes to the mission, and maybe even encouraging everyone to memorize the mission.

Focus on your organization’s God-given mission. Today.

What’s it take to achieve your organization’s God-given mission?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-14T21:13:00+09:00

God has given your organization its mission. Maybe it’s to equip student to impact the world for Christ. Or maybe it’s to make Jesus known and to empower His disciples to build up His Church.

Now staff members are asking, “What’s it take to achieve our mission?” That’s a good question and one that deserves an answer. And knowing the answer can help staff focus on achieving the mission.

How can your organization define what it takes to carry out your mission? By identifying 3-7 areas in which your organization will be involved, for example, coaching, consulting, networking, and training (see below* for further examples).

Once you’ve identified 3-7 areas, transform each area into a goal for each area, for example: Coaching—Provide the support, encouragement, and accountability Christian leaders need to pursue God’s calling. These 3-7 goals are the answer to the question “What’s it take to achieve our mission?”

Here’s how this plays out in a Christian school with a mission to equip students to impact the world for Christ. The school has determined that to achieve its God-given mission, the school must:

Have students who are achieving the student objectives (schoolwide learner outcomes)
Have an exemplary, sustainable, replicable Christ-centered educational program
Have an organizational culture, sensitive and responsive to current and changing demographics, which reflects the board-approved values (faithfulness, caring, collaboration, diversity, excellence, and stewardship)
Have qualified Christian staff working to achieve board ends
Have a sound financial base
Have a safe physical plant facilitating student learning

Focus on what it takes to achieve your organization’s God-given mission. Today.

*Sample areas
Administration
Age-group ministry
Board
Camping
Church planting
Coaching
Communications
Community development
Consulting
Counseling
Curriculum
Discipling
Education
Evangelism
Facilities
Finance
Fine arts
Fundraising
Leadership development
Member care
Mentoring
Music
Networking
Pastoral care
Personnel
Program development
Public relations
Publishing
Research and development
Resource management
Sports
Strategic planning
Technology
Training
Worship

Leaders, focus on the mission

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T17:39:00+09:00

Lack of energy. I don’t like it. You don’t like it. And lately, you’ve noticed that you and your team have less energy for carrying out your team’s ministry. You take some time to pray and reflect, and you conclude that both you and your team have gotten involved in good activities that aren’t central to moving your ministry forward.

You, for example, serve on the board of a church ministry. You enjoy helping. You like talking with other board members. As a result of your participation, you have less energy for your primary ministry—this concerns you.

You should be concerned. Why? Because God called you to carry out your primary ministry. And because as a leader, your job is to focus your team’s energy on its primary ministry.

You want to lead more effectively, so you take more time to pray and reflect. You decide that you’ll focus more on your ministry’s God-given mission statement and that you’ll focus your team more on its mission. Sounds good.

What can you do? To achieve your first goal of being more focused, you can do what leaders I know do: They talk about their mission statement daily. They explain how their activities contribute to achieving their mission. And they use the mission to guide their decisions about what to invest energy in.

What can you do to achieve your second goal of helping your team focus more on its mission? You can ask your team what excites them about your team’s mission statement. You can have your team prioritize current activities in terms of achieving the team’s mission. And when a team member is considering whether or not to take on a task, you can ask, “How effectively will this ___ (meeting, project, task, proposed change) help us accomplish our team’s mission?”

Bottom line: Focus on the mission.

Learn more about getting focused:

Watch videos
Take a self-assessment
Read “To learn more about achieving your mission, explore these 4 questions”

How can you focus others?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-23T17:40:00+09:00

By asking questions like:

What’s your mission statement?
What excites/concerns you about the mission?
How does your work help achieve the mission?
What helps you achieve the mission? What gets in your way?
On a scale of 1-5 (5 being high), how focused are you on your mission statement?
What can you do to increase your focus?
What will you do?

How can you measure mission achievement?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T10:15:00+09:00

Use examples, surveys, and indicators to measure mission achievement.

How can you identify key performance indicators?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-02-16T10:16:00+09:00

You want to monitor how well your organization is achieving its God-given mission. You’ve thought about collecting examples, doing surveys, and monitoring key performance indicators. You share your thinking with others, and then get a team to talk through what would help you monitor progress on your mission. The team decides to monitor key performance indicators and plans to take steps to identify key performance indicators.

Question: How can you identify your key performance indicators?

Here’s what I did:

I reflected on my mission statement and the 5 goals I need to achieve in order to carry out my mission (coaching, consulting, networking, resourcing, and training).
Then I asked myself, “What’s success look like?” I brainstormed things that would indicate success. For example, one key performance indicator I identified for coaching was the number of clients who took action on their goals.
After brainstorming indictors for each of my 5 goals, I selected 1 indicator for each goal and figured the best way to know if I had picked useful indicators was by field-testing them.
And that’s exactly what I did—I field-tested my key performance indicators.
Later, I reviewed the usefulness of each indicator, asking myself questions like the following: What did I learn from field-testing this indicator? How helpful is this indicator? How easy is this to monitor? Is there another indicator that would be more helpful?
I refined my key performance indicators.
Finally, I decided to repeat the process I had used.

Here’s the process: Reflect, Brainstorm, Select, Test, Review, Refine, Repeat.

Your turn:

What’s your mission? What goals do you need to achieve to carry out your mission?
What are some key performance indicators for each of your goals?
What 1 or more key performance indicators do you want to use for each goal?
How long do you want to field-test your indicators?
What did you learn from field-testing your key performance indicators?
How can you refine your indicators?
How often do you need to repeat the process?

Focus on identifying your key performance indicators. Today.

How can you use key performance indicators to achieve your mission?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T22:17:00+09:00

You feel good about the past several months. Your organization has identified its God-given mission, identified the goals it needs to achieve to carry out its mission, decided to use key performance indicators to monitor mission achievement, and is now field-testing its key performance indicators. Wow! Real progress.

You want to use the progress you’ve made to close the gap between the words of your mission statement and the reality of your situation. So, you talk about the mission, discuss the goals, tell success stories, and analyze survey results. Good. And you’re thinking about using key performance indicators.

Question: How can you use key performance indicators to close the gap?

I use key performance indicators to help me focus on what to do next. For example, to achieve my mission during this school year, I need to have 30 coaching clients who are making progress toward their goals. Right now, I have 26. So, I know I need to help 4 more clients make progress.

Here’s another example: To achieve my mission during this school year, I need to help 40 leaders build capacity and/or get better results from using resources I provided. So far, I have helped 55 leaders in this way.

By using my key performance indicators, I know I need to help 4 more coaching clients, and I know that I don’t need to focus on using resources to help leaders build capacity and/or get better results. Using key performance indicators helps me know what to do next.

Question: How could using key performance indicators help you close the gap?

Focus on using key performance indicators to close the gap. Today.

How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-07-11T00:23:00+09:00

Your client is talking about what’s happening with his goal to plan more effectively. You easily relate to this—a few years back you had a similar goal. Since then, you’ve done research on planning, coached 27 clients who are working on planning, and developed a 5-phase planning framework.

As you listen to your client, you think, “He’s at phase 2.” Your client pauses, and you hear yourself say, “As best I can tell, you’re in phase 2—you’re working and you have a plan. Since you don’t yet have a good documented plan, you follow your gut more than your plan.”

Then you recognize that you just described your client’s reality—something you don’t want to do. Because you want your client thinking, and when you describe your client’s reality, he’s not thinking.

Question: How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently refrain from describing your client’s reality. Two things that help me do this are:

Remembering that my client is the expert in his life—not me. He knows his reality.
Remembering that my goal is to get my client thinking about his reality.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from describing your client’s reality?

Provoke reflection throughout your mission

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-05T20:27:00+09:00

I’m watching missionaries, who are sitting in pairs, deeply engaged in conversation. These missionaries are asking each other key questions: What people/projects are you investing your energy in? What’s been satisfying/frustrating? What are the reasons for your feelings of satisfaction/frustration? How can I pray for you?

I’m thinking, “This is going pretty well. They’re more engaged than if I did the traditional style of devotions. They’re provoking each other to reflect. And they look like they’re having a good time. Having them use a set of questions worked.”

Want to provoke reflection throughout your mission? Have people in your mission use a set of questions to talk together.

For example, when you are starting a mission gathering and need an icebreaker, have participants ask each other a set of questions: When you were in 5th grade, where did you live? What did you enjoy doing? What’s easy/challenging about living in this country? In your recent personal life, what’s been encouraging/discouraging? Overall, how are you feeling? How can I pray for you?

When you’re leading a team meeting and want team members to reflect on ministry goals, have team members ask each other a set of questions: What are your ministry goals? What progress on your goals have you experienced? What roadblocks have you experienced? How can you leverage your progress and minimize your roadblocks? You talked about _____ today—what do you think you’ll do?

When you’re leading a workshop on getting more organized, have participants ask each other a set of questions: What tools do you use to get organized? How do you feel when you’re organized/disorganized? For you, what does being organized look like? To get organized, what do you need to keep doing, start doing, and stop doing? What will you do?

Use the following set of questions to reflect on this article:

What is 1 thing from this article that interested you?
What excites/concerns you about provoking reflection throughout your mission?
How could using a set of questions help you provoke reflection?
When could you use a set of questions to provoke reflection?
What will you do?

How often do you refrain from suggesting options?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-08-16T20:24:00+09:00

Your client has explored what’s happening with her goal to make a career transition. You ask, “What can you do to move forward?” You wait about 15 seconds—your client doesn’t say anything. You rephrase the question and ask, “What are your options?’’ And you wait for about 10 seconds—your client doesn’t say anything. Then you say, “Here are 3 things you could do.…”

Not good. Why? Because by suggesting options you did the work your client is supposed to do. Because your suggestions interrupted some really good ideas your client was having—she wasn’t sitting there doing nothing. Because you hear your client say, “I appreciate your willingness to help. I was coming up with some good ideas, and when you gave your suggestions, I focused on listening to you. Now I’m having trouble remembering what I was thinking.” Ouch.

Question: How often to you refrain from suggesting options?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently refrain from suggesting options. Things that help me do this include the following:

Remembering that silence indicates reflection, not the absence of reflection.
Remembering that brainstorming options helps my client get motivated for action. And I want my client motivated for action.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from suggesting options?

How often are you interested in what others say?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T20:26:00+09:00

Your mind is starting to wander. Your responses lack your usual focus and enthusiasm. When your calendar alarm goes off, you focus on it and miss a key thought your client has shared. And you’re concerned because you know these things indicate that you’re not really interested in what your client is saying.

Question: How often are you interested in what others say?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you’re consistently interested in what others say. Things that help me do this include the following:

Focusing on my client as a fellow Christian who is working to pursue his calling.
Making appropriate eye contact.
Removing distractions before I start coaching. For example, if I’m using videoconferencing to coach, I turn off all other software applications.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently are interested in what others say?

Leaders, empower others by asking questions

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-09-16T21:28:00+09:00

Do you want to empower others? Do you want to empower others to focus, solve problems, and achieve their goals? If so, provoke them. Provoke them to reflect.

Reflection is powerful. Personally speaking, reflection helps me clarify my ministry goals, increase awareness of my progress, identify things that are hindering my progress, and develop action steps. In short, reflection helps me do ministry.

I’ve seen reflection help fellow staff members at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ). After reflecting, staff members were more focused on their goals, managed their time better, and led meetings more effectively.

But don’t take my word for it. I asked CAJ staff members to tell me how reflection empowers them. Here’s what they said: “Reflection helps me get clear on what’s going on so I can make effective decisions.” “Reflection helps me organize my tasks and next actions.” “Reflection helps me handle situations more effectively.”

So, how can you provoke reflection? By asking open-ended questions:

If your co-worker wants to more effectively disciple others, ask: How do you disciple people now? What’s causing you to want to improve? What’s “more effective discipleship” look like? What can you do?
If your team is planning an event, ask: What do we want to see happen? What will help this go well? Who’s going to do what?
If a pastor is dealing with conflict, ask: What happened? How do you feel? How does the other person see the situation? How can you demonstrate Christ’s love?
If a small group leader wants to help her members to be more engaged, ask: If your members got more engaged, what might happen? What helps your members get engaged? When are your participants not engaged? What can you do?

Bottom line: Empower other by asking questions.

*Want to empower others to ask questions? Then ask them questions like:

What problems are those around you facing?
What goals are they trying to achieve?
What excites/concerns you about empowering others by asking questions?
To what extent do you ask questions to help others focus? Prioritize? Solve problems?
How could you more effectively use questions to empower others?
What will you do?

How often do you make inviting statements?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-10-14T20:27:00+09:00

My client wants to prioritize her tasks. So, I start by asking questions like “What tasks need to get done?” and “What else?” My client mentions a variety of tasks, including updating materials for a workshop on personal productivity, finalizing a presentation on planning tools for the leadership team, and attending a network meeting of church planters. Then she pauses and says, “I really need to get after my workshop materials.”

I notice her emphasis on workshop materials. Instead of asking a question, I make an inviting statement: “You mentioned that you need to update workshop materials and then you came back to that again. Tell me more about that.” She shares that she’s concerned about the workshop materials and that she’s been wondering if she should expand the number of workshops she’s doing.

My point: Make inviting statements.

Question: How often do you make inviting statements?

Things that help me make inviting statements include the following:

Recognizing that inviting statements help me reflect.
Remembering that inviting statements are an effective alternative to questions.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you make inviting statements?

How often do you refrain from criticizing your client?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-11-16T09:28:00+09:00

I’ve gotten coaching on things that had obvious solutions. For example, I’ve gotten coaching on how avoid getting overloaded at a conference, when the (obvious) solution was to schedule down time. I’ve gotten coaching on which new goals to pursue, when the (obvious) solution was not to pursue any—my schedule was already full.

I’m glad that my coaches empowered me to discover effective action steps. I’m glad they didn’t say things like, “It’s a conference—you shouldn’t be focused on avoiding overload” or “Look, your schedule is already full, so thinking about which new goals to pursue is a bad idea.” I’m glad that coaches refrained from criticizing me.

Question: How often do you refrain from criticizing your client?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently refrain from criticizing your client. Things that help me do this include the following:

Remembering how criticism shuts down my thinking—and the thinking of my clients.
Focusing on helping my client discover action steps that will help him reach his goals.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from criticizing your client?

How often do you target understanding?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T09:30:00+09:00

A key reason I get coaching is because I want to understand and be understood. I want to understand, for example, what’s happening with a transition to living in a different culture for 6 months, how I feel about it, and how I can use it to further my goals. And I want to be understood—I want my coach to understand what I’m thinking and feeling, for example, about living in a different culture.

I don’t get coaching because I want to be judged. I don’t get coaching so I can hear my coach say things like “Living in a different culture is a bad idea” or “You shouldn’t feel apprehensive about living in a different culture” or “That’s a stupid action step.”

My point: If you want to help your coaching clients, listen to them. And when you listen, target understanding (not judging).

Question: How often do you target understanding?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently target understanding. Things that help me do this include:

Remembering as a client how helpful it is when my coach really wants to understand me.
Remembering how much I dislike getting judged and how getting judging decreases my ability to reflect.

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently target understanding?

How can you focus others?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2010-12-15T09:51:00+09:00

By asking questions like:

What’s your mission statement?
What excites/concerns you about the mission?
How does your work help achieve the mission?
What helps you achieve the mission? What gets in your way?
On a scale of 1-5 (5 being high), how focused are you on your mission statement?
What can you do to increase your focus?
What will you do?

How often do you refrain from asking “why” questions?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-01-20T09:31:00+09:00

Ever been asked, “Why did you do that?” I have. While it does get me thinking, it also gets me feeling accused. And sometimes the feeling of being accused gets in the way of me thinking about why I did something.

The question “Why did you do that?” taps into childhood memories of really stupid things I’ve done (like when I was a young boy, I thought I could jump across a large manure pit, and fell in instead) and of my parents looking at me, wondering what I was thinking.

My point: If you want to help your coaching clients to reflect, and if you don’t want your clients feeling accused, refrain from asking “why” questions.

Question: How do often you refrain from asking “why” questions?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently refrain from asking “why” questions. One thing that helps me do this is asking questions that start with “what.” For example, “What caused you to do that?” (instead of “Why did you do that?”).

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from asking “why” questions?

How often do you use “encouragers” to encourage others?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-02-18T09:32:00+09:00

In Japan, the listener shows that he’s listening by saying things like “hai hai,” (um hm) and “naruhodo” (I see). When the person talking hears these phrases, he’s encouraged to continue talking. In a real sense, these phrases are “encouragers.”

My point: Use “encouragers” to encourage your clients to keep talking and reflecting. When you’re coaching, say things like “yup,” “yes,” “um hmm,” “I see,” and “hmm.”

Question: How often do you use “encouragers” to encourage others?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Question: What will do to ensure that you consistently use “encouragers” to encourage others?

How often do you use affirmation to encourage others?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-04-14T20:34:00+09:00

Your client is sharing the results of the 2 action steps she’s taken to get better life balance. She walked for 30 minutes each day and is feeling more relaxed. And when her supervisor asked her to design a newsletter, she responded with, “I’m happy to design a newsletter. What would you like me to stop working on in order do this?” Her supervisor said she should stop work on a promotional video!

You look at your client and say, “You’ve made real progress on getting better life balance. You accomplished your 2 action steps. You’re more relaxed, and you took on a new task without increasing your overall workload. Good for you!” Your client has a big smile on her face. She looks encouraged.

My point: Use affirmation to encourage others.

Question: How often do you use affirmation to encourage others?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Make sure you consistently use affirmation to encourage others. And when you give affirmation, make sure your affirmation is:

Growth-centered
Relevant
Authentic
Client-focused
Energizing
Specific

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently use affirmation to encourage others?

How can you help others to work smarter?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T20:50:00+09:00

By asking questions like:

What’s your ministry?
How do you feel about your ministry and your workload?
How interested are you in getting more done in the same amount of time?
What helps you work efficiently and effectively? What doesn’t help you?
What can you do to work smarter?
What will you do

How can you help others pursue excellence?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-03-18T20:50:00+09:00

By asking questions like:

What’s excellence?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about pursuing organizational excellence?
For your ministry, what does organizational excellence look like?
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence?
What will you do?

How often do you refrain from advising others on what actions to take?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-11T20:35:00+09:00

Your client wants to better organize the files in his computer. So you ask him questions like: How are your computer files organized now? What do you like/dislike about the way your computer files are organized? What does being “better organized” look like? In terms of being organized, what do you want to keep doing, start doing, and stop doing?

Your client responds to your questions and does some effective reflection. He brainstorms some possible action plans and decides to talk with Martin about how to better organize computer files. You ask, “What else will you do?” You wait for about 10 seconds—your client doesn’t come with another action step. Then you say, “You should organize your files in terms of your job roles….”

Not good. Why? Because by suggesting action steps, you could be interrupting your client’s thinking. Because by suggesting action steps, you are doing your client’s work for him. Because by suggesting action steps, you are acting like a consultant, not a coach.

My point: Make sure you consistently refrain from advising others on what actions to take.

Question: How often do you refrain from advising others on what actions to take?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Question: What will you do to ensure that you consistently refrain from advising others on what actions to take?

Leaders, pursue excellence

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-09-15T08:58:31+09:00

You’re grateful for what God has done for you. So, you want to serve God, in part by pursuing excellence for Him. As a ministry leader, you know that one type of excellence you want to pursue is organizational excellence. Good.

What can you do to pursue organizational excellence? Here are 4 things you can do:

(1) Make sure staff are cared for. To care for staff on a personal level, demonstrate interest in them, have fun together, and provide life coaching to help staff balance work/home. To care for staff on a professional level, demonstrate interest in their ministry, encourage them to reflect, and provide support, encouragement and accountability.

(2) Make sure staff participate in professional development. What kind of professional development? In professional development that addresses current job responsibilities and that helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals. In professional development that involves staff in reflection and follow-up. In professional development that helps your staff do ministry more effectively.

(3) Make sure staff meetings target mission achievement. Make sure each meeting’s purpose is documented, targets mission achievement, and is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda. Have those attending the meeting collaboratively develop meeting guidelines that define desired meeting dynamics. And schedule separate meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.

(4) Make sure staff understand, are involved in, and are focused on organizational improvement. How can you do this? By explaining organizational improvement, encouraging ownership, involving staff in developing improvement plans, and providing the support and accountability staff need to carry out improvement plans. Here's the acid test: If ministry leadership dropped of the planet, would the plans still get implemented? If so, then you have an effective organizational improvement plan.

Bottom line: Pursue excellence.

How can you help others pursue excellence? By asking questions like:

What’s excellence?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about pursuing organizational excellence?
For your ministry, what does organizational excellence look like?
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence?
What will you do?

How committed are you to meeting your students’ learning needs?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-11T12:57:55+09:00

If you see someone recycling paper and plastic, riding her bike instead of driving her car, and writing blog entries about taking care of the environment, you think, “Wow! She’s really committed to going green.” If you see someone who isn’t recycling, isn’t riding her bike, and isn’t writing blog entries on the environment, you don’t think, “Wow! She’s really committed to going green.” Why? Because you know that people who are committed take action, and you know that people who aren’t really committed don’t take action.

In Christian education, we're committed to helping our students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. We know that meeting learning needs helps students make connections. So, we're committed to meeting learning needs to help our students make these connections.

What’s your real level of commitment to meeting your students’ learning needs regarding connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches? To determine your response, reflect on the following questions:

What are your students’ learning needs regarding connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What are you doing to meet your students’ learning needs?
How consistently do you take action to meet your students’ learning needs?
How committed are you really?

Want to raise your real commitment level? Take action on 1 student learning need.

Help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Meet their learning needs. Today.

How committed are you to using assessment to help students make connections?

mbessenburg@caj.or.jp — 2011-05-11T12:57:27+09:00

We know. We know our real level of commitment is best demonstrated by our practice. So, we know that the real commitment level of the following teachers is not high:

I’m a second grade language arts teacher who is committed to students writing well. Each year, my students write 1 journal entry.
I’m a middle school Bible teacher who is committed to students memorizing God’s Word. Each year, my students memorize 2 verses.
I’m a high school science teacher who is committed to students doing labs. Each year, my students do 2 labs.

In Christian education, we're committed to helping our students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. We know that assessment helps students make connections. So, we're committed to using assessment to help our students make these connections.

What’s your real level of commitment to using assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? To determine your response, reflect on the following questions:

How many assessments do you give each year? (Include things like daily work, presentations, projects, essays, and quizzes, and tests.)
How many of these assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What percentage of your assessments requires students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
How committed are you really?

Want to raise your real commitment level? Give more assessments that require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

Use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.