As the importance of knowing how to find information for decision making increases, the need to evaluate media from a biblical worldview increases. Values are caught more than taught. So who are students learning most from? When? Where? How?

Thinkers. Not mere reflectors. Rooted and grounded in truth. Prepared to make principle-driven, character-backed decisions. Students need Christ-like teachers and parents as mentors who model and teach media literacy.

So I’m hunting for resources to be media literate myself, to make informed decisions and to be well prepared to teach media literacy in Adventist education at any level. I’ve started a collection as CIRCLE’s Media Literacy category.

Here’s a recent discover. Center for Media Literacy K-12 provides a CML MediaLitKit, a framework for teaching and learning in a media age. And you can easily access hundreds of archived Media and Values articles by media issues/topics or curriculum/subject areas.

Can you add to this list? What are you using? when, and how?

“Christian teachers see the profession of teaching as a ministry. It is an act of serving young people as they move toward the realisation of their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual potentials.” SPD Record (p.7)

Peter Beamish, Dean of the Avondale College Faculty of Education in Australia, has more to say about the calling to teach.  He describes a new website created to profile the teaching ministry. The Ministry of Teaching website features “the reflections of practising teachers, along with information about pathways into the ministry. The website is also designed to serve those already working in the teaching ministry. An exciting section of the website is the new online journal of Christian education called Teach. The journal contains information about the latest research findings in education, administration, and teaching and professional practice.”

Be (re)inspired by viewing the 2 minute videos on Ministry of Teaching – real teachers, real issues, real students. Then inspire senior high school and college students by sharing the link, and sharing your story – what makes teaching more than a job or career to you, why you accepted the call to continue the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ.

The South Pacific Division recently shared their new Bible 1-8 curriculum designed by and for their Pacific Island region. Two teachers guides include lesson or story plans to accompany the ten-volume Uncle Arthur’s Bible Story series Concise (each lesson fills a one-page table), clear, adaptable, utilizing multiple intelligences, including helps on how to lead students to Christ, and suitable to multi- or single grade classes, these free downloads could be helpful supplements to other Adventist elementary Bible curricula.

Both documents are available in word format, so you can edit/add to make them your own:
Bible Story Plans, Volumes 1-6
Bible Story Plans, Volumes 7-10

Find curriculum in print or online in other world regions:
North American Division
South Pacific Division
Southern Asia Division
Southern Asia-Pacific Division

Do you know of other Bible curricula, texts or instructional materials not listed? Please consider contributing ideas or items here or through circle.adventist.org/submit – together, we can better continue the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ.

As Adventist educators, starting a new calendar year is often a time for reflection and re-evaluation. Is the purpose of Adventist education clearly before us, despite detours in 2007? Have we prayerfully recommitted our lives to serve on whatever route God plans to best accomplish His purpose in 2008?

Reflecting on one or more articles in the Adventist Education Essentials topic of CIRCLE, the Adventist Curriculum and Instruction Resource Center Linking Educators, could be a helpful refocusing exercise. Each section has been recently updated, with topics such as how to integrate faith In the Classroom and On Campus, and The Ministry of Teaching.

One small gadget can change our experience on a road journey, focusing on the destination, more than the obstacles along the way. I recently read The Craft of Christian Teaching which refueled my journey as an Adventist educator. Van Dyk (2000) identifies true north for Christian education like this: “The purpose of our classroom efforts cannot simply be the transmission of classical intellectual insight, but rather, the whole-person equipping of our children for knowledgeable and competent discipleship in a hurting world.” This aligns with the Adventist philosophy of education aim and mission, to prepare “students for a useful and joy-filled life, fostering friendship with God, whole-person development, Bible-based values, and selfless service in accordance with the Seventh-day Adventist mission to the world”. Van Dyk provides practical tips, founded in a biblical worldview, on how to chart the best course between end goals and our 2008 starting point.