A Teachers Prayer

                                              

Lord, let me be just what they need.
If they need someone to trust, let me be trustworthy.
If they need sympathy, let me sympathize.
If they need love, (and they do need love), 

let me love, in full measure.
Let me not anger easily, Lord but let me be just.
Permit my justice to be tempered in your mercy.
When I stand before them, Lord, 

let me look strong and good and honest and loving.
And let me be as strong and good and honest

and loving as I look to them.
Help me to counsel the anxious, crack the covering of the shy,

temper therambunctious with a gentle attitude.

Permit me to teach only the truth.
Help me to inspire them so that learning will not cease at the classroom door.
Let the lessons they learn make their lives fruitful and happy.
And, Lord, let me bring them to You.
Teach them through me to love You.
Finally, permit me to learn the lessons they teach.

Teacher's Prayer

I want to teach my students how
To live this life on earth
To face its struggles and its strife
And to improve their worth
Not just the lesson in a book
Or how the rivers flow
But how to choose the proper path
Wherever they may go
To understand eternal truth And know
The right from wrong
And gather all the beauty of a Flower
And a song for if
I help the world to grow In wisdom
And in grace
Then I shall feel that I have won
And I have filled my place
And so I ask Your guidance, God
That I may do my part 
For character and confidence
And happiness of Heart.

Teachers Prayer

                          

God grant me wisdom, creativity and love.

With wisdom, I may look to the future
and see the effect that my teaching will
have on these children and thus adapt my
methods to fit the needs of each one.

With creativity, I can prepare new and interesting
projects that can challenge my students and expand
their minds to set higher goals and dream loftier dreams.

With love, I can praise my students for jobs well done 
and encourage them to get up and go when they fall.

A Teacher's Reflection

God, I have come to the frightening conclusion.
I an the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's
life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or
de-humanized.
Grant me the insight and patience to make the right decisions 
to model Jesus in my classroom.

Teacher Reflection

       

Everything depends on the person who 

stands in the front ofthe classroom. 

The teacher is not an automatic fountain from which
intellectual beverages may be obtained. 

He is either a witness or a stranger. 

To guide a pupil to the promised land he must have been there
himself.  When asking herself: do I stand for what I teach?  do I believe 
what I say?  she must be able to answer in the affirmative.

What we need more than anything else is not textbooks but textpeople.  
It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that the pupils read:
the text that they will never forget.

At Grading Time

There they sit, Father,
a neat stack of yellow report cards.
And here I sit,
an anxious and bewildered Solomon, 
praying in my heart for wisdom,
while the controversy about grading surges on.

Should there be an objective standard
whereby children are measured against other children?

And how do we weigh a child's achievement 
against his ability and effort?
Can we penalize a child for having little natural ability,
when he can't get a high mark
no matter how hard he tries?
And what about the child for whom "A"s come easily?
Will he skim through school never knowing what it is to try?

And what is happening 
when an "A" becomes so important that a child will
cheat for it,
perhaps to avoid abuse at home?

So here I sit, Father,
forced to take these cards seriously
because other people do.
Long on questions,
short on answers.

Father,
as I reach reluctantly for the top card,
let me also reach for your promise:
"If any one of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God."