Gifted to Give
Pamela Zuidhof loves the fact that she too is on a continual TfT journey. The practices she shares with fellow educators through her role as a school designer are practices she is trying and re-trying in her own classroom. She particularly loves imagining around and connecting her students to real audiences. Pam teaches Grade 3 and is the Assistant Principal at Surrey Christian School. Pam shares this Storyboard from Surrey Christian.
Grade 2 teachers Rachelle New and Sophie Nagtegaal invite students into the Storyline: Gifted to Give.

Rachelle and Sophie intentionally unpack this with the students to start the year, helping each student recognize the gifts God has given them and the gifts they bring to their classroom community.

It is beautiful how Rachelle and Sophie weave their storyline into each cross curricular unit they teach, approaching it from the viewpoint of “God’s gift of _____.” Their storyboard has the student’s fingerprints all over it, from the title, large number of student photos, student work, and student reflections. They truly help their students live into their deep hope,
“We will explore and discover the gifts God has given us and use them to serve God and others” and help their students recognize that they need to “do something about it” through “acts of deep hope.”

Students are then able to see how their real work, for real people, that meets a real need are their acts of deep hope.