In the month of January, I challenged 10 fourth graders to relate their faith to their research! Students who received As and Bs in quarter 2 were invited to participate, and we had three new students join our team this month! In order to facilitate discussions, I divided students into 2 groups in Breakout Rooms. Most mornings in January, we came together for 45 minutes, starting with a greeting, moving into introducing a new concept or skill to guide the research process, and then breaking into Breakout rooms to discuss students’ current growth and give feedback. I frequently toggled back between the rooms and students assumed responsibility over the facilitation of the discussion themselves.

This month, students voted to record their presentations to share as Loom videos with their family members. This eliminated the extra pressure of having additional people listening to presentations or parents’ individual schedule limitations, while giving parents an opportunity to celebrate! I recruited a colleague to record one group’s presentation as I captured the other group. It was a delight!

Overall, students were able to weave together their interests in ways that were creative, compelling, and culturally-aware. It gave me great joy to see them loving God will all their hearts, souls, and minds through these projects!

Student Research Projects

Researching Royal Penguins

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This student’s love of penguins has been a yoke of solidarity between us since the beginning of the year. For this project, I challenged him to select just one kind of penguin and study it very closely. I was proud of his verbal explanation of Penguins’ uniqueness as one of God’s creation, and how appreciating them helps us appreciate God. Ever the steadfast friend, this student created his own Kahoot (question game) about Penguin facts, so that his peers could learn more about Royal penguins.

Ravenous for Ramen

This presentation takes the cake for sincerity and wackiness. Brought to you by the same bright mind who put together a college level presentation on Carnivorous Plants in December (complete with Venus Flytrap cardboard diorama), this students’ January Inquiry project came it at 31 pages (including two full pages of sources). Despite of the 3-4 minute limit each student had to summarize their findings, this student achieved his goal with time to spare because he had practiced summarizing his presentation in advance.

Follow last month’s Internet Safety Meeting with families, students practiced selecting quality sources for their January Inquiry project. Imagine my joy and surprise to see how thoroughly this student has applied that skill!

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As if his presentation on the History, ingredients, varieties, fast food versions, and applications of Ramen weren’t enough, my student took us on a culinary adventure.

He devoted 10 of his 31 pages to demonstrate step by step (10 Steps) how to make Chicken Karaage Ramen. As a bonus, he shopped at the little Japanese Market up the corner from my last apartment. Small world. 🙂

This student related his faith to Ramen through the lens of community, respecting other cultures, and sharing a meal. Especially given that we as Christians are invited to eat at the Lord’s table as one body of many nations, his presentation was touching.

Passionately against Plastic Pollution

Now here is a student whose emotions are sensitive to the Holy Spirit! In class, she is frequently pragmatic and goofy, somber and sincere. For this project, my student focused on the heart problem of pollution, the selfishness and dishonor that it demonstrates towards the Earth, and what she and her peers could do to stop it. Her passion made me think of a project I once did in sixth grade, studying the history of World War 2. I inadvertently spent most of my project psychoanalyzing Hitler’s traumatic upbringing, essentially trying to understand what had turned him down such a dark path. While surprised, my teacher had the wisdom to let me pursue the project from an ethical perspective instead of a strictly factual one. That project allowed me to study questions I had about good and evil in a way that eventually led me to God. Given all that, it felt more important to allow this student to pursue her project through an ethical lens. Intuitively, she included a call to action and summarized with her own personal reflections about God’s power to redeem and restore the earth (Revelation 21).

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Faithfully Fabricating Fidget Spinners

As the son of a teacher, this student has had more than his fair share of exposure to the world of education. Thrilled by the complete freedom to choose his own topic, he chose to study the creation of fidget spinners. While I anticipated that he would relate his project to his faith through the lens of disability and equity, he chose to surprise me! On youtube, he had found tutorials that showed viewers how to make their own fidget spinners out of wood or even raw apples, as opposed to buying ones made from plastic. His main idea: Create your own fidget spinners to steward the environment.

Sincerly Savvy of Shark Attacks

This student chose to study shark attacks based on his mother’s near close encounter with a shark. While she confessed that sharks were mostly ruined to her by the experience, her son decided to see what was really at the root of shark attacks. Were sharks really to blame? And how can we as people try to prevent shark attacks?

One of the best parts of this students’ presentation was the inclusion of Nine Shark Attack Risk Factors, and ways people can prevent them. According to this student, people should:

1. Always swim in a group
2. Not wander too far from shore
3. Not swim with shiny jewelry
4. Not splash a lot
5. Not swim where many fish are swimming
6. Not enter the water if they are bleeding
7. Avoid the water at night, dawn, or dusk
8. Not rely on myths about shark attacks (ex: if there are porpoises in the water, there are no sharks)
9. Avoid sandbars and drop offs

This student related his faith to the environmentalism of Pope Francis. He correctly cited Pope Francis and asserted that by taking care of the environment, humans can reduce the incident of shark attacks.

Agreeably Analyzing Acid Rain

I continue to enjoy this students’ relaxed but thoughtful presentation style! Unlike some, he understands that the key to a great powerpoint is a moderate amount of text and graphics, but a substantial amount of explanation. This student explored the role of acid rain, and what individuals can do to reduce its impact.

This student rarely seeks the spotlight, but will allow me to appoint him as group leader during breakout rooms periodically. I’m consistently impressed by his humility and the fact that he can articulate when he feels shy, BUT challenge himself to overcome self-consciousness for the things he loves.

Like my Ramen radical, this student extended his learning by doing a science experiment! Inside the beaker, there was a chemical that managed to turn the rose a different color. Kudos to this student for his self-directed science!

Like many of his peers, this student ultimately decided that Christians should care about acid rain out of our responsibility to steward the Earth.

Skillfully Smashing Smog

This fall, I was lucky enough to witness the essay-writing skills of this student first-hand. As an encore, she has dazzled me once again by writing an essay to discuss the impact of car smog on air quality.

As you can see, her essay proceeds in a problem and solution format. She begins by connecting to her viewer’s personal experience with transportation, ways cars can increase air pollution, methods to reducing smog, and a call to action. She has included her faith in her call to action, since she is speaking to a religious audience. She ultimately relates her faith to the the theme of community.

Inter-religious Interest

In response to our many mornings spent praying for the nations and earlier units on Judaism and Islam this year, this student studied the core beliefs and worship methods of Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. She articulated that “learning about other religions helps us to learn more about other cultures and people who God created.” Ultimately in the context of other cultures, this student gained a better understanding and appreciation of the teachings of her faith.

Purposeful Patterns in Pokemon

I have had many a conversation debating the greatest Pokemon with this student. In this project, he doubled the amount of detail he included last month, and described how many Pokemon are actually based on the animals of the natural world. For example, he explained that Mewtwo is actually based on a Kangaroo, but that Mew is based on a cat. By studying the ways that Pokemon’s creators engineered Pokemon based on natural creatures, this student gained a deeper appreciation for God’s diligence and creativity in forming the diversity of life on Earth.

My favorite pokemon is Ditto, in case anyone was wondering.

Where do we go from here?

This month in class, students will be starting to explore the Civil Rights movement. One student from this group wasted no time in telling me that she would like to “learn a little more deeply, like writing an essay, a kahoot, or powerpoint” to understand the ethical roots of racism through a religious lens. As a result of these Inquiry projects, it was greatly satisfying to see her specifically ask to dive deeper into this topic, and suggest some potential methods we’ve used to do so. With the blessings of my colleagues, students will brush past a surface level understanding of Civil Rights to understand key tactics, leaders, and ethics.

As various students have wondered about the role of religious leaders in the Civil rights movement, I plan to select 4-5 prominent religious leaders and discuss their stances on the Civil Rights movement (spoiler: some were supportive, but many were not). We will examine quotes of denominations speeches or public comments on the Civil Rights movement, and students will even do an activity where they have to match the name and intended outcome of various forms of direct action (for example, sit ins, boycotts, freedom rides, blockades, lunch counter protests, etc).

At the end of the unit, students will be able to:

• Recognize the diversity of tactics employed by Civil Rights leaders, and identify their outcomes
• Use Christian teachings of nonviolence to compare and contrast nonviolent civil disobedience with militancy
• From reflection, draw independent personal conclusions on the role of Christians should play in racial politics, and the methods Christians should employ

In February as many students transition back to the building, students will be spending our Inquiry project designing group inquiry projects for March. In March, 3 more students will join us, boosting our number to 13 (of 20) students total. As a group, students will select 1-3 themes that they will explore as a jigsaw, each student taking one individual component. While it seems very likely students will continue to purpose environmentalism (something they first studied in depth in first grade), I suspect some might be interested in the history of toys or some other theme.

Regardless of what they choose to explore, I’ve gotten approval from my colleagues to ultimately support ALL students to do Inquiry Projects in the final months of our school year! I am confident that by crafting a jigsaw of different topics with students for March, we will be able to continue to build a web of collective interests that will catalyze their love of learning into next school year.

In the month of January, my third and fourth grade students learned about the history of faithful men and women who joined Religious orders. We as a grade level decided that it would be much more exciting for students to see the ways that key church figures have shaped history INSTEAD of focusing primarily on the knitty-gritty roles and responsibilities of church structure. I am confident that my students will eventually be able to distinguish what makes certain roles like Bishop or Cardinal unique within the Catholic church, especially since students at our school have been able to host a conversation with the newly-elected Cardinal Gregory over Zoom. As students get used to seeing these church leaders as friendly faces, focusing on religious orders’ impact on the world allows students to appreciate the legacy of the community of saints they’ve been born into.

For better and worse, Religious orders were designed to respond to allow people to seek God as they responded to the unique challenges of their day. From the first first monastic communities in the deserts of Egypt (313-400 AD) to the evolution of the today’s universities from the monasteries of the Middle Ages, Religious orders have shaped Western culture in indelible ways. Throughout centuries, religious orders have developed schools, hospitals, guest houses, farms, and programs for the poor that eventually gave birth to the modern Nonprofit sector. Check out this timeline to see how religious orders have changed Western culture.

Prior to starting this project, I also spent time talking with students about Disability rights within the church, and the faith of my friends at L’Arche DC. We discussed how people can love and pursue God’s call on their lives regardless of their physical or cognitive ability. We loved learning about The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb Convent in LeBlanc, France, and how many religious sisters there with Down Syndrome are passionately following the Lord Jesus.

Challenge: Designing a Religious Order

My colleague took the lead on the facilitation of this project! Similar to our Holy Trinity Action Cards project, students studied and compared religious orders to understand their unique differences. THEN, students were challenged to design their own religious order, based on their own interests and pressing needs they see in our world.

For their religious order, 3rd and 4th grade students had to include and explain their orders’:

• Name
• Motto
• Habit (clothing)
• 3 Values
• Coat of Arms

My colleague also designed this handy rubric for students to use to self-evaluate!

After students completed their projects, they spent about 45 minutes of class time presenting their projects to one another in Zoom Breakout rooms.

As a teacher, this project was especially meaningful to me, because it was a chance to see how the Holy Spirit was moving on students’ hearts to highlight particular concerns. I was impressed by how deeply the projects connected their personal values to their faith. While I was focusing elsewhere, the Holy Spirit had snuck in to teach them a variety of things about the topics already on their hearts.

Unsurprisingly, several common themes and values emerged. Check them out below!

Stewardship of Animals

In projects related to the stewardship of animals, many students suggested members should do service at animal shelters.

Some students connected their passion to the teachings of Saint Francis:

Humorous and easily-washed Habits (clothing) were vital:

Students took our many conversations about human’s Genesis 1 mandate to steward the Earth very seriously:

Children United in Jesus

Kids’ Authority as Sons and Daughters of God

The Importance of Community

Obedience and Love for Family

Love for our Enemies

Other specific Causes

Conclusion

It was such a beautiful thing to see our 3rd and 4th graders connect their passions to the history of passionate believers of the past. I am excited to see how God will continue to guide students through their interests, and give them wisdom and courage to pursue their own callings. This month, I will be reading a book called, Water from a Deep Well by Gerald L. Sittser, to deepen my own understanding of the many ways Christians have shaped the world from Jesus to the present AND how religious life has changed over time. You are more than welcome to join me!

In Christ,

Haley

Throughout January and the end of December, I’ve treasured my Friday mornings with Fourth grade. Over the last month, students have studied 12 different nations in groups in Zoom breakout rooms, composing their own prayers and then praying as a group together. This year, yearning for the Nations has been one of our foundational classroom values (along with environmental stewardship and the importance of prayer and scripture). In many ways, this is something my students understand instinctively. As a whole, the majority of my students come from diverse backgrounds as immigrants or children of immigrants, and many students have strong ties to other nations already. At the same time, my monocultural students have inevitably experienced the effects of other nations by the nature of living in Washington, D.C.. Our city is one of many nations!

In late December, I introduced the reality of international religious persecution to students as we discussed the value of religious freedom. By knowing Jesus as our Prince of Peace through the Advent season, students were able to explore Jesus as represented in Diverse Madonna and Child portraits from many nations. Immediately, we set to work studying Afganistan and Afgani culture, celebrating Afgans use of aqueducts for farming, and the values of hospitality and scholarship related to Islam. In order to correct for some of the hostility and cultural insensitivity Christians have shown at times throughout the centuries, as well as recent intolerant behavior of some Christians towards Muslims, we began by celebrating a predominantly Muslim nation. As a class we also explicitly discussed the complicated role of the U.S. in the Middle East, acknowledged that many people have different and strong opinions about the topic. We prayed that Jesus would forgive the United States for the ways we’ve grieved people’s hearts in Afganistan and Iraq through the wars we’ve had with those nations, and asked God to restore the hurting individuals and societies in Jesus’ name.

For the four weeks, students continued to honor, study, and intercede for various nations in prayer. While students prayed for religious freedom in these countries, you might be surprised by the many inventive ways they ultimately prayed! It is my hope that by sharing this experience, others will see that international intercession in prayer, scholarship in nation study, and honoring the diversity of human beings are essentially intertwined.

Activity Design

Each Friday morning, students gathered on Zoom at 10am for an hour devoted primarily to prayer. After giving announcements and updates, students have the choice of 3 nations to study. After selecting the nation they would like to study, I label Zoom breakout rooms with the names of each nation, and assign students accordingly. With a class of 20 students, we usually have 4 breakout rooms of about 5 each. Each week, there is a country that students find most fascinating, so we have two groups of that nation and just one group for the other nations. Students have done a tremendous amount of group work in past years and this year in Zoom Breakout rooms. Since they receive grades for collaboration already and I alternate pretty fluently (and sneakily) between groups monitoring their work, students are able to stay on task, remain reverent in prayer, and document their prayers thoroughly on Seesaw.

After students are put in breakout rooms, they have 4 main steps to complete:

Researching Religious Persecution

First, students have to read about their country’s level of religious persecution. Students navigate to the page labeled with their countries name, and expand the summary for religious freedom in that nation. I chose to highlight the issue of Religious Persecution for this assignment, so for each of the nations students’ studied, there is some level of Religious persecution. Students discovered that religious persecution can look differently across the world. While many individuals are legally imprisoned, beaten, plundered, physically attacked, discriminated against, and more, others face social ostracism for their faith, and faith in Jesus. For this assignment, students used the Kids’ of Courage (Voice of the Martyr’s) Country Summary pages. to study more about the level of religious persecution in these nations.

Researching Culture

Second, students had to read about each nation’s culture. The vibrant graphics on the National Geographic Kids Country Profile pages provided ample room for discussion and exploration approximately at students’ instructional levels.

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Composing Prayers

Next, students discuss the things they noticed and appreciated about each nation, as well as any questions they might have. Students alternate between composing their prayers independently, and composing a prayer as a group (which can be especially supportive for students’ reading or writing below grade level expectations). Students must name at least 3 things they found most interesting about their nation, and make a list to include in their prayer. Students must then consider how they would like to ask God to intervene in that nation based on the facts that they have read related to culture and local religious persecution.

Praying as a Group

Once all students in the group have finished composing their prayers, they click the “Ask for Help” button on the Zoom toolbar to call me back to their group. We decide the order of who will pray, to decrease confusion. Normally as we pray, I will hold up my fingers to remind them of the order so that they don’t get lost in the moment (which is reasonable, given the importance of the topic). I sometimes prompt students with their names, but at this point kids are comfortable enough with the structure that I don’t often need to. To reduce the confusion of praying in a group and provide a sense of rhythm, we use call and response. After each individual finishes praying, they say and we repeat the phrase, “Lord, hear our prayer” to signal that we are moving to the next person. I often summarize students prayers and relate them to the main topic as we close, with resounding amens. I then thank students, affirm that their prayers are making a difference, and dismiss each group individually.

I was impressed that students were able to integrate their own traditions into our prayers. There were several instances where students added “Our Father” prayers either to their prayers. I made it very clear to students that they are more than welcome to incorporate the prayers they already know into our activity, to make it their own. One of my student who has a specific learning disability in literacy was able to participate through having others in his group read the text and substituting an “Our Father” prayer for his written component. This students’ comprehension was so high after our discussion that I knew anything he didn’t get a chance to say, the Lord was already hearing.

Like most Protestants, I am more experienced in praying extemporaneously. However, through seeing the composed prayers of my principal at this school and my professors in seminary, I’ve come to the conclusion that all prayer is good prayer. I’ve come to learn that my Catholic students who value the importance of structure and tend to feel more confident in prayer when it is present. I’ve seen students become much more comfortable with extemporaneous prayer and relating verses to their studies in greater depth than they were in the beginning of the year, so I don’t mind giving them a framework. While I think I would have assumed before this year that more structured prayer means less intimacy with God, I’ve seen so many individuals pray passionately in this style that I have changed my mind. Legalism and avoiding intimacy can happen in any style of prayer, and what God looks at is the heart.

Week by Week

Here are examples of my students prayers this month! I’m very proud of them.

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What’s on Students’ Hearts?

You learn a lot about what people believe about God by how they pray. With children, you learn a lot about what kids find captivating, what they personally long for, the styles in which their parents pray, and even the underlying questions they have about God.

I was pleasantly surprised by the topics students thought to pray about! I was moved by the fact that one of my students consistently prayed that God would protect things nations from the pressing dangers of COVID-19. Another student prayed each week that individuals these nations would feel the tangible presence of God by their side (the Peace of Christ).

Apart from people’s right to religious freedom, many themes emerged:

• Against drug addiction
• Towards governments recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples
• Healing of racial trauma and history of enslavement
• Healing of people’s hearts from the effects of war
• Remembering the poor, freedom and provision
• Economic security and stability
• Celebrating the many animals God has created (ex: giant squirrels)
• Zoological conservation of amazing animals internationally
• A sense of awe in the world’s landforms
• Ease and freedom for Christians to find life partners and marry
• Freedom for all people to travel independently and direct their own lives
• Protection from COVID-19
• That the nations would treat one another as brothers and sisters
• For people to know and put their faith in Jesus

A Globally Focused Year

It’s been my great joy to look back and realize just how much of this year’s discussion and design has focused on the Nations. In a year shaped by the pandemic and necessity, COVID-19 has only intensified students’ hunger for prayer. Before meeting my students either virtually or in person, students knew I was passionate about prayer and I’m happy to say that I’ve seen them develop this passion as well. This month I was surprised to see students who seldom contribute willingly to Zoom conversations nor submit most assignments pouring our their hearts to God in sincerity. It’s been my prayer since before creating this project that God would use it to impart a burden for particular countries to children. Whether they will become missionaries, work in international relations with governments, or indirectly support the wellbeing of others across the globe, I pray that God would honor their love for our international brothers and sisters.

I pray that God would continue to testify to students of his desire to shape the nations, and that the walls of their hearts would look more and more like our classroom.

Over Christmas, I realized that I wanted to give students another tool to learn about and pray for the nations. Through creating a fundraiser through my class’s

Adopt-a-Classroom page, I was able to purchase plastic inflatable globes for student use, enough for our third graders also! We will be using these globes from home as we continue to learn and pray. As I wrote each child’s name on their own globe, I prayed that God would use the students’ to empower each nation where the sharpie touch the plastic.

One student has impressed me by her understanding of these themes! In a recent assignment that challenged students to consider the strengths of their family and friends to design an ideal Presidential Cabinet, she nominated God as her Secretary of State, because he knows so much about geography and other countries. For her January Inquiry Project, this same student chose to study word religions, comparing the apparel, values, and core beliefs of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. As she studies, I am confident that her faith will grow deeper and that she will develop a greater awareness of individual’s diversity.

What’s Next?

After one month, this project isn’t yet over! In February, students will spend one more Friday studying the Phillipines, Turkey, and Vietnam in groups. Then, I’m hoping to assign each student a country of the many we haven’t studied as an independent research project.

• Algeria
• Bangladesh
• Brunei
• Myanmar
• Chiapas Mexico
• Comoros
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gaza and the West Bank
• Indonesia
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Libya
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mauritania
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Qatar
• Somalia
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tajikistan
• Tibet
• Tunisia
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates
• Uzbekistan
• Yemen

We will end with a deep dive into North Korea and do a reflection on what students’ have learned from this experience.

Reflection

As someone who was raised in a semi-diverse Midwestern setting, I have been blessed to encounter a great deal of diversity. As an elementary school student, my school hosted students from over 100 nations, and many of their parents attended the University of Kansas as students. Through genuine friendships with a classmate from Mexico and another classmate from North Korea in late elementary school, I developed an interest in foreign languages that eventually led me to Valparaiso, Chile on study abroad, and where I gave my life to Jesus. If not for the genuine love of these friends that planted a seed I later recognized in Christ, I would not be fluent in Spanish, Christian, or in Washington D.C., let alone teaching at a bilingual Catholic school. Within my own family I have a sibling in law and an uncle who are immigrants, and we are all the better for it. Before and after getting saved, I returned to work both at my original elementary school and as a student hourly in the Office of International Student Services at KU, where many of my peers parents once attended. I have also seen the difficulties students and their families face in immigrating to the U.S. in my own family (when my toddler nephew waited nearly nine months for his mother to be able to join him), in the fear of ICE officers (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) I saw in the faces of even lawfully immigrated International Students, and in my former students. I once had a second grader hand me a ball of paper and tell me, “Ms. Nus, if ICE comes to the school, here are the names of my lawyers.” I wonder what Jesus would say about this fear and the paranoia that it adds to our nation.

Some of the words of violent protestors at recent events at the U.S. Capitol still ring in my ears. While I am grateful for my country and the blessings its given me, based on Revelation 7:9, I don’t believe Jesus endorses “United States first” brand of nationalism. I believe in fairness, but question whether our present laws acknowledge how hard so many immigrants are working to belong to the United States, and how hard they’ve worked to improve it. Instead of scaring people, I wonder what it would look like to create opportunities for them and honor their sacrifice. At the same time, I know that my perspective is just one person’s. In the coming years, we as a nation will have many opportunities to celebrate one another’s diversity and honor the nations already represented among us. I pray that we will be willing to listen to one another and create policies that are fair and benefit prospective immigrants, native citizens, and even individuals who immigrated illegally, offering them a path out of fear and towards redemption and belonging. In this great and spacious country, we need the redemption Christ offers to change our hearts so that we will make room for one another.