A Higher Calling: A Call to Teach

By Scott Petznick

This devotional book for teachers tackles many of the issues and struggles educators face today.

Scott Petznick draws on twenty-one years of experience as an elementary school teacher to share stories, lessons learned, and faith-based observations that challenge you to look at the teaching profession in a new way.

As you read, you’ll consider questions such as:

Why did you decide to become a teacher? How do you feel about teaching now versus when you started? Do you really want to continue as a teacher? What does it mean to give a student a blank slate?

While meant for teachers, this book is a great resource for parents, mentors, or anyone with youngsters or young adults in their life. The lessons can be applied to whatever occupation you have to find meaning and thrive.

Consider big questions and re-evaluate why and how you teach—or why you do whatever you do. By looking at your occupation with a new perspective, you’ll be inspired to do an even better job … or decide to move on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664242715

Scott Petznick

Scott Petznick has taught elementary school for twenty-one years. He loves children and seeing them smile when they “get it.”

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Scott Petznick.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-4270-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-4271-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021916354

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/7/2021

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

A Higher Calling

Blank Slate

Open Door

Integrity

Adaptation

Private Life Matters

Community

Special Students

Teaching versus Facilitating

Data Doesn’t Lie

Getting Students to Remember

Teaching with COVID-19

Conclusion

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mother. She owned every Harlequin Romance novel written to man. Being a voracious reader and educator, she instilled in me the love of education and the joy of reading. I wish she could have been here to see the publication of this book, but I know that she would have been proud. Love you, Mom!

Introduction

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one

another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

—1 PETER 4:10 ESV

If I had only known that before I started teaching! I can’t tell you how many times I have said that to myself. It would have prevented many of the potholes that I have stepped into during the twenty-plus years of my teaching career. Teaching is really like parenting; by the time you start to figure out what is going on and what to do, it’s over.

This is a book I have started so many times, sometimes on paper and hundreds of times in my head. It seems that as each year comes and goes, I am mentally adding new chapters to this book. Like most people, many of us have dreams and bucket lists that we want to try or accomplish in our lives. For me, this is one of those items. This is not a scientific book based on a lot of research and footnotes. Rather, this is a book that captures a few of the lessons and stories that I have learned and gone through during my over two decades of teaching. I don’t profess to have all the answers—or any answers frankly—but I will share some insights that I have learned