Formative Evaluation bears fruit

A vital part of the IFI is giving the instructors opportunities to practice what they are learning. As they practice, we offer them "formative evaluation" and here are the new insights and perspectives they are gaining regarding the guided practices in the IFI:

• I am learning not to call my mistakes, “margin of error” but rather “the lesson of the day.”

• I am very pleased that I did so poorly on my first guided teaching practice. Now I see that to fail is to succeed.

• I am sorry to say that I have never said: I was wrong. I made a mistake. That’s how I was raised. But being in these classes here at the IFI, I feel like I’m in another world. For those who need to be active and playing with something, they give us toys, we even toss them at each other during breaks! We can speak freely. What’s more incredible is that we are free to make mistakes! I haven’t come to an IFI, I have arrived at God’s school for me!

• Oops, I messed up. Oh well, I made a mistake but no one got on my case. What’s more, they actually congratulated me the next round because I looked for help and learned from my errors.

How do you feel when you make mistakes? What has been your experience regarding getting evaluated? I'd love for you to share with me your thoughts!

Here we are in Argentina!

Traveling with a Senior citizen like Bob Sabean has its distinct advantages! We are co-directors of the Institute for Forming Instructors and were en route to Argentina for 3 weeks of intensive teacher training.

Upon our arrival in Panama, Bob offered to go to the counter to get our seating rearranged to sit together for the upcoming 6 hour flight, while I watched over our bags. Engrossed in a new spy novel, I barely heard him coming until he excitedly showed me the new boarding passes and exclaimed: Lisa, I can't believe it! They upgraded us to FIRST CLASS! Who knows why since I didn't ask for it but praise God from whom all blessings flow!

We couldn't believe our good fortune--we crept into our seats like two elementary school children who had switched their seat assignments and were hoping the teacher didn't notice! After a few minutes of tension, we realized our good fortune started to enjoy seating in the "lap of luxury!" Six hours of sheer pampering! :)

This delightful start to our trip has been just one of many signs of God's blessing and providence as we gather the week before the Institute of Forming Instructors starts with the Teaching Team--a team with members from Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, Argentina and Bob and I.

Each day is filled with deep, intense discussions about how God brought our here, how to evaluate our performance as a team, how to harmonize our cultural differences, how to follow in the footsteps of Bob and Lisa as the up and coming professors of IFI, how to handle other people's expectations, so many delightful and memorable conversations.

I am overjoyed to be a part of God's work in Christian Camping International and we anticipate the arrival of 15 new instructors next week to be certified to teach our CCI counselor-training courses.

I invite you to accompany us in prayer:

• Lord, keep us teachable one to the other.
• Lord, mold us together into a harmonious team so that you may be glorified by our unity.
• Lord, enable us to grasp the concept and be gifted in teaching it to others.
• Lord, make us sensitive to the needs of others as we live, work, play together 24/7 for 3 weeks!