Most colleges and universities in the US, and many (most?) K-12 schools have either already made the decision to suspend face-to-face meetings, or will very soon. So how are we going to make this move?
Innovation Reflections from the 2010s
Coming off tandem bone-marrow transplants in my fight against multiple myeloma, I entered 2010 defeated and uncertain about my future. Nine years later, as I trekked through Iceland this past summer (video), I spent many hours reflecting on both my personal life and professional work. From my perspective, the 2010s will be remembered as a pivotal time for us in … Read More
Responding to a School Emergency
Prepare, Mitigate, Respond and Recover from Emergencies, Disasters and Critical Incidents School emergencies may occur anytime and anywhere. It is important for schools to ensure that they are prepared before an emergency happens. This resource is designed to help schools and their Emergency Management Teams navigate the process of critical incident planning and stimulate thinking about the process. Every school … Read More
It’s Time for Numbers . . . and Creative Thinking
Happy New Year! For those of us in education, our new year starts in the fall, a season that is always exciting for me. The summer quiet of campus is replaced with the dynamic community we love. The air is abuzz with reunions of teachers, families and friends; new and returning student orientation; opening chapel/convocation, and the state-of-the-school address. This … Read More
School Impossible: Three Principles for Turnarounds
Happy summer, and I hope that you have some time to rest and relax. My encouragement this summer is to take some serious time-off and to actually do nothing, as recommended by this Forbes article. This wisdom resonates with me because of the inundation of stimuli that typically competes for my attention, especially because of my fondness of Twitter and … Read More
The Impact of Competition
Early spring is a great season for sports fans. March Madness concluded with the University of Virginia men’s team and the Baylor University women’s team winning the NCAA National Basketball Championships. Tiger Woods completed his improbable golf comeback by winning his fifth Masters Championship. NHL hockey and NBA basketball playoffs have taken off, as well as the MLB regular baseball … Read More
Innovation and Missional Faithfulness: GCSLS 2019
GCSLS 2019 was a historic summit, sponsored by eight Christian school associations, that worked to bring nearly 1,100 attendees from 25 countries, and over 75 presenters together—for two and half days of dialogue, collaboration, networking, and encouragement. According to the pre-event survey, attendees made the decision to come to GCSLS for networking and relationships, discovering new ideas, collaborating and making … Read More
Why NOT to Attend the 2019 Global Christian School Leadership Summit
Between the two of us, we’ve spent hundreds of hours at educational conferences throughout our careers. We’ve also had the humbling experience of having to coordinate a few ourselves. When thinking about conferences in Christian education, we would define most of them as “operational.” By that, we mean that the conference speakers and content focus on what we already do … Read More
Suggestions to Unleash Innovation
This past year, I’ve had the opportunity to start the Digical Education* podcast where I’ve recorded conversations with twenty-eight educators, innovators, or leaders. This opportunity has allowed me to ask questions about policy and practice in education that will allow us to be more successful in our work. Through these conversations, I’ve developed the following suggestions that might help us … Read More
On Opening Christian School Doors
In this second segment of his two-part essay, Matthew Beimers ponders whether the wider community would better know Christians by their love if greater diversity were fostered in Christian schools. Growing up in a tradition where children were baptized as infants, I never fully grasped the beauty and importance of the congregation speaking their covenantal, baptismal promises over families until … Read More