In our work at Charter Oak Research, my business partner and I have the opportunity to travel to many different places and help Christian schools better understand their markets. Schedules are often very tight so we try to fit in as much as possible in a short amount of time. Thus, delays and cancellations often times add stress and frustration. … Read More
Thomas Arnett: Amplify the Teacher Effect with Technology
Introduction: As someone who espouses innovation in Education I’ve always been skeptical of the technocrats who push the cure-all that technology should be for Education. My qualms have always been twofold, first technology as the replacement for the relationship between teacher and student and second the lack of relationship between learners in a communal drive for some sort of corporate … Read More
A Few Short Questions to Aid Year End Reflection
In the mad rush to finish a school year we become calendar driven and event oriented. What we sometimes miss is the opportunity to reflect well – we push that off to June after school is over, but by then we are too tired to want to take too much time for reflection. The missed opportunity of reflection robs us … Read More
Are Your Students Crew or Passengers?
We are Crew, not Passengers. This is the motto of the organization I worked with for 20 years, Expeditionary Learning, now called EL Education. It comes from Kurt Hahn, the fonder of Outward Bound (the taproot of EL Education), and refers to people gathered together for a long boat journey where everyone is needed to row. Crew is at the … Read More
Looking Under the Label: A Journey in Deeper Thinking
Exploring deeper learning through the study of ‘labels’ in a first grade classroom. Deeper Learning is not an exotic new curricular approach that requires big projects – it is a frame of mind about how to approach all aspects of learning – even seemingly trivial details – in a deeper way. We open the door for deeper thinking when we … Read More
Beginning Well: Part 3 of a Conversation with Dan Beerens and Steven Levy
In Part 3 of the CACE summer webinar series Dan Beerens and Steven Levy explore how teachers can create a culture in their classrooms where students are dedicated to excellence. In particular, how to give the message to students at the beginning of the year, that everything they do matters. Participants share ideas how they deliver that message, and Levy presents … Read More
Fill in the Blank
The schools that parents want to entrust their children to_________ (fill-in-the-blank). The schools that students want to be invited into __________ (fill-in-the-blank). Fill-in-the-blank questions are some of my favorites. While they remain on the lower end of Bloom’s Taxonomy (comprehension and understanding), they are relatively easy to write (as a teacher) and relatively easy to answer (as a student). It … Read More
I Wonder as I Wander
I can’t seem to get my head around it! No matter how many times I talk to someone around the world and it sounds like they are sitting in the same room with me, I am filled with wonder. When I look at anything in micro and see how color and design pop forward that I previously hadn’t observed, I … Read More
Staying Balanced…
If you are reading this, and an educator, I am a bit surprised! This time of year is pretty crazy for those involved in the traditional agrarian school calendar that the Western culture holds tightly to. Professional development workshops, home visits with preschool families, department level or grade level meetings…all in full swing. These events, in addition to all of … Read More
Honoring the Treasures They Bring
16 years out of the classroom, and I still feel the summer begin to bleed as the corn ripens and what seemed like an endless July surrenders to inevitable August. I haven’t seen the leaves turn red yet, nevertheless, the anxiety of the first day of school creeps into my dreams. I stand before my class, entirely unprepared, even naked sometimes, or blind, the children jumping off their desks, running wildly wherever… God, please wake me up!