I am not sure how your first semester is going, but I trust you are looking forward to the upcoming holidays and a break from school. As leaders, we all need a break once in a while to recharge and refuel. We also need to take advantage of opportunities to connect with others in our industry around the country and … Read More
Setting Tuition
Boards routinely talk about setting tuition as being the hardest decision to make each year. The reason is not hard to discover. Board members are compassionate and loving people who know the hardships of families in their communities and desire to make it as easy for them as possible to be a part of the Christian School community. Keeping tuition … 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
Leading as a Steward
If Christian schools require their leaders to act as stewards, it is useful to think about what exactly a Steward Leader is. It is easy to think that Steward Leadership is just a Christian version of Servant Leadership, a concept familiar to many of us. However, once explored, one can see significant and fundamental differences. What anchors Steward Leadership is … Read More
Now is the time to think about Denver!
I am excited to draw your attention to the third annual Christian Deeper Learning conference February 27 and 28! Who is this conference intended for? This is for anyone interested in deeper, meaningful, biblically informed teaching and learning for students in Christian schools! Just like at our previous two conferences, we will have presenters and attendees from around the world … Read More
The Invitation to Learn
In my previous blog, “The Hook: What’s in a Name?” I promised to share some ideas about creating engaging invitations to learn. I’ve worked with many teachers designing deeper learning projects that invite students to do “real work for real people.” One challenge we always encounter is linking the service component of the project to the standards and skills that … Read More
Under Pressure: The Heart in a Culture of Cool Things
In science our students learn that Pressure = Force / Area. Essentially, pressure is calculated by measuring a particular force as it is applied to a particular area. And as you might imagine from looking at the equation, Pressure increases in two ways. First, if the Force increases. Imagine standing on a chair to reach a lightbulb. There is some pressure on … Read More
Church-Home-School: The Three-Legged Stool
As many of you know, Dordt University takes its name from the historic Synod of Dort held in Dordrecht, the Netherlands in 1618-1619. Arising from that six-month assembly was the Canons of Dort, one of the major confessional statements of Reformed churches. The Canons of Dort were a response to controversial theological statements made by the followers of Jacob Arminius; … 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
Our Resistance to Accountability
The resistance to accountability goes back a long way–perhaps to the Garden of Eden with the passing of blame from Adam to Eve and from Eve to the serpent. Each evaded taking responsibility for his or her actions. These problems persist to the present day as a result of this original brokenness. To whom am I accountable and to whom … Read More