This fall I celebrated my 40th first day of school. Those 40 first days include 4 first days as a public high school teacher, 9 as a state university graduate student (including 4 as a graduate assistant), 6 as a public university adjunct instructor, 13 as a student at K-12 Christian schools (across 4 different schools), 1 as a community … Read More
The Importance of Being Attentive
We long to see our students have hearts that are tuned to, and turned toward, God. In our world of loud, conflicting, insistent, constantly streaming voices it takes purposeful intent and a good measure of self-discipline, on a personal level, to attend to what is needful and that which results in a flourishing life that bears good fruits. Author David … Read More
You Are What You Teach
“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Jesus Christ) I have just returned from spending ten days working with a school outside New Delhi. I had worked with them years ago on how to engage their students … Read More
A Christian Deeper Learning Introduction
Out of its best motives, the Christian day school movement was born from the deep conviction by parents that God’s truth be recognized in every subject and every aspect of learning. Knowing that a teacher’s worldview has a powerful and undeniable impact on students’ worldviews, public schooling was not acceptable to these parents because of concerns over what core values/worldview … Read More
Thinking About Missions and Christian Schooling
I’ve recently been studying the modern missionary movement (date range of the 19th and 20th centuries) in preparation for a few articles and upcoming conference presentations. While learning more about the phenomenon of modern missions, I noticed some parallels and interesting implications for Christian schools. Was the modern missions movement of the 20th century the result of progress or an … Read More
By Any Measure – Unattractive
Emptying self? Forsaking family? Losing our life to gain it? Why do you ask such hard things, Lord? How do we figure out needs and wants in a one-click Amazon world? What sort of foolishness is loving enemies and forgiving 70 times 7? How do we market teaching this in our schools? How can we see what you want … Read More
Exit Interview Takeaways
In our work at Charter Oak Research, we conduct several phone calls with current Christian school parents and parents of students who once attended a Christian school but did not re-enroll. One of the reasons we provide this service is to give schools more complete information on what current families are thinking as well as insights on why other families … 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
A Look Back at 2018: Looking Ahead to 2019
Review of 2018 At the end of each year I put together a reflection of the year as well as a look ahead. See A Look Back and a Look Ahead 2018 where I shared the best of 2017 and themes for 2018. As anyone who reads my blogs knows, I love to hyperlink things, so click through and use … Read More
Why Coaches Need Coaching
Triangulation is the world of research when three pieces of data crash together, affirming or at least connecting the variables. This blog is due to the triangulation of three coaching experiences that collided in the past month for me. The first data set was a two-day coaching intensive that CACE held at Surrey Christian School. Two of our Teaching for … Read More