When I was in the classroom I liked to challenge students to create images to represent an idea. Equally challenging, to look at images and infer the ideas they represented. Class discussions (remember to use protocols!) often yielded a deeper, nuanced understanding by thinking in pictures and picturing thoughts. Adults too! I participated in a workshop with a group of … Read More
Honoring Mom
I’d like to share a post with you that I wrote in September 2013 after my Mom passed away. As Mother’s Day approaches, I would like to honor her and other parents who have worked hard to support Christian education. I just received word this morning (written 9.21.13) that my mom has passed away. You may think it strange that … Read More
Letter to Education Graduates and Future Christian Educators
Student-teaching is complete, graduation is quickly approaching, the job search has commenced and for some of you lucky few been completed, and you are filled with a combination of conflicting emotions. At the end of Matthew 28, Jesus gathers the 11 remaining disciples and gives them the “Great Commission” to go make disciples. As your professors and student-teaching mentors send … Read More
Effective Messaging: Summary vs. Significance
School leaders know the importance of supporting the admissions efforts of their school with well-developed plans in order to effectively communicate with prospective parents before, during and after “sales efforts” (admissions team activities) have taken place. Marketing efforts can increase the pool of families exploring your school as an option and also prepare prospective families with information that makes them more … Read More
Socratic Seminars and Student Anxiety: The Naked Truth
“I felt naked.” Those were the words of one student after leading her classmates in a discussion on the previous day’s reading. “My dad told me if I get nervous talking in front of others, I should picture everyone else naked. That didn’t work. I was the one exposed, not them.” While she was prepared, engaged, and articulate, she nevertheless … 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
Mastering the Master Schedule: Fulfill Your School’s Mission (Part 2)
Review In part 1 of this post, I proposed that it is worth asking foundational questions about how the schedule can serve the mission of the school. I believe intentionality around the basic areas of the daily life of students and teachers can affirm or inhibit the direction of the institution. Now, we look toward the nuts and bolts of … Read More
Asking Questions Is Central to Project-Based Learning
20 slides were projected one at a time for fifteen seconds each. I’ve seen students present under such circumstances, but this was new for me. I recently had an opportunity to deliver such a talk to a large crowd before Sir Ken Robinson took the stage at a Learning Revolution event. Because I was there as a representative of the … 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
Grace This Time
When Ms. Lang mentions the grape–the one that was flung into a circle of girls–Jackson’s face goes red. “Yeah, that was me,” he admits with a sheepish grin. “Jackson, you know that throwing food in the cafeteria is an automatic detention, don’t you?” His voice falters now: “I was just teasing; I wasn’t trying to be mean. Please, Ms. Lang. I … Read More