Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… (Colossians 3:23) Thank God for singing cosmic rhythms into the steady beat of time! He fills our waiting hearts with hope-inspired imagination of how things might be different each new day, week, year. In schools we are invited into this hope as … Read More
For the Love of…
For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10) “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work but rather, teach them to … Read More
Deeper Learning in Christian Schools
The phrase “Deeper Learning” was coined by the Hewlett Packard Foundation in 2010 to define what they saw as skills necessary for the “jobs of tomorrow.” They defined a set of competencies students would need to compete globally and to become engaged citizens at home in the 21st century. The impulse to create these competencies came from the realization that … Read More
Introducing the Speaker Line-up for Powerful Practices: Implementing Deeper Learning in Christian Schools Conference!
Our Planning Team for the upcoming Deeper Learning conference is very excited to have had a great response to our request for proposals! We have exceptional leaders coming from many places across North America to share their learning and lead attendees into new understandings. We have organized our conference around five strands shown below. Our confirmed workshop leaders and their … Read More
Kingdom Assessment
Joanna (my wife and principal of New Covenant School in Arlington, MA) and I had the privilege of facilitating two institutes this summer on Deeper Learning in Christian Schools. The first was a week with 30 teachers and school leaders at a beautiful retreat center in North Andover, MA. The second was a three-day institute with teachers and administrators from … Read More
Deeper Learning in Christian Schools – Update and Invitation
In recent years there has been a movement among Christian schools in Canada and the U.S. towards Deeper Learning, led by a core group of educators, who have gathered from time to time for mutual growth, encouragement, and further networking. In this blog post I would like to clarify terminology and share the efforts of various groups as well as … Read More
A Canadian Rocky Mountain High!
It was truly a great day of celebration, with the majestic Canadian Rocky Mountains as the backdrop in beautiful Banff, Alberta, when more than seventy-five Christian school leaders from Canada, the United States, and Australia gathered prior to the Christian Schools Canada conference to share efforts around Deeper Learning in Christian schools. At this September 21 pre-conference party, there was … 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
Our Deeper Learning Conversation Update
It was a joy-filled day in the western suburbs of Chicago as learning leaders gathered from all across North America for a substantive conversation around student learning! Our time together was bookended by an opening time of “singing” the parts of an orchestra as a celebration of community, reflecting on how our loving God sings over us, and closing with … Read More
Redefining Smart – A Book Review
Quality educators who have operated from their heart, from relationships with students, and who have seen themselves as coaches and designers of learning, will be greatly heartened by a new book, Redefining Smart: Awakening Students’ Power to Reimagine Their World (Corwin, 2016). I found it difficult to put the book down. As a psychologist, educator, and disciple of positive psychology, … Read More