Schools are places for growth and learning.

Gerald Miller, long-time teacher and administrator makes a compelling case for those propositions which will shape how you think about what you look for in a teacher. He also shares straightforward ideas for how you can cultivate habits of development in your school. Some of these ideas aren’t as complicated as you might think.

Links

What does it look like to shepherd your school?

This episode presents a passionate challenge by a board member to school leaders and to board members in particular to take full ownership of their responsibility for the people under their care. Ernie Weaver brings school board and business leadership experience to this talk as well as perspective from within the classroom through his own time as a teacher and as son and brother of long-time teachers.

Ernie shoots straight here: make the hard decisions for the good of your school and stick with your team no matter what. He outlines the principles of the book, The Way of the Shepherd, and applies them to school. His talk is full of examples and concludes with a collection of ideas to try. See the show notes for a few other ideas from the post-session discussion.

Additional ideas from post-session discussion

Links

Is an incompetent teacher better than not having a one?

We are beginning a new segment focused on staff development and care.

In this opening episode, Ken Kauffman speaks from his experience as a teacher, principle, and educational representative for Christian Light. He leads the way in thinking about the following three issues:

This talk will give you a thought-provoking and actionable collection of ideas for you to take steps towards your school being a place where the craft of teaching is prized and where that craft is intentionally being reproduced.

Ken suggests that teachers may have nearly as much influence on the church as its ministry. If that’s the case, our vetting processes and methods of preparing teachers are often sadly lacking. And while good character is of fundamental importance, teachers need more than that.

Links

Our rationale, resources, and methodology matter.

But what about the students who come to us with such deep brokenness and dysfunction that our best efforts to help them go nowhere unless backwards or in circles? The subject of disorders is huge. Here in this bonus episode we’re going to look at just one of them: Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).

 Wesley King is a father of a RAD child and has experience as a principle. He speaks vulnerably and compassionately about this issue. This talk will help prepare you to approach a situation involving a child with RAD, but it will also take you to a more basic level of questions about student needs than when we’re talking about curriculum and rationale. These questions take us deeper into serving both our ordinary students as well as those dealing with RAD or other disorders.

Links

• This episode was initially published as “Coping with Reactive Attachment Disorder” at: https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/coping-with-reactive-attachment-disorder/

A common theme in academic discussions is the curriculum. For our final episode in this segment on academics, we’re looking at this common theme, but with an important distinction.

Gerald Miller, teacher and current administrator at Faith Builders Christian School differentiates between the formal curriculum (what you pay money for every year) and the hidden curriculum, which is everything else. He’s casting vision here for schools that produce students that both know things and know how to serve with the things they know.

“Formal curriculum is intentional; hidden curriculum is inherent.

Formal is obvious, hidden is subtle.

What is learned in the formal curriculum leaves you eventually, at least the details.

But what you learn in the hidden curriculum lasts a lifetime.”

– John Ortberg

Links

• This presentation was initially published as "Examining Your School’s Hidden Curriculum” at: https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/examining-your-schools-hidden-curriculum-by-gerald-miller/

We are continuing our segment of episodes addressing particular subject areas.

Building a strong reading program is more than helping students with dyslexia. How well is your school doing overall at shaping your students into adults who love reading, who can do it well, and who can enter deeply into their reading?

Drawing inspiration from Nehemiah where the law was rediscovered through distinct reading that gave the sense and caused the people to understand, Lyndon Hartman calls us to reevaluate our commitment to developing the essential craft of reading. Lyndon speaks from a background of teaching reading and literature in several different grades, working with reading curriculum, and most importantly speaks from a deep love of reading.

He outlines six area for us to evaluate:

1. Our teachers

Links

• This presentation was initially published as "Raising Readers” at: https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/raising-readers/

Description

Singing has been an important part of our Anabaptist heritage. But what are the trends of music literacy and quality in your community? Does your school delight in music making? And what is at stake if music education is off track?

Lyle Stutzman approaches this topic with many years of experience in music teaching and directing. He's taught at the elementary, high school, and secondary levels including places like Shenandoah Christian Music Camp. He currently directs Laudate Mennonite Ensemble. Lyle brings a deep care and concern for music in the classroom. While he doesn’t directly address the issue of music discernment, he describes a foundation for music making that will orient you for making decisions both at school and beyond. Lyle lays out three reasons why we should attend diligently to music education:

• Music is essential in the kingdom of God

He finishes with a collection of ideas for how we can improve. It’s heartening to see some progress in the years since Lyle gave this talk in 2014. There’s more ground to be gained. 

Links

• Pilgrim Choral Series: https://blueskymusic.net/pilgrim-choral-series/ 

We’re beginning a segment of episodes exploring specific topics in the domain of academics. In today’s episode, history teacher Michael Martin explores the foundations of why we include history in our curriculum. We rely on history, which for Michael includes divine revelation, to answer the following questions: 

• Who are we? 

• Where we are going? 

• What we are doing? 

• What we could become? 

Our history teachers wield great power, or at least they could. Michael makes the case that we must access this power for the sacred work of shaping the worldviews of our children. He leaves us with something of a commission for evaluating our history curriculum.  

• How do we know our history teaching is working? When our children choose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoying the pleasures of sins for a season.  

• How do we measure success in history teaching? When our children see God as the center of history. 

Links 

• This presentation was initially published as "Why Teach History?" at https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/why-teach-history/   

• Other presentations from CASBI 2019: https://thedockforlearning.org/series/christian-school-administration-institute-2019/   

• Find more resources that support teaching and learning at https://thedockforlearning.org/. 

If there is no such thing as a culture-less school, then the question becomes: what is my school’s culture? Is it what you want? And just as importantly, what are you doing to either build it or change it? In this episode, Anthony Hurst brings several decades of experience as a teacher and administrator to the question about how to cultivate the kind of culture that produces the fruit for which we hope. You will be challenged to be clear and specific, even painfully so, about what you need to do to realize your vision. 

Links 

• Evaluating Seven Elements of Your Home’s Influence, CASBI 2018, Gerald Miller https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/evaluating-seven-elements-of-your-homes-influence/  

• This presentation was initially published as "Cultivating a Healthy School Culture" at https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/cultivating-a-healthy-school-culture/  

• Other presentations from CASBI 2018: https://thedockforlearning.org/series/casbi/casbi-2018/  

• Find more resources that support teaching and learning at https://thedockforlearning.org/. 

In this episode, Gary Miller asks us to take a careful look at our target. We are all aiming at something. Our schools have a target in focus and so does each one of our students. At best, functional and ideal targets are misaligned. At worst, careful targeting is ignored in the press of responding to whatever is most urgent. 

Gary Miller brings deep experience in finance and education. In 2011 he authored the book Charting a Course in Your Youth where he tried to leverage this experience to equip young people to focus early on the right things, particularly in finances. Unified focus on the right target is vital for kingdom building. In this talk in 2013, Gary offers clarifying insight about the difference between the apparatus involved in hitting targets and the step of selecting a target in the first place. He also offers wisdom about identifying the key target and homing in on it.  

Links

• Charting a Course in Your Youth: https://cambooks.org/shop/cam-published-books/resources/kingdom-focused-finances/charting-a-course-in-your-youth/ 

Find more resources that support teaching and learning at https://thedockforlearning.org/.