The Dock School Leader Podcast

What were we created for and how does that inform our relationships? In this final episode in our segment on relationships, Jeff Swanson describes four fundamentals that become especially potent when relationships turn problematic:

If you know Jeff, you may catch the humor of his title and of his proposition to offer groundbreaking thoughts about relating to children and million-dollar hints for interacting with parents and other teachers. Jeff Swanson has taught in a wide range of school settings for several decades and offers here some of what he’s learned in nurturing strong relationships around the school. Jeff throws in many anecdotes alongside of a very straightforward collection of principles. If you want to love your job and want your teachers to love their jobs five and ten years from now, this will help guide you towards that future.

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Why have an administrator? What can an administrator do in terms of the relationships around the school? Steve Brubaker makes the case that administrators inhabit and manage the complex meeting place of all the people involved in a school. It’s a position of influence to be used not to lord it over others but to serve them. “Administrators exist to serve the servants,” says Steven. And schools that lack these people are hampered in their efforts to grow.

Specifically, administrators are in a position to nurture growth in these two ways:

Steven develops both of those roles and also provides practical elaboration on the admin/board relationship and the admin/teacher relationship.

Bonus: (from the discussion time in the original presentation)

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Doing Good Even Better by Edgar Stoesz: https://a.co/d/ilJRVb2

If parents are responsible to train their children, what are the children doing in schools? Matt Peachy lays out a case for education that places schools squarely in a position of service to the church and to families. He then outlines some of the ways that this shapes a school, particularly in its relationships with parents and the church.

Matt teaches at the secondary level and has administrative and pastoral experience. Notably, he is also a parent. Matt addresses three core questions in his talk:

Outline of key sections of Matt’s presentation:

How can we support parents?

How do we sell the church?

What qualities are we looking for in teachers?

For those of you who have been to Faith Builders, there are a few doses of Guys Mills sirens to stir your nostalgia.

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What’s your greatest advantage as a teacher or leader in a Christian school? Stephen submits that it is the immeasurable gift of most of our children having parents that love them. What are you doing to know and care for those parents and your students, especially the average ones?

Stephen Gingerich speaks with year of experience teaching and administrating in a school in Guatemala that serves both mission and native families. This work carried him deep into serving severely broken families.

School leaders are often busy enough just keeping things at school under control. How will you carry these extra things? First, if I hear Stephen correctly, I think he’s telling us that if we’re too busy to care for our families we’re too busy. Second, Stephen leads us to trusting in God to provide in measure to what he’s called you to carry. Third, I would add that sometimes God supplies the kind of strength and direction that’s needed for leaders to facilitate reorganization, delegation, or other strategic responses to the awareness of overwhelming or unrealistic responsibilities.

I don’t know where this finds you, but I trust that as you follow his leading, God will supply the grace you need to help your school grow in caring for your families. They are precious to our Lord. Let’s renew our commitment to counting it a privilege to serve them.

Six ways to help

In sum, let Ephesians four saturate your teaching.

This episode was first published on The Dock as "Connecting With a Variety of Families:" https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/connecting-with-a-variety-of-families-stephan-gingerich/ 

Just investing in a culture of growth as Gerald described in the last episode won’t solve all problems. Here he is again with a sequel episode exploring redemptive solutions to difficult people problems.

Few people enjoy wading into these situations. Gerald won’t tell you how to begin liking it, but he does outline a number of excellent methods for how to lead responsibly and honorably.

This episode describes how to break down a problem by:

These methods will help you gain confidence in bringing clarity as you labor to help teachers stay in the classroom and grow if that’s the right place for them or how to support them in moving forward to another vocation. This is not about toughing up as a leader. It’s about school leaders who are ministers of God’s grace through hard times.

Principles covered in this episode

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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• 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/