The entire faculty gathered in the staff room immediately after school. It was rare for Bentley VanderHaar, the principal of Bedlam Christian, to call a meeting like this, and when he did it often involved news about misbehaving students being expelled or news about a parent or staff member going suddenly into the hospital or, […]
Click on images to enlarge. Jan Kaarsvlam has recently discovered a new genre that he would like to call “graphic novels.” He is excited to expand the concept to include “graphic grocery lists,” “graphic memos,” “graphic lesson plans,” and “graphic comic books.” He can even imagine a day in which the written word is dispensed […]
It was third period and Bedlam Christian High School guidance counselor Maxwell Prentiss-Hall and math teacher Jane VanderAsch were working on the crossword puzzle. Jane always felt a little guilty for not grading papers during her free period, but she found the race to complete the puzzle gave her mind a chance to reset itself […]
Bible teacher Cal VanderMeer sat alone on a Monday morning, enjoying a quiet cup of coffee before school began. He had just opened the newspaper when the door to the faculty lounge banged open. Cal looked up, prepared to scold P.E. teacher Rex Kane for another of his boisterous entrances, but he was stopped short […]
Gord Winkle sighed. School had started two weeks ago, but he still didn’t have his metal shop up and running the way it was supposed to be; it had taken longer than anyone estimated to repair the damage from the fire at the end of last year. He had also had to write new lesson […]
For this column, we are going to take a break from the Bedlam gang and hear some books that columnist Jan Kaarsvlam is writing and is sure will influence your teaching. He would like to recommend that you buy and read copies of these books as soon as possible, as he isn’t sure he will […]
Bedlam Christian School had been closed for four days after the accident. This was their first day back. A glum and heavily bandaged Gordon Winkle sat at the table in the Bedlam faculty lounge, his finger lightly tracing the burnt stubble beneath his nose where his once glorious moustache had resided. No one sat beside […]
“He’s not going to get away with it this time!” Librarian Jon Kleinhut was so angry his ear hairs were standing straight out like wisps of steam. “I am a librarian, part of an honorable and dignified profession that stretches back to biblical times. I am not a ‘C.O.M.M.A.’!” Phys ed teacher Rex Kane looked […]
Bedlam’s assistant principal, J. Hilliard, was known for neither restraint nor reflection. He tended to either quietly observe everything with a suspicious look, or pound the table repeatedly to make a point to which he was deeply committed. In this case, he was definitely exhibiting the latter tendency. The setting was the after-school meeting of […]
Dressed in a three-piece, charcoal gray pinstriped suit, Rex Kane squirmed in his chair at the head of the table. He fidgeted restlessly with the bold red silk tie he had chosen in the belief that it lent him an air of credibility. Before him sat Bedlam Christian High School’s curriculum committee, an august group […]