October 2015
Article
Speaking Students’ Language: Teaching from Your Heart to Theirs
I felt my heart beat faster and my hands become clammy as I stepped out of my car and shut the door behind me. Butterflies were rapidly swirling around in my stomach, although today they felt more like bats. It was day one of being a student teacher, and while I was excited, the nerves […]
Article
Resisting Homework as Solitary Confinement
This article appeared previously in the October 2014 issue of the Christian Teachers Journal (Australia). It is reprinted here with permission. Some years ago, between my own evening chores, I watched my then teenage son finish his high school English homework and move on to another task. The anthology of literary extracts from which he […]
Editorial
By the time you receive this issue, the summer holidays will likely be a fading memory for you, your students and colleagues, and you will have settled into the routine of a new school year. It is my hope that you will have a rewarding year of learning and teaching. One of the many challenges […]
Article
Work, Play, Love . . . and Learn
by Matthew Biemers and Darryl DeBoer This article originally appeared in Comment magazine, published by Cardus: <cardus.ca/comment>. It is reprinted here with permission. Schoolwork is real work. Stand at the doors of a high school on a Friday afternoon and you’ll observe the gamut of student emotions on display. For one group there is sweet […]
Article
Stepping through the Door: What Makes Books Easy for Kids to Fall Into?
by Andrew Blok and Bill Boerman-Cornell “These are the paired wonders of reading: the world-creating power of books, and the reader’s effortless absorption that allows the book’s fragile world. All air and thought, to maintain itself for a while, a bamboo and paper house among earthquakes; within it readers acquire peace, become more powerful, feel […]
Review
reviewed by Gideon Strauss Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Journey Toward Justice: Personal Encounters in the Global South. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013. This review appeared first in the Spring 2014 issue of Comment magazine, a Cardus publication. <www.cardus.ca>. It is reprinted here with permission. In September 1975, philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff was sent by Calvin College, where he […]
Article
Thinking Inside the Box: My Piece of Your Professional Development
The unexamined life is not worth living. —Socrates Boxes vary widely in shape and construction, but they tend to all serve the same purposes. They define important boundaries, protect what’s inside, and help us organize our lives. Some are big and bulky; others tiny and delicate. We use them to carry around things ranging from […]
P@nel.edu
Setting Goals and Facing Challenges
This summer, the panel participants were asked to reflect on several questions related to preparing for a new school year. The following questions guided the discussion: As you look ahead to a new school year, what are the upcoming challenges that give you the most concern? What are some things you will do to prepare […]
Slouching Toward Bedlam
How to Succeed in School Without Really Trying, or And Then There Was One
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 […]