Issue: April 2010

Outside of a Dog, a Book Review is a Teacher’s Best Friend; Inside of a Dog, It’s Too Dark to Read— Or: So Many Book Recommendations So Little Time

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Jan Karsvlaam recently took a hiatus from teaching seventh grade science at Terra Ceia Christian School in Pantego, North Carolina after an experiment using lard to teach students about the insulating properties of whale blubber resulted in the largest lard fight the state has ever known. Karsvlaam is reportedly applying to be assistant principal in […]

Woodpeckers and the Wonderful World of Books

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I woke up this morning to the sight of two spectacular downy woodpeckers fully engaged in their calling. These two were industriously pecking into the soft wood of the Australian willow that was trimmed down to clear the way for the recent addition of several solar-voltaic panels. I argued to save the tree, but alas, […]

Heading for a Mission Trip? Stop and Consider …

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More and more schools are getting involved in “mission trips.” I applaud the initiatives in many way, but more and more research is suggesting there are serious flaws with the one- or two-week “mission project.” Haiti is currently in the news, and I don’t doubt that some of our schools will take the opportunity to […]

Teachers and Good Books

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Question 1 What are some ways by which nonreading staff members can be encouraged to read more information or books that pertain to their work? I was reading an article, “What Makes a Great Teacher?” which summarized sixteen characteristics arrived at by participants of the 2008 Phi Delta Kappa Summit on High-Performing Educators. I believe […]

The Myth of Ability

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Mathematics education has a bad rap. If you tell someone at a dinner party that you are a math teacher, they give you a funny look and move away or they tell you their horror story of their experience in mathematics education. Mathematics is an important tool and skill in today’s technological culture, and is […]

The Fabric of Faithfulness

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As noted by Steven Garber in his introductory acknowledgements, “One gift of this study has been a deepened understanding of the role that my own teachers have played in my life” (11). The impact of teachers and their leadership within the craft of learning is significant to the education of the next generation. Steven Garber’s […]

NurtureShock

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I am not a big fan of books on parenting skills and never have been. While I consider myself a crazed learner, I have never found this genre (if you can call it that!) very compelling. Most often the things authors mention are pretty much common sense. After all, can’t most parenting be done well […]

Reforming Christian Education: Omelets or Worldviews?

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In his 2008 bestseller, Culture Making, Andrew Crouch, a former Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship chaplain at Harvard University, makes an eloquent argument for encouraging Christians to get busy making cultural artifacts of all kinds, from ideas to books, from ovens to crepes and mousetraps, even cars, missiles, and vaccines. It’s time we Christians stopped condemning and […]