By Kylene Dalton-Koons and Brad VanDenend In schools these days, there is a lot of talk about trauma—and for good reason. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “One out of every 4 children attending school has been exposed to a traumatic event” (4). Not only does this research support the idea that educators […]
One of my favorite courses to teach in my role as a school counselor educator is social-emotional development. It’s not that other areas of development (e.g., academic or career development) are less important when working with children and adolescents but that social-emotional development plays a central role in shaping how we approach living our lives […]
The fellowship hall at my church was the last place I expected to be one Sunday night several years ago. We were meeting there instead of in the sanctuary to grieve and process the suicide of a teen in our church family. As a teacher and a school administrator, I had been part of grieving […]
Take one apprehensive student-teacher in 1963, bred and raised in the almost all-white, at the time, Christian day-school system in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Place him in the first public school that he had ever been in longer than the four quarters of a high school city league basketball game. Add the cultural unfamiliarity of a […]
Many people experience a defining moment that shapes what they will become. While I was teaching at an urban alternative high school, that moment came for me when a student screamed a string of expletives in my face. Standing there, armed with my master’s degree and ten years of classroom experience, it struck me that […]
Teachers and administrators in Christian schools face any number of issues that make teaching very difficult. In my experience, one issue is the decision about when to expel a student. This decision poses unique difficulty for Christian educators for a number of reasons. Christian schools, in my experience, strive toward the goal of creating a […]
Bandstra, Alan. Beyond Control: Heart-Centered Classroom Climate and Discipline. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt College Press, 2014. “Finally, the spirit behind our actions and words is closely tied to our beliefs and hopes.” (Preface, iv) In Beyond Control, Alan Bandstra writes in a style that is similar to an engaging memoir. Rather than taking the textbook […]
“We will do anything to keep the wolves of insignificance from our door.” —Saul Bellow His name was Charlie. He was a fighter. He liked it, and he was good at it. But he never contended for a championship, unless you count the time he decked the reigning seventh-grade toughie, just outside of Mr. Clarke’s […]
I have benefitted from the writing and teaching Calvin education professor emerita Gloria Stronks for many years. She has written a number of books that have helped articulate what those of us involved in Christian education have been doing and ought to be doing. Her book A Vision with a Task, written with Doug Blomberg […]
If you ask someone why they became a teacher, it is doubtful that anyone would answer with: “I just love disciplining children.” Most go into the profession because they either want to make a difference in children’s lives or make a difference in society, or simply because they have a deep love for the subject […]