Fifty years have passed since I took my first college biology course. In 1967, the genetic code had just been deciphered. For the first time, I watched an animated filmstrip of the dance of life on a projector screen: ribosomes moved along a messenger RNA with tRNAs jumping on and off; a chain of highly […]
As a pre-K–5th grade librarian, I get asked all the time, “What is your favorite book?” I always answer, “That is like trying to choose a favorite star in the sky!” My favorite book changes daily, sometimes hourly. And this is good because it means that the world of children’s literature is alive and […]
Maya Angelou once said, “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him.” Middle grade readers are eager to read books with strong characters, rich details, and a unique storyline. Putting the right book in the hands of a middle grade […]
This year I read many excellent adolescent and young adult books. Many of these books have a common theme: they take readers on a journey alongside someone very different from themselves—a good theme for students to engage in. I organized these books in order of how much I enjoyed reading them (from the ones […]
Meet Maya. Susan Cain describes Maya as the “redhead with a ponytail, wire-rimmed glasses, and a dreamy expression on her face” (251). In a classroom group with talkative students, Maya is clearly the quiet one who holds back rather than offering her ideas freely to the group. When she does talk, she looks down or […]
Imagine you are at a teacher’s workshop. You introduce yourself to the teacher sitting next to you and say you are from such-and-such Christian School. The teacher asks what church your school is affiliated with. You say that your school is private, not parochial, and is not directly affiliated with any church, though it […]
Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges— Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go! —Rudyard Kipling With this Kipling quote, Donald De Graaf begins what is not so much a “how-to” as a “how-to-be” concerning traveling and studying abroad for college students and their mentors. De […]
For this issue of CEJ, we asked our panelists either to talk about a recent book they have read and its helpfulness as a Christian educator or to discuss other types of media (podcasts, blogs, newsletters, journals, etc.) they use for ideas, inspiration, and engagement with the work of Christian education. Justin Cook started the […]
Kinew, Wab. The Reason You Walk: A Memoir. Viking, 2015. Ningosha anishaa wenji-bimoseyan (I am the reason you walk). These Anishinaabe words form the title of author Wab Kinew’s first book. How fitting that this accomplished CBC journalist and media spokesperson would use the ancient language of his people to title this book, the same […]
As is the case in any good story, Jerome Bruner’s book about stories includes a significant number of unexpected twists. This is no accident, as the author’s goal is to explore the central role that narratives play in helping us to make sense of life’s many reversals (28). The book’s subtitle suggests its first big […]