Unless you are a professional athlete, pop star, or Pokémon champion, the students in grade 7 aren’t that interested in your title. After six and a half years as Director of Learning for the Society of Christian Schools in British Columbia, I am using my professional leave to fill Mrs. Friesen’s maternity leave in middle [...]
I’m not exactly a courageous person. I distinctly remember the fear that crawled up my spine when my mom asked me to get something from the basement as a kid. Our below-ground “dungeon” was unfinished, sported a low ceiling, limited lighting, only two half windows, and a number of resident spiders who felt right at [...]
“It’s ninja time!” “Let’s see some kicks and hi-yas!” Words I never thought I would hear or say while teaching grade 3. February 22-26 was kindness week at the elementary campus. A week where classes were invited to show random acts of kindness to others, participate in pink shirt day, and sneakily deliver decorated rocks [...]
“Teaching would just be the perfect thing for you, really,” Mom and Dad always said. Mom and Dad were both teachers, and I knew they always had this way of knowing or simply sensing what to bring out in kids — this discovering of talents in others, and the encouraging of it. Mom and Dad [...]
Do you ever feel like you have one foot on the dock and the other foot in a boat…as it slowly drifts away? I suspect this is a sentiment many can relate to these days. The dock is dry, stable, safe, secure, known. The boat (hopefully) promises a great day on the lake, with sunshine, [...]
I was walking to school on one of those rare mornings with a clear, pre-dawn sky, and low-lying fog. It was cool, quiet, and still. The world felt like it was at peace. As I came toward the school, there was a glow—a radiance—causing me to catch my breath. I immediately pulled out my phone [...]
“Guys! Guess what happened today!” I said to my housemates as we gathered in the kitchen for dinner. “I was in the photocopy room with one of the kindergarten teachers, and she found out I have a frog puppet so she invited me to come to her class to tell a story for the letter [...]
BY BRIAN KONING, DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT What a year it's been, “covidly” speaking. We’ll never look at the expression, “Hindsight is 20/20” the same way again. We experienced a shut-down of our society requiring us to re-think how we communicate, teach, worship, and gather together. That re-thinking process continues to re-shape how we approach teaching [...]
I have a new energy and a new motivation this school year. Seeing staff every day and having students back in the building reminds me why we do what we do. We engage minds, nurture hearts, and shape God’s world. We do this by educating through relationship. The best way to foster these relationships, and [...]
Ask any student who’s been on the SALTS grade 8 sailing trip, they’ll talk for hours about their five days aboard a tall ship in the Salish sea; hauling the sails, taking the wheel, and singing their hearts out at the evening “mug up.” Some of them might also tell you about seasickness. That Queasy [...]
