I’m an educator, and yes that means (generally speaking) summer is indeed a break from the regular rhythm of the school year…and yes, we educators are blessed to enjoy time off that most other industries don’t have the luxury of. I like to refer to summer holidays as a teachers’ Sabbath. It’s an intentional break [...]
BY: NANCY HUMPHRIES It is so hard to believe that 28 years have passed since I first joined the ACS community to teach grade 2. Over the years I have also taught grade 1 and then Kindergarten. Each year brought a new group of children under my wings. Teaching young children is a bit like [...]
Eight years. That’s how long I was principal at ACS Secondary. These eight years have been good years, with many wonderful people and some incredible experiences. I probably could list 50 things that I learned as principal at ACS, but here are five of them. 1. God Works Through Us, Regardless of Our Mistakes This [...]
BY JUSTIN VERWOERD, EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANT When I started my job at ACS Middle, I thought it was perfect: work starts at 8:00 am, meal breaks at 10:30 am and 12 noon, and the weekly schedule is generally unchanging. I was cruising. The perfect job for me. Well, anyone who works at a school, has children, [...]
“Do you want to go to Zambia?” This was not a message I expected to receive from my wife, Jane, while I was away visiting my mom on the Family Day weekend. We had been tossing around some ideas for summer, but mostly they were local and more budget-wise, as last summer, we took a [...]
I remember when getting an email was a novelty. I wrote my first email in college to my roommate sitting in the computer lab next to me. Eventually, after marrying and being transplanted to Abbotsford, I used email as a way to keep in touch with my family living in the prairies. I'd turn on [...]
BY CAITLYN CHARLEBOIS, GRADE 12 STUDENT Fourteen years ago, I fell into a puddle during recess. One of my only memories of preschool was from that recess. I remember running from the small playground to the swing set across the field. Except—and maybe what was the worst moment of my life up until that point—I [...]
There is something really gratifying in running down a flying disk to score a point for your team. Just ask any of our middle school students who enjoy playing Ultimate during our lunch breaks. Ultimate is a fast paced game that is a hybrid cross of football, Frisbee and handball. One of the really cool [...]
BY EMILIE DARBY, MUSIC SUPPORT SPECIALIST It's May. How on earth did that happen so fast? But alas, here we are, and as I pull the calendar month of April from above my desk and replace it with the tasks of May, I find myself marvelling at how quickly this year has sped by, and [...]
After a six hour drive from our home near Toronto to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my dad let me out of the car. This was the beginning of a significant new chapter in my life—I was leaving home and going to college! After a few hugs and “go-get-em’s,” I headed off to my [...]
