Some Thoughts on Home Schools. For many years home schools have been a real challenge to Adventist educators especially in the small schools. When a small church school is trying to maintain an enrollment to remain economically viable, having several church members school their children at home makes it very difficult to continue the operation of the school. I have seen, on occasion, real hostility develop between home school parents and those who support the church school. I have also seen some very poorly operated home schools which deprive the children of a good basic education. However, I am aware of a number of home schools which provided a superior education to their children and they should not be discounted by supporters of Adventist schools.

I would suggest that Adventist teachers, principals, and conference personnel find ways to open up dialogue with Adventist home school parents and search for areas of mutual cooperation. We should try to be as inclusive as possible in our schools as we offer Christian education for our young people. Many home school parents would appreciate being able to avail themselves of some of the services of the Adventist school. There is no reason why our schools should not be as accommodating as possible in such cases.

So, here is a call for collaboration between Adventist parents who home school their children and Adventist schools. We are both in the business of preparing our children for the soon coming of Jesus and we would both benefit by working together on this important mission.

Many years ago in a land far way there live a wise and just king.  This king was known far and wide for his outstanding wisdom.  People would travel for months to bring him the most difficult cases and each time they would leave amazed at the wisdom and understanding of his decision.  It was magical!

The magic lay in his ring.  Each time a difficult case was brought before him he would listen carefully and attentively to each person as they spoke.  When they were finished he would open a locket on his ring and stare deeply into it for quite some time.  As he did so, the room would quiet and everyone would wonder what the king was seeing in his magical ring. Suddenly the king would snap the ring closed and issue a decision that amazed everyone in the room.

Everybody wanted to know what was in that ring?  Did the king see visions?  Were there spirits that spoke to him?  But the king wouldn’t let anyone see inside the ring – no matter how they asked.

As happens on this earth, the wise and just king grew old.  As he lay on his death bed his courtiers and family gathered around him to pay their respects and to say goodbye.  When the king closed his eyes and breathed his last there was a moment of silence in the room.  The one of his closest advisors gently reached out, took his hand, and opened the ring.

continue reading "The Magic of the Ring"

I’ve been having just a little fun with Google Earth!  Did you know that you could put pictures in Google Earth using an online service called Panoramio? There are some rules.  For example, pictures can’t be of people or pets as the main subject of the picture.

You can also put full, interactive panoramas of the your campus online and then embed them in your website. Here’s a link to a panorama I did of the Upper Columbia Academy campus.

continue reading "Making the Most of Google Earth"

Schools have historically been on the tail end of technology advancements, seemingly always playing catch-up to what businesses have been doing with technology for years. This is not surprising considering the limited budgets schools have to work with and the fact that technology has been viewed with skepticism as to its real value in the classroom early on. Now, as a new software distribution model called Software as a Service (SaaS), has become popular, touting costs savings for all, the question schools need to ask is “What are the real values of the SaaS model in education?” Software investment is huge for education, and the costs of implementing and maintaining that software must be evaluated in light of emerging technology.

continue reading "The Value of Software as a Service in Education"

The schools that I visit are clearly places of learning, of hope, and of love. I see strong relationships between faculty and students. I see fun, challenging activities that push the students view of the world. I see God revealed through both nature and His Word. Further, as I’ve looked at the findings from CognitiveGenesis study (both last year and this year’s preliminary findings) I see much to cheer about!

So what is the big deal? Do we really need change in Adventist education? Are things really that bad? Change will be the theme of my posting over the next few weeks.

Watch this 10 minute movie and then answer the question for yourself: Why the call for change in Adventist education?

Last school year, we realized that our current content filtering solution was not adequate.  Experts repeatedly advise families to keep their computers in a common area of the home where all internet viewing is public.  In a boarding academy environment it is challenging to apply this advice without removing computers from dorm rooms completely.  Doing that would be counterproductive to the educational goals and would reduce parent’s ability to communicate with their children.  We have a responsibility to the parents that send their children to our school to provide an environment where pornography and other detrimental web sites are not allowed.  While we can’t prevent students from brining inappropriate material on campus, we certainly don’t want to create an environment where pornography can grow and spread without check.  If students have ready access to inappropriate material in the Internet, we will have an undercurrent breading which will not only affect the student’s individually, but will undermine the spiritual program of the school.

continue reading "Content Filtering - One Year Later"

In my years of work in Adventist schools I have tried to keep focused on the basic goals of Adventist education. This has sometimes been a difficult matter because parents send their children to our schools for a variety of reasons. Some want a safe place where their children can be protected from the rough and tumble life of a public school. Others want the academic benefits found in Adventist schools with smaller class size and teachers who give individual attention to their child. Still others value the spiritual atmosphere of the Adventist school. These are just a few of the things Adventist parents look for when selecting a school for their children.

While the mission of an Adventist school is indeed quite complex, Adventist educators must never lose sight of our primary reason-to-be: to bring our children and youth into a personal relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ. As Larry Blackmer so eloquently stated in his recent article in the Review, we must maintain high academic standards in our schools, but first and foremost we must inculcate “distinctly Seventh-day Adventist values in our children.”

Trying to meet the multiple goals set for our schools is sometimes a daunting task. But success can only come as we keep the main goal in constant sight. I am very pleased to see that the educational leaders in the North American Division is giving renewed focus to the Adventist distinctives in our schools. Their effort in this will be a great service to Adventist teachers and administrators as they focus on the complex mission of our schools.

In an earlier article I discussed using the built-in library of SmartArt graphic organizers in Microsoft Office 2007 applications.  As you try the different images however, you’ll soon want to make changes to them, frankly, because they get a little boring after awhile, and they may also not fully meet your needs.  So let’s take a look at ways to spice up your SmartArt graphics.

I’ve opened up Microsoft Word and want to create a target for a game I plan to play with my students later in the week.  So instead of creating my own target, I decide to see if any existing targets are available by clicking the Insert tab and then clicking the SmartArt button in the Illustrations section of the toolbar.  In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic window, I click the Relationship option on the left, because I suspect a target just might be contained in that grouping.  Sure enough, there is a target graphic available in the list of objects named Basic Target.  (See Figure 1)  After selecting the target and clicking the OK button, the graphic is inserted into my document.  If you’re following along In Word as you read, you must admit it looks kind of plain don’t you think?

Figure 1

continue reading "Modifying a SmartArt Graphic in Word 2007"

In my previous post under the section on School Improvement, I expressed concern about the quality of our Adventist schools, and especially the small schools. One of the respondents gave the following explanation for this situation: “My theory on why so many of our small schools are subpar and failing: they are being run by amateurs in their spare time.” I think she is at least partly correct. The operating boards of our small schools are filled by people who are not professional educators and certainly do not give full time thought to the operation of the school. However, this is true of most not-for-profit organizations not just Adventist schools. Very few institutions in the nonprofit sector have full time professionals on their Board of Directors. So, how do we deal with small schools who have non-educators making the decisions about their operation?I have pondered this question for many years as I’ve worked with our Adventist schools, especially the small schools. I think the answer lies partly in the matter of leadership. Here is an excellent opportunity for the professional educators among us to give the training and guidance that is needed for good decision-making at the local operating level. If amateurs don’t have the tools to make good decisions for our small schools then the professionals should step forward and provide the leadership to fill this need.

First, members of local boards should be instructed in their proper role on the board. They need to be shown the difference between policy making and management. They should function in the policy arena and leave the management to the Head Teacher. Second, board members need to be instructed in their proper oversight role and shown the difference between oversight and micro-management.

A further area for leadership by the professional educators is to help head teachers in small schools understand how they are to function in the management of the school. If they don’t manage in a proper way there is a temptation for operating boards to dabble in this area of school operation.

So, this is a call for leadership on the part of our professional educators within the Adventist system. It is badly needed, especially in our small schools

Books. Magazines. Newspapers. TV. Radio. Internet. Blogs. Chatrooms. MySpace. iPods. YouTube. Advertizing with most. More media, more information, more choices. How do students learn to choose what is good, noble and true? To focus on what is needed to make life-direction-setting decisions as growing disciples?

As the importance of knowing how to find information for decision making increases, the need to evaluate media from a biblical worldview increases. Values are caught more than taught. So who are students learning most from? When? Where? How?

Thinkers. Not mere reflectors. Rooted and grounded in truth. Prepared to make principle-driven, character-backed decisions. Students need Christ-like teachers and parents as mentors who model and teach media literacy.

So I’m hunting for resources to be media literate myself, to make informed decisions and to be well prepared to teach media literacy in Adventist education at any level. I’ve started a collection as CIRCLE’s Media Literacy category.

Here’s a recent discover. Center for Media Literacy K-12 provides a CML MediaLitKit, a framework for teaching and learning in a media age. And you can easily access hundreds of archived Media and Values articles by media issues/topics or curriculum/subject areas.

Can you add to this list? What are you using? when, and how?