Pipes and Reservoirs

Originally posted by Tim Challies on his blog:  Challies.com
Click here to view the blog.

Tim writes: Yesterday I began reading Michael Emlet’s CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet. Just eight pages in I had to stop and reflect on this quote. Though targeted primarily at those who are in vocational ministry, I immediately saw its application even to my task as a father. - or (Nancy adds) as a Christian School teacher.

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A temptation in ministry is to think that just because we prepared a Bible study, a sermon, or a discipleship appointment (or wrote a book like this!), we are deeply engaging with the God of the universe. But that’s not necessarily true. It’s easy in ministry to live more as a ‘pipe’ than a ‘reservoir.’ That is, it’s easy to live merely as a conduit to others of the transforming truths of God’s Word, rather than as a changed and transformed reservoir who overflows with lived-out gospel truth. You wouldn’t imagine cooking meal after meal for your family without sitting down to enjoy that nourishment, would you? To paraphrase James 1:22, let’s not merely be hearers or speakers or counselors of the Word, but doers, first and foremost.

Keeping “Thanks” in Thanksgiving

It’s almost Thanksgiving!

In just a few short days – your classroom will be empty, the hallways quiet and the construction paper Thanksgiving decorations (doesn’t every classroom have a “cartoon” turkey abounding with colorful “I am thankful for . . .” feathers?) will be hanging on for just a few more days!

Once you return to school after the Thanksgiving break – it becomes “All Christmas . . all the time!” You will be busy helping your students make gifts for their parents (and trying to keep them a “secret”), planning the classroom party and replacing the brown and orange fall decorations with the red and green of Christmas. During the month of December, you will be intentional about keeping “Christ in Christmas” and teaching your students that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”

In the few remaining days before Thanksgiving, I would like to challenge you to be intentional about keeping “Thanks in Thanksgiving.”

• As you teach the story of the First Thanksgiving, help your students understand the need for DAILY thanksgiving and “thanks-living.”
• As you teach about God’s provision and protection for the early settlers, help your students understand God’s DAILY provision and protection in their lives.
• As you teach about Thanksgiving (the event), let your students see you living a life of thanksgiving (the attitude)!

Each day between now and Thanksgiving, we will be posting a Thanksgiving hymn/song for you to use in your classroom! Sing it, read it, display it!

Why hymns? Because . . .

Hymns are “ . . . statements of faith, testimonies of struggle, failure and success, and confident declarations of hope. Carefully and lovingly crafted by their creators, they’ve been used by God’s Holy Spirit to challenge and encourage the souls of generations of believers. Some consider them antiquated and irrelevant to contemporary culture, but I’m confident these cherished expressions of our Christian faith – these hymns of grateful praise – will speak fervently for years to come.” (Michael Faircloth as written on the jacket of the album Grateful Praise: Hymns for Piano).

Enjoy the hymns and let’s keep the THANKS in THANKSGIVING!

What Did You Write Today?

Nancy R. DeHaan
MACSA Executive Director

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Not a quick note to a parent or an email to a colleague or a “note” on your Facebook page – but a real honest-to-goodness letter – on paper, with ink, in your own handwriting?

I am a big fan of electronic media. I appreciate the “almost” instant communication of email and instant messaging – and I am learning how to text message, too! But getting an email is not the same as getting a letter – there is something “missing” in the electronic communication.

This concept hit home for me several years ago when my son returned from an 11 month deployment to “The Sandbox” in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He had pretty regular Internet access during his deployment and we were able to exchange email and IM – a great way to keep in touch while he was half a world away. When he returned home, he hadn’t printed out and saved any of my emails, but . . . he brought home a packet of letters – handwritten by his great-grandmother (who was 100+ years old at the time). She wrote to him every week – for the entire deployment. The letters had been opened and read – and re-opened and reread – many times over. Letters have a sense of permanence that electronic communications do not.

In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul refers to the Corinthian Christians as “his letter of recommendation . . . to be known and read by all.” It was a letter written “not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3) The changed lives of the Corinthians testified to the work of the Spirit in their lives (individually and as a church) as a result of Paul’s ministry.

Back to the opening question – When was the last time you wrote a letter?

· Every day in your classroom, you are writing a letter – not with ink or crayon, but with the Spirit of the living God.

· Every day in your classroom, you are writing a letter – not on the back of the lunch memo or the bottom of the spelling paper, but on the hearts of your students – individually and as a class.

· And . . . every evening at home, the parents are reading your letter.

So . . .

What did you write today? Was it a letter of recommendation – to be known and read by all? Was it a letter dictated by the Spirit of God and written on the hearts of your students? Was it a letter worth reading today – and tomorrow – and for many years to come?

May God bless you this year with 180 days of great letter writing!

And . . . sometime soon, recover the lost art of letter writing. Sit down with pen and paper and write a letter to a loved one – fold it, seal it and mail it – and know that your time and effort will be appreciated.

Summer Break at the Philadelphia Zoo

Did you know . . . the Philadelphia Zoo offers a FREE Summer Break pass to CLASSROOM TEACHERS (public and private)?

Get Your Summer Break Pass!

Register online before June 30, 2009.

This pass, along with a teacher ID, union card, or school district pay stub, entitles teachers to receive FREE Zoo admission anytime from June 1 through August 31, 2009, Monday - Friday only. Come as many times as you’d like all summer long!

Click here to register. Registration is online only, and ends on June 30, 2009. (Please allow 2-3 weeks to receive your pass.)

Teacher Passes are available for classroom teachers only, and are not transferable.

Please note: In order to receive free admission, you must show your Teacher Pass, along with your teacher ID, union card, or school district pay stub, every time you visit the Zoo.

Your Summer 2009 Teacher Pass is valid for your Zoo admission only. There are no discounts or parking privileges associated with this program.

Your Summer Break Teacher Pass can help you plan your fall field trips and see all the new animals and adventures your students will encounter. As America’s first zoo, and one of the region’s foremost conservation education organizations, we are sure that your students will enjoy an enriching and fun-filled experience that they will remember for years to come. Thank you for your support of the Philadelphia Zoo. Enjoy your visit!

PLAN to Finish Strong!

Nancy R. DeHaan
Executive Director, MACSA

About twenty years ago, my family and I were preparing for a 700 mile “cross country” move – from Michigan to New Jersey. We had about a month to pack and get ready for “moving day.”

I remember those first few days and weeks of packing. The boxes were chosen with care – not too big (they would be too heavy) but not too small (who wants to haul bunches of little boxes). Packing tape, rolls of bubble wrap and color coded “room labels” were ready and waiting! Each box was packed with care, carefully taped and accurately labeled – not just with the color coded room label, but with an “inventory list” taped to the outside of the box! We were organized – and we were moving right along! We didn’t ask for much help – we knew how we wanted it done, so “Thanks, but no thanks” was often the response!

And then . . . the days were passing faster than we were packing! We had deadlines to meet and the moving day was not very flexible. So . . . the unthinkable happened, we began just putting “stuff” in boxes (and size, any shape – if it was cardboard, it was being used) and labeling them as “Miscellaneous – Kitchen” or “Miscellaneous – Kid Stuff”. Color coded? Who needs color coded labels anyway!

Well – we got the packing (and moving) done – but I still think there might be a few missing boxes!

Interesting story, but . . . what’s the point?

Do you remember those first few days and weeks of teaching? The lesson were chosen with care – not too long (the kids had been out of school all summer and needed to be eased back in) but not too short (you still had to fill a FULL day of school). The supplies were ready: workbooks were new, no dog-eared pages in the textbooks and the lunchboxes didn’t have the “lived in” look (or smell). Your lesson plan book was up-to-date with the specifics of each lesson carefully written in the appropriate square, including the appropriate page numbers and supplemental activities!

And now . . . the days are passing faster and the kids are already “shutting down”. There is still SO much to cover and the last day of school is not very flexible (you can stop praying for a snow day this time of year!) By now – your lesson plan book (if you can find it) is full of arrows, sticky notes and an occasional coherent activity –and you LOVE filling in those squares with the words FIELD TRIP, SPECIAL ASSEMBLY or EDUCATIONAL VIDEO!

Are you about ready to do the “unthinkable” in your classroom? Are you doing “stuff” for the sake of the stuff - just to “finish” the book? Are you letting “group projects” replace your teaching (you HAVE to have time to grade those book reports, right)?

Don’t let the end of the school year just “happen.” Be proactive in your planning – yes, PLANNING. The end of the school year will still be hectic and the kids will still be spending more time talking/thinking about summer vacation than the lesson at hand - unless your “lesson at hand” is about summer and summer vacation – planning a road trip (geography, math, English). With creative planning – you can finish strong and you won’t spend the summer wondering if there were any “missing boxes” from this school year!

Equipping Teachers - A Balancing Act

Is the Picture in Balance?
Originally posted on Nurturing Faith (Christian Schools International)
April 20, 2009

Do your teachers know Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erikson better than Cavaletti, Stonehouse, Fowler, and Dean? Are your teachers as equipped to nurture student faith as they are to help students reach academic success? Do your teachers possess a common foundation in distinctively Christian philosophy and classroom practices that nurture faith? Do you believe that a high quality faith-integrated, truth-revealing curriculum is the highest need in schools that bear the name Christian?

Do you have a plan to equip your teachers to nurture faith? Perhaps a start is take 5 minutes at your next faculty meeting, ask them how they have been equipped in the two ways shown below, and then discuss the results.

Equipping for Academic Instruction
List the top 5 ways your teachers have been equipped to help students reach academic success.
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4.
5.

Equipping for Faith Nurture
List the top 5 ways your teachers have been equipped to encourage student faith development.
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5.

Are You Listening . . . REALLY Listening?

20 Qualities of Good Listeners

Originally posted by Gavin Ortland on his blog - Reflections on God (February 15, 2009)

I have been reflecting lately on how important - and how difficult - it is to listen. I am coming to understand how much conflict and misunderstanding is related to a failure to listen well, and I want to become a better listener.

I've been blessed to know many people who were good listeners. What makes them good listeners? Some observations:

1) Good listeners consider a person's statements in relation to their presuppositions (as much as possible). They are willing to ask the question "how does this make sense to them?" and genuinely seek an answer to that question in evaluating another person's opinion.

2) Good listeners are not hasty in making judgments. They are willing to think about something for a while. They don't have to categorize everyone and everything immediately. "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19).

3) Good listeners pay careful attention to words. They don't assume that an idea they are hearing is identical to an idea they are already familiar with simply because it has similarities. They respect the complexity of reality and are willing to make fine distinctions and treat each person, each statement, each idea on its own terms.

4) Good listeners ask questions. Not to embarrass or attack, but to clarify and distill.

5) Good listeners are not lazy. They work hard to understand. They exert energy in listening. For example, other people can usually tell that they are listening from their body posture and nonverbal communication.

6) Good listeners don't feel threatened by not controlling the conversation. They are comfortable with silence. They give the speaker unthreatened, unhurried space in which to operate while communicating.

7) Good listeners understand that everyone has different communication styles, and adjust their listening to correspond to the speaker's communication style. For example, if the speaker is shy, they draw the person out more. If they are talkative, they interject more. Etc. They don't take a "once size fits all" approach to listening.

8) Good listeners interrupt intentionally and gently, rather than habitually and rashly.

9) Good listeners recall their own subjectivity and finitude as a listener. They make evaluations with the humility that corresponds to seeing parts, not the whole. They consider the angle and point of view from which they are listening.

10) Good listeners are willing to listen to something even if it’s hard to hear. They don't stop listening as soon as they become offended or turned off by the speaker. They can receive a rebuke.

11) Good listeners do not unreasonably question the motives of the speaker. They make a good faith assumption that, all other factors being equal, the speaker is trying to communicate clearly and truthfully.

12) Good listeners don't equate listening with agreeing. Good listeners understand that careful listening equips you to disagree well, because by listening you understand more clearly what it is that you disagree with.

13) Good listeners are not simply waiting to talk again when someone else is speaking. They actually value the contributions of other people.

14) Good listeners remember that you can learn from anyone. They realize that human subjectivity and fallenness is such that the most learned person can still learn from a little child.

15) Good listeners love people. They understand that listening is connected to every other aspect of relationships. They understand that there is simply no substitute for genuine affection for other people.

"The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17).

16) Good listeners pay attention to nonverbal communication without discounting verbal communication. They pay attention to the fact that they are paying attention to both nonverbal communication and verbal communication.

17) Good listeners are willing to speak. They don't equate listening with silence. They understand that the speaker may need them to communicate in order to further the conversation.

18) Good listeners understand that every act of communication takes place in a context or setting. They consider the way the context of a communication event shapes the meaning. For example, they understand social dynamics and the way different situations call for different kinds of listening.

19) Good listeners are willing to stop listening to something that is perverse, wicked, or dangerously foolish. They understand that in a fallen world there are some things that are so evil or foolish that they should not even be listened to. They know when to draw the line. They use common sense.

20) Good listeners understand how important listening is to a relationship. They don't assume or underestimate the value of listening; they value and seek to cultivate good listening skills.

Good Coffee - Good Teaching

By Jason A. Van Bemmel (Headmaster, New Covenant Christian School – Abingdon, MD)
As posted on Christian School Journal

I love watching old Andy Griffith shows on DVD from the library. They are a perfect way to unwind after a long day. The DVDs from the library have the original sponsor spots which closed the shows when they aired. These old commercial spots are fun to watch, but one thing really bothers me: Andy Griffith pitched Sanka.

I love Andy Griffith.

I hate Sanka.

Sanka is an example of what should never be done to coffee. Sanka has two nasty qualities, which make it barely qualify as coffee:
1. Sanka is chemically decaffeinated.
2. Sanka is instant coffee.

Coffee should never be robbed of its stimulating effect. This is why most sensible people drink coffee. Rob coffee of its caffeine and you have lost the essence of what coffee is. The only worse thing you can do is to then freeze-dry the coffee so people can make it in an instant.

Coffee is meant to have caffeine. Coffee is meant to be brewed right before you drink it. Sanka is an attack on the essence of coffee. As much as I love Andy Griffith, it pains me to see him hawking this rubbish that no human being should be forced to drink.

Teaching is like coffee, and the same kinds of critical elements that make for good coffee also make for good teaching. The essence of coffee is to stimulate. The essence of teaching is the same.

John Milton Gregory says that the essence of teaching is to stimulate the mind of the student for self-activity. “The true stimulant of the human mind is a question, and the object that does not raise any questions will stir no thought.”

Compare for a moment the stimulating effect of Sanka with a more excellent coffee – Starbucks. Drink Sanka and you are ready to fall asleep. Drink Starbucks and you’re ready to take on the world.

What is the effect of your teaching on your students? Does it call for action, stimulate thought, excite the mind, get the life ready for response?

Good coffee takes time to roast and brew properly.
Starbucks roasts their beans until the bitterness is gone and the complexity of flavors can be fully tasted. If the beans are not roasted as long, the bitterness of the raw bean remains and the complex and more subtle flavors of the bean cannot emerge. Yet even properly roasted coffee beans must be ground and brewed properly, too. BUNN coffee makers can brew a pot of coffee in just 2-3 minutes, but coffee grounds need to be exposed to hot water dripping through them for 6-6.5 minutes for ideal results.

Like good coffee, good teaching cannot be rushed. It takes time to stimulate the minds of our students to inquire, discover, know, understand, appreciate and apply the complex truths we have to teach them. The bitter flavors of a rush to judgment, a quick and dirty answer, will dominate teaching that is rushed. The more subtle and complex flavors of contemplation, genuine understanding, appreciation, delight, discrimination, and transformation take much longer to emerge and can be overwhelmed by cheaper and easier and much less transformative elements if teachers do not have patience with the teaching process.

Good coffee is roasted and brewed carefully, with attention to detail and discrimination. Roasted coffee has over 1,000 flavor and aroma compounds. Only 30 of these make the best-tasting coffee.

Likewise, good teaching must be careful and discriminatory. The world is full of thousands of ideas. Most of them will not make our students think God’s thoughts after Him. They will poison, rather than enhance, their ability to live a life that pleases God. The teacher must be careful and pay attention to detail so as not to confuse, overwhelm or dishearten students.

Good coffee can stand on its own or can be enhanced and enjoyed with a variety of flavors added to it.
Starbucks comes in different roasts and brews and adding flavored syrups and creamers makes it taste even better without obscuring the essence of what makes the coffee excellent. Cheap coffee, on the other hand, needs flavor enhancers to try to mask the cheap and bitter quality of the coffee.

Quality teaching also speaks for itself. It can come in a variety of subject areas (or “roasts”) – history, English, math, languages, etc. Each of them, while varying from each other, can still be recognized as excellent teaching with the same core essence – stimulating the mind of the student to self-action, discovery and understanding with patience and discrimination. Teaching can be flavored with field trips, feasts, celebrations, videos, games, etc. These additions make excellent teaching even more enjoyable. Poor teachers try to mask poor teaching with videos, games, and field trips (often meaningless ones), trying to compensate for poor teaching by adding lots of flavorful fun. This may amuse some students, but it cannot really make up for the fact that the teaching itself in its essence is poor and does not stimulate the minds of students to quality thinking and acting.

Good coffee must be properly strong, as even quality coffee is not very good when it is too weak. The more coffee grinds you use, the more complex and robust the flavors you can produce. Of course, you can also make coffee that is too strong.

Good teaching must also be delivered at the appropriate strength. Teachers need to be assertive, bold, joyful and confident. They should lead and guide their class from a position of strength, not weakness. Of course, a teacher can be overbearing – too strong – and overwhelm their students and keep them from being able to properly express themselves, ask questions, discover the truth for themselves and exercise dominion over their piece of God’s creation. So teaching, like coffee, must be properly strong but not overly assertive.

Finally, when good coffee is brewing, it is enticing.
The aroma of good coffee draws people to it – even people who don’t drink coffee. In fact, I have heard many people smell good coffee brewing and say, “I wish I drank coffee.”

So also, good teaching should be enticing. It should attract students to the truth. It should make them want to have a drink from the fountain of knowledge. As our teaching entices students, we can then equip them to be life-long learners because they will want to learn and to love to learn.

God has given us the highest privilege – to stimulate the minds of our students to know God’s truth, to embrace His goodness, to love His beauty. We have been called by God to entice our students to the highest truths, the greatest goods. We have the opportunity to make an eternal difference in the life of a child made in the image of God. Our students are looking for something to believe, for someone to follow. They want to be stimulated. The real question for us, as educators, is simple: What will we offer them – Starbucks or Sanka?

The Teaching Power of Music - Not Just for Music Teachers!

Scott Anoil
The following is an excerpt from a workshop recently presented at the Michigan Association of Christian Schools Teachers Convention earlier this week.

Originally posted on Religious Affections Ministries

In the words of the workshop speaker, the purpose of the workshop was:

• to convince teachers that it is important that music be a part of your classroom
• persuade teachers that music is essential to your students’ educational development

The goal was to demonstrate how music will help students:

• Physically
• Academically
• Socially
• Morally
• Emotionally
• Spiritually

CLick here to read the rest of the post.

Please note, by clicking on the link, you are leaving The MACSA Blog. Linking to this particular article does not imply MACSA's endorsement or approval of the general content of the external website.

Revitalize Your Classroom

Adapted from The Seven Laws of the Learner by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson
About the author:
Bruce Wilkinson is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Prayer of Jabez ® and Secrets of the Vine ®, The Dream Giver, and Beyond Jabez. He serves as the chairman of Dream for Africa , Global Vision Resources, and Ovation Productions. Bruce and his wife, Darlene Marie, have three children and six grandchildren. They divide their time between Georgia and South Africa .

You teach to make a difference. Now, revitalize your classroom by learning and mastering seven time-tested principles being taught around the world! Written for teachers, including Sunday school teachers, parents, and professionals, this book outlines scriptural principles and techniques that will revolutionize your ability to teach to change lives. From the “law of the learner” to the “law of equipping,” each chapter presents hands-on, practical tools for you to employ in your own classroom.

Students learn best when teachers teach best! So how can you do your part? Employ the seven laws of the learner and unleash your students’ capabilities. You’ll discover how to:
· Help students reach their full potential
· Effect lasting life change
· Rekindle your flame for teaching
· Create an excitement for learning
· Transform apathetic students

Whether you’re a professional teacher, a parent, or teach in any setting, these principles and techniques will empower you to make a lasting impact in people’s lives. Thousands of teachers have already used these principles to spur their students to new horizons of success.

The Law of the Learner
The teacher should accept the responsibility of causing students to learn.

The Law of Expectations
The teacher should influence students’ learning by adjusting expectations.

The Law of Application
The teacher should stimulate life change in students by properly applying the Scriptures.

The Law of Retention
The teacher should enable students to enjoy the maximum mastery of the irreducible minimum.

The Law of Need
The teacher should surface the students’ real need before teaching the content.

The Law of Equipping
The teacher should train students for a life of service and edification.

The Law of Revival
The teacher should encourage an ongoing personal revival in students’ lives.

This article was adapted from The 7 Laws of the Learner DVD Curriculum by Bruce Wilkinson, © 1988, 2008 Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved.

The 7 Laws of the Learner DVD Curriculum is available at www.walkthru.org.