The Case for Christ Student Response #4

In the first term of this school year my grade 7/8 class has read The Case for Christ: Student Edition by Lee Strobel. At the end of the study of the book each student was asked to answer one of the questions posed in the chapters of the book. I told that I would be sharing their responses online. So, throughout the rest of the year I will be posting their work. Please note, I have not edited these responses, they are exactly what the student handed me.

Did Jesus Fake His Death

Some of the reasons why Jesus was put of the cross is that the Pharisees . Some people say that Jesus might have faked his death, but some believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave.

Getting put on the cross back then was a slow and very bad way of killing people. People about to get nailed to the cross would lay down on the cross that is on the ground and the executioner would take large spikes(nails) and drive them down into the hands and the feet of the victim. In the bible it says that the spikes or nails are put through the hands of Jesus but it actually means that the are driven through the wrists because the bone is strong enough to hold more of the body weight. People die on the cross because of suffocation, it is when some of your organs start to fail. It is hard for the body to breath when all of your body weight is hanging on just by your arms, so to stay alive for longer the victim pushes up with his feet to take a breath. When someone does push up with his feet it will hurt a lot just to get one breath and to keep doing it over and over again.

It would be hard to steal the body from the tomb that Jesus was kept in because there would have been guards and the stone that sealed the tomb was really big and would be hard to roll away. Nobody really knows the exact amount of guards that were guarding the tomb at the time, they would have made sure that nobody would be able to steal the body inside. The rock would weigh a lot and they would have needed a lot of people to maybe roll it away.

Another theory is that when Mary-Magdalene and Mary found the tomb empty, they could have went to a different tomb and not Jesus’ tomb. But another theory that sort of goes along with this is that the two women could have imagined that they saw an angel telling them that Jesus rose from the grave, but there could have been just a caretaker of the tomb that told them that Jesus wasn’t in that tomb.

The NIV bible says, there was a violent earthquake and an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled back the tomb and then sat on it. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. Then the angel said to the women, Jesus has risen from the dead, just as he said, now quickly go tell his disciples.

Bibliography goes here:

"How Did Crucifixion Kill." The Guardian. N.p., Thursday Apr. 2004. Web.

Strobel, Lee, and Jane Vogel. The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 2001. Print.

Attention Spans

I was recently reading The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly and I was struck by one paragraph in particular that I found on page 282, although I recommend the entire book.

We spend a lot of time worrying about attention spans at school. I wonder if the problem isn't attention spans.

Legitimate Cameras

A while back my youngest daughter, all of 7 years old, said something interesting.

We were talking about cameras. Somewhere in our conversation she said something like, "It's not a legitimate camera if it can't put pictures on Facebook."

What kind of world are our children growing up in if something is only legitimate if it can be online?

The Case for Christ Student Response #3

In the first term of this school year my grade 7/8 class has read The Case for Christ: Student Edition by Lee Strobel. At the end of the study of the book each student was asked to answer one of the questions posed in the chapters of the book. I told that I would be sharing their responses online. So, throughout the rest of the year I will be posting their work. Please note, I have not edited these responses, they are exactly what the student handed me.

Did Jesus fake his death? It’s a valid question, and one that is asked a lot when people talk about the bible. Could the assumed ‘Son of God’ been a master magician or manipulator? That’s what I’m going to trying to figure out.

One of the biggest theories is called the ‘swoon theory’. The swoon theory is saying that Jesus merely fell unconscious, was taking off the cross. And then they put him in the tum, he rested for 3 days, then pushed the rock out of the way. He then went to saw Mary and the disciples. But they’re several things that don’t line up with that theory.

First off, when Jesus died, it Matthew 27:50-53, “50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

This passage is showing how Jesus did in fact die, and God sent a message out to the people to show it, ripping the curtain in half and making an earthquake. This proves that Jesus did in fact die. Also, when they took him off the cross, would the guards not at least look or feel a heartbeat coming from him? Also, the rock probably would have been several feet tall and wide, meaning that no man would have been able too just straight up push it out of the way. So the swoon theory is highly improbable, so if he didn’t die on the cross, what else could’ve happened.

Another big problem that other people have is if Jesus is God, why didn’t the world just end when he died? I mean, if he’s God, then why didn’t the Earth stop functioning.  But there are some major problems with that question. First off, Jesus is not God. Jesus is the physical representation of the Son of God, one of the three parts of the trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son, so when Jesus died, God showed that one part of the trinity had died with the earthquake and the temple drapes being ripped in half. But then God revived Jesus, making the trinity whole again.

So now the question of Jesus dieing hasn’t been completely debunked, but once you explore what the theories are, you can make your own judgement call. But from the evidence I saw, I believe that Jesus is our Lord and that he did indeed rise from the dead after saving us all from our sins.

Works Cited

Strobel, Lee Patrick. The Case for Christ. N.p.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1998. Print.

"What Is the Swoon Theory? Did Jesus Survive the Crucifixion?" GotQuestions.org. Got Questions Ministires, 18 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Nov. 2016. <https://gotquestions.org/swoon-theory.html>.

Carp, Ed. "If Jesus Is God and He Died on the Cross, How Did the World Survive for Three Days without God?" Why Didn't the World End When Jesus Died? Quora, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2016. <https://www.quora.com/If-Jesus-is-God-and-He-died-on-the-cross-how-did-the-world-survive-for-three-days-without-God>.

Pendulums

Pendulums have been on my mind lately, and not just because my middle school science students are repeating Galileo's famous pendulum experiments.

I've been thinking about pendulums in education.

When my parents were teaching one of the big pendulum swings happening was the phonics vs whole language conversation. Education seems to constantly have pendulum swings where we move from one extreme to another. (Read these two articles if you feel like reviewing more pendulum swings. 1 and 2.)

I worry that we're in the middle of another series of pendulum swings.

My experience tells me that in almost every case the middle road has been better than swinging to one or the other side. It's not either/or but both/and. To use the example above, the best way to learn to read is with phonics and whole language not just one or the other.

The two pendulum swings that are on my radar at the moment are the use of technology in the classroom and PBL.

I know that I can easily swing too far to the side of using technology too much. In fact, for one year I even deliberately did just that. The very first year I had a 1-1 classroom I chose to do everything digitally. I knew it was a bad idea even when I started it. But I wanted to find out firsthand which places the technology would prove to be a bad idea. (Colouring maps using the fill tool in a paint program does not help you learn the shape of the country of France anywhere near as well as colouring it with pencil crayons!) I very quickly began to swing back toward the middle trying to find a balance between using digital tools and more traditional tools which is where we should be. The problem that I see now is a growing reaction against technology. We have been discovering and experiencing the negatives that come with using technology. This has led to a reaction where we are sometimes avoiding the use of technology when we can and even should be using it.

The other pendulum I wonder about is how quickly the Christian school community that I work in is adopting PBL. (If you aren't familiar with PBL I highly recommend the Buck Institute for Education. They do a great job of explaining and supporting PBL.) I loved when I was first exposed to the PBL model. It gave me a language and structure to begin to understand some of my own stumbling experiments in trying to make education more relevant to my students. There are so many of the ideas and processes around PBL that are fantastic. But as we rush to an all PBL, all the time style of schooling what are we leaving behind? I really don't know the answer, and I could easily be wrong. Perhaps it isn't a pendulum swing at all. But it feels like it to me.

The Case for Christ Student Response #2

In the first term of this school year my grade 7/8 class has read The Case for Christ: Student Edition by Lee Strobel. At the end of the study of the book each student was asked to answer one of the questions posed in the chapters of the book. I told that I would be sharing their responses online. So, throughout the rest of the year I will be posting their work. Please note, I have not edited these responses, they are exactly what the student handed me.

Did Jesus fake his death? I think Jesus did not fake his death but survived the crucifixion so he could rise three days later.  Usually if a person is tortured they would live on a cross for a short time and likely never be rescued.  Instead, Jesus suffered many injuries while on the cross. These injuries included a crown of thorns which was pressed into his head before the crucifixion and his hands and feet were nailed to the cross. The Roman soldiers often broke the victim's legs to quicken the death.  Jesus likely could not die from these injuries alone.  To die this quickly, the soldiers would have likely beaten Jesus with a whip or a stick as punishment or torture.  This type of torture usually leads to unconsciousness and the loss of a lot of blood which would result in a slow death.  However, theories and the gospels indicate that he was conscious and died quickly.  So excess bleeding was likely not the cause of Jesus’s death. Although the book of John 19:34 says the Roman soldiers found Jesus dead and to be sure that he was dead the Roman soldiers pushed a spear into his side.  Another theory says Jesus chose to die or perhaps God did not want him to suffer anymore and allowed him to die quickly.   I believe Jesus was not dead when the soldiers found him but rather unconscious.  Back in the Roman days they did not have doctors to confirm if a person was alive or dead or a medical report.  The Roman soldiers used their experience and judgement to determine if a person was dead.

When Jesus was removed from the cross and laid in the tomb to rest he had some time to recover.  I believe God kept Jesus alive so that he could rise on the third day and bless his followers.  After the third day Jesus most likely gave up and died.

I believe Jesus allowed the Roman soldiers to put him on the cross because he knew that God would save him and bring him off the cross and back to life to see his followers.  Jesus did not fake his death but was unconscious and God kept him alive so he could teach his followers to believe.  

Works Cited

Chaffey, Tim. "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Faking Death." Answers in Genesis. N.p., 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

"How Did Jesus Die." How Did Jesus Die. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Strobel, Lee, and Jane Vogel. The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 2001. Print

The Case for Christ: Student Response #1

In the first term of this school year my grade 7/8 class has read The Case for Christ: Student Edition by Lee Strobel. At the end of the study of the book each student was asked to answer one of the questions posed in the chapters of the book. I told that I would be sharing their responses online. So, throughout the rest of the year I will be posting their work. Please note, I have not edited these responses, they are exactly what the student handed me.

#1

Was Jesus really the Christ? Did he fulfill these predictions that were written centuries before he was born? In the Old Testament, there are tons of major prophecies about the coming of Christ.

These predictions allow the Israelites rule out any imposters and check the credentials of the real Messiah.

In Isaiah 53:3-9,12 There’s a picture and description of the Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of the whole world. This portrait was of Jesus of Nazareth. This passage was a description of Jesus being born of a virgin in Bethlehem to getting crucified and resurrected. All of which was written 700 years before Jesus was born.

Not only did all these old testament prophecies come true but from the time Jesus was born to the time he died he performed countless predicted miracles that were witnessed by thousands. These miracles included things like turning water to wine, walking on water, feeding thousands of people with a couple loafs of bread and a few fish, healing the unhealable, and raising from the dead after he was crucified. All the while doing this he never committed a sin or did anything wrong, not even the worst adversary Satan was able to convince Jesus to commit a sin.

Although there have been other people in history that have done selfless acts and were even martyrs, none of them were able to do the miracles Jesus did nor have their whole lives predicted hundreds of years before they were born. For these reasons Jesus does match the identity of the Messiah.

Strobel, Lee, and Jane Vogel. The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001. Print.

Where have all the Binders gone?

15 years ago I walked into my first classroom fresh out of teachers college. I hardly knew where to start. So the school handed me some binders and said, "Teach this."

Those binders were my salvation. Without them I never would have survived as a teacher.

They contained detailed lesson plans for everything. When I started teaching I did exactly what they told me word for word. I won't pretend it was great teaching, but at least it was teaching.

Those binders gave me examples of what a wide variety of lessons could look like. They had different learning styles, activities, and ideas. I followed them all. As time went on I branched out and began exploring my own options and eventually began developing my own lessons. Even today I still use elements of those binders.

Perhaps most importantly, those binders had examples of rich Christian perspective embedded in the teaching. I saw how we, as Christians, could unfold God's story in every subject. From those examples my own understanding of what it meant to be a Christian teacher grew.

Those binders were created by the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools. They assembled teams of teachers to write them, they raised funds, they edited, they published, and they distributed the binders at the end.

A few years back they stopped.

I miss the binders.

And I wonder, how many of our new teachers will never experience their gift that saved me as a teacher and helped me see what it meant to teach Christianly.

My PBL failure

I've been thinking about PBL a lot lately. I've had a few months since the end of my last PBL experience and I thought I'd share a little more about it now that I've had time to reflect.

I ran a project based on this driving question, "How can we, as Christian programmers, develop a video game that honours God?"

The students completed plans, wrote blogs, and learned to use two different platforms to develop their games. (We used Twine and Tynker.) We did gallery walks which I called Alpha testing and Beta Testing. In the end each student was involved in creating a video game. While doing it we had lessons, discussions, and presentations by experts (Thanks Kevin Schut author Of Games and God) on the topic of how Christians should interact with video games.

Near the end as we prepared for our Celebration of Learning at school where we would showcase our work the students asked if we could turn our classroom into an arcade. A few days later the whole room was sectioned off to be black, with glow-in-the-dark lettering, a disco ball, laser lights, music in the background and so much more.

The night of the Celebration of Learning that room was hopping. Of course tons of students wanted to come in and check out our games, which brought all kinds of parents in.

In the end it looked like a smashing success.

But that's not the whole story.

There were three students for whom the project was essentially a failure.

1) A young lady who had little or no interest in video games herself, nor much interest in coding. She was with a partner who struggled to communicate effectively. The work involved was quite difficult for her and in the end the game they produced was buggy and actually had little of her work in it.

2) A young man who loves outdoors and sports of all kinds. He did not care for video games in the slightest. School was always a struggle for him which was just as evident here. Eventually he did create a game of his own, which worked and he definitely learned a few things along the way, but it was not an easy journey.

3) A young lady who was highly competent, skilled, and hard-working. But she certainly did not like video games. But, because the teacher asked her to, she dug in a did the work. In the end she created a highly detailed story based game.

For these three students this was not a great learning experience. Oh, they learned some things, so it wasn't a complete waste of time, but it didn't go all that well.

And that bothers me.

Biking Success for the whole family

So I blogged earlier about my experience with teaching my middle daughter to ride a bike.

I just have to update this blog with this picture:

Now all three of my children can ride bikes. Thanks Facebook and Youtube! You made for some very happy children!

This time I DID Google it!

In an earlier post I wrote about not using Google to solve a problem. This post takes the other side of the coin.

So earlier this week I saw this video on Facebook:

I got really excited. I have two girls who have not yet learned to ride a bike. My middle girl struggles with a fixed mindset and it's tough for her to learn something new and hard. So this really got me excited.

We happen to have a bunch of bikes lying around. (My wife is amazing at finding bikes people are getting rid of but still work!)

So I promptly sat down and starting taking one of them apart in order to get rid of the pedals and crank. I happen to think that I'm reasonably handy, but within 15 minutes I was sitting on our sidewalk, surrounded by bike parts stuck. I just couldn't figure out how to get the crank out.

So I reached into my pocket, pulled out my iPhone, and I found this guy:

At 6:14 is the spot I was stuck. 

And now I have this!

I did NOT Google it.

This summer I am working to create a storage space in our attic. Much to my surprise when I opened the descending ladder hatch door we had paid a handyman to install there was an electrical cable right across the opening, making the opening useless.

Well, I always have wanted to get better at doing work around the house and I've always wanted to tackle some electrical work, so I figured I could learn to do the work myself.

So I started learning.

But I didn't Google it, or Youtube it.

Now if you know me that might seem strange. I am a big proponent of the idea that between Google and Youtube you can learn just about anything.

So why did I head to my local hardware store and ask questions there? Why did I go to my Dad and ask his advice from the many projects he's done over the years? Why did I go to my friend who is an electrician for advice?

The problem was, I didn't know enough. I knew so little about doing electrical work that I didn't even know what questions to ask. I had no background upon which to draw from. Without that background I couldn't formulate questions that Google or Youtube could answer.

The same holds true of how we educate our children. They must still be taught a solid background knowledge that will give them enough information to begin asking the right questions. There is still a place for us to be teaching content in our schools. Our children need a broad knowledge base upon which to build.

The bigger challenge is exactly what content is critical?


Oh, and my electrical work. Well, I had to rip out everything I did and do it over because I made so many mistakes the first time. But that is content for another blog post.

Responsive Classroom Part 3

In my last two posts I've been writing about my experience in a 4 day workshop by Responsive Classroom. Part 1 and Part 2.

I loved it but struggled with two key topics. I covered the first topic in Part 2.

I think that Responsive Classroom's ideas can create some of the very best classrooms.

But there is an underlying assumption about what a classroom is in their work. Or at least I heard an underlying assumption.

I heard that a classroom is a unit of students that is together for most, if not all, of the day. Led by one or two teachers for the most part.

I also found that their ideas about learning did not apply to my learning as an adult. I don't spend my time in a classroom and so I don't spend 70% of my learning time engaged in conversation with others. Mind you, interaction with others is still critical to my learning process, which is one of the reasons I blog. It just doesn't get anywhere near 70% and I wouldn't want it to.

So I come out of the workshop with some questions:

What if our schools weren't built around classrooms? What would that look like? I happen to think that Responsive Classroom's ideas about Morning Meeting would actually be even more important in an educational setting like that!

What if all this practice at learning well in classrooms doesn't prepare our kids for life outside of school?

Responsive Classroom Part 2

In an early post I wrote about my very positive reaction to Responsive Classroom and the ideas and training they provide.

For the most part I loved it, but there was one part I really struggled with.

Underlying their work is a key idea I'm not sure I can agree with. The idea that I heard (Of course what I heard and what they meant may be different!) was that 70% of a student's learning experiences should be interactive, and 30% solitary. That's 70% of their learning experiences talking with partners, groups, etc...

Our workshop leader did an excellent job of leading her workshop in the style she was talking about as any good workshop leader should do.

At the end of the first day I staggered home, collapsed into my comfy lazyboy and disappeared into a videogame, much to my wife's dismay.

The second day I didn't even make it to the end of the day. After lunch I was worn out.

The third and the fourth days were a brutal slog for me. I almost didn't show up on the fourth day at all. But I pushed on to the end. Let's not talk about what my wife had to deal with at home.

All that talking and engaging and discussing was too much for me.

I know that in my own classroom I am too far on the other end of the pendulum. This last year was particularly weak. I'd probably say that I had 10-20% interactive and the rest solitary. I recognize that I need to move that in the other direction.

The workshop leader also stated that they had research data to back up the 70/30 number. I don't doubt that they do. I would love to have the time to dig in to that research to see their research methods and structures, because this number does not ring true for me. I could neither learn well, or teach well in such a classroom. I know that my own bias is colouring my reaction, but I can't go along with this. I wonder if this is yet another pendulum swing in education. I'd like to see us take a middle ground.

I wonder if our society's need to celebrate the extrovert is at play here. Too often our society ignores the power of introverts. (Good TED talk here about that!)

I also wonder if these numbers are based on classroom learning. Is that what is best for classrooms? But what about the learning that we want our students to do when they are no longer in a classroom? What does lifelong learning look like?

More about that in Part 3.

Responsive Classroom Part 1

I just finished taking a 4 day workshop for Elementary teachers put on by Responsive Classroom.

I would say that this is some of the best and most practical professional development I have ever had in my career as a teacher. I would also like to express that we had an excellent workshop leader in Amy Wade. I would challenge every teacher to take it and get her if possible. (A plug for her Husband's blog.)

One of the struggles we've seen growing in our schools is a lack of social skills amongst our students. It's reached the point that we have been asking for some sort of curriculum, lesson plans, or structure to teach social skills. Responsive Classroom will help provide that. 

We often talk about how important relationship is in teaching, but we don't often talk about how to build it. Responsive Classroom will help with that.

As a Christian I found Responsive Classroom to fit incredibly well with my worldview. They aren't a Christian organization, but I think this is an example of General Revelation. I felt very comfortable with the underlying ideas about who kids are and how people operate that drove the workshop.

I, and many other Christian teachers, will be thinking differently about many structures in our classroom in this next year and the years that follow.

I think that Responsive Classroom will help create excellent classrooms. Perhaps even the very best classrooms.

If you like classrooms that is.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you can guess that I do have an alternate opinion as well. More on this in part 2 and part 3.

Not Real

We were discussing students and the challenges we've been facing implementing our school's 1-1 program when one of my colleagues said it.

It went something like this, "Joe and George sit on the carpet and play videogames beside each other and it's Not Real relationship."

I struggled with this. I didn't say anything at the time, but it felt wrong. I couldn't articulate it then, but I think this sentiment is wrong.

To those two boys, sitting down beside each other with their devices and playing games is relationship. It is Real. Those two boys struggle to make connections with other students. They function on a different wavelength. Here they found someone else to connect with in a way they understood. But because it is not what we are used to it's "Not Real".

(Mind you, I do agree with my colleagues that the time and place they had chosen to do this was not what we would like and fully support the changes that we agreed to make. Real or not it has an appropriate time and place. )

I strongly support the idea that relationships are fundamental to the human condition. After all God is Love and we are made in his image. Therefore we function best in relationship.

What bothers me is the instant rejection of digital relationships as being "Not Real".

I also believe that we must be whole people. We need relationships that are physical, auditory, visual, emotional and so much more. Having relationships that are only one dimensional is unhealthy. Digital or otherwise.

But I believe that relationships that occur through a digital medium can be part of a healthy life. I believe that they Are Real.

Different, but Real.

The Magic (Factory Slaying) Bullet

So, I'm looking for a magic bullet that will take down our reliance on age cohorts in education. The killer app the will make age groupings obsolete. The pedagogy, theory, tool, or remedy that will, in one fell swoop, render the idea of sticking kids in one room all day just because of the date they were born obsolete.

There's only one problem.

It doesn't exist.

I don't actually think that there is one thing that will allow us to take education to that place where we can honour the unique individuality of the children we've been given to teach.

I believe it's going to take a combination of ideas, tools, and solutions.

But there's a problem with that too. I don't know exactly which ideas, tools, and solutions. Nor does anyone else. Yet.

I think that Project Based Learning is part of the solution. Authentic projects, created for real audiences, in which students have voice and choice are powerful. But I don't think that PBL by itself will challenge the factory model of school it's too easy to do projects in single grade classrooms.

We also need to think about architecture, furniture, and decoration. What kind of physical space do we have our students working in? But just buying new desks won't interrupt the assembly line. (Although I really want new desks! Actually, standing tables, mixed with other tables.)

I could list even more ideas (Makerspaces, Genius Hour, Fed Ex days,....) but none of them are going to work on their own either.

I think that a combination of tools and ideas is needed. I think it's going to take teamwork and collaboration. I want to be part of that team.

My area of expertise, such as it is, lies in the role of digital tools. I believe that digital tools will have a profound impact on education, in conjunction with many of the other exciting ideas that are being developed in education. Digital tools, by themselves, won't make our schools what they ought to be either.

It is only by working in community, in relationship together, combining many of the ideas we have that we can slay the elephant that is the factory model of education and build schools where each of God's children will all be given to grow to their full potential.

Why I am not a PBL evangelist

I am a teacher who is very interested in trying to think differently about how we do education. I love the idea of real work that meets a real need for a real audience.

Project Based Learning has become an idea that is growing in popularity in the branch of Christian schools that I work with. When Hamilton District Christian High first developed it's Teacher Academy to train teachers to do this well I was quite interested in getting involved.

But it's a few years later and I still haven't attended the Teacher Academy at all.

I've been struggling to understand why.

Now don't get me wrong. I happen to think that PBL has a lot going for it. When my principal says that this is what our school is going to do, I get behind it and engage in the work. I've done a few projects now and I'm learning more and more about how to do it well. But I have not become an evangelist for the topic. As powerful as PBL can be I'm not out there pushing to see it adopted as much as possible.

A recent conversation with a fellow educator has finally given me clarity as to why.

PBL does not directly disrupt the factory model of education.

I've mentioned before in this blog how much I detest the fact that we educate students in batches based purely on their birthdate. I think we dishonour each child's unique God given individuality in that system. I am most invigorated by the tools and ideas that directly challenge the foundation of the factory model.

I think that PBL can and probably should have a role in what a new education system looks like. But I also am watching PBL be used to reinforce the silos in our schools instead of tearing them down. PBL is not being used as a disruptive innovation, but a sustaining innovation.

I will happily continue to develop my skills as a teacher using PBL and will continue to learn more about how to do it well. But I'm not going to champion it or evangelize for it.

It isn't the killer app that will take down the factory model. And that's what I'm looking for, assuming such a thing even exists.

The Perils of Facebook

In my role as teacher and Technology Coordinator at a Christian school I hear lots of conversations about social media. Many of those conversations are focused on how much time is wasted, how shallow the connections are etc...

In fact, I almost never hear people speak about the positive benefits of social media. So let me tell you a story.

My daughter is sick. We've been struggling with her health for months. After a bout of flu that didn't seem to be going away I took her to the emergency room in our local hospital. After a long night they diagnosed appendicitis but there were complications and she would need to be transferred to another hospital more equipped for this situation.

It was in this busyness of organizing which parent would be where, where the van would be, who would pick up the kids from bus and so on that I posted a brief update to facebook. It was only a couple of sentences dashed together while in a hurry. I don't even use facebook much and I have a very limited pool of facebook friends. (That's a topic for another day.)

What happened next was joyful, helpful, and relieving.

Within hours our family and church community had mobilized. Supper appeared at our door. Lunches are being delivered to school tomorrow. People volunteered to take our kids. Prayer warriors from across the entire country were on their knees.

It has made a rough couple of days easier.

Thanks Facebook.

Bringing Experts to class

One of the key components of PBL projects is that you want to bring experts into your classroom.

This isn't always easy, but with today's technology there are ways to make it easier. This past week we had an expert visit our classroom via Google Hangouts even though he was half a continent away. I had my students blog in response to his presentation. You can read a sample of their responses here.

Students creating Video Games from a Christian Worldview

My school has been exploring the world of Project Based Learning.

This year I decided to take on the challenge of having my students create video games and attempt to apply a Christian Worldview to the process.

This won't be easy. It isn't easy for us as adults to navigate how Christ asks us to interact with culture. But it's worth trying to do.

As part of the project I've asked students to prepare blog posts. You can go and see the first results of this here. 

When Sex Ed goes sideways - Necessary Evils

I teach Sex Ed. (I've blogged about it before.)

In my class I do my best to welcome questions. I even have a system so they can ask questions anonymously. Sometimes they're silly, sometimes repeats of what I just taught, and sometimes they push me way outside of my comfort zone.

But I insist on engaging with them. We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our children don't have questions, or we can take them on an struggle with them.

Sometime I really struggle with them.

This past week I had a question about divorce. I did my best to answer it, but it didn't go very well. I have students in my room who have lived and are living the story of divorce. I tried to be as sensitive and balanced as I could be. But somewhere something went wrong.

So here I'm going to try to write my thoughts about divorce. I haven't been through one. I've only watched from the sidelines. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

I think that divorce is not part of God's plan for the world. In God's perfect world there will be no divorce. We don't like in a perfect world. Divorce should not be, but sometimes they are necessary. Divorce is a necessary evil.

Let me use some illustrations to get the idea of necessary evils across.

I think that locking someone up for life and throwing away the key is evil and wrong. But sometimes, there are people in society for some reason or another need to be put in prison. Jail should not be, but sometimes is necessary.

I think that all weapons that kill or harm human beings are evil and wrong. But police officers need guns to keep the peace. Soldiers need weapons to maintain our freedom. Farmers need a gun to put down the horse that broke its leg. Guns should not be, but are sometimes necessary.

I think that marriage is two flesh becoming one and what God has put together let no human separate. But sometimes there is abuse or other situations that mean a marriage must end. Divorce should not be, but sometimes they are necessary.

I don't pretend to think that real life is simple. Questions like these I wrestle and struggle with. I often wonder what God sees when he looks at the mess we make of his world. But I know that he is a God of love and that he sees more than I do.

The CEAF debacle

Like many others here in the Christian School community in Ontario I am part of the mess that has become CEAF, OACS, CRA, and a bunch of lawyers. (If you don't know what that alphabet soup of letters means, then this blog post isn't for you. You are welcome to return and visit some other time though!)

I've got an opinion on the mess if you want to hear it.

I understand that CEAF was acting in good faith when they started out on this road. They were doing their very best to find ways to reduce the cost of Christian Education. They were well advised  and made the best decision that they could. It's only in hindsight that it's so easy to condemn them.

So here's what really bothers me. That somewhere in our tiny community were enough to people to put a class action lawsuit together to get their pound of flesh! I had hoped that our Christian community would be better than this.

So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to grab my slice of the pie! I'm going to grab MY MONEY in both hands. I'm going to hold onto it really tight.

For about one minute. That's how long it's going to take me to write a check to the OACS and donate "my money" right back to them. (If you want to add Bible verses to the comments on this blog about who's money it is I'd appreciate that.)

And that's my challenge to you.

Grab your slice of the pie.

Then give it away.

What exactly is "Enough Instruction"?

I recently received a comment on this blog in an earlier post. I greatly appreciated this comment and it got me thinking about it for days. Here's the first part of the comment:

"Hi Alex, 
I am interested to know how you balance instruction and the flipped classroom format. Do you encounter students who feel that they are not receiving enough instruction? If so, how do you address this?"
Here's how I address this.

Let me illustrate with the stories of two separate students in my math class.

First, let me give a brief synopsis of what a student does in my math class.

They get a document, like this, which lists all the videos and assignments. They begin by watching a video. Then they complete the assignment. Then they check their work with the answer key to see if they go it right. This cycle represents a single lesson. The repeat the cycle for each lesson. Every 1-4 lessons I have them complete what I call an exit slip. It is a quiz that I mark, but does not count on the report card. I also review all their work and check to see that they have been completing things correctly. At any time in this process they can ask for my help and work with me one on one.

Let's call the first student Bill. Bill sits down and gets to work. 2 days later he brings me an exit slip. I check the exit slip. It's perfect. I look through all the work he's done and notes he's taken. They are exactly like I've asked for him to do in the videos. I sign off and he is allowed to move on to the next lesson. 30 second have passed. In 2 days I spend 30 seconds with him one on one. Probably once a week he'll ask a question, or I'll notice a problem with his work. In total during a single week I might spend 5 minutes with him. In and entire week! He easily earns an A+ in math, finishes the entire curriculum 2 months early and starts the next grade's curriculum ahead of time.

Let's call the second student Elliot. Elliot finds math to be a struggle. Actually he finds school to be a struggle. He looses his books and papers regularly, is often in the principal's office, never does homework, you get the picture. He attempts to follow the same process, but he has so many gaps in what he's learned over the years that he needs constant help. Every time I check his work, there's a mistake and something I need to teach him. He often forgets what we did the day before. I spend at least 15 minutes with him every single day, teaching him one on one. Every. Single. Day. All. Year. Long. But at the end of the year he is able to solve an Algebra question.

I would argue that both of those students had "Enough" instruction.

But this requires that we re-think what "Enough" is.