The impact of 1-1 devices in the classroom, 5 years of experience.

I have seen the challenge of what students do with their digital devices in the classroom. My classroom has been 1-1 for about 5 years now.

The presence of the technology has driven me to change my teaching style. You can complain about that fact if you like, but it has forced me to innovate. Not everything I have tried has been successful, but my classroom looks hardly anything like it did 10 years ago.

I hardly ever teach from the front of the room in a lecture style. I haven't asked students to copy notes off of a chalkboard/whiteboard/overhead in ages. (I actually picked up chalk and taught one lesson from the blackboard late in the school year and it felt strange! It was the correct tool for that lesson at that time however.) 

When I do teach from the front I insist that all devices be closed.

I always try to have my seating arrangements set up so that all the student's screens can be seen from one location. If I have flexible seating arrangements, none of the places students can sit allow them to put their backs to the wall and hide what they are doing.

I have also found it necessary to change the kind of assignments I give. I started, like most teachers, by taking the same lessons I used to do and putting them online. That went over like a lead balloon! (Which exist if you watch the MythBusters!) When you put an assignment up that can be answered in 5 minutes by using CTRL-F and CTRL-C and CTRL-P you realize that you really need to change your assignments. (And maybe should have changed them years ago!)

It's not always pretty, it's not always perfect, but it has forced me to re-think just about everything I do in the classroom. And that's not a bad thing.

The Case for Christ Student Response #11

In the first term of the school year 2016-2017 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.

The Question: If archaeology shows that the New Testament writers were accurate in reporting historical and geographical details, does this increase your confidence that they would be similarly careful in recording events about Jesus? Why or why not?

The Answer: Unlike the famous Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark the real ark of the covenant has not been found yet. Just because it hasn't been found does that mean it does not exist? In Ethiopia a church called The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion claims to have the original ark inside the church but no one has ever been inside to see it. There are clues within the Bible supporting the fact that the ark could be in Ethiopia.

There has not been any evidence found from archaeology that contradicts the Bible's writings. For example, in Luke 5:2, it describes the pool of Bethesda. It states the the pool has five covered porches. When archaeologists went to dig up the historical site they noticed that in the same place this pool had five covered porches.

When archaeologists go on digs they have a bias depending on their religious faith. If they are an unbeliever or an atheist they would most likely try to find artifacts contradicting the Bible's writings. Contradicting this, however, is the case of Sir William Ramsay of Oxford University in England. He spent 25 years doing digs trying to disprove the teachings in the book of Acts which was written by the historian Luke. During his digs he could not find anything to contradict the writings in Acts. Later, he was influenced by his findings and became a Christian.

Archaeology isn’t necessary to base your faith upon but provides visual examples from the Bible. Examples like how big Goliath was, the size and how many courts the temples had, the size of Noah's ark, are to name a few. When the Bible was translated did the number of days or months or years it took to created the world get modified? Translations were done by scribes

Because we found these things does that mean the accounts in the Bible are true? They do help them feel more trustworthy because there is nothing that disproves the facts and stories only artifacts that help prove. As Psalm 85:11 states, “Truth shall spring out of the earth.”

Jesus walked on the earth. He visited and preached from many historical places that have been discovered through archaeology. Like faith, we do not need to see it, or touch it to believe it. Jesus was not famous, in that there would be no statues or monuments to his name. He was poor therefore no big castle or worldly possessions to discover. Jesus life is recorded through eyewitnesses and passed down through generations.

The Bible itself is grounded in historical facts. So if the places, cities and remains of other people have been found and proven - why would we not believe that the story of Jesus is true?

Works Cited

@AiG. "Does Archaeology Support the Bible?" Answers in Genesis. 24 Jan. 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

"Does Archaeology Support the Bible?" Truth Or Tradition. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. Zondervan Pub. House, 1998. Print.

"Has Archaeological Evidence for Jesus Been Discovered?" Has Archaeological Evidence for Jesus Been Discovered? | The Institute for Creation Research. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

By Samuel Smith , CP Reporter. "Archaeological Discoveries Prove Jesus Existed, Disprove Atheist 'Mythicist' Scholarship, Book Claims (Interview)." Christian News, The Christian Post. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

What can Christian Schools learn from churches?

I recently discovered a pastor by the name of Carey Nieuwhof. He writes a blog and runs a podcast about leadership in churches. (Oh yeah, he pastors a church too.) I've been really impacted by what he writes and the interviews he has on his podcasts. I highly recommend that you follow him. Check out his blog.

One recent post really made me think. He's been writing about trends that are impacting churches and wrote a blog post about the ones he thinks will be a big impact on churches in 2018. I've been wondering how many of these will and should impact Christian schools too. First, go read his post here. Then I'll share my two cents as to how this might apply to Christian schools here:

So here are my first thoughts on each point Carey raises as it relates to Christian schools. I'm certain we could go a lot deeper that these first surface impressions.

Point 1: A Move Beyond Church In A Box

The local school isn't going away and shouldn't go away. But why are we constrained by the four walls of a building? or even the kind of building? How can we leverage the tools we have to extend the reach of our schools?

Point 2: The Digital Will Become Real

I've heard from too many teachers/parents/administrators who don't believe that this is true. I've even heard it from students. This change is coming. Are we ready to act in this space?

Point 3: Location Independence Will Rise

I think this will become increasingly true at the high school level. The one reason it won't develop as strongly at the elementary level is because of Day Care. The local elementary school provides a place for parents to have their children during the day. That means that there must be a physical locale to which they go. But even with that true it will become increasingly possible to use remote tools in the classroom. What opportunities are there for us here?

Point 4: Pop-Up Churches Will Become More Common

This idea intrigues me. What if we did pop-up Christian schools? Day camps, week camps in the summer? Project Base Learning experiences that travel around the province? This is an interesting idea, although I'm not really sure how it would apply in the school context. I would love to explore it though!

Point 5: The Rise Of Preaching (More Than Teaching)

When I first read this point I didn't see how it could possibly apply to schools. But my thinking on this is changing. I see it in the way we run our schools. The emotional, relational, experiential components of school have become increasingly more important. I've certainly a significant change it what happens in the classroom during my short career as a teacher.

Point 6: A Desire For Non-Downloadable Experiences

I love the contrast between this point and his earlier points! Even as the digital becomes more important, the non-Digital is critical! We must identify those learning experiences that really only work in face to face settings and make those central to what school is. The challenge is, what are those experiences that are best face to face?

Point 7: The Team Is Eclipsing The Solo Leader

I find this pointing interesting. I see how much difficulty the Christian schools are having in finding administrators to run the schools. I wonder if the leadership model we're using needs to change and perhaps Carey's points about the team may hold parts of the answer.


So, there are my first thoughts. I think there's a lot more here to contemplate. I'd love to hear your thoughts too.

School is to hard, it's too boring

Yesterday I heard two students share with me their struggles with school.

One said, "School is so hard for me. Always."

The other said, "I have nothing to look forward to." (Which is why he deliberately got in trouble, because he wanted some excitement!)

For a long time there was only one way for us to do school. (Or at least we thought that way.)

We know that isn't true. School can be different. It should be different.

I'm tired of waiting for it to change. Are you?

The students take charge of the furniture

This was my science class yesterday:

Note the creative way they are using the chairs. Not really what I had in mind, but they seemed to be comfortable, and more importantly, they seemed to be getting work done.

We'll have to see if this is just a fad or if it has staying power. This morning in Bible class they were still using their chairs this way.

At first I was going to tell them to sit on their chairs properly, but hesitated. I took a course at my own school this past summer and had to sit in those chairs for hours. They are NOT comfortable. So, if this was a way for students to be comfortable and still learn I was willing to try it.

We'll have to see what happens.

(Note the standing tables at the back, those have been well used, another way of thinking differently about how we use the space we have!)

A "Free" Bike update

I blogged earlier about the "free" bike we picked up for my son.

Last night we went out and picked up this bike for $30:

It works. No major repairs needed. I might need to change the brake pads.

I've also learned that I'm just not that good at repairing bikes.

Sometimes it's just better to go and spend the money and effort to buy something that works, rather than to cobble it together yourself.

How experienced are we?

Just the other day I heard a statement that really struck me.

"None of our teachers have more than 8 years experience, no matter how long they've been teaching. Too many things have changed in education."

This statement startled me. I've been teaching for 17 years. (or something like that. I keep forgetting. I have to ask my 7 year old daughter how old I am because she knows better than I do. And don't you dare ask me how long I've been married. The correct answer is, "It isn't long enough, my wife is too awesome.)

This statement suggests that most of that experience just doesn't count.

I think I agree. Too much has changed for us to rely on years of experience beyond 8. I even wonder if 8 years is too long.

Mind you, I think elements of that experience do matter. Elements of understanding of human nature, of how to build connections with people, and experience of that nature last. Compassion, relationship, and nurturing matter and include skills that last forever.

But the minute we start talking about pedagogy, curriculum, content, and other similar topics experience does not have the same value it once did.

Or at least that's what I think.

Cost of Textbooks

Link to where I found this.

When I saw this graph it made me smile.

But it also made me think. What role are textbooks going to take in the future?

I've seen the steady growth of the Software As A Service model. Just witness the growth of Google Suite in Education.

I wonder if the same kind of thing is going to happen to textbooks.

A "Free" Bike!

So my wife found this bike at the side of the road:

She took it home and asked me if I could fix it.

I like to imagine that I am pretty handy so I said, "Of course!"

The rear wheel had a flat tire. I remembered changing a tire back when I was 16 so I was pretty certain I could do that.

I started by taking the rear wheel off. That took a little bit of finicky work, but I got it.

As I was doing that I noticed that the chain was pretty rusted. I did some work on chains last summer so I figured I could replace that pretty easily. I also noticed that the gears on the rear wheel were pretty badly rusted. If I was replacing the chain why not replace the gears? It couldn't be that hard could it?

So I went shopping for spare parts. The bike shop in town wasn't open on a Saturday (?) so I ended up driving to the next town over. I got a new chain, a new set of gears, a new inner tube, and a couple of tools.

I proceeded to try to take things apart. Youtube helped, but mostly I discovered that trying to make do with the tools I had wouldn't work. I needed to go buy some specialized tools. It was late in the day, so I stopped. I also broke my chain tool.

During the next week I went shopping again, found out I had purchased the wrong set of gears, got the correct tools and the correct parts.

Next Saturday I started in on the bike again. After an hour of fighting with the old wheel, I gave up. Drove back to the store for the third time and bought a new wheel. They guy in the store asked me if I wanted him to put the wheel, tube, tire, and gears together. I said, "Sure!" I watched him assemble, in fifteen minutes, what I had been struggling with for two weeks. Then I took the wheel home, mounted it on the bike, put the new chain on, and got the bike working.

My son was riding the bike on Sunday and it worked.

His "free" bike only cost:

• 3 trips to the store
• 6 hours of work (I think!)
• A new wheel, inner tube, freewheel gear sprocket, and chain
• A busted old tool
• 4 new tools, one of which was stripped while working on it.

What's more, the front wheel is really rusty and I'm afraid it may have a leak, the gear shifters don't really work all that well, in fact he only has access to about 6 of the 21 gears, the rear brakes don't work great, and the seat probably should be replaced too.

Quite frankly, I think that if I had put the same effort into Kijiji I bet I could have bought a decent used bike for the same amount of money I spent fixing up this free one and done it in less time.

Now, this blog isn't about fixing bikes, it's about Christian education.

I wonder if the same mentality as I used when approaching this bike infects Christian Education. We look at our tight budgets and try to do things as cheaply as possible, not realizing that in the long run it costs more and we end up with a "product" that isn't as good as it could be. (I don't love the word "product" here! But that's another story.)

I think this applies in quite a few places in our schools, but there's one place in particular that I've been spending a lot of time thinking about.

Curriculum.

There are so many free tools and options out there that it's really easy to turn to teachers and tell them to go a build something themselves using whatever they can find. It can be done, I know, I've been doing it for years. So have lots of other teachers.

But I think we can do better. In fact, we have, in the past. I think it's time we do it again.

The Case for Christ Student Response #10

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?

“Did Jesus fake his death?” Over the course of history this question has been commonly asked and has brought forward many different theories from both believers and non believers alike.  There are many people who believe that Jesus never existed.  Some believe he existed but did not die on the cross and therefore was not resurrected, another belief is that Jesus purposely faked his death! It is my belief along with many christians that Jesus did die on the cross and was resurrected.  Through my readings and research I found evidence to support my belief.  

The swoon theory states that Jesus was still alive when he was removed from the cross and that he just appeared dead because he had been stunned and was in a state of shock.  In the popular book “The Passover Plot” they state the belief that Jesus enlisted the help of few important variables to help him accomplish an elaborate hoax fooling the Romans into believing he had actually died.  They believe that the Jesus could have been drugged when he was given a sponge with liquid on it while he was on the cross.  The liquid or drug could have been something to put Jesus in a coma like state.

Could any of these above theories be true, did Jesus fake his death?  In order to disprove these ideas you have to look carefully at all the historical events surrounding Jesus’s death.  Especially the details of his flogging and Crucifixion.  The idea that Jesus tricked people into believing he had died goes against what most people believe because all the stories of Jesus in the bible portray him to have been a highly moral person.  Thus I do not think it would have been in his character to do this.

Could Jesus have survived the flogging and the crucifixion and have been just stunned or in a coma?  It is hard to imagine someone surviving these horrible acts as they are very harsh and violent and were carried out by roman soldiers.  The Roman Soldiers were very experienced at their jobs.  They performed numerous crucifixions daily and had to identify when people were dead on a daily basis.  They were brutal soldiers who carried out their duties with confidence.  The flogging was a ruthless form of whipping in which the soldiers used short whips with sharp pieces of metal, rocks or bones tied to the ends in order to lash their victims.  Jesus would have endured many many lashes which he would have likely been close to death even before his crucifixion.  When Jesus was on the cross, the nails went thru his wrists likely severing nerves and arteries and it is explained that once someone can no longer push up with their feet they cannot breath and die a slow death by asphyxiation.  Even if Jesus had been alive up till this point, one of the roman soldiers put a spear in Jesus side.  It was witnessed by the apostle John that he saw blood and water come out of the spear wound.  The blood and water is indication of a life threatening injury as the watery fluid coming out indicates that the spear entered Jesus lung causing a medical injury which is named “pericardial effusion.”  

Following all the brutality Jesus was put into the tomb with a rock slab over him that weighed a ton.  If he had been alive at this point he would have had to escape the burial wrappings and roll away the extremely heavy stone as well as get passed numerous guards unnoticed.  After suffering all the trauma Jesus came to the disciples who witnessed him in full healthy form with no blood or injuries.  Not one disciple but many witnessed this.  For all the above reasons I believe that Jesus did not fake his death and that he died on the cross and was truly resurrected from the dead.

Bibliography:

@AiG. "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Faking Death." Answers in Genesis. N.p., 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

Cut2thetruth. "Did Jesus Fake His Death?" Cut2TheTruth. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998. Print.