"Fatigue Makes Cowards Of Us All"

   The basketball season has started at Unity Christian School.  The senior boys basketball team competed this weekend at St. Ann’s Academy in Kamloops.  We narrowly lost our first game 53 – 55 and went onto to win our next two games versus Pemberton and Kamloops Christian.  It is a terrific group of guys to coach because they are committed to working hard and improving every game and practice.

  Coaches are required to be good communicators. Whether teaching a skill in practice or relaying instructions during a game, coaches find simple and effective ways to communicate complicated things.  Effective coach’s use “keywords” to help athletes recall important information.  Volleyball coaches may say “straight and simple” to remind players to have a good platform when passing the ball.  Basketball coaches may say “aim small miss small” to remind a shooter to pick a specific spot on the rim to focus on while shooting.   Whenever I say “baseline” in practice, players understand that they are about to complete a conditioning drill.    At times, the drill is punishment for poor performance while at other times it is meant to simply improve the teams conditioning.   At the end of every practice we complete a conditioning drill, either the “Spartan Pyramid” or the “Sweet 16,” which is not that sweet for the players. 

   All coaches have their favorite conditioning drills.  Legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”  It is one of my favorite quotes.  What coach Lombardi was saying to his team was that during the course of the game, as fatigue sets in, an athletes will to succeed will falter.  Tired teams make the most mistakes.  When athletes get physically fatigued they lose sight of the goal and begin to accept mediocrity and failure.  Coaches use conditioning drills to improve an athlete’s ability to outwork the opposition but more importantly to outlast the oppositions will to win. You may walk into the gym and see the senior boys basketball team completing a conditioning drill, and me shouting words of encouragement and motivation to help them finish.  I am trying to help the players forget their tired legs, burning lungs, and to ignore the small voice telling them to accept mediocrity, to fail and quit.  After a condition drill I refuse to allow players to show signs of fatigue by sitting or learning on the wall.  Athletes and coaches spend hours training the body not to fatigue and the mind to stay strong.

    We know from Scripture that we are more than simply a body; we are a soul.  There is physical and spiritual fatigue.  Isaiah 40:3 says that “even youth get tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.”  We can become spiritually tired.  We are like the apostle Peter who took his eyes off Jesus and looked at his tired feet quickly sinking into the terrifying waters below.  There are many things that can bring about spiritual fatigue.  We can train the body; can we not also train the soul?  Isaiah 40:30 continues that though we may tire and fail “those that hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”  Peter, panicking as the rising waters engulfed him, raised his eyes and stretched his hand out to the only one who could save him.  The psalmist King David expressed it this way: “I lift my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.”    How often do we spend reading the life giving Word of God?  Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  It is common to hear people say that reading the Bible is boring, or Church is boring, or Bible class is boring – how we want to be entertained!  Athletes do not enjoy conditioning drills.  Conditioning drills are not fun but they will make an impact in one’s performance.  Much like sports, in life there are high and lows, ups and down, times when we are walking on water and times when we are sinking and looking up for help.    Spiritual training is vital; a disciplined scheduled is necessary.

  A team can often become overly focused on statistical success and winning championships and forget the commitment and dedication to training that is necessary.  Christians tend to focus on Paul’s injunction to the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 9:24) to run a race as to win the prize but forget his instructions to commit to daily spiritual training.   He says in 1 Tim. 4:6 “Exercise daily in God – no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever” (The Message).  

Blessings

The End of Compact Discs

This past weekend I was able to visit Vancouver and stop by my favourite record store, Zulu Records.  I am 4 weeks late in purchasing Jeanette Berkenbosch her yearly CD birthday gift, as I was unable to find any CD I like in the Chilliwack area.  I have been waiting to get to Zulu Records for weeks.  When I entered I couldn’t find the new music section.  I asked the clerk where it was and he replied, “we don’t sell new CDs anymore, nobody buys them”.    This means the top record store in BC no longer sells new CDs.   Future Shop, Wal-Mart, and Target have a very limited selection left.  Gone are the days where there are HMVs in every mall.  The only place that a folk/indie/adult alternative cd can now be purchased in person is at the local Starbucks.  Much like the rise and fall of the local video store, the CD generation has faded. 25 years of purchasing CDs, listening to Discmans, and playing CDs in the car has now shifted to buying MP3s on ITunes, listening to IPods, and using Bluetooth in vehicles.  I am hereby reporting that the demise of the compact disc is complete.  The technology is dead.   Jeanette Berkenbosch may need to settle for an ITunes gift card. 

I thought about the parallels of the rise and fall of the compact disc to education.    The compact disc was a way for the world to hear music.  Music was as popular before the compact disc as it is now, but the compact disc changed how we can hear it.  MP3s, ITunes, and digital media have both changed and enhanced how we hear music again.  Is the same not true for education?  The acquisition of knowledge and learning in general has always been the goal in education, however educational innovations and trends that come and go allow us to enhance learning and increase the ability to enable children to think critically.    The challenge for schools is to recognize when an innovation or new idea may not be new anymore.  Educators must see the new innovations that enhance learning as they come out.  We don’t want out educators to still be listening solely to Discmans when and IPod can provide so much more.    With this in mind, there is still a lot of good music that 1 can listen to on a Discman.

At Unity Christian School this year, we have had 2 professional development days that have focused on 21^st Century Learning.  SCSBCs 2 learning leaders, Greg Gerber and Darren Spyksma each spent a day with our staff sharing new innovations in learning.  Greg was able to focus more on the technology end of educational innovation, giving staff web based tools to assist in good pedagogy.  Darren was able to focus on the structure of a classroom, sharing with staff opportunities for hands on and student centered learning.  Darren was able to draw from experience and provide many examples on how collaborative learning can help grow a school culture of innovative young minds.   All staff at Unity Christian School were challenged to build on their already excellent teaching in new and innovative ways.  All staff at Unity were challenged to keep their Discman but embrace the IPod.

In 1762, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that, “reading is the plague of childhood”. Rousseau’s thesis was that children under the age of 12 need to explore and experience the world themselves before reading about it.  Rousseau wrote, “Books are good only for learning about babble about what one does not know.  I am convinced that in matters of observation, one must not read, one must see”.  Rousseau recommended that books should be avoided completely until children were 12 years old, so that children could have the opportunity to explore, interact, discover, and be adventurers of the world.     Fear not, we don’t subscribe to Rousseau’s “no books” philosophy. Books are an integral part of education and this should never be lost. However, as a Christian School, we do want our students to recognize and appreciate God’s sovereignty over His beautifully created world as our students head out to explore, interact, have adventures, and discover.   In combining solid classroom instruction and the acquisition of knowledge through experience and adventure, it is our goal to help our students recognize their God-given gifts, see their calling, and enable them to join in the work of building the Kingdom of God.  

Before I retire, MP3s and IPods will be dated technology.  Some new way of accessing media, likely all cloud based, will take over.  Before I retire, research based innovations on how students will best learn will change as well.  At Unity Christian School, we want to use experts, research, and ongoing professional development to stay on the cusp of helping all students reach their God-given potential.  

Learning and Living in Christ...

Yesterday was Unity's annual Auction and Celebration.   From breakfast to cleaning up, it was an amazing day of community building and celebrating.  The day was filled with lots of laughter, food and fun activities. 

I always enjoy the auction.  I served on the auction committee for years at a previous school, and was always amazed at the camaraderie on the planning committee and the amount of fun we had putting it together.  That's not to say that it wasn't a LOT of work, and at times involved some frustration.  But the outcome of the actual day always made it worth it.

A few years ago, the celebration part of the title was added.  The point of this (if I recall correctly) was to celebrate the school as well as the community.  The development team had a table and there was space to highlight what was going on at the school.  Part of this was an opportunity to display student work. 

Yesterday, part of my responsibilities included taking down the displays of student work at the end of the day.  I was struck, once again, at how amazing the staff are at what they do in the classroom.  Each classroom from K-5 had provided some work to be displayed.  All of it was amazing and demonstrated how the students at Unity really do learn and live in Christ.

Kindergarten provided Picasso inspired artwork - have you ever seen 24 Kindergarten students' replications of a Picasso painting?!  It was wonderful to see how each of the students, while following directions from the teacher, was still able to come up with a unique piece of artwork!

Grade One provided a combination of written and art work.  The Grade One students are studying trees and how they change through the seasons.  Each of the students was given a frame for a poem in which they filled in the blanks.  Then, they painted a picture to go with their poems.  The poems were fantastic!  And again, even though they were provided the same framework, each one demonstrated the uniqueness of each child.  Their projects were delightful.

Grade Two students shared what freedom is like.  This was a project done in conjunction with Remembrance Day.  Students shared their thoughts on freedom in writing and they were added to a larger page with some artwork as well.  Reading what a 7 year old thinks about freedom is a pretty humbling thing. 

Grade Three has been studying about colour in Art.  The project they shared was of exploration with primary colours.  Each student, given the same materials, put together a paper quilt of primary colour squares.  When placed side by side and row by row, this provided a great quilt of red, blue and yellow.

Grade 4 students had reflected on a Bible lesson about Paul and his imprisonment.  They were learning about Paul's attitude and ability, amidst difficult times, to rejoice, find joy and even advance the Gospel.  Students had made posters outlining some ways in which they could rejoice and find joy at all times as well, highlighting Philippians 4:4-7 - Rejoice in the Lord, always...

Grade 5 students have been studying about the human body and exploring what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made.  Each student had researched a part of the body and presented it on a poster.  The things that these children were able to learn and discover about their bodies, and their Creator, were fascinating!  And they were all so proud of the work that they did! 

Through all of these learning experiences, teachers have provided opportunities for students to discover and uncover more and more of who God is and how this world has been created.  From the beauty of artwork and the expression of the human condition that goes with that, to the power of the written word and all that we can communicate with and through that medium, to the discovery of the world in which we live and the intricacies of creation...all of these things point to an amazing Creator and the gifts that he has given us with which to enjoy that creation.  Within (and outside of!) the walls at Unity Christian, students are exploring creation, discovering the Creator and developing their gifts in ways that allow them to figure out their place in this world.  In short, they are learning and living in Christ. 

Who knew a few years ago, when that tagline was created and then adopted by Unity, that it would become such a key phrase when it comes to talking about why we do what we do?!

"I'm Talking About a Place Called A-S-P-E-N"

“We got no food, we got no jobs. . . our PETS’ HEADS ARE FALLNG OFF.”

In the 1994 hit movie, “Dumb and Dumber,” Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne have fallen on hard times.   Upon finding their pet bird, Pettie, decapitated in its cage, Lloyd delivers an emotional plea to his loyal friend to join him on a journey across the continental USA to escape the miserable state of their affairs, and to return a forgotten briefcase to Mary Swanson.

Lloyd paints a picture of the Promised Land: “I’m talking about a place called Aspen“ he tells Harry. 

 

Lloyd and Harry decide to go to Aspen

Everything will be better in Aspen.   

For the past six months I have been painting a picture of a program called Aspen.

I received notice in March of 2014 that Unity Christian was going to be a part of the first wave of schools on the new student records program called Aspen. The Ministry of Education is systematically phasing out its previous program called BCESIS; all schools in BC will be using Aspen by 2016. 

When I first heard that the program is called Aspen I couldn’t stop referencing the scene from Dumb and Dumber.  I would catch myself describing the program to teachers at a staff meeting and concluding with,  ““I’m talking about a program called Aspen“ Thankfully, like Harry, the staff jumped on the bus (not a Shaggy Dog van) and embraced the journey.

The switch from BCESIS to Aspen has been a significant change for office staff and teachers.  It has vastly impacted the way in which we register and enroll students, create timetables, complete attendance, and track student learning progress.   The office staff went to a workshop in the summer and continues to take part in online learning sessions. Teachers have taken part in numerous online workshops, and have had tutorials to learn the attendance and grade book functions.  Teachers will be updating their marks and assignments minimally every three weeks.    

The rationale for switching from BCESIS to Aspen as part of the first wave was to make use of the online reporting function.   Effective Christian education involves a strong partnership between the school and the home.  You have probably heard the phrase that education involves the home, church, and school; schools alone cannot address all the development needs of a child. Our staff handbook highlights our schools value on partnering with parents:

Unity Christian highly values the parent-school relationship. Teachers are expected and encouraged to take the initiative in communicating with parents.  Our goal is to work together with parent to best serve our students.  Appropriate and timely communication with parents is critical.

The central role of the parent in the education of their child requires that we make use of all possible tools to communicate with the home.   The online reporting functions of Aspen are a welcome addition to our communication toolbox.  Although it has taken much longer than anticipated, the parent portals are currently open and operational.   The portal gives parents the ability to track their child’s attendance and learning progress.  Beyond seeing the up-to-date course mark, parents are able to see each individual assignment and keep track of incomplete and poorly done work.   The objective of the parent portal is meant to strengthen the partnership between the home and school to the benefit of student learning.

There will be a time in near future when students will be given their own portal.  It is interesting to note that students were extremely excited about the parent portal.  They want to know the status of their learning progress.   

All of this change is thanks to a short conversation in my office with Mike Campbell on November 23, 2013:

Matt Van Muyen - “That’s it.  I’ve had it with BCESIS.  Why are we using it? “

Mike Campbell: “Ok. Calm down.  What else can we use?”

Matt Van Muyen: “I’ll tell you.  A program with colour.  A program that doesn’t lock you out for 90 minutes.   A program with an online portal.”

“I’m talking about a little program called A –S – P – E – N”

Mike Campbell: “Ok Matt.  Aspen it is.”

[Tears of Joy were shed]

Blessings

Busy Weeks and Extra-Long Weekends...

It's been a busy week.  And now, I sit on my couch looking forward to an extended long weekend.  The fact that I'm blogging at 9:30 on a Friday night kind of surprises me, but...here I go!

As I said, it's been a busy week - one in which a number of things did not go as planned - some due to my own silly errors, and some due to life - or Murphy's Law.  Why is it that it seems things seem to go awry at the most inopportune times?!  Not that too many major things went awry (other than a broken dishwasher...and with a staff of 40, that's not an insignificant thing - thankfully, it was fixed within the day!).  But things didn't necessarily go as I might have anticipated when I was on the front end of the week. 

We had parent teacher conferences this week.  That meant 2 back to back late nights at school...and a professional development day today...and a staff meeting on Monday...and then there are the things that don't even have anything to do with work!

Now, on this end of the week, as busy as it was, it was a good week.  Parent teacher conferences went really well.  I know that teachers sometimes go into them feeling a bit uncertain about how they will go.  How will parents hear the information that is shared - especially if some of it may be difficult information?  Will parents express a concern that I'm not sure how to deal with?  Will I be blindsided by anything?  Will I be able to express what I want to say appropriately so that parents know that care for their child?   The late nights are tiring, but the emotional exhaustion from 25+ conferences is no small thing.  I'm so very thankful that our staff felt that conferences went well and that they were encouraged and supported in their work.  We value the parent-school relationship and are so appreciative of the work parents do to support their children's learning. 

Today, we had a professional development day.  Staff came to school feeling like they'd just put in a full week and were a bit leery of  a pro-d day that would require them to think and stretch and even participate in various activities.  And yet, staff were engaged in their book clubs in the morning...lots of relevant, good dialogue and discussion took place.  Darren Spyksma, one of the new directors of learning at SCSBC, led staff in working on how to engage students in their learning and how we, as teachers, can find ways to have them involved, invested and in charge of their own learning.  He had staff thinking about their learning activities and participating in a great challenge that had all staff engaged in creating various tunnels and pathways for marbles!  And the teamwork and creativity that emerged from that was really fun to watch!  Staff spent the afternoon doing a variety of things.  Elementary staff worked on planning for our all school unit - we laughed a lot together and even had a productive afternoon!  Middle school staff met with Darren to discuss what kinds of learning activities and spaces work best for middle school children.  High school staff worked on finishing up course overviews.  My sense is that people enjoyed the day and may even have been pleasantly surprised at how engaged they were in the activities of the day. 

And now...a 4 day weekend.  Rest and renewal is something that is we all need.  We need time to spend away from the busyness (and business) of work.  We need time to enjoy a leisurely morning, maybe even waking up without an alarm clock!  We need time to enjoy a good book or a movie.  We need time to enjoy some fresh air - time in the garden, or going for a walk or exploring a part of God's creation.  We need time to invest in and renew relationships - with family, with friends, with God.  We need that bit of distance from the job that we all love to do.  And we need that rest in order to our job to the best of our ability.  God calls us to enjoy Sabbath rest.  I pray that we all get a good dose of that this long weekend.