Glory in the Air

A task took me out of the office and into the hallway right outside my door last week. The lights were out. There was a stillness not normally found in a primary hallway during the middle of the day. A door opened somewhere out of sight and a warm, loving refrain echoed down the hallway and caught my full attention:

“We give you all the glory, we give you all the glory, Christ the Lord.”

The simple melody and repeating words pulled at my heart and caused me to push aside the tasks of the morning and just stop and listen. Students were practicing in the gym for our Christmas Concert and their love of the message they were singing was tangible. What a wonderful words for our students to dwell on in this late advent season as we approach the manger gift of Immanuel – God with us!

I am not a shepherd and don’t make my living among sheep, but I think I shared something in common with those herders of long ago as I paused. For just a brief moment, in a quiet hallway, I was being drawn out of the immediacy of a task to consider and reflect on something incredible. God of heaven come down, here on earth, for us. Hallelujah!  I wonder what it must have been like to be surprised by a sky full of angels singing a song about the glory of God on that Bethlehem night long ago.

May the glory of Christmas and majesty of God’s greatest gift fill us with joy and gratitude. On behalf of the LCES Board, staff, and students we wish you a wonderful break celebrating with family and friends.  SJ

Who's coming? How will they know?

While the winter snows are starting to swirl, the warm month of August 2017 is on my mind. I’ve shared with a few people in the last week that work is already beginning on the very first pieces of planning for the next school year. A key part of that is anticipating how we will connect with our new families. We are eager to ensure that Christian families know about us and the option for Christian education that we offer every day. I hope to be busy in January and February talking to future LCES families that will join us.

Our Promotions Committee has been active in the last year in working on several things to ensure that we are known in our community. A new printed package has been made for inquiring parents. Promotional handout materials have been redesigned. Different road signage is under review. Intensive work with the school’s website has taken place since we have come to realize over time that an electronic presence is one of our best ways of representing ourselves well. We do have some parents who inquire as result of doing an Internet search only, with no other connection to us.  Changes to our school's foundation and the results of the Bright Futures capital campaign will, in part, support the amount of financial help we will be able to offer families, both new and returning, each year.

While those are vital areas not be overlooked, a major and more common theme of inquiring parents who eventually enroll their children is a story of someone in their life who has nudged and challenged them to look intently at the option of Christian Education for their children. They have shared the difference LCES has made to their family and how the Lord has blessed the choice they felt called to make.

Here’s a few ideas of how you can help:

·         Pray for clarity and provision for the parents we don’t know yet as they deliberate and discern their way to us.

·         Try summarizing in two minutes what LCES means to you. I’ve been surprised where opportunities to speak about our school suddenly presented themselves and was thankful I had some quick key ideas in my memory for the brief moments of a captive audience. 

·         Write up a review of our school on Google and Facebook. Increasingly, this a frequently used tool our younger parents use that speaks convincingly to them as they make choices.

·         Like and share the school’s facebook posts often.

·         Invite people to attend school events with you like the Christmas Concert next week, the May Soiree, Track and Field Day, Graduation, etc.

For our school, and our future LCES parents. SJ

LCES at 75: A Bright Future

I recently talked with someone about the theoretical 75th anniversary celebration of LCES in 2037. It was a fun idea to consider, both in the unknown of what will yet happen before then – like who will work at and attend our school, and also in recognizing some of the tremendous blessings the Lord has given to LCES since our 50th almost five years ago. I firmly believe that the Bright Futures capital campaign will be one of the items on the list of blessings received. I can hardly wait to tell the stories.

To their great delight, students and teachers in three classrooms walked into classrooms this morning with fresh new whiteboards installed over the weekend. They are the most recent investments in our physical learning environment that follow things like chairs, carpet, and Chromebooks described earlier in the fall.

Our committed and resourceful teachers and educational assistants are our first and greatest resource in educating our students. Their exceptional work is amplified with additional resources help us to keep up excellent learning facilities and consider new ways of helping students learn and grow. As principal, it has been so exciting and invigorating to see how small, carefully chosen additional capital investments are changing our students’ experiences and helping our teachers to consider new horizons and possibilities. We have many more project ideas we can’t wait to explore.

A very committed group of present and former LCES parents have been busy in the last 15 months working on this significant capital campaign which is heading toward completion at the end of this month. The circle has been widened significantly by extending the opportunity to participate in giving to more than 1400 present and former parents, alumni, and friends of the school. We pray for God’s provision in their response as we seek to “educate children, equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship.” [LCES Vision statement] SJ

Momentum and Direction: Advent at a Christian School

A Christmas tree was put up in the main hallway this morning and the calendar turns to December on Thursday. A forward thinking person has placed shovels at all entrances of the school and the lost and found now includes an assortment of orphaned mitts and gloves. Audible evidence of Christmas songs has been heard in the hallways now for a few weeks, first seeming out of place being so early in the fall but now fitting right in with the growing momentum of Christmas less than a month away.

The lead up to Christmas is often filled with the wrong things. I was reminded by a staff member’s advent devotions this morning that one of the first things I ought to start with is not the dusty box of ornaments, or the sequencing of holiday plans, or even the gift frenzy – but sober recognition that I need a Saviour. The cozy feeling of Christmas food, lights, music and ritual might be the direction we are first drawn to, but that is an incomplete picture of what Christmas is about and launches us toward an impoverished participation in a critical part of our faith: recognizing that God become man to save people like you and I.

We know this, and yet we even grow weary of the repeated phrases “the true meaning of Christmas” and “reason for the season.” Habits and traditions, media, and the world of retail seem to try to propel us to a level of hype with so much momentum toward Christmas day that we end up exhausted and disillusioned at the manger on Christmas morn, rather than consumed with awe as Mary was when she sang “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”

If you were part of the LCES community last year you may recall the Christmas program presentation of
our students that told the story of Christmas razzle-dazzle and spectacle that was a long way off from where we ought to be. This year our Christmas concert on December 21st has the goal of expressing where we ought to start, worshipping, glorifying and praising God for Jesus born for us. No tinsel required. See you there! SJ

[Not] Me First! : Modelling, Service, and Learning

A relative of mine once told me that life is one long process of learning to forget about yourself. I believe what he meant was that we start out as children with a very me-centric way of thinking and acting. As responsibilities get added through life and others become more dependent on you, it certainly changes your perspective. Ask a first-time parent of a 6 month child how they have been challenged to put themselves second!

With joy I watch the “me first” of our youngest learners transition toward “consider others first” as the stretch of years from JK through grade eight unfold. Our students are given many opportunities to realize the benefit of acknowledging that life isn’t actually all about them. They are given many opportunities to learn to seek out the “feel” of the rich blessing and reward of serving others and to call that “normal.” There is much more going on than simply sweeping up after a SK lunch, collecting stinky compost, or tying skates of younger students. Habits of faith are emerging. I’m convinced these are formative experiences that make lasting impressions about their identity as God’s children, called to love and serve.  

Here is an example: This morning, our Leaders in Training team (LIT), all grade seven and eight students, took ownership of an anti-bullying message that they wanted to share with the all students from JK through eight. They created and acted out real life bus, playground, and classrooms situations that they could role play in front of 15 students, showing the right and wrong way to deal with conflict. Groups rotated around the gym to take in three mini-lessons on relating to peers well. Watching a particular session, I marveled at how serious they took this task and how closely their young audience watched and listened.

 I’m thankful today for student leadership and growth in the lives of our students. May the mindset they are challenged with today shape the way they respond to choices they make in the future – tomorrow, or decades from now. SJ

Wanted: Faithful Parents in the Maze

Phones, tablets, gizmos and screens. They are part of our life and certainly part of our everyday reality for most parents, employees, and students.

I’m sure that you have been part of a conversation at some point in which mention is made of what you did or didn’t have yourself as a child in terms of “things with screens.” Perhaps you’ve even laughed about what an adult can’t figure out themselves on these devices, even though a three year old in their life can figure things out on their own. Perhaps the fact that children can use a tablet at a young age isn’t actually an indicator of being “smart”, as much as it is the skill of software designers in making use of navigation that is repetitive and predictable. They have, after all, just memorized a short sequence of actions to get what they want. That is not wisdom by definition.  

Most mornings this fall I have been walking to school with two of my children. We have to cross streets, use traffic lights, gauge traffic speed, and assess driver’s abilities to see us. When reasonably safe, I allow them to make these decisions – hovering close by to trump their decision if it is unsafe or unwise. They are clearly not ready to take this task on entirely by themselves, but I hope I am planting seeds of safe pedestrians in the future.

This example is, of course, rather ordinary. I name it only to make the case that there is a parallel for an immediate and pressing need for parents to enter the maze of these devices alongside their students. Your faithful presence, rather than silence is needed in this area too. There is rich potential for good in the form of innovative and expansive learning, communication & collaboration, and personal participation is immense in using devices. They also are concerning in terms of forming habits, changing the nature of relationships, and perhaps most concerning - wasting God’s gift of time and opportunity on things of little or no value.

In the same way that it would not be realistic or appropriate for our children to transition from first time walkers directly to independent pedestrians without help, our children need adults working with them to seek out balance and know what it feels like. They need close guidance to sort out what is true, right, and honorable as they use them so they eventually do that on their own.  Let’s enter the maze, and take God’s Word with us. We’ll learn on the way.

SJ

P.S. Two resources:

1. LCES E-Devices Guidelines
2. Questions about tech for parents to consider

Time Change: So What’s New?

My first task Monday morning was to set the school bell system clock to the new time. It reminded me that much of what happens in a school setting follows a predictable rhythm. Bus/car trips to and from school, class schedules, outdoor recess, devotions & prayer are examples of things that give predictability to our life here at LCES. I think that students (and adults) actually appreciate routine in a good part of their life, with a portion of spontaneity liberally mixed in. A presenter I heard once proposed that without routines, or as he called them - habits, every decision all day long would be processed as if we had never faced it before. Sounds exhausting!

We find ourselves at LCES in that delicate balance of managing routine and new things all the time. Structure and habits cease to become valuable to us when we too infrequently circle back and evaluate - how is that working for us? Here are a few routines I see being challenged here at LCES right now:

Grade seven, with Mr. Hosmar as guide, is trying out a very different classroom arrangement. They have replaced most desks with multiple areas to work at depending on what the learning task at hand is.

Sometimes they sit in a stadium style arrangement, other times it looks more like a family living room, other times it looks like a research lab.  There is nothing permanent about the configuration, but it has been fascinating to watch how space changes learning.

Our JK and SK classes are developing differently as learners in how they shape their own learning. In addition to teacher directed learning activities including prepared materials, allowing students to shape their own learning based on what they want to do, learn, and share in lessons shaped by inquiry based learning. Students pose questions, answer them, investigate, and collaborate - with the teachers supporting them every step of the way. It is exciting to watch their progress. Building bird feeders out of pumpkins is an example I saw recently - research in action!

Adding Chromebooks to our toolbox of learning tools has been fascinating this fall. These very mobile, simple computers have been used from JK all the way to grade 8 in many subject areas. What’s interesting to me is that when they are the right tool for the learning underway, using them causes the tool to become less important than the learning that is happening with them. They are not “doing computers”, they are learning and it happens to be on a computer in their classroom.

At LCES, I’m thankful for both routine and new things to challenge us. SJ