Student bath products line takes off thanks to teacher's inspiration and a whole lot of love

KTVB 7 recently came to our school and interviewed teachers and students to find out more about For the Love of Logan, a line of bath and skin-care products created by a group of students to raise awareness of one student's unique needs and gifts. Meet Logan, a student at Camas County High School, and the caring group that are learning entrepreneurship skills while giving their friend a whole lot of support.

Further reading:

Flashback to when Logan was five:
Equine therapy helps Fairfield boy gain his balance, article in the Times-News by Amy Ballard

Fun and Inspiring Pinterest Boards for Teachers, Just in Time for Back to School

Hello, August! Let the countdown begin!

One of my most popular blog posts gives readers links to some of my teacher-y Pinterest boards with all sorts of back-to-school goodness for teachers in all grade levels. Since it's a new school year and I've changed up my Pinterest world a bit, I thought I'd share with you again.

Also new, you can now find me on Instagram @amyballardwriter. I post what's new in my TPT store, books I'm currently reading, resources for teachers, sales and freebies, and other eye candy for teachers.

Without further ado, here are my favorite Pinterest boards for your enjoyment!


Classroom/Content
Elementary
American Lit
Teaching HS (primarily ELA-focused)
Google Awesomeness (tips and tricks for teachers using all things Google)
Writing Fiction
Teacher Supplies (Okay, I love this one!)
Classroom Decor (with eight sections for themes, etc.)
Classroom Management
Teaching Vocabulary


For the Teacher's Well-Being
Christian Teacher, Public School
Smart, Professional Clothes (now with sections for accessories, shoes, etc.)
Painting
Lemons ("Squeeze the Day!" classroom theme, anyone?)
Travel Soon (with lots of fun, vintage travel poster art)
Healing Garden (Take a walk in my garden! It's soothing!)
Healthy -Ish Snacks
Living Coral 2019 (Pantone-inspired color board)
Blessings (Can I get an "Amen"?)
Books to Read in My Nonexistent Reading Nook When It Rains
Teacher Gifts
The Florist Shop
Writing Space


What's your classroom theme for fall 2019?
Follow a favorite teacher-pinner? Share with us in the comments so we can share the love!

Seeking Guest Bloggers for Fall 2019

Have a great idea for a blog post for teachers? I'd love to hear from you. Guest blogging for Christian Teacher, Public School may be a great way to get your idea out there and build community with other teachers. Here's what we'd most like to see:

• Posts that discuss the everyday life of teachers who hold to the Christian faith while teaching in the public school. This could be in the form of a journal, a how-to, or any structure that works for you.

• Technology, art, music, and other special focus areas of education. Give us your takeaways from a recent conference, a book you loved, or a class you took. Inspire fellow teachers to hone their craft and be the best they can be.

• Devotionals for teachers. How has God been working in your life recently? What Bible passages has He laid on your heart to share with other teachers? Share ideas for how to pray for students.

• Posts that show us first-hand how you or an interviewee build rapport with students and parents.

• Posts that help teachers understand IEPs, 504s, and how to both relate to special needs students and help them grow academically and emotionally.

• Book reviews of recently-published books for teachers. You could also do a roundup of readalouds, multicultural novels for middle grade readers, or other books for the classroom library. Have you written a book for teachers? We'd like to know.

• Posts that show us first-hand how you or an interviewee teach a lesson, build a unit, organize a field trip, rock a fundraiser, or other practical how-to article.

• Posts that round up resources for Christian teachers in public schools, especially freebies, helpful organizations, teacher hacks, online tools, and basically anything practical for daily teacher life.

If you write about students, be sure to change names and any identifying information. Follow FERPA! And get any necessary permissions from people you interview or photograph.

Some guest blog submissions may be declined, usually because they're not quite what I'm looking for. Follow the above bullet points, and you'll be more likely to have your idea accepted for publication. Feel free to submit more than one idea!

There's no pay for guest blogging with me, but I'll generate buzz through Instagram @amyballardwriter and here on my blog. You'll spread the word to your friends, and our combined readership will get your ideas out there to a wide network of teachers. I hope you'll consider sharing your awesome-teacher insight on Christian Teacher, Public School this year.

All the best,

Idaho Coaching Network Offers Resource-Filled Blog For Idaho Teachers

This week brings a wider audience to my recent blog post, "Shoveling a Path Through the Snowdrifts for New Teachers." I'm privileged to share my thoughts on teachers as mentors on the Idaho Coaching Network blog. The blog is a helpful resource for Idaho teachers, especially in the ELA content area.

Christian Teacher, Public School also offers links to helpful resources for Idaho teachers. Check out the Idaho tab at the top of this page. Know of other Idaho education resources? Please share in the comments!

Begin the New School Year With Boldness

". . .and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Ephesians 5:19-20 NASB

The theme of this blog is upholding Christian teachers in public schools, who in some way are like Paul in chains: ambassadors for Christ who live and serve under restrictions placed upon them by worldly authorities. In our workplaces, we seek to live out the servanthood and love of Jesus, even though we are forbidden from verbally testifying of His salvation to those around us.

In the passage above, Paul at least was able to speak, and speak boldly, as the Spirit gave him utterance. That was the request he wrote to the believers at Ephesus, to pray that he would "make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel."

Not "that I will be released from these chains." Why complain about the chains? It was for the Gospel's sake that he wore them. He knew God would work despite them.

At the beginning of this new school year, I pray that God will use all of us to accomplish His purpose. I pray for boldness, not to utter the mystery of the Gospel, but to live the good news in our daily lives in the classroom and the break room and the hallways of our schools.

May our faces reflect the joy of sinners who have been saved by grace. May our hands give freely because we have been given much. May our ears be quick to listen and our feet quick to serve. When we speak, may it be with confidence that we are fulfilling God's call upon our lives to teach.

It's so tempting, while we're at it, to pray for an easy year. "Lord, let us have smooth sailing." But I think it's our responses to the tough times that allow our lights to shine before the unsaved most clearly. If we have smooth sailing all year, how will they know what God can do in a life surrendered to Him?

So please, dear Lord, let us shine as lights for you in a darkening world, even if it means we face difficult days ahead. You promise to walk beside us and uphold us. We submit ourselves to your teaching, that others may see you in us.

Blessings on your new school year, my friend.

National Coloring Book Day and a Grateful Heart at the End of Summer

The early days of August are typically a stressful time for teachers as we are forced to acknowledge that school is officially just around the corner. We know that the calendar still says it's summer, but there's a mental shift that has to take place. Are we ready for this?

Skyscapes Coloring Book

Maybe not! There's that tiny voice of panic that can invade even the cheeriest summer morning. "Dear God," we may be praying, "I don't know if I can do school in two weeks!"


It's a good reminder to be thankful for the good things in life, to savor the gifts of a good God at the end of summer. I'm savoring blueberries today! This week I'm also connecting with friends new and old because it's just harder to do that during the busy school year.

Need a nudge to even meet with friends? Visit Christian foodie and blogger Melanie Kathryn's cheery site, Gather For Bread. I plan to make her Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins today.


In addition to being thankful and connecting with encouraging friends, we may need some targeted stress relievers as we head into teacher work week, end of summer conferences, or training.

It Is Well With My Soul Coloring Book

Maybe it's time to hop on board the adult coloring trend. Today is National Coloring Book Day! This blog is affiliated with two companies that publish gorgeous coloring books for the secret designer/artist in you. Using the links in this post and around this blog will help support Christian Teacher, Public School when you purchase from Dayspring and Dover Publishing.

Angular Animals from Dover

Whatever your remaining summer days look like, remember to spend time at Jesus's feet (Luke 10:42), and if you have children, bring them with you. In my family it's challenging to get my three kids on the couch at the same time in the morning for Bible story time, but God has blessed richly when we make it happen. Let's be like Mary and "choose the good part" this August.


Blessings,

Next Teacher Conference on the Horizon: Idaho Super Conference

What's next for Idaho teachers on the conference scene? You might have heard of the 2016 Super Conference scheduled for the state in-service days, October 6-7. It's called "Learning Across All Dimensions," and it brings together an array of professional organizations that traditionally conduct their own conferences, like the Idaho Council of Teachers of English and the Idaho Science Teachers Association. Putting us all under one roof is genius! We'll be able to rub shoulders with colleagues in other disciplines and sit in sessions that really stretch us professionally.

I've submitted a couple of session proposals. Whether they're accepted or not, I plan to be at the conference. After all, with "Super" in the title, it's bound to be an adventure. If you teach in Idaho, I hope to see you there!

What Happened When I Interviewed Hip-Hop Artist MK Asante (And a Truck With a Confederate Flag Drove By)

MK Asante (publicity photo)

MK Asante gave me a few minutes of his time after what he called the "academic high" of his second address to the teachers at the P20 Educator Conference at the College of Southern Idaho on Wednesday. The interview was an academic high for me, but as it turned out, there was a tone shift, a key change, five minutes in:

"Look at that," Asante interrupts himself. "Wow."

This eminently calm man is bristling.

I look through the green CSI landscaping to where a pickup truck I hadn't noticed is making the turn to exit the campus. Its in-your-face exhaust noise isn't what has MK staring. It's the oversize Confederate flag on display in the back of the truck.

"Is that normal?" he asks. "Is that normal to you?"

It's his first visit to Idaho, and the question is entirely serious.

I look him in the eye. "I'm surprised to see it on CSI campus, honestly, right now."

We couldn't be more different--I'm white, born and raised in the white state of Maine, now living in rural, white Idaho. He's. . .MK Asante, African-American, born in Zimbabwe, grown up on the streets of Philadelphia, acclaimed recording artist, filmmaker, university prof (he's older than he looks).

I have an idea what an Idahoan might mean by flaunting a Confederate flag. Maybe support for states' rights. Maybe just being a rebel. But I want to know what it means to MK Asante. I ask him.

"It means that they support the enslavement of my people. That they wanted to keep my people in slavery. That's what it means."

I sense that he's thinking a lot more than he's saying. From his heightened tension, I wonder if he thinks it's not a coincidence, that someone knew he was going to be speaking here and decided to make a statement. I ask him that, too.

"I really don't know," he says. "I'm in a completely different space, so. . .I don't know. . . ."

Me: "There are a lot of Confederate flags in Idaho."

MKA: "Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. I mean, I don't know. They did just drive right past here with. . .It was like they had it blaring, like, 'Yeah,' like making a statement. But you know, I mean, at the end of the day, not only do I know where I am, like, in terms of being in Idaho, but I know where I am in America. I understand America is a very racist place. You know what I mean? So I'm never surprised by anything that happens in America in terms of racism because slavery was legal in America for three hundred years. . . .But that's what [the Confederate flag] represents to me. It represents people that. . .people that are not my friends."

"Idaho is one of the least racially diverse states," I say. "I think people in Idaho don't realize how. . .front-line that issue is when you live in Philly, or North Carolina [Asante's current home], or wherever."

"Yeah."

Buck by MK Asante

Asante has spoken sincerely and passionately to Idaho teachers at the conference about growing up Black in Philadelphia and about how a culture of racism and the school-to-prison pipeline were facts of life for him. I've also heard him speak (more explicitly, as one would expect) of race issues in a recording from The Breakfast Club, a NYC radio talk show. Race is far from the only thing on this creative young professor's mind (witness his resume and many albums, books, and awards). But as his memoir Buck eloquently narrates, when you grow up Black in Philly, you have to learn two codes: the Black people's code and the White people's code. If you're white, you only have to learn one.

I haven't planned to bring up racial issues in our twenty-minute interview, though. There is no pressing need to talk about it. Asante is here to talk to teachers, who are also the audience for my imagined story. An in-depth treatment of racism in America is not the point of his message or mine this sunny day in July. I'm a teacher-blogger, not a reporter. For so many good reasons, I could leave the issue of race alone.

But racism has come up, and not because I'm asking or Asante is pushing it. The tone, the meaning of the interview has changed.

For a while, we pick up where my questions left off. We talk about "dope" rhyme in hip hop and why the rhythms of Shakespeare and of hip hop are two completely different things.

But Asante comes back to the Confederate flag as we're wrapping up. He needs to say more specifically how seeing the flag affected him.

Asante at the College of Southern Idaho

"We had just come from this thing in here." He motions to the Fine Arts building where he's just given his second keynote talk. "A lot of love and a lot of good energy, and so. . .I must have had my guard down a little bit, you know what I mean? It's so peaceful right here, we're sitting under this beautiful tree. . .So in a lot of ways, my guard's not up in the usual way. It's not like I'm walking down a street that I don't know. . .I'm very much feeling peaceful and, like, at peace.

"That [the flag] completely changed my energy, like. . .Okay, now I have to be vigilant. Now. . . ." He laughs. "I just need to be aware of where the **** I am, 'cause. . .like I said, that's like a clear sign of, like, 'Yo, we hate you. And we wanna kill you. And we wanna enslave you.'" His voice remains low and calm, even as he says it.

MKA: "That's what it represents to me, so it's like, 'Okay, now I have to make sure that I'm just vigilant and protect myself. I have a family, I got a son, I have a baby on the way. . .You know, the whole Black Lives Matter thing. . .You keep hearing that language: 'Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter,' but it's because there are some people that really don't value Black life."

He goes on. "There were times in this country--and there are still times in this country where. . .you're like a target. So. . .that moment, it made me more vigilant. It made me more aware of my surroundings. And it broke the false sense of security that I might have had, coming out of a kind of a euphoric experience, and being on an academic kind of high. . .On a campus, you're just totally not expecting that, and then when that happens, you're like, okay. . .this **** is real, and even though I'm on this campus. . .that doesn't really matter."

Asante stands. It's time for the folks from CSI to take him to dinner. I thank him one last time, still mulling over what's happened. Something tells me he is, too.

As I head for my car, I'm hoping he won't remember Idaho only for this--won't think our state's population is represented by one random driver of a pickup truck with an in-your-face symbol of. . .Well, who knows what it really means to that driver? God forbid Idahoans should all be judged by the actions of one member of our majority demographic group.

Yet isn't that what people like the young MK Asante, growing up in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or Chicago, have received from the bad apples in the white segment of American society?

Asante told teachers in his keynote, rhyming as per usual, "If you make an observation, you have an obligation." Whoever you are, teacher--whoever you are, American, you have an obligation. This issue affects you, whether you noticed the truck with the flag or not.


Find MK Asante on mkasante.com.
Leave a comment below!

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Christian teachers belong in public schools as a ray of sunlight in a darkening world, an example of the believer to a world that is seeking. They can't thrive without God's help, though. They need the Holy Spirit to guide and to go before them. And they need encouragement from fellow believers who know that the struggle is not in vain. That's why Christian Teacher, Public School is here. To offer encouragement and light for dark days.

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8 Encouraging eCards for Teachers, Summer and Fall Collection

Support this blog by shopping at Brevity on Teachers Pay Teachers, where I offer many freebies in addition to resources on bullying prevention, literary elements in Shakespeare, and classroom management. See my latest eCards for back to school!

You can also help support Christian Teacher, Public School by shopping with our affiliate links for excellent products from Dayspring Cards Inc. and Dover Publications. I don't advertise for companies I haven't used and loved for years. Right now, both companies are having summer sales. Dover is offering up to 75% off on summer clearance through July 25, and Dayspring creates a sense of suspense with their Secret Summer Sale (shh!!), where you can use code SUMMER30 to get 30% off their top ten summer gifts.

Best of all, you can share this blog with teacher friends. Thanks for reading and blessing me! Teachers need encouragement, and I hope this is a great place to find it.