Bring Your Bible To School Day 2016

If you have children of your own who attend public school, take a look at Focus on the Family's page on Bring Your Bible to School Day. This year's event falls on Thursday, October 6, which in Idaho is a teacher in-service day, meaning students aren't in school. Check your school calendar to find out if your child's school is in session, then see if the event is something you and your child want to participate in. So many teachers, parents and students are unaware that it's legal for kids to take a Bible to school. The Web site includes downloadable free speech tools to help raise awareness.

See you at the Idaho Super Conference: Learning Across All Dimensions

School is going full steam ahead, with new faces, new adventures, and new blessings at every turn. I'm so thankful to have an enthusiastic freshman class this year. It's also been a blessing to see my youngest child enter Kindergarten and make new friends. My high school field trip to see Shakespeare's First Folio has been approved, and my advanced literature students and I are loving reading Fahrenheit 451!

One more blessing to add to my overflowing cup this fall is finding out that my two session proposals for the Idaho Super Conference have been accepted. That means I'll have a roomy ninety-minute presentation on Faith and the Public School Teacher, and I'll be giving my Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-inspired narrative writing presentation to a wider audience.

Join some 1500 teachers at Timberline High School and White Pine Elementary in Boise on Oct. 6 and 7 (state teacher in-service days). Registration closes Sept. 14, so be sure to sign up now. Professional development credit is available from Boise State University.

Writing and Publishing Narratives Using Digital Technology
Description:  In this session, teachers will learn to apply choose­-your-­own­-story structure to narrative fiction or nonfiction writing. Using Google Drive, teachers will learn to link story pages to form narratives with alternate endings.

Faith and the Public School Teacher
Description:  Can your faith coexist with your professional life? New legislation and news headlines may shake things up, but by identifying your stance on faith in the classroom, you will face the turbulence of our changing world with more confidence. In this session, teachers will learn what the law allows and expects of teachers who hold to a religious faith; take a look at teachers whose actions have come under scrutiny; and share appropriate ways to live out faith in the public school environment.

Planning to attend? Let me know in the comments! And join me on Facebook to chat with me and other teachers who'll be there.

A Student-Friendly Checklist for 9th and 10th Grade ELA Writing

It's challenging to find user-friendly checklists for the Common Core standards. This year I've been playing around with some formats to help my students keep track of how they're doing. Here's my new student-friendly checklist for 9th and 10th grade ELA writing standards as a Google doc. I plan to use the same format to create check lists for the other standard sets I teach.

Obviously, teaching something once is not enough to merit a check mark. How has the student demonstrated understanding of the concept? For a brush-up on assessing understanding, read Edutopia's excellent article, 'What Exactly Is "Understanding?" And How Do We Assess It?'

Have a great resource to help teachers and students track understanding? Please share!

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.