I hadn’t been teaching very long when I noticed that my students had lots of problems, bad problems. I’ve seen them deal with abuse, mental illness, chronic poor health, church strife, broken families, material need, spiritual turmoil, addiction, and death. It’s not …Read More

Share about a teacher who impacted your life. This was the topic assigned to discuss around our tables at the school’s teacher appreciation banquet.  A representative from each table was to share with the whole group after the meal.  It was interesting …Read More

Recently, one of my students asked how many days are left in first grade.  I replied that we weren’t going to think about that yet.  She told me she just wondered how long until we will be sad! I do a lot …Read More

Last summer, I had the privilege of working at my father’s business just as he was starting to put significant effort into implementing an approach called “lean manufacturing.” As its name suggests, lean manufacturing attempts to increase business profits by eliminating waste …Read More

  I consider structure and thoughtful planning to be important parts of a positive school day, but, as I discovered again today, sometimes an unexpected, impromptu discussion is far superior to my best planning.  This is what happened: Each day, lunch is …Read More