Are you struggling to understand how to relate to one of your students? This talk will help you think about how to support both yourself and your student. Conrad discusses parents, school admins, teachers, and students: all are part of the solution. This session draws from Conrad's experience in private and public schools, daycare, and therapeutic camping.

Teaching school makes strong demands on the teacher at multiple levels. Teachers are givers and need large reserve input reservoirs to draw from for sustainable life-giving teaching over the long haul. What are these input reservoirs and how do we keep them full? In this session, Part 3 of the series, Melvin discusses the disciplines of the body that enable sustained investment in the classroom.

Teaching school makes strong demands on the teacher at multiple levels. Teachers are givers and need large reserve input reservoirs to draw from for sustainable life-giving teaching over the long haul. What are these input reservoirs and how do we keep them full? In this session, Part 2 of the series, Melvin suggests social habits teachers can develop to anchor their presence.

Teaching school makes strong demands on the teacher at multiple levels. Teachers are givers and need large reserve input reservoirs to draw from for sustainable life-giving teaching over the long haul. What are these input reservoirs and how do we keep them full? In this session, Part 1 of the series, Melvin discusses the spiritual virtues that energize our work.

Johnny shows no physical signs of developmental delay, but early trauma has a part to play in the missing pieces of his development. Although not the only ones affected, foster and adopted children likely experienced trauma in their early life. Becky discusses how teachers can help trauma children grow in their ability to cope with life and learn all they can in the classroom.

Why can't Johnny focus on his lessons? Why does he blow up in anger over minor provocations? Becky explores the way trauma alters brain development and chemistry. This topic is especially helpful for those relating to foster and adopted children.

Phillip Martin, a research scientist in plant biology, outlines the history of science and explores some of the paradigms and frameworks in which the modern scientific method developed. More than just a body of knowledge about the physical world, science is a method of acquiring knowledge, and many of its foundational assumptions grew out of a monotheistic worldview. Understanding the method of science, Phillip believes, will help students critically evaluate the facts of science.

What keeps you from being wholly present for your students, your friends, your church? What distractions are you allowing, or encouraging, to divide your energy and attention? Joey calls us to pay attention to our attention by cultivating silence.

Teachers know things their students need to learn. But teaching is not merely about imparting a static body of knowledge. Do you model for your students a life of growth in understanding and wisdom? Joey offers seven principles that should inform your study habits.

How would you rate your personal organization? Whether you are a 1 or a 10, says Joey, there are likely ways you can better manage your time, tasks, and information flow. Why does this matter? Because disorganization has a direct effect on your ability to serve students. Joey offers practical and conceptual help for organizing commitments.

We are surrounded by the noise of a dysfunctional world. How do we not only survive but serve others in this world? Joey reminds us that the world not only produces noise; it influences our motivations. Are your habits making you the kind of person you should be?

Being a mentor may not be in a teacher's official job description, but it is arguably the most significant role they play in the lives of students. Stephan Gingerich defines mentoring simply as "taking your life experience and giving it away for free." In this talk, he discusses what he calls the three "As" of mentoring: active listening, availability, and analysis.

Will my students like me and enjoy school? This question can bring some nagging fear as you face a new school year. Anthony discusses common mistakes teachers make that generate problems.

The atmosphere and attitudes in our classrooms can largely determine whether or not we will have an enjoyable year or a challenging one. In this talk, Deanna discusses six specific ways you can make your classroom an enjoyable and safe place to be for both you and your students.

What makes science so powerful? What is the connection with a Christian worldview? How do we and should we use science as a way of learning? Any science teacher will benefit by hearing a current research scientist address these questions.

Too many students stop reading when reading class ends. How we can (re)ignite within our students a love for reading? In this talk, Bethany explores ways to incorporate books and book-based activities and projects into our classrooms.

We all know what we expect students to know when they enter our classroom, but do we know what the next teacher expects? Carol discusses what students should know in language arts, especially grammar and writing skills, at various levels. Carol bases this material on a survey of teachers from Grades 2-10 in twenty Mennonite schools. What should students learn in elementary classes to succeed in junior high? Or in junior high to succeed in high school? Or in high school to succeed in college or the business world?

With long experience can come great weariness. What if you could teach so efficiently as to say goodbye to all the agony of your first years in the role? Improvements in technique are important, but Kyle reminds us of one reality that cannot be avoided: education is embodied in the life of the teacher. As we experience redemption in every area of our life and study, we can guide others in the same experience.

Which does your school emphasize: The word of God or mathematics? Personal moments with students or a disciplined schedule? The knowledge of Jesus or the ability to sing? Rather than set up dichotomies like this, Kyle offers the metaphor of a tree, with roots, trunk, branches, and the mycorrhizae--fungus--that supports it all. Education is the bringing together of many topics under the lordship of Jesus--and in the person of the teacher.

What does Christian school do for a child that secular school does not? Perhaps the difference is often less important than we think, says Kyle. Although Christian schools avoid particular problems--for instance, Anabaptist schools do not have students watch movies or salute the flag--too often we conform to the same ideas about what knowledge is and how education happens. Kyle probes the philosophical background to modern education and pushes us to evaluate: have we dressed up modernist school in Anabaptist clothes?