JECHS teachers returned both challenged and refreshed from the ACSI conference in Sacramento in October. Asked to reflect upon what they learned and to share one thing they brought away or plan to implement in their classrooms brought the following responses from the staff: 

“Thank you for for letting us go both days! I went to all the drama classes I could. There are a lot of good plays out there, but I came to a point where I decided that Christian schools should be doing “life-changing” plays, where people don’t just leave entertained but changed. I can do that. Our drama can be inspired and needs to have power from God, so that when people leave our performances they’re ready for God to change their lives. I want people to leave a performance of ours like that and say, ‘Oh wow, that doesn’t surprise me—that was Jim Elliot.’” – Steve Stow 

 

“I was challenged to spend as much of my time as a teacher making our kids ‘dangerous’ as encouraging them to be nice, polite and courteous. Elliot students are known to be nice, and I want to encourage them to be “fearless” and world changers, using their God given gifts. Also, teachers have to work hard at stating the ‘why’ behind rules and reasons so that in following them, students are compelled to be God-honoring instead of simply rule-honoring.” – Jon Hathorn     

         

“Keynote speaker Mike Evans said that ‘Leaders are not easy to teach.’ He said that we need to fill positions of decision makers with Christ followers in the next 30 years, rising to the top in fields such as: media, psychology, arts, science, politics, entertainment, medicine, law—or we will not make it (in terms of having a significant Christian influence in our culture).” – Dennis  Buchmiller 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 “There is power in language—it brings life and death. Instead of saying, ‘I have to grade papers’, I can say, ‘It is my priviledge to grade papers.’ We can help our students view themselves more positively by encouraging them in the way they  approach language. The words we speak affect our attitude and have the ability to set a tone with just a few words.” – Cindy Jines 

 
 “I was challenged to not speak any English in my Spanish 3 class. I shared this with my students, explaining to them that there is no point in learning the language if they are not hearing and using it. It’s going to become a participation grade. Some of my students complained a little, saying, ‘We wish you didn’t go to that convention!’” – Maria Van Meter 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        “Many of the things I implement were reiterated, such as: writing is a process and you never arrive and critique is a good thing. The value in critiquing is that it’s a learning tool—empty praise has no value. It’s important to be critiqued so that when our kids begin writing for college we do not want them to have false notions about the expectations that will be put upon them.” – Judy Rajala

 

 “A workshop on dyslexia that I attended gave some ideas for how to help chemistry kids by making things visual, because dyslexics think in pictures.” – Tom Bray               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   “Two things: First, I want our kids to get rid of this mentality that ‘we’re just a little school’, and realize that we have smart kids here. We have strong kids here. I want our kids to know we can go anywhere—to any college. We have a lot to offer. Second, strong willed kid wants to learn their own way. There are multiple intelligences and lots of different learners. Focusing on that will help us to handle some of our more difficult students—who will make the strongest leaders for Christ.” – Carrie  Fox-Butram