AIMS Test Scores Exceed

Our eleventh grade students had the opportunity to increase their scores on the state AIMS exams this past fall. The results were very encouraging.

The AIMS is the state’s required exam for all high school students in public schools. While it is not required by the state of Arizona for private schools, it does provide the opportunity for our parents to compare apples-to-apples.

There are four possible scores on the AIMS high school exam for grades 10-12. They are: falls far below, approaching, meets, and exceeds. Students in the state schools are required to have at least a score of “meets” in reading, writing, and math to graduate from high school. If a student exceeds in those three areas and earns a grade of “B” in all of their core subjects, they are eligible for a scholarship to any of the three state universities.

Here are the statistics for our 11th and 12 grade students:
1. All of our juniors and seniors have scored at least at the “meets” expectation.
2. Out of eighteen possible scores for reading, writing, and math, twelve are “exceeds,” six are “meets.”
3. Three of our six students in 11th and 12th grades are eligible for the state scholarship: Austin, Jacob and Emily.

The 11th grade students have one more opportunity to “exceed” on the AIMS test this spring. Our tenth grade students have their first opportunity this spring to “exceed” on the AIMS.

Congratulations to the students, parents, and teachers for their accomplishments.

PSAT Scores

Great news from the College Board concerning our sophomores and juniors and their PSAT scores.

The PSAT is a standardized test published by the College Board who also puts out the SAT college entrance exam. It is similar to the Iowa, CAT, Stanford Achievement Test which many of you have taken throughout your K-12 years.

Generally the PSAT is used to give an idea of how a student will score on the SAT. Somewhere around the top 2% may qualify for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship. Our own senior, Austin Greene, was in the running for it last fall and received Commended Status.

Divided into three sections of Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing, students have two hours and ten minutes to complete sections on vocabulary, main idea, fact vs. opinion, basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, grammar, mechanics, and word choice.

So, how did we do on the PSAT’s? The average scores below are from the College Board site. The 2008 scores differed from the 2007 scores by not much. So the following should be close to 2009 averages. Scores range from 20 to 80. Score averages are different for 10th grade and 11th grade. In all three tests and both grades, we scored above the national average. While these scores aren’t the “real deal” (the SAT) they are a good reflection on the work our students, parents, and teachers have put in so far here at Bios.

Critical Reading
10th National: 42
10th Bios: 44
11th National: 47
11th Bios: 58

Math
10th National: 44
10th Bios: 47
11th National: 49
11th Bios: 53.7

Writing Skills
10th National: 41
10th Bios: 50
11th National: 46
11th Bios: 54.7

A Blog from Ms. Z

Dear Bios families,

When sharing the name of our school with others, I am often met with an inquisitive look and asked to repeat the title. I am certain that some of you share my experience. After learning that “Bios” is the Greek word for “life”, the confusion turns to appreciation for the originality and the purpose behind the name.

This exchange continually reinforces the significance of our weekly study of Greek and Latin roots in our English language program at Bios Christian Academy. Along with our regular grammar lessons, literature study, and writing assignments, students are having fun, learning about the birth of words.

Did you know that 60 percent of the English language (that figure rises to over 90 percent in the vocabulary of sciences and technology) comes from Latin and Greek word origins? Understanding these origins helps to unlock a plethora of vocabulary. By learning the root and its derivation, students can decipher the meaning of new words, taking some of the guesswork out of unfamiliar terminology. Not only does this serve to expand their verbal skills, but also gives them a resource for understanding how the English language shapes our perceptions of God’s world around us.

Be mindful that words are the tools with which we think, learn, and communicate. The more words we know, the more we are able to explore thought, absorb knowledge, and get our points of view understood and expanded upon, regarding all things that are important to us.

So take a moment this week and ask your child to recite the Greek alphabet -in Greek!

Our very own school name reflects the necessity of learning our “roots”.

Bios brings “life” to learning, and learning to life!

Blessings,
Ms. Z

Why Bios is a Private Christian School

Why Bios is a Private Christian School

Bios is a Christian school foremost in that we have the primary purpose of proclaiming the gospel. Second, we educate our students out of the desire to support the parents in the training of their children, not to support the state’s goals or the state’s low academic standards. Next, our students are educated in a Christian worldview. And last, we provide a broad range of skills involving math, critical reading, writing, computers, and arts to allow our students to choose among many career options for their future.

Absolutely religion neutral is the stance that government (and charter) schools have to take by law. They are not allowed to favor or teach about a religion unless it is within the state’s goals of instructing their students about particular religions. Conversely we Christians do not want the state schools to teach about Christ. Five or six years ago our family took a summer trip to Great Britain. While visiting I had the opportunity of spending an afternoon with a principal of a public school in Wales who is a Christian. During the tour he explained that by British Law, Christianity is a required subject to be taught in the public schools in Wales. He further explained that he was one of the few Christians who taught about the Bible in the area schools. Instead, non-Christians daily taught students across Britain their erroneous versions of the Bible. It is wrong to have non-Christians teaching about the Bible. Distortions, misteachings, and unbelief are the consequences of non-Christians teaching the scriptures. The one true faith of Christianity should only be taught by those who serve the One who created the Bible.

Starting with the idea that nothing is by accident, all is going according to God’s plan to bring glory and honor to himself. A Christian worldview of a loving, forgiving God who expects justice for everyone and good for His people, provides a framework for living and understanding the world we live in. Science, history, math, music, and art are instructed with the view of discovering the secrets of the amazing world He created, while contradicting a world view of attaining knowledge for pride’s sake or just because.

With good intentions, our country’s schools label many, many students by their perceived ability to learn. The idea in the beginning was that if we provide a label then maybe a core or special method of teaching would be discovered, as though these kids had a bad disease to fix. Now, labels are there to give funding and segregate students out of the regular ed program. What we know about learning at Bios is labels have a negative effect. What is effective in student learning is a clearly focused, step-by-step educational program geared to the individual’s needs, taught by experienced teachers.

Writing additional reasons for not being a charter school would be repetitive. While charter schools serve a unique purpose in our culture and it would be far less expensive for our families to educate their children in a charter school model, our ability to educate our students in our quality manner and with our focus on our God, requires us to remain a private school for the future.

Full Day Kindergarten

Here is my letter, my explanation, of why we are whole heartedly offering the option of full-day kindergarten to our school.

Throughout the years I have watched our own kindergarten classes as well as those at different schools. Most, actually all of the other programs I have observed were not what I wanted for parents who were going to sacrifice to provide a very good education for their children at Bios. So we offer a half-day, ten student class, with an academic emphasis.

In the past, at my previous school of twelve years, our kindergarten students tested in the 75th to 85th percentile year after year on the Iowa, Stanford, and the state tests. And it’s not like we screened students for the best and brightest. No, some students entered reading at a third grade level and some entered not knowing a letter of the alphabet. Half-day kindergarten is doing its job of providing an excellent foundation to enter our primary classes with.

Why the change? Because more and more parents want it. And I can honestly say we can further increase student’s skills in the added amount of time. We just continue doing what we do best – supporting our parents by educating our students with high, individual expectations with mature encouraging Christian teachers.

Half-day kindergarten at Bios Christian Academy continues to provide an excellent beginning for our students. Full-day kindergarten provides an additional option to our parents in the choices they make for their children.

B-I-O-S

By Staci Fletcher

“Where do you teach and where do your children attend school?” “Bios Christian Academy.” I say. I am greeted with a blank stare. “What did you say?” Once again I reply, “Bios Christian Academy. B-I-O-S.” “Oh… what kind of name is Bios?” I answer, “It means “life”. A perfect name for what our school represents… LIFE.” I think many who attend Bios have probably encountered this same type of dialogue from those unfamiliar with the school or even the term Bios. Did you know that the program that gives life to the computers you work on everyday is called BIOS (basic input/output system)? You may be more familiar with this by the phrase “booting up your computer.” The BIOS software has a number of different roles, but its most important role is to load the operating system. When you turn on your computer and the microprocessor tries to execute its first instruction, it has to get that instruction from somewhere. The BIOS provides those instructions. Without those instructions, nothing comes to life. BIOS.

I love this analogy and how it relates to our own school. The name of our school speaks volumes about us. As the BIOS language for a computer provides the instructions for bringing a computer life, I believe our school provides the instructions for bringing your children to life. In a computer, BIOS provides instructions for multiple pieces of hardware to work together for one specific purpose which is to improve your technological quality of life. At the school, Bios, we provide specific instructions to each unique student so they may be able to work together with the talents God has gifted in them for one specific purpose and that is to bring Glory to God with their lives. Thus, Bios works with your child under the guidance of their Creator in bringing him/her to life. My prayer would be that this in turn improves the quality of every facet of a person’s life who comes in contact with a Bios student because of the life they have in them, the life of Jesus Christ.

You see; the name of our school actually speaks volumes about who we are and what we represent in our community. So when you get the blank stare after sharing with someone the name of our school, be sure that you not only restate it and spell it, B-I-O-S, but also take the opportunity to share the life changing meaning behind it. “Bios means LIFE.” Subsequent articles I will be posting will continue to build on this theme of BIOS. Each month I will focus on a different set of instructions the school provides the students which intricately work together in supporting families, along with their Creator for bringing children to LIFE.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Field Trip of Experiences

by: Lori Halbison

The entire experience of a field trip is exciting. The students anxiously count down the days, ask lots of questions and of course are hoping their parent might be the one who will get to come along for the exciting day. If there is a picnic lunch in the park afterwards, the ultimate question is "what should I pack in my sack lunch?"

For some parents it is the first time they have allowed their most precious possession to ride with someone else. It is a scary thought to allow your child to go off for the day with a large group to some place they have never been before. We always try to make our families at Bios feel comfortable and allow the time for families to get to know one another and adapt to the situations presented at the school.

Many children do not have the privilege of attending live theatre. Each year our school takes advantage of this wonderful opportunity. After all, this may be the only live theatre experience that these young people may ever experience. Each year I try to figure out who likes it more, children or adults. I try to satisfy my curiosity by observing the faces in the audience and asking my own students and chaperones what they thought.

The Tempe Center for the Arts creates theatre experiences that educate, challenge, entertain, and inspire young people. By presenting significant themes that affect young people's lives in our community, they seek to foster dialogue and discussion.

Upon entering the theatre we walked into this large open common area with tall windows to see breathtaking views of Tempe Town Lake and the Papago Mountains. The high ceilings and art decor make everyone slow down to look in awe. As we single file in, quietly to our seats, we are gently reminded as to where the restrooms are located. The majority of hands go up then. What child does not like to go explore the bathrooms in a really cool new building? Who knows what might be in there too. Quickly, a few of us left to check it out and returned to watch the performance.

The performance lasted about an hour with the actors involving the students at first by a chase around the theatre. One of the actors was searching for the bells that were making noise and the other four were part of the silly prank of hiding them. The children in the audience could not wait to be the one to hold the bells and shake them. Now the actors have their full attention. The hour flew by. Watching the students laugh wholeheartedly, standing up in front of their seats out of excitement of what was going on, and even clapping at various fun parts because they were so entertained, are captured moments to smile about again and again.

After the performance the actors stay on stage and take questions from the students. Questions such as how did you make the smoke, or where do you change your costumes, or how did you make the scenery change so quickly. My favorite question is "how long did it take you to memorize all the words?"

When it was time to return to school I observed once again, and with some minimal questioning, that the adults and students had an eventful day. We enjoyed an important day of new adventure, experiences, and learning outside of the classroom.

As a teacher I can always count on going to their website and following up with writing projects and more fun activities for my students. The theatrical characters care about what we think so letting them know is always a priority for them. We have not had the time in class to follow up yet but I do have the students mimicking the actors and talking about how much fun the field trip was for them. The journey may have been short but it will be an adventure to remember.

Teachers and Thinking

A common question throughout the years about our school’s instructional methods has been something like “If differential instruction is so good, why doesn’t everyone else do it?” My first comment usually is “Just because everyone else isn’t doing it, doesn’t mean something is not good.”

But the main point of my answer to this question is that in most situations most people pretty much follow the crowd and whatever they are doing. This is also true for teachers and the instructional model of lecturing to larger and larger classes of students.

As a part of teacher training we use a book by cognitive psychologist Daniel T. Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? One of his first points is the three properties of thinking: (1) thinking is slow; (2) thinking is effortful; and (3) thinking is uncertain. Interestingly, he continues that because we are so bad at thinking, we rely on memory. He quotes two psychologist who say “Most of the time what we do is what we do most of the time.” Teachers are people. And like the rest of us they work from their own past experiences in school and what their teacher training in the universities taught them; lecturing to large groups and with material that reaches the middle to low-middle skilled students.

Mark Pennington, a reading specialist who also has his own publishing company, has similar thoughts. Mark’s blog of October 11th titled 12 Reasons Why Teachers Resist Differentiated Instruction has three of his twelve reasons supporting this idea. #1 – We tend to teach the way that we were taught. #5 – Although teachers prize their independence and academic freedom to teach how we want, we are generally conformists. #7 – The influence of university professors.

Bios Christian Academy is not alone in using differentiated education. But for most of the world, to change to differentiated education is like changing the direction of a slow moving train to nowhere. It takes a lot of effort, planning, and desire before it can happen.

Learning with Sports

Young boys are different in many ways from girls. They tend to mature physically and mentally behind girls. They tend to play in a rough manner, and they tend to apply a different role to sports in their lives than girls.

While all of the above are tendencies, and may or may not be true for your son, sports is probably going to be the rule he will follow if there is one. If you stand out in the parking lot of our school and watch the boys first through eighth grades out playing in the grass, what you won’t observe is a number of boys standing in a group just talking. Instead they are throwing a football, hitting a volleyball, or playing some active game that involves competition. For boys it is their method of relating, seeing how they fit in, making friends, and passing time.

Sports is an integral activity in our school. It is one of our prime opportunities for older men, and dads, to train younger men. Individually and as a team, they learn to fall and pick themselves up again. Practice and hard work can have tangible rewards. Honoring God, or as our culture would say “good sportsmanship,” is encouraged and used with other teams and one’s own teammates. Commitment, patience, friendships, and how to play a game well are other positive aspect to sports.

But learning how to win, is best done by losing a lot. If you lose correctly, you will learn from your mistakes or lack of skills what you need to improve to try and win at the next opportunity. Winning always or winning by great margins creates an attitude of superiority and little motivation to work diligently on individual skills on teamwork.

The teams of my oldest son and I only had two winning seasons in our six years of being a coach and player together. Our first four years always had us being the youngest and smallest team in the league. But with essentially the same group of players for those six years they learned to play as a team, many times not even looking where they were passing the ball, just knowing certain players were going to be at certain spots on the court when they passed the ball.

The fifth year we went 12-5 and the sixth season we won the championship after being down by 24 points at the half and the game winning shot at the buzzer.

But the most enjoyable year I have ever coached was last year with one team not winning a single game and the other holding on to a close final game and the championship. Both teams provided equal enjoyment because both teams improved greatly as individuals and as a team. Learning to play as a team involves a selfless attitude, hard work, and figuring out where you fit in.

Christian schools need to look different than the public model and sports is a part of that difference.

Recently I enjoyed a great conversation with a parent from Bios on sports in Christian schools. It was encouraging for me to hear I was not alone in thinking that winning is what happens when the players honor God in their sport, work hard, play as a team, and are gracious in winning and losing.

Sports can provide an active model to train young men in putting others first. Sacrifice, honor, hard work, and learning to do something well are lifelong skills to carry into a boys culture, jobs, families, and service in churches.

Bios Christian Academy ACT and SAT Scores

First, on August 19th came the headline “ACT Study Shows Students Unprepared.” A week later “High School SAT Scores Slip.” Both articles were reported in the Wall Street Journal. ACT reported that only “23% of this year’s high school graduates had scores that indicated they were ready for college in all four ACT subject areas, or had at least a 75% chance of earning a grade of C or better in entry-level courses.” And the news from the SAT college-entrance exam was that the performance of high school students on the SAT college-entrance exam fell a little.

This is sad news. Less than one fourth of our high school students nationwide can expect to earn a grade of C or better in even entry-level courses.

While we have had no ACT or SAT scores from students attending Bios yet, the scores from our first start, Surrey Garden Christian were three points above Arizona’s average from the SAT and four points above for ACT. And there is no reason to believe our results will not be the same or higher at Bios. Clear individual goals, intelligent and skilled teachers, and hard work almost always provide success in learning and school.

Cherubini Coffee Co. and Christian Schools

I am sitting at McClintock and Broadway at the Cherubini Coffee Company owned by my former college pastor from Grace Community, Don Ekstrand. It is different from most coffee houses in Tempe in that it is clean. It also has an Italian Provincial in the desert look.

Anyway, there was an article a few months back in the Wall Street Journal on Starbucks saturating their markets and how that affected the competing coffee houses. Surprisingly, the study found the greater the number of Starbucks, the busier the other coffee shops became. Yep. More Starbucks, more coffee drinkers.

I think the same could be said for Christian schools. And the basis for my argument is back in Seattle, in particular a suburb named Belleview. Back when we began Surrey Garden Christian, the superintendant from a Christian School District, Belleview Christian Schools, spent a month giving advice on how our school could run better. Once when talking together he explained how in Belleview, which is similar to Gilbert in size and income, there were seven healthy Christian schools in the area. My guess is the more quality Christian schools, the more the expectation to consider attending one because your family and friends were.

Finally, the milk and doughnuts are very good here at Cherubini.

Educational...No Segregation Here

Christian schools should look quite different from government or public schools in a variety of ways. Just as you would expect there to be a difference in your treatment and care from a government hospital to a private hospital such as Mercy Gilbert or Banner Gateway, you would expect to see differences between public and private schools. A Christian school should be salt and light to a world whose eyes are closed to the darkness which surrounds it. One of those differences is in how we look at, treat, and education our students.

When we educate, train, correct, encourage, and teach, we build upon basic principles which are held to dearly. The idea that all students are able to learn is a key component. A part of that component is all students are unique learners. Continuing on this theme we actively work with students who have physical, mental, and/or social impairments to their education. I would add to this last principle that the majority of students entering our school have some impairment. These may include attitude, confidence, lack of skills, and work ethic. While these impairments usually do not have a label attached or federal funding, they are consistently as big or bigger an impairment as the typical labels of learning disabilities or ADHD.

We also believe segregating students because of stigmatizing labels is harmful and of no educational use in working towards the goal of increasing a student’s skills.

School wide we meet the needs of a diverse student population through a well thought out, richly developed, consistently trained education system. Our experience for over fourteen years has shown this idea to be consistently successful – at our first model Surrey Garden Christian, and now our second effort Bios Christian Academy. From kindergarten through twelfth grade all students are integrated in a challenging, individualized learning environment.

In this educational system, diverse educational extremes may be actively addressed in the same classroom. High school math students with skills below a beginning second grade student’s grow significantly in their math skills along side high school calculus students. Teachers are trained how to set baseline information and how to break instruction and specific skills into blocks of learning in order for students to progress.

Since President Ford’s signing into law P.L. 94-142 (signing with concern) the segregation of students in public/government school has increased at a higher rate than the general school enrollment since 1998. The educational model the law is built around is a medical model of identifying a problem with a student and attempting to fix it. The thinking behind the labels (emotionally, mentally handicapped, learning disabled, etc.) when first introduced was that someday there would be a specific method for instructing each label. Specific methods of instruction would probably be different for each area or label. This specific method of instruction would probably be different for each area or label. What works for the mentally handicapped may or may not work for learning disabilities. Research would pave the way to showing us what is best.

It didn’t work that way. There was no one method specific to each handicap. On the contrary, research overwhelmingly demonstrated that each student was unique in his or her own way, in their needs, and how to instruct them.

There is a movement nationally to change the prevailing idea of a medical model which fixes the educational problems of the student to a social model which says “the educational difficulties experienced by disabled children in the regular classroom are not necessarily caused by their individual impairments, but might rather be the result of a poorly developed regular education system. . .”

Returning to our school, Bios Christian Academy, one of the basic principles of our school is to not segregate because of ability, lack of or increased. It is another reason our students have been successful for over fourteen years. It is one more way we set ourselves apart from public schools.

Sports

Over sixty the first game, over seventy the second, the crowds keep growing at our Tiger home volleyball games played around the corner at the Boys and Girls Club. Coach Ravenhill and her team lost the first game to Providence two sets to one but came back last Friday in a victory over Redeemer in two sets. Monday was a similar story with the Tigers two sets to zero victory over Faith High School.

The boys began their season Monday with a 5-0 loss to Faith. With one senior and one junior, the team looks to build towards a promising future. The team is well coached by Coach Bumpass and assisted by Coach Maier.

Both teams have games on Friday, September 4th. The kids have mentioned how excited and appreciative they are when there is a large group of cheering fans. We hope to see you at the Tiger’s games.

Games:
Friday, September 4th 4:30 soccer at Freestone Park (Lindsay south of Guadalupe)
Friday, September 4th 5:30 volleyball at Boys & Girls Club (Elliot west of Gilbert Rd)

How are we different? We differentiate our instruction.

Yes, school-wide our unique educational instruction provides differentiated instruction and expectations, from kindergarten through our senior class, with all subjects taught including music, math, English, science and foreign language. Every day our students have clear, measurable learning goals in each subject. Every day students read, write, and complete multi-step expectations to increase their knowledge and skills at expectations of 80% to 95% for passing grades. Every day their teachers have the ability (and expectation) to modify their daily goal if (1) it would assist the students understanding of the concept; or (2) would create greater expectations.

Teachers are required to know where each student stands in their understanding and their confidence in learning the subject by the second day of instruction. Without this knowledge, the teacher would be unable to arrive at the decisions she would need to make and where to focus the student’s instruction.

Where we would disagree with most purveyors of differentiated instruction is the idea of basing our methods of instruction to the preferred cognitive style of the student. There is a lack of evidence to justify any particular approach. Our training and teaching is built on our teachers building longer (more than a typical school year) relationships with students and their families and differentiating the instruction based on sound practices and teacher experience with the student.

Instruction, encouragement, and correction are the key focuses of our differentiated approach which compliment the above mentioned ideas of sound practice and individual knowledge of each student.

Instruction is provided through many one-on-one meetings between the teacher and the student in each subject period. This face-to-face meeting provides rich language opportunities and practice for each student and immediate accountability, encouragement, correction, and individualization of student goals.

We also may vary student objectives or performance standards. While this is quite contrary to most educational practices, it works. If, while instructing a second grade student in multi-digit addition, it is observed during the one-on-one instruction that the student is unable to recognize place value for a three-digit number, the student’s goal will immediately change to mastering the concept of three digit place value and then return to the concept of multi-digit addition. Only our student with the missing skill is affected, because each and every student in his math class most probably has their own unique goals for the day. The student’s instruction in mastering three-digit place value may involve using pencil and paper, base ten blocks, counting pieces, etc. to assist him in achieving mastery. Working towards the same daily standards and objectives is mistaken in assuming each student enjoys the same background of skills and experiences. They do not. Our differentiated approach provides challenging daily expectations for each student and immediately addresses issues and problems each student may have.

Along the road of educating our students, the differentiated approach practiced at Bios educates to the strengths and weaknesses of each student, which results in a very skilled and learned individual.

Book Review - Founding Brothers

I knew the book had great potential when I read “…the pages that follow, constitute what I hope is a polite argument against the scholarly grain, based on a set of presumptions that are so disarmingly old-fashioned that they might begin to seem novel in the current climate. In my opinion, the central events and achievements of the revolutionary era and the early republic were political. These events and achievements are historically significant because they shaped the subsequent history of the United States, including our own time. The central players in the drama were not the marginal or peripheral figures, whose lives are more typical, but rather the political leaders at the center of the national story who wielded power. What’s more, the shape and character of the political institution were determined by a relatively small number of leaders who knew each other, who collaborated and collided with one another in patters that replicated at the level of personality and ideology the principle of checks and balances imbedded structurally in the Constitution.”

So begins Founding Brothers, the Pulitzer Prize winning book on principally seven men who “collaborated and collided” to create the nation we have today. With insightful detail the author focuses on the Burr-Hamilton duel, a monumental dinner involving Madison and Hamilton, the silence for seventy years concerning slavery, Washington’s historically important Farewell Address, the collaboration of the political teams of John Adams and his wife Abigail verses Jefferson and Madison, and finally the ageless friendship of Adams and Jefferson.

For many years it was difficult for me to find new biographies for our students which focused on the political leaders of the past which greatly influenced our political past. Instead the bookshelves reflected the fairly brief emphasis on everyday people from our American history. Of course this forced me to find out of print books until this passing faze of historical interpretation blew over. Times have changed, with his book being a great example leading the way.

The Bios tenth grade U.S. History students will be required to read and take an open book exam while working through the chapter on the American Revolution.

If you have the chance, you might want to give Founding Brothers a read. A real find involving real history.

Web Site

Our school web site is an important tool in communicating our school to our families and interested visitors.

There is a useful report sent to me on a weekly basis containing information about the number of visitors each week, the number of brand new visitors each week, and where the visitors spend their time while they visit.

My brother, Paul, who designs website for local, national, and international companies (and who designed our beautiful site for free) tells me that the number of visitors we receive each week would be considered by most businesses a very positive interest and use of the web site. We have in the summer 120 to 155 visits each week. And of those visitors perusing our pages, 35% to 55% are first time visitors. Around 10% visit the tuition page and 5% find out how to contact us.

For example, last week we had 125 visits of which 52.8% were new visits, 14.5% visited the tuition page, and 8% went to our homeschool page.

Great web site and a great tool.

More than Just Pie

If you type the phrase “seeing old friends” into Google search you will read newspaper articles and blogs on the joys of reuniting with friends, family, and former alumni after long pauses in seeing each other. Each reading espouses the joys of conversing, catching up and reminiscing on past lives.

On Thursday, August 13th at 7:00 p.m. we invite all of our families to Pie and Praise. A time of seeing old friends and meeting new ones. A time of sharing praising our Lord together in song, scripture reading, and prayer. And a time for parents to come in and see their child’s classroom.

I look forward to seeing all of you there.

Post from Rosemary Boswell, BCA Home School Support Teacher:

Hello Bios Christian Academy Home School families!

I hope you are enjoying your summer break. I have met with Mr. Ihms a couple times about our new Bios Christian Academy Home School Support program and I am excited to share with you our plans for the coming school year.

Our classroom will be off the hallway near where the bathrooms are located. We will be inside the middle building with the primary and elementary students, cafeteria, and office. I'm very pleased with our location. The modular building separate from the church will be Junior High and High School classrooms.

Mr. Ihms and I would like this program to truly be a support system for our homeschooling families. Two ways we will offer assistance this coming school year are:

1. A Home School Support Guide - I am currently working on putting together a guide that clearly spells out what we do in our program and what needs to be taught at home. We will not be intruding on what you do at home. We will continue to keep what we do at school separate from what you do at home. It is our goal to provide curriculum/resource ideas and support.
*Please email me with any ideas or items that you would like to see covered in the guide. I am making it for you.

2. Home School Support Meetings - Mr. Ihms and I would like to offer homeschooling families an opportunity to meet with us to discuss our program. Making sure this program is meeting the needs of our homeschooling families is a main objective for us. During these meetings we will share with you our curriculum, checksheets, and method of teaching. A question and answer session will be included as well. We want our homeschooling families to feel like a valuable and supported part of the school.

Our first BCA Home School Support Meeting will be on Tuesday, July 14 at 7:00 pm at the Boswell Family Home, 1825 E Appaloosa Road, Gilbert.

{We are located at Val Vista & Warner behind Home Depot in the Rancho Cimarron neighborhood. From Warner Road, turn north into the Rancho Cimarron neighborhood on Key Biscayne, take the third right (east) on Appaloosa (at the park), we are the third house on the right.}

Please feel free to bring any curriculum you use to share with Mr. Ihms. He will be happy to look it over and give you feedback on what you are using at home. As much as I would love to see your children, if possible, please find childcare for your children during the meeting.

PLEASE NOTE: We are making some changes to the planned subject list.

For both the primary and elementary home school programs, we are removing Easy Grammar from the daily schedule. I will include some basic grammar during composition, but I will not be doing a set grammar program with the students. You will need to teach a daily grammar program at home.

Elementary students will be happy to know that we will include the G-Quest geography curriculum in the 4th - 6th grade class this coming school year! You do not need to purchase a geography program; we will have it covered.

If you are unable to attend the meeting, let me know and I will send you information on what was discussed.

As always, if you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email.

Blessings,

Rosemary Boswell
Bios Christian Academy Home School Support Teacher
480-588-7052
rosemaryboswell@cox.net

Why We Constantly Practice

Basketball is a great example of a sport where constant practice adds to your ability to play and compete. Take for instance, the simple act of dribbling the basketball. When you are first learning the skill of hitting the ball to the ground and repeating that drill until you stop, at that point you are not thinking of how to use your dribbling skill (or lack of) to get you past your opponent and to the basket to score. No, your only thought is to bounce it up and down, over and over trying to master the skill. You try walking, and then running with the ball bouncing it as you go. After a while dribbling becomes an asset to your ability to score, helping you move to the basket around your opponent.

Your focus at the start of your dribbling practice was on just getting the ball to your hand. After a while the dribbling becomes more automatic so you can spend more time on your fancy moves to the basket.

Reading, math, and writing benefit greatly from using the basic idea of practice as in the basketball example. The more practice in each of these subjects, the opportunities to expand your knowledge.

The following example from Why Don’t Students Like School? By cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham illustrates this point. “When students are first introduced to arithmetic, they often solve problems by using counting strategies. For example, they solve 5+4 by beginning with 5 and counting up four more numbers to yield the answer 9. This strategy suffices to solve simple problems, but you can see what happens as problems become more complex. For example, in a multidigit problem like 97+98, a counting strategy becomes less effective. The problem is that this more complex problem demands that more processes be carried out in working memory. The student might add 7 and 8 by counting and get 15 as the result. Now the student must remember to write down the 5, then solve 9+9 by counting, while remembering to add the carried 1 to the result. The problem is much simpler if the student has memorized the fact that 7+8=15.”

The above example is just as true in reading, writing, and learning a foreign language. Composition, for example involves the rudiments of such diverse skills as forming individual letters proficiently, spelling, sentence structure, word knowledge, and life experiences to name a few. More practice means more of an automatic response so the student’s efforts are spent on creativity and not on how to form the letter “T” or figuring out if a sentence is a sentence without containing a verb.

Here at Bios, our teachers work diligently with each student to practice, practice, and practice more basic skills which enable them to learn more advanced skills and knowledge. For math, math facts, basic geometry rules, and how to show their work are daily learned and reviewed. In writing, three to seven writing assignments a quarter provide a quantity of practice in neatness and writing skills. Students are held accountable to improve their reading by reading two to seven books a quarter, reading textbooks daily (history, science, and math) and reading from the Bible.

Practicing basic skills so our students are able to learn more advanced ideas is one more reason our students make such constant progress in their subjects.

Congratulations

We had a great showing in another national writing contest, the Book Review Writing Contest sponsored by author Rachel Starr Thomson. Not one, but two winners came from our group of high school writers for this contest. Raynie earned second and Bethany first in this contest which the students wrote a review of a book and submitted it to the contest. Most of our junior high and high school entries are posted on her site with comments from Rachel at www.rachelstarrthomson.com/inkling/. Both winners have a choice of books to pick as their awards.

Coaching and Test Scores

Earlier in my teaching career, I worked for a large K-6 public elementary school in a large public district. This school was located in a mostly upper income neighborhood. And one year the norm-reference test scores for our school were below what was expected for the income level of the neighborhood.

We had an assistant superintendent from a different large public school district come to speak at one of the classes I was taking for my state administrative certification. In the middle of his talk he mentioned that often parents would call and say “how do I find your best schools?” He said he wanted to say to these parents “how much house can you afford?” Continuing, he explained that statistically scores went up as the different schools income levels rose. If school “A” had an average of $50,000 a year in per family income, their scores were significantly less than school “B” which averaged $100,000.

Returning to the elementary school I was at, by the time the next norm-referenced test was taken the next year, we raised our scores to the district’s satisfaction – meaning our income level. How did we do it? The school invested money in a practice test which would familiarize our students with the test. Nothing changed as far as instruction, class sizes or instructional materials. All we did was familiarize our students with the test by using a practice test just before the real test.

This thought goes along with the recent news of a study released by the National Association for College Admission Counseling which found that test-preparation courses for the SAT and ACT may not help as much as advertised.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on Wednesday, May 20th that the group which oversees the SAT, CollegeBoard, recommends familiarity with the SAT to give the biggest boost for short-term gains for students. There are practice tests on the CollegeBoard site for a small fee which can provide this familiarity for a student.

Caution is the word when looking for ways to support your child in preparing him or her for those college-entrance exams.

Writing Contests

Writing for a variety of contests locally, nationally, and even internationally serves to meet many goals in our composition instruction at Bios. It provides different perspectives on a student’s writing, provides a variety of topics and writing opportunities, and it is a method to help keep our writing instructors accountable.

The list of writing contests that Bios students enter are varied to say the least. In high school they have entailed cowboy poetry, science research, historical research, speaking, and literature reviews. The judges for each of these contests are just as rich in variety – former English teachers, engineers, judges, mayors, and police chiefs to name a few. All these people play an important role in our student’s education because teachers, being the humans they are, tend to like certain kinds of writing and not others. So our students have opportunities to be recognized by people other than their teachers.
When I taught our own children, I usually favored my older son’s writing over my younger son’s. I just liked his style better. But my younger son would win or place in many contests because those judges enjoyed his writing. Both sons placed in many writing contests, even with my bias.

Writing instructors tend to draw out writing assignments when they do not have deadlines to meet. A years worth of contests provides an aggressive but doable schedule for students to constantly practice their writing craft.

At the last school I was principal at, during our five year review from North Central Accreditation, the reviewer at her meeting to go over comments about our school mentioned how she wished more schools would provide the kind of writing instruction that we did with our contest entries.

On a final note, check out a wonderful web site, http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/inklings/. Rachel Starr Thomson is a Christian, home-school graduate that writes books and articles for magazines. We entered a contest she had reviewing books. She liked four of our stories so far and wrote wonderful reviews on them. Not all the reviews are from our students. Also check out the wonderful writing of our students.

Voucher Update

In the Sunday Gilbert Tribune, reporter Howard Fischer wrote an update on the direction the governor is leading in providing financial assistance for students with disabilities or from foster homes.

Governor Brewer is considering calling a special session of the legislature this week. It looks like she will push for a tax credit for students with disabilities or from foster homes. It would be available only for the students who are already in the voucher programs and for those students who are in public schools and transferring to a private school. It would be a dollar-for dollar tax credit.

There was no explanation how this tax credit would be different or better for families then the present tax credit already in place for students in private schools.

Individualized Education at Bios

From the very beginning, Bios Christian Academy has always looked at educating students differently from how most of the world educated its students. Individualizing a student’s education is one of our differences. Each student has clear, daily expectations for each subject, which are set by the teacher.

We do this because no two students have the same skills learned for each subject. No two students have the same training from home. No two students have the same combination of skills learned, training from home, or life experiences. For example, when we instruct fourteen unique students in each and every math class, they all are working on different material and sometimes at a different pace. Forcing students to work on the same material and at the same pace may be an easier method to teach as far as a lecture presentation goes, but it does little to motivate or address each student’s needs.

In his book Why Don’t Students Like School?, cognitive scientist, Daniel T. Willingham expresses this thought: . . .I don’t accept that some students are “just not very bright” and ought to be tracked into less demanding classes. But it’s naïve to pretend that all students come to your class equally prepared to excel; they have different preparations, as well as different levels of support at home, and they will therefore differ in their abilities. If that’s true . . . it is self-defeating to give all of your students the same work. The less capable students will find it too difficult and will struggle. . .

We educate our students differently because each student is different. An individualized teacher-paced education is able to narrow the gap and promote the skills of each student by beginning their instruction where they can be successful and with clear expectations move those students towards their academic goals.

Looking for a Few Good Teachers

Here at Bios, we have been blessed with a loyal, long serving staff. How can this be when we have existed for less than a year as an institution of excellent learning you ask? All of this year’s staff, teachers and support, have served, worked, and labored with me for at least five years and as many as seventeen. Four of the new staff beginning next year have worked with me (and the rest of us) for 3, 3, 6 and 8 years.

We continue to search for those gifted people who have the work ethic, intelligence, and desire to be an effective teacher. Presently we have openings for instructors to teach in the primary (grades 1-3) and kindergarten. We are also interviewing for someone to work with me in beginning a preschool.

The best teachers and support people come from the families and friends of Bios. We look forward to interviewing the people you recommend.

Pride and Recognition

Our sermon in church last Sunday was on Mark 6 – Herod’s motivation, and John’s beheading. One major point was that most sin comes back to the sin of pride. For Herod and for that matter the world of nonbelievers in general, pride shows itself through making recognition, accomplishment and effort their focus.

This relates to education at Bios this way: Our purpose as a Christian school is to focus on honoring our God. Yes, we want our students to have and be recognized for their accomplishments and efforts. And that recognition should be made with a strong effort.

Education at Bios is not for us to satisfy the wants of the flesh. In honoring God, our accomplishments, recognition, and efforts are completed to further our service to God through our church families, and work.

Recently during a teacher screening interview, the candidate spoke about her teaching career. Most of it had been at public schools and only in the past few years had she had the opportunity to instruct students in a Christian school. She offered that those few years in the Christian school were by far the most enjoyable of her career. Then she said “Mr. Ihms, the difference is Christ. The education I gave for those many years (in public schools) was so empty. With Christ, there is purpose and hope.”

Even though our accomplishments, recognition, and efforts may look similar to public schools, they are not. The differences should be as distinct as night is from day; from children raised in an orphanage to children growing up in a loving home. Our students should stand out as confident, well-mannered, God-fearing students with academic skills our culture expects, and a work ethic to honor their God with. Students of a Christian school should work towards following this command – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men . . .”

Though we are in this world we are not to be of this world.

National Day of Prayer

Yesterday around twenty students, staff, and a couple of dads gathered in front of our high school building to pray. We began with some of the students bringing up prayer requests with the dads and I praying at the end.

I found it very enjoyable to observe how the cadre of students, were so comfortable in sharing and praying together. It was a nice reflection of their parents training.

Praise to God!

Teacher-paced Instruction

The following passage was written by Ms. Flanagan in an article for the Wall Street Journal. She writes - “[Flannery O’Connor] in defending the teaching of the great works of the Western canon rather than those of the modern day (which kids far preferred) [said] something wise, the sort of thing an adult might say. She said that the whims and preferences of children should always, always be sublimated to the sense and judgment of their elders.”

“And what if the student finds this is not to his taste?” O’Connor asked. “Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.”

Part of our forming involves a teacher-paced instructional model. Within the idea that each student is instructed and advanced at a pace which is daily challenging yet not overwhelmingly frustrating, is the daily, no hourly, occurrence of the teacher setting the instructional pace for each student.

This may involve providing an alternate instructional method or use of materials, such as base ten blocks to teach place value, or doubling math assignments because a student, even when two grades ahead in their studies continues to easily meet the challenges set before them.

For many students, the only decision the teacher has to make is to stay the course already set. But when a student requires extra time and/or instruction with a concept, our teacher-paced methods allow each instructor to focus on the individual while not affecting the learning of the rest of the class.

One aspect of why we hire the instructors we do is their understanding and desire to support our parents in the training and forming of their children, all at an individual pace set by their teacher.

Why We Enjoy Field Trips (and consider field trips an essential part of each students education)

“This is the best field trip I have ever been on,” exclaimed the enthusiastic junior high student while enjoying the Sunflower Science Trip. While we desire that all of our students would have similar feelings about our field trips, none of our science, English, or music field trips are selected for the entertainment value, but instead the learning factor.

Students are usually prepped ahead of time as to what they will be learning on the field trip. Be it reading the play prior to enjoying the actor’s interpretation at a local theater, learning vocabulary terms prior to attending a lecture, or participating in a unit of study which supports the field trip they are soon to take, field trips are integrated into the objectives of the school.

We invite parents to attend the field trips for several reasons. Observing their child in different environments outside of church and home can give new positive perspectives on their children. Our students exhibit advanced skills from their learning, show polite behavior along with a steady work ethic while having fun on our field trips. Children can enjoy their parents in a positive environment, observing them “being fun” while supporting the school in its learning objectives for the field trip.

No, our field trips are not Disneyland. But fun usually results because of our active learning model, carefully planned field trips, and excellent teachers, while supporting our parents in the training of their children.

Outdoor Education

In the grades 4-12 our outdoor education is a one to three day instructional time of living, learning and exploring the world God has given us.

In elementary (4-6) the students will spend one night and two days in the forest of Arizona hiking, performing team building work, performing science experiments, observing the heavens and enjoying campfires. Each year will be part of a three year cycle of instruction.

Seventh grade is a one-day trip to Tonto National Forest and the Johnston Ranch just outside of Sunflower, Arizona. The science teachers organize the daylong event of hiking, exploring, and activities. Set in teams, students work at an elevation of just over 4,000 feet along perennial Sycamore Creek. A Tonto National Forest ranger assists in the instruction.

Eighth grade explores the amazing Kartchner Caverns in southern Arizona. In this day long trip, the students spend time exploring these well preserved caverns.

Ninth grade expands their knowledge learned from their ninth grade science course of Biology by spending two nights and three days on a boat nestled in a cove off Catalina Island. Hands-on exploration and activities involving freshly caught marine animals, kayaking, and a visit to the Long Beach aquarium make this a unique and beneficial science opportunity.

Tenth grade enjoys a one-day/two-night trip to the forested mountains of Arizona for Sophomore Science Camp. Students work on expanding their science knowledge including astronomy through team work and outdoor activities with the traditional campfire and praise songs in the evening.

Eleventh grade travels to a local college to observe cadavers and learn how they are used in instruction for medical students. As the majority of our students plan to have a medical, math, or science major in college, this field trip provides useful knowledge and exposure to science in college.

The seniors, twelfth grade, exit our school spending two nights, three days with a creation scientist rafting down the Grand Canyon. The emphasis is on seeing first hand God’s amazing creation while expanding on science truths.

Who We Are

Here are some thoughts about what makes us a unique Christian academy.

We cannot be all things to all people. We do have the ability to be very, very, good at what we do.

We are a Christian school which provides a unique and special learning environment in our culture.

Since the Bible has no mention of what a Christian School looks like, our interpretation is the following. It is a school where the staff members of the school are all professing believers whose lives reflect their obedience and love for the God of the Bible. All instruction is viewed through the lens of the Bible.

The uniqueness of the school is shown in many ways. The families which comprise it are almost all Christians from over 10 different churches. Our instructional model contains many different methods but leans heavily towards a didactic method which has also been named an “active learning” “differential learning” or “home school approach.” The teachers are provided with clear instructional guidelines and usually with lesson plans clearly laid out for them. The students have clear instructional and behavioral goals. Within our clear instructional goals and lesson plans teachers are expected to “break the rules” daily when needed to individualize each student’s education and provide maximum learning.

The school has a few basic themes with which to guide the teachers, parents and students in our school practices.

To describe the school:
*Bios Christian prepares
*Serving Our Lord One Student at a Time

Other ideas and themes include:
*all students can learn
*the staff is to honor God always as their first priority
*on our sports teams up through junior varsity, everyone plays, there are no cuts; all athletes are trained to work hard, show great sportsmanship, and always increase in their skills.
*God’s world and the understanding of its beauty is learned through skills in music and the visual arts.

In describing the basic points of our educational model the following is said:
“Our first priority is to encourage believing students or witness to those who do not believe. Second we train behaviors, and last we teach to the individual.”

Concerning our teaching of the Bible it is explained:
“There are basic ideas which guide our instruction of the Bible and these include that the Bible is inerrant, God is sovereign in all things, and salvation is only through a person’s faith in the works of Christ.”

The school prepares students to serve our God in the culture we live. The philosophy of the school is that learning entails more than book work. While book work is important to convey specific information there is much to be learned about God’s revealed world through field trips, activities, the arts, sports, mission work and from mature believers.

The “book” aspect of our school is built around basic ideas already mentioned. Additional ideas include usually much higher educational academic expectations beginning in kindergarten and continuing through 12th grade. Our learning of the “3 R’s” is structured on several educational foundations which include:

A. All students are able to learn meaningful information.
B. Large group instruction rarely serves the needs of the individual; lecture is the least effective instructional mode.
C. The instructional goals of every student in kindergarten through the senior year of high school are planned down to the day. We are not here to cover material, but to provide an educational program where students learn and apply their skills.
D. In theory, every student’s goals are reevaluated on a daily basis from the work achievements of each day.
E. Behavior training may become a higher goal than educational goals until the student is able to work consistently.
F. Primary (1st-3rd) students have a goal of 100% of the students meeting grade level expectations or higher for reading, math, and composition as measured on daily work and the AIMS test results.
G. Elementary (4th-6th) students have a goal of 100% meeting grade level expectations or higher for math, reading and composition as measured on their daily work and the AIMS test along with introductory knowledge and skills in history and science.
H. Junior High (7th & 8th grades) is essentially high school prep. Students are trained in these two years in addition to their academic skills, the appropriate methods to study for tests, being accountable to more than one teacher, and achieving at a higher level of expectations.
I. High School is focused on preparing for life after Bios and college. With clear expectations for each day’s work in each class, students are able to consistently increase their skills in all our subjects. Teachers assist and support students/parents in guiding them toward career choices.

We Are Not Alone

This past week the Adams 50 public school district just outside of Denver received attention from two national publications, Parade magazine and eClassroom news for their unique approach to organizing their students beginning in August. In this 10,000 student district, the students will not be assigned grade levels because of age. Students will move through ten levels according to their “level of proficiency.” They may even be in different levels depending on their proficiency in each subject. The “only allowable score for a student to move on to the next lesson is a “B” equivalent,” as written in eClassroom. The article also quoted advocates of this system as saying it flips “the traditional system around to focus on mastery of the material rather than seat time.”

Surprisingly a public school has bucked the traditional social promotion system which provides almost everyone with a grade of “A” to one that sets some kind of expectations for mastery.

Relationships and nonuniform mastery would be our significant differences as compared to the Adams 50 project. Because we are built around student’s mastery of material, each subject contains different expectations for mastery.

For example, in the subject of math, mastery is a score of 85% on daily work and 80% on weekly tests. In Spanish, 95- 100% is the mastery expectation on daily work with 95% set as passing for unit tests.

The difference in expectations should be obvious. When performing thirty math problems at one sitting, missing three or four problems on the assignment does not require much in the way of time to correct. Over the twenty plus years we have instructed with these expectations, most students who have a good understanding of their math will miss no more than three problems on an assignment, plus the students seem to work extra hard not to have to repeat a lesson, so they check their work closer. Consistently a passing score of 80-85% works well in math.

Spanish requires different standards. We work under the idea that only when words are learned and applied at close to 100% will someone be able to add to their language base. Memorizing vocabulary at 80% accuracy puts a student at a great disadvantage as compared to someone who learns all of the words.

In addition to nonuniform mastery, relationships developed between a teacher and parents plus teacher and students provide a significant difference between Adams 50 and us. We hire individuals which have a history of liking people and working well with them. Our primary and elementary multigrade classrooms are designed so that the parent and teachers develop a working relationship with each other during the three years they are together in the 1st-3rd or 4th-6th grades. Similarly, the 7th-12th grade students are scheduled to be with the same instructor for a particular subject for more than one year. While the relationships are very important throughout each student’s instructional time at Bios, those relationships in high school provide support for recommendations for life after Bios.

Mastery of concepts is a major change for the school of Adams 50. For me, it has been a way of life for over twenty-five years. With nonuniform mastery and relationships developed with parents and students coupled with our many years of experience making this work, these and other reasons are part of how Bios Christian Academy works to provide an exceptional education for our students.

Activity Based Learning

Reading through last Sunday’s paper I caught an article in which the writer responded to the question of why a certain actor was considered poor at his craft. The writer’s response “do not confuse stardom with knowing how to act.” That is similar to the following saying “do not confuse lecturing with learning.”

The lecture method of instruction is alive and well in our culture. It is used extensively in both public and private education institutions. In Thielens survey of over 800 faculty at 80 institutions, lecturing was more dominant as class sizes became bigger. And in the survey of faculty at 24 institutions, Blacburn, Pellino, Boberg, and O’Connell provide this conclusion “Give faculty almost any kind of a class in any subject, large or small, upper or lower division, and they will lecture.”

Efficiency, versatility, and cost effectiveness are advantages of the lecture mode of delivery. Efficient in that a lecture can be repeated over and over by the instructor. A variety of settings, group size, and subjects make it versatile. Cost effective in that you can teach hundreds, even thousands through one teacher.

Failing seems to be the word most used concerning lectures in studies including these by Turnwald et al, 1993, Hake, 2002, McKeachic, 2002, Ramsden, 2000, and Cantillion, 2003, in their works on education. Their comments about lecturing included points such as: “placing a burden of organizing and synthesizing content solely on the lecturer, not suited for complex, detailed or abstract material, fails to teach students how to solve problems through content applications, lacks student-teacher interaction, restricts teacher’s ability to monitor student’s learning, and does not provide opportunities for students to apply higher levels of learning” to name a few cited by Aldona Augustininiene’ in his paper “Lecturer . . .”

But there is hope. In the abstract to his paper The Preconception-Based Learning Model, author R. Mitchell says “Evidence from many sources shows that the least effective mode for mathematics learning is the one that prevails in most of America’s classrooms: lecturing and listening. To improve mathematical instruction, lecturing should be replaced, or at least supplemented, with an activity-based, exploratory-centered form of instruction.” This is a great segue into how we instruct at Bios Christian Academy.

An activity-based instructional model is used throughout the school from the youngest kindergarten student to the graduating senior in high school. It is a part of our reading, writing, music, science, math, history, and Bible.

Activity-based means many things: student accountability in each subject throughout the day; students actively involved in their learning; student-teacher interactions are greatly increased. Most of all as you can see from above, the emphasis is placed on the student and where they are in the knowledge of the subject.

In contrast to the instructional method of lecturing, in an activity-based approach, students are in constant interaction with their teacher many times throughout their classes. The emphasis is on what the student knows. Where they go and how they get there are partly determined by their present knowledge base. Teachers are able to closely monitor student progress (or lack of) and provide lesson changes accordingly. Different levels of learning are regularly used throughout the day and instructional periods.

Because of our particular approach to activity-based learning, students spend the majority, okay let’s say almost all (80-99%) of their learning time not listening to a lecture, but instead activity learning. This will take many forms including reading, one-on-one teacher discussions, group discussions, individual labs, application problem solving, and long-term projects. All of these are part of the student’s daily schooling.

The teacher’s role changes greatly also in our activity-based instructional model. A reminder that in the lecture approach the emphasis is on the teacher and their knowledge of the present subject. At Bios, the teacher still must possess a vast amount of knowledge in the subject - even more than a lecturer because not only do our teachers have to know that day’s lesson for each student, but how to break it down for them if understanding is difficult for the student, or to expound on student knowledge. The teacher becomes mentor, coach, tutor, trainer, guide, and an educator everyday and week.

Imagine two highways with the same number of cars driving down them, you in the middle car with 50 cars ahead of you and 50 cars behind you. The speed limit is 65 mph. The first highway is comprised of one lane. All 101 cars are moving in the same direction. All drivers want to arrive at their destination. But in front of everybody is a police car and he has set the speed at 40 mph. Imagine the frustration. On this one lane highway nobody can pass the police officer. Everyone must go 40 mph.

Now imagine a second highway with the identical speed limit and number of cars but with two major differences. This is a freeway with seven lanes and the police officer also plays the role of mechanic, direction provider, and encourager to help everyone to their destination.

The one lane highway is the lecture approach. Even though students could learn more material, they cannot because the instructor sets the speed, usually well below what many students could achieve. And when information is provided, there is little opportunity to ask questions about where the students are going and why.

While on the seven lane freeway the picture is very different. The police officer, instead of slowing traffic is providing assistance, instruction, and guidance for the drivers to arrive at their destinations with clear understanding of where, how, and why. The teacher of the activity-based (Bios) classroom performs the same function. No one is held back or made to go faster because of the skills of their fellow classmates. Instead students are individually challenged to move at a pace that is ever changing. When the material is understood well, the pace is quicker and when understanding is lacking, different methods of instruction can be used to bring the student’s progress up to speed.

There is movement on both highways, but the journey on both is quite different.

Our students thrive under the method of activity-based learning because of the daily challenges, accountability, and the intelligent teachers we have been blessed with to instruct in this manner.

Helpful High Schoolers

There are many wonderful occurrences which happen throughout the day at Bios. Some I am told about, some I observe. Things like encouraging statements by the students to each other throughout the day, minor and major academic accomplishments, and then there are events like this.

Three high school girls came up to me with a proposal. They had already discussed the idea with Mrs. Ihms and had garnered her support. Their idea was to meet with three other classmates and mentor/study with them after school with Mrs. Ihms. I said yes to the request.

So, one afternoon last week, the six students worked after school studying for the biology test. Three encouraging and three responding students.

After the test, all three had made marked improvements in their test scores.

What’s the big deal? It was the whole event which was so encouraging to me. The initiative by the three students, the positive response of the mentored students, and the positive results were wonderful. The maturity, forethought, caring, planning, and follow through shows a lot of character. Just another wonderful occurrence at Bios.

Blessings and Thanks

Thank you to all the parents, students, teachers, and friends of the school who through your wonderful salesmanship have helped us grow by almost 300 percent from our opening day student count of 34. We have 98 students registered as of today in our kindergarten to twelfth grades for the 2009-2010 school year. We have room for just eighteen more, so thanks again for your support and for selling the school so well.

Winning or Losing

I had the joy, honor and privilege of coaching both the boys and girls teams for basketball this season. And even though both teams had very dissimilar results, each shared very similar growth.

Both teams began the season with around half the team not knowing the rules of the game, let alone how to dribble, perform a layup, or which basket to shoot at.

In addition, our teams were very young playing in a mostly high school league. Our girls team included five seventh graders, one ninth grader, and two tenth graders. Our boys team was made up of three ninth graders, three eighth graders, and two seventh graders.

From day one, both teams showed an increasing understanding of how to play the game (with only an occasional shot at the wrong basket), running an offense, and supporting each other with defense.

Both finished their last games with compliments from both opposing fans and coaches on their improvements as individual players and as a team.

But the one compliment I heard consistently expressed of both the boys and girls was how they never quit. During close games or games where they were down by 30 at the half (and it went downhill from there) the kids kept playing as if this is what you are supposed to do – play your best as an individual and as a team until the buzzer provides the signal to quit.

One team, the boys, completed the season without a win, finishing the season with a lopsided loss to the eventual tournament champion for the league. Characteristically, the boys played as a team, sometimes catching their opponent flat footed with their consistent effort until the end.

The girls won the championship. Opposing coaches and the other team’s families would say this was not the same team they played even three weeks before. And that statement was partially true. Their skills had grown each game in learning their individual roles on the team and doing it well. What had not changed was their selfless spirit and never-quit attitude.

Winning or losing, both teams made my coaching experience this inaugural season my most enjoyable yet. Thank you to the families for how well you have trained your kids and to God, praise for His blessings.

Education Grant Awarded

Congratulations to our middle school/high school science teacher, Mrs. Ihms (who also is my wife). She was one of eight grant recipients of a Valley Forward Earth Fest Education Grant.

Mrs. Ihms and a group of her high school students spend time twice a month supporting a biologist with the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in observing pollinators (bees and butterflies). The data they collect will be used to educate the community on native plants.

The grant money will be used to assist the young scientists in their observations out in the field.

Valley Forward is celebrating its 40th anniversary and describes itself as a “membership driven civic organization that brings business and community leaders together to convene thoughtful public dialogue on regional issues and to improved the environment and quality of life in Valley communities.”

The Gilbert Riparian Preserve exists to promote natural resources and to focus on important environmental issues in Arizona.

Homeschool Support 09-10

Bios Christian Academy is announcing three different programs to support homeschooling parents in the education of their children. All three programs will begin at the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

A two-day primary class (1st – 3rd grades) will be offered on Mondays and Wednesday. Up to sixteen students will spend a full school day, twice a week, learning in eight subjects: geometry with manipulation, physical education, Lego Dacta (physics), music, composition/grammar, art , Spanish, and Bible.

In addition, a two-day elementary class (4th-6th grades) will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The class of up to sixteen students will learn from subjects which include composition/grammar, hands-on science, Lego Technic (physics), geometry with manipulatives, physical education, music, Spanish, art and Bible.

In both the primary and elementary classes there will be no homework assignments.

A separate program we will also begin in 2009-2010 is Bios Christian Academy High School Homeschool Support. Since this is our first year of implementing this type of program, we will limit the number of high school students who can participate to only six total. We hope to expand this program in the future. In this program, each high school student may take one or two classes two days a week. Each class will be in the morning or afternoon for 2.5 periods each class. Families and students will be able to choose from a list of classes available in math, science, English, history, and Spanish. Any prerequisites needed will be decided by the principal.

Tuition is as follows:
Primary $2,000 per student
Elementary $2,000 per student
High School $1,000 per class

For all students there is a $100 registration fee through the end of February 2009. After February the registration fee becomes $250 for the first student in the family and $100 for each student after that.

It's the Teachers that Make the Difference

In an odd move for such a far left-wing democrat, Political activist Al Sharpton recently wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal supporting the improvement of the education system through increased accountability. According to Mr. Sharpton teachers that perform well should receive pay raises, and against the grain, teachers that perform poorly should be called to task. He also supports increased funding for charter schools.

The education system in America is not working as well as it should be. Although the focus of the article is the disparity between the performance of white students and minority students, and it is quite the gap, the fact remains that most educational programs are failing to educate. In Arizona, one out of every three students doesn’t graduate from high school, this is both according to the US Department of Education and an independent study. For some areas, like Detroit, slightly more than one out of three black students graduate from high school.

Education fails for a number of reasons in the US. But the key to reforming such a broken system, in the eyes of Mr. Sharpton, is hiring and training good teachers. I couldn’t agree more. That’s why, at Bios, we are committed to hiring only excellent teachers, because the teachers make the difference. As our next president has said, “It’s not who their parents are or how much money the have – it’s who their teacher is.”

Lessons on the Basketball Court

The basketball player had just hit the wall behind the basket after a missed layup. Head first into the cement wall, he fell to the floor. The game was stopped, the paramedics arrived quickly, and he was rolled out to the waiting ambulance.

Before the game resumed, both teams met for prayer, then continued to play until the last buzzer sounded the end of the game.

The incident happened recently at one of our boy’s basketball games. The injured player came out okay. But I didn’t. In a good way.

We had been losing badly again, which we should, playing high school teams with our 7th, 8th, and 9th grade boys with little to no basketball experience.

The moment we walked back on the court, the moment the boys of Bios hustled to their defensive positions awaiting the second half onslaught which was heading their way, that moment was as much of a slow motion moment as I have ever experienced. The kind they show in movies to allow you to observe the amazing special effects. But there were no special effects - just life.

The memories of the accident, praying, a few conversations between the opposing teams after the prayer – all rushed at me.

This group of eight boys, young and desirous of winning any game, not once hesitated to do their best or the right thing that night.

I am messing this up already. How do I describe their concern for the fallen foe? Their lack of hesitancy in being outmuscled outplayed and outscored by over forty points. Heads bowed, shoulders rounded under the bright orbs of the lights. Instead of complaints, hope beyond hope, their faces intense as prayer was offered. These thoughts and more flashed in my mind as I watched the second half begin.

Blessed am I to be associated with such a fine and promising team.

Math & Science Emphais at Bios

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article describing the best and worst jobs in the United States as compiled by a study by Les Krantz. In his study, Mr. Krantz used five criteria to establish his results: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress. Of the top ten jobs, seven involved heavy math and/or science. In fact, the top three, mathematician, actuary, and statistician, were solely math based. Among the bottom 10 are lumberjack and taxi driver and other professions that do not require too much in the way of advanced knowledge.

To some, it would appear that Bios places an excessive emphasis on both Math and Science. While it is true these subjects are emphasized heavily at Bios, this is done purposefully. These two subjects will help provide our students with solid foundations to allow them to get good jobs.
The math our students do on a daily basis is amazing. According to Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor of Fortune, the math students do in today’s world is unbelievably advanced. In the 13th century, basic algebra was considered to need 30 to 40 years of study to master. We have students who are as young as eleven starting to learn the concepts thought to be impossible for adults 800 years ago. Have our brains changed or have we become more intelligent? No, it is simply a matter of expectations. We expect more out of our students, and they, not knowing that they shouldn’t be able to do it, learn the information. And they excel at it.

In science, we teach our students at a level surpassed by few entry level college courses. Our anatomy curriculum is better than many taught by colleges to prepare nurses. We teach science with the belief that a greater understanding of God’s complex creation will lead students to better worship the powerful and creative God we serve.

We have amazing students here at Bios and we have excellent teachers who will push them ever farther to learn the skills that will allow them to choose to go into whatever profession they desire. One day they may choose to become a mathematician and they will have a solid foundation to pursue it. And if they want to drive a taxi for a living, then they will be able to impress their passengers with the wealth of knowledge they have accumulated.


Benjamin Ihms

Bible Instruction for High School

As part of our Bible instruction for grades 9, 10, 11, and 12, our students read from various Christian authors so that, as the author of Hebrews says, they “ought to be teachers” instead of “needing [to be taught] the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.”

The books are written by mature, Christian teachers including Piper, MacArthur, Sproul, McDowell, and Friesen. The student reads through a section of each book, answers written questions independently, meets in a small group with fellow students to discuss their answers - settling any disagreements through the Bible, and then the group meets with their instructor for accountability.