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.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
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
“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
Monday, November 16, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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.
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.
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