Published

Collin Fletcher, a Bios student completing his senior year, was published in Techblock. Techblock is a website which "carries select tech-related content that's produced in-house or hand-picked from user submissions that meet ( their ) criteria. One of the goals of the site is to  "encourage little-known content creators to publish ... and boost their profiles."

So if you have a chance, drop-in at Techblock and read Collin's excellent article on Dropbox. It is well organized, includes quotes from outside sources, presents his informed opinion, and the article is well organized.

This article was a part of the many writing assignments Collin works on for his Applications class. Applications is an elective class available for Bios seniors. This year, Collin was one of two students accepted into the Applications class. The other accepted student is working on submitting a film he is writing, directing, and filming for a film festival this spring. The class does not have a set time or structure. Instead, each student meets with an adviser assigned to them on a weekly basis to discuss goals, work from the previous week, and problem solving the obstacles being encountered.

 Each student in the program had to present their business or class plan to get into the class. Both of the students had to revise their submittals more than once before being accepted. Some student plans were not accepted at all and they did not get in the class.

Next year, Applications will be expanded to include an entrepreneurial option. Students can submit a business plan, which if accepted, can be supported with up to $100 seed money from Bios.

Introduction to Bios 2013

Hi! I am Tim Ihms, the principal of Bios Christian Academy. We are a K -12 school located southeast of Phoenix, Arizona in the beautiful suburb of Gilbert. Bios has existed for five years. There are currently 214 students being educated in our school. Twelve will be graduating this year. Our plans are to grow to 450 students, give or take.

A unique educational and learning environment is what we strive for on purpose. We are a group of committed Christians, bent on serving our community through supporting the parents in the training of their children with a focus on their education.

That education is differentiated for all students, all subjects, all day. Imagine a home school with rooms filled with ten to sixteen students, usually a mix of three grades, all progressing through individual goals. Those goals are determined by their teachers on a daily basis. If you were to observe a class in action, all students would be on task either working on mastery of their skills, conferring with their teacher one-on-one for instruction, correction, or confirmation, or reviewing their work before presenting it to their teacher. It is a joy to watch. I usually bring visitors to observe the high school students first, even the kindergarten families, so they can see the work habits and academic skills that all of our students are working towards.

My staff is amazing. Over half have worked with me for ten to twenty-one years. The others are new to us because of student growth. For all of the teachers, the day is intense. Math is a good example. Teachers have twelve to sixteen students in each class. During that time set aside for math instruction, teachers will be instructing the many individual goals in math books where their students are on one of any two hundred pages. There is more. In the three grades inhabiting their rooms at a time, the books taught could range over five grades or more. One teacher last year in high school taught from fourth grade material for one student to material up to calculus for the other students. This is all organized in a school wide check sheet system.

Relationships are important to the success of our educational model. Teachers and staff are hired for evidence of a mature Christian faith, teaching of subject skills, a strong work ethic, strong community presence, and the ability to interact with adults. This person who spends up to seven hours a day with your child must also want to get to know you, the parent. Better decisions are made daily because our teachers know our parents. Students have the same teacher for three years in primary (1-3) and elementary (4-6) and up to three years in 7^th-12^th . The problem we have with this system is that parents and students often do not want to separate after their time together. They do, but with tears sometimes.

And it works. Just think about it for a moment. We have an instructional environment which includes small classes, mature Christians, individualized instruction, and last but not least, a very coordinated kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum. What is taught in kindergarten is there to prepare them for their work in twelfth grade.  In our instructional model, there is no lecturing to the lower/middle skilled students where some students are bored because they already understand the material or some students are perpetually lost because they never understood yesterday's material, let alone last week’s. Students at Bios learn through individual instruction and daily goals.

Our ACT and SAT scores are significantly above state and national norms. Those scores are on our website. On the state AIMS test, over sixty percent of our students exceed expectations in all of the three subject areas. All but two of our graduates have gone onto college, and one of the two plans this semester to attend college. Over seventy percent of our college bound graduates have over 80% of their tuition covered through scholarships.

There is not a separate curriculum for different students. All are expected to master the very challenging material. Teachers are allowed no excuses for students not meeting or working towards mastery. Teacher performance matters here. All teachers are held accountable by myself, the principal, as well as from an intimate and very real accountability to the teacher's colleagues.

Communication is maintained with parents through daily notebooks called planners. This notebook communicates each student’s daily behaviors and academics performed. This system rests on the idea that if a student is behind, it is not because they are not smart enough or good at school, but because he is not working hard enough and we have a solution for it.

All outside activities in our school have to take into consideration our commitment to Christ. Music, sports, drama, and student activities must reflect that commitment. But it is more than that. Everyone looks to reward hard work, praise those students who take on challenges, and encourage those who seek to serve their fellow students and community.

Music and the arts are an integral part of the school. We have invested over $84,000 in purchasing quality string instruments for our music program. Strings are required in first through sixth grades. For 7^th-12^th, choir, strings and guitar are electives.  Graphic art is taught in first through sixth grades and in high school for one year. Drama is an elective in high school.

Sports are also an important aspect of the school. High school boys have cross country, soccer, two basketball teams, golf, and track and field. The high girls have volleyball, cross country, basketball, soccer, and track and field. Junior high: boys - cross country, flag football, basketball, and track and field; girls - volleyball, cross country, basketball, track and field. Elementary boys and girls fifth and sixth grade participate in cross country, elementary boys basketball and elementary girls volleyball. We strive to build winning programs. The high school girls have won two championships in basketball and played in four finals games. The girls soccer team has played in two championships and won both. The boys in high school won their first championship this winter in basketball. (update:  the golf team won the championship after this blog was published)

There is much more about our very blessed school. Please come visit us if you are interested in our school.

Tim Ihms

Principal