Need: A way for my school and teachers to use one tool to manage curriculum, standards, unit planning, resources, student assignments, grading, and communicating with parents. Suggestion: We have two products - CT (CurriculumTrak) and CT Next to meet your needs. |
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CT (Curriculum Trak) is our mapping software used by more Christian schools than any other around the world. In our unit planning/lesson planning tool we have over 1000 sets of standards, 20 areas of Faith-Learning Integration (FLI), a sharing network of schools (95% of our schools are faith-based) for learning, unit development, curriculum review and public access sharing. CT Next is our brand new product that combines curriculum planning/standards alignment with a robust LMS. This tool manages calendars, unit plans, assessments, grading, portfolios, project based learning, service learning, attendance and report card generation. It is built on the Managebac platform, used by over 3000 IB schools globally. If you are a CT school that needs this extra functionality, we are currently offering a client discount and will help you migrate your data to CT Next.
Unsure of which might be best for your situation? Check out our features chart or sign up for a demo here. Disclosure: My wife Sheryl and I are sales reps for CT and now CT Next.
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Need: A way to see if my school is meeting our mission in the areas of faith nurture and formation. Suggestion: The new Practicing Faith Survey (PFS) will be available via CACE (The Center for the Advancement of Christian Education) in the fall. Dr. David Smith, Director of the Kuyers Institute and Dr. Beth Green, former Cardus Education Program Director, have led the project team and Dr. Albert Cheng assistant professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and Senior Cardus Fellow has led the research effort in the formation of the survey. This survey will be available online and will help students explore how daily learning practices relate to their faith formation. The survey will also help school leaders determine what practices need to be focused on with students and will be reasonably priced. More details will be coming out this fall. Disclosure: I have been involved with the PFS team over the two years and will assist with this project as a CACE Fellow. |
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Need: Engaging stories for my teachers to use that help to develop higher level thinking skills, research, and writing.
Suggestion: AwesomeStories is a collection of over 5,300 robust, original stories based on primary sources and presented in various media formats: written, dramatized narrations, videos, audio recordings, images, maps, manuscripts, documents, first‐draft versions of famous speeches (and more).
All are evidenced‐based and linked to 100,000+ primary sources resulting from hand‐curated searches of the world’s most‐reliable online archives. When a story is selected by a student, they’ll have an array of supporting resources at their fingertips, authored content introducing the story, and supporting facts and data from which to do deep-dive research.
There is no charge to sample, use, and get fully acquainted with this exciting resource base from now till January 1, 2021! Individual subscriptions and school memberships will be available after the free period ends. Disclosure: I am a marketing/consulting partner helping Awesome Stories gain greater market exposure.
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Need: High quality PD offerings for my staff next year with a limited budget impact. Suggestion: The fourth annual Christian Deeper Learning conference will be offered in late February. We will be moving to a low cost, flexible online format this year and offering packages and modules that can be used interactively with your whole staff on your timetable! This conference has grown in popularity, attracting an international audience of educators seeking to improve their pedagogy, engage students deeply and learn best practices from other Christian educators interested in Deeper Learning. You can read about last year’s conference held in Denver, Colorado here. Disclosure: I am a co-chair and organizer of this conference. |
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Need: A way to get my leadership team or faculty to better understand their own strengths and appreciate the strengths of others on our team. Suggestion: Many Christian school leadership teams and faculties have experienced how a 1/2 day or whole day session exploring CoreClarity can make a big difference with their team dynamics and employee satisfaction. |
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This training can be delivered in an online format, saving time and travel costs. Disclosure: I am a CoreClarity facilitator, working with teams and individuals. |
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“Thank you so much for again for working with our staff on CoreClarity! It has been a pleasure to see how our team fits together and to understand the ways our strengths belong in community together. I am so grateful for all the ways you support this mission!" Sincerely, Elizabeth Dombrowski, Executive Director |
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Amazing friends doing amazing things! |
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Rex Miller - as a result of Rex’s most MindShift effort looking at teacher wellness, he and his collaborators published Whole: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive. It is perhaps the first, and certainly the most recent, book looking comprehensively at teacher stress and wellness and the impact on teaching and learning. Compelling stat: 70% of K-12 teachers work under chronic stress. What could be done to help produce “happier, healthier, and more successful education” and what might the roadmaps look like? A great faculty study/discussion book for this time of high stress. |
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David Smith recently published Digital Life Together: The Challenge of Technology for Christian Schools along with three other collaborators, Kara Sevensma, Marjorie Terpstra, and Steve McMullen. The book reports on a three year study of the impact of technology in Christian schools and specifically on faith, learning and teaching. An important contribution to the Christian education world and another great staff development resource for Christian educators and parents. |
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My retired friend, former head of school and CSI consultant, Barry Koops has put together a wonderful collection of poems entitled Final Exam: Poems About Teachers and Their Students. In this four section anthology of 85 selected poems, Barry honors all those who chose teaching as a profession. This polished, beautiful book would make a great gift! |
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Sometimes moving overseas to become a teacher in a Christian school can be full of challenges. Greg Baker has taught in four countries in his 26 year career and shares practical tips and suggestions to make the transition easier in his new book, The Art of Living and Teaching Overseas: A Handbook for the Christian Schoolteacher. As a former curriculum director (as was Greg), I appreciate that he makes a case for a written curriculum in the appendix! |
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Erik Ellefsen combines his gifts of connecting well with people and of asking interesting questions via his podcast Digical Education. Erik has recorded 115 episodes over the past few years. He recently did a series of interviews around the themes "What's Next" and "Get Ready" as educators prepare for the new year ahead. His latest series challenges educators to "Stop 1 Thing" - using selective abandonment in order to improve. His podcast can also be found now on the CACE website. |
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Introducing Nathan Siebenga and Blue Sky Leadership Consulting! I would like to introduce you to my friend Nathan Siebenga. Nathan is an exceptional leader - I saw him bring and sustain meaningful change in his role as a school leader over a period of years. Over the past 15 plus years, I have had many substantive conversations with him and we have worked together in a variety of ways to promote Christian Deeper Learning. I am excited that he is going into consulting so that he can share his bold, innovative, out of the box thinking and coach and inspire other leaders. When I asked about his decision to go into consulting, Nathan shared the following with me: "Consulting has allowed me to serve in ways that I wasn't able to when I was the Principal of a school. Showing up and helping other leaders do their job has been one of the most rewarding vocational experiences I have had in recent years. Listening, supporting and encouraging leaders takes an attentiveness that feels more like an art form than a science." |
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Blue Sky provides leadership services across all sectors, but has a heart for Christian education. Specifically, we hope to grow Christian school leaders and help them grow their schools. With this in mind, we develop assets and partnerships that will benefit Christian school leaders around the world and grow their schools, no matter the circumstance. One of the ways we grow schools is through increased enrollment. Blue Sky has partnered with ReDirections to offer Nova Recruit K12. Nova Recruit K12 is a lead-generation software system and database that will help schools increase their leads and understand their wider markets by using big data to solve the schools recruitment needs. |
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No travel scheduled - but have Zoom, will travel! My travel the past few months has been, like so many of you, mainly to my mailbox and my back yard! As you can see from the picture of my car, I didn't even drive enough recently to prevent spider webs from forming. I am not sure when I will venture out to travel again, but as we all have discovered much can be accomplished with the gifts of technology we have available. Please feel free to contact me as needed. Email: danbeerens@gmail.com Phone: 616.826.0536 Twitter: @DanBeerens |
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These times test our faith in many ways. And yet I am encouraged by so many examples of faith, faithfulness, and commitment to the beautiful work of Christian education. I promise to pray for you, come alongside you, and work with you to advance the Christ story and his Kingdom. Blessings on your rest and work this summer and into the fall! Dan |
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