Paul Drake

Seeing God’s Glory in Our Students

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After hearing this presentation, a veteran teacher of 30+ years commented that it had a more impact on how she viewed her role as a teacher than anything she had previously heard. This is the power of seeing your students as fellow image bearers – a profound understanding of the opportunities you have on a daily basis, to speak into the lives of your students their unique image bearing. What does it mean to see your students as unique image bearers? How might that understanding change the way you see them, teach them, and inspire them? Through personal story, movie clips, and deep insight, this workshop will move you and transform your teaching.

Peter Baur

Peter Baur has been professionally involved in the field of independent school education for over thirty years. His tenure has been marked by firsthand experience in nearly every aspect of a kindergarten through grade twelve private schools including admission, college guidance, development, community service, capital campaigns, conferences, strategic planning, major events, marketing and public relations, camp director, teaching, and coaching. Peter Baur serves as the Head of School at Faith Christian School and on the Board of SCL.

Paul Drake

Raising Sturdy Kids

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This session will provide valuable insight into current cultural and psychological dynamics that impact our students, their families and our ability to engage them. Where are we now and how did we get here? (From helicopters to snowplow parents) What has the influence of psychological thinking led to with our current view of parenting? How do we recover and then implement principles that will lead to a healthy development of Maturity? 

We will focus primarily on the “current state of affairs” of current families with the realities that most children are more fragile and have great difficulty dealing with normal rigors of life as compared to previous generations, and that most parents operate as if they need permission to effectively parent their children.

Keith McCurdy

Keith has worked with families, children, parents, and individuals for over 30 years in the field of mental health, working with more than 15,000 individuals and families. He received his Master of Arts and Education Specialist degrees from James Madison University. He is currently the President and CEO of Total Life Counseling, Inc., and is licensed in the state of Virginia as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Keith provides counseling and consulting services as well as a variety of workshops on improving parenting skills, building strong marriages, and maintaining healthy relationships. He has developed and regularly offers parenting retreats entitled “Raising Sturdy Kids” to help parents operate from the correct paradigm with their children and has extended and customized this powerful program for schools and students. For many years Keith has been a consultant and speaker nationally to businesses, churches, and schools both within and outside of the world of Classical Education. He previously served as Chairman of the Board at Faith Christian School, a Christian classical school in Roanoke, VA. Keith has been a regular contributor to The Roanoke Star with articles on children, parenting, and marriage. Keith has been featured on the Circe Institute’s podcast “The Commons," "BaseCamp Live," and "Crosspolitic" podcasts respectively.

Paul Drake

Transforming Teaching: Seeing Your Students as Image-Bearers

Posted on by Paul Drake

After hearing this presentation, a veteran teacher of 30+ years commented that it had more impact on how she viewed her role as a teacher than anything she had previously heard. This is the power of seeing your students as fellow image-bearers – a profound understanding of the opportunities you have on a daily basis to speak into the lives of your students. What does that mean? How might that change the way you see them, teach them and inspire them? Through personal stories, movie clips and insight, this workshop will transform your teaching.

 

Peter Baur

Peter Baur has been professionally involved in the field of independent school education for over thirty years. His tenure has been marked by firsthand experience in nearly every aspect of a kindergarten through grade twelve private schools including admission, college guidance, development, community service, capital campaigns, conferences, strategic planning, major events, marketing and public relations, camp director, teaching, and coaching. Peter Baur serves as the Head of School at Faith Christian School and on the Board of SCL.

Paul Drake

Refreshing Your Toolkit: Engaging Your Students Through A Variety of Instructional Strategies

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Academic rigor need not lead to rigor mortis! Are you stuck
in the lecture rut? Could you use a few fresh ideas? Children
– and adults – benefit from a variety of instructional strategies and learning methods. Students can think deeply and stay engaged when they have the opportunity to play with ideas, move to learn and articulate their understanding along the way. is practical workshop will equip you with creative, classical tools to take back to your classroom. Veteran teachers, please join us to share your ideas and refresh your toolkit. New to classical education or new to teaching? Here we go!

Allison Jackson

Allison is honored to be a part of the Regents community as the 7th-Grade Dean and as a logic science teacher. She loves middle school students, is passionate about the wonders of the natural world, and is ever so grateful for the discipleship-centered approach of classical Christian education. As a pre-med major, Allison earned a biology degree and a chemistry minor from the University of North Texas. Since then, she has taught public high school biology, summer science and nature study camps for little ones – and everything in between. Her career highlights include weekly classes for homeschoolers, establishing a school garden and founding a classical Christian private school with several other families. Allison loves the opportunity to integrate subjects as a classical educator. Her teaching at Regents includes time in the school's garden and singing silly science songs with students as o en as possible.

Paul Drake

Inclusion of Students With Disabilities in the Classical and Christian Classroom

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Classical Christian education is the best possible way to nurture the soul. It involves the best methods, materials and message to build the kingdom of God that is intended for the “least of these.” What are we doing to make this blessing available for students with disabilities? Schools are often unsure of how to make it work and are frequently unskilled in how to proceed. This workshop will present a philosophy of inclusion and practical principles for providing student support. Come see how your school can be blessed.

Leslie Collins

Leslie has been working in classical and Christian education since 1995, and has been working with students with disabilities for 30 years. She is passionate about the people of God’s kingdom welcoming others from different abilities and backgrounds. She is currently the Head of School at Covenant Academy in Cypress, Texas, a diverse and welcoming community. Covenant’s vision is for each child to be equipped to achieve his or her fullest potential as he or she embarks on the journey of the liberal arts tradition.

Paul Drake

C. S. Lewis and The Abolition of Man

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C. S. Lewis’ 1944 book The Abolition of Man is widely considered to be a classic work in the history and philosophy of education. The National Review, in fact, chose it as number seven on their “100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century.” In this seminar, we will examine the central themes of this important book
and the key arguments Lewis makes throughout it for absolute values and the training of students’ affections, as well as their intellects. We will work sequentially through each of the three chapters of the book, discussing both the progression of Lewis’ thought and the practical educational implications of his treatment of concepts like “men without chests,” “the Tao” and “the abolition of man.”

David Diener

Dr. David Diener began his post-secondary education at Wheaton College, where he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and ancient languages. After putting his philosophical training to work by building custom cabinets and doing high-end finish carpentry for an Amish company, he moved with his wife to Bogotá, Colombia, where they served as missionaries for three years at a Christian international school. He then attended Indiana University, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy, another master’s degree in history and philosophy of education, and a dual doctorate in philosophy and philosophy of education. He has taught at The Stony Brook School on Long Island, served as Head of Upper Schools at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas, and currently is the Head of School at Grace Academy in Georgetown, Texas. He also teaches philosophy courses at Taylor University, is an Alcuin Fellow and offers consulting services through Classical Academic Press. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and serves as the series editor for Classical Academic Press’ Giants in the History of Education. The Dieners have four wonderful children and are passionate about classical Christian education and the impact it can have on the church, our society and the world.

Paul Drake

Everyday Themes in Literature: Using Narrative to Develop the Whole Person

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Quality literature opens the door for discovery and discussion into developing the whole person. As grammar and logic teachers, we often design novel studies to fulfill curricular goals; this workshop will guide participants to think about designing novel studies that incorporate a holistic, everyday view of persons. Using The Hobbit and To Kill a Mockingbird as anchor texts, participants will examine how themes of hospitality, ritual, work, and play ll the pages of these novels, creating opportunity for growth and reflection in our students as well as in our own lives. In addition, participants will receive practical tools and teaching strategies for their own novel studies.

Alicia Brummeier

Alicia is passionate about middle-school students and teaching them to become be er readers and writers. In addition to teaching, Alicia coaches cross-country and serves as a dorm mom at The Stony Brook School. She was the 2016 recipient of the D. Bruce Lockerbie Faculty Award for Excellence. Prior to coming to Stony Brook, she taught literature and composition for ve years in the grammar school at Live Oak Classical School in Waco. Her rst book, Everywhere God: Exploring the Ordinary Places, was recently published by Kalos Press. She and her husband, Brad, have two young-adult children.

Paul Drake

Students are People Too

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Assuming students are lazy, disinterested, and rebellious are among the easiest assumptions teachers can make. Where we would excuse our own behavior because of a lack of sleep, food, or other comforts, we do not for our students. If the Good Life is to live up to our fullest human potential, how much of that is found in our honoring the Imago Dei in others, in our students? What does it mean to treat students as humans, and don’t we just automatically do that already? In many cases, no. The way we educate can be seen through six dimensions: environment, community, governance, pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Each of these are dimensions in which, seen rightly, can help teachers, administrators, and schools honor the humanity of their leaders, their teachers, their faculty, and, most importantly, their students.

Matt Bianco

Ma Bianco is the Director of The Lost Tools of Writing for the CiRCE Institute, where he also serves as a mentor in the CiRCE apprenticeship program. A homeschooling father of three, he graduated his oldest two sons, the eldest of which is a ending St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. His second child is a ending Belmont Abbey College in Charlo e, NC, and his youngest (and only daughter) is a high school junior. He is married to his altogether lovely, high school sweetheart, Patty. He is the author of Letters to My Sons: A Humane Vision for Human Relationships.

Paul Drake

Character Education: Why it Doesn’t Work (and How It Could)

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As modern American culture has grown more pluralistic, it has a reduced number of common assumptions, commitments, and language. This has led to two important results. The first is the rise of a tacit positivism: the belief that all public claims to knowledge should be empirically, scientifically, or mathematically justified. The second result is a twofold “thinning” of public discourse, which reduces our moral language to that which is completely uncontroversial. This thinning of our public language severs ethical claims from thick ethical traditions and communities that sustain those claims in preference of a positivist ethical logic. These results can be seen throughout American schools, including even classical Christian schools with the best possible intentions. How can we avoid this twofold trap? How can classical Christian schools use their rich intellectual resources to support communities that continually engage in moral formation? This presentation is based on research conducted during the last five years by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.

Al Zambone

Dr. Albert Louis Zambone is Manager of Applied Research at the Advanced Studies in Culture Foundation in Charlo esville, VA. An historian of early American intellectual and religious culture, he and his team work to bring the results of academic research to practitioners in schools, government, and boardrooms.

Paul Drake

Tuning Hearts to Learn

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Instead of merely controlling students, can we empower and equip them to take more ownership of their learning process? How do we cultivate joyful, curious learners as we strengthen their abilities to develop self-control? How do we cultivate habits that will lead to a love for learning? In short, how do we tune their hearts to learn, not for a class period, but for life? This workshop will share strategies that have been successful and offer an opportunity for attendees to share ideas as well.

Leslie Collins

Leslie has been involved in classical education for 20 years. When Rockbridge Academy started in 1995, she served as the Headmistress and continued to serve in many roles as her family grew. She also worked for Trinity Christian School in Hawai‘i as they made the transition to a classical curriculum. She is currently the Head of School at Covenant Academy in Cypress, TX. Leslie’s passion lies in researching how Biblical truth has been passed down through the ages to children and how children can apply this to their own lives today. Leslie holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling from The Master’s University.