The Dock School Leader Podcast

As a school administrator, what is your role in speaking into your students’ homes? That’s actually a much bigger question than what this talk addresses. Homes matter so much. Perhaps we’re tempted to think we can take any student and transform them through a great school experience, but that only reaches so far. As we consider our influence at school and capacity to establish a particular culture...

“A teacher can never put in a method what he does not have in himself.” -Emerson White This is part 2 of this pair of talks from Jonas Sauder on orienting teachers to their work. Jonas speaks from a deep and passionate vision for education that has sustained and guided him over the past decades. It’s inspiring to hear him cast vision for teaching from a place of fullness and freshness. In the firs...

Preparation is vital to building solid momentum. Our next segment of four episodes will explore two areas that will play a huge role in the building or defeating momentum at your school this year. These two areas are orienting your teaching team and investing in healthy school culture. What do your teachers need to understand and prepare in order to succeed? In both August episodes, Jonas Sauder w...

What sources of motivation power the performance of your roles? Not only is perseverance a challenge, but it has so many imposters. There are so many broken versions of true motivation that offer us a way forward just when we’re in a pinch or when we’re sitting in silence waiting impatiently for some fresh inspiration. It seems that it takes some suffering to strip away our ambition and expose our...

What’s the link between our destination and our way? This is one of those things that is not difficult to comprehend but by all appearances, famously difficult to obey. The way is often not apparent or is offensive to us. Or it may be that the way we have chosen is so precious to us that we have lost both the clarity and the concern about our destination. In any evet, it is improbable that we will...

Why do we exist? For what results are we accountable? Who are we serving–primarily? What are our values? What is our plan? These are five questions that according to Steven Brubaker are essential for every school leader to help his school to answer clearly and to communicate relentlessly to everyone involved with the school. When God has work he wants done, he looks for a person fit for the job. O...

What makes education distinctly Christian? Is this more a question of what it is or what it isn’t? But whatever we make of those questions, how do educators remain passionate about their mundane, sometimes thankless, often discouraging role in carrying this work forward? Anthony Hurst, who has over 25 years of experience in Christian Day Schools and currently works as school representative for Chr...

How do children develop? How do we give them the best chance of healthy development? The fact of the ocean of ink spilled on this question has not lessened the actual wonder of this process or the reality of its mystery.   In a presentation filled with stories and examples, Brandon Mullet explores the basic needs of children. Brandon speaks as an administrator, teacher, and parent.   He discusses...

How are your teachers’ root systems? If you have the opportunity, ask an arborist talk about root systems and about the tree planting and care process. From root hairs to mycorrhizae, it’s a fascinating world. But one that is mostly invisible to us and that tends to fall prey to our drive to control and manipulate what is visible to us. Melvin Lehman employs the metaphor of roots as he reflects on...

Does your school have mission, vision, and values statements? Who knows about them? We’re probably all familiar with these three terms and in this episode, Merle Burkholder offers simple definitions and provides clear examples of each one to refresh our usage. He also suggests a variety of means to communicate these guiding statements so that they can become second nature for you and your people....

How do you know when you have a good year at school? When the people around you talk about having a good year or a bad year, what do they have in mind? As an administrator, it matters that you feel a sense of satisfaction or concern when things are actually going well or going poorly as the case may be. You play a key role in setting the tone for celebrating success and learning from failure. But...

What were we created for and how does that inform our relationships? In this final episode in our segment on relationships, Jeff Swanson describes four fundamentals that become especially potent when relationships turn problematic: Love Listening Structure Direct communication If you know Jeff, you may catch the humor of his title and of his proposition to offer groundbreaking thoughts about relat...

Why have an administrator? What can an administrator do in terms of the relationships around the school? Steve Brubaker makes the case that administrators inhabit and manage the complex meeting place of all the people involved in a school. It’s a position of influence to be used not to lord it over others but to serve them. “Administrators exist to serve the servants,” says Steven. And schools tha...

If parents are responsible to train their children, what are the children doing in schools? Matt Peachy lays out a case for education that places schools squarely in a position of service to the church and to families. He then outlines some of the ways that this shapes a school, particularly in its relationships with parents and the church. Matt teaches at the secondary level and has administrativ...

What’s your greatest advantage as a teacher or leader in a Christian school? Stephen submits that it is the immeasurable gift of most of our children having parents that love them. What are you doing to know and care for those parents and your students, especially the average ones? Stephen Gingerich speaks with year of experience teaching and administrating in a school in Guatemala that serves bot...

Just investing in a culture of growth as Gerald described in the last episode won’t solve all problems. Here he is again with a sequel episode exploring redemptive solutions to difficult people problems. Few people enjoy wading into these situations. Gerald won’t tell you how to begin liking it, but he does outline a number of excellent methods for how to lead responsibly and honorably. This episo...

Schools are places for growth and learning. Growth is essential for teachers. Teachers must be learners. This is not something that school leaders can force, but it very is definitely something that leaders can and should nurture. Gerald Miller, long-time teacher and administrator makes a compelling case for those propositions which will shape how you think about what you look for in a teacher. He...

What does it look like to shepherd your school? This episode presents a passionate challenge by a board member to school leaders and to board members in particular to take full ownership of their responsibility for the people under their care. Ernie Weaver brings school board and business leadership experience to this talk as well as perspective from within the classroom through his own time as a...

Is an incompetent teacher better than not having a one? We are beginning a new segment focused on staff development and care. In this opening episode, Ken Kauffman speaks from his experience as a teacher, principle, and educational representative for Christian Light. He leads the way in thinking about the following three issues: How we prepare new teachers How we identify and nurture the next gene...

Our rationale, resources, and methodology matter. But what about the students who come to us with such deep brokenness and dysfunction that our best efforts to help them go nowhere unless backwards or in circles? The subject of disorders is huge. Here in this bonus episode we’re going to look at just one of them: Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).  Wesley King is a father of a RAD child and has e...

A common theme in academic discussions is the curriculum. For our final episode in this segment on academics, we’re looking at this common theme, but with an important distinction. Gerald Miller, teacher and current administrator at Faith Builders Christian School differentiates between the formal curriculum (what you pay money for every year) and the hidden curriculum, which is everything else. H...

We are continuing our segment of episodes addressing particular subject areas. Building a strong reading program is more than helping students with dyslexia. How well is your school doing overall at shaping your students into adults who love reading, who can do it well, and who can enter deeply into their reading? Drawing inspiration from Nehemiah where the law was rediscovered through distinct re...

Description Singing has been an important part of our Anabaptist heritage. But what are the trends of music literacy and quality in your community? Does your school delight in music making? And what is at stake if music education is off track? Lyle Stutzman approaches this topic with many years of experience in music teaching and directing. He's taught at the elementary, high school, and secondary...

We’re beginning a segment of episodes exploring specific topics in the domain of academics. In today’s episode, history teacher Michael Martin explores the foundations of why we include history in our curriculum. We rely on history, which for Michael includes divine revelation, to answer the following questions:  Who are we?  Where we are going?  What we are doing?  What we could become?  Our hist...

If there is no such thing as a culture-less school, then the question becomes: what is my school’s culture? Is it what you want? And just as importantly, what are you doing to either build it or change it? In this episode, Anthony Hurst brings several decades of experience as a teacher and administrator to the question about how to cultivate the kind of culture that produces the fruit for which we...