Alta Vista - For Christian Educators, Alta, Vista, Teachers, and Parents

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Four Days after leaving home and seven flights later...

Christian Education in Haiti: Hope in the Midst of Despair

Christian education is alive and well in Central America and the Caribbean

Courses

Providing for Student Diversity in the Classroom (EDUC 548- 3 sem. hrs.)

Elaine Brouwer will be coordinating this course for Trinity Western University in Langley, BC Canada. The course will help teachers meet the needs of diverse learners in their classroom: strategies for exceptional students and ones with diverse cultural backgrounds, and implementing differentiated learning. Instructors: Elaine Brouwer, Dr. Ken Pudlas, and Dr. Carolyn Kristjanson. Dates and time: June 29-July 10; 8:30-1:00 daily. For more information, contact Jonathan Barkowsky at Trinity Western's Global Learning Connections (barkowsk@twu.ca; 604-513-2067 or 1-866-614-4652).

ELDI Pacific

Tim Krell will be one of the facilitators for Christian Schools International's ELDI Pacific (Educators Leadership Development Institute) at Cedar Springs, Sumas, WA, July 6-10. Web Site: ELDI

EDUC 540: Christian Approaches to Teaching and Pedagogy (3 sem. hrs.)

Elaine Brouwer will be teaching this course for Trinity Western University on site at Cedars Christian School in Prince George, BC Canada. The course examins a biblical understanding of teaching and pedagogy; explores the relationship between teaching and a teacher's personal, professional and spiritual growth; considers theories of instruction and distinctly Christian approaches to instruction. Dates and time: August 20-22 & 24-28; 8:30 -2:00 daily. For more information, contact Jonathan Barkowsky at Trinity Western's Global Learning Connections; e-mail: barkowsk@twu.ca phone: 604-513-2067 or 1-866-614-4652.

Blogs

Tim Krell invites you to join him on a trip to Africa. Between February 12 and March 9, 2009. Tim will travel to the village of Yabus in eastern Sudan where he will assist a friend who has just helped start a secondary school.
Click Here to see his blog.

Alta Vista is an educational service organization, based in Seattle, Washington, USA, that serves Christian education, locally, regionally, and globally. Our primary concern is to partner with schools, educational leaders, and teachers to help young people become faithful, visionary, competent, and compassionate disciples of Jesus.

International

Alta Vista is interested in teaming with organizations doing work in the two-thirds world. Our immediate focus is with neighbors to the south: Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica to name a few. In September 2008, Elaine Brouwer conducted an assessment workshop for ILMES teacher education program (Instituto Libre de Mexico de Estudios Superiores) at Pan de Vida in Queretaro, Mexico.

Tim Krell visited Africa between February 12 and March 9, 2009 to assist a friend who just started a secondary school. You can read about his experience on his blog, timkrellafrica.blogspot.com and in his article in the Journal.

John Van Dyk attended a REEDUCA meeting (a consortium of educational association in Central America and the Caribbean) at the Nehemiah Center, in Managua, Nicaragua in March 2009. Read his report in the Journal.

Elaine and Tim recently met with World Wide Christian Schools Canada to discuss potential partnerships in teacher training for Christian schools in the two-thirds world.

Collaboration

Elaine Brouwer and Tim Krell continue to collaborate with colleagues from British Columbia to create a workshop for next year's CTABC/NWCSI teacher's convention in October. The title of the session is "Spaces Where Learners Flourish". Partners are Bill de Jager and Joanne den Boer from the SCSBC office and Jeff Kiers from Abbotsford Christian.

12 Affirmations

Alta Vista is participating in the 12 Affirmations Revision Project: re-thinking, re-writing, re-forming for the next generation. Alta Vista gathered a group of 10 educators to re-spond to a series of questions proposed by Steve Vryhof regarding 12 Affirmations: Re-formed Christian Schooling for the 21st Century by Vryhof, Brouwer, Ulstein, and Van-derArk, 1989. The input gathered will contribute to decisions about republishing or revising this resource.