CDL Digest - 12.16.22

Pre-conference Option #4

This week, we will take a closer look at the fourth pre-conference opportunity at CDL6 - our all-day Spiritual Renewal retreat. I want to share how this opportunity came together and why we offer this pre-conference.

At our past conferences, we have offered the opportunity of a designated space for reflection and worship - a sacred space or a space set aside. Joanna Levy has been instrumental in setting up these spaces and believes they are "one of the most transformative experiences we can provide for our students." Her work reminds me of a spiritual renewal week I experienced in high school - our stage area was set up as a space for prayer and reflection and was a central part of the spiritual revival that swept through our student body. When we create space for the Holy Spirit, we expect amazing things to happen.

While conversing with Donovan Graham, former professor and chaplain at Covenant College, and author of the well-known book on Christian education, Teaching Redemptively: Bringing Grace and Truth Into Your Classroom, I learned that he is now running The Center for Teacher Renewal. The Center's stated mission is "to refresh the souls of weary educators and to help them revitalize their classrooms." Individual and group retreats are offered, as well as professional development at the school level. Donovan shared the need for spiritual renewal this past week in his Monday blog post Creating Space for God.

During an early fall coffee with my friend Jim Peterson we were reflecting on the pandemic and his experience as a Head of School during this trying time. Jim was especially concerned about the emotional and spiritual toll that he saw on staff and students. He believes that these issues are some of the most critical ones facing Christian educators in the next five years.

As we thought of what you might need at CDL6, we felt that bringing the three friends described above to bring a day of spiritual renewal might be helpful to you, and that is why we are offering the pre-conference Spiritual Renewal day. Vancouver has many beautiful outdoor spaces, and we hope to utilize one nearby Surrey Christian for the day-long workshop. We invite you to consider this great opportunity and to come a day early to do some soul care.

Upcoming Items of Interest

Deeper Learning Courses at ICS - Starting in January

Attention CDL educators! ICS (Institute for Christian Studies) will offer a course taught by Dr. Edith VanderBoom called Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practice. It is a course that seeks to help Christian educators develop deeper learning. Students will consider what it means to be image-bearers of God called to care for our neighbors and engage in real work that is part of God’s story. Our consideration of these ideas will inform classroom practices and signature pedagogies in apparent, unintended, and even transformative ways. The course leads to a graduate-level credit, costing $1,525 CAD. For further information about registering for a course, one can contact the ICS Academic Registrar, Elizabet Aras, at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu.

CDL Summer Institute

Steven and Joanna Levy invite you to consider attending or sending a team to the 7th annual Deeper Learning in Christian Schools Institute to be held June 25-30, 2023. Keep your eye on this website for more information about registering. Below are comments from Summer 2022 attendees to the question, “Is there anything unique about this institute?” Everything was unique! The reliance on God, the experience, the culture, and community that was created. This experience was the best professional development I have ever had. I wish my entire school could participate in this. The week was actually a 'whole' lesson/experience from integrating educational elements and spiritual elements/practices to using them practically "in the real world." The intentionality with which community is developed and Jesus remains the center of EVERYTHING we do! I also loved the intimacy of this learning and growing experience because of the number of attendees. The thoughtful fieldwork was a kiss directly from Heaven! The Holy Spirit led every aspect. Jesus was magnified in every aspect.

Website addition

You can now access upcoming events, webinars, resources, etc. in our new Network Events section of the website. Both of the announcements above can also be found there. We invite submissions from the CDL community that may be beneficial and of interest to CDL educators.

No Digest next week or the following due to the Christmas holidays - see you in January! Have a blessed Christmas!

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CDL6 Update

It has been another strong week of registration for the conference! We are now at 355 attendees for the conference and 87 for the pre-conference days. If you have not registered, we urge you to do so - don't miss out! Register here.

We are really excited about and blessed by the partners who will be joining us at our conference! All will be sharing information at their tables, and some will be doing workshops and EMT's (Eleven Minute Talks). We seek partners who understand and get behind the mission of CDL and who have genuinely helpful ways to support your work. Here are a few of our partners - we will highlight more each week. Click on each logo for more information.

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Editor's note about the Digest: We hope to share with you each week articles of interest that you may have missed. This will include current information as well as previous blog posts from CDL that perhaps you didn’t have time to read the first time around. If you have items you think may be of interest, please feel free to get in touch with me at danbeerens@gmail.com.