In the next weeks, I would like to share with you some of the things we are looking forward to as we think about gathering together at our sixth annual Christian Deeper Learning conference in March in Vancouver. Vancouver has long been one of my favorite cities to visit, and I always enjoy returning there. If you haven't been there, I think you would really enjoy it, and our upcoming conference would be a great time to become acquainted with one of the most outstanding cities in North America.
We are blessed to be hosted by Surrey Christian and welcomed to the area by the Society for Christian Schools in British Columbia (known as SCSBC) and two schools that will be hosting pre-conferences, Abbotsford Christian in Abbotsford and White Rock Christian in Surrey. We thank their leaders especially for helping with our planning over the course of this year for this event.
Today I would like to shine a spotlight on our host school and Darryl DeBoer, who is taking the lead for Surrey in helping host CDL6. Many of you know that Darryl wears multiple hats, serving as Director of Learning for Surrey and as Director of TfT - Teaching for Transformation for CACE - the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. Consequently, he is a frequent border crosser as he works with TfT schools throughout the United States. He has a special invitation for you below to learn more about TfT.
An Invitation into Christian Deeper Learning….
Teaching for Transformation is one pathway for schools to engage the aims and practices of Christian Deeper Learning. The Deep Hope of Teaching for Transformation is to invite, nurture and empower students and teachers to play their part in God’s story as they master the content and competencies of the curriculum.
Educators will have opportunities to explore Teaching for Transformation at the upcoming Christian Deeper Learning conference by attending the pre-conference site visit at Surrey Christian School and various workshops that will share aspects of Teaching for Transformation throughout the conference itself.
Whether Teaching for Transformation is completely new to you or you are somewhat familiar with it, there are three upcoming webinars (Nov 30th – Dec 2nd) that both deepen your understanding of Teaching for Transformation and set the stage for you as you prepare for the upcoming Christian Deeper Learning conference.
While each webinar has its own emphasis – elementary, secondary, and leadership – all three will be a time of storytelling as TfT teachers and school leaders share experiences of what Teaching for Transformation looks like in everyday practice and the resulting impact on students, teachers, and Christian School communities.
There is no cost to the webinars, and we invite you to check out the registration details below. If you have any clarifying questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to darryl.deboer@cace.org.
CDL6 Update
Register now! Our registration continues to be very strong, and we are approximately 66% full at this point - we will have a limit of 500 enrollees for this conference to be held at Surrey Christian. If you are planning to attend, it would be good to reserve your seat now. We just posted the conference schedule this past week and will be posting workshops soon. We are excited to have accepted over 50+ high-quality workshop proposals and can't wait to share those with you.
Introducing - The EMT - the Eleven Minute Talk!
The Eleven Minute Talk is not as long as a TED Talk at 18 minutes but longer than a Pecha Kucha at 400 seconds or approximately 7 minutes. This format will give us the opportunity to learn and celebrate great classroom and school stories, as well as learn about various programs, tools, and resources. We already have our speakers lined up for this year, but if you have a great story/resource perhaps we could turn it into a blog post or podcast. If you have ideas/suggestions, please let me know at danbeerens@gmail.com.
We have four great pre-conference opportunities! You will want to come a day early and immerse yourself in learning more about PBL, IB, or TfT. We recently added a fourth pre-conference offering on Spiritual Renewal. This outdoor opportunity will be led by Donovan Graham, Joanna Levy, and Jim Peterson. We just posted the pre-conference descriptions, and you can view more information here.
Partners/Sponsors We have had a great response and have some excellent partners lined up already who will be a key part of CDL6. Please pass this information on if you know someone who might consider partnering to help make CDL6 possible.
Editor's note: 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.