The Dock School Leader Podcast

The Dock for Learning
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  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Talks to inspire and equip Anabaptist school leaders.

  1. MAR 17

    Becoming a Storytelling Teacher (Steven Brubaker)

    Description Drop us a question for the special, upcoming Q & R episode with Gerald Miller. What does it take to cultivate love in our students? As teachers, we don’t just want to transfer important information to our students. We want to change their lives. We want them to love God with their heart, soul, mind, and strength. In Steven’s words, “Stories are one of the most powerful tools available to us as teachers for shaping loves.” If you want to shape your students’ loves, carefully choose your stories. Steven Brubaker is the administrator of Faith Builders Educational Programs. He began his work in education as a principal and teacher in a grade school. In this talk, Steven implies that, in fact, there’s no avoiding the reality that you will shape the loves of your students by the story of your life and the stories that leak out of you or that you reference or approve. As you evaluate the loves of your students ask yourself how you’ve contributed to those loves, good and bad, by the stories that you’ve given to them. You are in a position to bend the desires of your students. Stories wield powerful influence in shaping and nurturing the hearts of your students. Steven addresses numerous practical questions related to infusing your teaching with stories. How do you use stories across the disciplines How can you become a collector of stories? Where do you find stories? How do you use the stories that you’ve collected?   Included in Steven’s advice are systems for recording, organizing, and retrieving stories and tips for collecting stories through book sales, your personal experience, your reading, and our history.   Book titles referenced in the talk: The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal The Rest of the Story by Paul Harvey, Jr. Let Me Tell You a Story, by Tony Campolo Two Brothers One Mission by Mary Fretz Chariots in the Smoke by Margaret Epp Coals of Fire by Elizabeth Bauman They Loved Their Enemies by Marian Hostetler Annie Funk by Sharon Yoder Small Man of Nanataki by Liam Nolan Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, David Hazard The Brigade by Howard Blum The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare Dragon’s Gate by Laurence Yep To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Les Miserable by Victor Hugo God Spoke Tibetan by Allan Maberly Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop, Janet Joly Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles Faith the Cow by Susan Bame Hoover   Links This talk was first published as “Practices That Nurture God Love” https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/practices-that-nurture-god-love-steven-brubaker/ Other recordings from Teacher’s Week 2013: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/series/teachers'-week-2013 Questions for the Q & R episode:https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/KQnYsYgPAq Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn library.upenn.edu CAM Books Christian Light

    47 min

  2. MAR 16

    [Updated Audio] Effective Student Discipline (Glendon Strickler)

    Drop us a question for the special, upcoming Q & R episode with Gerald Miller. As principals and administrators, it’s your responsibility to guide your teachers in effectively disciplining students and to get involved in handling the toughest cases. Many of you also teach and are on the first line of discipline yourselves. In this episode with Glendon Strickler, you will hear an overview of how to discipline students that will enable you to better equip your teachers as well as grow in your own approach to discipline. Glendon’s ideas have been formed through his experience of some very challenging teaching assignments and through his experience as a principal. He backs up his points with numerous stories from those experiences. Throughout the talk you’ll hear him unpack lessons he’s learned such as: effective discipline takes time, why students misbehave, approaching discipline through a student’s perspective, building a strong defense, and more. There are three main sections in the talk. Basic discipline techniques (6:25) The steps in a discipline session (28:00) Techniques to avoid (41:15)   Links This talk was first published as “Modeling and Teaching the Anabaptist Christian Faith in a Practical Way Through Discipline” on The Dock: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/modeling-and-teaching-the-anabaptist-christian-faith-in-a-practical-way-through-discipline Other recordings from Teacher’s Week 2010: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/series/faith-builders-teacher's-week-2010 Questions for the Q & R episode: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/KQnYsYgPAq Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

    49 min

  3. FEB 24

    Great Opportunities (Stephen Gingerich)

    Drop us a question for the special, upcoming Q & R episode with Gerald Miller. Sometimes problems come to us disguised as great opportunities. This episode with Stephen Gingerich addresses the challenge of working with high needs students. We’re not exploring specific learning disabilities here. That is sometimes part of the picture and deserves attention. This is more general and establishes a baseline for how we engage a high needs student. Drawing on his years of experience in education, much of it gained through his work in Guatemala, Stephen develops his approach around the three great virtues: faith, hope, and love. He reminds us that our goal is to prepare children for life. And for that they need well-formed skills but they need well-formed character more. And this character they absorb from their role models. This means they will take a part of us with them through their life. Stephen’s talk is generously sprinkled with stories of what relating to needy students looks like.   Links This episode was first published as "Working with High Needs Students" on The Dock: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/working-with-high-needs-students-(stephan-gingerich)  Questions for the Q & R episode: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/KQnYsYgPAq Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn [book] The Five Love Languages: https://a.co/d/03ROxKG0

    40 min

  4. FEB 3

    How to Build Rapport and Why It Matters (Glendon Strickler)

    Drop us a question for our special, upcoming Q & R   We have different strengths and emphases as educators but probably none of us would deny the critical importance of having strong relationships with our students. Glendon Strickler brings a wealth of experience to this topic and conveys the mindset, some of the methods, and a illuminating stories of how he approaches student relationships. Glendon has taught and administrated at several schools including Ephrata Mennonite School and Faith Builders Christian School. A key word here is rapport. Building a positive rapport is one of the most important things a teacher can do. Glendon argues that it looks like putting excellence and competence over likableness, leveraging the fact that students unconsciously imitate people that they like, ensure safety for all students, and patiently angling for loving influence. How do you earn rapport? Breaking the ice, wielding the rubber sword of humor, opening the door to connecting with students—hear Glendon reflect on how these and more have enabled powerful relationships with students. Glendon also works to develop our understanding our generation of students by considering the impact of individualism, the generation of “me,” the priority of feelings over truth. He reminds us that: “Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.” But Glendon argues that in this climate Jesus doesn’t need to be modernized. Instead, what modern people need is spiritual mentors that bring Jesus to life. Living, breathing examples that put flesh on cold concepts and life into ideas. There’s no replacement for experience, making a bunch of mistakes, and humbly learning from them. Next time you bump into a teacher you admire, ask them how they connect with student or how they wield humor in their teaching. Bring this up with your staff. Talk about mistakes you’ve made. Think together about how to build rapport. Keep listening for a bit of bonus content on a few more tools in Glendon’s toolbox.   Links Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn [book] The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell: https://a.co/d/bdYEiZe [book] Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer with Todd Hillard: https://a.co/d/2BDJwgs Airzooka: https://www.flinnsci.com/airzooka/ap6657/#variantDetails

    50 min

  5. JAN 22

    What Are You Showing Them? (Stephen Gingerich)

    You can say it in different ways, but a Christian school isn’t worth the time and effort it takes unless it’s helping form disciples of Jesus. That doesn’t mean you’re practicing child evangelism or replacing the essential work of the church. It does mean that we are partnering with our churches and families and that we as school leaders and teachers are fully devoted to following Jesus ourselves. Like Stephen says, we should think of ourselves as wearing signs that say, “Follow me.” This is a call to evaluate and refocus our personal vision and witness in our relationships around schools that most definitely shape our teaching and our students.   Stephan Gingerich has been on this show before and brings a range of experience in teaching and school leadership, some of which he gained while growing up and teaching in Central America. He brings refreshing perspective and challenges us in this talk to be concerned with what’s beyond our school fences.   Stephen invites us to ponder with him. Great opportunities are often disguised as problems. Perhaps we witness the most when we don’t know that people are watching us. How can our schools bring light to the world? What does the Sermon on the Mount have to say about Christ-like community relations? What are practical ways you can connect with your community?   Links Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

    48 min

  6. JAN 8

    Is Your School Swimming or Floating? (Steven Brubaker)

    “Genuinely Christian schools will not always fit what everyone else is doing in education. We need to give ourselves permission to go against the flow.” But it’s not sufficient to seek difficulty and resistance. We need a goal. A mission. A burning love. A beautiful vision. As Steven emphasizes in today’s episode, “Nonconformity is not enough. We need something to be conformed to. And for us, that something is a Someone.”   Educational orthodoxy. What is it and how does it impact us? You’ll hear about this in today’s episode, but basically, it’s the body of assumptions and principles that unify the majority of educational efforts around us. This orthodoxy shapes the way we describe a well-trained person and the educational experiences we dream of offering. Steven Brubaker, speaking from a long history in teaching and school leadership submits that the educational orthodoxy in north America is inadequate as a source of guidance for our schools and maybe even dangerously misguided. But we will need a solid basis for doing something different, for swimming against the current. “Every nonconformity is a conformity to something,” Steven reminds us. Every resistance is a defense of something. What’s worth defending? Worth conforming to? Drawing penetrating insights from the analogy of salmon, Steven lays out a challenge for Christian schools to identify and relentlessly pursue a worthy homing instinct.   What is a compelling and worthy final end for Christian education? The end beyond which we stop looking for some further fulfillment? Schools conformed to Jesus. How could you and your staff make a practice of asking and seeking, “Jesus, how do I teach in my school?” And what would your school look like if you then boldly followed his leadership?     Links Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

    38 min

  7. 2025-12-23

    Stories with Jonas and Ken (Jonas Sauder and Ken Kauffman)

    It’s Christmas season and here on the Dock School Leader Podcast we’re running a special episode featuring a collection of stories chosen and read by two experienced educators that have appeared before on this show—Jonas Sauder and Ken Kauffman. Their selections range from fables to short stories to poems and all convey a timeless truth through the penetrating power of story. Take a break from the heavier content and enjoy these selections with us. What we read often sticks with us at a subconscious level. Stories have the power to embed their message deep within us. They shape our worldview and affect our actions even after we’ve forgotten the details. See below for the titles of the selections and the timestamps for each one. Perhaps you’ll find something here for an upcoming devotional or a story time with family over the holidays. [2:30] Wellspring of Wisdom – read by Jonas Sauder The free lunch The magic sticks Practical sympathy Community   [7:45] The King and the Seeds – read by Ken Kauffman [16:30] George Washington Carver – read by Jonas Sauder Selection from a biography Testimony in Congress   [25:00] Dear Mrs. O’Neil – read by Ken Kauffman [34:20] The Blind Man and the Elephant – read by Jonas Sauder [37:30] The Church Walking With the World – read by Ken Kauffman   Links Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/ 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

    51 min

  8. 2025-12-09

    Why Teach Math?

    Why teach Math? John Swartz is ambitious here. Hear him connect the question of why he teaches math with the question of why he exists along with stories of Almanzo Wilder and his own experience. He brings teaching experience as well as specific training in mathematics. He’s worked in curriculum at Christian Light and also served as a minister for many years. In this episode, John quotes Larry Zimmerman who states that, “Christian teachers motivate their students to learn mathematics in two ways: first mathematics exhibits the glory of God, second mathematics equips students to care for the creation.” This comes from Zimmerman’s book, Truth and the Transcendent. John recognizes the utilitarian value of mathematics but is most interested in exploring the proposal  that, “Math is the language of the universe,” and that it is not a neutral subject. This talk provides a thought-provoking investigation of an underexamined subject that occupies quite a bit of space in all of our schools.   Links More recordings from CASBI 2013: https://thedockforlearning.org/series/casbi/casbi-2013/ This recording was first published as “Why Teach Math?” on The Dock: https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/why-teach-math/ More information about Conservative Anabaptist School Board Institute: https://casbi.info/ Books When Are We Ever Going to Have to Use This? By Hal Saunders and Jill Marino: https://a.co/d/cBKrSfT Mathematics is God Silent? by J. Sire: https://a.co/d/56q16kb Truth and the Transcendent by Larry Zimmerman: https://answersingenesis.org/answers/books/truth-transcendent/ Math Wonders to Inspire Teachers and Students by Alfred Posamentier: https://a.co/d/9v4c442 Fascinating Fibonaccis: Mystery and Magic in Numbers by Trudi H. Garland: https://a.co/d/c30zp0n

    27 min
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About

Talks to inspire and equip Anabaptist school leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    The Dock for Learning
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Dock School Leader Podcast

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