A Morning in the Life of Ann Arbor Christian School
by Dave Musch

This message is entitled "A Morning in the Life of Ann Arbor Christian School," since I want to share my experience of visiting the classrooms on a Tuesday in February. I had wanted to visit for a number of reasons. First, it was drawing near to the time when the Board decides upon contracts for the 1998-99 school year, and I thought a classroom perspective would help as I faced the financial figures. Second, I wanted to get a better grasp of what goes on in multi-grade classrooms. Finally, I sought a taste of the Christian atmosphere that pervades our school's environment. My goal was to blend in as much as a 40-something guy could among somewhat younger pupils, and not take on any mantel of Board representation (whatever that means). Here are some anecdotes from my morning adventure:

I started in Barb Dick's Kindergarten classroom, where the K students were teamed up with 4th or 5th grade students in a session called "Reading Buddies." Some K students wanted to be read to, and gazed at the pictures as their mentor read along. Others tried reading themselves, and some were amazingly advanced for Kindergarten. All seemed to bond well with their older reading buddy, and I think the 4th and 5th graders were getting as much out of it, especially in terms of self esteem, as the K students.

I proceeded to devotions in Becky Jungkuntz's 4th & 5th grade classroom. You should have heard the many prayer requests made by the students, straight from their hearts, and straight to God, I am sure. The volume and pleasure of their singing "Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet," with guitar accompaniment by Becky, was an ideal way to launch anyone's day!

Back in the K classroom, Mrs. Dick had all 15 students gathered around her as she taught safety principles. They came up with examples of the need for safe practices in their home, street, and neighborhood, and while playing in water or riding bikes. Corralling the comments and behaviors of 15 active Kindergartners was quite a feat, and I left impressed. They then worked on hands-on math, in which they had to group items like beads, blocks, and keys into sets of six items.

Over in Grade 1, Doreen Boersma-Jones was working intently on recognizing open and closed syllables with six students, while the other 13 students were stationed at six different tables around the classroom working on their own. I learned this is called "Centers" time, and the 13 students had plenty to keep them busy - drawing a picture of a robot, circling ten items in a picture, etc. I saw a degree of concentration and studiousness there that reflected their desire to please and honor their teacher. I also saw a fine model of focused and distributed teaching.

Finally, in Grades 2&3, Karen Brink was using a similar approach to deal with teaching math principles (multiplying 8s and 9s) to the 3rd graders as the 2nd graders worked hard on several projects. One project was completing proverbs. I noticed a memorable completion, given it was close to lunch time: "Early to bed and early to rise - early to eat!".

My morning experience was truly an education for me. I saw devoted, expert teachers practicing their profession, and students gaining knowledge in multiple areas. More than that, I experienced an atmosphere of love among the students and teachers, and a shared commitment to Jesus that was expressed in evident fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I also returned to my profession convinced that some are equipped to be elementary teachers, and some, like me, are not!