Author Archives: MLC

Fostering Godly Families

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Written by Michelle Dobberstein

Modeling a godly family is an important aspect of every called worker’s ministry, whether they have been blessed with a spouse and children or not. Knowingly or not, called workers are examples to the families they serve. Just as sports figures and celebrities use their fame to promote their agenda, called workers can and should leverage their positions to support parents and caregivers. In this way, they fulfill their installation directive “to be an example to others in godliness and Christian living.”

God’s Directives
God directs parents to make use of every opportunity to talk with their children about him. “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9) Continue reading →

Income Planning for Sustainable Schools

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Written by Dr. Jeff Lemke,
VP of Admissions and Marketing, Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato MN

How many budget meetings have you been to? Now, how many income planning meetings have you been to? You’ve likely been to lots of budget meetings, but few, if any, income planning meetings.

The business plans for ministries are heavily weighted toward conversations about spending priorities with a goal of reducing expenditures to balance the budget or to afford a new budgetary item (Pue, 2013).

Often, the assumption is that income will remain the same, unchanged, or increase at the rate of inflation. School costs typically rise at a higher rate, about 5%, than general inflation, about 2% (Pue, 2016). With rapidly increasing inflation upon our ministries, it is time to look at that side of the budget that gets little attention, the income side. Continue reading →

Trauma: What You Need to Know as an Educator

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Written by Alysa Balfour

My personal understanding of trauma and how it manifests itself dramatically changed in 2016 when my husband and I became foster parents. While I knew the extensive trauma my sons had endured, their teachers, our family and friends, and other acquaintances did not. It was heartbreaking to see my son reduced to a label of troublemaker when he was in fact a little boy who had experienced devastating trauma. Unless you have training or a personal experience with trauma, it may be tempting to label students rather than seeking to understand their actions.

We must redefine our understanding of trauma.
Many misunderstand trauma. We picture car accidents, explosive acts of violence, war-torn areas, or other disasters on a personal or large scale. While these are all traumatic experiences, trauma more likely will be experienced in a way that is almost imperceptible to someone viewing the situation from the outside. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuses, extreme poverty, neglect, food scarcity, and toxic household situations are all ways that students in our schools may be experiencing trauma. Continue reading →

Supporting Communication Development for Children with Autism

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Written by Dr. Carrie Pfeifer

God has created us to interact with each other using the gift of receptive and expressive language. The communication areas of the brain are seen in the Broca’s and Wernicke centers. The Broca center in infants activates when language is spoken to them (Imuda et al. 2006). When a child begins to use language, the Wernicke center of the brain is activated, even in children who are communicating with a non-oral language such as American Sign Language (Campbell et al., p. 3, 2008).

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), one of the criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts (Autism Diagnosis Criteria). These deficits are seen in non-verbal and verbal communication. Students with deficits in communication may encounter barriers across school, home, community and work that can lead to problem behaviors (Perner and Delano, p. 45. 2013). Therefore, it is vital to understand the early signs of language deficits in children with ASD so that interventions can be implemented for these children as early as possible. Continue reading →

Church and School Working Together in Unity

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Written by Dr. Phil Huebner

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)

Partnering in Ministry
What a joy it is when God’s people live and work together in his kingdom. How good and pleasant when teachers, principals, early childhood directors, pastors, and all other gospel servants live and work together in unity! When church and school are on the same ministry page, it is a joy for all involved, and many blessings follow. (For the sake of simplicity, the word school in this blog post will be representative of a Lutheran elementary school, early childhood center, or both.)

But where there are blessings, Satan seeks to rip them away. When there is joy, Satan seeks to bring heartache and heartbreak. And where there is unity, Satan surely seeks to provoke division.

Sadly, too many have experienced this in ministry. It can happen so fast that it’s hard to see it coming. But once division enters the scene, it’s easy to see some of the signs and symptoms that church and school are not on the same ministry page. Some examples: Continue reading →

Grading Is Broken, and It Needs Fixing

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Written by Dr. Ryan Rathje

Why do the vast majority of classrooms use traditional point/percentage/letter grading systems?

Do these systems effectively communicate the progress of student learning?
No.

Do these systems give the student feedback on how to improve?
No.

Do these systems output data that are valid or reliable?
No.

Do these systems support a growth mindset in students?
No.

Do these systems align with what we believe about student growth and development?
No.

Do these systems help students who need the most help?
No.

Are letter grades, points, and percentages necessary for someone to learn?
No.

Do these systems align with common sense?
No.

Are parents aware of how faulty the traditional system is?
Absolutely not.

Is there any justifiable rationale for these systems to continue?
No. Continue reading →

Our Students Need Trained Special Education Teachers in Their Schools

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Written by Michelle Yotter

Whether you have a class of 10 or 25, meeting each student’s needs can be challenging. This is especially true when working with students with special needs. Some may come struggling to understand math concepts or to grasp the strategies needed to comprehend informational text. Others may come with lots of energy but not the strategies or tools to channel that energy. Others may storm out of a room when something does not go their way or melt down into tears because that is the only way they know how to cope. Some may be a puzzle that is not figured out quite yet.

No matter what challenges each student brings as they walk into the classroom, each is a child of God. Each child is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14 NIV). As teachers, we have the privilege and amazing opportunity to share the wonderful news of salvation with them every day and help them use their God-given gifts and abilities. Continue reading →

Let’s Talk About Helping Parents Fulfill Their Role

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Written by Dr. Kenneth Kremer

A distressing number of teens and 20-somethings have abandoned their faith. Many attended Lutheran schools and were confirmed. Their eternal future is in jeopardy. Those who become parents will likely lead future generations away from God’s grace. We know culture plays a major role in breaking down the spiritual home. But so does the church. The former promotes godless ideas (2 Timothy 4:3); the latter unintentionally enables parents to neglect their God-ordained role or fails to adequately prepare and encourage parents to fulfill that role (Romans 15:14). Continue reading →

Principals Really Matter

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Written by Dr. John Meyer

If your school has a principal, be thankful. Many Lutheran schools began this year without one. One in eight Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod schools have an interim principal, such as a retired teacher, a pastor, or a teacher team filling the void (Rademan, 2021). That’s too bad because according to a recent Wallace Foundation report, “principals really matter” (Grissom et al., 2021, p. 43).

Principals Affect Student Achievement
The Wallace Foundation study examined research from the past 20 years, and found that a principal’s effect on student achievement is nearly equal that of the classroom teacher. However, a teacher impacts the students in her classroom for one year, while the principal affects all students in the school every year. Thus, a top performing principal’s students learn nearly three months more in math and reading than a low performing principal’s students (Grissom et al., 2021). Continue reading →

Connecting Children and Families to God’s Word Through ECM

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Written by Annalies Brander

Ideally, all families connected with our early childhood program or Lutheran elementary school (LES) would be actively involved not only in the school, but in the church and community as well. Often, church attendance and retention in the LES beyond early childhood tends to fall short. These are areas that we can seek to change. Maria Ginés (2017) researched outreach to families connected to early childhood ministry and noted that, “in the 2010/2011 school year, 320 children were baptized . . . after involvement with a Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod (WELS) early childhood program” (p. 8). While these numbers may sound exciting, Ginés explained that, “the child baptisms represent about 3% of enrolled young children” (p. 8), meaning there’s still plenty of work to do in connecting children and families with Jesus. Continue reading →