The Dock School Leader Podcast

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You’ve heard it before; your school will develop a culture, a spirit. The question is: what kind of a spirit will it be and what can you do to form it?

Richie Lauer brings helpful insight and proactive ideas for you to consider as you get into your school year. Richie has taught and administrated and now fills a role at A...

As a school administrator, what is your role in speaking into your students’ homes? That’s actually a much bigger question than what this talk addresses.

Homes matter so much.

Perhaps we’re tempted to think we can take any student and transform them through a great school experience, but that only reaches so far. As we consider our influence at school and capacity to establish a particular culture, it’s important for us to come to ...

“A teacher can never put in a method what he does not have in himself.” -Emerson White

This is part 2 of this pair of talks from Jonas Sauder on orienting teachers to their work. Jonas speaks from a deep and passionate vision for education that has sustained and guided him over the past decades. It’s inspiring to hear him cast vision for teaching from a place of fullness and freshness.

In the first episode, Jonas laid out some basi...

Preparation is vital to building solid momentum. Our next segment of four episodes will explore two areas that will play a huge role in the building or defeating momentum at your school this year. These two areas are orienting your teaching team and investing in healthy school culture. What do your teachers need to understand and prepare in order to succeed? In both August episodes, Jonas Sauder will address this question. In Septe...

What sources of motivation power the performance of your roles? Not only is perseverance a challenge, but it has so many imposters.

There are so many broken versions of true motivation that offer us a way forward just when we’re in a pinch or when we’re sitting in silence waiting impatiently for some fresh inspiration. It seems that it takes some suffering to strip away our ambition and expose our egotistic motivation. And it’s dee...

What’s the link between our destination and our way? This is one of those things that is not difficult to comprehend but by all appearances, famously difficult to obey.

The way is often not apparent or is offensive to us. Or it may be that the way we have chosen is so precious to us that we have lost both the clarity and the concern about our destination. In any evet, it is improbable that we will choose the way of Jesus even if we...

1. Why do we exist?
2. For what results are we accountable?
3. Who are we serving–primarily?
4. What are our values?
5. What is our plan?

These are five questions that according to Steven Brubaker are essential for every school leader to help his school to answer clearly and to communicate relentlessly to everyone involved with the school.

When God has work he wants done, he looks for a person fit for the job. Obviously, there are many...

What makes education distinctly Christian? Is this more a question of what it is or what it isn’t? But whatever we make of those questions, how do educators remain passionate about their mundane, sometimes thankless, often discouraging role in carrying this work forward? Anthony Hurst, who has over 25 years of experience in Christian Day Schools and currently works as school representative for Christian Light, offers valuable insig...

How do children develop? How do we give them the best chance of healthy development? The fact of the ocean of ink spilled on this question has not lessened the actual wonder of this process or the reality of its mystery.

In a presentation filled with stories and examples, Brandon Mullet explores the basic needs of children. Brandon speaks as an administrator, teacher, and parent.

He discusses themes such as:

• Laboring for w...

How are your teachers’ root systems? If you have the opportunity, ask an arborist talk about root systems and about the tree planting and care process. From root hairs to mycorrhizae, it’s a fascinating world. But one that is mostly invisible to us and that tends to fall prey to our drive to control and manipulate what is visible to us. Melvin Lehman employs the metaphor of roots as he reflects on nearly four decades of teaching.

Does your school have mission, vision, and values statements? Who knows about them?

We’re probably all familiar with these three terms and in this episode, Merle Burkholder offers simple definitions and provides clear examples of each one to refresh our usage. He also suggests a variety of means to communicate these guiding statements so that they can become second nature for you and your people.

Merle brings many years of experien...

How do you know when you have a good year at school? When the people around you talk about having a good year or a bad year, what do they have in mind? As an administrator, it matters that you feel a sense of satisfaction or concern when things are actually going well or going poorly as the case may be. You play a key role in setting the tone for celebrating success and learning from failure. But you need to know what success looks...

What were we created for and how does that inform our relationships? In this final episode in our segment on relationships, Jeff Swanson describes four fundamentals that become especially potent when relationships turn problematic:

1. Love
2. Listening
3. Structure
4. Direct communication

If you know Jeff, you may catch the humor of his title and of his proposition to offer groundbreaking thoughts about relating to children and mill...

Why have an administrator? What can an administrator do in terms of the relationships around the school? Steve Brubaker makes the case that administrators inhabit and manage the complex meeting place of all the people involved in a school. It’s a position of influence to be used not to lord it over others but to serve them. “Administrators exist to serve the servants,” says Steven. And schools that lack these people are hampered in...

If parents are responsible to train their children, what are the children doing in schools? Matt Peachy lays out a case for education that places schools squarely in a position of service to the church and to families. He then outlines some of the ways that this shapes a school, particularly in its relationships with parents and the church.

Matt teaches at the secondary level and has administrative and pastoral experience. Notably,...

What’s your greatest advantage as a teacher or leader in a Christian school? Stephen submits that it is the immeasurable gift of most of our children having parents that love them. What are you doing to know and care for those parents and your students, especially the average ones?

Stephen Gingerich speaks with year of experience teaching and administrating in a school in Guatemala that serves both mission and native families. This...

Just investing in a culture of growth as Gerald described in the last episode won’t solve all problems. Here he is again with a sequel episode exploring redemptive solutions to difficult people problems.

Few people enjoy wading into these situations. Gerald won’t tell you how to begin liking it, but he does outline a number of excellent methods for how to lead responsibly and honorably.

This episode describes how to break down a pr...

Schools are places for growth and learning.

• Growth is essential for teachers.
• Teachers must be learners.
• This is not something that school leaders can force, but it very is definitely something that leaders can and should nurture.

Gerald Miller, long-time teacher and administrator makes a compelling case for those propositions which will shape how you think about what you look for in a teacher. He also shares straightfor...

What does it look like to shepherd your school?

This episode presents a passionate challenge by a board member to school leaders and to board members in particular to take full ownership of their responsibility for the people under their care. Ernie Weaver brings school board and business leadership experience to this talk as well as perspective from within the classroom through his own time as a teacher and as son and brother of l...