Bringing Learning to Life

How do our fourth grade teachers take geography lessons and bring them to life? They design lessons that include experienced people, a challenging simulation, and a thoughtful reflection. Our 4th grade teachers explain: 

In our learning about human geography, our students discover why and how people come into the United States and the effect that has on culture. We are excited to teach our students the importance of this topic through the lens of Christian Kingdom building. We know that it is highly influential to hear from someone who experienced this journey first hand, so we invited a Byron Center couple who immigrated from the Netherlands to speak with us. They shared their experiences, including their reasons for wanting to move and the challenges they faced. Students examined their visa paperwork and green card, and asked them all sorts of thought-filled questions. We then invited the students to listen to and reflect on stories of young immigrants as well as the history of immigrants through Ellis Island. The intent was for students to put themselves into the shoes of an immigrant to learn more about God’s people. Our long-term target for students was: I can recognize how I am to respond as a Christian to the beauty in diversity and challenges that may occur. 

As we thought about immigration throughout the history of the United States, students recognized that being an immigrant has many challenges. One of those challenges is packing essential  belongings to permanently move to a new country. 

To gain empathy for this particular challenge, students engaged in a suitcase simulation. During this simulation, students practiced empathy by living out of a suitcase for a day. They pondered what it would be like to put what they have in such a small case. What would they pack? What would get left behind? Students carried their carefully packed suitcases for a full school day. They ended the day saying, “That was a lot harder than I thought!” 

This immigration experience allowed our students to wonder, explore, and discern. We are excited our 4th grade teachers and students found ways to develop genuine empathy for God’s people.

Authors and Masons

Learning abounds in our preschool classrooms, where our teachers design play-based environments to promote learning which focuses on the whole child. Throughout their day, students participate in a variety of activities including centers and small groups where they receive targeted instruction. Teachers continually track progress and modify instruction to nurture learning for each child. Our curriculum integrates 36 learning objectives ranging from academic skills such as early literacy, mathematics, and science, to emotional awareness and social skills. We offer a wide variety of preschool programs, but all options use the researched-based The Creative Curriculum. 

In addition, the Teaching for Transformation framework ensures that students engage with real people and do real work within the context of God’s story. Children are invited to be part of God’s redemptive work. Recent examples of this include authors and masons!

During their unit on trees, our preschoolers created a book full of information and pictures and published it on Amazon so others could enjoy trees as part of God’s creation. Proceeds from the book sales will be used to purchase more trees for our West Campus. 

In another classroom, preschoolers were learning about buildings. To deepen learning, teachers invited a local mason to demonstrate his work. Students learned all about masonry, helped him mix and lay mortar, and even built a wall with their own bricks! 

The development and learning that occurs at the ages of three, four, and five is foundational, and the joy found in our preschool rooms as children count, read, play, and sing is fantastic. Most importantly, we invite our students into God’s story by connecting their learning to His plan as soon as they begin their journey at BCCS.

Campus Planning

It is with great excitement that we embark on the next phase of the BCCS Capital Campaign titled “With Faith.” This slogan embraces our unwavering belief that God is leading us to embark on a journey to expand and renovate our West Campus to accommodate our growing enrollment and to upgrade learning spaces for our children.

This year, our West Campus celebrates 75 years of serving the Christian school community in Byron Center. In 1948, the day the school building opened its doors for the first time, students carried their books two blocks from the old school to the new school, which then consisted of 220 students in kindergarten through 10th grade.

Currently, the West Campus serves 240 students in preschool, junior kindergarten, and kindergarten alone, with kindergarten projected to be our largest grade next year. With better-utilized spaces and flexible programming to meet the needs of our families, we are seeing our growth align with that of the Byron Center area over the last decade. The beautiful building and campus is the gateway to our school, and it is in need of investment to better serve our children and families as well as fulfill our mission of providing an excellent, Christ-centered education. We look forward to preserving the legacy of this building for generations to come.

Since BCCS has experienced consistent growth over the last 5 years and has implemented the necessary programming to transition from two homerooms to three homerooms moving forward, additional space and balance between the two campuses is much needed. To accomplish this task and prepare for needed classroom space in a few short years, we plan to add four new preschool classrooms, three additional classrooms, a dedicated media center, and a secure main entry to the existing facility. This will double the size of the current building, allowing us to balance both campuses with 350-400 students each by bringing 1st and 2nd grades back to the West Campus upon the project’s completion.

More detailed information will be shared soon, along with a public launch event, as we continue to work with CarbonSix Construction, The Architectural Group (TAG), and the many contractors that support our school and mission in the coming months. 

As we prayerfully move forward “With Faith,” the generous support from our Christian school community is necessary. If you would like to see a more detailed plan of the project and how you could significantly bless what God is doing at BCCS, please contact Ron Fles, Director of Development, at fles@bccs.org or James Onderlinde, Administrator, at onderlinde@bccs.org for additional information.

As we stated in our last Perspective article, “With Faith,” all things are possible. “With Faith,” we have hope. “With Faith,” God will provide the funds necessary for the Byron Center Christian community to continue to carry out our mission. 

Blessings,

James Onderlinde - Administrator

Mike Wolf - BCCS Board President

From the Desk of Someone

From the Desk of Someone is purposed as a monthly blog post shared by a BCCS staff member. It will include general school information and updates as well as quotes and other thoughts to spark reflection.

What did I Hear?

Last week, as devotions began in the middle school hallway, a staff member and I heard a trendy pop song from one of the nation’s most popular artists blaring from one of our classrooms. After identifying the artist incorrectly and being corrected by my more hip and musically-informed colleague, my curiosity remained and I paused in the doorway to listen. 
Stepping back, I am often asked what type of school BCCS is, and part of my answer always includes that we strive to provide an authentic, reformed Christian education. While that is a larger topic and conversation, what I observed that morning is a great example of what it means to be reformed as we prepare students for life in God’s Kingdom. 

Now let's get back to my classroom observation from the doorway. At the conclusion of the song, the teacher asked students to think about the message they heard from the artist (it was not a positive one about who she felt she was). Looking at the lyrics, you can almost hear and feel the pain. Maybe you cannot relate to this, but I know I am guilty of the same feelings when looking at my own struggles and failures. However, immediately following that conversation, the class listened to “Love Me Like I Am” by For King and Country. The message is a stark contrast to what is heard in the first song. It talks about pain and brokenness, but also how God meets us there. The pop song leaves the listener with that pain. It does not offer a solution to or remedy for it, compared to the For King and Country song, which leaves the listener with hope and love. 

This message is so important for middle school students who are continuing to ask and discover who they are. The message of God’s provision of grace and love amidst our own brokenness is vastly different from the worldly message of value found in one’s own self. Our value comes from our God. He claims us as His own. He gave his life for us regardless of our brokenness. He is the source of our hope and love. These are important and freeing truths. These are truths we must remember and rely on despite the messages found in pop (or any other) culture.

The Christian education we are blessed to provide includes excellent learning rooted in God’s Word, but it also includes preparing our students for what lies ahead. Having real, honest conversations about false narratives contrasted with the messages of Christ is just one small example of this. Teachers can even use a trendy song to spark a discussion about God and His story for us. Through the lens of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, we can walk through real and difficult topics with students to help them develop discernment amidst brokenness. We believe it is incredibly important to practice seeking AND living in God’s truth now in order to truly prepare our children for the future. We do not expect (or allow) master electricians to enter the field without having completed years of practice as an apprentice. Here at BCCS, it is no different for training disciples of Christ. 

A morning devotional is a great example of Christian teachers sharing their own faith stories! The best part is that is only a small part of the work they are doing each day to help our students. Want to know more about what that looks like on a daily basis? Click here!

Andrew Reidsma

Director of Operations and Family Relations


From the Desk of Someone

From the Desk of Someone is purposed as a monthly blog post shared by a BCCS staff member. It will include general school information and updates as well as quotes and other thoughts to spark reflection. This writing is to be the first of many! 

February Updates

Winter and spring are busy times here in the hallways of BCCS. School events abound (dances, concerts, Family Fun Night, winter break, 3 on 3 Tournament, parent meetings, and parent-teacher conferences), and we encourage you to attend what you can as we work to intentionally foster community!

Our teachers continue to develop and deepen their Teaching for Transformation practices and grow as we fully adopt the framework for learning. We are on a continual journey as we look to improve the school experience of learners and invite them to discover what their role is in God’s story. 

Enrollment season is upon us and many of our preschool classes have already been filled for next year! We also expect a record kindergarten class when our doors open in the fall of 2023. Please continue to share with your neighbors, church families, and co-workers about this place as we seek to expand the Kingdom work happening here. 

The winter months also allow us to reflect on the support from our parent community. We are blessed with families who serve this school in so many ways, including recess duty, organizing special events, running the school auction, serving on the school board, and supporting classroom teachers. We are grateful for you! 

I will close with a quote for reflection. Nicholas Wolterstorff shared, “It is nothing but a pious wish and a grossly unwarranted hope that students trained to be passive and non-creative in school will suddenly, upon graduation, actively contribute to the formation of Christian culture.” 

Today, consider your own school experience. Was it passive, or were you engaged? Also, reflect on what you desire school to be for your children. What is your hope for them?

I encourage you to review the TfT portion of our website as part of your wondering and learning. 

Andrew Reidsma 

Director of Operations and Family Relationships

Tassels

Why is a tassel so important? In Biblical history, priests wore tassels as a visual representation of putting God on display in everything they said or did. It was their job to reflect God to the people around them, and tassels served as a reminder of that important role. Today, God calls us to be a reflection of Him as we live our lives. We are to put Him on display with our actions and words. We are to do God’s will, meet the needs of others, and be bearers of His presence. In the context of our school year, we are to see God’s story and also live that story as image bearers. Unfortunately, we fail more often than we would like, but we should always remember our role. Thankfully, God extends His sovereignty and uses broken people!

At BCCS, we help students understand that Kingdom call, no matter their age. Recently, our first-grade teachers shared about the duty of priests and the reminder role of the tassels. Each child was then given a tassel to place on their backpack. 
There is nothing special about a tassel itself, but our hope is that it is a visible reminder to our students of who they are called to be. Specifically, in first grade, they are children of the King, invited to spread God’s love. Teachers connect learning in all subjects to God’s story and provide learning experiences in which students have the opportunity to practice living His story. Just like the priests of old, we are to recognize our call to bring God into the world. We are to live in such a way that others catch a glimpse of Him!

6 Reasons to have a Will

A will is a legal document that lets you decide what happens to your assets (called your estate) when you pass away. According to a recent survey by Caring.com, nearly two thirds of Americans do not have a will or estate plan, and 40% cited procrastination as a reason they do not have a plan.  
So, here are six important reasons you should have a will:

  1. You decide who gets your assets and who does not. The most common and simple reason to make a will is to decide who will (or who will not) get your property when you die. Without a will (or other plan, like a trust), your state laws determine how your property will be distributed—usually to your closest relatives, like your spouse, children, or parents. If you want someone other than a spouse, child, or parent to inherit from you (perhaps a grandchild or close friend), then you need a will to make those wishes known. 

  2. You decide who gets your personal property. Again, most people recognize that their estate plan will determine who gets what. But your will can be specific about the personal property you want to give away. Often it is the personal items—the antiques, heirlooms, and pictures—that cause a lot of arguments because they are sentimental. Bonus: You can also specify who gets your pets!

  3. You determine who is responsible for carrying out your instructions. Choosing the right executor is one of the most important elements of creating an estate plan and should not be overlooked. If you choose the wrong executor, you jeopardize efficient execution of your plans. You should also designate a second choice in case the first executor is not willing or able to carry out your wishes. 

  4. Your will can name charitable organizations as a beneficiary. According to data collected by Giving USA 2022, only 9% of all charitable gifts made in 2021 were bequests from an estate plan. Without a will, you are not able to preserve a legacy that could benefit your favorite charities for decades to come. 

  5. You decide who takes care of your minor children. An estate plan is the only place to nominate a guardian to care for your children. If you think you don't need a will for any other reason, but you have minor children, you should make a will just to name a guardian. If you die without a will, a court will decide who should care for your kids. 

  6. Having a will saves time, money and stress for your loved ones. A clear estate plan leaves no ambiguities in regard to your wishes. Without a clear plan, you create opportunities for costly arguments and contests which often fracture a family. 


BCCS partners with The Barnabas Foundation, which provides free estate plan services to member partners. To find out more, please call Ron Fles at BCCS at 616.878.3347 or email Ron at fles@bccs.org.