Please click here to download the July 2010 newsletter for reformedteacher.net. If you wish to reply for whatever reason, please reply to the following email address: info@reformedteacher.net

Kind regards

RT.net Public Relations
Bruce Huizinga

Although you could be mistaken into thinking this news item is about the successful launch of a rocket into space, it is actually far more exciting than that. Version two of reformedteacher.net was launched last week in the usually quiet and uneventful place of Armadale, Western Australia. Some 30 teachers (from Armadale John Calvin Christian College and Kelmscott John Calvin) were on hand to witness this momentous occasion in the life of this project.

Following the launch, teachers were keen to log on to the new look site, update their profiles and try out the new features. We’re encouraged by how many teachers have visited the site and we are starting to see a slow but steady trickle of resources being uploaded. Thank you for your support and we look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Let’s keep the butterflies’ wings flapping…

In Christ,
Phil Houweling

Welcome back to reformedteacher.net! With a summer of development behind us, we’re excited to unveil some powerful new online tools. This December, we’d like your feedback on the resource-sharing features we’ve been busy creating. Email Harold to find how you can be a part of this initiative.

And in the new year? Free, hands-on workshops at your school, along the theme: “Empowering Reformed Educators”.

We are the wings… Let’s make it happen!

Best,

Harold Sikkema – Web Developer, reformedteacher.net

You may be wondering about our logo and why a butterfly features prominently.

As you know, butterflies undergo amazing transformations changing from egg to larva (caterpillar) to pupa to a beautiful flying adult. This amazing transformation is testimony to our awesome God, Who is both Designer and Creator. The notion of metamorphosis, or change, is what reformedteacher.net seeks to bring about in teachers who use and contribute to this site.

Though the butterfly that emerges is still the same creature as the caterpillar, and Reformed education too represents unchangeable norms founded on Scripture, the delivery, and means of delivery, changes just like a butterfly undergoes change. The teacher also must grow and develop, undergoing metamorphosis from a teacher in training to an experienced teacher.

This metamorphosis doesn’t happen over-night, but through ongoing professional development, a key aim of this site, it does happen. The time also comes for the Reformed teacher to begin to flap his or her wings (not literally of course) by contributing to the development of others.

Sharing resources with other Reformed educators around the globe is a very positive and powerful way that you can contribute to the cause of Reformed education.

The careful observer of the butterfly logo’s wings will also notice the following:

1. Calvin’s emblem – a heart in an outstretched hand offered to God.
2. The Cross of Christ – the heart of the gospel
3. A communications tower – capturing the delivery means through the internet
4. A pen and paper – representing the work of the students and the productive outcome of this site.

Meet the team behind reformedteacher.net

	Name: Phil Houweling Role: project coordinator Location: Western Australia
	Name: Bronya Mulder Role: graphics artist and designer Location: Western Australia
	Name: Kym Mulder Role: Location: Western Australia
	Name: Stephen Houweling Role: token teacher Location: Western Australia
	Name: Mark Wagenaar Role: IT expert Location: Western Australia
	Name: Martin Pot Role: web developer and IT expert Location: Western Australia
	Name: Natas Porter Role: IT expert Location: Western Australia
	Name: Bruce Huizinga Role: public relations Location: Western Australia
	Name: Harold Sikkema Role: web guru Location: Canada

Contacting the team

The team can be contacted by emailing
info (at) reformedteacher.net

Resources submitted for inclusion in the repository will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

A summary of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license specifies that

For more details on this Creative Commons license, refer to the Commons Deed, or the Legal Code on the Creative Commons website.

In time, the teaching resource repository will grow to host resources ranging from social/political issues to scientific and economic topics.

Resources that guide our students to understandings of current political debates and the Biblical view on ethical issues such as stem cell research, the environmental movement and global warming will be invaluable for teachers of students in higher year levels, while teaching resources dealing with health and physical education focusing on our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit may be more suitable for lower grades.

Resources that assist students to discern the error of evolution will be valuable to all science units.

Sound Christian advice on career choices and budgeting will greatly assist in business/economic courses.

Welcome to the reformedteacher.net site. Once fully developed, this site will, the Lord willing, provide teachers with high quality, pedagogically sound Reformed teaching and professional development resources. This site aims to make Christian teaching resources more accessible and usable for reformed educators as well as providing a portal through which teachers can access professional development materials and connect with “sister” schools and colleagues through discussion groups. In short, this site aims to equip teachers in the beautiful task of educating covenantal children.

The Need:

Over the past decade the variety of teaching resources that are readily available to teachers has increased. Most of these resources, however, lack a Scriptural perspective. Rather than providing an adjunct of Scriptural content to secular material, Reformed teachers need to present resources that deliberately and positively promote a wholly Scriptural worldview.

This website is designed to be a repository of teaching resources where scriptural perspectives clearly permeate the resources. All resources posted on this site will have suggested teaching strategies, scriptural outcomes, focus questions and discussion points and will incorporate activities for students.

Sharing resources

Undoubtedly as a reformed educator, you will already have great teaching resources. You may have an interactive powerpoint presentation that examines the Christian view on involvement in war or a worksheet examining the issue of genetic engineering. With some polishing up, these resources can be made available and be of great benefit to other Reformed teachers via this site.
To find out how to submit resources, please see the
Sharing teaching resources page.

Need more information?

If you have any questions regarding this site email us at:
info (at) reformedteacher.net