Posting from Uganda (not me, the Pierces): a very interesting update at their blog, http://www.calledtouganda.com/...
"One of the areas I’m developing at CSB is our CA process. The process of continually assessing each student in many ways is the most urgent and personal to me . . . . Some students who we have lost to poor grades or behaviors could have been saved had we noticed them earlier, counseled them, helped them. There “failing” our system is really a sign of our system’s failure, of my personal failure, to care about students as individuals and to help staff treat them as such. The loss of one boy Businge, drives me forward in this work. Perhaps I fool myself, but I wish to believe that he could have been rescued from the choices he made. At least I wish we had tried harder.
And so, I develop forms, methods, and reviews for assessing students via teachers, dorm parents, student leaders and others at the end of Term 1. But equally important this term, ” continuous assessment” is just jargon reminding us of the need to assess far more than students. In fact David and I have been overwhelmed by the need to assess staff, programs, student leaders, facilities . . . . A few weeks ago we worked hard on reviews with each staff, talking about their areas of authority and responsibility, about what has improved and what still can. Then we face decisions of what we will keep moving forward on and what we will let go of. This process allows us to make plans to start Term 2 at the next level of development.
But what about the school as a whole? There is also an overall assessment of our work in ministry at Christ School. Assessment of ourselves, assessment of the project, assessment of the work as a team. Thankfully we decided as a team to have quarterly reviews of our ministries this year, so a few weeks ago we spent several hours talking about these same issues in bigger terms. It’s a helpful and thoughtful process to prepare for these meetings, to think about the work others do, to pray it through together, to be reminded that we are partners in a broad and diverse work.
We personally shared with our team the directions we feel God leading us personally and Christ School broadly. We will share a different version of this with our leadership team as they return. And a much more simple version to the staff as whole. Though there are many unanswered questions in our minds and hearts we feel God moving us forward in healthy ways."
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I am going to work to get this blog linked into our Mariners' Blog Spot, but I wanted to highlight this update from our missionaries in Uganda on the Mariners' Missions Blog! Please take a moment to say a prayer for the Pierces. They continuously need our prayer support...
In addition, please do not hesitate to send them a quick email or make a comment on their blog as well. A kind word from friends, both new and old, can do wonders for the heart, especially when under attack...
In His Grip
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