The Glass Wall Blog Archives

Welcome to the Glass Wall Blog

By Ben Palpant | October 14, 2016 |

Here’s the problem as I see it: I get to spend around nine or ten hours every day in hallways and classrooms that throb with purpose and praise, but you …

Read More

Welcome to the Glass Wall Blog

By Ben Palpant | October 14, 2016 |

Here’s the problem as I see it: I get to spend around nine or ten hours every day in hallways and classrooms that throb with purpose and praise, but you …

Read More

Welcome to the Glass Wall Blog

By Ben Palpant | October 14, 2016 |

Here’s the problem as I see it: I get to spend around nine or ten hours every day in hallways and classrooms that throb with purpose and praise, but you …

Read More

The Aroma Of Matthew 18

When I first arrived at the The Oaks last summer, I joined four other new teachers for employee orientation. Since all of us had prior teaching experience, we spent much of our time discussing ...

Affliction Is A Treasure

I have taught at The Oaks for nearly twenty years. The first day assembly each year is a sobering reminder of my age when I look out over the student body and realize that most of them were not even ...

Learning To See

Oaks students take art classes from first grade through sixth grade. Their next art class takes place during eleventh grade. Five years cover ...

Zero And Zip For One Hundred

On the one hundredth day of school, regular as clockwork, large numbers, and the school calendar, Zero and Zip appeared from nowhere - well, okay, from the ...

Napping Latin Students

I recently had the pleasure of sitting in with Eric Indgjerd’s 10th grade Latin Class. His teaching methods are, at times, unexpected. Do not think this arises because he is an unorthodox ...

The Music Of Titi-Ta

As a parent of two Oaks graduates, one of whom started in kindergarten, my first thought was, "it's nice that Miss Allegra Miller is leading the class in some ...

Inside The Locker Room

It's always fun> to be in a winning locker room. Alas, sometimes, teams not only lose but lose big. How do coaches, teams - Christians - handle ...

A Christian Reflex

Two minutes or less to be in the right classroom, seated in the correct chair, with all the proper materials for that class! A tardy ...

Alumni Family Gathering

On a dark and chilly December evening, the warmest room in the city was this one, at The Oaks, warmed with the hugs of old friends reunited and the glowing ...

Fractals Then And Now

As she announced she would be substituting for Miss Nolan’s small group of 7th grade boys, she included another surprising comment ...

Debate – Chickens Or Dogs

Welcome to Debate. 9th grade. Today’s resolution: Chickens are better pets than dogs. A Gorgon’s knot that has befuddled humanity since the dawn of ...

Rhetoric II

The best learning is the kind that feels like something other than learning. As Thomas Manton wrote, “Delight prevents ...

2016 Speech Meet Winners

Joshua Foer, in his book Moonwalking with Einstein, makes the startling observation that “who we are and what we do is fundamentally a function of ...

Perplexities Dissolved By Song

I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with men and women half my age to sing a lunch time blessing yesterday. With Caleb (7th grade) on one side and Brooke (11th grade) on the other, we ...

Welcome to the Glass Wall Blog

Here’s the problem as I see it: I get to spend around nine or ten hours every day in hallways and classrooms that throb with purpose and praise, but you ...