Posts by Nakisha DeJong
Teacher Spotlight- Jackie Roskamp
Leading the Way Eighth-grade teacher Jackie Roskamp knows what it means to witness faith working the lives of her students. After 11 years of teaching at Zeeland Christian School (ZCS), she has experienced her students profess their faith as a result of the lessons she passes on to them every day. She grew…
Read MoreTeacher Spotlight- Chuck Commeret
Finding the Lesson Within Don’t take yourself too seriously. Laugh at yourself as much as possible. Mistakes can be the best teacher. These are just a few lessons that Chuck Commeret, fourth-grade teacher, has learned throughout his teaching career. These lessons are just a few amongst the many he…
Read MoreTeacher Spotlight- Melanie Vander Ploeg
Leading Faith-First In Caledonia, MI, Melanie VanderPloeg, second-grade teacher at Zeeland Christian, began her faith journey. To this day she still resides in that small town where she discovered her love for Christ in third grade at Bible Study. In awe of the great Creator and the ways to pardon our sinfulness, she…
Read MoreTeacher Spotlight- Becky Schrotenboer
An Authentic Faith Becky Schrotenboer, third-grade Spanish immersion teacher, knew she wanted to teach the Word of God to students during her freshman year of college. Fast forward to 2019, and Becky has been teaching at Zeeland Christian School (ZCS) for 10 years. Each day she is able to laugh with and lead her…
Read MoreTeacher Spotlight- John Buteyn
I was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, a small town in the central part of Wisconsin in a strong Christian family as the sixth of eight children. My parents were actively involved in both our home church and Christian school. My dad was always involved in serving on either the church council of elders or on…
Read MoreWhat if? Innovation Design Project
For the last four weeks, our fourth and sixth graders have stepped away from their normal routine and took on a huge challenge that will benefit the students of ZCS for a long time. The “What If? Innovation Project©” challenged the students to design a nature-based playground that encourages play, worship and learning for…
Read MoreTeacher Spotlight – Mark Sneller
The Hearts They’ll Have Mark Sneller remembers his first-day teaching at Zeeland Christian thirty-nine years ago, watching the joyful little students climb the stairs up to his classroom. He also remembers his first fire drill, carrying each nervous child down the stairs so they would not have to exit by themselves, “It’s what you do,”…
Read MoreGlimpses of God
I recently listened to a TED talk about the danger of a single story. The speaker was raised in Africa, but she grew up reading American and British literature. This not only shaped the way that she thought about those countries, but it also shaped how she thought about literature. She attended college in…
Read MoreAnchor in the Storm
While driving my kids to ZCS on the first day of school, I found myself praying over them “…and God, give them challenges that will strengthen them and help them to learn more about themselves and you so that they…
Read MoreThird Graders make a difference through Terra Cycle.
Each year the third graders at Zeeland Christian School are faced with a problem. They know that as God’s children they are called to care for God’s creation and that they have a lot of work to do. Instead of focusing on the huge problem, the kids have learned that if they work hard, they…
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