All Things VCS with Ben Davis: Recent Episodes
Ben
Join VCS Head of Schools, Ben Davis, as he shares book studies, educational insights, ideas for parents, important updates, developments, and information about Vacaville Christian Schools.
Discover the exciting developments at VCS by tuning in to our fall on-campus event, Firm Foundations - Strong Future (State of the School). Join Mr. Davis and the VCS Board of Directors as they unveil pivotal updates and visionary plans for our community. Highlights from the event include:
- Progress on our three-year strategic effort, including our goal to achieve better salary parity for our faculty.
- Plans to rebuild Falcon Field, ensuring safety and excellence for all our programs, including athletics.
- Launch of our K-12 school-wide drama performance and advancements in fine arts.
- Introduction of a new American History and Western Civilization course for high school.
- Updates on enhancing academic programs, including new math and writing initiatives.
- Details on our ambitious $1.7 million fundraising goal by 2026 to support key initiatives.
To follow along with the detailed slide presentation, click here.
Join Mr. Davis, staff, and VCS parents as we share more about the vision for the future of Fine Arts at VCS. You'll hear more about:
- Our student led, HD radio broadcasting program (and intentions to further integrate it into many other programs at our school, including theater, music, and journalism)
- Check out photos of the full remodel of our radio broadcast station!
- Developments in, as well as a future vision for, music and choir
- Projects that have integrated the arts into other academic disciplines - and plans for more in the future
- Lots of great questions and parent feedback!
Tune in for our important fall on-campus event, Firm Foundations - Strong Future (State of the School), where Mr. Davis and the VCS Board of Directors shares many important updates and future plans for VCS, such as:
- Our school’s plan to do the most important thing in our school - hire, train, and retain our amazing VCS faculty (and what ALL PARENTS CAN DO to help in this effort!)
- Specific plans for the future of both Athletics and the Conservatory (and fine arts across VCS), including facilities and program opportunities
- Plans to make missions and service opportunities, EE - 12th grade, broad and curricular
- ALL (school-wide) fundraising and development efforts at VCS (including our upcoming Fun Run fundraiser) will be directed towards 4 key areas - what are those, and how will those benefit our program?
- What do our enrollment and finances look like at VCS? What else are we doing to improve VCS?
You can also follow along on the slide presentation by clicking here.
In the fall of 2023, our Head of Schools, Ben Davis, released this article within our community. Because of it's popularity (and importance for the health and success of our school), we've released it here in audio version.
You can also find the full article here.
Listen in as Dr. Howard shares a powerful chapel message with our students on VCS about Diversity, Unity, and Belonging. Dr. Howard visited VCS on Wednesday, March 15th (2023), to share about how sin, not race (or anything else that separates us), is the core issue creating disunity in our culture. And the Gospel, in the person of Jesus Christ, is the unifying solution.
Listen in as the VCS high school environmental club and second grade art classes interview world-renowned marine life artist, writer, photographer, filmmaker and conservationist, Robert Wyland.
Artwork presented on this project by Elena Mendonsa (VCS sophomore), with original music composed by VCS Radio Jazz
Join Mr. Davis, staff, and parents in learning what's happening in our academic program (K-12) at VCS. Here are some of the areas Mr. Davis shares:
- Academics related strategic growth opportunities - what actions have we taken, and what are some of our plans?
- What is our primary academic focus for the current 2022-2023 school year?
- What is the status of our curricular materials, and do we have plans to update additional curriculum?
- What are the plans for the middle and high school instructional elective schedule, and what's being considered?
The following audio was excerpted from the Fall, 2022 VCS State of the School. Join our VCS Director of Operations, John Villanueva, as he shares the current status (as of fall, 2022) of our major capital and infrastructure needs. You can also preview the accompanying slide presentation here.
What are our school's goals and plans for the future? What about enrollment, facilities, safety, finances, and more?
Tune in for our important fall on-campus event, Christian - Faith, Family, Foundations (State of the School), where Mr. Davis and the VCS Board of Directors share updates on these important areas and others for VCS.
You can also follow along on the slide presentation by clicking here.
Join our Head of Schools, Ben Davis, Board Chairman, Joe Dingman, Vice Principal, Terra Golden, and VCHS Dean of Students, Andrew Wilson, as they share about the future vision for our high school. You'll learn about:
- High school principal recruitment, past and present
- Four key areas of priorty focus
- Our high school administrative team for the 2022-2023 school year
You can also check out the full slide presentation here.
Join Mr. Davis as he shares a recent message (February, 2022) from a men's breakfast at Trinity Baptist Church. Listen in as Mr. Davis encourages dads to think about how to be, and how to surround our kids with, Christ-centered heroes and role models.
Didn't get to come to Coffee on Campus with the Head of School? Listen in to the podcast recording as Mr. Davis shares: 1) our school's goals for the rest of this year and into 2022-2023, and 2) how we are improving our academic program by developing our students into critical thinkers.
Check out the following links referenced in the podcast:
*Developing Critical Thinkers Through Socratic Seminar - Lesson Example by English Teacher Dr. Val Marchione
*Public Schools Have No Clue What They Mean by "Critical Thinking Skills"
*California Schools are Eliminating 'D' and 'F' Grades
Here are some helpful timestamps:
0:00 - Open podcast
1:43 - Vision for “Coffee on Campus”
4:11 – What are our School’s Goals
10:36 – Improving Academics – Developing “Critical Thinkers”
17:53 – Closing Thoughts
Tune in to the newest podcast in our new book study, "The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in it's Proper Place." If you've ever wondered as a parent how to manage technology and your kids, this book study and mini-podcast series is for you!
On this episode, Ben (VCS Head of Schools) and wife, Amber Davis, talk through the second two chapters of the book, "Structuring Time" and "Waking and Sleeping." This is all about our routines. Do you open up your phone and check your notifications the moment you wake up? How about your kids? The closing "Action Item Challenge" is all about creating rhythms with our technology use.
Tune in to the newest podcast in our new book study, "The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in it's Proper Place." If you've ever wondered as a parent how to manage technology and your kids, this book study and mini-podcast series is for you!
On this episode, Ben (VCS Head of Schools) and wife, Amber Davis, talk through the first two chapters of the book, "Choosing Character" and "Shaping Space." It's all about how technology influences character and what's at the center of your home. They close with an "Action Item Challenge" for families listening in!
Tune in to the introductory podcast in our new book study, "The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in it's Proper Place." If you've ever wondered as a parent how to manage technology and your kids, this book study and mini-podcast series is for you!
On this episode, Ben (VCS Head of Schools) and wife, Amber Davis, pull insights from the book and talk through "why" parents should care about managing technology well in our homes.
Tune in for our important fall on-campus event, Christian - Faith, Family, Foundations (State of the School), where Mr. Davis and the VCS Board of Directors shares many important updates and future plans for VCS.
You can also follow along on the slide presentation by clicking here.
Join Mr. Davis, our VCS Head of Schools, and longtime parent (and board member), Lou Cabral, as they discuss a new campaign about what matters most - Christian Faith, Family, Foundations.
Where are we at VCS and where are we going in this next season? Join our Head of Schools, Ben Davis, as he talks through important developments with leadership in MS / HS, campus improvements, staff retention efforts (including salary increases), vision (how are we trying to impact our students at VCS), and much more.