Doug Coats

Summer 2008

Heritage Family,

As I start my 11th year at Heritage, I believe stronger than ever that Christian education is a wonderful way to fulfill what the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle Paul. He encouraged mature Christians to bring their gifts together “to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith” (Ephesians 4:12-13). The passage goes on to say that every part of the body of Christ needs to do its part for the sake of the rest of the body. I try to impart to my students that the entire class, including myself, is dependent on them to bring their gifts, insights, and passions to the class for the sake of everyone else. As this new year approaches, I look forward to seeing this passage being lived out every day at Heritage.

This summer was filled with camps, trips, mini-golf, reading, jet skiing, sleep, walks, games, tennis, fireworks, basketball, Valley Fair, the Star Wars Exhibit, boating, Jessica(my daughter who is going into 10th grade) looking forward to school, shopping, swimming, Olympics, computers, State Fair, reunions, Jamin(my son who is going into 6th grade) trying not to think about school, ice tea, grilling, church, family, and friends (in no certain order). And all of it was over far too quickly, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

As I look forward to this coming school year, my schedule is taken up mostly with my two 10th grade Bible classes: Christ in the Old Testament. We will explore the types, shadows, prophecies and revelations of the coming Messiah and His work and ministry. The entire time we compare and relate these Old Testament truths with the Truth - Jesus Christ. It is a very fun and challenging class.

I will also be teaching two electives this coming year in the computer lab - HTML, Hyper Text Markup Language, and Web Mastering. HTML lets students get their digital hands dirty by building a web site from the ground up. They will learn basic and advanced techniques of web page design. Web Mastering picks up where HTML leaves off and expands the student’s horizons to construct a dynamically generated web page with a database backend. In this class, we use another language called PHP to create HTML around content that is held in a database. These techniques are how all major web sites are constructed today. Both of these classes allow the student decide the main focus of their content, which really enhances their pride in the sites they build.

Student Orientation will be here before you know it, and I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new Heritage family members.

God Bless,

Pastor Doug Coats

10th Bible

The focus of the 10th Grade Bible class is: Christ in the Old Testament, where we will look at "types" and "shadows" of the work and ministry of the Messiah throughout the O.T. The class strives to give a better understanding of God's preparation for and delivery of salvation through Jesus Christ.

During the second semester we will work on a project with the English department developing a Theological study of Salvation. We will use a number of research tools that will be introduced throughout the first and second semesters. This is always a challenging and hopefully inspiring assignment.

HTML

This class focuses on web page design using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). The class revolves around designing a web site that teaches the reader how to accomplish a task of the student's choosing. We will then update these sites using more advanced HTML techniques that are used for most Internet sites that are on the web today.

Web Mastering

Web Mastering introduces students to server-side content management to produce website content. This is accomplished by producing a database of content that can then be placed onto a web page as prompted by the users. Most major websites now utilize this type of technology to serve their users. Students utilize HTML skills but also begin to learn PHP, a programming language developed for manipulation of web content. PHP also allows students to run functions (like a counter or clock) on a web site. MySQL, a very common database engine, is also introduced, to retain and supply the content for websites.