Who is Tim Friendson?

Well, let me explain. Tim Friendson is actually the name of one of the fictional characters in the PACES. He is the Principal of the Highland Christian School.

My real name is also Tim! And I have been the principal of a Christian school for over 30 years. But unlike the fictional characters who have great last names like “Friendson”, “Virtueson”, and “Goodheart”, my last name – for real – is Anger. Can you imagine the principal of an ACE school with the name, Mr. Anger? (I try not to live up to it!)

I grew up in Hawaii, attending a public school then a traditional Christian school through sixth grade. When I entered 7th grade our church started a Christian school using the ACE curriculum (back in 1974) and I continued with that school and curriculum all through high school. In fact, I “accelerated” and finished over a year early.

In college I majored in Secondary Education and minored in math and physical science. Ever since graduating from college I have been teaching in Christian schools. For the first fifteen years I taught in traditional classrooms using curriculum from A Beka, Bob Jones, Saxon Math, etc.  When our school in Pennsylvania lost many students in the mid-1990’s to homeschooling and other schools, we chose to convert to Accelerated Christian Education program rather than close the school. I have to admit, I was not sold on the idea at first. But with the Lord’s help and a commitment to do what was best for the students in our church, we have kept the school open and helped many students graduate and go on to serve the Lord.

This website grew out of a desire to help my own students. I noticed that there were specific PACES and parts of PACES that gave students trouble. I used to keep students in from break or lunch to sit with me so I could go through a 10-15 minute teaching lesson with them and explain the concept. Sometimes I would first have to review the concept myself for 20 minutes to remember how to present it! A week later another student would hit that same page and need the same help. More one-on-one tutoring. Then another student. Then it would all repeat year after year. I finally got the bright idea to video myself teaching those mini-lessons, upload them to YouTube, and then have my students watch them when they reach those spots. The PaceSuccess website allowed me to organize those videos by subject, add others notes and resources, and embed the videos on those pages.

Being a math geek, I also did PACE test item analysis for several years, keeping track of which questions get missed on PACE tests in the high school. I noticed that some tests were notorious! That led me to create “Test Tips”  to encourage students to review content they would need to know for the test. Now rather than relying on my memory to help students be prepared, I put a sticker on the back of their PACE with the tips to study.  The newer 4th edition PACES are much better written and the tests align with the content, so the Test Tip Stickers are no longer needed for those.

In recent years we’ve tried to add other resources and articles that may be a help to other Christian school supervisors and homeschool parents as well as students using the PACES. We get the most request for Math Tutorial videos and for chemistry and physics, so we are adding new content as we are able to.

Use the contact form above to tell me a little about yourself and what you’ve found here that you like, or what you were looking for that you didn’t find.

Tim