COJ Catholic Progressive School

Want to help your kids become readers? When they’re little, give them board books and read aloud to them. When they’re bigger, get them library cards, and leave books in every room. If your kid becomes an enthusiastic reader, start a parent-child book club, and seek out author events at community bookstores. Even if your kids aren’t natural bookworms, let them see you reading newspapers, magazines, and books. Give books as gifts too, whether to newborn babies, college grads, or friends turning fifty. If children see that you value books, sooner or later, they may just acquire a taste for reading that will serve them well all their lives. Do     read with your children get them a library card leave books and magazines around keep a reading record or journal or start a book club set designated reading times and let kids see you read Don't     criticize their reading choices tell them a book is just for girls or just for boys make it too easy...

Teaching persistence in the classroom is an important part of setting up learners to succeed. Students who have mastered persistence are able to work through challenges, deal constructively with failures and adversity, and achieve the goals they have set for themselves. It’s a lot like running a marathon. The runners who make it to the finish line are the ones who persist in showing up for practices and trainings, learn to anticipate slumps and pace themselves, engage in positive self-talk during tough times, take steps to effectively prevent and treat injuries, and adjust expectations to fit reality – even if “finishing” means having to crawl the last mile. Like a runner who has not trained to run longer distances, learners can’t persist in their learning if they haven’t developed the stamina they need to keep going when things get tough. Teaching persistence depends on first developing student stamina as a way of conditioning learners to handle sustained effort. To help learn...

Do you teach perseverance in your classroom? It’s not something you’ll find listed in the Common Core standards…. the student will persevere through difficult tasks. However, as we all know, children aren’t likely to get far in school (or life) without it. I was thinking about that the other day as I prepared a presentation about arts integration. Perseverance is one of the important traits developed by arts experiences. Playing in a marching band, acting in a play, dancing with a company, sitting at a piano day after day to master a piece of music. It all develops perseverance. When you hear the life stories of famous scientists, inventors, artists, and visionaries, they always have one trait in common: amazing perseverance. Most of them failed repeatedly before they experienced success. However, an internal drive for success and a “never give up” attitude defined their life and their work. You’ve heard many of these before. Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first television ...

Singapore (CNN) -It's a world-class teacher's pet -- a straight-A student that's top of the class: Singapore is officially the country with the smartest high-school kids in the world. The country's academic success has helped it become a thriving economy, and the way it has built its education system could hold lessons for the rest of the world. "Singapore is a fascinating case," said Marc Tucker, the president of the U.S. National Center on Education and the Economy. "[It] was a major British port before the Second World War. When Britain got out and closed its base Singapore was in terrible shape. "Now today they are one of the best performing economies in the entire world. They did it largely with education and training." If Singapore's rags-to-riches transition was built on education, the secret of its education system is the quality of its teachers. "They source their teachers from among the best kids coming out of th...

Your task is to build a better world,’ God said. I answered, ‘How?… this world is such a large, vast place, and there’s nothing I can do.’ But God said, in all His wisdom, ‘just build a better you.’ – Author Unknown Every person I know seems to want a better world. Pretty much everybody you see on TV talk shows says they want a better world. All the politicians you hear and see are talking about how they have a plan to build a better world. All the plans seem to have one thing in common… Somebody else has to change or somebody else has to do better. It seems so daunting a task that few people actually attempt to make the world better. Pretty much everybody you see or hear talking about a better world forgets the easiest place to start… with themselves. It is just like the poem says, “build a better you.” Befriend people who aren’t like you. Don’t judge them, just try to understand them. Listen, really, really listen to someone who has a point of view very different than your ow...

Critical thinking can be defined in various ways. Dr. Richard Paul briefly explains critical thinking as: “thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.”(Paul 2012). Paul emphasis the self-improvement (in thinking) through intellectual standards (that assess thinking). Dr. Paul and Linda Elder define critical thinking as: “That mode of thinking – about any subject, content, or problem – in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them”(Paul & Elder 2010). Warnick and Inch (1994), define critical thinking as “involving the ability to explore a problem, question, or situation; integrate all the available information about it; arrive a solution or hypothesis; and justify one’s position Educational systems goal is to prepare student with learning skills that they can utilize for a life span. Education systems a...

The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ. He offered himself once and forever on the cross. It is the Center of our Christian life and the thanks offering that we present to God for His great love toward us. It is not another sacrifice. It is not a repetition. It is the same sacrifice of Jesus that is present. It is a re-presentation of Calvary, memorial,  and application of the merits of Christ. The Mass has two parts: the liturgy of the word (after asking for forgiveness of sins) and the liturgy of the Eucharist, which is an offering to the Father by Jesus and by us, because we are also sons of God. To take advantage of the great spiritual fruits that God gives us through the Eucharistic Celebration, we should know it, understand the gestures and symbols, and participate in it with reverence. Here we have the first installment of a very good explanation that will help you to better participate in this sacrifice.  1.) Introductory Rites:      Entrance Song:...

Moms and teachers have voted. Here’s our list of the Best Educational Apps for Kids. Perfect for keeping children mentally active these apps compliment all that hard work in the classroom with after school fun that continues the learning process. Juana la Iguana en la Granja Juana la Iguana en la Granja is a great app to introduce a preschool child to conversational Spanish while reviewing basic readiness skills such as matching, counting, colors and the ... Words with Ibbleobble Words with Ibbleobble is an educational vocabulary app to teach children a wide variety of new words using fun images and illustrations. This is my Food-Nutrition for kids This is my Food is a fantastic educational app that teaches children all they need to know about nutrition and eating healthy. Educational, engaging, and perfect for home or the .. History For Kids Travel back in time and get an overview of the major time periods and events in world history with History f...

What they know about helping kids behave and learn that you can use at home. You wrestle for ten minutes with your 3-year-old to get his jacket on, yet his preschool teacher has ten kids (including yours) dressed for the playground in less than three. What's her secret? Partly, of course, the advantage of not being a parent—kids really are more inclined to behave for outsiders. But it's not only that. Teachers develop all sorts of tricks to help young kids learn, keep the classroom more efficient, and make their job more enjoyable. This is hardly surprising. Preschool teachers have year after year of experience with this challenging age group. Fortunately, they're more than willing to share the keys to their success with eager (and sometimes frustrated) parents: Secret #1: Preschoolers don't have to dawdle. Why does your child seem to thwart your attempts to get you both out the door each morning but promptly turns on her heels when her teacher announces it...