One of the most important decisions we make on any given day is how we fuel our bodies. It’s a choice we face three times a day, and its effects are profound. Our food choices affect more than just the family budget and schedule; what we eat affects the body, the brain, and how they perform. For schools, it’s critical that food options for students provide healthy options that fuel growing bodies and developing minds.

Have you ever heard it said, “Attitude is everything”? Did you know you have a unique opportunity to teach your child how to handle stress by modeling it for them? Our job as parents and educators is to encourage children to develop a passion for learning and a desire to push through life’s challenges, both inside and outside of the classroom. This can be achieved by empowering students to take ownership of their attitudes towards learning and performance, seeing failures as learning opportunities through the development of a “growth mindset.”

Never has the importance of proper athletic training for young people been so important. Increasingly, more and more youth are spending a large portion of their after-school hours engaged in organized sport and free play. According to research cited by Aspen Project Play, approximately 74-percent of young people ages 13-17 spend time participating in a team or individual sport, and children ages 6-18 spend more than 16 hours per week engaged in some form of sport, including practice and competition. These statistics demonstrate a great trend considering the many mental, social, and health benefits of engaging in sports and physical activity.

The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Science Board attests that by participating in sports, children have lower rates of anxiety and depression, increased overall quality of life, improved social skills, higher likelihood of college attendance, and a myriad of physiological benefits. By focusing on the individual needs of student-athletes, schools can help students develop at their best to reach peak performance.

Executive Functions are a collection of processes or interrelated functions responsible for guiding, directing, managing cognition, emotions, and behavior, particularly in novel problem solving situations¹. The fact that Executive Functions may be improved by means of cognitive training is of particular importance in childhood and adolescence, because Executive Functioning is a strong predictor for various life outcomes, such as academic attainment, socioeconomic status, and physical health². Read on to learn more about these crucial brain skills, how the brain develops, and what parents and teachers can do to help students strengthen their Executive Functioning skills.

When it comes to choosing a school for their child, parents have many options: neighborhood public school, home school, charter school, online academy, independent school, or religious private school. Academic excellence is paramount in the decision. From an eternal perspective, a Christian education is invaluable, yet affording independent options can be challenging. The calling Christian educators have for providing students with an exceptional education within a uniquely Christ-centered environment makes it worth investigating. Nurturing and equipping students to honor God, love others, and walk in Truth is an investment that will last for eternity.

Chris Eppling, Vice President of Student Services at Truett McConnell University, a private, four-year university located in Cleveland, Ga., said, “The real question to investigate is not, ‘What will I get for the money I pay to have a Christian education?’ it is, ‘What will I forfeit if I do not invest in an education from a biblical worldview?’”

Many schools have great arts facilities, programming, performances, and faculty. The quality of arts in the metro Atlanta area is some of the best in the country. How, then, does a school separate itself uniquely from the rest? The answer for Mount Paran Christian School lies in the mission of the school and how it is lived out through the arts program. While most schools focus on students developing their skills to serve their personal performance goals, MPCS goes a step further, infusing the idea that God gives us gifts to be used to glorify Him. Faculty make all the difference in helping students understand that we bring glory to God when we love others as He loves us and to act as servant-leaders through the use of artistic gifts and skills.

Excellence as a measure of quality in education is difficult to quantify. But, one might recognize it when setting foot into Dr. Bonnie Stephens’ high school science classroom at Mount Paran Christian School. Dr. Stephens, who received a B.S. in Applied Biology from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. in Biology from Georgia State University, is known to enliven content for her classes. Here, she shares how she brings learning to life for her students.

While parents may shed a few tears when their kindergartener heads off to the first day of school, for students, the biggest transition in learning comes much later. Students often find that the move from middle school to high school is especially daunting. These rising freshmen are full of hopes and dreams, as well as fears and freedom. Here are five tips that can help any rising freshman make for a smooth transition into the high school years.

Between preschool and their senior year of high school, children grow, learn, and develop at an astounding rate. When families entrust their children to schools to partner in shaping the worldview of these future citizens, it is essential that the relationship between home and school be one of open communication and true partnership. 

We all enter relationships with our own set of expectations, based on our personal experiences and values. The learning process requires effort from both the teacher and the student. What follows is a guide from the leaders at Mount Paran Christian School to help families navigate expectations from teachers, and vice versa, all with the ultimate aim to ensure the best possible outcomes for students.

“...[I]f education is to succeed in its tasks, curriculum as its core should be restructured or repacked around the four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.”

-Zhou Nanzhao, Ph.D., Director, International Center of Teacher Education, East-China Normal University, and Advisor to the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO

Globalization. A 24/7 news cycle. The growing influence of social media. Ever-changing technological advances. These are but a few of the challenges facing today’s teachers and their students. While the field of education may find it challenging to keep pace with the rapid changes in communication and technology, all is not lost in equipping 21st-Century learners for future success. In addition to providing a strong educational foundation - to include learning important facts, reading, writing, and arithmetic - it is crucial, according to the UNESCO International Commission on Education, that education today needs to teach students to be lifelong learners.

For families who have decided on an independent school education for their children, the private school choices seem endless. Options range from religious to secular, co-ed to single sex, day or boarding. One especially important consideration for families is the school’s organization – the grades/school levels offered. Schools vary from solely primary or secondary offerings to a combination of preschool through high school. For families choosing one school for their children’s entire academic experience, the benefits are many.

While the number of students participating in organized sports may be on a downward trend, no doubt thanks in part to the increase of time spent in front of screens and devices, some high school athletics programs are seeing extremely high participation levels. Those particular teams happen to be led by female student-athletes. What is so significant about this trend? And, how are female-led teams leveling the playing field?

What does it take to create a successful football program? How can smaller high schools and private schools nurture and sustain a culture of winning? Championships are the goal of every program and finding the formula for achieving that goal is the challenge for every high school football program. To help define and reach this goal in a tangible way, 15 Strong was born.

Picture yourself on a Saturday afternoon in September. Where are you? Sanford Stadium? Bobby Dodd Stadium? Your friend's living room with three TV’s hooked up for all the big games? How about the month of March. Are you constantly checking scores on your lunch break to see which team will be “The Cinderella Story” on the way to the big dance? The same could be said for June as we are watching softball and baseball Championship Series being played or in July on an Olympic year. We all have a team that we are rooting for to win for a variety of reasons.

GUEST MPCS STUDENT AUTHOR

Earlier this year, Mount Paran Christian School won “Best Private School” in Cobb County. The school as a whole strives for excellence and commits to do everything as unto the Lord as He calls the Christian community to do. The MPC athletics program is no exception. As part of the MPC Way set of core values, our student-athletes also continue to strive for success on the field and on the court. Each team takes pride in the work they put in the off-season to prepare for competition. In our sports community, there is no greater-established tradition of attaining a higher level of excellence than that of our championship cheer team who embodies our fifth core value- “commitment to excellence.”

GUEST MPCS STUDENT AUTHOR

The MPC Way has been incorporated into the value system of the teams at Mount Paran Christian School. Our athletes are continually learning what it means to live out the five core values. One of the most difficult goals to accomplish as an athlete is putting forth relentless effort. Relentless effort means putting in the hard work and having determination. MPC coaches challenge student-athletes to focus on the goal and to put forth the effort to set themselves up for greatness. Sports involving running test a competitor's stamina like no other. The Mount Paran Christian track and field and cross country teams have showcased relentless effort even when the odds were stacked against them.