Bullying is a pervasive issue affecting millions worldwide. It’s a problem that transcends age, gender, and social status. While it manifests in various forms, the core elements of bullying remain consistent: the intentional infliction of harm - often through physical, verbal, or psychological means - on an individual who feels powerless to defend themselves. As Christians, it’s up to us to lead the charge on shaping a more compassionate and loving society to help prevent and stop bullying. 

While school “houses” are well-known across Europe and have been popularized in film, community-building house systems are steadily making their way across the pond to American schools. Mount Paran Christian School finished another year of its middle school House system and shares lessons learned, key wins, and future plans for the program.

Learning is exceedingly complex. It is both highly personal and highly social. For educators tasked with facilitating and supporting learning, doing it, not just well but with excellence, requires a healthy dose of both art and science. And, while much is understood about the conditions and practices that support learning, facilitating learning that is durable, adaptive, inspiring, and innovative is a daily challenge for educators and schools. Moreover, creating school learning environments where students develop robust knowledge and skills is only the beginning. If students leave school today without the dispositions and skills to support lifelong, self-directed learning, they will not be equipped to tackle the challenges thrust upon them by an ever-changing world. 

So, while learning is complex, let’s take a moment to examine one of the key drivers of school-based learning – the teacher’s ability to create learning cultures of excellence in which students and educators are highly engaged with one another, with rich ideas and robust thinking and creating. Blessed with highly-skilled faculty, examples of high-engagement learning cultures at Mount Paran Christian School abound across all school grade divisions. 

Welcome to Y’allywood! The state of Georgia has become a booming location for the entertainment industry. Building on its long history as a musical powerhouse, Georgia has become the undisputed “Hollywood of the South,” with film and television generating billions of dollars each year - an astounding $9.5 billion in 2018, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. The economic impact extends even further when considering the thousands of jobs that are created as a result of the Georgia entertainment industry. This is due, in part, to one of “the most competitive tax incentive programs in the country, along with a broad network of production and recording facilities, a large and skilled workforce, the latest production equipment and suppliers, gaming and interactive media developers, and technology and support services.”

This skilled workforce is being trained at schools across the state. While it is unusual for a K-12 school to have a recording studio, an increasing number of high schools and career centers in America are creating audio education programs to give students a head start on entertainment-centric college curricula and careers.

Determining how to offer in-person learning in a safe environment was a huge challenge during the approach to the 2020-2021 school year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools faced many new and unique obstacles and opportunities. Mount Paran Christian School serves as a case study in how to deliver on programming while still meeting the rigorous demands of health and safety compliance, particularly with Christian Life events and events within the arts, both of which primarily took place indoors in the theatre of the Murray Arts Center. The school found itself balancing health and safety restrictions with staying focused on offering the fantastic programming families and students expected. What follows are key lessons learned to help schools remain innovative, no matter the situation, in providing new ways to execute great programming without missing a beat.

Innovation may be the buzzword du jour, but, for forward-thinking schools, innovation is ingrained within curriculum, allowing for the exploration, creation, and implementation of solutions to real-world problems. For Mount Paran Christian School, innovative learning takes many forms in the classroom, including a very real, hands-on approach for high school business students through the Roost Coffee Co.

Often, when we hear the word innovation, our minds immediately journey to the realm of technology. However, innovation should not be limited to technology integration. Rather, innovation should be an innovative mechanism for advancing areas a school community deems important.

Look anywhere in education today. The words innovate and innovation are displayed everywhere. For some, innovation in education is a fashionable trend. For others, innovation ensures students are prepared for jobs in a world of work where science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) are dominant. For Mount Paran Christian School, we have taken a different approach to innovation, STEAM, and education as a whole. 

 

Financing an independent school education may seem unattainable, but affording private school can actually be within reach. While the cost of private school is an important commitment for families, it is the aim of many academic institutions to work with families to make an independent school education possible.

"[Private school] is a serious investment for a family. But to have our child surrounded by other students who are there to learn from teachers who are invested in how well my son does in and out of the classroom has been a true blessing. The evidence of [schools like] MPCS being 'worth it' is in the relationships he has built, the spiritual growth he has experienced, and the bright academic future that college will give him."

—David Epps, Parent

When teachers from various disciplines combine their efforts and plan course curriculum to coordinate across fields of learning, students are the beneficiaries. While it takes time and effort, cross-disciplinary collaboration offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a subject. For Mount Paran Christian School third-graders, appreciation for nature has only strengthened because of a collaborative butterfly project between Spanish and Science classes.

After a lot of preparation, lower school students at Mount Paran Christian School now hear the charming call of dozens of baby bluebird hatchlings around the 68-acre school campus. February was bluebird month in Georgia, when the brilliantly-hued Eastern Bluebird began the process of seeking nesting spots and crafting its signature cup-shaped nest in anticipation of warmer weather. MPCS students are now front-and-center this spring, supporting the bluebirds and witnessing the entire hatching process.

Mount Paran Christian School is a college-preparatory school for students in preschool through grade 12, but our aim is to do more than simply prepare graduates for college admission. Our goal is to find colleges that offer the best possible fit for each graduating senior. We help students cultivate their talents and interests to find their academic and extracurricular strengths and passions, then focus on colleges that will best meet student goals. College selection can be overwhelming for families, but the MPCS college counseling department helps facilitate the process. By answering questions and providing advice, students are guided in their choice of coursework and ultimately towards the college that is just the right fit.

Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together.
— Ephesians 4:2-3

After a bleak winter, the cheerful, sunny yellow of daffodil blossoms are a sure sign that spring is upon us. On the Mount Paran Christian School campus, more than one thousand such reminders sprout each year. The blossoms have special meaning for preschool and lower school students at MPCS, with the daffodils serving as a reminder to love and respect others. As part of the WingTips “Innovation in Education'' series, which explores best practices for teaching and learning through real-world examples, read on to discover how planting daffodils teaches the youngest of learners empathy.

Parents - it’s decision time. You’ve explored the educational opportunities available for your child(ren) – from the local public school, to online, homeschool, or charter schools – and have winnowed your choices to a list of independent schools. You’ve read blogs about how to choose the best private school for your family and have further narrowed your focus to a Christian school to align with your family values. So, where do you go from here? Why should Mount Paran Christian School - the largest private Christian school in Cobb county - be at the top of your school choice list? Read on for first-hand experiences from current students and why parents chose Mount Paran Christian School for their children’s education.

In an hour-plus conversation full of wisdom, laughter, and anecdotes, New York Times best-selling author and clinical psychologist Dr. Wendy Mogel explained the premise of one of her most popular books, The Blessing of a B Minus. To put it plainly, today’s standards imply that the “B” in a B- stands for “bad,” but Dr. Mogel attests that’s simply untrue.

How does a growing high school — with 450 students learning in a space originally designed for just 250 — plan for a building expansion that captures the imagination of its community, while also implementing thoughtful design to prepare students for a 21st-century education? Mount Paran Christian School asked this very question as the school undertook the seemingly insurmountable task of creating a new, purposeful educational facility that would house radical spaces to learn, test, collaborate, and grow. The process for designing the new Murray Innovation Center was itself an unconventional exercise, with key takeaways that other schools and organizations might not consider before embarking upon large-scale initiatives.