Students are, after all, just kids. Class bells, grass stains, and basketball practice comprise hours of their day, but don't be fooled into thinking that their flurry of activity equals a laid-back attitude on their part.

Kids (a.k.a. students) have opinions too, as every teacher or parent well knows. These opinions rain down in seemingly incessant variety: opinions on clothes, opinions on food, opinions on rules, and yes, opinions on learning. Teachers are challenged daily with the wide variety and a diverse classroom of students....

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It's so easy to forget to pray and even easier to forget to acknowledge answered prayers. As an educator, the days may seem to blur one into the next. Before you know it, your head may hit the pillow, and another opportunity to pray or thank God may have passed. Praying doesn't have to be a ceremony or take a long time. It can be just a simple as one sentence said as you are walking down the hall, driving in your car on the way home, or while you're grading papers....

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How often do you seize the opportunity to teach in the midst of difficult worldwide events? Do you take the opportunity to explore and explain history as it happens?

Events such as the recent oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico allow teachers to design powerful lessons worth teaching and learning. Moreover, helping students turn negative events into positive learning experiences is a practice that can be used their entire lives. Since issues like this affect students in real time, students become personal investors in their learning. ...

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It's time for a pop quiz. Why do students attend your Christian school? Is it for a better educational experience, smaller class sizes, college preparation, better test scores, or a more rigorous curriculum? Hint: this is a trick question. The answer is none of the above. Parents choose to enroll because they want their children to be taught a faith-based education with Christian values and morals....

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Everyone seems to talk a lot about 21st century skills these days, but defining them is not easy. Employers everywhere are looking for ideal candidates, those with technology-based, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

The experience of randomly searching the Internet does not adequately prepare students to make good decisions about information relevance or to solve complicated problems, nor does it prepare them for real life situations that will require a ready knowledge of technology use to succeed....

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Perhaps you've seen it in the news lately, the increasing problem of bullying at schools. Tragically, students are beginning to take matters into their own hands, committing suicide to stop the abuse. How do eleven to fifteen-year-olds get to this point?

It's hard to face. Bullying is not just a public school issue; it's a universal issue. Unfortunately, Christian schools are not immune. In a study by the National Center for Education Statistics, differences were not detected between public and private school students' reports of being bullied at school....

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R u a txter? Chances are your Christian school students are, and maybe even some of you Christian school teachers are too. While some of us are digital natives, others of us are immigrants to this new, foreign land of tech-driven writing.

Not everyone thinks texting is the hottest thing since sliced bread. Some still struggle with finer points of its use, especially with texting's inconsistent use of grammar and constant ability to distract, and perhaps some will never embrace this thumb-based communication format. They may dislike spelling incorrectly or think it's too time consuming to locate and "type" on their phones. ...

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Are you thinking of starting a Christian school or just looking for ideas on how to maintain a healthy growing school?

Alpha Omega Publications has a tool to help: a guidebook for Christian schools. No matter if you have thousands of students or a one-room schoolhouse, AOP's School Development Kit is packed with hundreds of ideas to help with planning, policies, and development....

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You know the look. You ask for a student to volunteer to explain something in class, but instead, a bunch of eyes look down at the floor. Avoidance is the easy way out. Is your Christian school doing the same thing with volunteering?

Summer brings wonderful opportunities to help others in need, whether locally or within a national organization. No matter whether you're helping the Red Cross, serving at local food pantries, mowing elderly community members' lawns, or traveling to a different state to help with a natural disaster, volunteering is the perfect way to express Christ's love and message of hope with others. Demonstrating a spirit of service at your Christian school will help teach your students the importance of giving time for someone else in need....

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Wondering what's really in Switched-On®? Trying to figure out lesson plans or just curious where fractions begin in math or when adjectives are discussed in language arts? Do you you want to compare how Switched-On curriculum is structured with other curriculums?

Did you know there is a free Switched-On scope and sequence right on the Alpha Omega Publications® website to help you determine what's in every Switched-On course? Here are the directions to find them!...

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