CP Students Celebrate Chinese New Year!

rom Morgan, student contributor

hinese New Year is here! This year is the year of the snake. The first day of Chinese New Year is February 10th, so the New Year is well underway.  The Chinese New Year celebration lasts over a span of two weeks. In preparation for the New Year it is a custom that Chinese people thoroughly clean their house sweeping away all of the bad luck from the previous year. After the first few days of the New Year they don’t clean their house to prevent the good luck that the New Year will bring to go away. Eight is the lucky number...

Ode To A Copious Vocabulary

Each week, CP students are challenged and tested with 10 new SAT worthy vocabulary words.  The ongoing contest is who can use them most eloquently in daily conversation... this week, Coach Newman wins.

 

I was in San Antonio watching the Boys and Girls 16s National Open the past three days.  There was a clear difference between ATA players and the other players I watched.  The milieu of ATA College Prep is one of teamwork and focus.  I have been impressed...

Meditate Your Way to Alpha

CP students practice square breathing at the beginning of each school day.  They practice Alpha on the courts before the beginning of practice.  They practice 'the golden' in between points.  What do these things have in common? They are all methods of becoming aware, eliminating distraction, and tapping into the alpha brain wave.

This article A Neural Basis for Benefits of Meditation describes a Brown University study that proposes a neurophysiological framework to explain the clinical benefits of what we already know and practice here at ATA CP.

Breathe. Think.  Be.  ~Carol

 

Would Thomas Edison Get an "A" in Light Bulb Design Class?

In all of the serious aspects of our lives, do we really remember the powerful relationship between creative play... and thinking?

Problem solving comes from exploration.  If the silly ideas of the 'impossible' are passed off and closed down in our children, they stop thinking creatively.  They become embarrassed by failure, when in reality, failure is how we learn.  Otherwise, how would we recognize success?  In today’s success-driven world, failure has gotten a negative connotation.  

Thomas Edison failed many, many, many times before developing a successful light bulb. But each time he failed, he embraced it as an opportunity to learn again…

As a Parent... What Can I Do? Try the 30-30-30 rule!

Parents often ask what they can do at home to help reinforce the ATA & CP messaging of 'strive for the pursuit of excellence' and 'study for the love of learning'.  I love this!  It is truly the village that creates the community, and together we can make a bigger impact.  One thought that comes to mind,  is to encourage them to "Show up.  Listen.  Always do your best."  Another thought that comes to mind is to model what you wish for them to do: complete tasks joyfully; study diligently, practice what you love to do; and perform with dignity.  

    In relating specifically to building better study habits, some things that you can do at home are:

1) Ask the right questions.  ie. Instead of asking "How was your day?", which may result in a one word answer of "fine",  ask "What are you reading about in History?", which requires thought and dialog. OR...

Self Actualization

“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.

.. It refers to man’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming...