New York City Schools have just blocked access to ChatGPT for all students and faculty. If you aren’t a technical person, you may be asking, “What’s ChatGPT?” If you are a tech person, skim over the next paragraph because you’ve probably been hearing about nothing but ChatGPT since last November when it was released.
Topics: technology, robots, engineering, teaching, education, computer science, high school, parenting, internet safety, academics, writing skills, Artificial Intelligence
We recently posted a blog entitled, Reading Aloud to Your Pre-Kindergarten Student. Yes, research supports the notion that this act improves cognitive development, but who needs an excuse to cuddle up with a wee one during the holidays or any other time of year!
As a follow up, Lower School Librarian, Betty Castello, put together this list of some of her favorite holiday-themed book recommendations for the little elves in your life. Book descriptions are courtesy of amazon.com.
Topics: christmas, elementary, elementary school, parenting, reading, kindergarten ready, activities with kids, pre-kindergarten, family, winter break, Community
This holiday season, give your pre-kindergarten student the gift of a lifetime–give them a story a day. Whether it’s reading aloud to them at bedtime, listening to an audio book in the car, or sharing a story during bath time, research overwhelmingly supports the fact that exposing young children to aural storytelling at an early age, improves their cognitive development.
Topics: parenting, reading, activities with kids, pre-K, family, preschool
Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, NJ, will be actively participating in Computer Science Education Week from December 5-11, 2022, with daily coding and computing activities across all grade levels. Parents and caregivers can reinforce these in-school activities with assignments at home. Here are some suggestions and some helpful web resources.
Topics: technology, robots, engineering, education, computer science, STEM, Math, elementary school, project-based learning, activities with kids, steam, family
"No matter what field you're in–whether you're a scientist, a philosopher, or a linguist–whoever tells the best story is going to win. When I'm competing with all the other people, if I can make my case more clearly, and more persuasively, and actually more entertaining than anybody else, then I'm going to win that argument," says Lisa Levchuck, Upper School English Teacher at Oak Knoll. She is extolling the importance of writing skills and a skilled writer's power to persuade.
In this episode of The Happy Kids Project we learn about The Writing Center at Oak Knoll–a truly distinctive peer to peer service in the Upper School. Oak Knoll's Writing Center provides a unique opportunity for middle and high school students to take on leadership roles while supporting their peers. Hear how the Writing Center increases student confidence, leadership skills, and academic excellence in a safe and supportive space.
Topics: education, Summit NJ, building confidence, growth mindset, academics, podcast, leadership, writing skills
It’s time to give our loyal blog readers the edge on locating the best education technology gifts for their budding Scientists, Technologists, Engineers, Artists, and Mathematicians.
Every year, Santa’s Chief Technology Elf Bernard creates a list of recommendations for Santa. Miraculously, that list has somehow fallen into our hands every year for the past seven years.
This year, Santa’s North Pole Server (the one Santa uses to store and manage all the millions of Christmas lists he’s sent) was attacked. About two weeks ago, an unidentified elf opened a malicious email causing all the data on this precious server to be encrypted.
This ransomware attack put the whole Christmas operation in peril with The Clause Family and all the elves rendered incapable of checking any lists, checking them twice, and finding out who's been naughty or nice. CTE Bernard reached out to the expert tech team at Oak Knoll who were able to track down the malicious code and decrypt the data without the need for a single bitcoin in payment. As a thank you, Bernard voluntarily shared his tech recommendations (which are normally for Santa’s eyes only) with the Oak Knoll community with the caveat that we use it responsibly.
When asked if Bernard would also share the list of who’s been naughty or nice, he flatly refused. We’ll just have to assume everyone in the Oak Knoll community has been nice this year (which we think is a pretty safe bet.)
Here’s Bernard the Elf’s suggestions for best tech-related education gifts this Christmas Season across a variety of price ranges.
Topics: technology, robots, christmas, STEM, activities with kids, steam, executive functioning, Community
The start of November kicked off National Native American Heritage Month, also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. It is a time to recognize Indigenous people's history, culture, and contributions. Additionally, part of Native American Heritage Month involves reckoning with the past.
Here, we've curated a variety of resources for parents and teachers who would like to initiate conversations and learn more.
Topics: parenting, thanksgiving, activities with kids, diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, Community
Pre-kindergarten students at Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, New Jersey, are immersed in hands-on learning. Through our method of teaching, students actively engage in real-world projects, which leads to competent thinking, better management skills and understanding of complex problems.
Topics: engineering, teaching, education, STEM, classroom, elementary school, coeducation, kindergarten ready, growth mindset, pre-K, academics
Gratitude is an emotion we should express throughout the year. The days leading up to Thanksgiving, though, are an excellent opportunity to reinforce the practice of giving thanks and schedule some fun activities with your children to promote gratitude. Here are some suggestions for holding a “Gratitude Week” prior to Thanksgiving to dedicate one activity per day to remind kids of the many blessings and people that surround and support them.
Topics: faith, parenting, thanksgiving, activities with kids, things to do, family, Community
There are a variety of strategies a single-sex school can employ to capitalize on an all-girls environment and provide an array of opportunities for students to grow in confidence and hone their leadership skills. Running for office on a student-council may seem an obvious choice, but not all students have that comfort level. Oak Knoll deploys the following strategies to ensure that all students can explore leadership (whether with a lower case “l” or an upper case “L”) throughout their Middle and Upper School years.
Topics: education, all-girls, high school, independent catholic school summit nj, middle school, success skills, building confidence, leadership
