The excitement of Advent’s preparation for Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Jesus is hard to replicate in a season of penance. Plans for Christmas parties and gifts and family get-togethers automatically give Advent an exciting flavor that Lent and Easter don’t quite have for children. Though prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are an integral part of Lenten practice, I believe that a family or class can integrate these into their Lenten activities in ways that arouse imagin...

February is a great month to look ahead:Why not take this month before Lent begins to plan ahead how you will celebrate the Jubilee Year of the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima in your classroom or home.2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. In honor of this important centennial, Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year from the 27th of November 2016 till the 26th of November 2017.On May 13th,...

Since 1974, the National Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week, so this year it’s January 29th through February 4th. This year’s theme is “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and Service.”Why not celebrate Catholic Schools Week and join us on the JClub journey today? We believe that part of a great Catholic education is great Catholic reading materia...

Kids are listening!It seems like such an obvious statement. Of course they are! Kids are listening to our conversations, they listen to their teachers, but they also hear the news that we are listening to, the programs we are are listening to, the conversations we are having, they read the comments we are making.And with the intensity of political discussion in these past months and the appearance of a normalized civil discourse that is disrespectful and at times vu...

Bullying is nothing new -- teachers have always had to deal with it. But cyberbullying adds a horrible twist to an old problem. Cyberbullies use communication technology to harass their victims online. Their hurtful actions can include texting or emailing threats, publishing insults on blogs and social network pages, posting private photos, and impersonating others online in order to embarrass them.Modern devices allow cyberbullies to torment their victims at any time of a day, away from adult s...

Expensive sneakers. Designer clothes. Cutting-edge devices. Popular toys.If you think your students care too much about these kinds of material things, you're probably right. Studies show that today's kids tend to be more materialistic than children of the past. They often judge others by their possessions and assign a higher social status to those who have the "coolest" stuff. Many mistakenly believe that owning the right things—and plenty of them!—will lead to hap...