Is my child on track with his reading skills? It is natural that parents and teachers want to measure student literacy. You may have heard your student’s teacher use the term “dibels” before. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills and is pronounced, ironically, “dibbles.” (I say “ironically” because it is a […]
Blog
Why Rigor Matters
Should K-12 education be rigorous? What comes to your mind when you think of “rigor”—dusty books, lists of names to memorize, and an exacting school marm holding a ruler? Or is it a responsive class of students who are engaging in a lively conversation with the teacher? Controversy or Emphasis? Early last year, I heard […]
Why Do We Follow A Strategic Plan?
Each summer, Cedar Classical Academy crafts a strategic plan for the year. What is a strategic plan and how does it benefit you and your students? A strategic plan is a list of specific and measurable goals that direct incremental improvements and initiatives at each level of the Academy’s governance: Board of Directors, Head of […]
Math Facts: Proficiency Through Memorization
By Kim Sukta and Caroline Hummel Lately, I have been saying—jokingly, but actually quite seriously—that I want a sign outside of my 4th grade math classroom that reads, “You must know your multiplication facts to ride this ride!” Over the course of my teaching career, I have seen many students excel at math and I […]
Cultivation of Virtue
Key to our mission statement is the word “cultivate.” Our mission states that we assist you as parents by cultivating in students the intellectual and moral virtue necessary for a well-ordered understanding of God, human nature, and the world. What does it mean to cultivate virtue? This fall, I have been meeting weekly with parents to discuss C.S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man. In […]
Why Do Folk Songs Belong in a Classical Christian Education?
As a part of the Kodály-based music education at Cedar Classical Academy, folk songs are utilized to teach musical concepts. Folk songs originate from a particular region and are passed down through generations by means of oral tradition. Aside from their value as a stepping stone towards music literacy, why do these songs rightly belong […]
Eight Tips for Less-Hectic Mornings (From the Parents Who Know Best!)
When I drive to school in the mornings, I do not have students in my car and it is still hard some mornings to be on time! That got me wondering what mornings are like for the other families in the Cedar Classical Academy community who do have students. I asked the six families with […]
Why Did You Assign This Book?
“Why did you assign this book?” At Cedar Classical Academy, we choose books for each grade’s literature curriculum by committee. Individual teachers do not independently choose their own literature books, but occasionally do have the freedom to select books from among the larger list. We follow the principle of multum non multa, which is Latin […]
Why the CLT? Pt. III: Why We Adopted It
When Cedar Classical Academy’s founding team began planning the school in 2016, we did not expect to adopt a standardized test for the school. We knew enough of the respective messaging and approaches of The College Board and ACT to be skeptical about their compatibility with our mission and goals for our own graduates. By […]
Why the CLT? Part II: Who and How it Serves
Classic or not, what is the point of a standardized test and why should you (and your student) care? The Classic Learning Test (CLT) gives the school administration and teachers another look at our students’ academic abilities and achievements from outside of our own institution. From a curriculum planning perspective, the CLT offers another point […]
Why the CLT? Part 1: Why It Started
In the early 2010s, former public school teacher Jeremy Tate began to question why American education had grown so bland and utilitarian. He came to the conclusion that high-stakes testing was partially to blame. High-stakes testing drives K-12 curriculum. David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, has stated publicly that “teachers will teach towards the […]
Great Things Ahead in 2024
Five Years of Soul Formation Established in 2019, Cedar Classical Academy has been forming students’ souls and training students’ loves for nearly five years. This work is good work, and there is no lack of it. We currently have 104 students enrolled in grades K-10. This year Cedar employs 18 people dedicated to our mission […]
Why We Say “Well”
Every morning at Cedar Classical Academy, the Cedar community—staff, students, and parents—gathers together in the Great Hall for Opening Ceremony. During Opening Ceremony, we sing a hymn, recite a patriotic recitation or sing a patriotic song, pray together, and sing again while students walk to class. Sometimes students or staff share an individual or all-class […]
Homework Habits
As we soldier on through the second quarter of a new academic year, it is worthwhile to consider how we, as parents, can help our students establish good homework habits. Recovering Delight in Homework? I had the pleasure of being present in the first grade math class at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year […]
Handwriting
Within the first week of school in my classroom, I begin teaching the first and second graders how to hold their pencils correctly and how to form their letters properly. Why do I begin so early? Because many of them enter my classroom putting their index and middle fingers on their pencils. The longer they […]
We’re Moving!
Since Cedar Classical Academy opened its doors in 2019, it has grown from 31 students in grades K-6 to 91 students in grades K-9 and expects 100+ students in grades K-10 this fall. This growth prompted Cedar to pursue additional classroom space in 2021. Thanks to sacrificial donors, we raised $430,000 toward that end during […]
Christmas Gift Guide 2022: Staff Picks for Kids
Welcome to Cedar Classical Academy’s Christmas Gift Guide! Our staff has compiled gift recommendations for the children in your life. Keep scrolling for our practical, tried-and-true, and sometimes unconventional picks for this Christmas season! This post is not sponsored. For even more gift ideas, check out our 2020 guide and our 2020 read-aloud and book […]
Classical Education 101: Crash Course
We always say that classical education is better experienced than explained… but we also want you to be able to explain it! Classical Education 101, a new 4-week course that we are offering for parents, is an opportunity to learn alongside other parents how to craft and practice your own explanation of classical education – […]
Kodály Who?
If you are a Cedar parent, you may have heard your student sing about a horse that caught a whooping cough, rain that will not go away, Queen Caroline, or John Kanaka. Learning these folk songs is part of the Kodály (pronounced code-EYE) approach that is focused on singing-centered music literacy. Folk songs (our musical mother […]
Why We Have High Expectations in Kindergarten
This is adapted from a talk that Mrs. Ackerman gave at a parent education event called Lightning Talks on September 28, 2022. Watch it here. Download our Kindergarten Readiness Checklist here. On the front end I want to warn you that this talk may make kindergarten sound like a battlefield, but in this short time […]