Good to Go Blog
At St. John's, good knows no bounds. It's greater than great academics. Here are snapshots of what it means at the Prep. Something amazing happens when you're open to good!
Summer's Coming. What to Read?
During the school year, students dive into books that are carefully selected by teachers to illuminate a topic, provide a mirror to examine their own experiences, or open a window into an unfamiliar world. When the warm summer months roll around, however, there are so many good options that it can be hard to decide. But for English teacher Jay Pawlyk, one of the best parts about summer reading is choice.
“Summer is an opportunity to wander around libraries and bookstores and choose …
The Ties that Bind
It’s not every day that a student-athlete breaks a school record. In fact, it took 11 years for the St. John’s Prep 50-yard freestyle swim record to fall. But Mitchell Lockwood’s spectacular sprint did a lot more than prompt an update to the Eagles all-time record board hanging in the John A. Driscoll ’90 Aquatics Center. In a hearthwarming example of how fully St. John’s is, all at once, a school, a family and a worldwide network, Mark Scalise ’08, the ……
Curating the Right Stuff
When it comes to proven recipes for personal and professional success, St. John’s Prep alumnus Pat Connaughton '11 is a great guy to emulate. After all, he remains the Prep's all-time leading scorer in basketball, was drafted by both Major League Baseball and the NBA out of Notre Dame and he's currently averaging career highs in points, rebounds and assists for the Eastern Conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks. But what's particularly exciting about Connaughton’s advice to young people ………
Three Solutions for Screen Time Balance
When it comes to managing young adults’ screen time, Kerry Gallagher, the Prep’s Assistant Principal for teaching and learning, says schools and parents are best served by clear and open communication maintained on a regular basis. At home, agreeing on a set of expectations is a terrific foundation, but routine check-in conversations can be invaluable to maintaining healthy behavior when it comes to balancing screen time with general productivity, wellness and overall face-to-face ……
Why Cooperative Learning Works
It’s a classroom technique that goes by a number of aliases—peer-to-peer, small-group and team-based learning, to name a few—but at its core, the concept is rooted in cooperation—a classroom priority at St. John’s Prep that’s been proven to work.
A synthesis of 168 studies conducted over the course of 73 years by researchers at the University of Minnesota found that cooperative learning is almost 150-percent more effective than instructor-focused learning in ……
Staying Power
The lessons from a summer read three years ago are still fresh for Conor Beswick ’22
It’s been a couple months since St. John’s students completed the community-wide summer reading discussion, but if Conor Beswick '22 is any indication, engaging in the themes and principles of a summer read can leave a lasting impression. In fact, the Prep summer read just before he entered the Middle School in 2015 still drives some of Beswick’s thinking.
The Andover resident’s ……
How should students define success? Learning.
A growth mindset is rooted in the belief that we can learn from our mistakes. There are important lessons to be gained when we fall short of expectations, our own or those of others. Everyone can grow by applying the insights we gain when things don’t go as planned.
Teacher practice has a big impact on pupils’ mindset, which is why at St. John’s Prep, teachers encourage students to view personal success in terms of the journey toward becoming their best selves. Why is this so ……
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