“The teachers and staff define this school, making it a caring place. A safe place. The kind of place that can change a child’s life.” Check out our latest blog post on a TJS family’s journey from struggle to safety.
Joy Blog
The Latest at TJS!
In this blog post, we share how The Joy School “measures the gain, not the gap”, and creates a support system that sets students up for success!
Read about The Joy School’s reflective journey through our current reaccreditation process for the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest.
Why Joy - The Value of TJS
“The teachers and staff define this school, making it a caring place. A safe place. The kind of place that can change a child’s life.” Check out our latest blog post on a TJS family’s journey from struggle to safety.

In this blog post, a former parent shares her TJS experience and her son becoming a “happier, more balanced child!”

In this blog post, we share how TJS works to unlock their students’ learning potential!

In this blog post, we share the first part of our Why Joy campaign – a series dedicated to showing the life-long value of The Joy School for our students and their families. Read on to learn how the academic success and developmental support students experience at TJS allows parents to “get their child back”.
#JoyFromAfar

In this #JoyfromAfar blog post, Christina Medina, Learning Specialist, explains how she developed an online learning program that worked best for her students, striking a balance between providing social opportunities with learning opportunities through live and on-demand videos and giving students chances to have fun while learning, even at a distance.

In this #JoyfromAfar blog post, Laura Gray, Dean of Students and Family Support, and Jonathan Li, Middle School Learning Specialist, describe the ways they support students' social and emotional growth by hosting virtual hangout meetings during The Joy School's COVID-19 closure.

In our #JoyFromAfar series, we discuss The Joy School's transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this blog post, learn about how TJS Learning Specialist Kathy Matlage worked remotely with the parent of one of her students to build a document camera, a much-needed resource for a student who was having success using manipulatives to understand math concepts in class before the school closure.
Learning & Lessons
In this blog post, we highlight our 6th graders recent work, the skills they learned along the way, and how TJS teachers include social and executive functioning components into their academic curriculum!
At TJS, our Learning Specialists serve a variety of students with different learning differences and diagnoses. In this blog post, learn how Mr. Justin, one of our Learning Specialists, has incorporated a daily mindfulness practice into his classroom that helps support students' social-emotional and academic goals.
In this blog post, Learning Specialist Ms. Farah explains why she chose a dissecting unit for her fourth and fifth graders and how it was a lesson in biology as well as a lesson in developing important social-emotional skills like self-advocacy and positive mindset.

In this blog post, Nurse Mary answers a few frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 vaccine that she has received from parents and Joy School community members.

Summer programs at The Joy School are a great way to bridge the gap between school years in a relaxed environment, and for younger students, summer programs are a great way to prepare for their first year of school. Learn more about The Joy School summer programs by reading our most recent blog post!
Mainstreaming & Moving On
In this blog post, we share how The Joy School “measures the gain, not the gap”, and creates a support system that sets students up for success!

Andrea Dorr, Transition Coordinator, explains how to navigate the high school transition process, breaking it down into five easy steps.
Culture & Values
Read about The Joy School’s reflective journey through our current reaccreditation process for the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest.
Hear from our Director of Enrollment Management, Rob Wise, on how TJS supports its staff to create a supportive workplace culture and drive student engagement.
Tools & Strategies

In this blog post, we talk with our Instructional Technologist, Christine Dinh, and discuss three assistive technology tools that can help students who have dyslexia.

In this post, we discuss scaffolding with Andrea Dorr, our Transition Coordinator and former math teacher, to help you better understand this term and help you visualize how it's used in our classrooms. We also explain the integral role scaffolding plays as Andrea evaluates students' readiness to transition into other schools.

Our speech-language team serves a very important role at The Joy School supporting teachers and leading specials classes for students called Language and Cognitive Development classes. To help build relationships with parents and provide strategies for parents to use at home that complement strategies that they're teaching in their specials classes, our speech-language team hosts coffee talks for parents. Read on to learn more!
Keys to Success

In this blog post, we share how our 4th graders built self-confidence in a TJS school play!
Events

In this blog post on our inaugural Alumni Backyard Bash, we recognize the successes of our former students and share an emotional night filled with connection, celebration, and commemoration!

Recently, our middle school students had the opportunity to attend our first in-person middle school meet-up of the year, a nerf war, on the TJS playground. Middle school meet-ups offer students the ability to practice social skills in a fun, real-life way, so it's a true JOY to offer these events in-person again. Read through this Q&A blog post with Program Director Elyse Trusell to learn more about the unique benefits of our middle school meet-ups for students, how we're keeping students safe at these events and plans for future meet-ups.