Good evening-
It's hard to believe we are heading into the last week before February vacation. Ms. Chaney
and I will both be away next week so the front office will be closed. The building will be
open typical vacation hours, 8am-2:45pm. As always, facilities does appreciate not having
people in the building so they can do the work they need to do. I will have limited to access
to email as I will be out of the country so please reach out to Lauren and Erin the event of
an emergency.
Parent-teacher conferences:
As a reminder conferences are scheduled this year on Wednesday, February 28 from 6-8pm.
Parents have been asked to schedule an appointment if they need to discuss an academic concern
or an override request. All faculty must plan to be present even if your schedule is not full.
Student Course Selection:
Thank you for the time you put into Course Registration. I certainly recognize it was a busy
time of the year...but aren't they all. Please let me know if you need to make any changes to
your selections in the next couple of weeks. Students will be approving recommendations until
this Friday, February16 and the window will be open to parents following February break.
We anticipate having more concrete numbers for our courses by the end of March.
We will return from break to a very difficult anniversary for our community. Brendan Petry died by suicide the Monday after break last year, on February 27. We have recently consulted with Riverside
Trauma, as we have done every step of the way, and they do not recommend doing any kind of
memorial or moment of silence. We are following their recommendation to reach out to his closest
friends to see what they would like to do to remember him on that day. They also ask that we, as
adults, keep an extra close eye on our students and to let counseling staff know if you see someone struggling.
Thanks for all that you do each and every day. The coming break is certainly well-deserved and I hope you all have time to relax and spend quality time with family and friends.
Upcoming events:
March 1- I will participate in the Shadow a Student Challenge. This experience is amazing. Please consider giving it a try! Let me know if you would like to spend a day as a student. I'd be happy to find coverage for the day!
March 8- Faculty meeting- 7:10am
Cross-district Collaboration- 2:15pm- we will be participating in a student collaboration event...details to come
March 26- John Trautwein/Will to Live Foundation will present to the entire student body. Currently the presentation will take place during F (11-12) & A (9-10) periods although we have not finalized the schedule and are looking at presenting to the whole community during F block.
Ashland Raises Healthy & Happy Kids:
It's hard to believe we are heading into the last week before February vacation. Ms. Chaney
and I will both be away next week so the front office will be closed. The building will be
open typical vacation hours, 8am-2:45pm. As always, facilities does appreciate not having
people in the building so they can do the work they need to do. I will have limited to access
to email as I will be out of the country so please reach out to Lauren and Erin the event of
an emergency.
Parent-teacher conferences:
As a reminder conferences are scheduled this year on Wednesday, February 28 from 6-8pm.
Parents have been asked to schedule an appointment if they need to discuss an academic concern
or an override request. All faculty must plan to be present even if your schedule is not full.
Student Course Selection:
Thank you for the time you put into Course Registration. I certainly recognize it was a busy
time of the year...but aren't they all. Please let me know if you need to make any changes to
your selections in the next couple of weeks. Students will be approving recommendations until
this Friday, February16 and the window will be open to parents following February break.
We anticipate having more concrete numbers for our courses by the end of March.
We will return from break to a very difficult anniversary for our community. Brendan Petry died by suicide the Monday after break last year, on February 27. We have recently consulted with Riverside
Trauma, as we have done every step of the way, and they do not recommend doing any kind of
memorial or moment of silence. We are following their recommendation to reach out to his closest
friends to see what they would like to do to remember him on that day. They also ask that we, as
adults, keep an extra close eye on our students and to let counseling staff know if you see someone struggling.
Thanks for all that you do each and every day. The coming break is certainly well-deserved and I hope you all have time to relax and spend quality time with family and friends.
Upcoming events:
March 1- I will participate in the Shadow a Student Challenge. This experience is amazing. Please consider giving it a try! Let me know if you would like to spend a day as a student. I'd be happy to find coverage for the day!
March 8- Faculty meeting- 7:10am
Cross-district Collaboration- 2:15pm- we will be participating in a student collaboration event...details to come
March 26- John Trautwein/Will to Live Foundation will present to the entire student body. Currently the presentation will take place during F (11-12) & A (9-10) periods although we have not finalized the schedule and are looking at presenting to the whole community during F block.
Ashland Raises Healthy & Happy Kids:
In her book iGen, Jean Twenge, PhD describes today’s kids as “less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy and completely unprepared for adulthood”. Each chapter of her book theorizes on the “why” of this, backed up by research comparing the current generation with past generations. Since every child currently in the Ashland schools is part of this generation, a few weeks of this column will cover each of Twenge’s chapters which she cleverly titles beginning with the letter “i”. These will be very general, broad overviews. I encourage you to read the book for more in-depth information.
In Person No More: I’m With You But Only Virtually As I write this my son is on the PS4 playing a video game with four school friends and my daughter is FaceTiming a friend. This is how today’s kids socialize. Today’s generation is less likely to attend parties and socialize in person than previous generations. As one teen stated, “The party is constant, and it’s on Snapchat”. iGen teens are less likely to go to movies, hang out at the mall (my daughter seems to be the exclusion), drive around aimlessly together, or get together one-on-one or in small or big groups. Instead they communicate electronically.
At first glance this change seems positive - kids are not driving around with each other getting into accidents and are not partying (drinking) as much as previous generations did. Unfortunately, the rates of depression, loneliness and suicide have skyrocketed. Teens who spend more than three hours a day on electronic devices are 35% more likely to have at least one suicide risk factor. Forty six percent more teens killed themselves in 2015 than in 2007. One factor that is likely contributing to this rise in teen suicide is cyberbullying. Teens who are cyberbullied often say there is no way to get away from their tormentors - unless they give up their phones entirely.
Teens who visit social media sites every day are more likely to agree “I often feel lonely”, “I often feel left out of things”, and “I often wish I had more good friends”. They see kids doing things without them and they base their popularity and self-esteem on the number of “likes” or views on their posts. In contrast, those who spend more time with their friends or play sports are less lonely. It’s non-screen activities that help teens feel less alone, not social media.
There are certainly other factors that contribute to depression and suicide in teens (genetics, trauma, etc). And it is unrealistic to completely ban your teen from his/her phone and social media, after all this is how kids today socialize and we do not want them cut-off from their friends.
In Person No More: I’m With You But Only Virtually As I write this my son is on the PS4 playing a video game with four school friends and my daughter is FaceTiming a friend. This is how today’s kids socialize. Today’s generation is less likely to attend parties and socialize in person than previous generations. As one teen stated, “The party is constant, and it’s on Snapchat”. iGen teens are less likely to go to movies, hang out at the mall (my daughter seems to be the exclusion), drive around aimlessly together, or get together one-on-one or in small or big groups. Instead they communicate electronically.
At first glance this change seems positive - kids are not driving around with each other getting into accidents and are not partying (drinking) as much as previous generations did. Unfortunately, the rates of depression, loneliness and suicide have skyrocketed. Teens who spend more than three hours a day on electronic devices are 35% more likely to have at least one suicide risk factor. Forty six percent more teens killed themselves in 2015 than in 2007. One factor that is likely contributing to this rise in teen suicide is cyberbullying. Teens who are cyberbullied often say there is no way to get away from their tormentors - unless they give up their phones entirely.
Teens who visit social media sites every day are more likely to agree “I often feel lonely”, “I often feel left out of things”, and “I often wish I had more good friends”. They see kids doing things without them and they base their popularity and self-esteem on the number of “likes” or views on their posts. In contrast, those who spend more time with their friends or play sports are less lonely. It’s non-screen activities that help teens feel less alone, not social media.
There are certainly other factors that contribute to depression and suicide in teens (genetics, trauma, etc). And it is unrealistic to completely ban your teen from his/her phone and social media, after all this is how kids today socialize and we do not want them cut-off from their friends.
What can we, as parents, do?
- Encourage your kids to have friends over, even just to “hang out” in person. When they do this, try to get them to spend at least some of that time off screens.
- Offer to drive your kids and their friends to the mall or the movies or bowling or ice skating.
- Make sure your kids have activities or sports that involve being with other kids in person.
- When interacting with others, remind your children to look people in the eyes and put away their phones. They have less practice with social skills since so much of their socializing is virtual. Twenge writes, “In the next decade we may see more young people who know just the right emoji for a situation - but not the right facial expression”.
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