Good evening-
I hope you all had a great weekend and found some time to enjoy a little Irish culture. Let's hope this week is a full one. It has been a tough couple of weeks with snow and other interruptions. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding. Because of all of the missed days we will move the end of term 3 back to April 12 (I was hesitant to pick a date until we see what this week brings.....but I am hopeful!) The window will open at 3pm that afternoon and will close on Tuesday, April 24.
Many of you have asked about Catherine Dicken. Catherine is on an extended medical leave and will be out through April vacation. I heard from her on Friday and she sounds like she is on the mend. She is so appreciative of the support from her amazing department and I could not agree more. Thank you to all the members of the math department who have come together as a team to make sure her classes keep moving forward.
I spent some time thinking about the NEASC Self-reflection this past week as I started to upload evidence and read the work you have done. This blog post by George Couros resonated so I thought I'd share.
This week:
Erin Lachapelle and I will be out of the building Monday at a conference. Please call the office if you need anything. Lauren will be in the building.
Starting Monday, March 19 Elaine Jones, a member of the freshman class and the Project 351 representative will be holding class meetings during each break to talk to the whole student body about her clothing drive project. Check out the link to learn more about the group. She, as well as Max Palin at the middle school, are holding a clothing drive at AHS & AMS for the next two weeks. Donations will go to Cradles to Crayons. They are collecting gently used clothes and shoes as well as new socks and underwear.
AEFI & WACA will be in the building filming in preparation for the AEFI Gala. They are hoping to showcase some of the items they have funded for us!
The Clocker Classic is Wednesday, March 21 starting at 6:30pm. I anticipate the AHS/Mindess team will take home the trophy once again so come out and enjoy the fun if you can. Proceeds support the PTO which then supports us!
The 5-Town Special Olympics is Friday, March 23 and as always we hope to send our athletes off in style! The bus will pick them up at approximately 8:25am so we will call for anyone who wants to participate in the parade to line the halls at about that time. I will let you know the parade route later this week!
Teachpoint: There are close to 400 unsigned documents in TeachPoint. Please go in this week and make sure you have everything updated and signed. Thank you!
As a reminder John Trautwein, of the "Will to Live Foundation" will present on March 26.
Following this event we will begin the process of implementing the SOS (Signs of Suicide) program to the 10th grade. This is the evidence-based program we began at AHS last school year.
MCAS...is coming. Please make sure to review all of the information Lauren sent last week. Check the schedule carefully and let her know ASAP if there is a conflict with your assigned proctor times. This is going to be a busy Spring for the 10th grade so I want to apologize now. On top of the regular MCAS schedule we are also mandated to administer the English Field Test for MCAS 2.0. The Field Test will happen between April 24 and May 1. The schedule is being reviewed by the English department now and will be shared with all soon. Thanks to Lauren and Erin for the scheduling work they have done! It is NOT easy.
I hope you all had a great weekend and found some time to enjoy a little Irish culture. Let's hope this week is a full one. It has been a tough couple of weeks with snow and other interruptions. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding. Because of all of the missed days we will move the end of term 3 back to April 12 (I was hesitant to pick a date until we see what this week brings.....but I am hopeful!) The window will open at 3pm that afternoon and will close on Tuesday, April 24.
Many of you have asked about Catherine Dicken. Catherine is on an extended medical leave and will be out through April vacation. I heard from her on Friday and she sounds like she is on the mend. She is so appreciative of the support from her amazing department and I could not agree more. Thank you to all the members of the math department who have come together as a team to make sure her classes keep moving forward.
I spent some time thinking about the NEASC Self-reflection this past week as I started to upload evidence and read the work you have done. This blog post by George Couros resonated so I thought I'd share.
This week:
Erin Lachapelle and I will be out of the building Monday at a conference. Please call the office if you need anything. Lauren will be in the building.
Starting Monday, March 19 Elaine Jones, a member of the freshman class and the Project 351 representative will be holding class meetings during each break to talk to the whole student body about her clothing drive project. Check out the link to learn more about the group. She, as well as Max Palin at the middle school, are holding a clothing drive at AHS & AMS for the next two weeks. Donations will go to Cradles to Crayons. They are collecting gently used clothes and shoes as well as new socks and underwear.
AEFI & WACA will be in the building filming in preparation for the AEFI Gala. They are hoping to showcase some of the items they have funded for us!
The Clocker Classic is Wednesday, March 21 starting at 6:30pm. I anticipate the AHS/Mindess team will take home the trophy once again so come out and enjoy the fun if you can. Proceeds support the PTO which then supports us!
The 5-Town Special Olympics is Friday, March 23 and as always we hope to send our athletes off in style! The bus will pick them up at approximately 8:25am so we will call for anyone who wants to participate in the parade to line the halls at about that time. I will let you know the parade route later this week!
Teachpoint: There are close to 400 unsigned documents in TeachPoint. Please go in this week and make sure you have everything updated and signed. Thank you!
As a reminder John Trautwein, of the "Will to Live Foundation" will present on March 26.
He will present at AHS during 3rd & 5th blocks:
F block: grades 11-12
A block: grades 9-10
He will present to coaches at 3:30pm and the community at 7pm in the AHS auditorium.
MCAS...is coming. Please make sure to review all of the information Lauren sent last week. Check the schedule carefully and let her know ASAP if there is a conflict with your assigned proctor times. This is going to be a busy Spring for the 10th grade so I want to apologize now. On top of the regular MCAS schedule we are also mandated to administer the English Field Test for MCAS 2.0. The Field Test will happen between April 24 and May 1. The schedule is being reviewed by the English department now and will be shared with all soon. Thanks to Lauren and Erin for the scheduling work they have done! It is NOT easy.
Need a new book after all of the reading you have been doing during the snow days? You're in luck!
The Class of 2019 is having a Book Fair! Use the code 12343737 online from March 17th- 21st and a portion of your purchase will be donated to the class of 2019!
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.
Insecure: The New Mental Health Crisis
Although today’s teens stay in close touch with their friends via text, snapchat and other social media, they are lonelier than they were just five years ago. Technology can connect people but it can also show up-to-the-minute what they are missing out on. Kids are feeling left-out which then leads to feelings of loneliness. This loneliness can lead to depression. The number of teens who agreed with the phrase, “I feel like I can’t do anything right”, has skyrocketed since 2011. Social media might play a role in these feelings of inadequacy: many people only post their successes online so teens don’t realize that their friends fail at things too.
Rates of depression and anxiety have increased in high school and college students over the past five years. Could this be because more students are seeking help and talking about their mental health? Maybe. Could smartphones also be contributing to this? Maybe. It is fairly clear that texting and social media can cause heightened anxiety and insecurity in teens - wondering why someone did not answer a text or why they did not get “likes’ from certain people on Instagram; trying to take the “perfect” selfie to post. Anxiety can be a precursor to depression. Depression can lead to self-harm, eating disorders and suicide - all of which have increased in recent years.
Smart phone use is also likely contributing to teens getting less sleep than ever before.Teens admit that they are up until 2 or 3 am on their phones, hiding under their covers so their parents do not know. Fifty seven percent more teens were sleep-deprived in 2015 than in 1991. Sleep deprivation is linked to compromised thinking and reasoning, weight gain, high blood pressure, susceptibility to illness and depression and anxiety. It’s not just new moms or people who work 10-12 hours per day who are walking around sleep-deprived these days, it’s our children.
What can we, as parents, do?
It’s becoming fairly clear - encourage your children to put down their phones and do something else. Talk about the posts they see on social media, have discussions about how these posts make them feel. Encourage your children to talk about their feelings with a trusted adult. And, it bears repeating, do not allow your teens to keep their phones in their bedroom at night.
This sentence is a good summary: Like the ducks they imitate in their selfies, iGen’ers are calm and composed on the surface but paddling madly underneath.
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