Hi Everyone,
Welcome back from Winter Break, and welcome to 2019. Our family avoided any long-distance travel over the break, and our time in and around our home can be best summarized by our youngest son Parker’s recent declaration that, “there’s no such thing as eating too much chocolate.” In between too-long stretches of eating things with high concentrations of sugar, a vast array of bread products, and a whole lot of cheese, I used the break as an opportunity to catch up on a bit of reading - both for pleasure, and to stay on top of topics and ideas that might be directly related to our shared world of parenting, education, and hoping to stay somewhat current with the lives of our children. This reading goal of mine was aided by holiday gifts from a few good friends, one of whom gave me a copy of Educated, by Tara Westover, and another friend who gave me Tommy Orange’s There There, both of which are on quite a few “Top Ten” lists. While I can’t easily share with everyone my copies of those books, I can share links to several pieces that may be of interest to some or many of you. In no particular order:
Two articles on the rapidly growing industry of ESports (competitive video gaming),which is quickly nearing the $1 billion mark, from new efforts by organizations and businesses to create a “Little League” equivalent for this new arena, to e-sports scholarships now being offered by colleges and universities across the country.
On strategies and tips for communicating effectively with your teenager, this New York Times article offers this psychologists’ take on how to frame the advice and guidance you hope your kids might consider.
This is a pretty intense New York Times piece from late October that presents growing concerns by technologists about the impact of smartphones on the healthy development of young people, and a related Washington Post piece that looks at why “cellphones and sleepovers are such a bad mix” and makes a recommendation for how families (especially sleepover hosts) may want to adapt their approach to supervision of these get togethers.
Finally, the Deseret News is a newspaper based out of Salt Lake City, Utah and they just completed a yearlong series, Generation Vexed, about why and in what ways teens are struggling with record levels of anxiety. This series includes over twenty pieces that examines the topic from a variety of angles and perspectives - gender, young children to college-aged children, debates about medication and other treatments, and strategies for families (to name a few).
As we return from the Break hopefully you can still find a few moments of quiet here and there to read any of the above pieces that pique your interest.
An important note about this week: our last set of parent-teacher conferences is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, January 3, from 5pm to 8pm. This is our second year with an evening session and I want to provide a reminder of what this means for our school schedule on Thursday and Friday.
-
Thursday, January 3 is a full day of school from 8:00am to 2:36pm.
-
Parent-teacher conferences scheduled for Thursday, January 3 will be held during the 5pm to 8pm window.
-
The following day, Friday, January 4, is an early release day for all students and staff. School will be from 8:00am to 11:06am, and buses will be available for their “regular routes.” Please note that students at the High School and the elementary schools have do not have early release schedules for that day.
Here’s additional updates and reminders for the first few weeks of January, and then a bit of important information about our annual Signs of Suicide (SOS) program for 7th grade students.
There is no school for all Acton-Boxborough students on Monday, January 21 for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
The RJG Winter Band Concert is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, January 16, and the Winter Chorus and String Ensemble Concert is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, January 23. Both events begin at 7pm and taking place in the RJ Grey auditorium.
The very popular Ski and Board Club has its first session next Tuesday, January 8. Please remember that ski and board gear can not be brought on AB buses in the morning, and that means on Tuesdays Ski and Board Club members are dropped off in the morning with quite a bit of gear. For those of you planning to drop off kids and gear in the lower parking lot, it would be immensely helpful if the gear was organized in a way that supported a speedy drop-off. The best case scenario is if you have those ski bags that package everything up all nice and are easy to carry. I’ll do my best to help kids with getting gear out of the trunk, and anything that you can do in advance would be much appreciated. There are also some families who choose to drop off their child’s ski/boarding gear later in the day and bring it to the auditorium where it is stored.
We had our latest round of Everyday Leaders take place right before Winter Break. It was great to spend some time with a number of our students and see how the year is going, and to also get some of their initial feedback on different parts of the RJ Grey experience. Congratulations to this group of Everyday Leaders: Robin Zhang, Anthony Cronin, Nisha Bhat, Miller Lillie, Nakisa Razban, Lily Newcombe, Emma Lent, Ethan Xia, Grace O’Sullivan, Noam Worcel, and Anna Campbell.
I want to provide families with another preview of a letter that families of 7th grade students will be receiving later this week by email as well as US Postal Mail, that discusses our school’s implementation of the Signs of Suicide (SOS) lesson and mental health screening tool. Before the Winter Break, I provided an overview of our annual Signs of Suicide lesson and the Brief Screening for Adolescent Depression to students in 7th and 9th grade. The Signs of Suicide Prevention Program is a universal program for middle and high school students that has proven effective in helping students who are concerned about themselves or a friend. It is the only school-based suicide-prevention curriculum listed by the Substance Abuse and Medical Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) in its National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices that addresses suicide risk and depression. At RJ Grey, the program is scheduled this year to take place in 7th grade team classes during the week of January 21 and January 28, with two teams scheduled per week. For parents and guardians who would like to preview the Signs of Suicide lesson and the video used during the lesson, we are hosting an information session on Tuesday, January 8 at 6pm in the Junior High Library. Joining us that evening will be a program coordinator from the Riverside Trauma Center. At that session we typically provide an overview of the program and answer questions that parents/guardians might have. Families of 7th grade students will be receiving an email letter tomorrow (Wednesday) about the SOS lesson and mental health screening tool, along with a consent form that we need parents and guardians to return by Friday, January 11th. Families will also receive a copy of the letter via US Postal Mail on Thursday or Friday. The consent form allows you to select your child’s level of participation in the program.
Separately, and in support of our efforts with student mental health, Eliot Community Human Services (with a location in Concord), with a Healthy Teen Initiative Grant from the AB United Way, is continuing to offer suicide prevention workshops for members of our adult community, with another session scheduled for Tuesday, January 29 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, also in our Junior High Library. QPR - Question, Persuade and Refer is a community-wide program that teachers the warning signs of suicide and an effective emergency response. People trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade and refer someone for help. Please note that while it has a shared goal, the Parent Information session about our SOS has a very different focus, and is narrowly focused on providing families with an overview of our plans with students. In the coming weeks I’ll provide a few more reminders about this opportunity and encouragement to attend.
Finally, before the start of conferences on December 18 we had our annual Staff Appreciation Luncheon which was hosted by our amazing PTSO. Educators are no different when it comes to our stomachs being the quickest way into our hearts. Par for the course, the food that was made and donated by our families was much appreciated and quickly consumed. Many thanks to parents Tracey Estabrook and Mai Nguyen for taking on the coordination, planning, and set up of this event, and the many families who contributed to an inviting and filling spread.
Have a great week, everyone. Welcome back.
Cheers,
