CHS Student Needs Assessment

All 9-12 graders will be taking the survey that you see below during Language Classes.  Please do not answer the survey unless you are a 9-12 grader. This data will be used to better help Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Heidemann understand what the students of CHS need from us.  Thanks!

8th Graders Email Question of the Week: What Does it Mean to be a Role Model?

My 8th graders are asked to email me their answer to my class question of the week. Each student is required to answer one question each quarter. Each week, I will post some of the best email answers I receive. Below are three of the best answers I received for the question "What does it mean to be a role model?"


  "A role model to me is someone that you can look up to and will give you advice when nessesary. A role model can really be anyone that you look up to. It can be a celebrity, a teacher, it can even be a parent."


    "I feel as if a role model is someone you can look up to, whether or not it is bad or good. Good role models are people that set a good example and have somethign you can aspire to be, where as a bad role model either has achieved something you could not even hope to achieve or do and have bad "habits"." 


     "A role model to me is someone who strives, and may fail, to be a good example. They strive for excellence. Role models treat people nicely, no matter how weird or odd they are. They don't see themselves as better than anyone. All in all, role models are just nice, fun people. I think everyone should strive to be a role model because someone is always watching."

As Suicide Prevention Awareness Week Comes to a Close, Bring Someone Out of the Darkness

Short and simple video that has nothing to do with Suicide Prevention Awareness, just a great invention that is helping people enjoy a simple luxury: light in their house. But wait....does this have meaning to Suicide Prevention Awareness Week? I think so. I think we can all do something simple to provide light in people's life. I think we can seek people out who live in darkness and help them. And I don't think it takes a special person or a genius mind, I think it just takes a small amount of time to find someone who is in a dark place and try to help them see the light. We can all help be a part of the solution. Have a great weekend!

This Week is National Suicide Prevention Week

 

       This week is National Suicide Prevention Week in our country. Our recent local data on the Iowa Youth Survey shows that we have anywhere from 5-12% or our middle school students thinking about suicide, making a plan to commit suicide, or even attempting suicide. At the high school, those numbers rise to near 19% in some cases. That means 1 in 5 of our high school age students have had suicidal thoughts! If that is not scary enough, state and national averages are very similar. As a counselor, it is sad and downright scary to think that a handful of kids that walk into my classroom every class period could be contemplating suicide. This is a problem affecting our teens today. But it is not just affecting teens, it is affecting adults. Adults who have lost their job, going through family splits, and especially adults returning from active duty in combat. This is a great week for all of us to re-focus on each other and reach out to someone who is in need. People who are contemplating suicide typically do not reach out for help. They feel hopeless (Hopelessness is the #1 cause/symptom of suicidal ideation) so they will not seek help. We need to seek them. We need to help them. We need to give them hope. Only then can we start lowering those scary percentages listed earlier in this post. So please keep your eyes, ears, and hearts open this week and every week for those who need a lift. And please try to provide that lift or help them find the help they need. I have placed a link below with TONS of resources and information about suicide such as warning signs, support numbers and groups, and what the common person can do to help. Please click the link and educate yourself so that you can be part of the solution. Thank you!

Suicide prevention Week information and resources

----Lots of information on the website above, but I did want to copy/paste information from one part of the website showing you just how severe the problem is and why we need to work to prevent this from happening. See information below.

Scope of the problem

Suicide occurs when a person ends his or her life. It is the 10th leading cause of death among Americans. But suicide deaths are only part of the problem.  Suicide attempts impact a larger population—more individuals survive suicide attempts than die. And they are often seriously injured and in need of medical care.

Suicide Deaths in the United States

• There are far more suicides each year than homicides. In fact, in 2009, the number of suicides was  about twice that of homicides.
• More than  36,000 people kill themselves each year.

Suicide Attempts in the United States

• There are an estimated 12 attempted suicides for every one suicide death.
• More than 374,500 people with self-inflicted injuries are treated in emergency rooms each year.
• More than 163,000 people are hospitalized each year due to self-inflicted injury.

Age Group Differences

• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 25- to 34-year olds and the third leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year olds.
• Suicide among 45- to 54-year-olds is a growing problem; the rate of suicide is higher in this age group than in any other.
• Although older adults engage in suicide attempts less than those in other age groups, they have a higher rate of death by suicide.  Over the age of 65, there is one estimated suicide for every 4 attempted suicides compared to 1 suicide for every 100-200 attempts among youth and young adults ages 15-24.

Gender Disparities

• Men die by suicide four times as often as women and represent 78.8% of all U.S. suicides.
• Women attempt suicide two to three times as often as men.
• Suicide rates for males are highest among those aged 75 and older.
• Suicide rates for females are highest among those aged 45-54.
• Firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide among males.
• Poisoning is the most common method of suicide for females.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities

• The highest suicide rates are among American Indian/Alaskan Natives and Non-Hispanic Whites.
• Asian/Pacific Islanders have the lowest suicide rates among males while Non-Hispanic Blacks have the lowest suicide rate among females.

Warren County Health and Safety Fair Thursday, September 13th!

If you read the weekly Carlisle District information in the Wildcat Weekly, you might have noticed this. But it was buried pretty deep, so I wanted to repost it on this blog for those who missed it. Please note the information below. If you can make it, it looks like a great event for families. Spread the word!



WARREN COUNTY HEALTH AND SAFETY FAIR
The Warren County Health and Safety Fair will be held on Thursday, September 13th
from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on the Indianola Courthouse Lawn.  Please join us for the following:  

*Fire Safe house presented by Indianola Fire Dept.
*Face Painting
*Free giveaways
*Various health and safety vendors
*Fun activities for kids

*The Iowa State Patrol will sponsor a bike safety rodeo at this time.  Your child(ren) can bring their bicycle and take advanatage of the following:
--Bike safety check
--Skills test on a bike-safety obstacle course
--Free t-shirt 

JC Penneys to Offer Free Haircuts Every Sunday!

   Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about a new promotion that JC Penney's stores are doing. Well, they have done it in the past to help kids get ready for school, but now they are doing it every Sunday for kids. FREE HAIRCUTS!! In this day and age, not much is free anymore, so this is a great bonus and I hope it can help out families that might need this free service. Please click on the article below to read more and notice that the promotion will not start up until November. Hope some of you can use it!

JC Penney's free haircut Sundays click here!

The Recruiters are Coming!!!

It's that time of year again!  College and military recruiters will soon be visiting the Counseling office at the High School.  Visiting with recruiters is a great way to find out information about a college.  Juniors and Seniors are invited to come meet with recruiters, just get a pass from either of the Counselors.  Here's a list of upcoming recruiters:
9/13- University of Iowa 11am
9/20- Drake University 9am
9/20- Marines (available during lunch in the commons)
9/25- Iowa Central Community College 10am
9/27- Indian Hills Community College 11am
9/27- Avila University 1:30pm
9/27- Coe College 2pm
10/1- Truman State 1pm
10/4- Iowa Wesleyan 9am
10/4- Buena Vista University 2pm
10/5- Simpson College 1pm
10/18- Northwest Missouri State 11am
10/23- Aveda Institute 9am
10/24- Hawkeye Community College 10:30am

Also- if you want to find out about a lot of different colleges in one place, check out the local college fairs.  The Golden Circle College Fair hosts over 150 different schools at HyVee Hall on Sunday, September 30th from 12:30-3. Looking for a Christian College?  Check out the Christian College Fair on Monday, October 1st from 6:30-8:30 at the Des Moines Christian School.

Happy hunting!

Autism and Bullying, a CNN story

   Thank you to a middle school parent who emailed me a CNN article about students with autism and the higher likelihood of those students being targets and victims of school bullying. Please click on the link below to read the article in full and as a parent or reader of this blog, feel free to email me anytime with stories, information, etc. that you think I might be interested in or that readers of this blog might be interested in.

    As for the article, I have done some research on this and took a class last spring that gave me similar information. And it is not just autism, but also Asperger's, some learning disorders, and students with ADD/ADHD. These students may appear just like any other student, but may have some different behaviors. And middle school kids sometimes struggle with students who look like them, but don't act like them. They cannot always process this difference as just a normal difference in life and this can translate into teasing, or possibly worse like bullying. Like I said above, click this article to read more about this issue. Thanks!



 CNN article about Autism and Bullying click here!

Bullying: What is It? What Isn't It? How Has it Changed in a Generation? And How Can it be Stopped?

  Quite a mouthful, huh? Since we are beginning another year of school, I wanted to write a blogpost that covered everything I could think of about bullying, or at least the main points since Bullying is such a large topic, full length books don't even cover it all. But as a counselor, I think the most important points to hit are the ones in this post's title:

• What is Bullying?
• What is Not Bullying?
• How Has Bullying Changed Since We Were Kids?
• How Can Bullying be Stopped or Limited?

    So, first of all, what is Bullying? Here is a pretty standard and accepted definition:

•     Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. (StopBullying.gov)

   It goes on to say that the behavior must be aggressive, have an imbalance of power, and be repetitive or potential to be repetitive. What I look for to categorize bullying is if the target is affected negatively at the moment and in an extended time period afterwards, is their a threat for more bullying behavior to occur, and how long has this gone on? Middle School is one of the worst areas for bullying behavior because kids are bigger and there is a lot of social power being thrown around. The kids are just discovering themselves and are not very mature about their actions and behaviors. Elementary and High School can have issues as well, but lack of maturity, or finally having some maturity, seem to keep the bullying behaviors at a lower level. Our data shows 7th grade seems to be the peak year. I work with many students after they get into a fight, are in the middle of some friendship drama, or are having a tough time fitting in. But none of these issues are automatically bullying issues, because the repetition and the affects are what is key. But if that same student is seeing me daily or weekly for the same issue and it is not getting better, now we are likely talking about a bullying issue, especially if it is causing the target to have issues in other parts of their life (education, attendance, home, behaviors, etc.)

  So, what is not Bullying then? 

   Well, honestly, most stuff that happens in a school is not bullying. The word "bully" gets thrown around a lot, but not often does an issue classify as a bullying issue. We don't have many fights in our school, but almost all of them are just kids having a bad day or getting caught up in the moment. Very rarely are they a bullying issue. In fact, most bullies prefer to not be physical because it is too easy to be caught. True bullies are very good with persuasion, negative words, and generally bothering you without ever touching you. I always tell students that bullies will sometimes mess with you enough that you will hurt yourself, so they don't have to. Sad, but true. Teasing is pretty normal and pretty common in school. Sadly, so are rumors. But what I have found is that teasing is usually between friends or 'somewhat' friends and the rumors usually die out after a day or two and a new rumor about a different student is active. This is life and has gone on since the dawn of time. Doesn't mean we don't still try to deal with it and there may even still be consequences, but these issues still don't classify as bullying behavior. They can turn into that if they persist day after day and are repetitive and a pattern of teasing/rumors forms. Also, if the effects on the target are severe and affect their well-being here at school on a day-to-day basis, now we could have a bullying issue. But generally, hundreds of issues pop up every day. Sometimes none of those are bullying issues, just teens being teens and some being too mean. Hopefully, I, as the counselor, can work with the students to clear those issues up. 

   So if Bullying issues are only a small part of the school day, why all the talk? Bullies were around when I was young, what has changed?

   Great question....a lot has changed! The biggest changes I see are these two:

• Technology makes bullying 24/7
• Exposure to Media means kids have more mature experiences yet still immature in thinking

    What this means is when we were young and people were mean, it was all better for the most part at 3:30 when we got home. Mom or Dad made us some milk and cookies, we cried a bit, and then we went to bed happy. Not so today. That same teen today goes home and likely gets 10 text messages on the way home, possibly all of them reinforcing the mean comments he/she heard during the day. Then, they log into their facebook account to play a game to get away from it all and their wall has been bombarded with hateful words and images. Parents might be working and their school friends and staff are at their own homes. This leaves our young teen brain alone with negative thoughts. Things can escalate very quickly, especially if the teen tries to respond to the comments, and very soon we could have a crisis situation. In my "former life" as a science teacher at our high school, one scary fact I remember is that the last part of the brain to develop is problem solving and long-term planning/logic. This doesn't develop fully until almost age 20. So, our young teen brain is getting bombarded with hateful messages without the ability to properly problem solve and think "Ignore. Block. Delete. Don't listen to them. Listen to Music. Life will get better. You have friends. You have family. Etc." So when we used to get away from bullying by literally getting away, today's teen cannot. And before you say "Just don't let them have a phone or use Facebook", be careful. That is punishing the target and not letting them develop coping and problem-solving skills they will need when life gets even tougher. Teens are social beings and one of the biggest social activities and ways to stay connected is social networks, cell phones, and texting. Take these away and your child could be even more damaged then they were when they were being bullied. But, limits to these help and knowing skills like blocking, ignoring, and deleting, as well as printing and saving the online posts for evidence work great. I knew one student who got mean and hateful texts all through the night and was up all night getting these texts. A simple suggestion of turning off his phone at night or leaving it in the kitchen could have fixed that. But to convince this teen to get away from a social connection like their phone for even the bedtime hours took some convincing!

    And as to the other point, our kids today get exposed to violent, mature images, words, concepts all the time. Even when we limit them, they still get it in one form or another. And again, their brain can't process all of this, so they truly do not understand how hurtful some of these words or actions can be. It doesn't always hurt when they hear or see them on TV, so why would it in real life? 24/7 media via Internet, cable/satellite TV, and the radio keeps pushing these things to the kids and some of it then gets pushed on each other in the heat of the moment. 

  Wow....so how do we stop Bullying?

  Well, I don't think it can truly be stopped, but it can be prevented as much as possible. It takes EVERYONE's help though. A counselor can work with both bullies and targets to give them skills so it doesn't happen again. Parents can monitor their child's phone and social network some and yet still respect their privacy. Parents, teachers, and any adults can model correct behavior and understand that if a child/teen sees parents fight in an unhealthy manner (name-calling, aggression, etc), adults yelling at the opposing team or the umpires, or adults bad-mouthing each other (even in politics!!), that a child/teen will learn from this and learn it is acceptable behavior. Even if deep down we all know it should not be acceptable. But when I went to watch the Bully movie and stayed for the hour-long discussion afterwards, the best solution was given by a student at the very end of our discussion. She said "We can all talk about stopping bullying. We can make signs. Adults can try their best to monitor their teens. And we can even make laws. But honestly, it is up to the teens themselves. They are the ones that have to stand up for each other and say Bullying is not right and is not acceptable. Only then will we truly make a difference because teens listen to teens." That might have been one of the bigger ovations I have heard in some time. She was right. She was so right! But....we must all still work together and do our part and get the teens talking about this and spreading the message that Bullying is not normal, teen behavior....it is hateful, mean behavior that can have long-lasting effects. And if we can't stop it, we must work together to limit it.

Phew....that was a long post, at least for me. I have many more ideas on Bullying and will be studying it a lot this year, especially Cyberbullying. I am presenting at the Iowa School Counselors Association Conference in November on the topic of Bullying. I will also be on a panel at the first ever Bullying Prevention Summit in Des Moines at the end of November. Both exciting opportunities. I may also be doing some speaking at some coaching meetings and classes for the state on the idea/topic of bullying in sports. Gonig to be a busy year, but I know a couple things are guaranteed. We will have some bullying issues in our middle school this year (every school has these) and we will have some that are not. But I will work with our staff and students to see if we can resolve each one all while doing some school-wide Bullying Prevention educational ideas as well. Thank you for reading!!

Revisiting CommonSenseMedia.Org for the School Year

   If you are new to this blog, you may not have heard about CommonSenseMedia.org before. If not, you need to check it out. As a parent and as a counselor, I love it. The basic premise of the site is to review all forms of media (books, TV shows, movies, games, etc.) specifically to show what images, messages, and ideas might be communicated to your child if he/she watches or consumes that form of media. It is very specific and gives age recommendations for each media title. But even if you do choose to still let your child watch or read something that this site says might not be appropriate, it gives you some guiding questions to help your child make sense of what they just saw or read. So, the makers and contributors of this site (parents and kids/teens), understand that you cannot always control what your child consumes in the forms of media, but you can at least follow up with them and debrief so that the correct messages are sent and the child can see why it may or may not be appropriate or like/unlike the real world. I have placed several links below to help you explore CommonSenseMedia.org even more. Bookmark the website and use it as your growing teen may want to start seeing more adult movies, TV shows, or read more adult books or play more adult games.

(*Of note....there is a movement out there wanting the movie ratings system to be more like this website instead of their simple letter rating as parents and kids would know more about what they are going to view with this type of rating)

CommonSenseMedia.Org website click here. Also, towards the bottom of the page, they have a just released survey of teens and social media. Interesting information.

Past blog posts of mine about CommonSenseMedia.org:

   50+ Summer Activities by CommonSenseMedia.org click here!

  Blogpost I wrote to introduce parents to CommonSenseMedia. I included several current reviews at the time of shows students were telling me about. On some of them....YIKES!

  And of course, a blogpost specifically about the Hunger Games movie. Since it is now out on DVD, this is pretty timely again.

IPad Apps for Students on the Autism Spectrum or for Students With Learning Disabilities.

   I have placed a link to a blog post by the blog "Emerging EdTech" at the bottom of this post. The post is has some great information about using IPads with students with learning disabilities, especially in the areas of PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) or Autism/Aspergers. IPads or similar devices can be great tools in the areas of education, learning, and communicating with students who may struggle otherwise. Having resources like this blog post contains is always helpful. I have also placed a link to a 60 Minutes story about using "Apps for Autism". The blog "Free Technology for Teachers" is where I found that link, but I know many parents in our area watched that episode of 60 minutes. Great to watch it again though. Enjoy the resources!

Emerging EdTech Apps for Autism resources click here

60 Minutes Apps for Autism video on Free Technology for Teachers click here

Infographic Showing Our World if Just 100 People...

  I see these infographics and videos every year that take the world averages and numbers and boil them down to the idea of  "what if we were just a world of 100 people?" This infographic has all sorts of interesting information that will make you think and lead to discussions. I think you can make it bigger by clicking on it too.

Browse more infographics.

Positive Attitude is Everything: The Video I Started My Year With

    Got lots of rave reviews from students this year on the video I started all of my 6th and 8th grade classes off with. Even a few parents emailed to say that their child showed them and they loved it to. I have embedded it below so everyone can enjoy it (or enjoy it again?). I have seen this video over 30+ times now over the last two years and the message gets to me every time. In middle school and in adult life, we have to learn to laugh at ourselves and what life offers. And we need to view life through a positive lens. Life is not always good, but how we perceive these things determines the outcome. Those who perceive it negatively will likely get a negative outcome. Those who look at the bright side, might find that the event is not so bad and might even find some good that can come from it. My students have learned very quickly that my main focus is living life with a positive focus. I don't see any reason to be negative....no good comes from it. So I am hoping that rubs off on my students this year. If not, as Sam Glenn says, I might just fall on you! (See video to understand what that means!!)

Tony Danza's New Book About His Year of Teaching: Has Advice for Parents

   If you are like me, you grew up watching "Who's The Boss" starring an up and coming actor named Tony Danza. What a great show! Over time, Tony Danza got lost in the new up-and-coming stars, but the name is still familiar. His name resurfaced a year or two ago with his experiment of being a teacher for a year. A real teacher in a real school. It became quite a reality show and one that I found interesting to watch. Now, he has a book coming out about his year of teaching and has all sorts of advice for all sorts of people. In this USA Today article, he has some advice for parents. As a parent of four kids myself, I agree with his advice. And as a counselor, I LOVE HIS ADVICE! Life has become very busy and very packed over the last two to three decades and we have lost some of this parental involvement. Our kids have cell phones now, so we all feel we can drop them off at their events and have them call us when they are done. That is our form of involvement. And we have email where we can just email the adults in our kids' lives and that saves time. But this article made me take a step back and realize that involvement in my own kids' lives means I really need to be involved, not just when it is convenient for me. Anyway, on a day when most of us have a day off from our busy world and are likely spending it with family, today might be the day to re-commit to getting involved in our childrens' lives. Happy Labor Day to everyone!

Read a great Tony Danza article here and note that his book comes out on Sept. 11th, 2012.