Sunday, June 23, 2013

Bullying in Sports: National High School Coaches Convention

I'm excited to have the opportunity to present to coaches from across the country today who have an interest in learning more about bullying and how they can be a big part of the effort to stop bullying before it happens. Here is a version of the powerpoint that I am presenting today. I am not sure if the links work and if the background formatting came through like I hoped, but I may edit it later to fix these. Thank you!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

National High School Coaching Convention Bullying Survey

  Coaches, thank you for attending these two workshops on the topic of Bullying in sports. Please take a quick moment to take this 5-question survey. And even more important than taking this survey, I will show you how to make and publish your own survey so you can get data on your players, students, parents, teachers, community, etc. Data should drive decisions....so doing some quick surveys can help you make the first step in preventing bullying on your team and in your school. Thank you!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Want to Foster Creativity in Your Child? Watch This 2-Minute Video!

   I had to share this video. It is a great video for teachers, but also works for parents too. It is a very simple experiment or task to show how a simple change in wording and design can make a child really use their imagination and creativity. As I think about how I parent this summer and teach next fall, I plan to keep this video in mind.



Thursday, June 6, 2013

More infographics....This Time on Sleep

Lots of infographics today. Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day for some of these. These two infographics I found on his blog as well and they are good. Simply put, our teens do not get enough sleep. Maybe studying these charts may help them understand the importance of sleep. Hopefully, they are all getting lots of sleep now that summer break is here!



Interview Questions and Suggested Answers

For all of my 8th graders out there still looking for a summer job and for any high school students or adults looking for a job and interviewing soon. Here are the most common interview questions and suggested answers. Glad to see much of what I tell my 6th and 8th graders is in this list! Good list to copy and save for when you prepare to interview.

Bullying Infographic

  Lots of great information contained within these 4 infographics about Bullying. Take some time to look through them. School may be out for the summer, but bullying can and does still occur. The difference is that parents, friends, peers, and community members will see it more often and need to step in and stop it.








Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Great Links from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America

Well, summer is here and I finally have time to catch up on my blog reading and blog writing. After skim reading about 100 blog posts from the Partnership fro a Drug-Free America, here are some of the articles and links that I thought were the best and the most important for parents and teens in our community. Take a moment today or this week and read these articles. Great information for parents and our teens. Thanks!

 Kids at Risk of Overdose due to Parent Medications
---Very important read for all of us. I take 2 medications daily and try my best to keep these away from my own little 4 children. But as they get older, I need to protect this medication even more to keep them away from possible danger.

Social Hosting Laws:
  ---Although Iowa apparently has no statewide Social Hosting laws according to this interactive website, it reminds you that local communities may. Not to mention the emotional damage that can occur if you were to allow underage teens to drink at your house, especially if they drive after that drinking.

Smoking continues to decline among teens, but drinking and binge drinking gets worse
---Good news on smoking, but bad news on drinking and binge drinking.

Myths BUSTED when it comes to parents who think letting their kids drink at home is safe and OK!
---This is a great article that shows all the myths of letting your kids drink at home as a safe way for them to learn about alcohol.

Did you know teens are using ADHD drugs to study? Most parents don't.
---10% of high school kids are doing this, but only 1% of parents think it is their child. Interesting....

Starting to drink at young age makes for heavy drinking later.
--Last article, but it is an important one.

Have a great summer and check back here often for many other updates I find as I read up on my blogs and studies on the Internet.