Updates from Partnership for a Drug Free America

From time to time, I will be posting some links to some blog updates or articles from the blog "The Partnership for a Drug Free America". They update their blog a lot and always have great information. I will repost the best of the their best in case you don't have time to go through all of their blogs. Please click on the links below to read the articles in full.

Drug deaths now more than Traffic related fatalities
So many of us think driving is dangerous for teens, but experimenting with drugs is just something kids do. Well, now their is proof that drugs are more deadly. Click to read more!

Lung Cancer Declining as Cigarette Smoking Declines
Um....DUH! Of course it is going down. The best part is the new Iowa Youth Survey shows that 85% of our high school students basically never smoke and of the other 15%, only a few of those students are actual smokers. This gets better every time we take the survey!

Amphetamine-type Drugs the Second Most Abused Drug
When you read the article, note the part about Bath Salts at the very bottom. I will be writing a post about bath salts later this week and how students are using these as a drug, NOT as a bath tub accessory!

Less than 20% of Adults Now Smoke
Yes, now less than 1 in 5 adults even smoked in the past year. I probably know less than 10 people in my life who smoke currently. It just isn't something many people do now that we know all the horrible things it can cause. And since we know that number is even less with our Carlisle students, maybe our adult behaviors are starting to rub off on our kids!


That is it for now, tons more if you want to actually go to the DrugFree site. If you have questions, let me know.

Girls' Circle for Both 6th and 8th Grades This Year

If you haven't heard, our 6th grade Girls' Circle is already up and running. Tomorrow will be meeting #2 with our first group of girls. About 6-8 girls will be in each group and they will meet over lunch with Megan Thompson of the Young Women's Resource Center (YWRC). They meet for about 40 minutes as they eat lunch and miss only about 10-15 minutes of class. They work through a research-based curriculum over the course of 6-weeks which focus on topics of interest and importance to middle school girls such as body image, relationships, and the female body. I will be looking for girls who want to do this every 6 weeks and if we get enough interest, we will hold both 6th and 8th grade groups each week. I have not recruited the 8th grade girls as much yet, but plan to start talking to them this week and next. As I tell the girls, there aren't many opportunities in middle school where you get to eat a private lunch with some of your friends, have no boys bothering you, get to have some fun and learn at the same time. So, if your daughter is interested, please email or call and I can get them signed up. Look for more information to get sent home. In the meantime, feel free to click on this link to learn more about Girls' Circle.

Girls' Circle Website

YWRC site

Iowa Youth Survey Results are In!

Over the next few weeks and months, I will be publishing some information that we gained from the latest Iowa Youth Survey that our students took in 2010. Every two years, every 6th, 8th, and 11th grader takes a survey that asks about every question you can imagine. From the very basic like how many fruits and veggies each kid eats a day and how much sleep they get to what their drug usage experience is and what their thoughts on drugs are. This survey is anonymous and studies show our results are extremely accurate both at Carlisle and statewide. So, when we get the results back, we take them seriously. I just finished going through the nearly 200 page report and put about 80 sticky notes on stats that I thought were important. Next, I will be comparing these stats to the last 3 surveys over the last decade and see if I see any trends. All of this data gets put into a presentation that I will share with our staff, our school board, our SIAC team and even post online on this very blog! I would love to get your feedback by having you leave comments whenever you can so we can get a discussion going about the results. For now, about all I can tell you is that Carlisle looked very good compared to the state averages, but we do have some concern areas and areas to improve. So please, follow this blog or click on the links when I send them to you as I think you will realize that there are issues you need to discuss with your child so you are all prepared for what life will be, or already is, throwing at them.

Our 8th Graders are Blogging!!

Yep, they are blogging! Just like this blog, only they are much more creative and having even more fun. Well, some of them are having fun anyway. The others are still thinking this is just boring school work, but a few seem to like it more and more each day. So, why are the students blogging and what are they blogging about? Well, read more to find out.

First off, I have attached several links below to other articles and blogs about the importance of student blogging. But my beliefs are that writing and maintaining a blog can help a student with basic literacy skills (grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc.) and typing skills. I believe about 95% of my writing is on a computer and my family members who work outside the home say they think they do even more than that in their job. Bottom line is that students will be typing and writing online with their career someday. It truly is a Life Skill. Next, it helps student take a simple topic and expand on it and really reflect. As other 8th grade teachers start having students blog about what they learned or talked about in class, students can really reflect about their knowledge and express themselves. This is something they cannot necessarily do in a 40 minute class period. Finally, some students may really find that maintaining a blog online that is not just limited to assignments from teachers, but their own personal writing may be able to deeper explore themselves and actually learn and teach others. Each time we use the lab to write our blogs, I share a few blogs that I follow with them and they can see how these blogs can have an effect on our staff or even people all around the world.

One thing I didn't mention about students blogging online is that I am monitoring everything they post and helping them edit it and refine it. This is helping with their digital literacy and helping them be safer and smarter online. Over 80% of our students belong to a social network and randomly post information that they don't think twice about. Through these blogs, I am helping them think about what they post and what the consequences of those postings are. I hope what they learn in class makes them think a little more about what they put on facebook, twitter, etc. Students are going to be online, that won't change. I hope I can be their "driver's ed" teacher as they learn to drive on the Internet Superhighway and teach them the correct and safe way to be online. If they have learned one thing so far, they know whatever they post is out there and could affect them years in the future....hopefully for the good. Please click on the articles below to hear what other experts have to say about students blogging.

(By the way...if you want to read your child's blog or follow it, please ask them for the web address and you can follow it just like I do!)

Why Should Students Blog Answer 1

6 Reasons Students Should Blog

Edublog Blogger response (our students use Edublogs as this is the blog site built for teachers and students so it is much safer and has more restrictions)

"Camp Adventure" at Aspen for Students With Special Needs

Parents and students, a great opportunity is available to us. Aspen Athletic Club on SE 14th St., not far from our school district boundary lines, is offering a Social Skills and Fitness after-school program for students with special needs. The program is for kids between the ages of 5 and 18. The program is designed and taught by Special Education Teachers and Associates, some with connections to our own school district! The classes at the SE 14th location are during the week and a similar program is held on Saturdays at the Hickman Avenue location. The program has a 1 to 4 teacher to student ratio, so your child will get lots of teacher time and teacher help. The classes include Homework Assistance this year as well! The program feels it is most successful with kids with ADHD, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, High Functioning Autism, and down syndrome, but any kids with special needs could see the benefits and are more than welcome to seek more information about the program. If you want more information about the program, please contact Adam Feierstein. I have placed his contact information below. The program beings August 22nd and holds a Winter Break camp as well from December 26th through December 30th. Please contact Ben Barry at the middle school if you have questions as well. Thanks and I hope some of our families and students can take advantage of this great program!

Adam Feierstein,

Director of

Corporate Wellness

515.270.5860 (w)

510.439.6494 (c)

afeierstein@aspenathletic.com

School Supplies If You Are in Need!

Parents and families, if you are in need of school supplies and feel you cannot afford them this year, please keep reading. And if you can afford supplies but know someone who might not, please pass along the information in this blogpost. School supply costs can add up even though each item might not seem too expensive one at a time. And of course the economy has not come back like we all hoped and many families are still struggling to make ends meet. Now the school year begins and the best way to get a student off to a great start and feel comfortable and ready to learn is to have their supplies all purchased and ready to go. So what do you do if you cannot purchase these supplies?? Well, I have two options that have come available to start the year. One is literally today and tomorrow only and the other is ongoing. Please see details below.

Option 1: School Supply pickup at Cottage Grove Presbyterian Church, 1050 24th St., Des Moines, IA. For more details than I can provide, please call 279-9998. It is for grades Pre-K through 12. Family income must be at or below 150% poverty level. Bring proof of income and IDs for all members of the family. If you qualify, here are the dates and times you can stop by:

August 11th from 5-8 p.m.

August 12th from 10 a.m. to noon

I know it is short notice, but if it benefits at least one family from Carlisle, I will be very grateful for this service.

Option 2: My office! We collected gently used and unused supplies from students to end the year and I organized these in my office. We also took part in a local supply drive and are getting more from a Des Moines supply drive next week. Bottom line, I have a ton of supplies for students in need. These are available anytime, just email or call me. Students also know they can get more supplies during the year if they are in need and cannot afford it. They just have to stop into my office.

I hope this helps some families who are in need. There is a lot more than just intelligence that goes into learning and getting good grades. Having the needed supplies and being "just like everyone else" when it comes to having good, working materials is very important. And if you don't have these to start the year, you may never have them. So please, use these resources if you can. Thanks! (Ben Barry, 989-5413, ben.barry@carlisle.k12.ia.us)

New Parent/Teen Helpline

I received this email from our Warren County Substance Abuse Taskforce coordinator, Mike Wenger. I will just copy and paste the information so that I don't screw it up. But it is always good to have another helpline number in case we need it. You might think you will never need something like this, but times and circumstances change and kids make mistakes, so it is great to have this resource. Even if just to get some information for your teens and tweens. Let me know if you have questions.

"When parents find out their teen is abusing drugs or alcohol, the family’s immediate focus is generally on getting help for the teen. But parents are often in great need of help themselves. They may need advice on what to say to their teen, how to evaluate whether he or she needs professional treatment and where to find the appropriate substance abuse treatment program if one is needed. A new toll-free telephone helpline is providing that assistance.

The Parents Toll-Free Helpline, 1-855-DRUGFREE (1-855-378-4373), is staffed by clinical social workers with practical experience in substance abuse prevention and treatment. The helpline, launched by The Partnership at Drugfree.org, began taking calls in April 2011 and will offer bilingual support (English/Spanish) beginning in mid-August.

“When a child has substance abuse issues, the whole family needs support,” says Ken Winters, PhD, Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and member of The Partnership at Drugfree.org Science Advisory Board. “Parents may need a counselor to walk them through exactly what they will say to their teenager when they suspect substance abuse. If they have not already done so, parents need to establish rules about alcohol and other drugs, and consequences for breaking those rules. They may also need help figuring out whether their adolescent should get a professional assessment. These are some of the things that a counselor on the helpline can assist them with.”

Scientifically Proven Intervention Techniques

The helpline counselors are extensively trained in scientifically proven intervention techniques to assist parents in communicating with their children and find appropriate help when it is needed. One technique is Motivational Interviewing, which tries to move a person to change their behavior, while being sensitive to their level of readiness for change. The technique uses open-ended questions to elicit what the person feels ready for, and makes them feel empowered. For instance, when talking to a parent who is convinced that he or she has no influence on their child, a counselor can have the parent reflect on the ways they had a role in their child’s life in prior years, and have them think about ways they still influence their teen even now that they are older, such as helping them use their free time wisely, Dr. Winters says.

The counselors are also trained in using community reinforcement and family training (CRAFT), which is designed for concerned parents and others to help their loved ones who have problems with drugs or alcohol get into appropriate treatment. The underlying components of CRAFT include teaching effective communication skills, positive reinforcement and contingency management techniques which help parents form a new dialogue with their children.

Starting Conversations About Difficult Issues

Johanna Bos, LMSW, CASAC, is the lead parent support specialist for the helpline and fields calls ranging from parents asking for help in identifying pills they found in their teen’s backpack, to aiding parents in evaluating the effectiveness of a treatment program. She fields a lot of questions about home drug tests and what the results mean. “Sometimes parents just need to talk, and need someone to calm them and give them support. Parents are so focused on the child, they can lose sight of taking care of themselves.”

“I help parents start a conversation with their child about difficult issues,” says Bos, who is also a certified alcohol substance abuse counselor who has been working in the addiction field for 13 years. “A lot of what we do is encourage parents to talk to their child, and find ways to help them get their child on board with treatment if it’s needed.”

She also helps parents find scientifically valid information. “So much information online is linked to people who are trying to take advantage of parents in a vulnerable state,” Bos notes.

Not all of the calls to the helpline have been from parents. For instance, several calls have come in from military wives who have become addicted to morphine patches themselves after using patches prescribed to their husbands for war injuries.

Bos emphasizes that the helpline provides information, but is not a crisis line. The helpline is staffed Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. Parents who call after hours can leave a message and will be contacted the next business day.

Contact doesn’t end with the initial call. Bos asks callers if they would like her to follow up, and if they agree, she calls within two weeks to see if the caller needs further help. She also offers callers the option of contacting another parent who has gone through a similar situation.

The launch of The Parents Toll-Free Helpline was made possible through the generosity of Purdue Pharma, the Bodman Foundation, a private foundation and numerous matching contributions from individuals."

Iowa "Did You Know" Video: Makes You Think Doesn't It?

Thank you to Scott McLeod and a few others for the creation of a special version of "Did You Know" video series, this one focusing on Iowa's schools, students, and educational system. If you have never seen any of the "Did You Know" videos, you are missing out. But I especially like this one since it becomes Iowa-specific in the 2nd half of the video. Some pretty interesting stats and figures in this video and it should make all of my colleagues in education think and hopefully start talking about the future of education in Iowa. It should get students, parents, and school districts thinking and talking as well. I'm interested in knowing what everyone thinks. Leave a comment after watching the video if you can. Video is embedded below. Enjoy!

Carlisle Middle School Students and Staff Move! (and Dance!!)

Well, here it is, the "dance". A little background to why well over 400 students and staff went outside for about 10 minutes and danced last week. Well, we didn't do it just because the weather was wonderful, but that was a nice plus. Being National Fitness Month, First Lady Michelle Obama and Beyonce worked together to motivate middle school students across the country to drop their study materials and stand up and move at precisely 12:42 p.m. central time on May 3rd. Our school did just that and we have the video to prove it. Enjoy!!

HOPE Drama Troupe is Looking for Teens to be in their Performances

I have personally seen this group perform and the performance is very powerful. They performed for a conference/workshop I attended last summer and I can still remember the material they presented. At times, it was almost tough to hear or watch, but it was needed information and good for us to hear it. Children everywhere are being abused in a variety of ways and counselors, adults, peers....anyone, need to help stop the abuse. If any students from Carlisle are interested in acting, performing, or getting involved, they can speak to Mr. Barry or call the number listed below. Their is definitely a time commitment involved and a student has to be dedicated to learning their role in the performance. I would also advise both the student and the parents to review the material because it is very powerful, but is graphic in nature at times. It is pretty real when listening and watching, so I assume the performers are also very affected by the material they are presenting. This is a good opportunity any interested students, but it is not for everyone. If interested, let Mr. Barry know!

AUDITIONS

FOR

HOPE! DRAMA TROUPE

Tuesday May 10, 2011

4:00 p.m.

Central Campus

1800 Grand, Des Moines

PERFORMERS WANTED

Des Moines Area Teens (Grades 8-12) who like to perform and who care about social issues for the 10/11 season.

HOPE! Troupe is looking for members to perform a 30-minute play about child abuse prevention for middle and high schools in Polk County. The script deals with the prevention of child abuse, neglect, and other forms of violence. The troupe is under the guidance of professional directors, therapists and the Child Abuse Prevention Council. Troupe members will be expected to attend weekly rehearsals and a summer retreat scheduled for August. Troupe members will also help to write the play as well as perform. HOPE! Drama Troupe performs one day each month from November through May with a few after school performances.

Questions? Call the Child Abuse Prevention Council at 725-2682

Positive Behavior Intervention Support: Parent Workshop this Month

Parents.....just a heads up on an upcoming workshop that you might be interested in. I know May is busy for many people, but this is just for 2 hours and the information could be very valuable. Please read the information below about the workshop being held in Indianola and if it sounds like it could help you, your children, or the situation you are in, please register. If you need help or have questions, please contact a Carlisle district counselor.

Parent Workshop

Learn the importance of building positive relationships, designing supportive

environments, and teaching strategies. Learn why rewards and punishment are

insufficient. Sometimes behavior remains problematic even after our best efforts. We may

need more specialized tools. This workshop will offer intensive supports for children with

more challenging behaviors.

Tuesday May 17, 2011 6:00-8:00pm

Heartland AEA11 - Indianola Office

115 West Salem Avenue

Indianola, IA 50125

Registration is required by May 16, 2011.

To register, please contact Maureen Schletzbaum at (515) 961-8191 Ext. 16299 or (800) 255-0405 Ext. 16299 or e-mail mschletzbaum@aea11.k12.ia.us . Please leave your name, phone number, number attending, and your school district. If accommodations are needed, please make request by May 10, 2011.

Cancellation information will be announced on KCCI 8. Workshop may be cancelled if minimum

registration requirements are not met.

Become a Mentor!

Join Big Cats/Little Cats Mentoring Program!

We're now accepting applications for high school students who are interested in being a mentor to students in the Carlisle Elementary, Hartford, or Middle School building. Students must be able to commit 30 minutes weekly (same time and day each week) to meet with their little. Mentors will help their littles with school work, social skills, and also to have some fun!

Please stop by Mrs. Lee's office to pick up an application or to get more information. Email her at traci.lee@carlisle.k12.ia.us or call at 989-5386 with any questions.