Closing Out Another School Year

As the end of the school year is fast approaching and summer is right around the corner, we wanted to take this time to slow down a little bit and reflect back on a year of triumphs and tribulations, successes and failures, mistakes and lessons learned. 

We found a couple great articles to help you as parents cope with the last few weeks of school and make sure our kids finish on a positive note, and enter their summer vacation proud of their accomplishments and ready for the year ahead.

How to Help Children End the School Year Positively

End The School Year With A Bang

We also found a nice article to help you as teachers prepare your class for the year ahead, but also to celebrate the year you had together. 

Joyful Endings: The Last Few Weeks Of School

End of Year Calendar:

June 12th: 8th Grade Move Up Day
June 13th: 8th Grade Dinner Dance
June 17th: Last academic day for 8th graders!
June 18th: 8th Grade Field Trip
June 19th: 8th Grade Activities Day
June 22nd: Challenge Day
June 23rd: Filing Out Ceremony and Last day of school!

We have thoroughly enjoyed creating our very first Counselors' Corner blogs and hope to continue next year with more information and stories to help both teachers and parents alike.

Have a wonderful summer and we'll see you next year!

- Elizabeth Hortie, Adjustment Counselor
- Jessica Merritt, Guidance Counselor

The Mental Health of our Kids

As we talked about in last month's blog, Spring is often a time for awakening and refreshing. As a society, we think of spring cleaning and preparing for summer vacation and camp. For those struggling with depression, Spring can be the most difficult time of year. Sometimes the adolescents in our lives give us clues to their mental health, but we are not able to recognize what they might be telling us. The best way to understand them is to spend time with them; learn where their casual interests lie and what might be providing a negative influence. This article focuses on the signs our adolescents give us and how to re-focus our attention to their mental health needs. Click Here

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

• May 2nd: DramaFest - 20 of our talented students will be performing an original play! GOOD LUCK!
• May 7th: Olweus Class Meeting
• May 12th: MCAS Math Session 1 (all grades)
• May 13th: MCAS Math Session 2 (all grades)
• May 15th: 6th and 7th grade school dance hosted by the Student Council
• May 19th: MCAS Science and Technology Session 1 (8th grade only)
• May 20th: MCAS Science and Technology Session 2 (8th grade only)
• May 22nd: Memorial Day Assembly hosted by the Student Council
• May 25th: Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
• May 27th: 5th grade Move Up Day and 5th grade Family Orientation Night 

Spring Cleaning

HAPPY SPRING!

As we begin the month of April, testing season is in full swing.  Students will be asked to have heightened focus not only during MCAS testing, but also for the rest of the school year.   With warmer weather approaching and longer daylight hours, it may be more difficult for them to complete out of school tasks.  It is this time of year when our 8th graders have one foot out the door to high school and when everyone is ready for a change, but we still have 10 weeks of school left, and we must teach our kids/students to continue learning and working hard.  In an effort to help declutter our lives, this short video offers suggestions on ways to clear your mind of negative thoughts in an effort to continue moving forward.

Spring Cleaning for the Mind

Calendar of Events:

April 1st: MCAS ELA Reading Comprehension Session 2 (all grades)
April 2nd: MCAS ELA Long Composition (7th grade only)
April 3rd: Good Friday - NO SCHOOL
April 5th: HAPPY EASTER!
April 10th: End of Quarter 3
April 13th: Beginning of Quarter 4 (WOW!  Where did this year go?)
April 20 - 24: April Vacation Week

Gender Matters: How Boys and Girls Learn Differently

What a perfect image for the winter we have had!  Now, finally, there have been a few good "melting" days to get rid of all this snow...so.....Happy Spring (almost)!

We are a little late on our March blog post, but with all the snow days and vacation, it has been a little hectic just getting everything back on track!

This month we thought we would focus on gender differences with learning.  Research and studies have shown that there are significant differences in learning styles in regards to subject matter and overall processing of information between boys and girls.  Becoming more aware of these differences has helped to bring changes in teaching strategies and curriculum delivery to better serve all students equally.

Here are a couple articles we found addressing these challenges:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/01/29/382413365/girls-get-good-grades-but-still-need-help-as-for-boys-sos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/oecd-gender-differences-report_n_6801122.html

Calendar of Events:

Tuesday, March 31st - MCAS ELA Reasoning Session 1 (all grades)
Wednesday, April 1st - MCAS ELA Reasoning Session 2 (all grades)
Thursday, April 2nd - MCAS ELA Long Composition (7th grade only)

Kids and Sexting

This month our blog is all about sexting.  We are living in a digital age now where kids (and adults) are attached to their devices - iPads, tablets, smart phones, etc.

We found a couple really interesting articles on this topic and have included them below for your information.


Have you had the sext talk with your kids?

Why kids sext  **Warning: this article is lengthy, but very good**



Calendar of Events:

February 5th: Donglu students arrive from China
February 6th: 7th/8th grade School Dance hosted by the Student Council; report cards distributed
February 16th: President's Day!
February 16th - 20th: Vacation
February 24th: 8th graders meet with high school counselors and Principal
February 26th: Aspen class registration opens up for 8th graders

Happy New Year!

As we begin a new year, we would like to take some time to look back at the different opportunities we have had to expand our knowledge base.  We hope to be able to bring new thoughts and ideas to colleagues and parents in an effort to work collaboratively to address the needs of our students.  Here is a recap of the various conferences and other activities we have attended. We have included links to articles and other resources for your information.

“Wired Differently": The counseling staff of the middle school and high school attended this workshop in November. This training addressed the different needs of students who present at school with mental illness and behavioral disorders. Topics included Anxiety, Bipolar disorder, Oppositional Defiant disorder, and Asperger's Syndrome. We learned a variety of successful strategies for reaching these students along with assisting teachers and staff to deepen their understanding of how these disorders affect our students.

Dr. Ross Greene and Lives in the Balance

• The counseling staff of all three elementary schools and the middle school attended this conference in Portland, Maine on November 7^th

• Lives in the Balance is the non-profit organization founded by child psychologist Dr. Ross Greene, originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach.  Their mission is to advocate on behalf of behaviorally challenging kids and their parents, teachers, and other caregivers and to provide web-based resources on Dr. Greene's model -- now called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions -- as described in his books The Explosive Child and Lost at School

• There is a lot of great information on the Lives in the Balance website

• The keynote speaker, James Garbarino, provided insight and knowledge regarding children with behavioral challenges and new approaches to addressing them.  His book, Lost Boys, is another great resource.

Mindfulness

• For our 2nd Olweus class meeting, we talked with the students about stress and different ways to cope when they become overwhelmed.  We also had the entire school participate in a 5 minute guided meditation.  It proved to be a very rewarding experience for all involved and the Olweus committee received a lot of wonderful feedback from the faculty and students.

• Here is the link to the exercise we did as a school: 5 Minutes Off

• Moving forward, we want to look into the practice of mindfulness and possibly incorporating different stress-reducing strategies into our day to day lives here at Miles River.

• To give you some background, mindfulness is

‘a state of active, open attention on the present.When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience’ (as stated in Psychology Today)

• We have also found a great article about using mindfulness practice in schools: Click Here

• There are also many different websites with guided meditation audio downloads and an app called “5 Minute Relaxation” that can be downloaded on your iPad or iPhone.  We encourage you to try some of these activities with your children at home.
•  Inner Health Studio
• 5 Minute Relaxation App

Holiday Stress (2014)

December 2014

As the holidays approach, our lives become more hectic and filled with activities.  This can take a toll on our health - both physically and mentally.  There are frequently many expectations of what holiday time should be like, which also places undue stress on the entire family.  Stress can then manifest into changes in mood and behavior.  Here is a thoughtful article tackling this subject and possible solutions to this common occurrence. 

Holiday Stress

Calendar:

December 16, 2014 – December 24, 2014: Happy Hanukkah!

December 23, 2014: Winter Holiday Recess – School closes at regular time

December 25, 2014: Merry Christmas!

January 5, 2015: School is back in session!