Pudong Counselor’s Corner

Hello SAS,

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have enjoyed a peaceful start to 2009. As much as I enjoyed the sun and warmth over the past two weeks, I’m also glad to be back in Shanghai. And for someone coming from five years in Seoul, South Korea who was raised in Canada - this is pretty nice weather for the beginning of January! (I hope I haven’t cursed it for us all by saying that!)

Ms. DeCardy sent Laura and I an article from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that I wanted to pass on to you as it continues our on-going discussion about technology and its appropriate use and impact upon our lives and the lives of the young people we work with.

The article: New Study Shows Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development emphasizes how important on-line activity is (and will continue to be) for youth in order for them to develop the skills that will be necessary for them to be healthy and successful in their future. It’s an interesting read, check out the video as well if you have time.

Don’t forget about the Book Club on Thursday!

Hello Book Club,

As we look forward to our first meeting in 2009 (it is that time of year to get used to writing it eh?) we’ll be reading Chapter 4: When Kids Have Best Friends and Chapter 5: In the Jungle: The Power of the Group in Children’s Lives.

Our meeting will be January 8 from 11:00 through 12:45 in the Garden and Couch Rooms in the MS/HS Library with refreshments and a light lunch. Here are some questions to help guide your reading and reflections over the next weeks:

1 – Students at international schools face constant change – either moving schools themselves or having friends move away. On page 74 when discussing Rob and Adam’s changing friendship, Rob says that in the future “we all get this big house where all the different roads meet.” How can parents help support the building of the “big house” for their children dealing with moving or having friends move?

2 – How is the relationship between Ann and Kate different from the one between Paul and Michael? What can we learn from these examples?

3 – What makes a good friendship? What does Thompson mean by “it really is the quality, not the quantity, that’s important? (pg 62)

4 – “They want you to feel peer pressure. It’s a conspiracy!” (pg 78) True or false? Does it work?

5 – What is the “B-Line Club?” (pg 81) Is it a club you’ve ever belonged to?

6 – Two quotes:

• a small fraction of adolescents – only 4 percent – seem to be able to make moral decisions by looking inward to their own conscience and values, instead of outward to the behavior of the group (pg 82).

• Conscience is part of an individual’s makeup, but morality is a phenomenon of the group of which we are a part and the roles we are asked to play (pg 92).

So is there any hope? What can parents and other adults do to support their children?

7 – Share another quote, question, or comment you thought was interesting from the readings.

We hope you all have a safe and peaceful holiday season! Safe travels to all and see you in 2009!

Hello SAS,

I recently read a Montreal Gazette article on-line that I wanted to pass on to you as it follows up nicely our recent discussions about the need for parent awareness of how their children are using their cell phones and computers. The point of the article is not to go home and take away all electronic devices from your children, but to be aware of how teens are using these tools to communicate and what this communication is leading to for some young people.

As always - educate yourselves so you are better able to support your children.

One In Five US Teens Has Had “Tech Sex”

ONLINE SPELLING BEE HELP

The official Spelling Bee website has just been released. In addition to spelling, the Spelling Bee Trainer provides multi-player gaming, avatars and competitions both at the individual level and school level which will be released in the following weeks. The result is an innovative approach that increases vocabulary acquisition through spelling, practice and play. Here is the link to the website:    

http://www.qooco.com/

Dear all,

On Thursday December 11th we held our second book club meeting of the year and once again it was a great success.

We are focusing on Michael Thompson’s book “Best Friends, Worst Enemies. Understanding the Social Lives of Children”, with discussions based on questions relating to the text to initiate conversation.

Our next book club meeting will be on Thursday January 8th, 11:15 - 1pm in the Garden room (HS/MS Library) and we will be providing snacks and drinks as usual - please read chapters 5 and 6 in preparation for our next discussion. Questions will be posted by Jay before the end of the week.

If you have not managed to join us yet, but are interested in doing so, please feel welcome to come to our next meeting. Extra books are available to purchase from school, or you may be able to pick one up over the winter vacation and catch up on chapters we have already looked at.

Kind regards,

Laura

To follow on from Jay’s article, I would like to extend a huge thanks to all of you who participated in the recent PTSA/Counselor Coffee morning. It was great to spend so much time with you and to engage in some fantastic conversations focusing on how to support your children through the Middle School years.

We look forward to our next meeting and hope that even more parents will join us, so please encourage your friends to come next time too.  Some aims and objectives we had for our first PTSA Counselor coffee morning were to;

• To share the wealth of information we hold as a group
• To gain insight from each others’ experiences
• To develop an awareness and understanding for the challenges you face as parents, and that your children face as they go through their adolescent years
• To connect with each other and continue building the SAS Middle School community
• To seek support from each other 

Chalk Talk  

We began the morning by running a Chalk Talk protocol aimed at sharing ideas on how the parent community could be involved in supporting middle school activities. Here are the responses we received; 

• Orientation – helping new families adjust to the move to Shanghai
• Holding a parent career day – great idea – help our students to understand why they need to learn what they are being taught.
• Become a CISSA Soccer coach
• Great reports on the MS book club – can we do one in the high school?
• Weekend or after school opportunities for kids using SAS facilities – fields, gyms, etc
• Running a middle school advanced and special program
• Start up a ‘Your forte’ group e.g. math Olympiad or hands on science
• Review Principal coffee morning/PTSA meeting  structure for next year
• Chinese New Year celebrations
• More dad’s becoming involved in PTSA activities
• Father/daughter dance
• Constructive ways to provide feedback to faculty
• Improve internet communication between parents and faculty –Amanda De Cardy is happy to show all parents how to set up a Net Vibe account that will link all of your child’s teacher blogs as well as school announcements/events/Edline to one page, thus making it easy for you to stay up to date with what is going on
• Parent/Child/Teacher triathlon event – bike/swim/run in the spring
• Off campus family quiz nights –possibly as an orientation event and then continued throughout the school year
• Community service projects e.g. visiting local schools and orphanages
• Booster club supporting athletic and academic competitions and art events
• More parent involvement/participation in supporting sports events
• On campus parent volunteer opportunities e.g. library
• End of year celebrations – PTSA will be organizing the MS Boat Cruise   

There are some fantastic ideas and suggestions mentioned above. Please make sure that if you are interested in any of them that you connect with Chantal and express your interest. Then we can look at possible ways for you to make these ideas become a reality.

World Café  

In this discussion we shared the challenges parents’ face as their child becomes more independent and discussed how best to support their growing needs by addressing the following questions. The responses are a representation of the discussions held in small groups. At times similar responses occurred within the different groups, and where this has happened I have not repeated these statements, but rather have reported out on them once.   1.       What are the biggest challenges you face as the parent of a middle school child?

Hello SAS,

The Counselor’s Coffee last Wednesday at Face in Pudong went very well. It was a wonderful venue and the food was fabulous. Best of all the event was fairly well-attended and the quality of discussion, sharing, and questions was excellent.

I wanted to wrap-up with a couple of closing thoughts (for now) on “next steps” with respect to technology and internet use in your homes and by your children. We introduced many different ideas and concerns, and I’m sure some people left with more questions than they started with! That’s a good thing though, because we’ve opened the door of communication and hopefully jump-started our community’s awareness on these issues.

So what now? Here are some suggestions:

• Spend some time reviewing the websites and documents that were introduced. The links are below, and I’ve attached the one-page summary to this post

• Download the Parenting Online Booklet and read through it

• Review the “Safety Cheatsheet” in the handbook and think about what you want your family’s policies about computer and technology use to be

• Have a discussion with your family and establish your guidelines. The Parenting Booklet has a Parent-Child agreement you might want to use.

• Download the “instant message” abbreviation list (thanks Helen!) to familiarize yourself with the common ones

• Remember that building a trusting relationship and providing them with the tools to make safe decisions is the best way to protect them and your family. If something bad ever does happen, you want your kids to feel comfortable coming to talk to you.

Don’t forget as well that we are here to help support our community – contact us if you think we can provide you with ideas or resources to help your family.

Technology Links One Page Summary

Instant Messaging “Lingo”

Dear Parents,

Please click on the link  below to be directed to the latest edition of  the”Helping Students Learn” monthly newsletter.

<A HREF=”http://www.parent-institute.com/nl/newsletter.php?X02512692-9252-HSL7“>

SPELLING BEE COMPETITION COMES TO CHINA We are pleased to announce that all Middle school students from both Puxi and Pudong campuses will have the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Chinese Spelling Bee competition

What is the “Spelling Bee”?

The Spelling Bee is a prestigious and famous English language Competition Program held every year in the United States. Middle school students compete by spelling English words correctly as they are pronounced to them.What is the purpose of the “Spelling Bee”?The “Spelling Bee” aims to help students improve their spelling, and increase their vocabulary.

 How does my child participate? 

All SAS Middle school students will receive a “Spell it” study guide that contains vocabulary words designated for the 2009 competition before they leave for the winter vacation. On February 17^th, students wishing to enter the Spelling Bee competition will sit a written test. From this test, the top 15 scoring students will be selected to participate in a School Spelling Bee night that will be held on February 26^th. The winner of this competition will compete in the China Region “Spelling Bee” finals being held on March 14^th. The overall winner will then receive an all expenses paid trip to compete in the world wide final in Washington DC being held on May 26^th 2009.

STOP Cyberbullying is a site packed with information about Cyberbullying, how to try to protect your children from it and how to deal with it if it does happen. Information for kids is also packaged in three different sections - 7-10 years old, 11-13 years old, and 14-17 years old. This is an excellent site and best of all, the resources are available for download.

While the link below takes you to the “Information for Parents” section, its worth exploring the rest of the site as well.

Visit the Parent Information section of STOP Cyberbullying here.