Teen Girls and Harsh Realities of Online Popularity

http://weheartit.com/entry/group/2994788

This article from TIME focuses on a survey by the social network We Heart It, delves into the ways teen girls gauge popularity and how to work way into online popularity. Some of the more intriguing rules that the survey uncovered include: 

1. Don’t serial post. (“You only want to post one Instagram a day.”)
2. If you do post multiple things per day, they’d better be amazing. (“You can post multiple tweets a day, but they can’t be stupid or not interesting.”)
3. If you game the system, don’t get caught. (“She [my friend] probably has 20 fake accounts where she goes and likes her own pictures.”)

Check out the article at the link below: 

Teen Girls Describe the Harsh Realities of Online Popularity

The Scariest Words a Boy Can Hear

In this segment from NPR, Joe Ehrmann, the former Baltimore Colts defensive star and current high school football coach (at Gilman School in Baltimore, MD of which I am a proud graduate!) discusses how he learned to flip society's definition of being a man on its head. If you haven't heard him speak or read his book, Inside Out Coaching or the book about him by Jeffrey Marx called Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood - you should.

The 3 Scariest Words A Boy Can Hear

5 Brain Facts That Influence How People Learn

http://www.dashe.com/blog/learning/five-brain-facts-learn/

This is a concise and helpful article on how the brain works when it comes to learning.

5 Brain Facts That Influence How People Learn

Should I Be Good or Successful?

http://izquotes.com/

I heard this segment on NPR last month and felt it was something we should really be paying a lot of attention. The driving question: Do kids think their parents want them to be good or successful?

The premise of the story is that many of us as parents say we just want our children to grow up to be good people, but a Harvard study says otherwise. While we say we want them to be good people, we often send unspoken messages which rewards success. Here's a snippet:

If their daughter, Mila, 15, had to say whether her parents cared more about her being good to others or being successful, she says it'd be close, but she'd have to say "good," she hedges. 

Her brother, James, 13, however, doesn't hesitate. 

"Successful," he says. 

How does he know? Because achievement in school is what his parents nag him about, and reward him for, the most. For example, they let him quit volunteering at the soup kitchen when he didn't like it, but he gets no such pass on schoolwork. Similarly, Mila says, her parents got really happy and took her out to a nice restaurant for dinner to reward her for getting a B instead of a C. 

"It's one of those things people say, like, I really want you to be a good person, like that's my main thing," she says. "But deep inside, it's like, but I really want you to be successful."

 As a school we believe that the messages we should send to our students is that serving others through your gifts is success. This is the premise on which our Servant Leadership program is based. I highly recommend this article and let me know what you think!

For Most Kids, Nice Finishes Last

Welcome Back Video You Have to See!

Check out J. McCollum's Welcome Back Video for his 3rd Grade Class

Let's Get Your Head Right: A Parent Primer Series

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

Let's face it: school is about to start. As absurd as it may seem, students will be roaming the halls this month and I'm not sure any of us are ready for it! Summer is over! I have a friend whose favorite saying in times like these is to, "get your head right!" Well, it's time we kept calm and did just that.

In an effort to work our way back into school-mode and provide a context for WHY we do WHAT we do and HOW we do it, I thought a series of blog posts over the next few weeks might be helpful. I don't want to overload you, so this primer series, as I'm calling it will feature single articles, videos, or infographics with some editorial comments introducing them.

I've organized the posts to hopefully offer insights into the big questions surrounding middle level education. These questions fall into four broad categories including,

1. Child Development
• How are children growing up these days? 
• What is their world like and how can we help? 
• What should we be keeping in mind as we enter a new school year about how our kids are growing and interacting? 
2. Innovation
• What is happening in government/business/demographics that influence the world into which our children will enter?
• How can we capitalize on innovations elsewhere and use them as learning tools in school? 
• Are there principles from other industries that translate well into teaching and learning? 
3. Curriculum and Program 
• What are the best practices out there for middle level education? 
• What is influencing our curriculum and program? 
• How is Canterbury proactively positioning itself to develop students who will be leaders of the future? 
4. Technology
• How is Technology being used in education? 
• What are the issues students, teachers, and parents face related to technology integration? 
• How can we support students, teachers, and parents with technology?  

This series mirrors my summer on Twitter, which I can't promote enough as an incredible resource for anybody looking to delve deeply into the topics of the day. Almost all of these articles, video, or links were curated by people or institutions I follow on Twitter. If you follow me on Twitter @MSDirectorSkeen, you've likely seen me retweet many of these resources already. I will continue to post often on Twitter and for those pieces that deserve more in depth analysis, they will be coming to the blog. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and we'll see you soon!