Social Media Use Is Linked to Brain Changes in Teens, Research Finds

Social Media Use Is Linked to Brain Changes in Teens, Research Finds
Teens who frequently checked social media showed an increasing sensitivity to peer feedback, although the cause of the changes was not clear.

A few excerpts from the article:

A new study by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina tries something new, conducting successive brain scans of middle schoolers between the ages of 12 and 15, a period of especially rapid brain development.

At around age 12, the students already showed distinct patterns of behavior. Habitual users reported checking their feeds 15 or more times a day; moderate users checked between one and 14 times; nonhabitual users checked less than once a day.

The results showed that “teens who grow up checking social media more often are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers,” Dr. Telzer said.

it is unclear, authors said, whether the changes are beneficial or harmful. Social sensitivity could be adaptive, showing that the teenagers are learning to connect with others; or it could lead to social anxiety and depression if social needs are not met.

Civil Rights Lessons from Learning for Justice

 https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources

2023 Peace Corps Calendar

Lists many international holidays and celebrations. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u34HKSd6Cv9Hbs6ILHgOZYxj-NOg_Hg8/view?usp=drive_link

Holiday Word Searches

 I have a bunch of holiday word searches that you can print out in this folder

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kFaB6tDG8Qf_LmsUW6H-BzrwDovYWNMC?usp=sharing

Alix

Totenberg-Ames Stradivarius

 You may know about this, but if you don't, it's a good story

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/11/15/totenberg-strad-violin-longy-school-rare-instrument-true-crime

Learning Network: 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest

From The NY Times Learning Network:

Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we posed to teenagers this fall with our 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest, a storytelling form popularized by Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories series.

The answer, we discovered, was a resounding yes. Students from all over the world — 12,448 of them — answered our call with 100-word stories about moments from their lives big and small, funny and heartwarming, ordinary and extraordinary. From those thousands of submissions, our judges selected 82 finalists — 13 winners, 23 runners-up and 46 honorable mentions.

We hope you will take the time to read the winning essays. These miniature memoirs captured our judges’ hearts round after round and showed us how, sometimes, all you need is a few sentences to tell a compelling story.

Website about Periods

I know the health teachers have been doing puberty talks with the grade 5 kids recently. I wanted to be sure you knew about this resource that I made a couple of years ago that may be particularly helpful for the girls (and curious boys!) as part of a menstrual equity grant I did with Jodi Elder - https://periods.beverlyschools.org/

Letters About Literature

LAL Submissions Due January 12

With the holidays and the end of the fall semester upon us, we write with a gentle reminder of the Thursday, January 12 deadline of the 2022-23 Letters About Literature program in Massachusetts. (Earlier submissions are always welcome!)

Bring a handkerchief: Ukrainian Children's Choir performs at Carnegie Hall

I was practically in tears reading about the Ukrainian Children's Choir in New York getting ready to perform this weekend at Carnegie Hall. I never knew that the Carol of the Bells was written by a Ukrainian composer! And the fact that these kids who are hardly older than our students had to practice in bomb shelfters before coming here to perform - wow.

Here's a TV story about the children's choir in New York this weekend and it includes a video of them singing at Grand Central Station. The news anchor is also choking up!
https://youtu.be/Ids53WGVk9Q

And a page on the Carnegie Hall website has more about the history of this beautiful composition, which includes a video about it. It was first sung at Carnegie Hall in 1922 by the Ukrainian National Choir!
https://www.carnegiehall.org/explore/articles/2022/11/29/carol-of-the-bells

The power of music!

Guardian: I've Lost My Children to Vaping

‘I’ve lost my children to vaping’: the tragic stories behind the soaring rates of youth addiction

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/02/ive-lost-my-children-to-vaping-the-tragic-stories-behind-the-soaring-rates-of-youth-addiction

Reading Resource Project

The Reading Resource Project is an ongoing program that runs throughout the year. The program distributes high quality, softcover books for Read Across America Day, National Drop Everything and Read Day, Children's Book Week, International Children's Book Day, and other Literacy Programs.

Reading Resource Project books are 100 book sets. Any literacy based effort qualifies for these books. You do not have to be a school or teacher. Reading Resource Project books are available in a limited quantity on a first come, first served basis.

Each 100 book set will contain a variety of at least 10 different titles. Recipients merely pay shipping, handling, and administrative costs, which is only $0.88 cents per softcover book ($88.00 per set of 100 books).

https://www.lefbooks.org/reading_resource_project/

Movie Licensing for Schools

In case you weren't sure about where to get the licensing, Swank is the main one for libraries and schools. They have material from pretty much every studio and can do one-time events or licenses that go for the whole building for a period of time. For one-time events they need to know the title of the movie and the number of expected attendees to do a quote.

There's more information and you can also search for movies here:
https://www.swank.com/k-12-schools/licensing-options/

Native American Storytellers - School Visit Resources

Plimoth Patuxet has both in person and school visits available

The Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness is actually based in Danvers. Among their offerings are educational programs.
They have these speakers on their site:
https://www.mcnaa.org/speakers-presenters

Cynthia Fox Tree, just did a presentation at the Lynnfield library that was a joint presentation by them, the Beverly PL and the Peabody Institute. It looks like she may be geared more toward adults

Larry Spotted Crow Mann, looks like a good possibility
or maybe the third one, Annawon Weedon.

Robin Pease is listed on the Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) site. She is a Mohawk descendant, comes to your school in traditional regalia to take you on a journey through Native American culture. The program features audience participation in the form of stories, songs, dance, and/or games.

Anne Jennison - presented at Abbot Hall in Marblehead in October. She is chair of the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs. She is only doing online live events, not in person.

Jennison is the co-producer of Dawnland StoryFest, a daylong event at the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH featuring storytelling “concerts” or performances by five experienced Indigenous storytellers as well as a keynote address. It just happened in early November.

James Bruchac is in New York state but I think he does programs around here sometimes too.

Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don’t We Maintain Them?

Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don’t We Maintain Them?

Regularly replacing our phones takes a toll on our wallets and the environment. We should instead take care of them as we do our cars.

History of Elections in America

In 1845, Congress designated the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day for presidential elections by federal law. Today, we invite you to explore the history of elections in America with resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute archives!

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/curriculum/8-election-day

Bud Not Buddy @ Wheelock Family Theatre

Bud, Not Buddy
April 14th – May 14th, 2023

Adapted by Reginald André Jackson
Based on the novel by Christopher Paul

Directed by Dawn Simmons

https://www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org/performances/2022-season/bud-not-buddy/

Portuguese Language Books

If you want an alternative to Amazon, BuoBooks (https://www.buobooks.com/) claims to be "the world's first Portuguese language bookstore" and are headquartered in Florida with offices in Portugal and Brazil. I think they have free shipping in the US.


I'm looking for some information about who some of the top Portuguese language YA and middle grade writers are so I could look into or recommend books that are not translated into Portuguese but written in that language. (And also similar info for Spanish language books.)

How to Use TikTok’s Parental Controls

How to Use TikTok’s Parental Controls
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/26/technology/personaltech/tiktok-parental-controls.html?searchResultPosition=1

• Tells you how toset a child’s account to Private
• set daily time limits on using TikTok, schedule mandatory breaks that lock a child out of the app and see a summary of how much time was spent using the app.
• Content Preferencesto set the app to block videos containing certain keywords or enable the password-protected Restricted Mode.
• Family Pairing feature allows a parent to link their own TikTok account to a child’s

News Literacy Project

I love the News Literacy Project materials and have used them a bunch. If you ever wanted me to do anything with your students using these resources, let me know -- or perhaps you want to use them yourself. I'd be happy to show you how their website, Checkology, works.

What Do American’s Middle Schools Teach About Climate Change?

What Do American’s Middle Schools Teach About Climate Change? Not Much.
Around the United States, middle school science standards have minimal references to climate change and teachers on average spend just a few hours a year teaching it.