The Bulldog's Woof

What do you remember most from middle school?   Middle school was a lot different when we were kids, no matter what generation you were growing up in: Late practices in the warming weather; the smell of the grass in that first baseball game of the season.  School dances; awkwardly approaching your crush to ask for a dance, your friends and theirs standing around you in a circle, hooting and hollering.  Putting off homework while you talked to your friends on the phone--always keeping one ear open for the  click  if someone picked up the phone in another room.  Passing notes in class. Doodling all over your papers and binders with flowers, spiky "S"s, and 3D boxes. What do these memories all have in common?  Nobody had a smartphone to take your picture at that school dance & post it later. No alerts and buzzes in your pocket drew you away from the moment on the ballfield. To call your friend, you had to call their house and ask a parent if they were...

  Spring cleaning?   Consider contributing to South Mrs. Joyce, one of our 6th grade Math teachers, has long used Lego bricks to help students visualize fractions. This year, she excitedly told me about the breakthrough of using MagnaTiles to visualize geometry in 3D. How many sets of magnetic blocks do  you  have sitting in box in your attic?? If your family's days of playing with magnetic tiles are a distant memory,  please  consider donating them to your friendly Math teacher! Once they're here, we find they are also a great way to spend indoor recess. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly middle school kids let their inner child run free as soon as certain things happen: You give them something to color, You read aloud to them, or They have downtime and toys like fidgets, MagnaTiles, Lego, etc. It never fails!  30 seconds in, and suddenly the kids are giggling and chatting--or attentively following along with a story--entirely engrossed in their ...

  Next week, the community reading group at South will meet to begin discussing Jonathan Haidt's book,  The Anxious Generation .  I hope you'll join us!   All are invited to meet in the  South Media Center on TUESDAY, 2/4 at 7:00 PM  to discuss the first 2 parts of Haidt's book.  The Introduction & "A Tidal Wave: The Surge of Suffering" lay out the landscape of adolescents' plummeting mental wellness over the past 15-20 years.  In Part 2, "The Backstory: The Decline of the Play-Based Childhood," Haidt explores parenting & societal changes and the impacts on kids' social skills and development. In all, it's about 110 pages of reading, but it's not hard reading. Also, a bunch of the South teachers are listening to the audiobook and said it's good, if that's easier for you!  After February break, we'll meet on 2/25 to discuss the next section, where Haidt lays out the current setting for adolescents in a smartphone-enable...

With winter finally settling in and recess shifting indoors, we've noticed a change in the air around South. One less opportunity to vent their energy, and I find myself telling more kids to "slow down" in the hall--not to mention catching more epic spin kicks and random dance breaks in the hall! Downtime in the classrooms may mean fewer chances for kids to socialize with their best friends, so we're breaking up group "meet ups" in bathrooms and at lockers after the bell. You may be noticing more "naughty" behavior at home--a little more talking back, a shorter temper, some sullenness. How to deal with the winter doldrums? First, realize that it's natural and you're not alone.  You're  not  the only one whose kid may be bucking the rules and giving you a hard time. That provides  some  comfort, right? Well, let your kid know they're not alone, either. If you ask how their day was and get even  less  of a response than usual, it may ...

For the past several years, there has been a lot of discussion about the impact of the pandemic on kids' social skills and mental health. In education circles, we have discussed the pandemic's effect on students' academic skills as well as their social development. As shutdowns, online learning, and daily mask protocols have drifted into distant memory, recent patterns fell into line with longer trends starting earlier than 2020. The increase in anxiety among adolescents began long before the pandemic, steadily increasing since the introduction of smartphones in 2007. Adolescents' decreased mental wellness and social confidence/competence have been steadily worsening since the decade prior, as the Millenial generation gave way to Gen Z in schools.  Over the past year, these topics have moved into the cultural conversation more and more, thanks in no small part to Jonathan Haidt's popular book,  The Anxious Generation . You may have heard of it and it may even be on ...

  I don't necessarily believe in making New Year's Resolutions. The practice of making a bunch of decisions on this random Wednesday in the middle of winter to quit bad habits and pick up good habits often doesn't lead to lasting change anyway.  Nearly 2/3 of resolutions have been abandoned within the first month , so what's the point? The one thing I  do  like about the New Year is that it's a good excuse to spend some time reflecting on what my goals are and whether I'm making progress toward them.  Without a concrete plan, it's easy to let one day bleed into the next  and weeks pile up without making much progress.  In classes, several teachers have asked students to reflect on how they spent time in 2024 or how they plan to spend time in 2025. The kids have some amazing insights about things they want to achieve and ideas for how to get there, but we often don't want to think about time we've wasted. It's in the past and there's no need t...

At the end of the school day, South's campus becomes a remarkably busy place for about 20 minutes. In the morning, it's hectic for slightly longer as everyone rushes to get into school and start their day.  It's busy, there's traffic, and it's  absolutely  essential to remember that everyone's going to get through it with a little patience and consideration, especially for the unpredictable adolescents all around us. With so many people moving in every direction with their own plans and priorities in mind, it is a daily source of worry. Last week, there was a very frightening experience at South during dismissal when a student on an electric scooter had a collision with a school bus. The incident fortunately resolved with injuries that will heal, but it brought these daily anxieties to stark reality. We have rules for arrival and dismissal and I send periodic reminders, but it is only in a moment of crisis that a lot of people will stop and think about how impor...