For many across the country, if not back already, today marks the start of another school year!
Educators, I hope you had a restful summer and your preparations for the new school year have gone well.
Parents and guardians, likewise I hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful summer with family and rousing your kids for school this morning was relatively stress free :)
It’s a busy day for everyone so I’ll keep it simple today. I offer a summary and links to some of my previous writings around the subject of back-to-school and related topics.
Understanding just how much insufficient sleep affects our children is a motivator to help them get the best sleep possible. As kids return to school, resetting sleep habits and rules around tech in the bedroom is hard but imperative. I share why sleep is so important and what you can do to help make a tech-free bedtime less painful. Most importantly, I share some of my favorite ways to set and maintain rules around sleep time - They might surprise you!
One thing that is key in our work together is ensuring we include the voices of young people — something that, of course, is present in the Screenagers film series. Their input is crucial, and that is why I have 2 important questions for us to ask them as they transition back to school. As you know, I am particularly focused on improving our kids' mental health. One major lever is decreasing personal devices in schools.
Our team launched Away For The Day in December 2017 to provide science and tools to help more schools create policies in which phones are not with students during the school day, and we are pleased the USA Today article mentions the campaign. The moment of change is truly here. Unlike anything we have seen in the past, the rate at which schools and full districts are adopting away-for-the-day policies is outstanding!
The start of the academic year gives us an opportunity to get clarity on our key reasons for wanting to work with our kids to ensure that they have time off screens. What would your three top reasons be? In this blog, I share mine AND I offer you a 60-second activity to get the conversation going.
We launched the Away For The Day movement in 2017 because we could see back then the detrimental impact of smartphone use in schools, not just on academics but also on the emotional wellbeing and social development of youth. The fact is research shows that Away For The Day is the way to go. This week we introduce our significantly updated Away For The Day campaign website to help you support cellphone bans at your schools or your kids’ schools.
I’m so pleased to tell you that our new movie is finished and I look forward to sharing the trailer with you next week! You can learn more about the movie here and if you are interested in hosting a screening of this movie in your school or community, learn more about the options to do so and make an inquiry here.
We’re happy to share a preview copy of the movie with prospective hosts, just make an inquiry and a member of our team can arrange that for you.
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For many across the country, if not back already, today marks the start of another school year!
Educators, I hope you had a restful summer and your preparations for the new school year have gone well.
Parents and guardians, likewise I hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful summer with family and rousing your kids for school this morning was relatively stress free :)
It’s a busy day for everyone so I’ll keep it simple today. I offer a summary and links to some of my previous writings around the subject of back-to-school and related topics.
“I am a parent of two teenage daughters (16 and 14), both in high school. I am frustrated with how the schools encourage social media usage by using it for communication. The softball team communicates through Twitter. Clubs communicate through Instagram. The band uses Snapchat. How do we best encourage (request/demand) the schools to use non-social media platforms for activities, sports, and clubs?... Any advice?”
READ MORE >I have been thinking a lot about going back to school, and recently, I listened to the behavioral scientist BJ Fogg uses the term “skill them up” when talking about how to help someone activate and reach a goal in their life. Today I share three key skills that can benefit our kids and students greatly.
READ MORE >A big shift has happened, a reset is remerging, and how we communicate as schools and families is critical. What types of committees will we make? How should such emails even be changed?
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.