• A Message from Dr. Clapp

• Classroom Peeks

• Happenings

• Get Involved!

• Community Clicks

• and Upcoming Events

Dear HKMS Families,

My wife often says I can be "like a dog on a bone" when I get into a topic.  I'm not sure its always a compliment (🤔).  With that in mind, I have been doing more research on the impacts of social media, phones, Chromebooks, and screens on adolescent development. In an effort to balance out all the negative studies coming out lately, this week I have been focusing on the positive impacts technology can have on our young adolescents.  The article linked here from the American Psychological Association (APA) is about the most balanced one I can find related to social media.  They list many "charms and harms" social media offers adolescents. There are also numerous studies on the positive impact virtually unlimited access to information for research, interest as well as exposure to culture, art, music, and different ways of thinking can be very positive for young adolescents.  As the APA article concludes, these positive impacts can emerge only with strict oversight, monitoring, and education about the "harms."  They suggest the following:

Social media recommendations

APA’s Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence makes these recommendations based on the scientific evidence to date:

1. Youth using social media should be encouraged to use functions that create opportunities for social support, online companionship, and emotional intimacy that can promote healthy socialization.

2. Social media use, functionality, and permissions/consenting should be tailored to youths’ developmental capabilities; designs created for adults may not be appropriate for children.

3. In early adolescence (i.e., typically 10–14 years), adult monitoring (i.e., ongoing review, discussion, and coaching around social media content) is advised for most youths’ social media use; autonomy may increase gradually as kids age and if they gain digital literacy skills. However, monitoring should be balanced with youths’ appropriate needs for privacy.

4. To reduce the risks of psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to content on social media that depicts illegal or psychologically maladaptive behavior, including content that instructs or encourages youth to engage in health-risk behaviors, such as self-harm (e.g., cutting, suicide), harm to others, or those that encourage eating-disordered behavior (e.g., restrictive eating, purging, excessive exercise) should be minimized, reported, and removed; moreover, technology should not drive users to this content.

5. To minimize psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to “cyberhate” including online discrimination, prejudice, hate, or cyberbullying especially directed toward a marginalized group (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, ability status), or toward an individual because of their identity or ally ship with a marginalized group should be minimized.

6. Adolescents should be routinely screened for signs of “problematic social media use” that can impair their ability to engage in daily roles and routines, and may present risk for more serious psychological harms over time.

7. The use of social media should be limited so as to not interfere with adolescents’ sleep and physical activity.

8. Adolescents should limit use of social media for social comparison, particularly around beauty- or appearance-related content.

9. Adolescents’ social media use should be preceded by training in social media literacy to ensure that users have developed psychologically-informed competencies and skills that will maximize the chances for balanced, safe, and meaningful social media use.

10. Substantial resources should be provided for continued scientific examination of the positive and negative effects of social media on adolescent development.

While much of this is happening in school, with health classes, ILA, and Social Studies classes tapping into the digital literacy component, we couple these lessons with strict oversight and filtering provided by teacher supervision and GoGuardian (our online monitoring software). Intuitively, we also know that an adolescents' access, oversight, and understanding about digital literacy has to also happen at home to be most impactful.  As parents and guardians you are still (and always will be ) your child's most important and impactful teachers. How you use these various media is a model of how they should use it as well.  Keep the conversations about the need for restrictions going.  While they may shrug it off, they are listening and learning. 

Another "nearly" five-day week means another week of amazing middle school teaching and learning at Keller! Below you will find students exploring the layers of our atmosphere, playing BINGO in French, using proportional reasoning, and solving systems of linear equations.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Steven Clapp, Ed.D.

Grade 7

Grade 8

FPAs

School Climate Advisory Committee

Made up of a diverse group of students, staff, and parents, the school climate advisory committee analyzes our school climate data, identifies areas of strength and improvement, and designs action-research projects to help improve our school environment.  

This week members of the committee were preparing a mid-year check-in to see how we are doing on a few key areas.  

Spiritwear Direct 

 https://stapleskellerspiritwear.com/page/new-