We are less than 2 weeks from the end of the year - in 14 days finals will be over, fields trips completed, everyone will know who is in which advisory, and we'll be looking at summer camps, vacations, sleeping in, and all the things that come with the break between school years.

One thing that has wrapped up is our 4th quarter advisory projects.  Each advisory took some time to focus on one of our 4 values: Respect, Compassion, Scholarship or Integrity.  From there the students and advisor worked together to design a project, carry it out and then present it to the other advisories.  We had our presentations on Tuesday of this week.  Some of the ideas shared were making blankets for Children's Place, partnering with low income schools to read/provide attendance incentives, making gift bags for Operation Breakthrough, having a "topic jar" in which students all submitted random topics that were then drawn, researched and discussed, and each person teaching their fellow advisees something new.  Some really wonderful projects!  There were many others, all equally impressive!  It was very inspiring to hear all the projects and has given us a great idea list to use next year!

Wellness lessons will wrap up on Tuesday of next week.  This past Wednesday a former PHS student talked candidly with our 8th grade about how she became involved with substance use, and then addiction, in high school.  Her agenda was not to persuade kids one way or another, or tell them what decisions to make, but rather to share her own struggles and how drinking and drugs impacted her life.  She did a wonderful job describing the normalcy around her early drinking days and why she got into the partying on the weekend lifestyle - and how it quickly turned into more.  Please do ask your 8th graders about the speaker.  Some possible questions to ask:

• What did you think of Kate's story?
• Why do you think Kate's drinking became an addiction?
• Have you thought about what you will do when someone invites you to a party with alcohol?
• Lots of people talk about how normal it is to drink and experiment with drugs in high school, do you think it's normal?

Experts agree that having open conversations like this with your teen will set the stage for them to come to you when they encounter a tough situation.  If you can limit telling them what to do, and let them do most of the talking, you do most of the listening, you are building a new kind of trust with your teen. We hope these type of Wellness lessons will allow you to have these conversations at home. 

There will be lessons for 7th and 8th grade on Monday and Tuesday of next week with speakers from First Call, a drug/alcohol recovery and prevention agency.  They will discuss the impact of alcohol and drugs on a developing teenage brain, as well as refusal strategies, followed by someone who is in recovery sharing their story and how it impacted those around them.  Should be another great opportunity to ask some of the same questions as above.  

Thanks to all of you for another great year in the middle school!  Hope you have a wonderful summer break!  

Mental Health Month

Welcome to May!  Yesterday I had my first May Day experience here at Pembroke Hill - what a treat!  I was blown away at the work that must go into putting on such a fun afternoon each year!  It was a great moment of joy in my week.  Tonight I look forward to watching our students perform in the 30th annual Showcase, yet another event that is done up right around here, but not without tremendous preparation!

I find it so fitting that May is chosen to be Mental Health Month.  May is sunny and warm, but often the weather accompanies busy schedules, long to-do lists, feeling overwhelmed, feeling run down, perhaps even feeling sad.  This is all especially true for our young people, who are still developing the coping skills to get them through challenging times.  In fact, suicide rates tend to rise in the spring.  Thus, we have an important job to do as the adults in our children's lives.  Let's be vigilant.  Let's look for signs of distress.  Let's talk with each other.  Let's show our kids that we are here for them.  Let's point out their small successes.  Let's ensure some down time.

In the spirit of mental health awareness I thought I would devote the rest of this blog to sharing some wonderful community resources with you.

First is a community forum coming up soon regarding social media safety.  Many thanks to Coach Budzinski for sharing this with me!
#We'reBackOnline

Next I want to direct you to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).  This link is to their Kansas City chapter.  You can find opportunities to get involved, information about support groups and more!
http://www.namikc.org/

Also from NAMI is a great fact sheet about how stigma impact mental illness perceptions and treatment
Mental Illness and Stigma

And from the US Department and Health and Human Services, some myths and facts about mental illness
http://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/myths-facts/

We have many more excellent mental health services here in the area.  If I can ever be of assistance to you in connecting with counseling services, please let me know.