The healthy development of children in their early years plays a critical role in providing building blocks for economic productivity, educational achievement, social skills, responsible citizenship, and other elements. In the wake of the rapidly developing technology and the emergence of the internet, it is important to equip the preteens and students at high school with the skills that will be vital in enabling them to sail through the challenges associated with such developments. Numerous approaches are critical in enabling the identified class of children to embrace accountability and responsibility at home and school regarding social media, academics, and social [...]

Once upon a time, bullying was limited to the physical world. Since what seems like forever, we sent our kids to school knowing it was possible for someone to pick on them in the classroom, on the playground, or on the bus, but there was relief in knowing that once they came home, they were safe. But in the digital age, all that has changed with cyberbullying. Now bullying can happen in any number of places, contexts, or locations, and sometimes that place is right in their pocket. What is cyberbullying? Cyberbullying—defined as willful and repeated harm or harassment inflicted [...]

Maybe you’re old enough to remember those PSAs and commercials addressing the always-relevant topic of peer pressure. One that stands out is where a teenager tries to tempt a younger boy into trying out some of his marijuana, with the famous line, “It’ll make you feel good.” And while saying no to drugs certainly remains an element of peer pressure today, the issue goes beyond the simplicity of that 1980s public service announcement. In the 21st century, peer pressure looks much different than it did even 20 years ago—and that makes talking about it and overcoming it more challenging than [...]

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is one of those buzzwords you hear quite a bit in the education world today. If you’re not familiar with social-emotional learning, it is essentially curriculum focused on learning about our emotions from a cognitive and emotional level and learning different skills that can be used to help manage strong emotions. You can think of it as the “feelings class”. If students can understand their feelings at a deep level, they can then become equipped to make decisions on which coping skills they can use to address challenging situations. Imagine if we could all resolve conflict from [...]

There are many distractions that take away from learning, building relationships with others, and family time. The digital age brought more access to entertainment and ways to connect with the world through fast internet and new technology. It also brought an expectation that things need to happen immediately, thus causing an inability to stay focused and attentive on things that are not immediate. There are some ways for you, as a parent, to help your child work on focus and attention skills to aid in the learning process. Visit ADNY Parent Resource Page Teach them [...]

Educators and parents alike prepare for the “summer slide”, the net negative phenomena in which students academically regress during summer recess, but in the world of COVID-19 how do we effectively prepare for and combat the “COVID-19 slide”? The COVID-19 slide may similarly impact students by resulting in the loss (or in this case the failure to ever gain) vital academic skills. What can we do as educators and parents to help prevent this? First, it’s important to understand how strong educational growth is built. Growth and skills are built by consistent and repetitive exposure [...]