The Connect
An 8th Grade Newsletter! Edition 7.
Thursday Folder Was Sent Home Today!
Next Week is Parent Teacher Conference Week !
Progress Reports Are AVAILABLE to View TOMORROW!
Progress Reports will be available to view in Aeries tomorrow. This gives you a chance to review your child's grades before next week's conferences. We look forward to seeing many families during conference time next week! There are times still open for parents to sign up for a Zoom meeting. You can sign up for a conference time by visiting our classroom's Sign Up Genius Website.
Remember these progress report grades are a "snapshot" of your child's first six weeks of their 8th grade year. This is an opportunity to reflect on the first six weeks of school and discover what is working and also change what hasn't been successful. We have five more weeks of grades before Trimester One comes to an end. Please encourage students to be diligent about keeping up with their studies.
How to Help Your Child Succeed at School - by Jessica Lahey - From The New York Times- Part 7
The Link Between Sleep and Learning
Sleep is integral to learning and memory consolidation, so prioritize sleep over other activities. If your child isn’t getting to homework until late, think about what else in the family schedule can move to make that a priority. Talk about scheduling before committing to a new extracurricular activity in the first place.
School-age children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep every night in order to be physically and mentally healthy. And teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep. But studies show that they are getting far less than that. This is partially because of two developmental changes during adolescence:
- Sleep phase delay. When teens tell you they simply are not sleepy at night, they are not lying. Due to a shift in their circadian rhythm during adolescence, they get tired later than children and adults. In light of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to account for teen sleep phase delay and promote teen mental and physical health.
- Less awareness of fatigue. Teens are also less likely to feel the effects of their sleep deprivation, which can lead to falling asleep in school or worse, behind the wheel of a car.
Remember, “catching up” on the weekend does not work because it can throw off children’s circadian rhythms further, compounding the problem.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends adolescents try keeping a sleep diary to put the reality of their sleep habits in black and white. It’s hard to claim you are getting enough sleep when the numbers tell a different story.
If your child asks for “just one more hour” for homework or to prepare for a test you can tell them that all other things being equal, an extra hour of sleep will likely be more valuable for memory consolidation than an extra hour of study.
Model: Let kids see you value sleep. Allow the house to get quiet an hour before a reasonable bedtime, put your devices away, pull out a book and keep good sleep habits yourself.
How Kids’ Brains Work
Until fairly recently, scientists believed that because childrens’ brains are done growing by the age of 10, their brains are mature by 10 as well. This could not be further from the truth. Kids’ brains are still developing on a cellular level, in a process that won’t be completed until their mid-20s.
Children’s brains develop in fits and starts, with a first period of massive growth and development between the ages of 1 and 3, and a second during adolescence (between 11 and roughly 25). During these periods of heightened change, their brains are said to be highly “plastic,” meaning they adapt and grow rapidly in response to their environment.
Increased brain plasticity also means increased potential for learning because brain cells morph from their immature, inefficient “gray matter” state to their more mature and efficient “white matter” state, while building up to 100,000 new synapses per second. Brain cells talk to each other via synapses, and it’s a “use it or lose it” situation. The more brain cells talk to each other via these new connections, the greater the brain’s potential to process and learn.
The last part of the brain to mature is the frontal lobe, where organization, time management and all those other executive function skills happen, so be patient. Middle and high school kids can’t possibly manage all the challenges school and society throws at them, so support kids as they try, fail and try again.
Model: Brain power is built through challenge and so-called “desirable difficulties,” learning tasks that lie just a bit beyond our ability level or comfort zone. The more our kids see us take on challenges and learn from our mistakes, the more likely they will be to do the same.
Reminders:
Mon. 10/11 - Student Recess - No School
Mon. 10/18 - Minimum Day
Fri. 10/29 -End of First Trimester
Mon. 11/01 -Minimum Day
Thurs. 11/11 - Veterans Day - No School
Fri. 11/12 - Student Recess - No School
iReady Testing - Mon. 11/15 - Fri. 11/19
Fri. 11/19 - Minimum Day
Mon. 11/22 - Fri. 11/26 - Thanksgiving BREAK - NO SCHOOL
Mon. 11/29 - Minimum Day
MRS. DALEY AND MRS. KANESHINA
MRS. DALEY- ANGELA_DALEY@ETIWANDA.ORG
MRS. KANESHINA - MATILDA_KANESHINA@ETIWANDA.ORG
Email: angeladaley@me.com
Website: kanley.org
Location: 1234 Coyote Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, United States
Phone: 909 803 3300