Last Call For Annual Conference Presentations

Why not present at the NELMS Annual Conference in Providence RI on March 25, 26, & 27^th! We are now seeking 75 minute sessions on a variety of topics that fit into the many strands at the conference. If you thought you had missed the deadline, you haven’t yet, but it is getting close so don’t wait! The due date is September 23rd and the selection will be made by the end of October.

 Many have found presenting to be a rewarding experience for a variety of reasons. Some of the most popular include the benefit of saving on conference registrations, the pride of contributing to the profession, and a better chance of attending during school selection for professional development.

Call For Presenters Form

Preliminary information about registering for the event is now available at www.nelms.org and more will be posted shortly.

October is the Month of the Young Adolescent, an annual national collaborative effort of education, health, and youth-oriented organizations. Initiated by National Middle School Association (NMSA) and supported by The New England League of Middle Schools, (NELMS), Month of the Young Adolescent brings together a wide range of organizations to focus on the needs of this important age range, ages 10-15.

Four key messages will be promoted throughout the month of October. They are: 1) The importance of parents being knowledgeable about young adolescents and being actively involved in their lives; 2) The understanding that healthy bodies plus healthy minds equal healthy young adolescents; 3) The realization that the education young adolescents experience during this formative period of life will, in large measure, determine the future for all citizens; and 4) The knowledge that every young adolescent should have the opportunity to pursue his or her dreams and aspirations, and post-secondary education should be a possibility for all.

Why should we focus on a collaborative national campaign regarding young adolescents? The general public has lacked an adequate understanding of youth in the transition period between childhood and adolescence. As a result, young adolescents often have been “growing up forgotten.”

Shadow Day

A very effective way to communicate with opinion leaders is through school shadow days. They see firsthand what is occurring, and have the chance to ask questions. That is the purpose of our October 18th activity.  Schools are encouraged to identify an opinion leader and invite that person to spend an entire day in a middle level school. They may shadow an educator or a student.

Who Should Be Invited
Schools that have successfully conducted shadow days have invited state legislators, mayors or city council members, business leaders, the president of the local chamber of commerce, a newspaper editor or reporter, an influential parent leader, the state superintendent of schools, and other influential community members. The key is finding someone who influences others.

Week of October 10
Have an appropriate person from the school (principal if you are doing a Principal for a Day or teacher, if you are doing a Teacher or Student for a Day) contact the shadower to see if he or she has any questions. Make sure the shadower understands when he or she is to arrive and where they are to go. Make this as comfortable as possible. For example, agree to meet the opinion leader at the front door—do not make him or her find an office or classroom and design the "take-away" materials for shadowers.

October 10
Send the media advisory to local news media. (If there is a PR coordinator in your school district, coordinate who will do this and the October 14 phone call.)

October 14
Phone your local media to confirm that they received the advisory and find out if they plan to participate. Encourage newspapers to contact their photo desk and send a photographer.

October 18 Shadow Day
After the event is over, ask the shadower to make a few comments about the experience. You can use these comments in any newsletter coverage you initiate. Consider videotaping the comments so they can be used with the PTA, staff, school board, and/or other groups.

For more resources, visit http://www.nmsa.org/moya/moya_2004/overview.htm

'Social norms' strategy aims to tame bullying

Researchers say that middle-school bullying could be curbed by showing that it's not normal.

By Stacy A. Teicher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

It's not normal to act like a bully. In anonymous surveys at several large middle schools, the vast majority of students reported that they had not hit, teased, threatened, excluded, or gossiped maliciously about classmates in the past 30 days.

But a majority were also convinced that their own nonbully status was an exception to the norm. To reduce the amount of bullying that does exist, that misperception needs to change, argues H. Wesley Perkins, a sociology professor and director of the Alcohol Education Project at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y.

"What we've seen consistently is that risk behaviors [and] problem behaviors are overestimated," Professor Perkins says, "which [means] much of the bullying or violence or substance abuse can continue because the people engaged in that think everybody else is doing it."

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New England League of Middle Schools, 460 Boston Street, Suite 4, Topsfield, MA 01983; Email: nelms@nelms.org