6 Things Every Parent of a Middle Schooler Should Know

Gone are the days of cubbies, show and tell, and class holiday parties. You now have a middle schooler. As a parent it is sometimes difficult to navigate the ins and outs of your child’s education, especially as they get into middle and high school. Not only is it difficult for you to keep track of your child’s many teachers, but it’s difficult for those teachers to constantly keep in touch with over 130 students’ parents. Middle school teachers weigh in and tell you some ways to help you tread these new, and sometime treacherous, waters!

1. Organize. Create an organizational system that works for your child. While some kids can manage a binder, others find it exhausting to open all three of those prongs to place their papers inside. With your child, talk about organizational options and let them choose which would be best. After you’ve invested time and money into this organizational strategy, sit with them often to re-organize until they get the hang of it.

2. Planners/Agendas! Some schools give each child an agenda or planner, but if they don’t, get your child one. If tablets or laptops are used in school and your child is more tech savvy, find a great app to keep them organized. If not, help your child find a planner they like. Yes, let them pick one out. The more ownership they have over this, the more likely they are to use it. Some kids like to have a variety of pens and stickers as well. Trust me, get them the pens if it motivates them to use the planner. Have them write in their extracurricular activities and appointments as well.

3. Grades. Most schools have a Parent Portal system that updates a student’s grade as the teacher updates their grade book. You can often see what assignments your child is missing as well as the grade they earned on each assignment and test. Check bi-weekly and a few days after every major test and quiz. If possible, it's great if your child is able to access their grades online as well. They need to keep up with it more than you do and seeing how each assignment impacts their overall grade is important!

4. Struggling Students. If your child has any sort of special need (ADD, ADHD, meds, personality tics, dyslexia, home issues, etc.) schedule a conference with your child’s teachers a few weeks AFTER school has started and fill them in on the situation. There are also resource classes available for struggling students, but parents may need to specifically ask for testing. Your child may also qualify for a 504, which isn’t a special ed IEP, but rather a documented way to ensure that your child gets additional support for any diagnosed issue.  

5. Consequences. Let your child suffer the consequences of failing to study for a test or failing to turn in an assignment. Middle Schoolers need to learn that success must be earned and it may take hard work. This isn’t peewee soccer, no one gets a medal for just for showing up. If you run to the school and start making demands at your child’s teacher, you’re only teaching them that mama/daddy will bail them out when they make a mistake or life doesn’t go their way. 
6. Monitor Social Media/Electronics. The social aspects of middle school are rough, to say the least. Middle school students are experiencing a new social world and bullying is common at this age. Whether your student is doing the bullying or the one being picked on, you need to know (and you need to deal with it). With student suicide rates at all all time high, be proactive in finding out what is happening with your child socially. There are a number of apps that can monitor your child’s electronics. Additionally, electronics are the number one reason why middle schoolers aren’t sleeping enough at night. Set a time when they turn off or turn in their electronics for the evening. Studies show that at least an hour before bedtime is best.

Bonus #7! (Yep, we do bonuses here!) Buy more pencils. Your child is likely switching classes often and losing pencils along the way. Many teachers report giving away 500+ pencils each semester. Help a teacher out and snag some more pencils when they’re on sale in August!

Weigh In! Leave a comment with your best advice to parents of middle school kids!

#middleschool #parentadvice #teaching

Ten Relationships That Are Not Worth Your Time

Ten Types of Relationships that are Not Worth Your Time

1.       The Tumultuous Relationship: Guys that break up with girls due to other potential flings don’t really like you. The truth is, they just don’t like being lonely. Get them a puppy and move on.

2.       The Silent Treatment:Text messages and other various forms of communication go unanswered for days. In a world of social media and iphones, if a guy really wants you he also wants to chat with you. Don't be that girl. Create an amazing new contact name for him, like "The Mute" or "Bashful".

3.       The Jane Doe: When your identification in his phone is covert, he might as well refer to you as booty call #1137. The same goes for a guy that has no intention of revealing your casual or blossoming relationship to his friends. If he doesn’t look at you and say to his friends, “Yeah, that’s her” then you might as well call him Short and Stumpy #666  and use him as back up when your battery dies.

4.       The Midnight Excursion: If the extent of a romantic evening with him consists of just an evening in, naked, with a potential trip to Ihop at midnight for nourishment, he’s probably not planning to take you to Sunday brunch with mom and dad the next morning. However, these nights can be especially exciting, just don’t get too attached and remember that “hanging out” and booty calls should never be ranked equally to dinner and a movie.

5.       The Guilt-Tripper: He doesn’t call. He doesn’t respond to text messages. He makes and breaks plans frequently and impersonally. Then, after you’ve determined that he’s been the victim of a natural disaster, he reappears and says, “Why are you so fickle? Don’t you like me anymore?”

6.       The relationship you are attempting to access is temporarily unavailable. The mention of any future plans involving anything from getting ice cream later to having 2.5 children and a golden retriever causes a temporary shutdown of all communication and sexual escapades. Remind him that you're only considering serious relationships with men that are actually good looking, interesting, funny, and with slightly more stamina than he can provide.

7.       The One Way Street: He calls you on every bad day to vent, but doesn’t reply when you need help in making an important life decision. Tip: Don’t make that life decision to accommodate this guy.

8.       The Cock Blocker: He doesn’t want a serious, committed relationship with you; the casual friends- with-benefits thing is working just fine. However, the very idea that you’d go on a date with someone that actually thinks you’re worth more than that of a blow up doll is out of the question and tends to prevent you from giving anyone else a chance.  Trust me; this guy is crazy to think you’d be cool with this stagnant relationship forever.

9.       The Invisible Man: He likes to hang out with you one-on-one (literally), but disappears when the opportunity to meet your friends or accompany you to a wedding occurs. Let him disappear and see if the cute best man is available.

10.   The Blue Light Special: He makes you feel cheap. It doesn't matter how he does it. If he makes you feel cheap, remember that you're more of a Tiffany's kind of girl and go hang out at the coffee shop near the local med school. 

Libya: Solving world problems one day at a time.

Libya: Solving world problems one day at a time.

Unless you’ve been hiding within the narcissistic realm of social media, you’ve heard that Libya has followed Tunisia and Egypt in to the world of civil unrest. Copycats. Most Americans would shrug and reflect saying something profound like, “Yep, Libya. Is that nexta France? I once had a dog named Libby. Loved that dog.”

But according to Hardball with Chris Matthews, now is not the time to lounge around complaining about the cost of gas for your highly necessary diesel Hummer or yet another Skippy peanut butter recall; it is the time to put our humanitarian efforts on high blast and purchase a t-shirt demanding, “Save Libya”.

The United States has been contemplating which actions should be taken in dealing with the Quaddafi, the leader of Libya. Should Libyan rebels receive international support supplying them with ammunition, weapons, or humanitarian supplies? Should the US institute a No-Fly zone or place an embargo on Libyan oil exports? Should we call James Bond? All of these questions have evidently stumped the politians of Washington, the great thinkers of our country.

Never fear. There are several alternatives to brute force, armament, and higher oil prices that the brains of DC have overlooked.

Send in the Clowns

He has “a different constitution, a different brain, a different heart.” As he once proclaimed, “I got tiger blood.” He’s Charlie Sheen and he is tired of pretending he’s not special. He has a 100% success rate at everything except AA and rehab, but he’s a winner none the less. In Libya he can utilize his “big warlock brain” to devise a conquest plan and deliver the message to Quaddafi “with a sense of violent love.” Most importantly, he’s used to “dealing with fools and trolls and soft targets. It’s just strafing runs in my underwear before my first cup of coffee.” Ma Salama Charlie, take your dirty underwear and your tiger blood with you.

Crash Their Economy

The streets of Libya are crowded, loud, and cut throat; the bankers of Wall Street should feel right at home. Perhaps the collapse of the Libyan housing market, financial crisis, and poverty stricken citizens looking for cheap wheat and sugar would force Quaddafi to quit. Then they can build their fortune on the backs of the Libyans and give the Americans a break.

Exile the Underachievers

Save the children of the United States and send Libya the ineffective teachers that were unable to reverse the effects of poverty and years of bad parenting. In fact, give the teachers miniscule funds, no parent support, forty illiterate Libyan gang toddlers, and they’ll still teach them to speak English well enough to communicate with the monolingual, egocentric American people. Unfortunately, this is not on the standardized test, and, therefore, an epic failure.

At the very least, send in Lindsay Lohan. She can steal their oil.