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The Most Important Teacher

This Web space was created for the most important teacher in your child’s life – you! Brain researchers say that in your role as parent, one of the best things you can do to support academic achievement is to create an emotionally safe learning environment at home. When a child feels intimidated, labeled, frightened, or incapable, an overproduction of stress hormones (noradrenalin) causes the child to focus on self-protection, not learning.

You might be thinking, “How can I create an emotionally safe learning environment when I’m battling discipline issues, mood swings and angry outbursts?” Help is a few clicks away in a tremendous Web resource called “You Can Handle Them All,” a reference created by Master Teacher for handling over 117 misbehaviors. Another great resource for you and your child is KidsHealth.org. It is filled with practical, doable parenting tips provided by health experts.

Keep Our Kids Connected and Protected

Take action!  Decide how YOU want to get involved with your child’s online life---before someone else does, e.g., a pornographer, a potential predator, a cyber bully, or worse.

In Your Home In Your Community

Position the Internet access point in a high traffic area and establish parental controls.

Know What Your Children are Doing

  1. How to know, in complete and accurate detail, what your children do and view online    
  2. How to react after viewing your child's actual online behavior
  3. How to take advantage of parental controls that are YOURS for the asking
  4. How to install a FREE Internet filter
  5. How to find your child (and your child’s friends) on MySpace.com
  6. How to use the free logging/recording capabilities that are built-in to AOL’s Instant Messenger
  7. How to know as much as your kid knows about toothing, iPods, camera phones, and more
  8. How to report a cybercrime
  9. How to read Instant Message abbreviations

Take a minute to make a difference in the life of a child.

  1. Inform your friends and extended family. Send a copy of this sample email.
  2. Take or email this special public service announcement to your local newspaper.
  3. Host a parent seminar for the community. It could be an informal lunch meeting at your child’s school or a more formal presentation in the evening. Print this flyer to announce the event.
  4. Invite high school students to make presentations at community events. For example, “Pornography on the Web,” a Webcast developed by iSAFE.org, is built around a winning high school entry in i-SAFE’s 2004 Student Filmmaker Contest. To view more webcasts, go to www.isafe.org and click on "webcasts" in the blue box.

Why is it so important to know exactly what your child is doing online?

  • Why? Youth hide what they’re doing online! These shocked parents discovered their 13-year-old son was accessing X-rated sites in the afternoons, shortly after school let out.
  • Why? “The largest group of consumers of Internet pornography are youth 12-17 years of age.” 1
  • Why? Because the more they consume, the worse it gets. They will progress to the “harder” variety of material, or worse. Ted Bundy, just hours before his execution, told the psychiatrist, “My experience with pornography is that once you become addicted to it you keep looking for more potent more explicit more graphic kinds of material until you reach a point where pornography only goes so far…” 1
  • WHY? “Federal authorities believe that at least 500,000 to 750,000 predators are “on-line” on a daily basis, constantly combing through these blog sites, crawling around in Internet chat rooms and on-line dating services, pretending to be someone and something they’re not.” 2
  • Why? Because “nine out of ten people age 8 to 16 say they’ve viewed porn on the web by accident.” 1
  • Why? Because a child’s brain (until age 20) isn’t equipped to handle the flood of inappropriate material on the Internet and other mobile devices. The brain isn’t fully mature until the age of 20, and the LAST part of the brain to develop is the prefrontal cortex – the very center of reasoning and judgment! Scientists refer to this part of the brain as the “area of sober second thought.” Source: PBS.org
  • Why? Because these statistics are unacceptable.

“88 percent of parents still admit that knowing where their kids are online is more important than respecting their kids’ privacy.” 6

cell phoneFree Resources

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More HOT Topics for Parents:

Astonishing Facts About Your Child’s Brain, shared by Dr. Kathie Nunley

Are you connected with a Parent Teacher Organization? Dr. Kathie Nunley provides excellent articles especially designed for schools to reprint free of charge in newsletters or other publications.

“The average high schooler needs 8.5 hours of sleep. A middle schooler needs 10 hours. Children in elementary grades first through fourth should be getting 10.5 and preschoolers, 11 hours of sleep.” Huffman (1994). Psychology, 3rd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. on www.brains.org

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Resources from Kaleidoscope

“The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal their riches to themselves.” Swahili Proverb

Words of Wisdom from N.C. Middle School Teachers
What Gives Middle School Students a Tough Time in the Content Areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies

Uncovering Your Child’s Learning Personality
Sit down with your child and look at this collection of eight Alien trading cards. Ask your child to pick the Alien that seems to be a lot like him or her.

As you listen to the child discuss how they are alike or different from the Aliens, you will begin to see a kaleidoscope of interests, strengths, learning styles and natural tendencies. Be a careful listener and let the child do all the talking. Students who understand the concept of learning styles and multiple intelligences are better able to grasp their own learning profiles and to set realistic goals about minimizing their weaknesses and building on their strengths.

"...higher level reasoning skills are achieved PRECISELY when we allow a person to learn through his strongest modality, whatever that may be..." (Discover Your Child's Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Hodson, page 154)

A Snapshot of Your Child’s Middle School Year
Take every opportunity to help your child make connections between classroom instruction and the real world. Curriculum Cork Boards capture a year’s worth of curriculum in one easy-to-understand Web visual.

Cool Homework Helpers and Other School Tools
Free Online Tools make product creation a breeze! Check out these amazing puzzlemakers, certificate makers, map generators and more!

Ways to Feed and Exercise Your Child’s Brain

Time Out for Stressed-Out Kids: The Trouble Terminator

Time Out for Stressed-Out Parents: Visit the Spa.calm

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Resources from NCPublicSchools.org

A Report Card for Your Child’s School
How to find your school:

  1. Go to www.ncreportcards.org/src/.
  2. Select your district.
  3. Select your school.
  4. Locate the tabs along the top and click "High Student Performance."
  5. Don't overlook links with MORE INFORMATION. You can study trends in student performance, analyze performance by student groups, and more.

Parents and Public

Involvement: Strong Family, Community, and Business Support for Education

Resources from the U.S. Department of Education

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Email Donna Sawyer (dsawyer@dpi.state.nc.us) if you
1. want to suggest a link to add to this page.
2. would like to see more links on a particular topic or issue.
3. have a question.


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