Parent Connection: March 14, 2013

Parent

I’ll be seein’ ye Saturday night, mateys!

March 14, 2013

Connection

Breaking News

pre/post-trip inspection of the bus (performed daily by bus drivers) which involves checking under the hood and inspecting the diesel engine, and checking the tires, lights and emergency equipment. They also sat in the driver’s seat to see what the drivers see in order to understand the need to minimize distractions caused by students. They all came away with a deeper appreciation for what our bus drivers do, and a greater understanding of why bus rules are so important.

Logo Wear Sale

It’s a Spring Sale in the Logo Store – NOW until March 29th! All T-shirts in stock in all sizes while supplies last! Last sale for the school year. Come early!

T-shirts (Design 1-5) - $8 each T-shirts (Design #6) - $9 each For more information, email alice@ ischool.org or see Alice in the Office.

Student Bus Monitors

The Princeville/Kilauea bus now has student bus monitors! They are helping to maintain proper bus behavior by student riders. Student bus monitors have been assigned on runs to and from the North Shore.

The bus monitors were chosen from a list of applicants after an interview process and were trained by Mike Goto. Training included knowing the bus driver’s responsibilities and reasons for rules for bus riders.

The monitors learned to conduct a

Click HERE for important dates for more information at jenp@ ischool.org or mariko@ischool.org.

Look Who’s Gearing Up for the Pirate Ball

Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences Next Week

Our friend and emcee, Ron Wiley, (at right) is trying on his costume and getting ready for the big day - THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW! Saturday, March 16, is Island School’s 34th annual auction, A Pirate Ball. And while you won’t walk the plank if you come without a costume, here’s your chance for your “inner pirate” to shine. There are some great (and easy) ideas on the web. Click here. You are invited to browse our list of auction items ahead of time on http://ischool.maestroweb. com/.

Mayor’s Track Meet April 27-28

National & International Summer School Opportunities

If you haven’t signed up, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher (grades PK-5) or fill out the attached conference sign-up form (grades 6-12). Elementary students will share their portfolios, which are collections showing the progress made over the trimester. Middle and high school conferences are scheduled with each, individual teacher.

The County of Kaua’i 2013 Mayor’s Grade Track Meet is open to all kindergarten through 8th grade students and will be held on Saturday April 27, for K-5, and Sunday April 28, for 6 - 8. Meet times will be announced later. Practices begin next week and are scheduled for Tuesdays from 3-4 p.m. Please meet at the Weinberg Gym. Students should have PE clothing, a filled water bottle and running shoes. Contact Jen or Mariko

Now’s the time to consider signing your high school children up for one of the many summer school programs being offered all over the world. There are programs for all kinds of interests, many of which are geared toward preparing the student for the college experience. Our Dean of Students, Adie Siebring, has information for anyone who is interested. Contact her at adies@ischool.org or 246-0233, ext. 262.

To contact the publisher of Island School’s Parent Connection, email peggy@ischool.org

I.S. Chronicles she ultimately died. Students will also view a documentary entitled Paper Clips, which focuses on the real-life project of a Tennessee 8th grade class that received national attention when they collected 6 million paper clips to help them conceptualize the number of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

Griffin Lord’s art opening last Friday was a big success, thanks in part to help from her sister, Hailey (at right) and friend Bella Vooerhies (left).

SENIOR UPDATE – Kimberly McDonough was accepted at College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, where she was awarded a Dean’s Scholarship.

Kim’s earlier acceptance and merit award from University of Puget Sound was further enhanced by an additional Merit Scholarship for Violin. April Oo was accepted at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where she was awarded an Academic Leadership Scholarship.

Braden Beck was accepted at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA, and Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, where he was awarded a Dean’s Scholarship. Christian Potter was accepted at University of California, San Diego. Ava Zebzda was accepted at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, and was given a merit scholarship.

Adam Rick has been accepted at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Cole Moore was accepted at Seattle University in Seattle, WA. Joy Claypoole was accepted at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where she was awarded a Presidential Scholarship.

ENGLISH – Eighth grade students composed opinion letters to the editor of The Garden Island newspaper. Keep an eye on TGI to see if any of them get published. Additionally, students completed reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and have been viewing a DVD dramatization of her time in hiding and her imprisonment in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where

SEVENTH HOMEROOM – The 7th grade girls are painting a surfboard to donate to the auction!

Many thanks to Scott Mijares, father of Maile Mijares for donating the board!

Fourth graders enjoyed the beauty of Waimea Canyon on their trip to Koke‘e last month.

FOURTH GRADE – Steps to Respect is a bullying prevention program that enables students to develop positive character building skills. The students have begun engaging in writing, illustrating, discussing and role-playing topics that foster the development of their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

COMMUNITY SERVICE – Our Interact Club volunteered last weekend at the Rotary Club Po‘ipu Beach fund raising event, “One Fine Evening.”

They acted as greeters and, according to Rotary organizer Mike Curtis, did it “with enthusiasm.” They learned a bit about how having greeters works as a marketing tool. This was the first time this event had greeters. The students also helped to direct parking. Student volunteers include: Zeb Wichert, Whitney Summerhays, Amber Hopkins, Amanda Nguyen, AJ Ort and Ally Pascual. Our students proved their ability to be responsible, enabling further cooperation between Island School, Kaua‘i Rotary, and other Kaua‘i Interact Clubs.

ALUMNI NEWS - Lauren Claypoole, ‘12, and her basketball team at Williams College played in the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Basketball Sweet Sixteen Tournament last weekend and won both games! They now move on to the Final Four Tournament held this

weekend in Holland, Michigan, where they’ll play DePauw University from Indiana on Friday. The other two teams are University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and conference-rivals Amherst, also from Massachusetts. For any college team this is one of the highest achievements. Congrats to Lauren!

CHORUS – Students in grades 4 - 12 have been preparing since January for their spring concert scheduled for Wed., April 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the KCC Performing Arts Center. “Our Favorite Things: A Five Year Anniversary Celebration” features favorite selections from the chorus’s previous four spring concerts plus, naturally, a few surprises!

Tickets go on sale March 25 in the Office for $10/adults, $5/grades 4-12, grade 3 and under are free, as are middle and high school student with Island School ID cards.

Corina Potter helped high school chorus students with the Portuguese lyrics in a song for their upcoming concert.

Parent Page

Parent Association

Have you considered being a Room Parent Next Year?

•

Unsure of what to expect?

It’s easy to find out.

• Talk to your current Room Parent.

• Check with next year’s teacher for his or her expectations.

• Come to our next PA meeting on April 9th and meet other Room Parents.

This is a rewarding way to get “up close and personal” with your child’s school experience.

Please consider joining the PA team!

Classified Ads

KKCR T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST: To promote the T-Shirt design, ‘Island Grown Radio’ will be on the front of the T-shirt and ‘KKCR - Growing Community’ will be on the back. Incorporate your design and email to faithkkcr@gmail.com or you can snail mail them to: KKCR Kaua`i Community Radio P.O. Box 825 Hanalei, HI 96714 Submission deadline is March 28th. The winner we get a 2 night stay @ the Wyndham Vacation Ownership - Bali Hai Villas in Princeville a 2bd/2bathroom unit, valued @ $600! Get your designs in ASAP! For more info email Faith: faithkkcr@gmail.com call 826-7771 M-F 10am-4pm.

AUDITIONS: WIT announces auditions for the World Premiere of Hawai‘i’s UNofficial History: A 90 minute comedy for all ages, written by Cass Foster & Bill Alewyn, directed by Cass Foster. Tuesday and Wednesday, March 19th and 20th. Email Cass at <cass613@gmail.com> for location and time. Become a part of a cast of three where each of you morph into at least a dozen different characters with the help of costume pieces, wigs and hats. Cass is looking

Mahalo to

♥♥♥

♥ ♥ ♥ the Ing family for bringing in a school of fish for

the first grade fish tank. ♥ ♥ ♥ Ariana Wilson, Liz Hubbard, Paige & Jane

Sanacora, Lauren Hunt, Lorena & Kalena Wong and all the others who donated to A.J. Ort’s School Supply for Africa project.

♥ ♥ ♥ the army of parent, faculty, board and staff

volunteers who have been working tirelessly (and are still going strong) in the final stages before the great Pirate Ball takes place this Saturday. Also to the grandparents, former parents, friends and students who have been at it as well! ♥ ♥ ♥ Ami Vickers, Michelle Dressler, Kathy

Conery and Lisa Splittstoesser for washing Treasure Island costumes.

for two men, one woman and a couple of enthusiastic understudies. Ideally one of the men will look “Hawaiian”. It’s a rare opportunity for actors, including the understudies to participate in the creation of a new play open to your contributions. The show will open in July.

ETHAN SHELL MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: The Ethan Shell Memorial Scholarship has been established to provide scholarship aid for students who are pursuing a formal education in the performing arts such as theatre arts, music, dance, or stagecraft. Application Deadline: March 30, 2013. Applicants must be graduating high school seniors or GED recipients applying as full time students to an accredited college or university, or freshman college students enrolled at an accredited college or university and be pursuing a formal education focused on the performing arts such as theatre arts, music, dance, or stagecraft. The scholarship selection committee will meet and review all the applications in March. Interviews with the top three applicants will be scheduled in April and awards announced by May 8th, 2013.

Applications are available at www.hawaiichildrenstheatre.com

Technology & Family Relationships Is Technology Creating a Family Divide?

Published on March 13, 2013 by Jim Taylor, Ph.D., in Psychology Today Nowhere is the impact of popular culture and technology on children’s relationships more noticeable than in families. Both influences have contributed to a growing divide between the traditional roles that children and their parents play while, at the same time, blurring those same lines between parents and children. Over the past two decades, children who, for example, watch television, have received messages from popular culture telling them that parents are selfish, immature, incompetent, and generally clueless, for example, from Malcolm in the Middle, Tool Time, Family Guy, Two and a Half Men, and I Hate My Teenage Daughter, not to mention reality TV shows such as SuperNanny and the Housewives franchise. … [C]hildren’s absorption in technology, from texting to playing video games, does by their very nature limit their availability to communicate with their parents.

One study found that when the working parent arrived home after work, his or her children were so immersed in technology that the parent was greeted only 30 percent of the time and was totally ignored 50 percent of the time.

Another study reported that family time was not affected when technology was used for school, but did hurt family communications when used for social reasons. … … [P]arents can struggle to gain proficiency and comfort with the new technology that their digital-native children have already mastered. This divergence in competence in such an important area of children’s lives makes it more difficult for parents to assume the role of teacher and guide in their children’s use of technology. Because of the lack of technological acumen on the part of many parents, they lack the authority, at least in the eyes of their children, to regulate its use. Due to parents’ anxiety or apprehension about the use of technology, they may be unwilling to assert themselves in their children’s technological lives. … … [C]omputer and mobile technology have provided children with an independence in their communications with friends and others. Consider this. In previous

generations, if children wanted to be in touch with a friend, they had to call them on the home phone which might be answered by a parent. Thus, parents had the opportunity to monitor and act as gatekeepers for their children’s social lives. … There is little doubt that technology is affecting family relationships on a day-to-day level. Children are instant messaging constantly, checking their social media, listening to music, surfing their favorite web sites, and watching television or movies. Because of the emergence of mobile technology, these practices are no longer limited to the home, but rather can occur in cars, at restaurants, in fact, anywhere there’s a mobile phone signal. … Parents can be equally guilty of contributing to the distance that appears to be increasing in families. They are often wrapped up in their own technology, for example, talking on their mobile phones, checking email, or watching TV, when they could be talking to, playing with, or generally connecting with their children. … A phenomenon that has caused considerable debate involves parents “friending” their children on Facebook (about 50 percent). Some parents use Facebook to keep track of their children’s coming and goings. Other parents friend their children as a means of feeling closer to them. So what is their children’s reaction to being “friends” with their parents?

An informal survey I conducted of dozens of teenagers found that the dominant reaction can best be characterized as “EEEWWW!” Most children don’t want their parents to be their “friends” or their friends, for that matter.

The ramifications of this distancing are profound. Less connection—the real kind—means that families aren’t able to build relationships as strong as they could be nor are they able to maintain them as well.

(Note - the ellipeses … indicate omitted text. Read the article in its entirety at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thepower-prime/201303/is-technology-creating-family-divide)

Island School 3-1875 Kaumuali`i Hwy Lihu`e, Kaua`i, Hawai`i, 96766

March 14, 2013 A weekly publication We’re on the web at www.ischool.org