Parent Concerns: Cyberbullying.
Once kids go online, their chances of finding cyberbullies, haters, and trolls is, sadly, quite high. Find age-specific guidelines, videos, and articles to help with tough conversations -- whether your kid is a bully or is being bullied. Explore answers to all your cyberbullying questions, age-appropriate advice, school resources, and more from parents and experts.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying
Today, OMS students participated in our school-wide PBIS celebration, the OMS Super Attendance Bowl. For the past four weeks, OMS advisories have been locked in a tight competition to see which OMS advisory could have the highest attendance. In the end, Ms. Schwarting's 6th grade advisory won the competition with an attendance rate of 97.1% over the past month. During our assembly, students competed in various football themed activities. Finally, we recognized our top 3 students in the "Get Your Selfie" to school video content.
Most kids will encounter mean behavior at some point in their digital lives. For some kids, this experience is a blip that's easily forgotten, while for others it can have deep, long-lasting effects. For parents, the key is staying involved in kids' lives -- both online and off -- so they can step in and offer help if necessary. With guidance from parents and educators, kids can learn how to dodge the drama and stand up for others.
Throughout October we will be sharing 6 different tips for families to encourage best behavior when approaching the topics of Cyberbullying, Digital Drama, and Hate Speech with your families.
1. Define your terms
2. Check in about online life
3. Role-play
4. Encourage upstanding
5. Take breaks
6. Review worst-case steps
A growing trend is children using generative A.I. tools such at character.ai to connect with something in a way that they feel uncomfortable doing with another human. The areas below are areas that we hope you discuss with your children at home, and are concepts that may be brought up in Olympia classrooms throughout the year.
- The role that AI will play in the areas of creative expression, human relationships, and mental well-being.
- The impacts that AI might have on their identity formation and sense of self.
- How AI companions might influence their expectations of genuine and complicated humans.
Read the full article from Common Sense Education here:
https://www.olympia.org/article/1271448
The 2nd session is October 17th 6-7 PM via Zoom. These sessons are free but you need to sign up for the zoom link.
Thank you to our OMS & OHS Principals for all they do for our students, staff, and families!
OMS sixth graders had a social emotional lesson to learn about physical and emotional safety. After watching a video about the body's response to stress and danger, the students went outside and drew an outline of a classmate's body on the sidewalk. Then students filled the outline with words to describe how they feel and react when feeling both safe and unsafe.
OMS Boy's Basketball tryouts will take place on October 16th & 17th. Any athlete interested in trying out must be registered on 8to18 and have an updated physical on file.
Digital citizenship grows in importance each year (A.I. anyone?). Starting today we begin our annual focus of six core areas of digital citizenship, providing resources and support for our Oly families. More details on this outreach can be found here: bit.ly/OlyDigCitOverview
Ms. Fosdick's and Mr. Slager's OMS PE classes spent the week outside enjoying the beautiful fall weather and learning the fundamentals of golf.
Did you miss last night's mental health session - Your Child's Anxiety ? Check out the replay: LINK: https://cookcenter.info/Sep26OSDReplay
Tonight is the night! You can still sign-up for the Zoom link for the session on Your Child's Anxiety! Be sure to download the Zoom app and have a current update.
Today the OMS staff spent the morning listening to Dr. Kelli Brown walk us through a series of resources and ideas to make our classrooms more trauma-responsive. We spent time in groups discussing and setting goals around specific trauma-responsive practices.
Reminder, tomorrow evening first mental health series "Your Child's Anxiety" starts at 6:00 via Zoom. Register now for the link to be sent to your inbox. This session is free to all parents and staff. Registration is open until the session begins.
The first OMHS Friday Market was a success!
The first OMHS Friday Market was a success!
In a pleasantly speedy turn of events, phone access has been restored! If you do try contacting a building and receive only a dial tone, please send a follow up email as well. Heavy rain can often cause intermittent issues with district phone lines. Thank you!
Congratulations OMS Softball! We are proud of you! Good luck on Saturday.
7th grade falls to Teutopolis 3-1 and comes back to pick up the win vs Mt. Zion 6-5 today. Spartans close out their season winning 5 of their last 7 games and playing great baseball the second half of the season!
8th grade gets wins over Teutopolis (9-4) and Mt. Zion (13-2) today. Alexander, Birky, Walters, Sloan with multiple hit games. Pierce and Byrne get wins on the mound. Spartans start Regional play at home vs Pekin Edison Wednesday at 4:30.