Social Networking: Know More, Fear Less!

What technologies are students using today?
What is coming and how will these technologies fit into their lives?
What is the research telling us about the effects of these technologies on interpersonal relationships, problem solving, decision making, and higher order thinking?
How prevalent is misuse of these technologies with regard to interpersonal relationships, bullying, etc.?
How young is too young for children to be online and how much is too much?
How can parents monitor online usage?

FIND OUT!

On Saturday, 14 November 2009, Youth Connect will host a summit meeting for local families dealing with the impacts of social networking. The event, titled "Youth and Technology, Trends and Challenges: The New Social Norm," is free and open to the public, and will feature Cole W. Camplese, a nationally-recognized expert on the effects that technology has on education. Due to the high level of interest this event is expected to generate, Youth Connect is asking interested parents and students to please register by sending an email to youthconnect@hotmail.com no later than Thursday, 12 November.

Parents and students grades 6-12 are invited to attend this exciting event being co-hosted by Youth Connect partners Quaker Valley School District and Sewickley Academy from 9 am to noon in the Rea Auditorium on Sewickley Academy’s campus. Adult and student attendees will learn about the trends in adolescent technology use and how young people can maintain safe use of online technologies through a keynote address, age-appropriate break-out sessions, and a Pair and Share summit evaluation.

Parents will learn about social networking from expert users--local high school students--in a break-out session entitled, Social Networking 101 for Parents, while students will learn important ways to reduce risks in their break-out session, iKeep Safe – Staying Safe on the Net for secondary students.

Cole W. Camplese is the Director of Education and Technology Services at The Pennsylvania State University. As Director, it is his responsibility to oversee university-wide initiatives with a focus on impacting teaching and learning with technology. His primary area of focus is the integration of technologies into learning spaces. Mr. Camplese teaches courses in the College of Education with a focus on the integration and implementation of disruptive technologies into teaching and learning. He is an Apple Distinguished Educator, selected for his innovative uses of technology in and out of the classroom. As an established consultant, Mr. Camplese helps organizations integrate technologies into their business practices, education and training programs, and their internal and external communication processes. He is a published author and has presented both theoretical and practical concepts at regional and national conferences.

Updates from The Alliance!

GENERAL MEETING: "Getting Back to Basics: Listen", empowers us all and is the theme for our first general meeting of the year. Please join us as we kick off this school year at this very special Alliance general meeting scheduled October 30th at the Four Points by Sheraton Pittsburgh North. A light lunch will be served beginning at 11:30 AM followed by a special presentation from Pennsylvania's Attorney General Tom Corbett to announce our joint venture. We kindly request that a member from all of our schools, faith based , business and community agencies attend this important event a! nd submit their RSVP by October 16th to our Office Manager, Patti Ferraro at [ mailto:pferraro@consolidated.net ]pferraro@consolidated.net

MORE ABOUT THE "VIDEO OF THE MONTH": We strongly encourage our member schools and organizations to participate in this venture. Each month the Alliance will supply the user name and password along with an overview of the video being streamed. Schools and organizations will then have the opportunity to encourage parents to view the month's video via high speed internet. For parents who do not have internet access, each school will receive a collection of the video series for parents to view within their school district. (Copies will be made available at t! he general meeting so we strongly encourage that you or a representative attend the general meeting.) In addition, the Alliance will provide a special blog site for parents to post comments, questions or concerns that will be managed, monitored and screened by the Alliance.

FEED THE LOVE: Community Family Dinner Night, October 22, 2009

Last spring, Sewickley Academy brought Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health, to talk with us about his latest studies, documented in his book “Too Much of a Good Thing: Raising Children of Character in an Indulgent Age”. One of the more interesting results of his “Parenting Practices at the Millennium Survey”, which was designed to identify risk factors for teenager problems, is that one of the key factors that distinguished teens who didn’t have problems is that their families frequently ate dinner together.

Very simple. But very difficult, sometimes, to do. So to gain awareness to this simple, yet significant, activity, Youth Connect declares October 22 as Family Dinner Night for the community. All families are encouraged to sit down together for dinner on this night, whether at home or at a restaurant; whether over a home-cooked meal or a take-out pizza. The goal is that all families in the community are sitting down together and talking about their day.

Calendar of Events for new school year announced

At its first meeting of the 2009-2010 school year, Youth Connect's steering committee announced the following events, all of which are free and open to the public. For more specific information about any of the listings below, please contact youthconnect@hotmail.com.

• Valerie Johnson and Mary Webber will serve as co-chairs for a discussion of Michael Thompson's book, Best of Friends, Worst of Enemies prior to the author's October 13th visit to Sewickley Academy, where he will talk on the Complex Social World of Childhood in the morning, followed by Surviving the College Admissions Process in the evening. Details on the date and location of the book discussion will be posted here as they develop.

• October 22nd is the date of Sewickley's first-ever Community "Family Dinner", an idea that Susan Kaminski is sharing with families throughout the Quaker Valley communities. "It's a night to set aside all other obligations, and put our families first. It will be a chance for parents and children to reconnect with each other over the dinner table--either their own, or at a restaurant, or other dining option. The important thing is the conversation and connecting, not the location, or even the menu!" Details of the Community Family Dinner will be forthcoming, but mark your calendars today for Thursday, October 22nd.

• Dr. Christy Clapper is organizing another Youth Summit, to take place on Saturday, 14 November 2009 at Sewickley Academy The theme, Know More, Fear Less, speaks to the unease that many parents feel when confronted with the emerging technology around social networking. Cole Camplese, from Penn State University, will share his expert knowledge in a keynote address, which will be followed by age-appropriate break-out sessions that will include demonstrations of popular programs and websites, discussions on online games and gaming addiction, and a debriefing roundtable at the close of the event. The summit runs from 9 am until noon; further details to follow.

• Looking into 2010, Jessie Barnes and Susan Kaminski will co-host an event investigating the causes of Teen Stress, and strategies for dealing with it, on Thursday, 21 January; Donna Bednarek, PhD, director of the Psychology Department at Laughlin Center, will present on Living with Divorce--a look at how families can function in a healthy manner--on Thursday, 25 February at Laughlin Center; QVSD's Caroline Johns will lead an event on Healthy Boundaries, at a daytime event on Wednesday, March 17th; and local father, Mark Gensheimer, will continue an important discussion in April on Underage Drinking that was begun last spring. More specifics will be announced as they develop.

QVSD students to man Youth Connect booth

STOP BY THE YOUTH CONNECT BOOTH AT THIS YEAR'S HARVEST FESTIVAL, Saturday, 12 September from 10 am till 5 pm. Students from Quaker Valley High School's QV Voice, along with their faculty advisor, Amy Keller, will be on hand to answer questions about Youth Connect, the 40 Developmental Assets, how to avoid risky behaviors, and QV Voice itself.

Anyone interested in volunteering time at the Youth Connect booth is asked to email Ms. Keller: kellera@qvsd.org.

Longtime Youth Connect goal realized!

Through the generous support of local and regional partners, Youth Connect is proud to announce that Floyd Faulkner has been hired as Quaker Valley's first Youth Worker. Mr. Faulkner will work with students from the 11 communities that make up the Quaker Valley School District, and is being housed at Laughlin Center. Along with support from the school district, other organizations providing funding include Child Health Association of Sewickley, The Presbyterian Church, Sewickley and The Grable Foundation (http://www.grablefdn.org/).

More details about Faulkner's background and new responsibilities can be found in the two articles below. Those interested in speaking with Mr. Faulkner can reach him at 412-779-8110 or faulknerf@qvsd.org.















Quaker Valley School District photo
Floyd Faulkner: "I will immediately begin to build a rapport with [the students] and hope to establish relationships very early on."





Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09239/993394-54.stm#ixzz0QWt0YsTW

Post-Gazette covers new Youth Worker hire

Quaker Valley schools employee will have Laughlin Center office
Thursday, August 27, 2009
By Kathleen Ganster, Post-Gazette


Floyd Faulkner has always liked children -- he has four of his own -- and he thinks his appreciation of the needs of young people will stand him in good stead in his new role as community youth worker for Quaker Valley School District. "I feel it is my mission to help young children, through my own life experiences and education," he said.

In his new role, Mr. Faulkner will help youngsters find productive outlets for their time during the hours that they seem to need one the most -- after school and in the early evening.

Although he will be working for the district, Mr. Faulkner's office will be located in the Laughlin Center in Sewickley at the corner of Frederick Avenue and Broad Street.

The position is funded through grant money provided by the Child Health Association of Sewickley, The Presbyterian Church Sewickley and the Grable Foundation, according to Martha Smith, communications manager for the district. Mr. Faulkner will be paid $38,000 per year.

Ms. Smith said the district has approximately 2,025 students, with the middle school, grades 6 through 8, having just under 500 students.

Mr. Faulkner will identify youth who would benefit from using community resources and will put the teens in contact with those organizations. Ms. Smith said,

"There are already so many wonderful resources out there and we didn't want to reinvent the wheel. Having someone to help the students take advantage of these resources benefits everyone, most especially the students," she added.

Mr. Faulkner will also work as a parental resource and develop services and programs as needed.

"We see this position evolving as we go," said Ms. Smith.

Mr. Faulkner, who was formerly a social worker, and also worked for Northside Urban Pathways Charter School as the director of student services. "My primary focus was to oversee the discipline services and act as a liaison with services provided by outside agencies," he said.

He'll rely on that experience in his new role. "I will serve as a person for the students to connect to and help them find services in the community. The key word here is 'connector' -- I will help them connect to the assets in the community," said Mr. Faulkner.

The community resources that Mr. Faulkner refers to include an after-school program at the Quaker Valley Middle School and programming and services at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, The Sewickley Public Library, The Sewickley YMCA, The Presbyterian Church Sewickley, and Sewickley Community Center.

"By having this central location, I can be a very visible presence in the community," he said. In addition to students seeking out Mr. Faulkner, he expects referrals from families, teachers and district staff and others in the community.

"I will immediately begin to build a rapport with [the students] and hope to establish relationships very early on. It is our goal to cut down on risky behavior," he explained, "By using our wealth of resources in this community, we can do that."

Mr. Faulkner will spend time in the schools to meet students and staff and meet parents at open houses and other school-sponsored events. As Mr. Faulkner gears up for his new position and the start of the school year, he is enthusiastic.

"No community is a community not at risk. This is a win-win situation -- it shows that kids are really valued here," he said. "Our children will know there are people in their corner and we are there for them."


Freelance writer Kathleen Ganster can be reached in care of suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.

First published on August 27, 2009 at 7:07 am


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09239/993394-54.stm#ixzz0QWowaQJU