It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

Jan uary, 2014

V olum e 1 , I s sue 3

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Wow! I cannot believe it is already 2014! These past few months have been so exciting with all the great things going on at Northridge.

On December 20th, we held our Holiday Extravaganza. What an awesome display of community service through fun and spirited activities. By participating in this event, our students donated over 580 canned goods to the local food pantry. In addition, the dodge ball tournament raised enough money to provide $50 Target gift cards to 15 Northridge families! I am so proud of our students as they practice the true spirit of giving.

Moving forward into 2014, we have partnered with the Alexandria Public Library to host various events geared toward middle school students. Our first event is coming up

Principal’s News

Contents

Principal’s News 1

Upcoming Events 1

Middle School News 2 - 3

Common Sense on

Cyberbullying 4 - 5

No Flu for You! 6

Disney on Ice 7

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on January 30th – be sure to read about it on page 2.

Finally, first semester ends this Friday, January 10th. Please remind your child to continue their hard work as we move into the second semester. Providing a structured time for studying and nightly review of the Student Agenda helps to make sure students are keeping up with their schoolwork. Also, be sure to check Progress Book for grade updates.

I continue to be honored to serve as the Principal of Northridge Middle School. I look forward to leading our Vikings through their voyage in 2014!

~ Mrs. Birchem

She r ry B i rche m, P r inci pa l

D awn Wi l so n , Gu i danc e

Cr i s sy Wi l le ke , Admi n is t ra t ive Ass i s tant

Vision    

Our  vision  is  to  ensure  that  every  student  reaches  their  fullest  potential.  

   

Mission    

Our  mission  is  to  empower  all  

students  with  the  knowledge  and  

skills  necessary  to  be  college  and  career  ready.  

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6th – Return from Winter Break 10th – End of Quarter 2 / Semester 1 13th – Start of Semester 2 14th – Student Assembly - Cyber Safety Presentation by Licking County Prosecutor (rescheduled from December)

Upcoming Events ~ January, 2014

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14th - 2-Hour Early Release 20th – No School ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 30th – Movies at the Middle School with the Alexandria Public Library

It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

Check it out! The teachers at Northridge Middle School have compiled a list of helpful websites for parents and students. A Symbaloo site provides a quick and easy way to organize websites for students. Be sure to take a few minutes to check out the various sites organized by content area. Also, if you know of additional sites that are helpful to your child that may help others, please send them to Mrs. Birchem to add to the Symbaloo.

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/northridgemiddleschool

Northridge Middle School Symbaloo

Cyber Safety Student Assembly

Page 2 of 7 Viking Voyage

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The student assembly by the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office has been rescheduled to January 14th. Our hope is that this presentation will provide students with tips on how to stay safe online as well as offer ways to handle cyberbullying. During the parent presentation, important information was shared to help keep our kids safe. One of the first tips was to Google your child and to be

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aware of what sites they are on. In addition to these suggestions, a family tip sheet focusing on cyberbullying has been included on pages 3 & 4. Please take a moment to talk to your child after the presentation on January 14th. We are also looking at additional dates to host an evening session with the Prosecutor’s office for families. This is such a critical topic and one that, unfortunately, isn’t going away.

It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

Page 3 of 7 Viking Voyage

Encourage your teen to read!

Is your child looking for a new book to read or would you like to encourage them to read more? Finalists for the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards have been announced - check them out! http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/finalists/

It’s Flu and Cold season…

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As we enter these cold months, we encourage you to remind your child to wash their hands frequently to avoid spreading illnesses. On page 6, the Ohio Department of Health offers suggestions to help you stay healthy. As a reminder, please keep your child home if they have a fever. Children should be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school.

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Also, we are always in need of Kleenex and hand-sanitizer. If you are able to donate, we would greatly appreciate it! Please send any donations in to the front office. Thank you!

GOALS Student Achievement Program

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Northridge Middle School has partnered with the Columbus Blue Jackets for their GOALS Student Achievement Program. Various rewards and incentives are available to our students and will be introduced in the upcoming month. One of the benefits of this program is an offer of discounted tickets to the Disney on Ice shows coming to Nationwide Arena in

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February. On page 7, a ticket order form is attached. Discounted rates are available for Northridge families K-12. Simply complete the order form and submit it to Steve Zix with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Enjoy!

It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2012 www.commonsense.org

FAMILY TIP SHEETCommon Sense on Cyberbullying

MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL

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:KDW·V�WKH�,VVXH"Cyberbullying is the use of digital media tools, such as the Internet and cell phones, to deliberately humiliate and harass others, oftentimes repeatedly. Though most teens do not do this, those who do are often motivated by a desire for power, status, and attention – and their targets are often people they are competing with for social standing. Cyberbullies often take advantage of the Web’s anonymity to antagonize someone without being recognized.

Cyberbullying can take a variety of forms, such as harassing someone, impersonating someone, spreading rumors, or forwarding embarrassing information about a person. A bully’s mean-spirited comments can spread widely through instant messaging (IM), phone texting, and by posts on social networking sites. This can happen rapidly, with little time for teens to cool down between responses. And it can happen anytime — at school or at home — and oftentimes it involves large groups of teens.

:K\�'RHV�,W�0DWWHU"Cyberbullying is similar to face-to-face bullying, but online tools magnify the hurt, humiliation, and social drama in a very public way. Whether it’s creating a fake Facebook or MySpace page to impersonate a fellow student, repeatedly sending hurtful text messages and images, or spreading rumors or posting cruel comments on the Internet, cyberbullying can result in severe emotional and even physical harm.

And though anyone can spot bullying behavior in the real world, it’s much more difficult to detect it in the online world. Sometimes an entire social circle will get involved, and then it becomes harder for an individual teen to disengage from it. In fact, whole groups of teens may be actively or passively participating, and the target can feel that it is impossible to get away from the bullies. In addition, hurtful information posted on the Internet is extremely difficult to remove, and millions of people can see it.

The following tips can help you recognize the warning signs of cyberbullying and serve as a guide for talking to your teens about preventing it.

What Families Can Do You seem down. What’s going on at school? Is anything upsetting happening online?

I’m here for you and so are your friends. Talk to me anytime.

Are there any teachers at school who have dealt with these kinds of situations before? I think you should tell one of them about what’s been happening.

Bullies want attention, power, and status, which explains why they need to cause drama.

I saw a news story about a teen who was bullied online. What would you do in that situation?

It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

DIGITAL LITERACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN A CONNECTED CULTURE © 2012 www.commonsense.org 2

common sense saysRecognize context. Cyberbullying is often not thought of as “cyberbullying” to the teens involved. Even though an incident has a history, a story, and nuance, rather than referring it as “cyberbullying,” try the words “digital cruelty,” “abuse,” or “being mean” online.

Help teens understand when behavior crosses the line. Help your teen tune into his or her own feelings. If they feel emotionally or physically scared, it’s time to get help.

Encourage empathy. Help teens understand the detrimental impact of cyberbullying on people who are targeted, now and later in life. Encourage them to listen to targets and to become their allies.

Be realistic. Teens have their own social dynamics that often don’t include parents, so helping them directly may be difficult. Encourage teens to find friends or other trusted adults to help them through the situation, even if it’s not you. Websites are often slow to respond, if they respond at all, but reporting an incident to a website administrator can be an empowering step.

Remember that your teen might be the bully. Teens can take different roles in cyberbullying at different times. A teen who is cyberbullied might turn around and cyberbully someone else to feel powerful again. Ask questions to understand what role or roles your teens are playing.

Tell them to disengage. Encourage your teens to ignore and block the bully, and even log off the computer for a while. Point out that cyberbullies are often just looking for attention and status, so don’t let them know that their efforts have worked.

Be sure to “Like” Northridge Middle School on Facebook and follow Dr. Briggs on Twitter!

It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!

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It’s a Great Day to be a Viking!