CV&me

NEW YEAR,

New News

Get Inspired & Get Involved

NEW YEAR,

New News

Get Inspired & Get Involved

My two teenage children attended CVSD starting in kindergarten but now attend West Shore Christian Academy because of some concerns with the school district. They would like to come back to CVSD, however, there will have to be some changes before my husband and I feel like this would be the best option. In order to help make those changes, I decided to run for school board. With a Master’s Degree in Education, I realized my kids weren’t getting the education they deserved. And that is just plain wrong. Let me share with why I am the right choice to represent you on the Cumberland Valley School Board.


I believe that our public education system basic requirement is to provide our children with the essential skills needed to be successful in America’s highly competitive job and educational markets. Whether a students’ focus is employment or higher education, Cumberland Valley students need a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning. Every hour spent on “other” topics is an hour less in mastering Math, English, Civics, and Science. Education provides the basis for a lifetime of accomplishments.

 When Covid shut our schools down, I saw that my children were not being taught hard academic skills and that the District was not focused on making up for lost learning time. When schools did reopen, the focus was directed on developing soft skills and competencies such as “empathy, responsibility, and collaboration” instead of the loss of academic skill development. The percent of Cumberland Valley 8th graders that scored proficient or above in math dropped from 53.2% in 2017 to 41.3% in 2019, which was before the additional .08% loss during the pandemic. This is a 13% loss in math proficiency since 2017 for students that attend CVSD. What has our administration and school board done to address this loss? Nothing. Instead, they are committed to transitioning the education system to “21st Century Learning and thinking skills”. These new topics are a theft of education, time, and focus from our students. Coupled with the District’s reimaging of curriculum, the board is yet again over budget by more than $4 Million Dollars.


For over three years I have been attending school board meetings and researching CVSD. It is focused on a “transformational” change, not academic skill development. Seeing what is happening to CVSD, I realized I needed to be on the school board in order to truly make a difference.


As a vocal advocate for our students, I am a proponent of parental rights, transparency, academic standards and financial accountability. Every parent has the right to be engaged at all levels of the education process. In my meetings and communications with administrators they have not be transparent and open. The current board has not been forthcoming. Open, honest communication and leadership are key to tackling the challenges the district faces regarding academic achievement for all students, safety of students and teachers, and establishing an environment that truly addresses the mental health needs of our children. My commitment to the traditional academic education of our children motivates me to run for school board.


I graduated Messiah College with a B.S. in Sport/Exercise Science and earned my Master’s in Education from Penn State. I own a small business so I understand both hard work and budgets. Every dollar spent by CVSD must result in the improvement of academic education for our children and supportive environment for teachers and staff. The purpose of the public education system is to give our children the tools to achieve the very best life possible. If you agree, please vote for me in the Primary on May 16th and then on November 7th. Remember, its Kelly P. for CVSD!


I’m your neighbor Kelly Potteiger and I’ve lived in Silver Spring Township for the past 16 years. 

My two teenage children attended CVSD starting in kindergarten but now attend West Shore Christian Academy because of some concerns with the school district. They would like to come back to CVSD, however, there will have to be some changes before my husband and I feel like this would be the best option. In order to help make those changes, I decided to run for school board. With a Master’s Degree in Education, I realized my kids weren’t getting the education they deserved. And that is just plain wrong. Let me share with why I am the right choice to represent you on the Cumberland Valley School Board.

 

I believe that our public education system basic requirement is to provide our children with the essential skills needed to be successful in America’s highly competitive job and educational markets. Whether a students’ focus is employment or higher education, Cumberland Valley students need a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning. Every hour spent on “other” topics is an hour less in mastering Math, English, Civics, and Science. Education provides the basis for a lifetime of accomplishments.

 

When Covid shut our schools down, I saw that my children were not being taught hard academic skills and that the District was not focused on making up for lost learning time. When schools did reopen, the focus was directed on developing soft skills and competencies such as “empathy, responsibility, and collaboration” instead of the loss of academic skill development. The percent of Cumberland Valley 8th graders that scored proficient or above in math dropped from 53.2% in 2017 to 41.3% in 2019,

which was before the additional .08% loss during the pandemic. This is a 13% loss in math proficiency since 2017 for students that attend CVSD. What has our administration and school board done to address this loss? Nothing. Instead, they are committed to transitioning the education system to “21st Century Learning and thinking skills”. These new topics are a theft of education, time, and focus from our students. Coupled with the District’s reimaging of curriculum, the board is yet again over budget by more than $4 Million Dollars.

 

For over three years I have been attending school board meetings and researching CVSD. It is focused on a “transformational” change, not academic skill development. Seeing what is happening to CVSD, I realized I needed to be on the school board in order to truly make a difference.

 

As a vocal advocate for our students, I am a proponent of parental rights, transparency, academic standards and financial accountability. Every parent has the right to be engaged at all levels of the education process. In my meetings and communications with administrators they have not be transparent and open. The current board has not been forthcoming. Open, honest communication and leadership are key to tackling the challenges the district faces regarding academic achievement for all students, safety of students and teachers, and establishing an environment that truly addresses the mental health needs of our children. My commitment to the traditional academic education of our children motivates me to run for school board.

 

I graduated Messiah College with a B.S. in Sport/Exercise Science and earned my Master’s in Education from Penn State. I own a small business so I understand both hard work and budgets. Every dollar spent by CVSD must result in the improvement of academic education for our children and supportive environment for teachers and staff. The purpose of the public education system is to give our children the tools to achieve the very best life possible. If you agree, please vote for me in the General Election on May 16th and then on November 7th. Remember, its Kelly P. for CVSD!


We ARE the community of Cumberland Valley School District. We are parents, grandparents, guardians, and taxpayers. That means we are all stakeholders in CVSD and need to make sure we are doing our due diligence as such. We need to learn about the process and what is happening in our schools. 

This is the reason I started this website, CVandMe.org. My mission is to provide updated information regarding important decisions being made at CVSD, areas of interest, areas that may need public involvement, and how the decisions of the CVSD administration and school board affect our children, our families and our community. I look forward to a lot of public interaction on this website and getting to know more of you so we can make our community stronger than ever!

DID YOU

 know?

Board meetings and Committee meetings are live-streamed if you would like to watch or listen. Here is the link for the upcoming dates of all the meetings. The agenda for the meetings are posted 48 hours prior to the meeting so if you go to the CVSD website, click on School Board and then then in the drop down click BoardDocs. Click on the meeting listed and you will then be able to find the agenda link. 

Upcoming Dates & Meetings

DID YOU

 know?

Board meetings are live streamed if you would like to watch or listen. Here is the link for the upcoming dates of the general board meetings as well as the committee meetings. The agenda for the meetings are posted 48 hours prior to the meeting so if you go to the CVSD website, click on School Board and then then in the drop down click BoardDocs. Click on the meeting listed and you will then be able to find the agenda link. 

Upcoming Dates & Meetings

DID YOU

 know?

CVSD Administration believes HOPE is more important than CONTENT in the classroom! Hope over academic learning doesn’t seem responsible to our students, families or taxpayers…

The School Superintendents Association (AASA) hosted the Learning 2025 National Summit June 26th-28th in Washington, DC. Cumberland Valley was represented by our Superintendent, Dr. David Christopher and our Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Dr. Robyn Euker. This is one of many organizations influencing the changes in focus and direction of the public education system. AASA Learning 2025: Student-Centered, Equity-Focused, Future-Driven Education is a movement that calls for holistic redesign of the public school system by 2025. Please read it for yourself so you know where the educational system is going with all their new public-private multibillion dollar partnerships. https://www.aasa.org/docs/default-source/resources/reports/commissionreportfinal-040821.pdf?sfvrsn=ae95668f_4

 

The question that needs to be asked by our community and answered by our administration and school board is what exactly does the “holistic redesign” look like for academic education. Is there evidence that shows the programs and policies they are implementing to achieve this redesign will increase academic achievement? If so, present it to the community and parents.

 

Everything I have read and listened to over the past three years has shown that there is no evidence in their “evidence based” programming and no one will have a conversation with me to explain how they can spend taxpayer money on experimental programs that are taking away from academic learning time. They always refer back to a meta-analysis that claims 11% academic improvement, but please read the study yourself and you will see it is correlative not proof of causation.(https://openexcellence.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SEL-MetaAnalysis.pdf) If children have these competencies they are likely to do better in many areas of their lives. However, aspirations are not evidence, but that is what they use as justification for implementing these programs.  

 

Here is the Retweet that Dr. Christopher sent out from the AASA conference last month:

We pay our superintendent over $190,000 a year and his statement is that “The No 1 job of the school system is to inspire HOPE in the future in the students they serve - It’s not about the content in the classroom.” Understanding that is now the focus of the administration and school board, it would explain why test scores are going down and why even the kids are saying they are not learning. Our current school board gives our superintendent rave reviews regarding where he’s taking the school district which assists in his pay raises every year. Is this really the direction we want our academic institutions going?

DID YOU

 know?

CVSD believes HOPE is more important than GPA for success

 

In 2021, CVSD hired Battelle for Kids for our Portrait of a Graduate/Eagle social emotional learning program. I shared with the board from my research that their philosophy was not about how their program could improve academic learning, but simply to move away from academics and focus on competencies. I told them that they say that HOPE is more important than a GPA for success of students. Our kids will have hope when they have academic learning achievement. They will then have the skills and confidence to go out into society and have choices of what they want to accomplish with their lives. Not from sitting in classrooms learning about feelings and competencies. Competencies are modeled and learned through family values and should not be the focus of academic institutions.

 

CVSD will say teaching these competencies will increase academic achievement, however, all of the studies show that there is absolutely zero proof that is true. There is correlation but absolutely NO causation after decades of studies and mega studies. Nobody on the board or in administration seems to care about the true facts that there is no evidence and they are experimenting on our children in the classroom with these concepts. Wasting time and taxpayer money. I asked them to simply look into the company and programs they were bringing into the district. Still I was ignored. Now we are here focusing on HOPE and this is where our school district is headed unless some serious changes happen in these positions. And here is Dr. Christopher at the ASAA conference telling every exactly what they are doing… “Using Portrait of a Graduate to Support Implementation of School System Redesign”. That is a design not based on academic learning and content… but on hope and competencies by teaching perspective and character development through the lens of equity.


DID YOU

 know?

CVSD will use more surveys about feelings to determine your child’s level of hope


Keep your eyes open for the new language relating to HOPE for the upcoming year for our students. This is nothing wrong with wanting our children, teachers, and community to have hope. But hope is anticipation of a desire to happen or be true. What our hope is based in comes from our values and our belief system. When they try to use these lofty phrases of inspiring hope, we need to ask exactly how are you going to do that. It will be more surveys and more classroom discussions about feelings, social justice, and systematic inequity that have caused feelings of less hope or hopelessness. They will use this Goals+Pathway+Agency with a lot of words attached. The problem with this agenda and program they will be selling to the taxpayers and parents is that it is based off of CR Snyders Hope Theory. I think we can all agree having hope and an optimistic outlook is vital to healthy human development and lifestyle no matter what age. But even Snyder admitted that they found that individuals that have hope and are optimistic tend to do better academically, but there is no evidence there was a causation but only that there is correlation. So because SEL is now a multibillion dollar industry, they are using theory to implement programs to experiment on kids to “redesign” the educational system. It sounds fancy when you say: Goals + Pathways+ Agency = Hope and it seems like it validates a process to incorporate more SEL to help promote positive behaviors and a positive mindset. Aspirations do not equal evidence.

 

Our children will have an optimistic view of their future and a positive mindset if they are given a solid, challenging, academic education where they learn hard skills. Teach academics in an environment that promotes responsible behavior and give our children the skills and confidence they need now and in the future. Not spending precious time on the theory of hope and constantly discussing feelings. Public education is to teach academic skills and knowledge…hope will be inspired and nurtured in that very process.


These quotes are from the actual research from Hope Theory:

 

“Overall, this study suggests that higher as compared with lower hope students (a) set higher grade goals, (b) tended to perceive that they would be more successful at attaining those higher grade goals despite early grade feedback that was not supportive of their estimate, and (c) actually attained higher grades. In regard to this latter point, however, note that students with differing levels of hope were equally successful at attaining the goals that they had set for themselves, although the higher hope students set and attained higher grade goals.”


“Again, therefore, cognitive capability as measured by reported high school GPA did not account for the hope-grade attainment relationship.”


“…note that higher and lower hope people in the present studies were equally likely to attain their goals. This latter conclusion must be placed in the context of the fact that the lower hope people attained their lower goals and the higher hope people attained their higher goals”


“Related to these points, through both correlational and causal methodologies, we have found that persons confronted with insurmountable goal blockages experience negative emotions, whereas successful, unimpeded goal pursuit or successful goal pursuit after overcoming impediments yields positive emotions (Snyder et al., 1996).”


All these papers do is state the obvious/known and try to make it seem that because they talk about hope, it will happen in whatever convoluted program they bring in. There are correlational and causal relationships with hope and achievement. They have not been able to show causation for all the time and money spent on increased psychology in the classroom. Here is one more survey that will be coming to the classroom to “help” your child . Please note that they even state do not call it a “Child Hope Survey” but rather “Questions About Your Goals” because who doesn’t want children to have and reach goals??? See how they use words to make it seem more productive than it is or will be? 


All of the below questions are to be answered with one of the following so they can be assessed, then reassessed, and then reassessed some more….

 ___None of the time

 ___A little of the time

 ___Some of the time

 ___A lot of the time

 ___Most of the time

 ___All of the time


1. I think I am doing pretty well.


2. I can think of many ways to get the things

in life that are most important to me.


3. I am doing just as well as other kids my

age.


4. When I have a problem, I can come up

with lots of ways to solve it.


5. I think the things I have done in the past

will help me in the future.


6. Even when others want to quit, I know that

I can find ways to solve the problem.



Notes: When administered to children, this scale is not labeled “The Children’s Hope Scale,” but is called “Questions About Your Goals.”

Is this what you want happening during your child’s academic learning time? More surveys about their feelings and then they get to interpret your child’s view/perspective.

COMMUNITY Spotlight

There are business owners in our area that go out of their way to encourage and support hard work from our local students. John Pham is one of those business owners. He holds an annual event where they open a donation box and then divide up the money among honor roll students that come in and present their report cards. It is called the Little School Bus Scholars Program. All middle school and high school students that present an honor roll report card to John any quarter during the year, will put them on the list, and a free Pho. Any more report cards on honor roll gets more Pho! All children that have A and B grades can participate! His restaurant is Pho Ninh Kieu at 344 E Main St, Annville, PA but his original restaurant was in Harrisburg. I learned about this through a local CV resident and thought it was worth sharing. First of all to thank John for his dedication to encouraging academic learning and achievement and then to see if there are any business in the CV school district that do this or want to start something like this!

In June each year, they open the Little School Bus, count the money at a public event, and present the checks the next week. This year Representative Russ Diamond joined then and helped hand out the checks. The check is made out to the student and usually the parents handle it for them. They can do whatever they want with it. It's appreciation for doing a good job. This year each student received $280. It seems to average about $2500 per year the last few years I've been involved.

 

John Pham, the owner of Ninh Kieu Restaurant in Annville, knows the value of hardwork and education. 55 years ago, a teacher in Vietnam would have 70 students in their classroom. Every student was ranked, and only the top three would continue with their studies. John was consistently in the top three, and every time he was, his father would reward him. John looks forward to promoting scholarship and carrying on the tradition with the fine students of Central PA, his new home. They also accept donations to their 501c3 at https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/4697553

 

If you know of a local business doing something like this, please message me so we can highlight and support them as they support our children in academic achievement! Thanks John Pham for being a great part of our Central Pennsylvania Community!


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Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
Our kids need less time on devices and more time moving in school and out of school if we really care about their mental health! If we are truly looking for ways to help our kids with stress, anxiety, and depression, we should look to proven techniques that show benefits. We should not be spending money and time on trendy, unproven SEL “programs” that have not been able to prove any benefit after decades of broad implementation in school settings. Please read the research that proves movement and exercise benefit children in a variety of ways. Please ask your school board and administration to show proof of what they are implementing is beneficial to our students academic achievement and wellbeing. Nothing trendy or experimental should waste time or resources for our children. They deserve better! Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children Jan 28, 2015 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 1 The target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. But it is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this goal. There was a time when children would play outdoors and get exercise by running and riding bicycles. In recent years, concerns about children’s safety, the popularity of video games and computers, and increased academic demands have contributed to the decline in outdoor play for children. Unless children are involved in sports, gymnastics, dance, or similar activities, they have limited involvement in exercise-related activities. Benefits of physical activity There is increasing evidence for mental health benefits of exercise in children. Hillman and colleagues 1 examined the effects of physical activity on fitness, brain function, and cognitive function in 221 children aged 7 to 9 years. The children were randomly assigned to either a 9-month after school physical activity program or a wait-list control group. The physical activity intervention was 2 hours in duration and focused on improvement of aerobic fitness by engaging in physical activities. The children participated in at least 70 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, followed by a snack, rest period, and low organizational games such as tag. Pre and post-intervention measures included assessment of aerobic fitness and cognitive functioning. Aerobic fitness was assessed by a test of maximal oxygen consumption during a treadmill exercise. Cognitive functioning was evaluated through tasks that assessed attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EEG recordings to deter-mine event-related brain potentials were obtained during the cognitive tasks. At the end of the 9-month intervention, the physical activity group showed greater aerobic fitness than did the wait-list control group. The physical activity group also demonstrated greater attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. On EEG assessments, only the physical activity group showed a larger P3 amplitude (indicative of greater attention) and a faster P3 latency (indicative of faster processing speed). Children who attended a greater number of the physical activity sessions had more changes in these brain activity measurements. ADHD and exercise Given these findings of improved attention for children who engage in a physical activity program, it would be important to know whether children with ADHD would show improved attention with exercise. Pontifex and colleagues 2 assessed the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on children with ADHD. Twenty children aged 8 to 10 years with ADHD and a healthy matched control group participated in the study. In this within-participants design, children participated in a 20-minute session of either aerobic exercise or seated reading on a motor-driven treadmill. Measures of event-related brain potentials and cognitive tasks were assessed during both of these conditions. Both the children with ADHD and the control group showed greater response accuracy on attention control tasks following a single bout of exercise than following the seated reading session. EEGs indicated that children in both groups had larger P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency after exercise than after seated reading. On measures of academic performance, children in both groups had greater improvement on tests of reading comprehension and arithmetic after exercise than after seated reading. The investigators suggest that single bouts of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may be an additional treatment modality for children with ADHD. Moreover, short bouts of exercise during the school day may be a benefit to children in general. Depression and exercise The relationship between depression and exercise in children and adolescents has received recent attention. Kremer and colleagues 3 investigated the associations between physical activity, leisure-time screen use, and depressive symptoms. The data were obtained from the Healthy Neighbourhoods Study, a crosssectional survey of 8256 children and adolescents (mean age, 11.5 years) in Australia. The students completed an online self-report instrument. Students were asked a number of questions about their physical activity behavior, including number of days attending physical education classes; degree of activity during these classes; number of days of being very active after school and on the weekend; involvement in sports or other activities in school and outside of school; opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, organizations, or other activities at school; and number of days in the past week that they were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. The students also reported time spent watching television, using the computer, or playing video games on school days and weekend days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Moderate to high depressive symptoms were reported by 33% of these youths. The odds of depressive symptoms were lower when there were greater opportunities for the youths to be involved in a sport or other activities at school outside of class, to be very active during physical education classes, and to play on sports teams both at school and outside of school. Youths who were physically active at least 60 minutes per day were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. Lower levels of leisure-time screen use (video game, computer, television) were also associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescents. Can physical activity protect against depressive symptoms in adolescence? Toseeb and colleagues 4 examined the association between physical activity beginning at age 14 years and depressive symptoms at age 17 years. A community-based sample of 736 adolescents from the United Kingdom participated in this longitudinal study. Baseline levels of physical activity were evaluated using combined heart rate and movement sensing. Participants were requested to wear the monitor over a 5-day period including 2 weekend days. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. A semistructured clinical interview to assess for current episodes of MDD was also administered at baseline and at follow-up. No association was found between physical activity at baseline and development of depressive symptoms at 3-year follow-up. The adolescents who were physically active at baseline did not have higher or lower depressive symptoms than the adolescents who were less physically active. Similarly, a diagnosis of MDD at 3-year follow-up was not predicted by physical activity at baseline. The investigators conclude that physical activity is not a protective factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Conclusion Overall, studies provide support for the benefits of physical exercise in children and adolescents on executive function, brain activity, and depressive symptoms. According to Healthy People 2020, the target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. 5 It is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this target. The importance of physical activity should be promoted in the school setting as well as in after school activities. Parents should also encourage their children to be involved in physical activities. References : 1. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Castelli DM, et al. Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics. 2014;134: e1063-e1071. 2. Pontifex MB, Saliba BJ, Raine LB, et al. Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with ADHD. J Pediatr. 2013;162:543-551. 3. Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, et al. Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. J Sci Med Sport. 2014;17:183-187. 4. Toseeb U, Brage S, Corder K, et al. Exercise and depressive symptoms in adolescents: a longitudinal cohort study. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:1093-1100. 5. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/ paguidelines/guidelines. Accessed December 18, 2014. 

Studio Classrooms: Education or Experimentation

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
For the 2023-2024 school year there will be 28 teachers writing curriculum for Studio Classrooms for Portrait of a Eagle for grades 6-12 and 3 teachers working on Digital Lit/Citizenship Framework for “full Year Course Maintenance” for K-12 at an additional cost of $28,620. I am not saying teachers doing extra work should not be compensated. I am suggesting that we utilize our smart, talented teachers and focus on academic learning. At a Curriculum Meeting in January, there were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot program. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. Please educate yourself on what SEL really is and how educational agencies and consulting groups are appealing to emotion to sell billions of dollars of curriculum and programs to school districts, government and community agencies, and even churches. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts: https://youtu.be/IKdJfJdcjgU The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! The students did not have quizzes or tests as usual. What did they actually learn? Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades as they go through middle school and high school.
Show More

Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
Our kids need less time on devices and more time moving in school and out of school if we really care about their mental health! If we are truly looking for ways to help our kids with stress, anxiety, and depression, we should look to proven techniques that show benefits. We should not be spending money and time on trendy, unproven SEL “programs” that have not been able to prove any benefit after decades of broad implementation in school settings. Please read the research that proves movement and exercise benefit children in a variety of ways. Please ask your school board and administration to show proof of what they are implementing is beneficial to our students academic achievement and wellbeing. Nothing trendy or experimental should waste time or resources for our children. They deserve better! Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children Jan 28, 2015 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 1 The target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. But it is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this goal. There was a time when children would play outdoors and get exercise by running and riding bicycles. In recent years, concerns about children’s safety, the popularity of video games and computers, and increased academic demands have contributed to the decline in outdoor play for children. Unless children are involved in sports, gymnastics, dance, or similar activities, they have limited involvement in exercise-related activities. Benefits of physical activity There is increasing evidence for mental health benefits of exercise in children. Hillman and colleagues 1 examined the effects of physical activity on fitness, brain function, and cognitive function in 221 children aged 7 to 9 years. The children were randomly assigned to either a 9-month after school physical activity program or a wait-list control group. The physical activity intervention was 2 hours in duration and focused on improvement of aerobic fitness by engaging in physical activities. The children participated in at least 70 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, followed by a snack, rest period, and low organizational games such as tag. Pre and post-intervention measures included assessment of aerobic fitness and cognitive functioning. Aerobic fitness was assessed by a test of maximal oxygen consumption during a treadmill exercise. Cognitive functioning was evaluated through tasks that assessed attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EEG recordings to deter-mine event-related brain potentials were obtained during the cognitive tasks. At the end of the 9-month intervention, the physical activity group showed greater aerobic fitness than did the wait-list control group. The physical activity group also demonstrated greater attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. On EEG assessments, only the physical activity group showed a larger P3 amplitude (indicative of greater attention) and a faster P3 latency (indicative of faster processing speed). Children who attended a greater number of the physical activity sessions had more changes in these brain activity measurements. ADHD and exercise Given these findings of improved attention for children who engage in a physical activity program, it would be important to know whether children with ADHD would show improved attention with exercise. Pontifex and colleagues 2 assessed the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on children with ADHD. Twenty children aged 8 to 10 years with ADHD and a healthy matched control group participated in the study. In this within-participants design, children participated in a 20-minute session of either aerobic exercise or seated reading on a motor-driven treadmill. Measures of event-related brain potentials and cognitive tasks were assessed during both of these conditions. Both the children with ADHD and the control group showed greater response accuracy on attention control tasks following a single bout of exercise than following the seated reading session. EEGs indicated that children in both groups had larger P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency after exercise than after seated reading. On measures of academic performance, children in both groups had greater improvement on tests of reading comprehension and arithmetic after exercise than after seated reading. The investigators suggest that single bouts of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may be an additional treatment modality for children with ADHD. Moreover, short bouts of exercise during the school day may be a benefit to children in general. Depression and exercise The relationship between depression and exercise in children and adolescents has received recent attention. Kremer and colleagues 3 investigated the associations between physical activity, leisure-time screen use, and depressive symptoms. The data were obtained from the Healthy Neighbourhoods Study, a crosssectional survey of 8256 children and adolescents (mean age, 11.5 years) in Australia. The students completed an online self-report instrument. Students were asked a number of questions about their physical activity behavior, including number of days attending physical education classes; degree of activity during these classes; number of days of being very active after school and on the weekend; involvement in sports or other activities in school and outside of school; opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, organizations, or other activities at school; and number of days in the past week that they were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. The students also reported time spent watching television, using the computer, or playing video games on school days and weekend days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Moderate to high depressive symptoms were reported by 33% of these youths. The odds of depressive symptoms were lower when there were greater opportunities for the youths to be involved in a sport or other activities at school outside of class, to be very active during physical education classes, and to play on sports teams both at school and outside of school. Youths who were physically active at least 60 minutes per day were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. Lower levels of leisure-time screen use (video game, computer, television) were also associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescents. Can physical activity protect against depressive symptoms in adolescence? Toseeb and colleagues 4 examined the association between physical activity beginning at age 14 years and depressive symptoms at age 17 years. A community-based sample of 736 adolescents from the United Kingdom participated in this longitudinal study. Baseline levels of physical activity were evaluated using combined heart rate and movement sensing. Participants were requested to wear the monitor over a 5-day period including 2 weekend days. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. A semistructured clinical interview to assess for current episodes of MDD was also administered at baseline and at follow-up. No association was found between physical activity at baseline and development of depressive symptoms at 3-year follow-up. The adolescents who were physically active at baseline did not have higher or lower depressive symptoms than the adolescents who were less physically active. Similarly, a diagnosis of MDD at 3-year follow-up was not predicted by physical activity at baseline. The investigators conclude that physical activity is not a protective factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Conclusion Overall, studies provide support for the benefits of physical exercise in children and adolescents on executive function, brain activity, and depressive symptoms. According to Healthy People 2020, the target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. 5 It is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this target. The importance of physical activity should be promoted in the school setting as well as in after school activities. Parents should also encourage their children to be involved in physical activities. References : 1. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Castelli DM, et al. Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics. 2014;134: e1063-e1071. 2. Pontifex MB, Saliba BJ, Raine LB, et al. Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with ADHD. J Pediatr. 2013;162:543-551. 3. Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, et al. Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. J Sci Med Sport. 2014;17:183-187. 4. Toseeb U, Brage S, Corder K, et al. Exercise and depressive symptoms in adolescents: a longitudinal cohort study. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:1093-1100. 5. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/ paguidelines/guidelines. Accessed December 18, 2014. 

Studio Classrooms: Education or Experimentation

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
For the 2023-2024 school year there will be 28 teachers writing curriculum for Studio Classrooms for Portrait of a Eagle for grades 6-12 and 3 teachers working on Digital Lit/Citizenship Framework for “full Year Course Maintenance” for K-12 at an additional cost of $28,620. I am not saying teachers doing extra work should not be compensated. I am suggesting that we utilize our smart, talented teachers and focus on academic learning. At a Curriculum Meeting in January, there were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot program. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. Please educate yourself on what SEL really is and how educational agencies and consulting groups are appealing to emotion to sell billions of dollars of curriculum and programs to school districts, government and community agencies, and even churches. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts: https://youtu.be/IKdJfJdcjgU The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! The students did not have quizzes or tests as usual. What did they actually learn? Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades as they go through middle school and high school.
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