# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Find information on easing transition jitters, managing kids' tech use, getting involved in the school, and more.

©Shutterstock.com/Monkey Business Images

19 Meaningful Questions You Should Ask Your Child's Teacher: Mine this list for inspiration before talking with your children's teachers. (Edutopia, updated 2016)

9 Back to School Tips for Parents: Explore these simple tips for helping your kids return to the classroom ready to learn. After the back-to-school rush, use this month-by-month guide to enhance your kids' school experience throughout the year. (Department of Education, 2016)

5-Minute Film Festival: Building a Parent Toolkit: Watch curated videos on topics like stress reduction, healthy eating, homework, and more. (Edutopia, 2015)

15 Questions to Replace 'How Was School Today?': Questions to ask to gain deeper insights into your kids' learning experiences. (Edutopia, 2016)

Back-to-School Health and Safety Tips: Browse advice about issues like backpack safety, transportation, bullying prevention, nutrition, before- and after-school child care, study habits, and more. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016)

Best Back-to-School Tips: Listen to this podcast about preparing students to head back to school and developing morning routines. For more on this topic, check out "Getting Back in the School Year Routine." (Greater Good Science Center, 2012)

Back to School: Find information about back-to-school shopping on a budget, getting organized, and supporting children academically in this collection of articles. You may also want to take a look at "Back-to-School Night Basics." (GreatSchools)

Back-to-School Advice and Checklists

How to Ease Your Child's Kindergarten Jitters: Use these tips from Dr. Michele Borba as you prepare your child for kindergarten. Learn how to ease your kindergartner's anxiety, establish a goodbye ritual, and ensure that the first days of school are positive. For similar resources for students of all ages, see "Transition Resources for Parents, Teachers, and Administrators." (Edutopia, 2016)

Guiding Our Children Through School Transitions: Transitions can be both exciting and anxiety-inducing for children and parents. Discover tips for helping students transition into elementary school, middle school, high school, and post-secondary education. (Parent Toolkit, 2014)

Start School Strong: A Back-to-School Guide for Kids With Learning and Attention Issues: Find a variety of resources-including live chats with experts, downloads, and more-to help children get organized, process their feelings, and establish routines. (Understood, 2016)

Helping Students With Autism Transition Into a New School Year: Gain insights into how you can work with teachers to help kids with autism transition to a new teacher, a new school, or a new curriculum. (Edutopia, 2017)

How to Cope With Back-to-School Anxiety: Learn how to detect if your child is experiencing back-to-school anxiety and get actionable tips to help ease their worries. (PBS Parents, 2016)

Back to School Books: Read a book with your child as a springboard to discuss feelings about returning to school; this guide includes recommendations for preschool through grade six. For more book suggestions, check out Understood.org's "5 Great Back-to-School Books for Kids in Grades 1-4." (Bank Street School of Education)

Easing the Transition
©Shutterstock.com/PureSolution
Tech Tips for a New School Year

For more tips and guidance about managing media and technology use, check out these articles:

Conquering the Multitasking Brain Drain: The constant stream of digital media has fractured many kids' sense of focus. Learn how you can help your kids avoid multitasking and regain a sense of focus before the start of school. (Edutopia, 2016)

Teaching Good Study Habits: Minute by Minute: Explore advice, timed exercises, and games to help adolescents study effectively. (Edutopia, 2016)

Hack to School: Getting Your Kids Back Into a Routine: Starting a routine-building regime late in the summer can help your kids start school fresh and ready. Here are some easy-to-implement tips for building a back-to-school routine. (Parental Toolkit, 2016)

Homework and Developing Responsibility: Building good study habits early is crucial for long-term academic success. Find tips and ideas on encouraging effective habits in reading, writing, and math. (American Academy of Pediatrics, updated 2015)

Five-Minute Film Festival: Nine Boosts for Summer Learning: Watch videos with fun ideas to re-engage kids in the learning process during the last days of summer. (Edutopia, 2013)

Milestones: A collection of videos aimed at helping parents understand grade-level expectations for children in grades K-12. (GreatSchools)

Gearing Up for Fall Learning

For more parent strategies around homework, take a look at these articles:

The Power of Parental Involvement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find information on easing transition jitters, managing kids' tech use, getting involved in the school, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A teacher who has worked in a variety of schools reflects on what his colleagues have had in common.

As a high school history teacher who is married to a middle school math teacher and is about to welcome our first child into this world, more than ever I value parents who entrust their children to the care of educators. We have an immense responsibility to teach and prepare other people's children for future success in a caring, safe environment.

Over the years, I've met, worked beside, and learned from teachers of all ages and from all types of schools. Despite the differences between us and between our institutions, we find common ground on what we want parents to know about us.

We Care About Your Child's Well-Being

We care deeply about our students, and we want them to succeed-not just academically but in every facet of their lives. If a student is struggling, we'll do whatever we can to help turn things around. On a bad day, a student might need just a pat on the back and a little encouragement. At other times, helping students calls for staying after after-school activities to offer one-on-one support. If the need arises, we'll contact an academic support team, as well as parents, to create a plan of action.

In whatever scenario, know that we'll be wondering if that child is feeling better. We'll follow up to make sure the student knows how much we care, beyond the subject we teach. We show as much by cheering on students during their games, attending theatrical performances, complimenting artwork, and appreciating other notable achievements.

We Want Your Child to Succeed

Contrary to what some may believe, no teacher likes seeing a student struggle endlessly. In an ideal world, we would love it if every child excelled in every subject without difficulty, which would also make our jobs easier and less stressful. However, meaningful learning seldom comes without effort for anyone.

Therefore, it's critical to avoid demonizing stress, struggle, and anxiety, which in heathy amounts are essential ingredients of lifelong learning. At certain times, it's true that teachers want students to experience pressure, but not out of a twisted desire to see them squirm-we want them to gain resilience and resourcefulness in the face of adversity.

We Know That Learning Is Difficult

When your student encounters difficulty or anxiety with a unit of study or an assignment, please resist contacting the teacher right away-intervening may deprive your child of a chance to develop resilience, self-advocacy, and trouble-shooting skills. Instead, encourage your child to advocate for themselves. This could include seeking help from a classmate or initiating a one-on-one meeting with a teacher.

We do want to hear from you if your child experiences sustained struggles and in the case of developments such as health difficulties, the loss of a loved one, or an updated learning profile.

We Know Your Child Has Other Responsibilities

We appreciate that students have other classes and commitments beyond what we teach and expect of them. To the best of our ability, we work hard to ensure that we're assigning appropriate amounts of work. If a student comes to us in advance of a due date with a scheduling conflict, many of us are likely to grant extension requests.

In dire circumstances such as urgent family matters or an emergency visit to the hospital, we think only of the student's well-being and not the missed work. When the student is ready to return to school, we're happy to help them catch up at a manageable pace.

We Care Deeply About What We Teach

We love what we teach and try to stay current on developments in our fields: reading the latest literature, enrolling in academic courses and programs, and attending meetings and conferences. We also take time to consider what and how and we teach. In fact, we tend to spend much of our "time off" in the summer planning out how to do a better job in the fall. We take our disciplines seriously, and we work to instill similar enthusiasm in your children.

This often leads to our rethinking how to engage student interest while helping them see for themselves the real-world relevance of what and how they learn.

Lastly, know that we love what we do, and we work hard every day to make sure that students know that. We want them to feel supported, and we want them to feel secure in knowing that when they stumble (as they all do), we'll be there to help them learn and grow from their mistakes-the best and only way to learn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A teacher who has worked in a variety of schools reflects on what his colleagues have had in common. As a high school history teacher who is married to a middle school math teacher and is about to welcome our first child into this world, more than ever I value parents who entrust their children to the care of educators.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Why? It's not really social! Social development is a body-to-body, face-to-face affair. As our social selves form, we learn to read and send messages to other people. This is when we learn most of the 94% of communication that occurs non-verbally: body positions, tone of voice, pupils dilating or contracting . . . in other words, the stuff you can't see in a chat room or even a 4-inch video window.

I would keep tweens from exploring Facebook and other purportedly social spaces until they themselves are fully socialized. Confine them to net activity and video games that are largely self-contained, or that strictly limit the range of social interactions available. MoshiMonsters and Disney Fairies, for example, are beginner game worlds where the ways in which kids can interact are limited to leaving little notes or sending presents.

This is also the age where console games and even handhelds can be brought into their lives -- as long as parents maintain authority over when and how they are used. iPads and iPods and NintendoDS games don't have to be kept in a kid's bedroom. Locks and keys are not draconian measures!

Let your children enjoy and learn from this stuff, but let them know from the outset that these are not mere toys; there are people on the other side of the screen -- developers and programmers -- whose job it is to make it really hard for a kid to stop playing. These are not nice people, and part of the object of the game is to be able to turn it off whenever you want to. If you can't turn it off, it means you're losing the bigger game. Finally, your children's ability to turn the game off when they are supposed to is the only way for them to win more hours of play. Every minute they stay on past the time limit you set costs them five minutes the next day. And yes, it's easier to start this way than institute such measures two months after the Wii arrives.

Safe Access

If you get five good years of technology and media under your belts using these measures, then it will be easier to implement the commonsense measures you simply have to take with teenagers. More important, your kids will already be more aware than most about the motivations behind the websites and developers competing for their attention. An app is not just an app: it is a marketing plan, an influence platform, and an effort at manipulation. This doesn't mean it's bad - just that it has a purpose.

Most of us -- especially young people -- are unaware that the virtual environments they inhabit may not be constructed with their best interests in mind.

That's why I've come around to the belief that teenagers shouldn't be online until they understand how to create their own online spaces. Just as learning a language means learning to speak, and learning to read means first learning the same alphabet one would need to write, kids should not immerse themselves in digital environments until they are aware of how those environments are constructed. Only then are such places demystified to the point where young people can engage with them on their own terms, rather than making legal and cognitive agreements they may not even know exist. What does this mean? For starters, learning basic HTML -- the language that makes web pages look and act the way they do. Teens should know that databases exist, and they should know what they are. They should understand that every keystroke they make is etched in a memory more permanent than if it had been etched into the side of the Parthenon -- and infinitely more searchable.

The more they know about the people and companies behind the screen, as well as the way those folks do what they do, the more kids will understand why we parents insist that the computer be used and kept in the family room or dining room instead of a bedroom. The computer isn't a bad or dirty thing, but it is a portal to the outside world. It provides access to love and hate, sex and war, ideas and ignorance, support and abuse. Just like the front doors to our homes, computers may welcome our dearest friends, but anyone can knock -- which is why our bedrooms are generally the furthest thing in the house from these openings to the street.

Good Digital Hygiene

When computer use happens in the midst of the home rather than in isolation, we are available to filter and explain a bit of what might be happening on there. If nothing else, this activity is occurring in the context of other human relationships and values.

That goes for smartphones, too. Lights out means phones out -- even out of the bedroom. If you follow this rule yourself, it will be easier to make everyone in your house follow it, too (and you'll sleep better sleep for not fooling your eyes and brain that it's daylight every time you answer a text message). Exceptions to the rule are that Hurricane Sandy hit, or the kids are at a sleepover. "Johnny may ask me to the dance" is not an exception.

Ultimately, computer literacy must be a prerequisite to computer use. I'm not saying that they should know how to open a machine and fix it, but that they understand something about the algorithmic, expression-based platforms on which they are asking to spend so much of their time and energy. This is where schools should come in, exposing students to coding languages while also helping them to think critically about digital tools and virtual spaces.

Until America catches up with South Korea, Estonia, and pretty much every other developed nation in the world in this regard, however, it's up to parents to arm their young people with the practices that will encourage good digital hygiene and a solid grasp of this increasingly influential platform for human engagement and creativity.

Resources for Raising Digitally Healthy Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Technology at Home: Developing the Social Self

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why? It's not really social! Social development is a body-to-body, face-to-face affair. As our social selves form, we learn to read and send messages to other people. This is when we learn most of the 94% of communication that occurs non-verbally: body positions, tone of voice, pupils dilating or contracting .