Dear Lower School Parents, 

What a magical time of year! I hope you’re enjoying every minute of the holiday season. We’ve had amazing Chapel presentations for both Hanukkah (with Mrs. Baumeister’s class) and Kwanzaa (with Mrs. Peet’s class), and we are all looking forward to Christmas Chapel, led by Mrs. Keidel, on Friday at 11 AM. The holiday concert last week was beautiful and definitely left the audience in full blown holiday spirit. Our new music teachers have such great energy and have been very proud of their students’ performances.

Last week Jon Hall, Jared Hamilton, Amy Brown and I led a coffee about technology and items parents might want to consider when buying tech gifts for the holidays, and what to do after the purchase is made. I know many of you were interested in attending but were unable to come, so I wanted to list the talking points that we covered.

• There really is no need to purchase tech items for school. We have plenty of Chromebooks, iPads, etc. for students to use when needed in the classroom.  

• Items that parents might want to consider purchasing would be based on your child’s interests. For example, if your child enjoys movie making/editing, an iPad would be a good choice.  

• Parents should consider not having a child go to bed with the device in their bedroom (late night texting is never a good thing!).

• Make sure you install a “find me app” in case your child misplaces his/her device

• General age requirements to keep in mind:

Facebook age requirement- 13
Instagram age requirement - 13
Google - 13 (Our EDU cloud grants a legal exception as the school owns those accounts)

• Help your child choose a password to protect themselves. Figure out a way as a family to record your passwords in a spot in your home and not on a device.

• Don’t forget the student needs to consult with the teacher and update their personal device policy statement on any new devices he/she will be bringing to school after the winter break.

• Here are some helpful parental controls to consider for your child’s device:

Blocking content

Windows 10: Setting up Parental Controls on Windows 10

IOS (iPhone and iPad): Setting up Parental controls on IOS

Mac Computer: Setting up Parental Controls on OSX Yosemite (Mac)

Android: Setting up Parental Controls on Android
Parental Control Apps

Mr. Hamilton’s Favorite (OpenDNS Umbrella used at Montgomery): Open DNS (free family shield)

Viewing Browsing History

Wikihow’s consolidated list of checking history in all major browsers

Secure Passwords

Best Passwords are multi word phrases.

Leader in Me, Habit #2:

Last month I began to write about the habits of the Leader in Me by Dr. Stephen Covey, which to reiterate is our character theme in Lower School this year. Habit 2 is “begin with the end in mind.” What does this mean? Students need to plan ahead to set goals that have meaning and that can make a difference. We want students to see that they are an important part of the classroom and contribute to our mission and that they actually LOOK for ways to be a good citizen, full of strong character. We hear often that early education in leadership skills bodes well for a successful adulthood. Here’s another article about attributing success in adulthood as early as kindergarten. Parents, this is another good reason to feel good about your investment in your child’s future!

With 2016 on the horizon, please feel free to reach out to me always if you ever have a question or concern. Please also keep in mind that the first semester ends on January 15. Reports will be mailed to parents later in January. I hope you have a joyous holiday.

Warmly,

Susan

Susan Marotta
Lower School Head