Steamboat Springs High School PIC Newsletter

We had a very informative February PIC meeting and presentation by local counselor, Heidi Berendt, about building healthy relationships with your teens. Her insights are summarized below. Her suggestions emphasis connecting with your teen, how to listen and decreasing tensions or conflicts. They work great!! We wish her son, Ben an alumni of SSHS, well as he competes in Nordic Combined at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

At our next PIC meeting we plan to have a member of the RX Task Force talk about Music with a Vision. The Music With Vision Presentation acts as a tool to engage audiences to build awareness around the root causes of substance abuse, addiction, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues that young people face. In addition to awareness, it also provides a deeper understanding and training around trauma informed care, resiliency, and access to community resources that support individuals struggling with addiction and mental health. Please join us for this very informative presentation.

Just like last month, counselors are busy getting our students ready for next year's classes. Check out the counselor webpage for more information and great ideas for summer service learning and language immersion programs.

We are still trying to raise fund for SSHS using the City Market reward program; we only have 57 families registered out of our entire school and staff. Having more people register gives access to the $100,000 City Market has available per organization. P lease go to https://www.citymarket.com/topic/city-market-community-rewards and click on Enroll Now .

Please join us for our next PIC meeting, Wednesday, March 7, 12-1pm in the SSHS media center. We are a drop-in group, no membership or commitment required! Just come and learn!!

Thanks so much for all of your support!

Respectfully,

Stephanie Smith and Robin Schepper

SSHS co-chairs

[email protected]

Principal's Report

Message from Principal Taulman:

As we are in the process of registering for classes for next year, please be thoughtful in your registration decisions. I urge you to have your student read the registration guide carefully so that they can make good choices with regard to course they are required to complete for graduation. If there is not sufficient student interest in a particular course, it will not be offered during the upcoming school year. The master schedule is created based on student request for courses. If your student has any questions regarding their registration process, have them see their counselor.

2018-2019 Registration

Preparing for the 2018-2019 School Year

Student Registration Timeline*:

Here are the deadlines for students to register for next year.

Current 9th & 10th grade Registration: February 16th - March 6th (Blues Break is during the registration window)

The Registration Guide can be found here.

Highlights from our Guest Speaker,

Heidi Berendt

Heidi Berendt, a local counselor , shared excellent tips on Building Healthy Relationships with your Teens. Here's a great handout that she shared with us...

What to Expect:

Friends will be more important than family
What peers think of them will be a big source of stress
They will become more argumentative and push against you; experimenting with their independence; wanting to make their own decisions
They become more emotionally more distant
They might not want to be seen in public with you, however cool you are
They will experiment with their image, identity, and they way they are in the world
They may become sexually active
They may become more impulsive and might start taking some risks
They will act like your opinion does not matter but it does
Their sleep cycle will change. They biologically will fall asleep three hours past the usual time and will need 9-10 hours of sleep

What you can do:

Set clear and consistent expectations; don't be critical or judgmental. They need your love and connection more than ever.
Understand that they need to find their independence from you. Give them space to do this.
Know that they are not rejecting you. Do not personalize. It is an important, healthy part of being an independent adult, even it it feels bad.
LET GO OF CONTROL! The harder you fight to control the harder they will push against you.
Don't buy into arguments. Ask them to state their case and talk about the pros and cons of what they want. Ask them what they think their options are.
Be the calming force. Breathe, wait for the wave to pass over. It takes 90 seconds for an emotion to be triggered, peak and fade; provided you don't react and fuel the fire.
Encourage and support their friendship tribe whenever you can. Have their friends over for dinner, get to know them.
Let them know you will always do whatever you can to collect them from any situation when they want to come home regardless of the the circumstances and how late or far away it might be.
Let nothing be off limits when it comes to what they can talk to you about.
LISTEN MORE THAN YOU THINK
Show empathy, acknowledge how they are feeling, identify what they are feeling; ie. sadness, fear, disappointed, left out. Anger is a secondary emotion.

Lastly:

Model the same behavior you expect of them
Their greatest strengths will come from the mistakes they make and the boundaries that they push against.
Even with the strongest supports in place, they are going to make mistakes
Never stop believing in them
Self-care for you and time with your spouse/partner is critical. Give yourself a break and get perspective.
Try not to over schedule, have time to create space and jsut be.

Resources:

Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson

Parenting Teems with Love and Logic by Cline and Fay

Heysigmund

Free Money for Our Schools

Shop City Market and Help SSHS!!

Help our school, our students, our clubs and organizations by signing up for City Market Community Rewards. Shop at City Market or any Kroger store, swipe your Value Card, and City Market/Kroger will donate a percentage of your purchases to SSHS . These monies then go back to our students, clubs and classrooms. Just register your City Market /Kroger card and designate Steamboat Springs High School "PIC" as the beneficiary. This does not interfere with your gas points or other City Market programs.

**Please note, you need to re-register your City Market card on their website every year, beginning December 1.

T o register, go to https://www.citymarket.com/topic/city-market-community-rewards and click on Enroll Now. You can register your card by entering either the reward card number, or by entering the Alternate ID number - the phone number that you enter when checking out at City Market. Then be sure to select Steamboat Springs High School "PIC". And pass this on to all friends and relatives that shop at any Kroger store across the country!!

Your participation in this program will help fund SSHS clubs, events, teacher requests, school requests and so much more.

Please register your card today!!

AmeriGas
School Days from AmeriGas Propane will give our school money for books, computers, sporting equipment, art materials, etc. Save your AmeriGas Propane receipts, bring them to school, and drop them in the Box Tops box located in the front of the school. It is that easy!

Get the Scoop in Person

Please join us the first Wednesday that school is in session each month at 12:00 p m in the Media Center and learn about the many different ways you can be involved. If you like the information in this newsletter, there's even more at the meeting. We'd love to have you!

Steph Smith and Robin Schepper

SSHS PIC Co-Chairs