Resources and Links
Getting Started
See also our News page, featuring articles published in the MSJ Smoke Signal, and other publications.
College - Admissions, Stress and Hot Topics
"Do College Interviews Count?" Looks like the answer for many private colleges according for a kid on the bubble is yes. One more reason to visit schools and go prepared; to ask your questions and to answer theirs about you...
"The College Essay: Why Those 500 Words Drive Us Crazy" Essays and the UC personal statements can drive seniors to distraction.
UC Personal Statements, how to break it down and give yourself a little more struture on what to write on, how to show yourself and add to your application rather than simply restating your case. Or watch the video ;)
Teen Health and Wellness
"Driven to Succeed: How we're depriving teens of a sense of purpose". Finding pupose can help youth discover their own path to success, professor William Damon, Stanford School of Education.
Are you a teen or do you care for a teen with anxiety in their life? Check out the ADAA teen page which dicusses anxiety in the lives of teenagers.
Looking for relaxation tools and deep breathing exercises? Georgia-Southern University has a great page for college students that may be of interest to you.
Palo Alto Medical Foundation has a wonderful teen health site "We Are Talking" that includes a large section on emotions and life including stress, and powerful articles written by teens for teens.
Parenting Resources
Dr. Ken Ginsburg is one of the country's leading experts in fostering resilience in teens and teen health. His latest book is Letting Go with Love and Confidence and his website discusses stress and teens. Is your stress a tiger or a paper tiger?
Counselors
Merri Blum and Counseling and Career Center, MSJHS
Alice Keelman and Menlo Atherton High School Career Center
Ken Gonsalves – UC Berkeley, Applying to Berkeley
Research into Best Practices & Possible School Change
Our students live in a high stakes world and it can be a challenge to navigate. Challenge Success through Stanford University School of Education has resources and a tool kit for parents on issues ranging from homework to what's happening with teens in high schools across the country.
Block Scheduling, a report from LAB and the Education Alliance at Brown University.
Exams before winter break in Palo Alto, student opinion in the Palo Alto High School Paper.
January 2011. Saratoga 2011-2012 School Calendar approved to move Saratoga High exams before winter break and begin school one week earlier, August 22.
"Do High Squash the Joy in Learning?" This kind of debate has been raging for a while, but Terri Lobdell sums it up fairly well for Bay Area parents and Palo Alto families in particular in Palo Alto OnLine Nov 2011.
Other articles about the SOS program and SOS schools
Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress, NY Times
SOS Presenters
"What Price, Privilege?" Has our overinvolved parenting style created a generation of kids with an impaired sense of self? If so, how can we work to get it back? Madeline Levine, Ph.D.
Richard Sprague on the 2007 SOS Conference
Dr. Ken Ginsburg Letting Go With Love and Confidence
Articles
Those Most Likely to Succeed are also Most Likely to Fail Under Pressure, The Journal of Young Investigators
Campus Observer: Addressing the Stressing, Duke Magazine
Sink, swim or paddle like a duck?, The Stanford Daily
Task force eyes mental health issues, The Stanford Daily
De-Stress Day at UC-Davis, How Academic Integrity and Stress are Connected
School Starting Time