Now, life as a student can be extremely busy and overwhelming,
you know,
projects.
And if you play a sport or you join a club,
there might be very little time for a personal life outside of school, you know,
or maybe if you work or have other activities.
Well, to help us get a little more insight on this issue,
we are joined by award winning teacher and best selling author, Douglas
Hadad and student Lily Pad
and Good morning. Good morning.
You're so excited to have you guys both here. It's great to be here.
Yeah, this is definitely an important topic.
I remember from my days back in, in school.
Um I definitely kept a jam packed schedule between school and then my part time job.
Um after work as a high school student now, uh Doug,
you've been teaching for more than 20 years, right?
Yes. 24 years, 24 years. Congratulations on that. Thank you so much.
What are some of the shifts that you've noticed in your students over the years?
Well, if you look at society today Symphony in terms of versus 20 plus years ago,
there have been all these shifts societally, technologically, educationally.
And one of the biggest ones I've seen is the technological integration
where students these days are technologically savvy.
I mean,
they utilize their digital devices like no
other they for learning and communication,
which in some ways the learning has become more accessible,
it's become more engaging for them, more collaborative.
But in other ways,
they're getting involved in non education related things like social media,
texting their friends, gaming, all these things.
And we know from research that the constant exposure of
all this technology doesn't just limit the um amount of,
you know, distract ability.
They're actually more distracted that
their reduced amount of screen time
would be good for them. But there's fatigue. I see it personally as a science teacher
where they don't wanna dig as deep into tasks and
that are complex. They think they can get the answers at their fingertips right way.
Yeah.
There's definitely like a, a big difference from like back in my day,
we had to go look it up in a book
uh
versus hopping on the internet. Now, Lily, you were in the seventh grade right
now, describe for us uh what a typical day or week may look like for you with all the
activities you have going on.
Um So it can be really stressful with all the
homework we have and having after school activities and sports.
So it's really,
you have to time manage to make sure that you're
getting the work done before you're doing things like,
hang out with your friends or like, watching TV.
So, I think it can be hard to, like, manage but you really have to, like,
make sure you're using your time wisely to get all that work done.
So it's not stressful. Yeah.
What do you think some of the biggest issues are that, you know,
you and your peers face?
Um,
I think just like having a lot of homework on
the same day in after school sport or activity.
So you really have to like time manage and make sure that
you're getting it done before you like hang out with your friends
or like you get study halls and make sure that you're using that time wisely.
So you don't have to do it late at night.
Yes, because you know,
you guys need your rest so you can wake up and be ready to tackle a new day at school.
Well, Mr Hadad,
what advice do you have for families to help their students deal with this?
Well, I think a little hit it right on the head.
You have to be able to time manage appropriately.
And I can tell you one thing,
our district has what they call the vision of the graduate.
And really there's five pillars that are foundational for workforce
success and we try to prepare our students for those.
One thing is communication.
Right, Lily,
I talk all about the importance of not just writing but being able
to speak and being able to do it individually in small groups,
large groups, being a collaborator, always encouraging team, being a team player.
As you know, you
can't work in isolation and be successful. Uh
being an innovator with A I out there.
I've seen that segment that becomes a little more challenging,
but original thinking will be paramount to real world success.
Um And then also being a self
directed learner,
that's one thing I would definitely encourage time management um goal setting,
being able to um really orient appropriately
and then being a good critical thinker,
that's one thing that's so key, taking the knowledge you have,
applying it to real world settings,
being a global citizen as I saw in the previous segment
and then being able to realize
you can have a profound impact on all the students out
there um on your community and the world at large.
Absolutely, definitely some helpful information.
Thank you guys so much for joining us um really quickly before we head out, Lily,
what are your plans for the future? Do you wanna go to college?
Do you know where? I don't know yet? OK. Maybe a place in Florida. So it's warm.
I'm not mad at that. Do you know what you wanna study? I'm not sure yet.
OK, you have time
to
figure it out. But thank you guys for joining us and we're gonna check