Skills for Success January 2012

Skills for Success

January 2012

Wilson High School Brings Lions Quest to Homeroom

Glen A. Wilson High (CA) students are finding that there's no place like homeroom for developing their social and emotional skills. Every Wednesday, students use Lions Quest to develop their cultural awareness, interpersonal communication, and personal-management and -responsibility skills. Homeroom coordinator Laura Siefken said freshmen and sophomores have been particularly receptive to the program. Siefken added that Lions Quest has also been well received by her staff. "Teachers really like the fact that there are different options for each lesson, which means they can reuse lessons and reinforce the same skills with different grade levels."

This is important because each student has the same homeroom teacher throughout high school, which creates continuity, strengthens the student-teacher relationship and now gives students four years to enhance their SEL skills with Lions Quest. At the moment, Wilson High is only using Skills for Action Skills Bank, but Siefken hopes this is only the beginning. "I would like to see the (Hacienda La Puente Unified School) District 'open up' the program and use more of the Lions Quest curriculum. It really has a lot to offer," she said.

Send your Lions Quest story to Christopher.bunch@lionsclubs.org and maybe we'll feature it in an upcoming newsletter!

Marijuana Use among Teens on the Rise

More and more teens are watching their futures go up in smoke. Teens are using more marijuana and less alcohol according to a 2011 national survey of 47,000 eight-, 10th- and 12th-graders sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This marks the fourth consecutive year of increased marijuana use in NIDA's annual survey.

The survey found that 36.4 percent of 12th-graders reported using marijuana in the past year, 28.8 percent of 10th-graders and 12.5 percent of eighth-graders. One in every 15 seniors reported smoking pot on a daily or near daily basis, the highest rate since 1981. Researchers note that the increased use correlates with a decreasing percentage of teens that see "great risk" in marijuana use. Lloyd Johnston, the study's principal investigator, told The AP: "One thing we've learned over the years is that when young people come to see a drug as dangerous, they're less likely to use it."

Quality programs such as Lions Quest can help students see the dangers of substance abuse and the value of making responsible decisions.

New Skills for Adolescence Out-of-School Time Curriculum

Don't make after-school programming an after-thought. Lions Quest's new SFA for OST has been adapted from our Skills for Adolescence program to meet the unique challenges of the after-school setting. It combines SEL with service-learning lessons to provide a meaningful program that can stand-alone or be used as an extension of SFA for schools already implementing the program. In addition to workshop training, Lions Quest offers an introductory webinar series to support after-school professionals. Click here to place an order.