Jeff Furler

Welcome back Benton Community students and families! We hope during the summer you were able to find time to recharge and spend time with family and friends. We are very excited to be able to serve you, your students, and community patrons. With school already starting I would like to provide your families and student(s) with helpful tips to get off on the right foot for this school year.              

Getting Enough Rest
One of the hardest things to do when getting back in the swing of a new school year is making sure students are getting enough sleep. Research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that students who are ages 6-12 should be getting 9-10 hours of sleep each night. Students who are ages 13-18 should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep each night. Students who are not consistently getting the recommended amount are at higher risks of poorer academic performance and higher risks of health concerns (CDC, 2019).

Making Time for Play
When school starts there are so many things students are focusing on with all the core subjects in school, which are so important to a student’s development and quality education for a lifetime of learning. No matter the age, it is also important that students don’t lose focus on being able to spend time PLAYING. Research has shown that students perform better in school when play is present in some portion of their day. Play has actually been found to help create better language skills, creative problem solving skills, while also developing better cognition in students (Dewar 2014). In our school play is present for all students, but play should also take place outside the school setting for child development and learning.

Staying Connected
In the elementary/intermediate settings we use a platform called Seesaw. Within Seesaw students are able to post activities, work on assignments from teachers, and receive announcements from other teachers throughout the building. One of the great features with Seesaw is that parents are able to get real time updates when their child or teacher posts to their student’s individual Seesaw account. This is a way for parents to see what their child is doing throughout their day and keep up with activities going on in the classroom. Each teacher will or has provided each family with a Seesaw QR code to their individual student so parents can access Seesaw on their home device or smartphone. This is a great way to keep lines of communication open between school and home. Seesaw is also a great conversation starter with your child at home. If you have trouble getting logged into a Seesaw account, please contact your child’s school for assistance in getting connected.