With eager smiles and backpacks in tow, students of the Rocky Point school district kicked off the school year on Sept. 4, ready to meet new teachers and reconnect with old friends.
At Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School, cheerful sidewalk chalk messages of positivity and kindness set the tone, as students were welcomed back to classes.
The district’s first week unfolded smoothly, as students, faculty and staff, across the district’s four buildings, seamlessly transitioned from summer fun to the inaugural days of September.
Student falling asleep at his desk. Courtesy MetroCreative Connection
By Daniel Dunaief
Imagine a typical school classroom filled with adults, listening as intently as they can to a detailed lecture about the finer points of tax law or multivariable calculus.
The adults in the room who weren’t particularly interested in the topic might struggle to concentrate, and several of them might try — perhaps unsuccessfully — to stay awake.
Now, bring a group of 8-year-olds into the same room, with the same instructor, and the same material. The likelihood that any of those younger students would fall asleep in their chair is far lower.
One reason for that difference is that the younger set, consistently, gets more sleep, while the older generation, from high school students on up the chain, typically, are not as well-rested.
“We think it’s normal, if you’re bored, to fall asleep, but it’s not,” said Dr. Steven Feinsilver, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital. “Falling asleep in a lecture that doesn’t interest you means that you either have a sleep [problem] or, more likely, are sleep deprived.”
Indeed, the percentage of the population that is sleep deprived is estimated at around 50% or more, a staggering number, which means that at least half the population needs more restorative sleep.
With the start of another academic year just under a month away, sleep experts are urging students to start shifting back to their respective school sleep schedule in the coming weeks.
These sleep experts suggest that students who may sleep until 9 a.m. or later during the summer, but will soon get up for school at, say, 6 a.m., are experiencing a type of jet lag people often feel when they travel across the Atlantic.
Sleep experts say that changing an adolescent’s schedule to an earlier waking routine, a week or more before school starts, can ease that school-year transition, while others recommend shifting up wake-up time, by an hour earlier per day during the September lead-up.
“If you know you’re going to have to be waking up at 6 a.m. for the first day of high school, you should be starting to wake up within that hour, within three days or so, before that so your body gets used to it,” said Lauren Hale, professor of preventive medicine and sleep behavior expert at Stony Brook Medicine.
Routines, including getting enough sleep, are important in preparing for the mental effort required to meet daily learning challenges.
“Our brains like a consistent schedule,” said Brendan Duffy, director of Sleep Services at Catholic Health, which includes Port Jefferson-based St. Charles Hospital and Smithtown-based St. Catherine of Siena. “It’s important to get up at the same time,” even on weekends.
Teenagers need more sleep
The academic age group that needs the most sleep is the one that is often getting the least.
High schools often start just after 7 a.m., in part because after-school activities such as athletic practices and events, as well as other extra-curricular activities, take up the hours between the end of school and the onset of darkness.
“Between 15 and 25, everybody’s clock tends to run slow,” Feinsilver said.
The school districts that have pushed high school start times back have seen their test scores go up, added Feinsilver.
He acknowledged that it’s challenging for parents who are managing their own work schedules to balance their children’s academic hours. Parents and schools can and should try to compromise, he urged.
Benefits on the athletic field
Boy chases a soccer ball. Pixabay photo
A return to school also means the restarting of athletic programs, some of which begin before the first day of the new academic calendar.
Student-athletes are pushing their minds and bodies, as they juggle demanding academic requirements with training and competition.
Sleeping the estimated optimum of seven to nine hours per night not only helps improve an athlete’s competitive skills but also helps prevent physical problems.
Sleeping enough is a “way to avoid injuries,” said Duffy, who has been talking to students in a range of ages all the way through college.
Duffy added that professional teams are also encouraging athletes to budget for the sleep their minds and bodies need.
Additionally, he suggests sleep is a form of prehab, as sufficient rest can prevent injuries that would require rehabilitation.
Duffy has spoken with several area teams about the importance of sleep, including the Stony Brook women’s soccer team.
“For 90% of the players, this is the first time” they hear about the importance of sleep athletically, said Tobias Bischof, the head coach of SBU women’s soccer team. “My players are 18-to-22 years old and it’s not on their radar yet how important sleep is.”
He describes sleep as “probably the greatest recovery tool we have” and believes it’s “super important for injury prevention.”
As a coach, Bischof has started journaling his sleep patterns and believes he and others can be better coaches with enough rest.
He suggested that coaches are under tremendous pressure and sleep helps him become more patient.
Numerous factors contribute to success on and off the field with these student athletes, including nutrition, hydration, self-care and relationships with their families, as well as sleep, Bischof added.
The soccer coach doesn’t ask about sleep when he’s speaking with high school players who might join the SBU team, but it comes up when athletes ask about ways the school works with athletes beyond training.
He describes mental health support as well as sleep education.
“You always want to make them a better version of themselves,” Bischof said.
Jim Taylor, who specializes in the psychology of sports and parenting and who has been a consultant to the U.S. and Japanese ski teams, met Duffy when they were on a podcast panel related to sport psychology in 2022. Taylor suggested that sleep is much more than a physical process, as it has psychological and emotional implications.
“One of the most powerful tools that athletes have is sleep, which impacts them in so many ways,” he explained in an email.
Taylor, who competes in triathlons, has seen his results improve from top 20 in his age group to two national championship titles and three world championship podiums.
“Of course, I’m sure other factors contributed to my improved results, but I know that improved sleep was a key contributor,” he explained.
Mental health
Sleep can also be a sign of, or a contributing factor to, mental health issues.
In a Sleep-to-Rise campaign, the Sun Belt Conference suggests that talking about sleep is a gateway to discussing mental health.
Not getting enough sleep or poor sleep quality can increase the risk for mental health issues, while poor sleep itself can reflect mental health challenges.
In its sleep-to-rise online effort, the conference urges athletes to consider sleep a “competitive advantage.”
“With student-athletes, we emphasized the importance of prioritizing your sleep,” Lauren Shear, assistant commissioner of Championships & Sports Administration at the Sun Belt Conference, explained in an email. “This meant highlighting how sleep affects both mental health and physical health.”
Shear added that the conference tries to provide educational resources on mental health, nutrition, sleep and other factors to equip the student-athletes with the information they need to succeed in and outside competition.
She tries to get seven to eight hours of sleep per night and has noticed that when she gets six or less, she’s more irritable and lethargic. She’s also more likely to get sick.
Stony Brook’s Hale added that sleep, unlike diet or other life changes, can provide a noticeable benefit.
“People can see immediate results quicker than other behaviors,” Hale said. “If you choose not to have dessert, you might feel like you lost something and you don’t see a benefit the next day. If you actually got a full night of sleep, you might feel the benefits that day.”
Sleep tips from SBU’s Hale
•Prioritize your sleep health
• Try to have regular sleep times, even on
weekends
• Make sure you get morning light
• Avoid substance use, like caffeine late in
the afternoon
• Put screens away before bedtime
• Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet place
• Pay attention to your body. Figure out when you get restorative rest compared with when you don’t.
EXIT Realty Island Elite Agents on BackPack Stuffing Day
EXOT Realty's backpack fundraiser
EXIT Realty agents and Comsewogue staff on drop off day.
EXIT Realty agents at drop off location.
In gratitude for the support shown to EXIT Realty Island Elite by the local community, agents from the real estate brokerage recently transported and dropped off the backpacks and supplies collected during their annual backpack fundraiser. This is the fourth year this office has organized this supply drive, which provides every incoming kindergarten student in the Comsewogue school community with a free backpack and starter supplies like crayons, markers, rulers and more.
EXIT, located at 4699 Nesconset Hwy, Suite 2, in Port Jefferson Station, has now collected well over a thousand back packs, and donated the extra supplies to local churches and organizations.
“We appreciate being a part of this wonderful community and welcome the opportunity to give back,” said Jason Furnari, Broker/Owner of EXIT Realty Island Elite.
As the holiday break began to wind down and COVID-19 infection rates climbed, many parents hoped their children would be learning remotely for a week or two instead of returning to their classrooms.
Many feared that their children would get sick if they returned to school buildings and hoped that their districts would take advantage of their past remote learning experiences and allow students to return to a virtual classroom temporarily — just long enough for the holiday virus surge to pass.
While a few schools on Long Island did switch to remote and other districts offered an option, many school officials opened the doors to their classrooms as if they didn’t have a clue as to how to use alternative methods to educate.
Many people would agree that learning during the pandemic for a majority of students was difficult when a day at school meant logging into a computer instead of boarding a bus. The ideal option is to be seated in a classroom. However, in the worst of times, such as the world continuing to fight a virus that could be deadly to some, would switching to remote learning for a week or two be so harmful?
To keep our children and their families safe, school districts should be at the ready to switch to remote learning when infection rates soar. While health officials can advise not to gather during the holidays, is it such a terrible thing to allow people to be with their loved ones and then look at a screen when school is back in session?
Technology has made it possible to continue learning and working during difficult times such as these. Perfecting remote techniques and always being prepared to use them means that learning, working, basic health care and more can continue no matter what is going on around us, except for maybe a power outage.
And with more employers offering work-from-home options, many parents will be able to watch their children in the house if their children need to log into a computer to connect with their classroom. Which in turn, eliminates the old snow or sick day problem of who is going to watch the kids.
It’s been said many times during the pandemic that maybe instead of getting back to normal, it might be better to embrace a new normal. Let’s retain the lessons we have learned the last two years and increase our country’s chances of soon enjoying good times once again.
Edna Louise Spear Elementary School music teacher Christian Neubert introduced students to music lessons.
Photo from PJSD
The Port Jefferson School District welcomed students back for the 2021-2022 school year on Sept. 2.
Edna Louise Spear Elementary School second grade teacher Carleen Parmegiani prepared a lesson for her class. Photo from PJSD
Greeted by teachers and administrators throughout the district, students met teachers and classmates while quickly adapting to their new routines as they move forward in an engaging and productive academic year.
Over a year and a half of coping with the pandemic is taking a toll on everyone’s emotional and mental health – and may be affecting children and teens even more than adults. According to recent research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, over 25% of high school students have experienced a decline in emotional and cognitive health since March 2020, and over 20% of parents with children aged 5-12 reported similar worsening conditions for their children. And as kids everywhere are now getting back into classrooms, their feelings of stress and anxiety may also be hard for them to cope with.
Fortunately, there are proactive steps parents can take to help children and teens manage their feelings during this transition back to school. Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer at UnitedHealthcare, offers her tips to help your child adjust to the ongoing changes and challenges as they head back to class.
1. Share information
It’s important to be proactive, providing your children with age-appropriate information and support, now and as the school year continues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, CDC.gov, is a great resource for learning how to talk to your child about COVID-19.
Beyond talking to your child, remember to take time to listen and acknowledge their concerns. Be emotionally supportive and understand that their worries may go beyond just the initial back-to-school phase. After such a long period of change and upheaval in their lives, helping children reduce stress and providing strong support can help them get through any possible challenges that may arise.
2. Help children feel secure
Going back to school after such a long pause may feel daunting for children. Be reassuring about safety and validate their feelings by letting them know it’s OK to feel upset, scared, anxious, down or even angry. You can also share some of the ways that you manage your feelings, to help them learn from you. Make sure children know that they can ask you questions at any time. For adolescents, consider using self-care tools like the Sanvello app to help them navigate difficult emotions.
3. Listen and watch
Parents and family members are often the first line of defense for children who may be struggling but are unable to tell you what they need. Let them know you’re there to listen and that it’s safe to share how they’re feeling with you. Pay attention to more than just words. By watching your child and listening to how they speak, you can be aware of their moods and notice any uncharacteristic changes in behavior, so you’ll know when it’s time to seek expert support.
For example, some common signs of depression in children include feeling sad, hopeless or irritable, having a hard time paying attention, low energy or fatigue, feeling worthless or useless and showing self-injury and self-destructive behaviors. Contact your child’s healthcare provider if you have questions or concerns about behavior changes that you’re seeing.
4. Define boundaries and create regular routines
Consider limiting exposure to news coverage as well as to social media. Instead, spend time interacting with each other in positive ways, like family dinners, movie nights and game nights. Consider asking your child if they’d like to start a new after-school activity, sport or hobby that interests them. Establishing regular routines can help provide children with structure when they’re not in the classroom, which also helps them to manage their emotional well-being.
5. Take action
Discuss any concerns you have about your child or teen with your pediatrician or family physician as soon as possible. Your healthcare provider may recommend a plan of action or even a counselor who could help you find ways to reduce unhealthy stress and improve your child’s overall health and well-being.
For more health and wellness information, visit UHC.com.
Welcome to Dan Dunaief HS or DDHS. I know it’s an odd time to start a new high school, but children need to learn, even during a pandemic.
Originally, I was planning to have everyone come to a pep rally on the first day of school. After all the restrictions of last year, it only seemed fitting to bring the kids together in the gym and celebrate the chance to sit in 1950s style wooden bleachers that rock when someone walks a few steps.
But, then, I realized we don’t have a basketball, football or squash team, we haven’t picked school colors, we don’t have a school song and, most importantly, we are in a difficult spot with the pandemic.
I know your kids are exhausted from dealing with the virus. Who can blame them? Aren’t we all?
At first, I thought we’d avoid the whole topic and stick to the basics in school.
But, then, it occurred to me that avoiding a virus that has now affected three school years wouldn’t make it better. We can try not to think about it, but that doesn’t make it go away. Information and knowledge will help these students understand the strange world that surrounds them and might empower them to feel as if they’re doing something about it, even if it’s just learning more about a time that future generations will no doubt study carefully, scrutinizing our every move as if we were some kind of early laboratory experiment.
With that in mind, I gave the curriculum serious consideration. I thought about all the standard ways students have learned.
Ultimately, I decided to turn toward the academic vortex. At DDHS, at least for the first year or so, we’re going to encourage students to study the real challenges of the world around them.
For starters, in our art class, we’re going to have design competitions for the front and back of masks. The winners will provide masks that the entire school will wear each week.
Then, in an engineering class, we’ll work on creating masks that are more comfortable and just as effective as the ones that make our faces sweat. Maybe this class can also figure out how to provide words that flash across the mask when we talk, giving people a better idea of what we’re saying behind our masks. Maybe enterprising students can design masks that cool our faces when we sweat and warm them when we’re cold, that shave or bleach unwanted hair or that act like dry-fit shirts, covering our faces without clinging to them.
In history, we’ll spend at least a semester on the Spanish Influenza. We’ll explore what leaders throughout the world did in 1918 during the last pandemic. We’ll see what worked best and what disappointed.
Our psychology class will devote itself to the conflicts between people’s perceptions of infringements on their individual freedoms and their desire to protect themselves and each other by wearing masks.
Our political science course will delve into how politics became enmeshed in the response to the virus. This class will look at which side gains, politically, amid different public health scenarios.
Science classes will explore why some people get incredibly sick from the virus, while others show no symptoms. We will also study the way the virus works, look at similar viruses and try to understand and track the development of variants.
Math will work with the science department to understand the spread of the virus and to plot various scenarios based on human behavior. Eager students in math will have the chance to demonstrate how sicknesses spread depending on the wearing of masks, the use of vaccines, and the creation of new variants.
Our language arts class will provide an outlet for students to express their hopes, dreams and concerns amid the unique challenges in their lifetime created by the pandemic.
Senator Mario R. Mattera (2nd Senate District) and The Salvation Army of East Northport are partnering for a back-to-school supply drive from now through Friday, August 27th. During the effort, Senator Mattera’s district office, which is located at 180 East Main Street in Smithtown, will serve as a drop off location for supplies.
With the help of The Salvation Army, volunteers will fill backpacks to be distributed to children in the community. According to the Salvation Army, the most-needed supplies include: backpacks, binders, folders, notebooks, index cards, pens, pencils, glue sticks, rulers, pencils, pencil cases, crayons, highlighters, markers, and erasers.
The Salvation Army in East Northport prioritizes having a positive impact on its community through education and service; offering numerous services and events to better our communities financially, educationally, and physically. In addition to the school supply drive, the Salvation Army supports sports programs, educational programs and recreational camps.
“It is truly my privilege to partner with The Salvation Army to help school-aged children in our area. My office is happy to partner with a purposeful, passionate group to ensure that the children of our community have the resources they need to succeed in the upcoming school year. By getting these children the supplies they need, we can help set them up for greater success and that is something every child deserves,” stated Senator Mattera. “I thank everyone who has donated and all who will.”
Things aren’t back to normal yet, and unfortunately for a few good weeks, we got a taste of what freedom from the pandemic was like.
People began getting vaccinated, families were reunited, and parties were officially free of restrictions.
The people that got vaccinated knew they could still be carriers, but a little cold is better than being on a ventilator, right?
Businesses were thriving at the start of the summer — after more than a year of having their doors shut and no revenue coming in.
But things turned pretty quickly, and we’re disappointed now.
The fact that people threw their masks away when Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) lifted the state restrictions was not the brightest move — we should have kept the restrictions just a tad bit longer because now we have the Delta variant and it’s not looking too good.
Since people (vaccinated or not) have had the chance to breathe again, party again and feel 90% normal again, they don’t want to bring back the masks.
We understand that. They’re uncomfortable and for us ladies, it takes our makeup off rather quick.
But we’re keeping them on (again) to keep other people safe.
Remember in the beginning of the pandemic when everyone was all in this together? We thanked first responders and believed the science. What happened? Why is this, all of a sudden, a hoax?
Some people cannot get vaccinated right now, and that’s okay. But there are other people who are choosing not to and are not being honest about it. They’re either too lazy or too afraid.
With schools reopening in a few weeks, the debates are increasing as to whether or not children should wear masks in school. Considering those under 12 cannot get vaccinated yet, and many parents have chosen not to have their children get the shot, we feel it’s imperative that students be required to mask up. With the surge of the Delta variant and the possibility of another one, the virus could potentially spread quickly in classrooms and then in the surrounding communities.
New vaccines, new medications and new things are terrifying — but public health is more important, and we still need to be in this together.
COVID-19 is never going to leave, but we can alleviate it.
Be smart and do your part to keep your loved ones, neighbors and yourself healthy.
School has just begun. In our county, we have a wide range of educational opportunities and experiences. Each school district is attempting to respond responsibly to all families and their children. That is a very complex and challenging dynamic because every school community is so vastly different.
It continues to amaze me that very simple and basic practices that are evidence-based are so complicated to embrace for a number of people in our midst. We have allowed our destructive political rhetoric to impair our common sense and basic efforts to support some very basic common-sense practices that protect all of us.
My college students both on campus and online are an inspiration. They are open and insightful. They are hungering to learn and genuinely make a positive contribution to our community that will make a profound difference in the future.
This pandemic is a powerful opportunity for us to draw closer together. It’s an opportunity to build new bridges of understanding and compassion. It’s an opportunity to challenge the bigotry and hatred that has become so infectious.
These are challenging times. We can look at these challenges as burdens that are burying us under or we can see them as opportunities for change and transformation. There are so many life lessons to be learned, if we have the courage to take the blinders off and listen.
We will never return to the life we once knew before the pandemic. However, we have an opportunity to create a new tomorrow that is rich with opportunity and possibility that can be life-giving, if we have the courage to live differently.
There are so many life lessons to be learned. This pandemic has brought families together. People are talking and connecting in ways that were never imagined. Many of us have had to rearrange our priorities. A growing number of people have become more other-centered than self-centered. I have witnessed countless random acts of kindness that have changed people’s lives.
It has been refreshing to listen to the next generation of leaders talk about making tomorrow’s America better and stronger, more inclusive and respectful; a place where diversity and difference are seen as a blessing and not a curse.
The America that my students speak about is an America filled with promise and opportunity for all, grounded in a respect for the dignity of every human person. It is an America that will not tolerate hateful rhetoric; that will respect people’s right to peacefully protest injustice and give voice to the voiceless. It is an America that empowers every citizen to dream dreams and believes those dreams can come true.
Fr. Pizzarelli, SMM, LCSW-R, ACSW, DCSW, is the director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson.
