Welcome to NNHT

Please Join Us!
The Fall Taste for Education is a fundraising event involving generous participation of Aitoro, Via Sforza, Jeff's Cuisine, The Brewhouse Restaurant, Norwalk Public schools students and several community members.

 

 

 

Tickets: $40.00 prepaid, $50.00 at the door. Sponsorships available.

 

 

The Norwalk Public Schools is working closely with Child Guidance of Mid-Fairfield County and the The Norwalk Education Foundation to provide Kendall and Rowayton families with a high quality before and afterschool program 5 days a week while school is in session. The before school program starts at 7 a.m and runs to the start of school; the afterschool program runs until 6 p.m.
 
After the Bell assures that your children have a safe, fun environment before and afterschool. A variety of enrichment activities will be offered throughout the year as will academic supports. The program will work closely with Kendall and Rowayton teachers and families so that our staff will know how to best support children attending the program.

The program came about as an extension of the After School Achievement Program (ASAP) which brought an after school program to every Norwalk elementary school in 2004. A year-long planning process was undertaken in 2007-2008, facilitated by GE Commercial Finance, and managed by the Norwalk Public Schools and the Norwalk Education Foundation. The planning process was undertaken as a result of a 3-year evaluation of the After School Achievement Program, and included community partners, parents, school staff, administrators, and private funders. 

MySpace, Facebook, Friendster. Most middle school and high school students are familiar with these social networking sites and can navigate them easily. Because of the popularity of these sites and the potential for their misuse (inappropriate pictures, cyber bullying and interference with homework and academic performance), parents need to know how they work. But for many parents, these are strange and even scary new worlds. This past spring, NEF held several workshops to help Norwalk middle school parents learn about social networking on the web.

The "MySpace to Your Space - Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet" workshops were run by Norwalk middle school teacher, Sara Vogel, and a middle school guidance counselor, Sara Callahan. Vogel says the idea came from talking to her own students. Many of them already had their own MySpace accounts, and a number of their parents were unaware of this.

"Parents need to be aware of the dangers on the Internet, aware of what their children are doing, seeing and reading on the Internet and also need to be able to help guide their children as they begin to participate in this world of on-line networking," says Vogel. "They are not going to keep them off of the sites, so my feeling is to join them and be a part of their kid's technology world and work together to help them stay safe."

Participant Rosemary Ganino, mother of a 5th grader, agrees. "There's a whole lifetime in between when I was young and my soon-to-be middle schooler. I need to know what's out there."  In fact, Ganino said when her daughter is interested and wants to get online, she would set up a MySpace or Facebook page with her. "I'd rather my daughter learn about it from me than from others."

The classes gave parents an overview of the fundamentals of how these social networking sites work.  Participants learned about these sites in a hands-on way; how to set up a MySpace account, personalize settings, maneuver around the site, search for a friend and join a group. They were also given a crash course on the language kids use in texting and IMing and sites that can keep them updated on this ever-changing lexicon.

Instructor Sarah Callahan says the hands-on aspect of the workshops is one of the most beneficial. "They loved that they could actually walk through the set up with us and see the tricks to privacy and notification. 

Parent Amy Eichenberger agrees. "What I found the most valuable is playing around with the site, knowing how to get in, and navigate."

Pat Czako, mother of a middle school student, says the workshop helped her to talk to her son about his use of the Internet in general. "I enjoyed reading the 'contract' between parents and children that was included in our packet. I have sat down with my son and asked him to show me what he was looking at on YouTube. He thought it was weird at first, but then he relaxed. I realized it is important for me to watch how he uses the Internet and to not assume everything he is doing is 'bad'." 
 

Callahan says research suggests that an involved parent has the power and influence to keep kids safe online.  "By providing parents with the knowledge - benefits and risks - of social networking we're helping them to communicate with their children and have proactive conversations about safe Internet usage."