Connecting With Kids (DVD series for parents and kids)

Description

• Bright Kids, Bad Grades
  Nearly 3 million American students have been diagnosed with learning disabilities. Most are bright and eager to learn, but they struggle to keep up in school. They get frustrated, teased, and sometimes labeled as “stupid” or “lazy.”

  Experts say it’s important to help children find their strength, and to remind them not to give up hope. Learn about innovative programs that help kids succeed, hear inspiring true stories and latest learning research – and help your child to thrive.

• Good Kids, Bad Choices
  According to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43% of US teens admitted to drinking alcohol in the past month, 20% used marijuana, 10% said they had driven a car after drinking. Among high school students, 47% have had sex and 37% of those did not use a condom.

  Why do some teens take dangerous risks? What are the underlying causes of the bad choices they make? Is there something parents can do to minimize the risks of adolescence? This DVD will explore these issues and offer advice from experts for parents and teens.

• Shattered: Drunk Driving
  This is the extraordinary story of one night that changed lives forever. A drunk young woman was speeding and out of control when her jeep smashed head-on into another car, killing the driver and seriously injuring herself and three others.

  This video features interviews with the eyewitnesses who called the police as they watched the drunk driver weave through traffic and then crash. Also included are their 911 calls before, during and after the accident.

  There is police video and still photos from the scene, interviews with the drunk driver, her boyfriend and family, and interviews with the family of the man who was killed. And, finally, there is footage of prison. A compelling story about the tragedy of drinking and driving.

• Just Once: Meth Abuse
  To police and DEA officers, methamphetamine is the drug they hate most. It is cheap, easy to make, and highly addictive even after one use.

  “Meth” is ruining entire rural areas and towns across America – and spreading. Learn the devastating health risks and behavioral dangers, and what some people are doing to fight back.

• Prescription for Trouble
  Drug use in America has evolved, and now there is a new threat to our children: medicine – legal drugs that are sold in every pharmacy and found in every medicine cabinet. Sleeping pills, painkillers, muscle relaxers, ADHD pills, and cough medicine have become the drugs of choice.

  According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, with the exception of marijuana, young people are more likely to abuse these legal drugs than any other. In this DVD you’ll witness the true stories of the dangerous – and sometimes deadly – outcomes for teen drug abusers, and hear from their parents and friends, and experts on what to do to stop this trend.

• Silent Witness
  Bullying continues to plague an untold number of children in the playgrounds and hallways of American schools. This video features interviews with a boy who was bullied and then developed into a bully himself; with students describing their reasons for not reporting bullying when they see it; with a girl who was bullied; and with a mother-son team who demanded changes to the bullying climate at his schooland got them.

  Encourages viewers to speak up when they witness bullying. Also shows scenes from anti-bullying programs in other schools.

• A Violent Age
  Robbery, weapons, road rage, bullying. Violence is a troubling part of growing up for too many kids in America – boys and girls – and is often caused by a characteristic common thread among the young: an inability to envision consequences.

  These are stories about consequences, the pain and ruin experienced by both the victim and the perpetrator.

• Sticks and Stones: Verbal Harassment
  This DVD presents true stories from teens who were bullied with name-calling, gossip, nasty emails and exclusion. This is the torment that today’s bullies put others through, and kids say it hurts worse and leaves deeper emotional scars than physical bullying.

  You’ll witness the true story of Ryan, who committed suicide as a desperate escape from daily teasing and taunting – both at school and online through hateful emails. You’ll also hear from Alison: “I’d be walking down the hallway and it would be like, ‘Alison, you can take your mask off, it’s not Halloween anymore.’ Or, ‘Alison, you’re so ugly, no guy would ever kiss you.'”

  They called her names and made sexual slurs, and she cried every day after school. Learn what children and teens face very day, and what parents, students and educators are doing to stop the abusive words that hurt worse than “sticks and stones.”

• Fact Sheet
• Reproducible Parent’s Tips sheet
• Discussion questions for students and adults
• Lesson Plan for grades 6-8
• Lesson Plan for grades 9-12

• Bright Kids, Bad Grades
• Shattered: Drunk Driving
• Just Once: Meth Abuse
• A Violent Age
• Sticks and Stones: Verbal Harassment