All posts by Rachael Hanley

Snap-Judgement Society: Dr. Hinduja Counsels Cyber Caution to Williston Students, Parents

120403 0828Dr. Sameer Hinduja believes that modern technology can be useful—but only if it’s used in a responsible, positive way.

The co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center shared that message with The Williston Northampton School community this week. An evening presentation on Monday, April 2, was designed for parents, followed by a talk at all-school assembly on Tuesday morning.

In the evening, Dr. Hinduja encouraged parents to talk to their sons and daughters about online activity. He urged them to be involved and set ground rules.

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Cyberbullying Expert Sameer Hinduja to Speak to Parents and Students

Dr. Sameer Hinduja will visit The Williston Northampton School on Monday, April 2 and Tuesday, April 3.

Dr. Hinduja, an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University and Co-Director of the Cyberbulling Research Center, works nationally and internationally with the public and private sectors to reduce online victimization and its consequences.

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“It’s Just Propaganda” and Other Media Lessons for A 7th Grade Class

“Do you really want to think that someone with a contagious disease drank from your bottle?” read the advertisement. The ad, which used pictures of bacteria, urged readers to throw out their plastic bottles instead of recycling them. “Out with the old, in with the new!” it read.20110523 Greto 098

Very tiny print at the bottom identified a fictional plastics lobbying council as the ad creators.

Absurd? A bit. But also strangely persuasive. And that is exactly the point of the seventh grade exercise—create a piece of propaganda that is at once ridiculous and compelling.

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Williston’s Director of College Counseling Visits the Middle East

By Tim Cheney

I recently returned from a visit to NYU’s new college campus in Abu Dhabi.

How did I get there? A direct flight from Chicago—mine took me up over Greenland and Iceland, over the North Atlantic. We traveled across Norway and Sweden, over the Black Sea and along the border of Iraq and Iran. The final approach was over the Gulf before we landed in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.

While I was only in the country for a few days, I was able to experience much of what NYU’s President John Sexton has called “both a repository of a great culture and a symbol of that culture’s adaptation to modernity” during my visit.

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We’re Updating

We know you love when things are easy. Easy to find. Easy to use. Easy to get excited about.

We do too.

It’s why we are working on improving how you connect with The Williston Northampton School. Not just on WillyNet, but everywhere you go.

That’s right. We’re updating—everything.

That means…

A new look: Cleaner layouts. Consistent logos. Straightforward navigation.

More content: Tons of news stories, profiles and videos. More Flickr sets than you can shake a stick at. Blogs written by the head of school and by students.

And better communication: Weekly emails to parents. Regular updates on Facebook. Tweets with quotes and photos, too.

We can’t promise this will be a speedy process (no big renovation ever is), but we can tell you that it’s going to be a thoughtful one.

There’s a story we want to tell. Because Williston Northampton isn’t just a campus, it’s the people, the community, and 171 years of history.  It’s what happens in the classroom…and what happens beyond.

It’s us. And it’s you, too.

So, we need your help. Help us tell the story of Williston Northampton. Help us make things better. Help us spread the excitement about the school we love.

Over the next year, we’ll be sharing updates on the website, on Facebook, and in-person to get your suggestions and your feedback.

Comments? We love them.

But most of all, we love to improve. That starts today. Stay tuned.