As another school year conspires to make a break for it, the Project ALERT team once again recognizes the many contributions made by its community of teachers, school administrators, and other local organization leaders.  Your commitment to the education and health of the youth in your communities, and in and out of the classroom, in both work and off hours, has immeasurable value, and, we hope, has yielded many hidden rewards this year!  Thank You!  

In keeping with last year’s summer issue of the Educator, we’d like to give the school year a proper send-off with another round of our favorite quotes about the coming season.  Here’s hoping that the next few months provide a much-needed respite from the classroom and many opportunities to enjoy your favorite summertime activities.

Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~ Henry James

I am Summer, come to lure you away from your computer... come dance on my fresh grass, dig your toes into my beaches. ~ Oriana Green, @NatureSpirits

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ~ John Steinbeck

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~ Sam Keen

The mountains are calling and I must go.” ~ John Muir

Have a wonderful summer!

 

Project ALERT has recently published two very timely supplements – one on marijuana and one on e-cigarettes. Both guides include basic information (e.g., what does marijuana look like?) as well as current and more complex facts and messages (e.g., isn’t vaping better than smoking regular cigarettes?). These resources serve as complements to the Project ALERT source materials, with content and language accessible to both educators and students.

Initiatives for recreational marijuana use will show up on several states’ ballots later this year, including California, Florida, Maine, and Nevada.  Other states are watching closely as they gather required signatures with sights set on the 2017 ballots.  And because e-cigs are now more popular with youth than traditional cigarettes, and with many states and locales reconsidering the legal age limit, it’s definitely time for some increased situational awareness about vaping.

As we kept the science-speak to a minimum, we feel that both supplements are suitable for handing out to students.  However, we felt it was important not to shy away from important terms like cannabis sativa and cannabidiol, and to include information on new practices like dabbing (quite a dangerous one), that adolescents should be aware of.

Please consider these publications as complementary material to Core Lesson 2, Consequences of Smoking Cigarettes and Core Lesson 5, Social Pressures to Use Drugs.  They can provide some helpful assistance when implementing these sessions.

Dear Project ALERT community,

As the 2015-2016 school year comes to a close, we here at RAND want to thank you for your continued support of Project ALERT. It has been a productive year for the program and I would like to share some of our past-year accomplishments and a few goals for the future. 

 

We have published updated supplements on emerging topics of importance for middle school youth

 

We have focused recent efforts on providing information about two hot topics that warrant greater attention during Project ALERT lessons: (1) the large increase in youth e-cigarette usage, and (2) the emergence of laws legalizing recreational use of marijuana in some states. We have published six articles in our online newsletters on these topics and created two stand-alone supplemental guides that educators can use in their classrooms to discuss e-cigarette and marijuana use with youth. These resources offer important guidance for how to address these topics with students within Project ALERT lessons. The guides are a resource for teachers, but are easily accessible as handouts to students.

 

We made our videos more accessible to teachers in the classroom

 

We now host the Project ALERT classroom videos on iTunes, which represents a major innovation. In addition to hosting the videos on YouTube and on our Project ALERT website, we have made the videos available for immediate download from iTunes. This way, educators can save the videos on their computers and show them to students regardless of an Internet connection.

 

We have offered practical and up-to-date resources through our seasonal newsletters

 

We have continued to publish seasonal newsletters outlining relevant content for middle school youth. Highlights from these newsletters include a detailed account of a senior Project ALERT trainer’s experience teaching Project ALERT to educators in Chile, guidance on integrating e-cigarette content into Project ALERT lessons and a case example from one school district in California, updated information about e-cigarettes to increase educator knowledge about the harms and health impacts, advice and examples on how to have discussions with students about recent changes in marijuana policies, tips for educators teaching the Project ALERT curriculum, and updated normative information for use in Project ALERT lessons

 

We are updating our manual and website

 

Primarily based on feedback from our users and from our creative team here at RAND, we have dedicated much effort to improve the interface of our website, www.projectalert.com. The website is now even more user-friendly than it was before. A highlight of the revamped site is an expanded “Frequently Asked Questions” section, which covers topics related to content, implementation, and troubleshooting. For the fall, we will have an updated manual available for download on our website. Updates include an overall content check to verify all material is accurate and up-to-date (e.g., adding in language about the new state laws for medicinal and recreational marijuana) as well as several formatting changes to improve ease for viewing the manual.

 

We are designing research projects and need your help in these efforts

 

We have designed several research projects in an effort to keep Project ALERT rooted in rigorous science. For these efforts, we are looking to partner with schools that are not currently using Project ALERT but would like to, as well as with schools currently using the program that could use more support implementing the program. We can offer more intensive support for partner schools, including free trainings and monetary incentives to teachers for completing brief surveys. If your school is interested, please fill out this brief online form so that we can get in touch with you.

 

We are available to consult and answer any questions you have

 

We continue to be available for any assistance you may need by phone at 1-800-ALERT-10 and via our contact form. Please visit our website and Facebook page for ongoing, updated information, and interesting new topics. We also offer in-person training for a fee if your school is interested.

 

I want to thank you for your continued participation in the Project ALERT community. We look forward to the future of the program and to working with our many teachers, school administrators, and other local organization leaders as we strive to prevent drug use among youth.

 

Sincerely,

Eric Pedersen

Director, Project ALERT

Behavioral Scientist

RAND Corporation

The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey of substance use among U.S. middle and high school students is published annually and available anytime you need it.  Part of the focus of Core Lesson 4, Introduction to Pressures, is on perceived norms and prevalence of substance use.  MTF is an invaluable resource you can use to prepare for students’ questions about these issues.

The full report with results from 2015 and prior years can be found here.