Face-to-face #2 Tanja Ness

@tness

Hi Tanja,

Your How Might We question tackles a timely and critical issue—helping Grade 7 & 8 students understand the links between brain function, anxiety, and screen time so they can develop healthier digital habits. This is a high-impact initiative because it equips students with self-awareness and agency over their own well-being. Your structured Action Plan is clear and actionable, and below are some ideas and resources to help deepen your approach.

1️⃣ Strengthening Your Approach: Framing for Middle Schoolers

Middle schoolers respond best when they can see direct connections to their own lives. You might consider structuring this initiative around guiding themes that align with student curiosity and lived experiences.

📌 Possible Themes for Your Sessions:
✅ “Why Am I Addicted to My Phone?” – Understanding the dopamine loop and how apps are designed to be addictive.
✅ “Screens & Stress: Why TikTok Might Be Making Me More Anxious” – Exploring how screen exposure before bed impacts sleep and anxiety levels.
✅ “What’s Happening in My Brain?” – Linking adolescent brain development to impulse control and focus challenges.
✅ “Taking Back Control” – Helping students build small, practical strategies to regulate screen time without quitting cold turkey.

📌 Reflection Question:
How can you frame this learning so it feels personally relevant and engaging for middle schoolers, rather than like another lecture about “putting their phones away”?

2️⃣ Designing an Interactive, Student-Centered Approach

To make this more engaging, rather than just presenting information, consider student-driven experiences.

📌 Interactive Approaches That Might Work:
✅ Simulated “Dopamine Experiments” – Have students track their mood/energy levels when using screens at different times of the day.
✅ Debate & Discussion Prompts – “Are screens the problem, or are we the problem?” → Get students to argue both sides.
✅ Gamified Screen Detox Challenge – Have students try 30-minute screen-free challenges and reflect on how they feel.
✅ Peer Storytelling – Have students interview each other about their most & least stressful screen-time experiences.
✅ Journaling & Reflection Prompts – Encourage students to reflect on:
• “What is my current relationship with screens?”
• “When do I feel most in control of my digital habits?”
• “What is one small change I can try this week?”

💡 Resource: The Social Dilemma Discussion Guide for Schools – https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/educators/

📌 Reflection Question:
How might you shift from a presentation-based model to an experiential learning approach that gets students reflecting and experimenting in real-time?

3️⃣ Integrating Reflection & Data Collection

You mentioned needing a way to collect data—this could be a powerful way to both measure impact and keep students accountable for their learning.

📌 Ideas for Measuring Impact:
✅ Pre/Post Self-Assessments – Students rate their stress & screen time habits before and after the intervention.
✅ Anonymous Digital Journals – Create a Google Form where students can submit weekly reflections on how screen time impacts their mood and anxiety.
✅ Student-Led Podcast or Blog – Have a few students document their screen habit changes and share reflections over time.
✅ School-Wide Survey on Digital Well-Being – Gather insights on where students struggle most with screen time & anxiety.

💡 Resource: Center for Humane Technology – Youth Digital Well-Being Toolkit – https://www.humanetech.com/youth

📌 Reflection Question:
How can students become active participants in gathering and analyzing their own data, rather than just responding to surveys?

4️⃣ Building Administrative & School Buy-In

Since Advisor Time is a limited resource, making a strong case to school administration will be important.

📌 Framing the Conversation with Admin:
🔹 Student Mental Health & Well-Being: Link to the rise in anxiety & screen dependency in teens.
🔹 Tied to Executive Function Development: Connect to self-regulation, focus, and stress management.
🔹 Research-Backed: Reference Harvard & Stanford studies on screen time and brain development.
🔹 Low-Lift for Teachers: Position this as plug-and-play advisor content that teachers can easily facilitate.

💡 Resource: Harvard Study on Screen Time & Adolescent Brain Development – https://developingchild.harvard.edu/

📌 Reflection Question:
What evidence or framing will most effectively convince admin & faculty that this initiative is a valuable use of time?

5️⃣ Next Steps: Timeline for Implementation

To keep this actionable and manageable, here’s a suggested timeline:

🗓️ February-March:
✅ Meet with administration to secure advisor time.
✅ Develop a first draft of the presentation & activity.
✅ Test a small-scale version (e.g., with one advisor group).

🗓️ April-May:
✅ Refine based on student & teacher feedback.
✅ Pilot full implementation with multiple advisor groups.
✅ Collect first round of student reflections & data.

🗓️ June:
✅ Analyze findings & draft a report on student impact.
✅ Make a case for embedding digital wellness into future advisory sessions.

📌 Final Reflection Question:
If students walked away with just one key takeaway, what would you want it to be?

Hope you had a great day today!

See you in May!

Justin