Hi girls,
I decided to take January off from posting to really think about what I can post on this website to get some responses and then it hit me: boys. How appropriate it is that Valentine’s Day is in February since this post is going to be about relationships.
Lately in my GEMS sessions many of [...]

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Hi Girls! I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday. For December I’m curious: what books do you like to read? I mean, what stories, authors, series, are you interested in and WHY? Do the books you read really apply to what you’re going through in your life right now, or are they more of [...]

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Hi Girls,
This month it’s always customary to reflect on all of our blessing: family, friends, safety, our country, etc. I think we should all post someone or something we are feeling thankful for on our site. Won’t it be amazing to see all the blessings that we GEMS girls have?
Also, does your school or family [...]

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There is a definite process to creating a beautiful and valuable gemstone. It can involve lots of heat, pressure, and chipping/cutting the stone until it begins to sparkle and shine. Then a jeweler determines the value or worth of each gemstone based it’s BEAUTY, DURABILITY, and RARITY.
 We are all like these gemstones that the are put under tremendous heat and pressure, then chipped or [...]

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Girls, we never have to go far to find real life examples of the damage of relational aggression. Please click on the following link to watch the WKYC news video about Mary Lonsdale. The video is only five minutes, but its message will last a lifetime.
In Year 2 GEMS we have Ms. Santoriella and Mrs. [...]

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Last month we asked the GEMS girls for their thoughts on how parents could keep the lines of communication open.  We received some good advice and welcome more, but good communication is a two-way street.  At the very time when your daughters need you most, it often becomes increasingly difficult to talk with them.  The little [...]

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I just finished reading the book “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher and I just can’t stop thinking about it. It is the story of a teenage girl, Hannah Baker, who commits suicide and leaves audio tapes to the 13 people in her life whose words (gossip) or actions effected her and ultimately led to her [...]

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Girls (and parents), we talk a lot about the pressures of adolescence: parties, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. Now, however, research shows that you have to face pressures through the very devices that keep you so connected to your friends and significant others. Read this column from cleveland.com writter Connie Schultz about text pressure that girls face from boys. Within this article is [...]

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Mrs. Berkovitz, our school’s psychologist, and Ms. Santoriella, a licensed counselor, came in to speak with the 7th grade GEMS girls about some serious issues. Mrs. Berkovitz talked about stress and how it can affect a person’s physical and emotional well being. She did an excellent exercise with the girls to help them relax and reduce their stress. [...]

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We all get how important it is to talk with someone with whom we trust whenever we are faced with problems.   Girls are often encouraged to talk with their moms or dads when something is wrong, but we know that is sometimes very difficult to do.  We think our parents could never understand, or worse, whatever they say [...]

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