Notes from Eddy
December 7, 2025
Hello from Principal Guditus
Hello Eddy Families,
I hope you have stayed warm this weekend as the cold weather is upon us! Just a reminder to please be sure to send your student in with winter gear for outdoor recess: jackets, hats, and gloves. We will have outdoor recess when it is dry outside and the windchill is 20°F or above. We will use WeatherBug to measure temperature and windchill here. If your student needs assistance with winter gear, please contact our school adjustment counselor Sonja Bono.
Our snowplow naming contest is over, and winners will be revealed this week, our annual holiday spirit week has been revealed, report cards come home on Wednesday, we are beginning 5th to 6th grade transitions, there is a Brewster School Committee meeting on Thursday evening, and we are kicking off our annual Scripps Spelling Bee contest this month! See below for information about all these items and more below!
Finally, our fundraiser to help send our fifth graders to Boston for their class trip is underway and ends tomorrow, Monday, December 8 if you are willing to share the link with others. http://bit.ly/EddyTrip2025.
Finally, our Nauset Superintendent Dr. Glenn Brand and Assistant Superintendent Vicky Saldana will be holding listening tours this week and next, and all community members in all our Nauset communities are invited to attend. This is a drop in format, and an opportunity for you to share thoughts and feedback on our school system. All are welcome!
- Thursday, December 11 @ 4:30-5:45pm: Brewster Town Hall
- Tuesday, December 16 @ 3:30-4:45pm: Eastham Town Hall
Here's to a great week of learning!
Respectfully,
Steve Guditus
Principal and Lead Learner, Eddy Elementary School
Raising kids with smartphones and AI
I've recently started listening to the podcast "Good Inside," hosted by Dr. Becky Kennedy, a clinical psychologist, whose podcast covers a variety of topics focused on supporting kids and parenting, and most recently, she hosted Dr. Jean Twenge, who wrote the book 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Teach World. Dr. Twenge is a researcher who has written a book about navigating how to raise and support kids around smartphone use and AI. In the podcast, Dr. Becky and Dr. Jean discussed the importance of clarity and consistency, and establishing simple family rules to help provide healthy ways to use technology in productive ways:
- Keep phones out of bedrooms at night. Removing the temptation to use the phone at night will ensure that kids can truly stay focused on going to sleep and staying asleep. Both Dr. Jean and Dr. Becky say this is the #1 thing you can do to help provide smartphone use structure.
- Delay smartphone ownership until a child truly needs one, which Dr. Jean and Dr. Becky says could be when students get their drivers license or has more independence such as late middle school or early high school when students start making independent plans with friends and may need to call you for a ride. Do so when it makes sense for your family.
- Set predictable daily limits on entertainment screen time. These kinds of routines help kids feel safe, reduce power struggles, and give parent/caregivers confidence about how to respond as technology becomes a bigger part of children’s lives.
Another key takeaway from the conversation is the importance of staying connected with your student, even in homes where adults are also on their devices. Dr. Becky encourages parents to choose small, intentional habits, such as:
- Put phones aside during key moments like dinner or the ride home from school.
- Name it out loud when you do need to use your phone for a specific purpose (“I have to send this one work text, then I’ll be fully with you."
- Create “tech-free pockets” each day when everyone in the family unplugs together.
- Most kids in 2025 are getting their first cellphone when they are 10 or 11 years old;
- Unrestricted access to the internet and social media can have significant negative impacts on kids' well-being and mental health.
These small steps model healthy balance and open the door for ongoing conversations about digital safety, responsibility, and independence with kids. Families don’t need to be perfect, they just need to have clear, consistent guidelines that work for their household. Dr. Becky and Dr. Jean suggests that when parents and caregivers are ready to provide a cellphone to your student, don't go straight to the latest iPhone or Samsung model, but instead consider providing a safer model, providing more restrictions to content and social media apps. Here are four suggestions: The 4 Best First Phones for Kids from Wirecutter Magazine and the New York Times.
If you'd like to listen to the entire podcast, you can do so here: https://www.goodinside.com/podcast/15031/raising-kids-in-a-world-of-smartphones-ai/
Charleston Wrap Fundraiser
Our fundraiser ends tomorrow, Monday, December 8! Please help us make our goal of bringing the entire fifth grade class to Boston for their class trip this spring! You can share this link with family and friends and on social media if you are so inclined: http://bit.ly/EddyTrip2025. It's possible some items you are already planning to purchase for the holidays or for your home are available here.Thank you for your consideration and support sharing the link!
Scripps Spelling Bee
We will hold our annual schoolwide Scripps Spelling Bee finals the day before the holiday break on Tuesday, December 23. Each classroom will hold its own in-class spelling bee to crown a winner and a runner-up during the month of December. If your student would like to practice their spelling for their classroom and/or schoolwide spelling bee, this is the official practice list from the Scripps Spelling Bee. Our school winner will take a written test in school in January, and may qualify for the regional competition, en route to the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals in Washington, DC.
5th to 6th Transition is Beginning
Believe it or not, we are already starting the transition for fifth graders to become sixth graders in middle school! All Eddy fifth graders will visit Nauset Regional Middle School (NRMS) on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 during the school day. Students will take a bus to NRMS, be paired up with a sixth grade Brewster student, meet with NRMS Principal Dr. Cohen and meet NRMS Guidance Counselor Mr. Saum, who will loop with students starting next year and be their guidance counselor for all three years. Students will attend classes with their sixth grade buddy, and have an opportunity to eat lunch in the cafeteria (at no charge, and students may opt out and bring a lunch from home). There will be additional opportunities to build the bridge between Eddy and NRMS throughout the winter and spring. One big opportunity for families to put on your calendars is the NRMS Parent Information Night, on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 from 6-7pm at NRMS in Orleans.
Students used chalk to create hopscotch boards!
Students created their own game with their own rules!
Students played a came of pickup soccer!
Students had creative fun on a damp outdoor recess day!
Mary E. Cronin, a local author and poet, visited fourth grade classes to discuss writing poetry, practice writing poetry with imagery, and complemented the work that fourth grade students are doing in Module 1 of the ELA unit.
Students have begun their clay unit in Art class with Ms. Mason!
Farm to School Interest
As we grow our Farm to School programming and initiatives, if you are interested in assisting in some way, please fill out this Farm to School (FTS) Volunteer Interest Form here. If you have any questions, please contact our Nauset Farm to School Coordinator, Natasha Iannuzzi at iannuzzin@nausetschools.org. This past week, we held a staff meeting where we dug in more deeply to our hydroponic garden, coordianted by Nurse Miller, our new outdoor garden with FTS Coordinator Natasha Iannuzzi, and discussed possible curriculum connections in the classroom. As the weather gets warmer in the spring, we will reach out for assistance planting our spring crops!
