Harry Potter Alliance: Using Pop Culture Pervasiveness Positively

July 17, 2011 No, I haven’t seen the Harry Potter grand finale yet.Yes, it’s been covered from every angle, dominating Twitter streams, Facebook status lines and yielding the largest weekend box office on record with one out of four tickets sold going ka-ching for the wizard boy.And maybe it'll be worthy of the 3D hyped up media zeal, but like the Twilight series or any other … [Read more...]

Do Those ‘Take Action’ Causes and AutoFill Forms Really Work?

August 25, 2009 Ever wonder if those urgent ‘act now' e-mails from your favorite causes work? Last week I received an NCLI eco-literacy action alert, as Shaping Youth is a member of the consortium supporting the Pre-K through 12 No Child Left INSIDE Act which gets kids outdoors and hands-on in nature as the ultimate math and science ‘STEM’ program as part of school … [Read more...]

Blame Drew’s Cancer For My Attitude of Gratitude

August 8, 2009 Who IS this hipster? Meet Drew Olanoff. Media geek. Mobile guru. Inspiration. Yesterday I wrote about kids' propensity to get their yucks at someone else's expense fostering an 'ouch, I can relate to that' empathy to bring humor to each life lesson... Today I want to focus on one of my favorite themes of 'turning a negative into a positive' and using new … [Read more...]

Media Simulations Where Kids Cast Their Vote: Silly or Sage?

I vote sage. But you probably figured that. Sunday's Kids Pick the President Nickelodeon News special fell off my radar...even with Linda Ellerbee’s encouragement to get in the practice of voting, “because the next four years affects your future as much as any adult.” (ahem, maybe more, kidlets!) Truth is, I missed posting yesterday because kids were … [Read more...]