Show & Tell Tactics That Stick In Kids’ Brains

This rubbery, anatomically correct representation of one pound of fat (about the size of a coffee mug) works wonders to toss around the room with kids to literally feel the weight in our ‘Sim City’ teaching tactics to elicit the almighty ‘ewwww,’ in Shaping Youth’s Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition. Buying this fat blob was my best … [Read more...]

Healthy Student Vending Needn’t Be An Oxymoron?

YoNaturals Healthy StudentVending.com (Washington Post photo gallery here) could hold a promising win-win solution for schools who want junk out but options in... Their pilot program has morphed into a runaway success, lightyears from where they were just a year ago, to reinvent the concept of what a 'snack' machine should be. They're giving school districts easy ways to get … [Read more...]

Beyonce’s Deréon Divas: Pop-Tarts & Sesame Streetwalkers

Just as I was thinking I wouldn’t have time to post today because of Shaping Youth’s film screening fund-raiser of Two Angry Moms a chime came into my e-mail from Dr. Robyn Silverman with full coverage of the House of Dereon collection of vamped up tots created by the ‘PopTart Princess’ herself, Beyoncé. Ah, there IS a fairy godmother...As Dr. … [Read more...]

Breaking the Color Code & Princess Power

One of my favorite ‘stereotypes in media’ moments is when I get to use my own background to instill critical thinking skills in teens.At the national Girls For A Change summitfor instance, I had the opportunity to break through race barriers and color codes of perceived expectations by starting off the session asking teens, “Okay, so who was I in high school?” to get the media … [Read more...]

Digital Media in Education: First Annual Sesame Symposium

On Friday, digital education dominated the kidsphere, spanning from my own NextNow collaboratory peer, Claudia L’Amoreaux of Second Life, speaking at the Smithsonian on storytelling and innovation in the metaverse (interview here), to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop’s first annual symposium on the impact of digital media in educating children. … [Read more...]