Playnormous Health-Edu Games Offer FREE Monster iMacs!

Sept. 1, 2009 How do you improve K-12 student’s health knowledge, inspire creative writing, support eco-values of refurbished technology, and use whimsical hand-painted art of animated monsters to reach and teach? Launch a Playnormous custom-contest of amped up art that looks like it crawled out of a Pixar flick! Our friends at Playnormous (makers of the award-winning … [Read more...]

Curse of the Good Girl: Interview with Rachel Simmons

August 29, 2009 “Aw, mom, it sounds boring, why do I have to hear some ‘expert’ talk about stuff I already know…Are any of MY friends going to be there?” Those were my ten year old daughter’s words back in 2005 when Rachel Simmons author of “Odd Girl Out” spoke to a sold-out crowd  giving us insights on girl culture, relational aggression, and coping tips for navigating … [Read more...]

One Teen’s View on Going Green: Use Eco as an Equalizer

August 27, 2009 One of my Title I school students said, "We recycle in my house...it's called hand-me-downs." Hmn. Since then, I've been attuned to the "green is for those who HAVE green" eco-mindset and kept track of echoes in our cross-cultural moshpit of a neighborhood. In part two of our Teens Turning Green piece, I’d asked Shaping Youth 16-year old writing intern … [Read more...]

Back to School: Are Teens REALLY Going Green?

August 20, 2009 Leave it to a teen to tap into the core eco-issue behind why there’s tons of talk about green teens but not enough ‘walking the walk’ toward sustainable lifestyle shifting ‘en masse.’ In 2007, when JupiterResearch cited 38% of teens caring about the environment and 15% being ‘hardcore green’ opinion leaders and digizens in a report, “Green Teens: Reaching a … [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...]