Elf-Island

Meaningful Media for Father’s Day: My Daddy Taught Me To…

June 13, 2010 by Amy Jussel 9 Comments

June 13, 2010 One week from Father’s Day and media is awash with ubiquitous tie and techie ads for Father’s Day finds. Meh. Better ideas? Experiential fun for memories in the making... How would YOU fill in the blank, “My Daddy Taught Me To…?” It’s no secret I’m a water rat and an island girl who spent much of childhood splashing in the surf or sprawled on one of Hawaii’s … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: activism, aquatic, books with meaning, clean water, coastal stewards, daddy bloggers, Dads, dolphins, Elf-Island, Father's Day, fatherhood, Fathers Day 2010, gaming for good, GoodQuests, Green media, Green-Media-Youth, Gulf oilspill kids, healthy-planet, Joe Tomarchio, Joseph Tomarchio, Kids-Nature, male penguins, marinelife, meaningful media, My Daddy Taught Me to Surf, nature, Nature-Deficit-Disorder, NCLI, Ocean Conservancy, oil spill, Papas, Parenting papas, Richard-Louv, Ridley turtles, Sea Turtles, seahorse fathers, sealife, surfing, Surfrider Foundation, Taught Me To Books, TaughtMe2, virtual world wildaid, waves, World Wildlife Fund, Wyland, Xeko

Green Toys and Fun Finds With Big Kid Appeal: Ten Under $10 Pt. 2

December 22, 2009 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Dec. 23, 2009 Shhhhhh...I'm snagging one of the new "Smencils" that just arrived today 'cause I figure 'less is more' and 'variety is the spice' when it comes to stocking stuffers...She doesn't need a whole 'set' right? A whiff here and there and she'll get the gist of the theme...100% recycled newspapers turned into a rainbow of scents and colors. I like finding inexpensive … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumerism, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: 10 eco-friendly toys, adventure trading cards, anti-consumption, Baby Honu, budget, children, Digital, eco, eco literacy, eco-friendly, EcoChilds Play, edu tech, education, Elf-Island, Everett Peacock, frugal, geckos, Get 'Em Outside, Gill McBarnet, Good Quests, green, green goods, green shopping, green toys, Hawaii, islanders, kidlit, leatherback turtles, literacy, migration, My Daddy Taught Me to Surf, Nature-Deficit-Disorder, NCLI, New Dream, outdoor play, penguin, Plan Toys, reach and teach, Richard-Louv, Room to Read, stocking stuffers, surf, Sustainability, Tammy Yee, Teens Turning Green, Ten under $10, The Goodnight Gecko, The Great Turtle Race, The Parrot Talks in Chocolate, TikiBar, Tiwaka, Toys, TTG, Turtles, Xeko

Free Media Finds That Are Priceless Year-Round

December 16, 2009 by Amy Jussel 6 Comments

Dec. 16, 2009 Got gifts? Not sure when we jumped from “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” to bold-type headlines of “last minute gifts!”---but I’m still holding my own on the ‘haven’t stepped in a mall’ front… So today I’m going to add a few FREE ‘last minute finds’ that are literally and figuratively priceless. To up the ante and make it tougher, I’ll remove the physical … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Counter-marketing, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Animoto, Annie Fox, back to basics, BBC, blurb.com, championing change, charity, children, clothing swaps, DinnerTrade.com, Dizzywood, ebook, Elf-Island, food swaps, free, free gifts, freebies, freemium, Games That Give, gifts, Gilmore Girls, girls, Glee, holiday help, holidays, Inspire Foundation, inspiring, iphone apps, kids-media, Koka Sexton, Lala, LastFm, lulu.com, meaningful media, Middle School Confidential, MIT, Norad, Packaging-Boyhood, playlist.com, project playlist, Santa, SmartyCard, Storybird, swap-n-shop, Teen Survival Guide to Dating & Relating, teens, The Perfect Gift for a Man, UGC, unknown free things, Virtual-Worlds, Wiglington and Wenks, Wonder Rotunda, wordle, Worldshapers, Xeko, Yelp, youth

Meaningful Manga: Graphic Novels and Growth

December 13, 2009 by Amy Jussel 15 Comments

Update: May 21, 2014 Our friends at Reach and Teach have added another clever manga style illustrated book called "A is for Action" which merits an update! I love the seeding of social change in a fun fresh manner. The A is for Action book and HelpTakeAction.com website are a result of a teacher-initiated action research project published in the IB Journal of Teaching Practice: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumerism, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Abby Denson, affordable gifts, Anime, cartoons, charitable giving, children, civility, comic books, Comic Con, Craig Wiesner, Derrick Kikuchi, education, Elf-Island, empowering teens, engaging youth, Gandhi, gay rights, gifting, gifts, girls are not chicks, giving, graphic novels, Great Figures in History, history, human rights, inspiration, Japanese manga, kid lit, literature, making a difference, Manga, manga makeover, Me to We, meaningful media, media that matters, mindfulness, Mohandas Gandhi, Nancy-Drew, Nelson Mandela, New-Moon-Girl-Media, oppression, peace, philanthropy, reach and teach, shounen-ai manga, social justice, teachable moments, teaching tools, Tough Love, transform the world, Virtual-Worlds, Xeko

Blog Action Day: Inspiring Kids As Stewards of the Planet

October 15, 2009 by Amy Jussel 24 Comments

Oct. 15, 2009 Today is 'Blog Action Day' powered by Change.org, when over 12,000+ global writers turn their sites on one topic to reach millions of eyeballs one day to appeal to their own readership. This year the subject is 'climate change' and while I've written extensively about eco-kids, green gaming, and grassroots orgs like Cool the Earth tackling the issue, I needed … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: 2009, 350.org, BioDaversity Code, Blog action day, carbon offsets, cartoon virals, children, clean coal, climate change, Climate Change Chocolate, coastal stewards, Cool the earth, Disney Nature, DOOF, EARTH, EarthSeeds, eco, Elf-Island, Environment, Free Range Studios, global action, Global Warming, green, Green-Teens, Inconvenient Truth, Jane Goodall, JGI, Kids, locavore, marketing hope, PBI, Planet Earth, polar bears, Polar Tweets, Roots & Shoots, stewardship, Sustainability, sustainable students, take action, TerraPass, Virtual-Worlds, youth