We are pleased to feature a piece from MACIE student, Dartez Jacobs. As part of his capstone inquiry project, Jacobs shares key insights from a recent a TEDx conference.

Coming away from a TEDx conference can be very challenging. There is so much information to soak in, activating ideas we take from them is no easy task. Tier1 Performance teamed up with TEDx to facilitate a workshop that helped to guide our ideas even further. This was my first introduction to the process and brain science behind Design Thinking. The room was set up in a way that sectioned each component of the five-stage Design Thinking Model in a different location of the space. The five stages are: Define, Test, Empathize, Ideate, and Prototype. We were instructed to go stand by whichever stage that we felt was a strong suite. My group was the sole group who couldn’t chose one specific area, so we created our own between the Empathizers and Ideators. As a conceptualist, I feel empathy is very important to business success and to create sound solutions.

A unifying theme throughout the MACIE program is participatory creativity. This Tier 1 workshop gave participants an opportunity to work through the Design Thinking process together in overcoming the limiting beliefs behind rest.

The most unifying theme of TEDxAtlanta was Saundra Dalton’s talk about the rest cycle and different rest deficiencies. Our adventure focused on how we could individually improve our rest patterns. We split up into groups and acknowledged our current state and goals related to our desired rest cycle.

Rest can be split into seven areas: mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, creative, and physical. We reflected on our energy levels during the week and within a group exercise came up with ways we could rest specific to the identified areas with deficiencies.

As a group we uncovered core issues related to the rest we lacked by completing a rest log. We each came up with individual solutions that were a result of overcoming the limiting beliefs behind rest. In many ways this is exactly what we do as educators in making room for change in our education system. Seeing children as creative thinkers and innovative makers is how we move to action, from thinking to doing

 

Atlanta based non-profit, Paint Love, is traveling to Houston to support local artists and volunteers who are currently serving families at the NRG Center shelter. Paint Love will also be working with this community to plan for long term service strategies for the Houston area.

Paint Love was established in 2013 by Aaron and Julie McKevitt in response to the lack of artistic resources for youth in the Atlanta area. The McKevitts recognized the strong therapeutic benefits art can have on children, and they set out to connect local artists and non-profits for a positive impact on youth. The organization has steadily grown its mission by focusing on the power of art to spread love as they bring transformational art workshops to Atlanta area youth who face or are at risk of facing poverty or trauma.

As they prepare to bring their services across state lines, Paint Love is raising funds to purchase supplies to complete two art workshops with Houston area youth. These projects include a portrait project and a Houston Strong mural. Research has shown that “creating art after a disaster offers a way for children to make sense of their experiences, to express grief and loss, and to become active participants in their own process of healing, beginning the process of seeing themselves as ‘survivors’ rather than as ‘victims'” (Orr, 2007). Paint Love’s latest venture taps into the power of art to provide healing for children who have experienced natural disaster.

For more information about how you can donate or volunteer to serve, visit the Paint Love website.

References:
Art therapy with children after a disaster: A content analysis (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223645086_Art_therapy_with_children_after_a_disaster_A_content_analysis [accessed Sep 11, 2017].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer is a time to slow down the clock and reset our minds. This is especially important for kids who are shuffled back and forth from school to activities seven days a week. While many schools require summer reading, it’s the perfect time to grab a book and READ!

According to Get Georgia Reading, Georgia students read 248,901 books and spent 55,831 hours reading last summer. This year, they are challenging Georgia kids to read 250,000 books and spend over 60,000 hours reading! That might sound like a lofty goal, but with the help of their partner myON, Georgians will have access to thousands of free digital books from May 3 through Aug. 31. As students log their reading hours, Get Georgia Reading will be keeping track on a reading “heat” map that shows which counties are reading the most.

For directions about logging into the myON network, check out this story by Get Georgia Reading.

Want to check out what’s available in the FREE digital library? Check out this video from myON:

myON for Students with a Shared Account from myON Fanclub on Vimeo.

Studies show that children are spending an average of 3 hours a day on screens. This includes activities like watching television, streaming videos online, playing games, and doing school work.

Some simple multiplication tells us that that if kids are spending 3 hours a day in front of a screen, then that means they’re spending 45 days a year staring at a screen. Before we start pointing fingers and lamenting the screen-free days, we should probably take a long look in the mirror.

Studies also show that parents are spending as much time on screens as their children. Whether it be at work or at home, we adults are clocking in about 9 hours a day on our screens.

For those of us working with or raising children, these numbers are concerning, especially when we consider how little time is left for other social and hands-on learning experiences.

As with all things, screens are beneficial when we use them in moderation, but our problems are in figuring out how much is “enough,” and choosing to engage in quality screen-based activities.

Last November, The American Academy of Pediatrics released their revised guidelines for children and screen time. According to their recommendations, children should:

*Avoid screen time until over age 18 months;
*Limit screen time to one hour per day between ages 2 to 5;
*Co-view media with adults and engage in conversations about what they are seeing;
*Develop a media use plan with an adult after they reach age 6. This plan should include an appropriate amount of use time and an outline for the kinds of media that they will use.

One consistent theme throughout the guidelines is an emphasis on adults engaging with children during media use. This allows adults to help scaffold children’s learning and provides adults with authentic opportunities to teach the importance of safe-use and online citizenship.

As children reach the ages of 6 to 8, the AAP suggests that they work with their parents to develop a Media Use Plan that outlines when, how, and where they will view screens.

The Media Use Plan is an interactive template that can be found HERE.