Archives for May 25, 2017

This month, ClassDojo and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence announced a partnership to bring mindfulness to millions of kids around the world. Together, ClassDojo and Yale have created a set of activities related to ‘Mindfulness’ for home and school, to be made available to all ClassDojo teachers and parents over the coming weeks.

It has been shown that regular mindfulness practice — even just a few minutes per day — improves students’ optimism, reduces stress, and increases students’ ability to feel empathy for others.

“Practicing mindfulness helps to reduce stress and enhance attention — factors critical to a child’s success, not only in school but later in life,” says Marc Brackett Ph.D., Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. “The challenge is ensuring that students, regardless of where their school is located, have the opportunity to benefit from mindfulness. ClassDojo provides an exciting opportunity to extend the powerful benefits of mindfulness to tens of millions of students.”

ClassDojo also conducted a new, national survey which found that even though only 13% of teachers and parents report having a mindfulness practice at their school, 70% want one.

“Learning to center yourself, stay focused, and be aware of others’ feelings are all things I know will benefit my students far into the future,” said Cindy Price a first grade teacher in New Castle, Delaware. “When my class found out the ClassDojo monsters will be talking about mindfulness, they all insisted on doing their own mindful yoga poses that afternoon in preparation!”

ClassDojo’s previous activity series on Growth Mindset and Empathy have been seen by 1 in 3 kids under the age of 14 in the U.S.

As with ClassDojo’s previous collaborations with Stanford (PERTS) and Harvard (Making Caring Common Project), the Mindfulness activities will be made available to all ClassDojo classrooms around the world.

“We believe that to create incredible classrooms at scale, classrooms need to be connected to the best ideas in the world,” said Chris Frank, head of research at ClassDojo. “In partnering with Yale, we have the ability to help millions of kids learn about mindfulness — from the US to Turkey to South Korea. For many of them, May will be the month of Mindfulness: we can’t wait to see the reaction!”

ClassDojo now reaches 90% of K-8 schools in the U.S. as well as schools in over 180 countries.

“The companies that get my attention are the ones transforming education at an unprecedented scale. ClassDojo is one of those companies,” said Deborah Quazzo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GSV Acceleration. “This partnership with Yale is another step in ClassDojo’s vision of helping any teacher, anywhere, create an incredible, modern classroom.”

ClassDojo: Mindfulness will begin on May 8, with activity guides and short videos for home and school released over the course of following two weeks.

For more information on ClassDojo’s Mindfulness activities, please visit https://www.classdojo.com/ideas and https://www.classdojo.com/about.

“5 Tips to Teach your Kids Mindfulness”

Paying attention to your own, and to your children’s, emotions and responding mindfully

1. Recognize emotions: Paying attention to emotions – both one’s own and others – is a critical step toward building self-and social-awareness. Our facial expressions, body language, and vocal tones convey important messages, from, “I’m here for you” to “stay away!”
2. Understand emotions: Learning what caused your child to feel the way they do, and sharing the reasons why we feel the way we do as parents, deepens communication and builds mutual respect. Asking open-ended questions such as, “what happened?” or “what do you believe caused you to feel this way?” helps to build this skill.
3. Label emotions: We use language to inform thinking and communication. Try using specific emotion words such as disappointed instead of upset, or peaceful instead of good. The more nuanced our emotion vocabulary becomes as parents, the more advanced our children become at effectively communicating their feelings.
4. Express emotions: Each home has an “emotional climate.” Creating a home where all emotions matter and can be talked about – the pleasant and unpleasant – helps to build trust, safety, openness, and authentic communication among all family members. As parents, we need to be comfortable discussing the full range of emotions with our children.
5. Regulate emotions: Each day, we are modeling both effective and ineffective ways to manage emotions. Be mindful of modeling “positive self-talk” (e.g., it will all work out) as opposed to “negative self-talk” (e.g., nothing ever turns out the way it’s supposed to”) will help your child to learn helpful, as opposed to unhelpful, ways to deal with emotions.

* Tips from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

Credit:

About ClassDojo

ClassDojo’s mission is to give teachers, parents, and students the power to create incredible classrooms. Founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, California, ClassDojo is a communication platform that helps students build important life skills while creating a simple way for teachers, parents, and students to share what’s happening during the school day through photos, videos, and messages. Today, 90% of K-8 schools in the U.S., as well as a further 180 countries, have joined ClassDojo. To learn more, visit: https://www.classdojo.com/ or Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

Emotions drive learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, and health. The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence uses the power of emotions to create a healthier, and more equitable, productive, and compassionate society, today and for future generations. We conduct research and design educational approaches that support people of all ages in developing emotional intelligence and the skills to thrive and contribute to society. We do this work because the well-being and sustainability of our society depends on each of us using our emotions intelligently. To learn more, visit: http://ei.yale.edu/ or Facebook and Twitter.

Colgate is shaking things up with the latest addition to the Colgate Total® portfolio – new Colgate Total® Advanced Health Mouthwash. Building on the dual phase trend seen in many health and beauty products, this mouthwash is the first oral care product to contain two-layer technology; combining freshening power with germ killing ingredients (cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC)). First, shake the bottle to activate, next clean to remove 24x more bacteria* and then you will see the results in the sink! Simply – Shake, Clean, See – for a healthier mouth!

I tried this one out and was quite impressed! Just make sure to Shake it up first! I like that it really removes plaque! I really did notice a difference after using this Mouthwash.

MSRP:

• 200mL: $4.99
• 400mL: $5.99
• 800mL: $7.99

Self Disclosure: I received a free sample to facilitate this post. A photo was provided.

Springtime is here and that means Picnic time! Memorial Day is also approaching!

For the Kids

• Flavored Water: Stay hydrated! Fun for kids and smart for parents, AquaBall’s naturally flavored water is the only zero-sugar, zero-calorie, zero-preservative children’s beverage around. Available in four flavors, Berry Frost, Fruit Punch, Grape, and Strawberry Lemonade, and features fan favorite characters from Disney’s Frozen, Disney Princesses, Marvel’s Avengers, and Disney Classic Characters, the bottle alone will bring a smile to any kid’s face.

My son really likes these!

• Fruit Snacks: Both gluten-free and preservative-free, Go Organically® Fruit Snacks and Welch’s® Fruit Snacks taste delicious AND are an excellent source of Vitamins A and E.

These are a big hit in our house!

• Pasta: Whip up a quick, easy and nutritious pasta salad with Explore Cuisine, an alternative pasta brand that integrates beans, peas, lentils, and rice to provide you with nourishing meals which are easy, quick, colorful, and simply delicious! All Explore Cuisine products are vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO and jam packed with nutrients.

I tried these for the first time and I was quite impressed! They are full of flavor!

And…one of my favorites…

• Sparkling Water: Stay hydrated with Sparkling Ice! An excellent soda alternative, Sparkling Ice is slightly carbonated with B-Vitamins, Vitamin D and antioxidants. This light and refreshing beverage is the perfect addition to any picnic, containing zero calories, zero carbs, and is gluten free and sodium free.

Look for them at your local grocery stores!

Self Disclosure: Photos and samples were provided for the above. 

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, Celiac disease is a serious genetic autoimmune disorder where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. The most common symptoms of Celiac disease are nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. In support of Celiac Awareness Month, Tandoor chef has launched a new campaign to show consumers suffering from Celiac Disease the ease of having great restaurant-quality, gluten free meal options to enjoy.

Throughout this campaign, consumers are encouraged to share their go-to gluten free Tandoor Chef meal on social media. By using the hashtag #GlutenFreeGoTo, they will be entered to win the grand prize of a month of free Tandoor Chef.

WHERE:

#GlutenFreeGoTo will be hosted on Tandoor Chef’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

WHEN:

#GlutenFreeGoTo begins May 1 and will conclude May 31.

I just love their food! I received free coupons to try out some of the ones I found at my local store and can’t wait to try others!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

To learn more about Tandoor Chef, visit http://www.tandoorchef.com  

Credit for the contest: Tandoor Chef. Coupons and photos were also provided.