Opportunities in Second Life: Learn More About PBS This Emotional Life

You are cordially invited to attend an overview session by Kimberly Flack (RL)/Kimmer Jameson(SL) on the PBS series, This Emotional Life, hosted by Virtual Ability Island:

Monday, May 31, 2010 @ 1:30 pm SLT
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @ 5:30 am SLT
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @ 6:30 pm SLT

Click here to hop into the virtual world of Second Life and arrive at Sojourner Auditorium.

NOTE: If you do not yet have a Second Life account, this is a wonderful reason to create one! Virtual Ability offers a safe and supportive area to help you learn how to maneuver inside the virtual world. Find out more about how to create a free account here.

Not available at any of the above times to join a presentation?

There is also a 24/7 display you can explore on Health Info Island, also hosted by Virtual Ability. Learn more about all the topics in the online resources in more depth and explore at your own pace.

The highlights below give you a taste of what you will find if you attend a session or explore the interactive exhibit about PBS This Emotional Life:

• Incredible video segments online
• 24 hour crisis hotline
• Resource Finder - Local, in your community
• Blogs & Forums
• For parents & educators of children birth to toddler: Early Attachment Toolkit
• For families & individuals connected to the military: Military Family Toolkit

✿The Emmy Award-winning team of Vulcan Productions and the producers of NOVA have created a three-part series that explores improving our social relationships, learning to cope with depression and anxiety, and becoming more positive, resilient individuals.The series was produced by Kunhardt McGee Productions.

Harvard psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, Professor Daniel Gilbert, talks with experts about the latest science on what makes us “tick” and how we can find support for the emotional issues we all face.

Each episode weaves together the compelling personal stories of ordinary people and the latest scientific research along with revealing comments from celebrities like Chevy Chase, Each episode weaves together the compelling personal stories of ordinary people and the latest scientific research along with revealing comments from celebrities like Chevy Chase, Larry David, Alanis Morissette, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Richard Gere.

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Learn more about Eight Educational Outreach-ASSET's efforts to promote This Emotional Life here: www.azpbs.org/thisemotionallife. 

Learn more about Eight Educational Outreach-ASSET in SecondLife by clicking here.

Avatar Academy! Join us this Summer for a NEW kind of camp...

The Avatar Academy! starts with a 4 hour face-to-face workshop (June 16, 2010 10am–2pm) to help all participants create Second Life accounts and begin to learn basics about the online interface. The face to face day ensures individuals feel comfortable with basic tools including moving, chatting, searching and exploring within Second Life. After the face to face day together, participants will meet online in Second Life to continue the learning! Professional development options online include activities with ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), Virtual Pioneers (Social Studies Education), NPR Science Fridays, NASA, Virtual Abilities, and dozens of other professional organizations, colleges and universities offering online workshops. This model ensures in-depth learning focused on new teaching and learning methods. Participants will be asked to participate in an online environment to report on their events and travels in the virtual world. For participation in this professional development, participants will receive a certificate for 35 hours of professional development after completion of the online professional learning community. Click here to download flyer.

Take a peek at What Cynthia Calongne/Lyr Lobo was providing in Colorado. ASSET is ready to provide this to you starting this Summer 2010 in Arizona! Join us! Click Here to Register. Believe me... you have never been to Summer Camp like this!

Second Life: Teaching Tips from the Virtual Frontier

View more presentations from Cynthia Calongne.

Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is a very special day in a very special week. Have you sent a note today to YOUR favorite teacher? How have you honored the teacher who made the biggest impact in your life? PBS Parents offers some wonderful ideas in their SuperSisters blog for helping your children creatively honor their teachers! Take a peek by clicking here.

A mom I work with received this note from her daughter today on Facebook and I asked her if I could share it:

"You are still the most important and my first teacher. I use the caring and wisdom I learned from you every day in my teaching! What better legacy?!
                                                                                     Happy Teacher's Appreciation Day!"

While we send thank you notes and hugs and appreciation to all our classroom teachers this week and today especially, don't forget to also thank your parents who were your first teacher. If you are a parent, I hope you will take time to think about what you teach your children - directly and indirectly. Explore the PBS Parents Child Development Tracker and give yourself some praise for helping your child or children accomplish the many milestones it takes to finally reach preschool and kindergarten! Celebrate the steps along the way and make sure you thank the teachers who helped you become who you are!  (Thanks included in the picture posted above to my dad reading with his grandson, my son!)

What's the Word on the Street Webinar Today!

A Masterpiece... Diary of Anne Frank

A twitter party just ended for those in the Eastern Time Zone but for those of us on Pacific Time the journey is just beginning. Explore the incredible resources available for educators. Webinar details from earlier in the week give resources and insights into the production. Hear what producers of the show and experts from the U.S. Holocaust Museum have to share.

The directions PBS takes projects now abounds! Explore this video diary project you can have your students participate in! Find out more about Anne Frank as a writer.

Created for middle school and high school students, the guide features strategies that support classroom viewing and discussion, tips on using the diary as a springboard to explore intolerance and racism and new ways to encourage students' own self-expression.  

Consider forming a book club if you are not teaching the book this time of year. The teachers' guide is designed for middle and high school students but the book club discussion questions offer incredible opportunity for parents and pre-teens/teenagers to have discussion and focus on key points in the book, and the broadcast.

400 Years of the Telescope!

FRIDAY, April 9 at 10 pm on Eight! Watch for more local events happening to celebrate National Astronomy Day in the coming weeks and find interactive resources online from the companion series website.

Bullying... something on everyone's minds

The media is full of tragic tales of bullying taken to extremes these days. It isn't that kids have changed, but rather, the technology has given them access to bullying at any time of day. As a parent, and an educator, I am all too familiar with how damaging bullying can be, but thankfully not to the extremes of recent day. We need to tackle this issue head on and open up dialog with our kids to make sure they do not find themselves on either side of the experience.

WGBH This Emotional Life offers some fantastic insights and resources to help us as adults, parents, and educators learn more and find some words to start these kinds of conversations. I encourage you to explore and learn more.

More importantly, use the Resource Finder on the site to get help.  If you feel your situation is one that is bigger than you are comfortable dealing with alone, take advantage of the 24/7  crisis hotline.  Enter in your zip code and use the keyword "Bullying" - just make sure to include a wide distance in your search.  I was really pleased to see there are pages of resources locally I can turn to for help, if I find I need it. 

As a parent of 4 children, two in middle school and two in elementary school, friendships and drama is part of the landscape.  We talk every morning on their way to the bus about what kind of day they plan to have and what they are looking forward to.  We talk after school and in the evening about what happened during the day and who they enjoyed or played with on the playground.  We ask the older two about lunch and hanging out.  We pay attention to who is talking with them on Facebook.  They want to be a part of an online community and what better way for them to do that, then with our support and guidance.  Our 6 year old daughter piped up last weekend to remind her big brother that "saying something online is like putting up a billboard and is there forever."  I was thrilled she could offer such profound advice.  We talked more about it and all agreed words can be very very hurtful.  It isn't fair any longer to brush them off with the "sticks and stones" phrase we grew up with. 

Most importantly, we must teach our children to be resilient.  People will hurt our feelings, intentionally and unintentionally.  Have conversations about how to handle it.  When do you respond? When do you say nothing?  Share some ways you wish you would have handled a situation differently or openly discuss a situation that happened to you at that age.  Our children need to connect with us as parents and as teachers and be reminded that these situations happen because we are all human.  We don't always do the right thing the first time, but we can eventually make the situation right.  Apologies are hard at any age but something we have to practice and model for our kids.

Take the time to explore This Emotional Life.  It is a wealth of resources on a wide variety of subjects.  It offers insights from famous personalities and average people like you and I.  It houses some wonderful video segments and tools that go deeper in specific topics.  It reminds us of how fragile we are as humans and how important it is to acknowledge our mental health is just as important as our physical health.  This is the time of year we are all tired and stressed over testing and year end grades.  Find support.  Offer support.  And most importantly, keep your eyes open to those kids and colleagues in your life who need extra support as well.