Tag: GreatSchools

GreatSchools Cohosts Hangout on “Letting Kids Fail & Grow”

Part of online series Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting

GreatSchools, SocialMoms, and social emotional gaming company If You Can will cohost “Letting Kids Fail & Grow” — an online parenting conversation with former NBA star and education advocate Adonal Foyle and Today Show parenting expert Michele Borba. The Google+ Hangout on Wednesday, June 4 at 2 pm EST (11 am PST) will be a wide-ranging discussion about teaching kids resilience in the face of obstacles. This is part of a new Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting Google+ Hangout series.

The speakers will use their divergent life experiences and expertise to offer ideas and tips on dealing with one of the most misunderstood areas of parenting: the balance between supporting a child’s self-esteem and letting them experience (and grow from) failure. GreatSchools Executive Editor Carol Lloyd will moderate and explore questions like:

  • When is it okay to let kids fail, and when is it better to protect them?
  • How do you teach kids to learn from their failures — and turn them into successes?

The Google+ Hangout is free and open to the public. Parents and others can sign up and suggest questions, then log on at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am PST) on June 4 to join the discussion. Participants may contribute questions and comments in advance or live via the Google+ Hangout page or on Twitter by using the hashtag #emotionalsmarts. Anyone who misses the live chat can also watch the entire conversation later.

About the participants:

Adonal Foyle is a retired professional basketball player who founded Kerosene Lamp Foundation and Democracy Matters. He is the author of a children’s book, Too-Tall Foyle Finds His Game (the first in a series based on his rise to success) and the forthcoming book, Why Players Go Broke. Foyle grew up in the tiny nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His quest for a college education ultimately led him to the U.S. — an inspirational story of ambition, hard work, and a little bit of luck. Despite being recruited by top basketball colleges, Foyle made the unorthodox decision to attend Colgate University to focus on his education. He graduated magna cum laude from Colgate and has a Masters in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.

Michele Borba, Ed.D. is an educator and author recognized for her solution-based strategies to strengthen children’s behavior and character, build strong families, and reduce peer cruelty. A sought-after motivational speaker, she has presented workshops and keynote addresses throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and has served as a consultant to hundreds of schools and corporations including work on U.S. Army bases in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Her proposal: “Ending School Violence and Bullying” (SB1667) was signed into California law in 2002.

Carol Lloyd, Executive Editor at GreatSchools, is an award-winning writer and editor whose work on education and family life has been widely published, including in The New York Times Magazine and “This American Life” as well as being featured on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation”, KQED’s “Forum” and NBC’s Class Action, among others.

About the Emotional Smarts series

GreatSchools, SocialMoms, and If You Can created the Emotional Smarts Google+ Hangout series to bring insightful voices in parenting, education, and other relevant fields together to talk about developing emotional intelligence in our kids — and ourselves.

In the first Emotional Smarts hangout, ivory tower met reality TV when Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, spoke with TV’s America’s Supernanny Deborah Tillman. Over the next few months, the Emotional Smarts series will pair experts with divergent views to explore parenting themes and offer practical wisdom and tactical advice.

GreatSchools is a digital media nonprofit that helps millions of parents get a great education for their children, support their children’s learning, and find great schools. Every year, GreatSchools reaches more than half of all American families with school-age children, bringing them school information, educational activities, articles, and videos.

SocialMoms is a digital media company with one of the world’s largest networks of women influencers — comprised of more than 45,000 bloggers, sites, and social media personalities with a combined social reach of more than 200 million. Founded in 2008 by Megan Calhoun, the company creates high-impact, custom media campaigns that shape perceptions and drive action.

If You Can is a new gaming company founded by Trip Hawkins, Jessica Berlinski, Stewart Bonn, and Ben Geliher. The company is dedicated to supporting and empowering children and parents to value and understand themselves and others. Its first game IF…, a social-emotional learning game for children, is now available in the Apple App Store.

GreatSchools Wins 2014 MAGGIE Award for Best Web Article

Oakland, CA, May 20, 2014 — GreatSchools.org won a 2014 MAGGIE Award for Bipolar at 5? — a mother’s story about learning her young daughter’s diagnosis of early onset bipolar disorder and the challenges their family faced together. The article won for best web, e-newsletter or digital edition article in the trade and consumer category.

Bipolar at 5? is part of a three-part series that includes two videos. In Sadie’s Story, the daughter, now 11 years old, tells her own story;  Raising Sadie features interviews with both the mother and Sadie’s psychologist. (Please note: Sadie’s name was changed to protect her identity.)

“We’re honored to receive a MAGGIE Award for this piece. We’re encouraged by the response; it’s one of our most popular articles,” said GreatSchools Executive Editor Carol Lloyd. “GreatSchools is committed to sharing real stories of parents, children, and schools. Our parenting dilemmas articles, like this one, offer insight and inspiration to help parents make the best decisions when they face tough choices for their kids.”

The MAGGIEs are awarded by the Western Publishing Association, which honors excellence and writing in consumer and trade magazines and websites published in the western states. Bipolar at 5? is featured on GreatSchools.org and was distributed through the e-newsletter, which provides parents with articles, videos, worksheets, and school information that help parents stay connected to their children and schools. In a recent survey, 86% of e-newsletter subscribers said they were extremely satisfied with GreatSchools.org.

Founded in 1998, GreatSchools is a national nonprofit that helps millions of parents find great schools and guide their kids to great futures. Our award-winning website offers thousands of articles, videos, and worksheets to help parents support their children’s learning. GreatSchools.org is also the nation’s leading guide to preK-12 schools, with profiles of about 200,000 public, public charter, and private schools and more than one million ratings and reviews by parents, teachers, and students. Headquartered in Oakland, California, GreatSchools has local offices and programs in Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C.