15, Feb
How to use brain science to engage students after the holidays

As the holidays come to an end, thoughts of students and lesson plans replace time spent indulging in puddings and turkey. But teachers know all too well that it’s challenging enough to motivate a class on a Monday morning after a weekend, nevermind after a longer breakAs the holidays come to an end, thoughts of students and lesson plans replace time spent indulging in puddings and turkey. But teachers know all too well that it’s challenging enough to motivate a class on a Monday morning after a weekend, nevermind after a longer break.

Read More
15, Feb
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman’s brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our “two minds”—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.

Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart.

Read More
15, Feb
Why Atari, EA Founders Are Moving from Pong to Pedagogy

Something special’s brewing in edtech when gaming industry greats make the move from Pong to pedagogy. On January 22nd, 175 educators, entrepreneurs, and investors packed the Cross Campus co-working space in Santa Monica for the “Educelerate: Games and Learning” event. Panelists included Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, Chuck E. Cheese and now BrainRush; Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and now If You Can Company; David Lord, President and CEO of JumpStart; and Osman Rashid, Founder and CEO of Galxyz (and co-founder of Chegg). Christopher Nyren of Educated Ventures moderated the discussion.

Read More
15, Feb
What is Education for the 21st Century

In the United States, the development of socio-emotional skills has also attracted interest in the games industry names. The sociologist, historian and American entrepreneur Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, producer of the series of football games Madden and FIFA, is the one who decided to devote himself to educational software. In March this year, his newest company, If You Can Company, launched the IF … (If …), game for children aged 6 to 12 years exclusively for the Apple iPad tablet, which has already reached 500,000 downloads in the App Store.

“The power of learning with games always attracted me because you make choices and see the consequences,” says Hawkins. Be indoors or in the company, which produces games that stand out for simulation competition, the competitive environment has always been part of your routine. “Over the last 10 years, worried me think about what legacy my generation would leave for our children. And I decided I wanted to do something about it, “he says.

The turning point came when his daughters enrolled in a school that is dedicated to teach social-emotional skills, such as empathy and compassion, The Nueva School in San Mateo, in the state of California. Gradually, one of his daughters began to correct their behavior. There was born the idea for criarção IF …, whose name is inspired by the poem of the writer Rudyard Kipling .

For the development of IF .., Hawkins said to have used the pioneering plan for socio-emotional education developed seven years ago by the state of Illinois and also schools like KIPP and School Anchorage, Alaska. In addition to former developers from Electronic Arts, are part of the If You Can Company representatives Casel.org site, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning, founded by former responsible for the pedagogic plan of The Nueva School.

Within the game, the children create an avatar dog and adventure by Ziggurat, world led by energy fields. A guru named YouDog help in resolving questions involving social-emotional skills, such as gratitude, cooperation, patience and teamwork.

Read More
15, Feb
Webinar: How Games Can Help Children with Special Needs Develop Critical Life Skills

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has captured the attention of special educators as a new way to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population of “digital natives.” Now, game developers are teaming with SEL experts to become agents of change –using fun, innovative approaches to build skills that help children with special needs to regulate emotions, and to develop social sensitivity, expression, humor, conflict-resolution and collaboration. SEL is a catalyst for making positive change in student behavior, improved social interactions and better academic outcomes. Join a nationwide audience of special education leaders for a lively kick-off to the agents of change series as we unpack SEL and look at IF… The Emotional IQ Game, a critically acclaimed SEL tool endorsed by children, parents, therapists, doctors, teachers, academics and scientists.

Read More
15, Feb
Syllabus

IF… The Emotional IQ Game is designed to provide roughly a dozen chapters of story and gameplay advancement in a one year period that present, teach and assess learning in more than 50 critical lesson plans of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The scope is derived from teaching standards and from the practices of SEL instruction in leading private schools such as The Nueva School, as featured in Daniel Goleman’s best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence. Our goal is to accomplish as much learning in a year as leading teachers are achieving in the leading schools, and to do it in a similar amount of time (comparable to over 40 classroom hours). Over the course of a year, our students can obtain this knowledge by spending roughly 30-60 minutes per week playing IF…

This Syllabus describes the teaching goals, chapter details, domain analysis, assessment measures and other resources used to create IF… The Emotional IQ Game.

 

Read More
15, Feb
Why Emotional Learning May Be As Important As The ABCs

Thomas O’Donnell’s kindergarten kids are all hopped up to read about Twiggle the anthropomorphic Turtle. “Who can tell me why Twiggle here is sad,” O’Donnell asks his class at Matthew Henson Elementary School in Baltimore. “Because he doesn’t have no friends,” a student pipes up. And how do people look when they’re sad?Thomas O’Donnell’s kindergarten kids are all hopped up to read about Twiggle the anthropomorphic Turtle. “Who can tell me why Twiggle here is sad,” O’Donnell asks his class at Matthew Henson Elementary School in Baltimore. “Because he doesn’t have no friends,” a student pipes up

Read More
15, Feb
How Does IF… Teach SEL?

Each month, your child navigates a new IF… adventure. We use the power of storytelling and popular game-play mechanics to engage and motivate. What your child is not likely to realize is that she’s learning standards-aligned Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum while playing.

Each of our IF… chapters contains one month’s worth of “in class” lessons. These are lessons that our experts have taught to success in schools for over three decades. The lessons are now delivered through the spoken and written words of IF… characters and vivid in-game experiences.Behind the scenes” we’re assessing each choice against 20 distinct SEL skills. These are the skills we’re working to build in your child. We call these our ExSEL goals.

IF…’s 20 ExSEL goals were derived from the study of state teaching standards for SEL, as well as experts from Yale, CASEL, The Nueva School and KIPP’s Character Report Card.

YouDog is a Zen master and a master of Social and Emotional Learning.

Depending on whether your children choose to be a dog or a cat, they will have a dog-guide or cat-guide to help them along their adventure. If they choose to be a dog, YouDog will be their guide. YouDog is a Zen master of SEL. He’s wise, slow and a bit dramatic, and he cares deeply about helping others. YouDog will help your children unlock the secrets of planet Ziggurat and of Greenberry. He’ll guide them in learning how to use Social and Emotional skills to bring the dogs and cats back into harmony and restore Greenberry to its flourishing state.

Read More
15, Feb
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman’s brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our “two minds”—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.

Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart

Read More
15, Feb
Mission

Our mission at If You Can is to support and empower children and parents to value and understand themselves and others. By doing so, we believe we can build a better world: for today and for our children tomorrow. We believe that by learning how to persevere through challenge, to feel and show empathy and to make responsible decisions, all of us can be better friends, learners, parents, mentors and citizens.

IF… is a rich interactive story with fully voiced characters. Our social puzzles teach life skills that help your child to thrive. Kids have fun and learn tools to manage stress, anxiety, anger, sadness and frustration.

Our safe and secure environment allows your children to play and learn, while you follow their progress through the parent’s Dashboard. The Dashboard also supplies you with real world follow-up activities so you can continue and extend the learning together.

Our full service requires a subscription which includes new adventures each month, delivering Social & Emotional Learning curriculum comparable to leading private schools.

Read More