With the fad of reality t.v. burning up the airwaves, parents are working, or should be working OVERTIME to circumvent the images of young girls and women. In this case, the misconception of self-worth and self-value is being blurred for young girls of all races and ages. So, it’s time to create a movement….because for every TMZ or Disney channel casualty, there are young girls doing some amazing things.

And to them I say, “Get It Girl” (oh! and yes…it’s said in the most sassy, motivating and POWERFUL voice you could ever imagine”.

When is the last time you’ve encouraged a young girl to pursue her dreams, become a leader, support her fellow girl-friend. Well, now is the time to Grab Your Girl and Grow.

Join myself, and some of Houston’s most FABULOUS Power house females at the Get It Girl Conference. This year’s theme is Grab Your Girl and Grow. The event is designed for Future Power House Ladies ages 8-16 years of age.

Wait, there’s more! You can nominate a Power House Girl to be honored 1 of 5 “Get It Girl Awards” during the 2011 Conference. The honored girls will become the face of the Keey 2 Kids Get It Girl Campaign. Who should you nominate, you ask? Well, any young girl breaking barriers in her school or community, any young business owner, any Survivor who has displayed tenacity and is still performing well in school.

View the form below with all the details for nominations and conference registration. Listen there’s no excuses! We are planning an amazing event filled with workshops, girl talk, leadership activities, social media training, food, snacks, and a Back to School Empowerment Rally.

So, Houston and surrounding areas beware, we are about to Unleash Power House Females back into our communities, and schools.

See you, on August 13, 2011. In the meantime, “Get It Girl”, and remember in your pursuit to success don’t forget to Grab Your “Girl” and Grow.

Get It Girl Founder,

Wykesha C. Hayes

Click HERE for the Get It Girl Award form

In case you missed it, below is the link to CEO/FOUNDER of Keey 2 Kids Wykesha Hayes on KTRK ABC Ch. 13′s “Crossroads” segment with Melanie Lawson speaking on social media for teens! MAKE sure to REGISTER your girl for the “Get it Girl” Conference today!

Today at Keey 2 Kids, we the teens explored our dreams, goals, and opportunities for a better future. Throughout, the event we were given tips to ensure a brighter future and participated in activities to bring out our creativity and ability to be a leader. We also talked about things that should not be shared over the social network. There are so many things to monitor, like our pictures, and post that we write! We learned to protect our well-being when using networks like twitter and Facebook.

To further express the importance of keeping personal thoughts and negative comments to ourselves, Aimee Woodall the founder of Black Sheep Agency, a marketing and public relations firm, stopped by to speak to us. She gave us information on what employers look for in employees. It was interesting to learn that the employer takes the time to look into the social life to of possible employees. Overall we learned how to be more positive, protect our brand of who we are and what we represent, and how to be a leader. The hope is that we will be able to market ourselves in the future. Until then let’s come together and emP.O.W.E.R ourselves and our community.

Watch video footage from Houston ABC13 News…

POWER UP SUMMER INSTITUTE

Keey 2 Kids is excited to announce the launch of our KEEY ZONE FOR TEENS. The Keey Zone will host our POWER UP SUMMER INSTITUTE for high school students June 27-30, 2011. The summer institute is an extension of our FIVE Step POWER UP Program designed to give students the tools needed to recognize their POWER and place themselves in POSITIONS of POWER.

Register HERE now!



INSTITUTE TOPICS
*Brand Development
*Communicating your Brand Message for Scholarships and Intern Opportunities
*Leadership Boot Camp
*Teamwork Activities
*Road to Success–Charting your Post High School Journey
*Building and Protecting your Digital Footprints: The ins and outs of Social Media and Blogging

HIGHLIGHTS
*Expert Speakers, Educators and Mentors
*Group PROJECT Presentations
*Opportunity to earn a $500 Scholarship
*Mingle with some of Houstons Business Owners
*POWER-UP Institute Resource Manual
*POWER UP SWAG BAGS

Our NEWLY TRANSFORMED POWER UP Teens will “PROVE THEIR POWER” during a Networking Event on the final afternoon. Teens will mix and mingle in a social setting with peers, college students, business owners and various industry professionals! This is their time to shine and benefit from excellent exposure.

DATES: June 27-30, 2011
TIME: 8:30 am-3:30 pm
LOCATION: University of Houston-Main Campus
210 University Center
Houston, TX 77024-3038
2nd Floor Tejas Room

For more information email: info@keey2kids.com
For registration made easy visit HERE!
interested in sponsoring a High School student…contact our office at 800-215-0396

Today in Algebra we began learning about laws of exponents…just the basics, multiplying and dividing. I started out with the traditional notes + homework “packet” and I know that the kids were bored because…well, I was. I decided to finish the activity that we were doing and get the class on MangaHigh.

I used Manga High a little bit last year but discontinued using after I saw the cost. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Manga High is 100% Free now…YES FREE for all teachers and students. With that said, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I am loading all of my students in and using Manga High frequently for the rest of the year…or at least until they decide to make it “un-free” again.

Below is a quick video that I took of my kids “playing” and learning…It was easily and by far the most amazing day of the year so far.

Years ago I started playing with Geogebra to create dynamic worksheets for my students to use during assignments. Geogebra is FREE interactive mathematics software that is available 24/7 as a free download or web based applet. For those of us whose districts have not purchased Geometer’s Sketchpad, Geogebra is a viable option if not better.

I love Geogebra because I can create dynamic worksheets of pretty much anything and upload for my students to use. With that said, Dear Geogebra…please give me one button that says embed because searching for how to embed was a pain and I pretty much gave up and decided to LiveBinder my sketches…which actually works out better.

When looking at these sketches, please keep in mind that they were created years ago and well, it’s time to create some new and improved ones =)

A few years ago, I remember being in the final leg of my Master’s degree and putting together a binder that represented my years of study. I remember trying to package all of my multimedia projects onto a cd so that I could place that cd in my binder to be graded. In addition, considering that my Master’s degree was a two and a half year process, that binder was HUGE…thus HEAVY.

Fastforward to now and not only is there a viable option to package an education portfolio, but one that is technologically forward and dare I say…AWESOME.

LiveBinders touts itself as “your 3-ring binder for the Web” and that is more accurate than I could have worded myself.

Watch the video below and get a glimpse of what LiveBinders is all about.

Basically, you have a virtual binder that you can load with websites, videos, images, pdfs, office products…etc

Each item is saved into a tab or subtab as you determine either by adding the link directly at the livebinder site or by using the LiveBinder it button on your toolbar. Watch the following video to get a better idea about the LiveBinder It button.

Livebinders is simply a way to organize and share information and its uses in education are limitless. If you think it, you can livebinder it.

By the way, Livebinders can be embedded on webpages…Check out the binder that I created for a presentation at a teacher conference.

This weekend, I did what I thought was the unthinkable. I tackled the Bieber movie, not once, but twice. Honestly after the first time, I was sold so going again was not that much of a stretch. I even found myself rooting for him to win a Grammy award along with the kids. No seriously…and it was pretty darn fun. The more I watched, the more I thought…How many times do our kids show an aptitude for some talent and we unknowingly ignore it or dare I say…purposely ignore?

Justin’s Bieber story is one of the most amazing stories that I have seen in a while. Honestly, the likelihood of this story repeating is statistically as likely as winning the lotto or being struck by lightning but then again…as Bieber proudly sings…Never Say Never.

What I took from this movie is that as a parent and teacher, it is imperative that we see the probable talent that our kids sometimes do not see in themselves. Likewise if we don’t see it and our kids express an interest in an area, it is our RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that if nothing else we afford them with an OPPORTUNITY!

Not everyone will be the next big world renowned, Grammy nominated pop star…but your kid could very well be the next great rocket scientist, doctor, lawyer, sports agent, athlete, musician, dj, engineer or artist. I’m going to take a note from my own mother who sat alone in the dark while waiting on me to complete my flute lessons twice a week for 5 years. Recognize your kid’s talents and nurture it. In some cases that nurturing can even happen for free.

Enroll your kid in the local boys and girls club or look to your community centers. Often, organizations offer free or reduced priced classes in many areas just for kids.  If your kid is a musician, hold your own community or family concert. If you have a little budding artist on your hands, encourage your artist to enter their work in local art contest or ask your public library if they will put your kids art on display. It’s all about exposure and experience. The bottom line is that if you don’t recognize or encourage your kid’s talent…who else will?

Finally, I’ll leave you with this bit of advice, sit down with your kid and SET REALISTIC GOALS…WITHOUT LIMITATIONS. What I mean by that is that if your goals are attainable, nothing should keep you from reaching them. Make a plan of action and follow through. Learn this word…RESEARCH. Reach out to local businesses and entrepreneurs. You may be surprised at how many professionals out there are just chomping at the bits to share their stories about how they made it to the top.

If you are in the Houston area, and your child is a high school student,  please consider enrolling your kid in the Keey 2 Kids Power Up Program. We will work with your child and help them to understand the importance of branding themselves and preparing for the future. What that future entails is up to them, but we can definitely help you by helping them to start setting a a plan of action to get there.

No matter what direction you choose, just make sure that you are helping your child to be the star of their world. Recognize their potential, encourage and support. You never know…that kid who can’t seem to get off the xbox long enough to breathe may be the key in finding the cure for cancer. Think about it.

Day 2 of  TCEA started with one of the best keynote speakers that I’ve heard since Ron Clark, Leigh Anne Tuohy. What made Mrs. Tuohy great was her pure unfiltered honesty. From talking about her panty line to her experiences mothering Michael Oher, Leigh Anne kept every person’s attention in that grand ballroom and I think forever changed the way that I will view the kids in my class.

The very first session that I attended was in the SMART Room, ML8. Although I consider myself an expert SMART user, I love going to SMART sessions to learn what everyone else is doing with their SMARTboards. I was definitely not disappointed. Sydney Bentz’s session, “Big Kids Like to Play Too” touched on a few interactive activities utilizing the lesson activity toolkit. In addition, her idea to use Smart Student Interactive Reader as a way for students to remain engaged with her notebook lessons was brilliant. The only issue with that is that apparently, Smart may have discontinued that program. However,  Smart Notebook Express was suggested as a viable option.

The second and only other “true session” that I attended today was ” Games Rock. Seriously”, presented by Shannon Long. Now let me just say that I actually learned quite a few  new resources for games in this session and I had a lot of fun just sitting in the session watching and listening to Shannon present. Her website,Technology Rocks, Seriously, is filled with activities, resources and links to download every game that she showed during her presentation…definitely worth the look.

I spent the rest of day either waiting on a session…which ended up being too full or in the exhibit area, which had tons of exhibitor sessions as well. Of course the first vendor that I tracked down was SMART.  As an advocate for SMART Response, I wanted to test out the new Smart Response XE. I have never wanted a single tool in my classroom, other that IPADS, than SMART Response XE. The fact that students can enter numeric and symbolic data was enough of a selling point for me. For example, if I wanted kids to see a specific graph on their smartboard and enter the FULL equation for that graph, SMART Response XE allows them to do so…no multiple choice…FULL ALGEBRAIC equations!!! Ahhhh….I’m in LOVE….

Finally, we ended our day listening to an in booth demo by Techsmith for Camtasia Studio. If you have NO idea what Camtasia studio is…you are missing out. Camtasia Studio is more than just a powerful screencasting/video editing piece of software. It is literally a lifesaver when it comes to creating podcast and interactive online media for your classes.  I have been a Camtasia studio user for a few years now and I have seen the benefit that it has to students first hand. One of the main features that I love about Camtasia is its ability to create “hotspot quizzes” in the middle of a video.  I can ask my students a question about any portion of a video and have it proceed based on student response. In other words, if the student misses the question , I can program any type of feedback or even have the student go back through that portion of the video lesson…only to take that particular question again. In addition, Techsmith has excellent tutorials available and offer great support for all of their products

Day 2 looks to be a pretty hectic one. I get to volunteer early in the morning then conclude my day with sessions that I’m hoping go on back to back. I hope to learn quite a bit and look forward to sharing here again same time tomorrow.

Tomorrow kick starts TCEA 2011. Right now my colleagues and I are rummaging through the pages of the TCEA conference program trying to determine which sessions to attack first. There’s so much that I want to take in and I am truly excited to share everything here.

Tomorrow will begin with a keynote address from Leigh Anne Tuohy, the subject of “The Blind Side”.

While I am very eager to hear from Mrs. Tuohy’s experiences, I’m pretty sure that I will be chomping at the bits to tackle a few sessions.

Several trends seem to be in place this year. Web 2.0 tools are still the talk of the town. IPADS are definitely being seen as a viable solution to student engagement and social networking is bound to become a factor of mainstream education.

With that said, participants will have a difficult time avoiding sessions involving web 2.0 as there are literally multiple presentations per hour all day. Now, don’t get me wrong…I am all about web 2.0…but I can only imagine the number of participants who will be having inner arguments with themselves over which web 2.0 session to go to. My advice…just pick one. Nine times out of ten, the content will be repeated in some subsequent session later.

Missed the conference or looking for constant updates and shared content during sessions, open a twitter search window and search the term, #tcea2011…the official twitter tag for TCEA. Trust me, it’s like attending TCEA without the traffic, crowds or throbbing feet.

Rafranz Recommends: 11:30-12:15 Big Kids Like to Play TOO! How SMART Notebook Software has helped transform my secondary classroom

Check back tomorrow for all the sights and sounds from TCEA.