Summary: Welcome to Camden, New Jersey-one of the most economically depressed and crime-ridden cities in America. Even so, children here have hopes and dreams that compete daily with terrible hardships. This ABC News program documents the lives of three young Camden residents over the course of 18 months: six-year-old Moochie, who has vowed to get straight A's in school; Billy Joe, a teenager determined...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although facial and body hair are the most visible signs of male puberty, the process of becoming a man actually involves major organs like the heart and lungs. No one demonstrates that better than 14-year-old Jesse, whose physique is developing rapidly-while Mark, at almost the same age, poignantly awaits even the first hint of change. Meanwhile, 12-year-old choir member Dominic struggles to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Everything is wrong, complains Claudia-who, until her changing body lost its sense of balance, envisioned no obstacles to becoming a professional dancer. Identical twins Jessica and Rebecca prepare for high school and the social stress it will bring, with bra shopping at the top of their worry list. And Alex, now 13, sheds light on the trauma of starting puberty at age seven. Incorporating...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using a sensitive, real-world approach, this program assists teachers in understanding the process of counseling in high schools. It begins with a definition of counseling and goes on to explain the counseling process followed by a look at the variety of skills a counselor needs in order to work effectively with a young person. The program is also designed to assist teachers in understanding...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this classic program, internationally known learning disabilities expert Richard D. Lavoie leads a group of educators, psychologists, parents, and children through a series of exercises that vividly illustrate the daily classroom reality of LD students, an experience fraught with F.A.T.: frustration, anxiety, and tension. After the workshop is done, participants discuss strategies for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In her youth, Barbara Arrowsmith struggled with a severe learning dysfunction-until she designed a self-improvement regimen aimed at strengthening areas of her brain. This film profiles Arrowsmith, takes viewers inside the school she founded, and follows the progress of four cognitively challenged students enrolled there. Psychology and special education experts articulate diverging opinions of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: F.A.T.-frustration, anxiety, tension-are three all-too-familiar feelings for children with learning disabilities and their families. In this program, Richard D. Lavoie, creator of the original F.A.T. City Workshop, reviews the history and philosophy of that project, the major trends and issues in the field of learning disabilities since the late 1980s, and the challenges ahead for educators and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: James Comer, M.D., M.P.H., has spent decades promoting a focus on child development as a way of improving schools. In this interview, he and Hedrick Smith analyze the Comer Process, a school- and system-wide psychosocial intervention grounded in conflict mitigation, behavior modeling, power-sharing, and all-around involvement of teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders. "Our program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In a philosophy-for-children session, a teacher uses a story, picture, news item, or piece of music to stimulate critical thinking and imagination. Children are encouraged to express themselves, to challenge what is being said, and to ask questions that intrigue them. This program explores the concept and supporting methodology of P4C at Gallions Primary School in East London, where such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether it's English, Spanish, Chinese, or Urdu, babies and young children are able to pick up their native language with remarkable ease; no one language seems any more difficult than any other. Yet few children who are taught a language in school have anything to show for it when they grow up. Why is learning a second or third language so difficult? Are the teaching methods at fault? Enough...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Teacher and musician John Hunter is the inventor of the World Peace Game and stars in the documentary World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements. He's known for compiling a list of all the problems of the world, arranging them on a 4'x5' plywood board, and letting his 4th-graders solve them. In this TED2011 talk, he explains how his teaching methods prompt spontaneous and surprising responses...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: If we're all born with creative potential, why do many children lose their inventive tendencies as they grow older? What role does organized education play? This program observes a group of 25 seven-year-olds and their families in order to study childhood creativity, why it frequently fades, and why it matters. Exploring the impact of school and whether or not it dampens the creative impulse,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: According to Piaget, intelligence develops in a necessary sequence of stages that are related to age. In this program, David Elkind uses structured interviews with children from 4 to 9 years of age to illustrate the development of transitive thinking and reversibility as boys and girls move from the preoperational to concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Children’s construction...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1993
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines what stands between our children becoming literate adults or school dropouts. It explores the experiences of students on the edge of success or failure in school, shares the feelings of students who fail and those who triumph, visits classrooms around the country where teachers encourage literacy across content areas and promote cognitive development for all their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Referring to the work of Piaget, Erikson, and Goffman as well as to the studies of David Elkind, this program looks at the intellectual, emotional, and social consequences resulting from adolescent changes in thinking - a transition that can create social and emotional difficulties. The video includes footage of a public middle school and structured interviews illustrating the intellectual...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1999
View online at AVOD
Summary: This classic program uses brain research, cognitive development research, and educational practice as windows into the process of learning. Animation depicts the firing of synapses, the growth of dendrites, and the concept of brain plasticity, making the point that learning is as basic a human activity as breathing or eating. Also, factors that lead to school success are presented in a model...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
View online at AVOD
Summary: The opening line of this upbeat program is “Teaching is both an art and a science.” Filmed in three disparate but remarkable classrooms, the video illustrates how effective learning takes place when teachers combine their knowledge of child development, subject matter, and cognitive psychology. The three teachers combine music and graphic arts with reading, writing, and mathematics lessons in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1991
View online at AVOD
Summary: The work of Lev Vygotsky is cited as the theory and practice of constructivist education. This program reconsiders the life, vocabulary, and concepts of Vygotsky, illustrating four basic concepts integral to his work: children construct knowledge, learning can lead development, development cannot be separated from its social context, and language plays a central role in cognitive development....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1994
View online at AVOD
Summary: Experts agree that the ways in which we develop in childhood have a strong effect on our later lives. This video depicts child development from the ages of 4 to 6, the years in which a child practices and fine-tunes motor skills and coordination, tests physical abilities, and experiences the onset of demanding physical, emotional, and social changes and challenges. Included is the first year of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Based on Daniel Goleman's best-selling book, this classic program spotlights Dr. Goleman as he argues that strong interpersonal skills, not just IQ, shape a person's prospects. According to the acclaimed clinical psychologist's research, people who are emotionally intelligent tend to have more success as parents and partners as well as in their chosen field of employment because they have...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1999
View online at AVOD
Summary: Helping children to grow and bloom properly also means taking into account their biological rhythms. This program seeks out holistic approaches to education that more scientifically organize the school day and strike a better balance between intellectual and physical development. Educators, psychologists, a geneticist, a philosopher, and others consider topics such as the times of day when...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the very first moment after birth, babies can see, hear, smell, and taste-and, just as quickly, they begin putting these senses to work. This program depicts several newborns interacting with their surroundings and relying upon simple yet deeply ingrained survival strategies. Intimate, awe-inspiring scenes of these strategies in action show how brand-new infants prefer to look at faces and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the nature of authentic assessment and its impact on curriculum and instruction; identifies the economic and political pressures for accountability, which have driven school systems to adopt inadequate approaches to assessment; and highlights alternative assessment strategies and tools-those that help teachers make good instructional decisions, as well as those that help...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: A good start to school depends on three fundamental gifts: the ability to communicate effectively, a talent for fitting in well with others, and an ambition to learn. This program tracks the challenges, setbacks, and successes in the lives of a half-dozen five-year-olds as they prepare for the world of organized education. When it comes to school readiness, why is Ben, the smallest of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010