(Photo from left to right, Michael Cohen, Allison Logan, Candice King-Sadler, Susan Snyder) Presenters: Michael Cohen, Ph.D.: President, The Michael Cohen Group; Candace King-Sadler: Teacher Leader, Cesar Batella School (Bridgeport, CT); Allison Logan: Total Learning Master Trainer; June Malone, Ph.D.: Director of Research and Development, Action for Bridgeport Community Development; Susan Snyder, Ph.D.: President, Arts Education Ideas, LLC and Director, The Total Learning Institute. You have experienced the pressure of local, state, and federal mandates. You imagine infusing the arts into powerful learning, especially for our most vulnerable children. We will introduce Total Learning, where the arts are vehicles for powerful curriculum delivery and for enriching learning while students achieve more and learn deeply. Total Learning gives schools and teachers the tools to bridge theory and practice. We’ll explore program development, funding, implementation, and documentation/research for K-5 programs in low-income urban settings and will provide a ‘how to’ guide to start or continue to deepen your arts integration initiative.  

Michael Cohen and Martha Hadley presented at the Pocoyo Playset Announcement and Early Learning Panel Discussion on March 20th. [tentblogger-vimeo 64585770?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="520" height="293" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen] WASHINGTON- Early Learning Collaborative (ELC) announced two new tablet-based Pocoyo PlaySets, designed to provide fun and engaging experiences for young children as they develop English language, reading and math skills. The mission of this project is to provide preschoolers with experiences that will help close the achievement gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children. Featuring Pocoyo, the internationally recognized preschool character, the Pocoyo PlaySet applications were developed in partnership with Zinkia Entertainment, S. A., the creator of Pocoyo, and funded, in part, through a U. S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement Ready to Learn research grant. Currently available on tablets and mobile devices, the Pocoyo PlaySets are being developed with support of ongoing formative research conducted by the Michael Cohen Group LLC (MCG). The ongoing development of the Pocoyo PlaySets will be guided by feedback from pilot sites in New York, Alabama, Maine, Florida and California, and through ongoing formative research and summative assessment feedback from the Michael Cohen Group.

Cynopsis Kids! has announced the finalists for its second annual !magination Awards program – the competition for best kids programming and marketing. The event is hosted by Inside Edition host Megan Alexander and highlights the most outstanding communications initiatives and kids programming – and the executives behind them - in the highly competitive and dynamic Kids media industry. UMIGO, produced by DHX Media’s W!LDBRAIN Entertainment with research guidance provided by the Michael Cohen Group, receives one of the best Games Based on a Series awards. !magination Award Finalists and Kids People Award Winners to be saluted at an awards lunch on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, from 12-2:00 p.m. at The Yale Club in New York City. [youtube_sc url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mnh0Tm0lPo" width="490" height="305" modestbranding="1" rel="0" showinfo="0"]