ClassDojo Launches Latest 'Big Ideas' Series to Help Children Understand and Express Their Emotions In and Beyond School

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Nov 19, 2019, 13:45 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ClassDojo – the consumer education brand behind the world's most-widely used communication app for pre-K-8 schools – announced a new Big Ideas series to help children recognize, understand and express their emotions in and beyond school.

"Over the summer, we spoke with teachers, families and children to ask about the biggest challenges they anticipated in the new school year. Those conversations pointed to one consistent theme: dealing with emotions. In particular, families and children told us how they wanted help overcoming fear, managing moods, and feeling more positivity and optimism" said Jenna Kleine, product manager at ClassDojo.

In the latest Big Ideas series, ClassDojo has produced 12 animated video episodes and discussion guides to help children understand their emotions and build emotional intelligence.

"How we feel – whether anxious, excited, or worried – influences how we are able to process and learn new information," said Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of the new book Permission to Feel. "When children understand how to recognize and healthily express their emotions, they are happier and healthier, and ultimately better learners. I'm excited to see this Big Ideas series translate the best of emotional intelligence research into concepts that will resonate with children and their families."

In this Big Ideas series, the ClassDojo monsters, led by Mojo & Katie, explore a range of emotions. One new learning experience will be released each week and will cover moods and attitudes, overcoming challenges and positivity and optimism.

Research has shown that students who participate in school-based programs focused on social-emotional learning demonstrated significant strides in social and emotional skills and behaviors, as well as improved academic performance.

"The Big Ideas activities have been a powerful tool for introducing social-emotional learning skills into my classroom," said Anna Callendar, a teacher at A+ Arts Academy in Columbus, Ohio "As an educator, it is exciting to have such a simple, intuitive powerful way to introduce these important ideas in my classroom—the children love them!"

"ClassDojo's goal is to give every child on Earth an education they love. To do that, we need to ensure children can get the learning experiences they want and need," said Sam Chaudhary, ClassDojo co-founder and CEO. "We are obsessed with listening to our community, and serving them. ClassDojo teachers, families and children wanted a way to help children understand and cope with the powerful emotions they feel. This new Big Ideas series helps them with exactly that. Come to think of it, adults would probably get a lot from this series too!"

ClassDojo is the leading communication app for primary schools around the world, used in 95% of pre-K-8 schools in the United States and a further 180 countries. It helps teachers, families, and children build a close-knit classroom community by sharing pictures, videos, moments from school and home.

In 2017, the company started partnering with leading academics at Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, to create original learning experiences covering topics that teachers, children and families wanted to know more about, called 'Big Ideas'. Each Big Ideas series consists of different learning experiences: some include short, animated stories that end in a question, others have hands-on exercises, and others create reflection and interactive discussions designed to bring overlooked and hard-to-teach social and emotional learning concepts to life in the classroom and at home. Previous Big Ideas series have covered Growth Mindset, Empathy, and Mindfulness; they have been seen by 1 in 3 children in elementary and middle schools in the United States.

For more information on ClassDojo's new Big Ideas series, please visit https://www.classdojo.com/ideas and https://www.classdojo.com/about.

SOURCE ClassDojo