FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Joe Lewis

PHONE: 773-528-6854

E-MAIL: press@icmediacenter.org

INTER-AMERICAN MAGNET SCHOOL (IAMS) Awarded $9,000 for Innovative Early Childhood Program

Screen Smart® residency accelerates learning with healthy tech habits.

Chicago, IL/Winter 2023 — Inter-American Magnet School (851 W Waveland Ave, Chicago, Illinois) has been awarded a $9,000 scholarship to bring the International Children’s Media Center’s (ICMC) acclaimed Screen Smart® accelerative learning program to six classrooms every Friday, starting January 13, 2023. IAMS is the first dual-language school in the country to receive this award.

Featured in a 2020 TEDx Talk, the cutting-edge Screen Smart® program teaches children “to watch screens with their minds awake.” The ICMC’s innovative “mindful viewing” approach uses fun, neuroscience-based exercises that give children outlets for physical activity while boosting brain function through close analysis of short narrative videos.

“Through our dual-language program, students affirm the values of their own cultures while acquiring an understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of other cultures in our pluralistic world. With Screen Smart, we will be empowering our young students to begin fostering healthy tech habits that will help them develop into responsible, high-functioning members of our society.” - IAMS Principal Claudia Jimenez

According to Screen Smart creator Nicole Dreiske, “Balance and discipline are just two parts of the solution for screen time. Talking with our children during screen time is the most important ingredient because it closes the 30-million word gap and establishes habits they will use throughout their lives.” 

Dreiske’s landmark parenting book, The Upside of Digital Devices: How to Make Your Child More Screen Smart, Literate, and Emotionally Intelligent makes Screen Smart® techniques available to parents and teachers across the country. The book won the National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval upon its release in 2018.

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Curious about how a small Chicago nonprofit got a book deal, a TEDx talk and hacked one of the biggest challenges to education? Call 773-528-6854!

Credits

Screen Smart is supported by the Polk Bros. Foundation, the Dr. Scholl Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the IL Humanities Council, the Conant Family Foundation and by Howard Conant,

INTER AMERICAN MAGNET SCHOOL - nurtures community and stimulates lifelong learning through innovative, responsive programming, partnerships, resources, and services.