Maria goes live every other week, taking turns between her author Facebook page and her private Empowering Kids with Character Facebook group. On July 11th, Maria shared how Empowering Kids With Character can benefit teachers!You can watch the video here.
What is Empowering Kids With Character (EKWC)? If you’ve been following Maria for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard her talk about EKWC. But maybe you’re not really sure what it is and/or stands for! Maria took a step back and explained what Empowering Kids with Character IS. EKWC is a brand outside of Maria. Maria is a children’s book author and somewhere along the line she wanted to create a movement, she wanted to empower families and teachers about the importance of teaching character. Research shows that children are graduating college lacking essential life skills like communication and creativity. Maria wanted to create a movement that inspires, educates and empowers teachers and parents to incorporate modeling and teaching character to young children. This is how Empowering Kids With Character was born!
EKWC has a private Facebook group where you will get resources right at your fingertips. This is where you get real, positive and actionable news and resources! It’s such an amazing group, where you won’t find negativity or “bashing”. You’ll find teachers and parents who will pull together to help you resolve common (and not so common) issues when raising and teaching children. It’s such a refreshing group to be a part of!
EKWC also has a podcast! Most podcasts are getting to be upwards of 45 minutes long (or more!) – yikes! As parents and/or educators, we might not always have that time readily available, am I right? EKWC has kept that in mind and has what is called “flash briefing”. They’re 1-2 minutes a day and you can get them anywhere podcasts live (Amazon, Castbox, etc.). You can listen to 1 at a time or binge listen! Every single day, Maria (or a guest host!) shares helpful tips for your home and/or classroom to promote positive character.
EKWC also has a twice-monthly newsletter. The first newsletter of the month has content around the theme of the month (which also coincides with the theme of the Facebook group) and also has a FREEBIE! July’s freebie was a 10 Things I Love About You printable (perfect for your children/students to write down 10 things they love about someone and then give it to that person – promoting kindness and spreading joy!). We also have a Service Project Planner where you can plan service projects with your family and/or classroom! The second newsletter of the month is a resource-filled newsletter. It’s filled with updates from the news (in regards to character), an idea of what you and your classroom/children can do to promote character (an activity idea), something that the Facebook group may be talking about and Maria will share a few things with you that make her life as an educator/parent easier.
EKWC also has a blog (you’re here!). We have 1 blog post come out per month and it’s written by Meg Keys, a member of our team! It’s always full of helpful information on character, so you don’t want to miss a single post!
If you’d like to follow Maria on Instagram, you can find her at @MariaDismondyBooks. She collaborates with so many educators on Instagram, so be sure to check her out. Maria does a lot of collaborations and Cardinal Rule Press (her publishing company) has a book coming out this fall, Cookie & Milk by Michele McAvoy and illustrated by Jessica Gibson, so we’re working on a collaboration for that! Be sure to check out Maria on Instagram and see if you’re eligible for the collaboration!
EKWC also has these amazing posters just for signing up for our newsletters, so be sure to sign up and grab your free posters with positive messages!!!
Transcribed by Mandy Bush, Executive Assistant