The African Queens

Ohio Teen Ditches White Teacher’s Advice Who Said African Print Is ‘Too Tacky for Prom’ and Joins #AfricanProm Trend

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 African inspired fashion is here to stay in 2016. After New Jersey teen Kyemah McEntyre designed her own handmade gown last year, many other young women have similarly embraced their heritage.

High school student Makalaya Zanders wore a custom-made gown featuring Ankara print to prom May 13. Her Instagram page shows DeAndré Crenshaw designed her dress. The teenager attended Garfield Heights High School’s prom with her date, Charles Jackson in Cleveland, Ohio, according to All Things Ankara.

Zanders wrote about the inspiration to wear the gown on Instagram. She wanted one similar to what Nigerian model Jessica Chibueze wore to a ball. The student challenged a white teacher who thought wearing an African-inspired gown was too “tacky for prom.” Her formal look proved the instructor wrong.

The Ohio teen’s dress – which featured a removable futuristic belt – earned praise on Twitter from her peers. But she is not the only young person who wore a culturally expressive gown to the dance this year. The Afrocentric look has taken over the 2016 prom season.

Below is a collection of other young Black women who dared to embrace their African roots for dances all over the country.

Some teens donned more formal looks like Zanders’ mermaid style gown.

Some teens donned more formal looks like Zanders’ mermaid style gown.

Others dared to bare in cutout prints and gold head jewelry.

Crystal Harden used a headpiece and statement necklace to accent her nose ring. Her prom date sported a traditional look, too.

Ghana native Adjoa Ofori-Gyau embraced her roots with her print, accompanied by her natural hair.

Bernice Kwade rocked a close-cropped ‘do reminiscent of Nyong’o. The 17-year-old showed off her patterned gown with a bedazzled neckline as she posed with two fellow high school seniors.

And one 16-year-old ditched pairing her two-piece look with conventional high heels in favor of blue Reeboks.

Another teen made a bold statement in a vibrant red floor length dress.

source :atlantablackstar.com

How Your Relationship With Your Mom Can Predict Your Success

When I was a child, my mom used to drive 45 minutes every morning to take me to school. We drove another 45 minutes in the evening to go home. Oftentimes, we’d be stuck in traffic, making the commute much longer. I used to dread those long car rides, but they also gave my mother and me the opportunity to talk without any distractions. I now wonder how our daily conversations during those car rides may have not only strengthened our relationship, but also contributed to my development and where I am today.

A growing body of psychological research, including some I’ve worked on, shows that parent-child communication is important for promoting children’s success. Conversations are a fundamental way in which children develop cognitive and language skills. Research finds that children of talkative mothers who use a broad range of words tend to speak more, have more opportunities to practice their verbal skills and, in turn, have faster rates of vocabulary growth in comparison to children who hear a more restricted range of words.

The type and quality of that talk is important for the successful development of children’s academic-related skills, as well. In one study, when mothers reminisced about past events with their children and used questions and statements to focus the child’s attention on particular aspects of an event (e.g., “What did we do at grandma’s house?”), children exhibited better use of memory strategies and recall over time.

Another forthcoming study found that young children of mothers who used more desire-related words, such as “want” or “like,” demonstrated greater perspective-taking abilities, which is an important marker of a child’s social competence. Studies like these show that, through conversations, mothers can scaffold their children’s language and help them to develop skills and knowledge.

In truth, everyday conversations and interactions not only help foster children’s cognitive and social skills, butthey can also help maintain and strengthen the emotional ties between parent and child. This connectedness—and warm and positive interactions in particular—lead children to more accurately perceive, accept and internalize their parent’s values and messages. Similarly, a parent’s ability to read her child’s signals and respond appropriately has important implications not only for the quality of the parent-child relationship but also for the child’s long-term development.

Recent research, for example, shows that a mother’s sensitivity and responsiveness in the first few years of a child’s life has lifelong consequences for children’s academic and social competence.

Beyond promoting the development of children’s academic and social skills, there is research to suggest that positive parent-child interactions and relationships can play a role in children’s career development, as well. Close family relationships, for example, not only help children to learn important work-related skills, such as effective communication and conflict resolution, but they also can provide children with the confidence to explore various career options and make successful career transitions.

When I was younger, there were a lot of things I would have rather been doing than sitting in traffic. But the fact that my mother used that time to communicate with me may have ultimately been time well spent.

Sandra Tang is a research investigator in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research at University of Michigan, where she examines the role of family, school and environment in shaping children’s educational success.

source motto.time.com

5 Ways to Learn More Every Day

As the CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up and the parent—and coach and cheerleader and chauffeur—of three small kids, I struggle to carve out time for learning new things. A bit ironic since the company I founded (Curious.com) is dedicated to helping busy people learn all kinds of things, from JavaScript to Japanese to jump roping.

But starting Curious has taught me how to build a daily learning regimen. Here are a few of the tricks I’ve picked up that can help you create your own learning routine.

1. Make your learning bucket listWe all need a learning bucket list. If you don’t know your list, start by figuring out what skills or subjects you wish you’d learned in school. Local bookstores and public libraries are also fantastic resources for discovering curiosities. I try to keep between five and eight items on my list at all times. Some are big, like classes I wish I’d taken in college or a language/instrument I want to master. But most are small, like trying something for the first time or researching a word or concept I don’t understand. Regardless of what you want to learn, making a list can help you tackle more of those topics.

2. Reorganize your appsPhones and tablets are an awesome resource for filling your free time with learning…or with time-wasting activities. Delete mindless games and shopping apps, and move apps like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail and Facebook off of your home screen so you have to work to find them. When you catch yourself scrolling to them, make a conscious effort to open a learning app instead—and you can put those on your home screen so they’re easier to access.

3. Learn in chunks of timeYou’ll need easy ways to learn your bucket list in bite-sized chunks. I try carving out chunks of five, 15 or 30 minutes of my day to learn. If it’s a foreign language, I’ll need 30 minutes and an app like Duolingo. I need at least 15 minutes for academic lessons I can watch on iTunes U, TED or Curious. For music, I keep a list of songs I’m working on and can make progress even in five minutes.

4. Read nonfiction electronicallyI try to keep a virtual library of books I’m reading—primarily nonfiction and historical fiction. I read everything through the Kindle app (phone or tablet). This way I can pick up any device and start reading where I left off. Even better, I can juggle lots of books at the same time. My nightstand used to be piled high with barely read books. Now I can concurrently work my way through a 900-page autobiography, a memoir about building an elephant refuge in Africa, a business book and a self-help book.

5. Create learning triggersKeep a sketchbook on your desk so every time you see it, you’re prompted to spend five minutes practicing your drawing skills. Strategically place Spanish flash cards in your backpack. I keep a guitar on a stand in my office. Every time I go to check my email, I pick it up and play a few bars of a song I’m working on.

source:-motto.time.com

Meet Dr. Foyekemi Ikyaator

Meet Dr. Foyekemi Ikyaator, the 32-Year-old Doctor Who Opened Her Own Full-Service Emergency Room in Texas

Dr. Foyekemi Ikyaator, the 32-year-old doctor who opened Liver SaversER, and free standing, full service emergency room in Houston, TX. Photo courtesy of KUT.org

Atjust  32  years old,  Dr.  Foyekemi  Ikyaator is revolutionizing emergency room service. Ikyaator and her husband opened the Life SaversER in December 2015 to satisfy the medical need in Houston, KUT. org reports. Per the Houston Profile Magazine, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on January 15, 2016.

The facility is a stand-alone, 24-hour emergency room equipped to  provide patients with the quality service they would normally receive at a hospital.

According to the Life SaversER website, the medical establishment has a strict no-wait policy, boasting an average wait time of 0 to 5 minutes. The facility is also equipped with a pharmacy, radiology equipment, and onsite laboratory, further eliminating the wait time for patients. It also provides free flu shots and free CPR classes.

During an ‘In Black America’ segment on KUT.org, Ikyaator expressed her frustration with the “clogged” waiting room system.

“You just start seeing the repetitiveness of the clogged system where you can’t get patients out of the ER, and you can’t get patients [waiting in] the waiting room inside the ER to get treatment,” she explained.

The Nigeria native also added that she would often pull waiting room patients to the side to start their work up, according to Essence.

On a full scholarship, Ikyaator studied medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Per KUT.org, she then completed her residency in emergency medicine in 2012 at Atlanta’s Emory School of Medicine and Public Health. She wanted to continue her practice and moved to Houston. There, she gained even more experience while working within the St. Luke’s Health System,KUT.org reports. Just a few years later, she opened Life SaversER.

Ikyaator now serves as the facility’s medical director, which allows her to be more hands-on with patients and administer the care they need, according to Essence. She explained her reasoning behind establishing Life SaversER, recalling the long wait times patients would have to endure because of the overcrowded emergency rooms.

“I worked in a few ERs in Houston and often I’d get to work and there are 15-20 patients in the waiting room waiting on me,” Ikyaator said. “There are patients in the ER waiting to be admitted; there are patients who are admitted and can’t get a bed upstairs so they’re taking up space.”

Per the Life SaversER website, patients’ health is a top priority, so the facility takes a lot of pride in ensuring little to no wait time.

“You don’t know if there’s a heart attack waitingIN THE ROOM, and you’re responsible for everyone that comes in there,” Ikyaator explained.

Since its grand opening, Live SaversER has received 5-star reviews on Google and popular social media platforms, Houston Profile Magazine reports.

The magazine also notes that Ikyaator is is a minority in her field, yet continues to thrive in a lane she created all on her own.

“As a young Black female, mother and leader in medicine, she is pressing the bar a little higher and bridging the gap a little closer so that the next person can impress and charm the masses by representing odds defied,” the article states.

atlantablackstar.com

Behavior Management Strategies and Techniques

Professional training is vital to helping staff organize their thinking about problematic behaviors, and to developing proactive skills that focus on prevention and respect.

Behavior Management Techniques

Here are six safe and effective behavior management strategies for remaining calm and professional during challenging situations.

1. Be Mindful of Your Own Reaction.
   A vital component of managing difficult behavior is knowing that your behavior affects the behavior of others. What you say or do in response to an individual’s behavior affects whether the behavior escalates or stops. When you’re aware of this factor, and when you’re equipped and empowered with other effective and respectful behavior management strategies, you’re better able to de-escalate difficult behavior and help individuals regain control and make positive choices.


2. Maintain Rational Detachment.
   When you’re rationally detached, you maintain control by not taking negative comments or actions personally. Without this key ability, team members may react instinctively or defensively, which will only escalate a situation. Equipped with this skill, you’re better able to defuse challenging behavior and encourage positive behavior.


3. Be Attentive.
   When people feel ignored, marginalized, or not cared for, they often act out. An effective way to counter a person’s anxiety is to validate her feelings. Pay attention to what she says. Give her plenty of personal space. Show her through your facial expressions and body language that you’re listening, and you can take away her reasons for being upset—and give her a reason to regain control.


4. Use Positive Self-Talk.
   Remind yourself that when you’re the target of an outburst or a negative situation, you’re rarely the cause of the behavior. And just as thinking, "I can't deal with this" might cause you to react one way, telling yourself, "I know what to do" will cause a more productive response.


5. Recognize Your Limits.
   Being a professional doesn't mean that you can handle everything. Knowing that you have support and backup is crucial to staying in control of your own behavior and responding appropriately. Accept your limits and keep in mind that sometimes the best decision is to let someone else take over.


6. Debrief.
   Be sure to debrief after any incident. Talking about it can help relieve the stress. It’s also important to consider what was done well and how to respond better the next time a situation occurs.