Apple and its iPad have the lion’s share of the educational market locked up, but Amazon and its Kindle Fire are giving administrators reason to pause before blindly ordering up tablets from Cupertino.
Amazon is offering 47 classic children’s books for 99 cents each. That is an impressive price cut from the typical $7.77 the book typically cost. Among the illustrated versions of classic tales are Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," Rudyard Kipling's "How the Leopard Got His Spots," and Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Adding to the books’ allure is the fact they come with musical accompaniment and narration from notable celebrities like Danny Glover and Robin Williams.
Whether or not this temporary price cut helps Amazon gain any educational market share is yet to be seen, and experts don’t expect it to. However, it at least provides administrators with a reason to consider the Fire before placing their Apple order.
I had been retired for about 18 months and not enjoying myself. My wife would travel to go to work and leave me alone with a TV and my two dogs. This was certainly not how I wanted to spend my “golden years”. After working over 51 years in education in the United States and Egypt I had few plans on how best spend my idle hours. Frankly, I was bored and frustrated.
Fortunately very close to my house they were building a new school. I decided to look into this possible opportunity....
Podcasts have become a new way of learning. As teachers, leaders, childcare providers, etc., we must commit to being lifelong learners. Today, it is easier than ever to learn by listening to colleagues, veterans, and even those new to the profession by turning on a podcast. A podcast allows you to listen and learn in the car, while you are working, at the gym, on an airplane, and even out on a walk. There are...
(Note: The following is the first installment of a three-part series based on my upcoming book, Calming Student Stress in K-12 Classrooms: Mindfulness, Meditation, and Other Strategies to Reduce Anxiety and Enhance Learning, due out by Rowman & Littlefield in early 2024).
Despite coming out of the pandemic and returning to in-person learning, stress, anxiety, and trauma remain prevalent in the classroom. For example, according to a...
The Samurai were fierce warriors of Feudal Japan (we’re talking 1100 to 1800s). They lived during times of constant fighting, whether between warring lords in Japan or against invading enemies, such as the Mongols.
Samurai had to be incredibly sharp, focused, centered, calm, and ready to leap into action at any moment. This explains why they were drawn to the practice of Zen Buddhism and training the mind through meditation.
Today, the enemy or constant threat isn’t so much...
Mindfulness in the k-12 classroom has been shown to improve school-related skills, such as executive functioning, social-emotional skills, working memory, sustained attention, and self-regulation (see Mindfulness in the Classroom).
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Educators, you have probably heard the term, mindfulness, thrown around a lot at this point. You...
I have recently retired as a school administrator after 51 plus in education. I have been reading about a lot of new administrators who are all ready burning out, feel overwhelmed, overworked, and under compensated. I was fortunate to have worked in more than a dozen schools and similar number of other educational positions. I worked in seven states and two countries. My point in saying this as I changed jobs, I had to thoroughly investigate each one before accepting the new assignment. ...
1. Qatar is the first Middle East country to host the World Cup. It is also the first time two female referees will help officiate the games.
2. With no rivers or freshwater lakes in Qatar, drinking water is made from sea-water. Desalination plants remove the salt from the water for the 3 million people that live...