For locals of the Boston area, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is a cultural hot spot. A recent exhibit has had myself and other Bostonians unable to keep our excitement contained: The Gordon Parks Foundation worked with curator Karen Hass to present a collection of photos from Gordon Parks, the famous African American Vogue and Life photographer. The exhibit brings forth 42 photos from a photo-essay originally intended [...]
From my various tattoos to my partially shaved hairstyle, you could say I’ve come out of my shell a lot since college. One of the first things people notice about me is my red hair, but I always leave a lasting impression of someone who’s hardworking, courageous and who overall loves life. I graduated just last May from Stonehill College with a degree [...]
The combination of dogs and reading may seem irrelevant, but it’s proving to be quite the opposite—specifically as a method for assisting children who have difficulty practicing this essential skill. Various dog reading programs are becoming exceedingly popular as their overall results show a great improvement in reader confidence and ability. The main logic behind these programs is that children who are struggling [...]
J’ai étudié le français depuis six ans. Did I say that right? Before coming to college, I took six years of French—and I have since forgotten nearly all of it. Most of the students in my high school didn’t even get that far, though. Foreign languages were only offered—not required—in middle school, and there was only a two-year arts graduation requirement in high [...]
A tiny energy source that packs a surprising amount of power, nanotech batteries are becoming smaller and more efficient every year. Nanotechnology includes the design of systems and devices on a nanoscale. To put into perspective how small the nanoscale is, one nanometer is a billionth of a meter; there are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch; and a nanometer is estimated to be about 80,000 [...]
Can you honestly imagine a world without technology? Well, some might have an easier time imagining it, but the fact remains that technology is so ingrained in our culture today that we wouldn’t even know how to live our lives without it. Despite this, most users don’t understand the foundations behind the programs and websites they use every day, though a consensus is [...]
I have seen many changes in the industry since entering educational publishing in 1979. After teaching elementary school for five years—I was the big guy with the long hair and curly beard towering over the first and second graders—I moved to educational publishing, a typical career change for many teachers. I’ve worked for major publishers, including Scott Foresman (now Pearson), Zaner-Bloser/Highlights for Children [...]
Picture a dimly lit room with music playing. A chair pulses with the beat. A swing hangs from the ceiling. A lava lamp bubbles in the corner. Images of leaves, balloons and fireworks are projected on the wall. Everything in this room waits to be interacted with and morphed. This is one of the many sensory rooms being installed in schools across the [...]
A Common Core–aligned website has taken on the uniquely twofold endeavor of getting students interested about current events while using a text-leveling process to ensure they’re meeting grade-specific reading standards. Newsela, founded by Matthew Gross, was launched in June 2013, and it publishes dozens of popular news articles daily. Topics include health, science, arts, sports and law. With the help of staff editors, current [...]
From old school VCRs to DVD players, HDTV, Blu-ray players and Netflix, closed captioning is all around us. But whether we use captions for foreign film translations or to understand TV dialogue, its variety of uses begs the question: What exactly is closed captioning? Closed captions display spoken dialogue as printed words on a screen. Captions are often used by those with hearing loss so that [...]