If you’ve ever tried to read one of George R. R. Martin’s books in his Song of Ice and Fire series, then you know it’s going to take some time, as the books are typically over a thousand pages long. Even reading newspaper articles or Facebook updates, let alone full–length novels, can be difficult to fit into a busy schedule. With so many [...]
When my son Gabriel was nearly a year old, I was taking a swim class with him at the YMCA. I was hopeful it would have two benefits: getting us out of the house for a few hours and making some new friends. While we accomplished the first, it turns out that wrestling a baby into a swimsuit, floating around singing “Twinkle Twinkle [...]
In recent years, The Hunger Games’ “girl on fire” has quickly replaced Harry Potter’s “the boy who lived” in popularity. And, let’s not forget, in between these there was Twilight’s “the vampire who sparkled.” While fantasy and teen paranormal romance are still selling books (the Harry Potter books have just been released with new cover designs ) the current trend in novels has [...]
. . . sorry, that’s all I’ve got. No clever rhyme, no pithy ending phrase. I just wanted to applaud families who read together. That means dads who snuggle in to read a bedtime story, moms who make the mall run when the next book in the series hits the shelves and kids who willingly trade electronic pings for the sound of a [...]
When I was younger, having a movie marathon was one of my favorite things to do with my sisters. We would bake chocolate chip cookies, slip into our pjs and spend the afternoon in front of the television, watching back-to-back Meg Ryan romantic comedies. It’s true that watching movies can be a solitary activity, but we always found it more enjoyable with company. Reading, [...]
I am exactly where I should be. I just completed my MA in Publishing & Writing at Emerson College—a degree that thoroughly supplements my BA in Magazine Journalism from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh). During my undergrad years, I allowed my creativity to flourish, particularly in the areas of fashion, journalism and publishing. I completed an internship at [...]
Zombies! What comes to mind? AMC’s The Walking Dead? The Resident Evil franchise? Education? Personally, I imagine the rotting flesh and deep groans of humans who now walk the Earth (extremely slowly) as the undead—acting on one impulse: to satisfy their ravenous appetite for human flesh. But, surprisingly, it is scenarios like this that are proving essential in teaching college classes about survival and human preparedness [...]
Rachael Barron is a science teacher at Wakefield Memorial High School in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Rachael teaches AP Biology, Honors Genetics and Microbiology, College Prep Anatomy & Physiology, and College Prep Introduction to the Physical and Life Sciences. Rachael holds a bachelor of science in biology with a minor in education from Brandeis University. She earned her master of arts in teaching biology from [...]
I like languages. That’s not to say that I have a good ear for them. In the same way that I struggle with tone deafness and staying on key when I sing karaoke, I have a hard time hearing and repeating foreign phrases. It’s why I took Latin in high school and why I enrolled in an American Sign Language (ASL) course my [...]
It has now been over a year since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were finalized in April 2013. While 26 states actively participated in the development of the standards (the NGSS official site calls them “lead state partners”), the adoption process has been slow and controversial. As of March 2014, the District of Columbia and just eleven states have accepted the standards: [...]