Tablets and other mobile devices are sure to be popular stocking stuffers this holiday season, and while these gadgets are fun for watching movies and playing games, they can also make reading a blast for your kids.
Imagine Learning’s free reading app, Bookster, now has 9 books on the shelf for your kids to enjoy. Your whole family will love reading about everything from monsters to mosquitos in these interactive e-books:
You don’t have to be an ivy-league-educated, Ph.D.-holding professor to help kids stay sharp over the holiday break. By using any of the following 10 tips (a “few of our favorite things”), parents can ensure that their kids can learn a thing or two—even while away from school! Read more »
Recently I read an interesting news article about a school district that voted to supply all its kindergarten students with iPad 2 tablets for the upcoming school year. Since the iPad’s release last year, there has been much discussion and speculation on how tablet computers will impact education and technology use in the classroom. Amid all the speculation, I found it interesting to see a forward-thinking example of rolling out such technology district-wide, especially for such young learners.
Last week, Imagine Learning and its award-winning booth participated in the NSBA Conference, which was held April 9-11 in San Francisco, California. Emily Bybee has provided us with firsthand accounts of conferences before, and today she’s sharing a few thoughts here about one of the largest education conferences in the country.
I enjoy attending conferences because they always provide so many different opportunities. At Imagine Learning, we host an evening meal and an early morning site visit at each conference we attend. The hosted dinner is an opportunity for individuals to get well-fed and well-educated about how Imagine Learning is closing the achievement gap for at-risk students. It also provides opportunities to network with others, share ideas, and simply enjoy a relaxing evening.
The site visit is the perfect place to see students using and learning from Imagine Learning English. What better way to learn about the program than to see it in action?
Why do you love to read? What made you transcend your first picture book to tackle chapter books and then full novels and nonfiction? When I ask myself this question, two things come to mind immediately: gathering on my parents’ bed while they read to us at night, and watching Reading Rainbow.
I was just four years old when Reading Rainbow first aired on PBS, so the program was with me from the very beginning as I learned to read. In my favorite episode, host LeVar Burton took viewers behind the scenes of his other role as Geordi La Forge, navigator of the starship Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was fascinated by the hidden process of creating a TV show.
When I learned that after 26 years in production, Reading Rainbow had failed back in August 2009 to secure the funding needed to continue, I was saddened (and a bit behind the curve, because I just found this out a few weeks ago). Of all the shows I enjoyed as a child, Reading Rainbow is the only one I really wish were around for my kids to watch. The article I read said that the focus for early childhood education has moved educational TV toward teaching phonics and more basic reading skills, rather than instilling a love for reading in children.
