“Gaming with Purpose” How Adaptive Learning Technology Can Ensure Skill Mastery for Beginning Readers
Good day! I had the recent privilege of discussing the topic “Gaming with Purpose” with Sandy Fivecoat from WeAreTeachers, in an interview on adaptive learning that you can watch below! Plenty of visuals accompany the presentation and we discuss how young learners playing on adaptive, smart technology can ensure skill mastery and will increase literacy skills in a compelling and effective way. Read on! Jim Barber,...
read more“COMEBACK STORIES” Musings from the CEO
Whether in movies, politics, or everyday life, everybody loves a good comeback story. There are few things more exciting than seeing someone battle adversity and emerge victorious. Looking back across history, I have three favorite comeback stories: The 2004 Boston Red Sox were three games behind the New York Yankees in the ALCS. They came back to win the pennant, and then went on to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series—their first world championship in 86 years. In 1980, the US men’s hockey team staked their claim in history by accomplishing the “Miracle On Ice”: the unexpected...
read moreThird Grade Recess and the Word Rigmarole
My elementary teachers used to say it was important to increase our vocabulary as we got older. In my aunt Gertrude’s (name changed to protect privacy) case there was one word in particular that had a special place in her everyday vocabulary – rigmarole. The definition of rigmarole is “something that doesn’t make sense.” It seems catchy enough, but I always used to wonder why no one besides Aunt Gertrude said it. I actually think she must have had exclusive rights on rigmarole, as I’ve never heard anyone else use it as much (or at all for that matter) as she did. Aunt Gertrude...
read moreThe List
Many entertaining lists were circulating as 2010 came to a close. I always enjoy reading these lists about trends, movies, and interesting things that happened during the past year. As we begin 2011, I want to share a list that I’ve been working on for quite some time that you might find beneficial. First, I need to give you a little background of how the list came to be. The list started with the game of basketball. Basketball has been a love of mine since eighth grade. As I grew up and played for different coaches in high school and college I began to form my own philosophy of what I felt...
read moreReal Signs of Love
Nothing you can make that can’t be made, No one you can save that can’t be saved, Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy. All you need is love. –John Lennon/Paul McCartney I was driving home from the airport the other day when a red Corvette cut across three lanes of traffic to make the exit. I missed crashing into him by no more than the thickness of a piece of paper. It didn’t seem Corvette Guychecked to make sure the lanes were clear and he put a number of people in jeopardy. I could feel my blood pressure rising and I thought to...
read moreMusic to My Ears
I listened, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more. -William Wordsworth I love all kinds of music. Music is important to me. Music is important to our upcoming Ooka Island online reading instructional game. I believe that music helps make the world go around; it’s a universal language. As we are working with our outstanding game developer, Telos International, building the Ooka Island game, we know that having awesome, inspiring, kid-friendly music is vitally important. It will help make the game memorable and...
read moreThe Future of Accelerated Child Literacy
We believe that Ooka Island is the future of accelerated child literacy. The upcoming Ooka Island online game teaches young children to read while spending time in a fun, safe, creative Virtual World. Ooka Island will deliver the gift of literacy in a child-safe, adult-approved, software service that uses scientifically proven instructional methods. It is nothing short of a reading revolution! We are working closely with an outstanding game development company, Telos International, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to build this innovative game. The creative and talented group at Telos...
read morePaper Airplane Contest
I’d like to share an experience I had while student-teaching during my senior year in college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was assigned to a first grade class under the supervision of Mrs. Spangler, a wise teacher just a year from retirement. The class consisted of 26 students. 20 of the students were boys; 17 of which came from single parent families with only a mom in the home. With only six girls in a class with 20 boys, this was a challenge, but I had a wonderful mentor in Mrs. Spangler. The boys in class were absolutely infatuated with making and flying paper airplanes. One...
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