i heart alt teachrz

One of the unnecessary items I granted myself permission to bring to Azerbaijan was a graduate semester's worth of teaching textbooks to dive into while serving here. I knew I was going into a program that had a 'train the trainer' element and I wanted to take opportunity of isolation to further research alternative knowledge transference methods. Little did I know that I would be getting a second semester worth of textbooks upon arriving. Some of them are pretty badass.

If you teach or facilitate any sort of training you may want to check these two resource out. Though primarily aimed at teachers of a foreign language I can see immediate use in other avenues for each, especially in helping you reach multiple learning styles (such as kinesthetic and auditory, rather than just visual).

Chalk Talks by Nomra Shapiro and Carol Genser. Chalk Talks showcases effective symbol use (very simple chalk drawings) to compliment foreign language learning. Its divided into three main parts. The first gives an excellent explanation of the premise of relying on symbols rather than translation. The second part provides over 30 sample lessons doing just this. And the third part is a dictionary of over 500 easy to copy symbols to incorporate into your lessons. I immediately loved this book and plan on purchasing my own copy once I am forced to return it. Heavily relying on chalk-drawings (and charades) I have been able to almost completely eliminate my need for Azeri translation in vocabulary.

Five-Minute Activities by Penny Ur and Andrew Wright. 5MA is a resource book for quick review activities or motivating starters to get a classroom actively engaged with material as opposed to simple recitation. They require very little setup, time commitment, and presumed knowledge and can be adopted for a variety of levels. Simply knowing a few off hand is an instant lesson plan and a big confidence booster. Again, this book is aimed at foreign language leaning, but most activities can be easily adopted for other subject usage. I find myself flipping through it before I begin lesson planning as they are great (and fun) ways to begin class, and thus begin presenting material.

A brief review of the new Kindle

Apparently it is not uncommon for the Best Man to receive a gift and yesterday I was given a Kindle Wi-Fi by my brother. I was really excited and its a great idea for me especially. Not only do I value the portability digital books give but a few months ago I had to make the difficult decision to return my iPad being uncertain about wireless coverage in Azerbaijan.

There are many great points about the Kindle. First and foremost is its size. The Kindle is startlingly slender, the size of a thin paperback book. Amazon really crafted a device that could create an emotional reaction to the user. Light enough for one hand but inviting enough for both, it is an enjoyable replacement for the physical book. Additionally it is easy for the eyes view for extended periods. The eInk is much easier on the eyes then an LED screen and it displays text with the right amount of contrast. The battery life, as has been frequently lauded, is outstanding, with or without the Wi-Fi on.

There are other details, more subtle, that make the Kindle a joy. The hold screen randomly selects an author image or classic book illustration to display while waiting for you to come back to it. Even watching the ink change from one page to another is enjoyable, simulating the space between transitioning from one page to another. The plastic casing, matching either the text or the background truly does enable the Kindle to begin to disappear in your hands.

There are certain annoyances, but these are more recommendations than downfalls. The store navigation, from the Kindle itself, could stand to be improved. I would like to see Amazon concept their store navigation more similar to the bookish way the Kindle operates. I love how you can use the page forward button to view a book from your search results, but allow me to continue to use the forward button to sample it. Its sort of a pain to go back to the home screen to sample, then go back to the store and redo my search. This is especially the case if you are looking for a specific edition. It would also be nice to customize my home screen in a way thats different from the standard author, date purchased etc.

The Kindle as a device is superb at doing one thing. I really don't view it as an iPad competitor (though it is certainly an iBookstore competitor) and Amazon might not either, as evidenced through its availability of Kindle software for numerous devices. The iPad is just too multi-functional to be truly considered in the same boat as this device. I could picture owning both and probably will at some point. What intrigues me most about the Kindle is the WhisperSync technology that Amazon is using to power its store. In a matter of seconds a book I've purchased online is on my Kindle, my iPod Touch, and my computer, not even Apple is doing that. This is a company that has very effectively capitalized its IT structure as packable services for other companies (such as Fulfilled by Amazon and Elastic Cloud Computing) and WhisperSync has tremendous potential for both furthering their retail arm and their corporate web services offering.