Download 5, 3 for School and 2 for Cool! To Make Reading Come Alive |
| Books Without Barriers | Issue 11: Fall 2011 | Jump to Content |
Connect with BookshareWe invite you to join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Accessible Twitter. In This IssueBookshare Highlights:
Publisher & University Partnerships: Family & Fun Time: K-12 Educators Corner: College News: Bookshare on the Move: UnsubscribeThe Bookshare Bulletin was sent to you because you wished to receive information about Bookshare or you subscribed at our web site. If you no longer want to receive The Bookshare Bulletin, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page. |
Let Reading Come AliveGreetings from Betsy Burgess Betsy Burgess, Director of Marketing What if your child or student walks up to you and says, “Hey...thank you for opening up a new world of reading for me.” Would that make you smile? Many students tell us how Bookshare has expanded their knowledge and made them independent readers. Thanks to your efforts and the work of schools, organizations and families, tens of thousands of new students discover reading each year, maybe for the first time. Yet, too many students with print disabilities still do not have opportunities to read a digital book. That is why we urge parents and educators who work with qualified Bookshare students to join our campaign, “Let Reading Come Alive! Download 5.” Three (3) for school and two (2) for cool! If your first three books are schoolbooks, and the next two are for fun, any of these ebooks just may open the door to the world of reading for your student or child. This is not just a slogan for Bookshare; it is our purpose. In this Bulletin, we hope to inspire you with new people, new training tools and apps, important information, as well as a student video that tells the real story about reading coming alive for people with print and reading disabilities. With that in mind, have you met Alex Clark, an 8th grader and Bookshare Member who allowed us to video tape him talking about the books he’s read and how ebooks changed his view of learning? If you haven’t seen his video, check it out. We’d love to have you share your stories with us too. Finally, we want to welcome our new Director of Literacy Operations, Fred Slone. We want to encourage you to read the latest press announcements and news coverage about Bookshare. And we hope you will share these comments from students and teachers with others. These types of information just may persuade you to download 5 today! Alex Clark, Bookshare Made Reading Come Alive! Alex Clark in front of a computer screen with a red shirt. In this video, Alex Clark and his mom describe his early use of digital books for school and pleasure. Alex says he is a good listener and that this ability to hear text read aloud improved his grades in middle school. Today, Alex feels more confident to do his schoolwork. Since he became a Bookshare Member, he has downloaded many more books than our “Download 5, 3 for school and 2 for cool” theme suggests. But, Alex reminds us of the power of reading digital books to do well in school. Read2Go App - Update Read2Go app icon. There’s a lot of buzz about Read2Go, our accessible e-reader app for the Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Many of you are giving it rave reviews! Thank you. Our first update is now in the iTunes store with features and fixes recommended by our initial users. Watch a short video to see how simple and easy to use Read2Go is. Then, visit the iTunes store to see what’s new, or share our press release with your school team. The price of this app is just $19.99. Volume discounts are available for approved U.S. educational institutions. Bookshare Blog PostsIn each Bulletin, we highlight ‘must-read’ blog posts that really stand out. Here are a few:
Fred Slone, Director of Operations Fred Slone, Director of Operations Fred Slone, our new Director of Operations joins us with more than 15 years of experience leading high performing companies in publishing, technology, and workforce. Prior to his work here, Fred was the Executive Director of the San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board. He helped over 100,000 residents find jobs and his group received more than $13 million in grant funding and national recognition for innovative community programs. Fred is also an active volunteer in youth sports and with his local schools. His diverse background, professional skills, experience and sense of humor are all qualities that we truly appreciate in him. Plus, he is incredibly smart. He earned his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Michigan and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Indiana University. We welcome Fred and anticipate many fun things to come in his new literacy leadership role. Publisher NewsThis quarter brought us a very special development. Random House, which offers digital services to smaller publishers, informed us that all of their 26 clients are making their content available to Bookshare through Random House’s distribution service. All new clients in the future will automatically be covered under Random House’s agreement with us as well. (Sasquatch Books will be coming on board in January 2012.) We will be posting a list of Random House’s client publishers on our blog, so stay tuned. We’re also thrilled that the UK division of SAGE Publications has signed with us because they are huge champions of accessibility. SAGE is one of the world’s leading independent academic and professional published societies and institutions. They publish over 630 journals and over 700 books a year across a broad range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. Bookshare continues to experience great receptivity by the university press community. Two new university presses have joined Bookshare this quarter -- the University of North Carolina Press and Wesleyan University Press. So, whether it’s a best-selling novel or a cutting edge book on environmental science, there’s plenty of new content for you to curl up with! Family & Fun TimeBookshare Everywhere – Summer Reading Contest Winners Bookshare Everywhere Summer Contest Drum Roll Please… Congratulations to our 398 summer reading contest participants on a job well done! Thanks for making our third annual event such a success this year. Students, from kindergarten to college, participated in the "Bookshare Everywhere," theme. Participants celebrated summer reading and encouraged others to take Bookshare books on the go! You read as many books as you could and shared with others what you thought about each book you read. What a great way to spend a summer. This year’s grand prize, an iPad 2, goes to 8th grader, Sara Katzen. Sara came the closest to guessing the actual number of books that would be read during the contest. How many books were read, you ask? The answer is 1,007. Sara guessed 1,002 books. In addition to Sara, many other Bookshare avid readers and storytellers won Read2Go apps, MP3 players, and HumanWare e-readers. You can find all the winners’ names and categories listed on our blog. Council for Exceptional Children YES I CAN AwardsEach year, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) recognizes children and adolescents who are knocking down learning barriers and doing exceptional work in art, academics, technology, community and more. We will be nominating some of our “mover and shaker” Members for this award, but also want you to be aware of the program. For details about the CEC awards program, here is the link. Do you know a Bookshare student member, age 6 to 18, doing something awesome? Email valeriec@bookshare.com with a description of their work and she will contact you about a nomination. Educators’ CornerCalling all teachers….Become a Bookshare Mentor this fall and see how easy it is to make reading come alive for more students in less than 6 months time. You will join a community of dedicated teachers nationwide who are already making reading happen for so many students with print disabilities! What are the benefits of being a Bookshare Mentor?
As a Bookshare Mentor, you’ll have about 6 months to train others in your school. Last year, our Mentors found the project, i.e. helping fellow teachers and students learn how to use Bookshare, very rewarding! We provide forms and materials to record your progress. Here is a short list of Mentor duties and activities, along with great prizes you may win. It’s easy to do and makes a big impact!
Sign Up Today and Let Reading Come Alive! www.bookshare.org/_/promo/2011/03/bookshareMentors2 California Teacher Empowers Learning - Blackford SchoolsWe visited the class of Leslie Anido, special education teacher, in San Jose, CA. She teaches fifth graders with physical disabilities and prepares her students for academic challenges and the transition to middle school. Visiting her class was a ‘breath of fresh air’ and working with her students was amazing! For excellence, student engagement and learning, Ms. Anido deserves applause. Read the blog, California Teacher Empowers Learning Independence and be inspired! NEW Training Videos & MaterialsBack to school should always include professional development opportunities for you, your teaching staff and/or your colleagues. If you are training others to use Bookshare or just want to find out about the latest updates and benefits of providing digital books, please feel free to use any of the Bookshare training videos, free interactive webinars, guides and materials. You’ll find many resources to choose from on our Training page. Please feel free to use the video “What Am I?” to introduce the concept of accessible books from Bookshare.  Dr. Richard Nyankori and Norma Villanueva with student at MLK Library, Washington DC. U.S. school districts planning to launch an accessible book initiative will want to watch our video about Washington, DC Public Schools on You-Tube. It offers a snapshot of their accessible book program including student technology demonstrations and the vision from the Director of Special Education Programs and Low Incidence. Watch the video and please share it with your special education and curriculum teams. College NewsLauren Conner Tells Us About Her Goals and Finding the Books she needs for Graduate School and Life Lauren Conner Bookshare has been such a great asset for me that I welcome the opportunity to provide your organization with feedback. Yes, by all means, you may use my name and comments in your materials. I would consider it an honor and want to tell you a bit about finding books for my schoolwork. I am a graduate student of Longwood University, in southern Virginia. I am currently working toward my Master's degree in Community Counseling and getting my Professional Counselor's License. One day I intend to work in the mental health field as a counselor. In the past, I considered a career in teaching, but decided not to pursue it. I still have an interest in assisting or volunteering in elementary school special and/or general education classrooms (a practice I began when enrolled in a teaching program.) Assisting in classrooms has become a hobby and Bookshare allows me to continue it by providing BRF (braille) copies of many of the print books my students use. The braille copies allow me to follow along with readers and offer assistance that I could not otherwise provide. I found Bookshare last year after purchasing a Braille Note from HumanWare. They included information about Bookshare. Your online library has been unlike any other educational resource I have encountered. Upon finding Bookshare, I was immediately hooked! I sing your praises to my DSS office on my campus. Bookshare has been an excellent repository to find my course textbooks, teaching assistant materials, and pleasure reading for fun. I hope you realize what a wonderful service you provide to thousands of students, like me, who are blind or have reading disabilities and have lots of goals to reach. Bookshare on the MoveVisit us at these conferences October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 Is Bookshare Your ‘Worthy Cause’?From time to time, Members ask us if they can contribute to Bookshare and have those funds matched by their employers… Excellent question. Yes, as a 501 ( c3 ) organization, Bookshare can accept contributions in cash, although checks would help you track your donations for tax purposes. You can donate by credit card or stock contribution too. You can find out more on the Contribute page on our website. Social MediaBookshare Facebook fans are looking for you to join our discussions on our page. Check out the new Read2Go Facebook page too! If you’d rather tweet than Facebook, you can read all the daily Bookshare news on Twitter. We appreciate your retweets! www.twitter.com/bookshare Remember to Download 5, 3 for School and 2 for Cool!Have a wonderful fall season. |
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