There are many things I enjoy.  Picture books are one of my favorites.  I have collected a wonderful library for Jacob; and I enjoy reading different books to him as often as he will let me. Of course his attention span right now is about 2-4 pages and thus we miss most of the meat of a book. But the times we get through to all 10 ladybugs disappearing... I smile. He smiles. And once in a while, he turns it back to the beginning and we read it all again. 

Pictures books amaze me.  

So this shouldn’t surprise you… but my latest plunge is into creating a series of picture books that address learning, my specialty. I haven't seen these kinds of stories in the market and I think they could be valuable to learners. 

My main character is Pistachio the Pug who loves to learn and tackles many of the struggles learners face as he completes his work for the Pugademy, School for Smart Pugs. Pistachio will be a...

Writing seems to be a tough skill for most children. Actually many adults would confess to not being great writers either. And teaching writing can be an even bigger challenge. I’m not talking the mechanical act of writing… I’m talking about getting words into the form of sentences, paragraphs, dialogue, and pages, with a cohesive feel that accomplishes your purpose and reaches your audience.

 I have found writing is less painful when it is associated with something FUN. Thus I promote writing from PLAY.  (I am in the middle of a series called “Using PLAY to improve Writing.” You can find the videos on my FB page .)

 I know what you’re thinking. How do I use PLAY to address writing?

 First, let me clarify what I mean by writing. It’s any way that I, the writer, communicate what I understand OUT to an audience. It could be a paragraph, a data table, a graph, a visualization, a video, a script, a poster etc. And writing...

Zootopia (from Disney) has become one of my favorite movies lately, and not just because my son loves it and we've watched it over 300 times. But because it's clever, touches my heart and inspires me. I absolutely love Judy Hopps. Her naivety is relatable and her desire to change the world is not unlike my own. And Nick Wilde, well his situation and transformation is much like many young men I've met in my education journey. 

I love to analyze movies and find the deep nuances woven into the story by the writer and director. I want to extract all of the meaning and experience they intended for me. For this reason I believe films are a great opportunity to exercise our thinking muscles and write.  Especially in the 21st century where we have access to most movies in our own homes. Additionally, some of the harder things to observe in texts i.e. irony, metaphor, subtext, character change, etc. are easier to learn and understand in movies....