Blog
New Advisor Dr. Vanessa Dennen
Twigmore would like to welcome Vanessa Dennen as an advisor. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. As a researcher, Vanessa studies online discourse and communities of practice. Her primary teaching areas include program evaluation, learning theory and designing interactive courseware. She has a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology and an M.S. in Educational Psychology (Learning & Cognition, Inquiry) from Indiana University. We couldn’t be happier to have her involved in the company.
Posted in: Twigmore Company | Tagged: educational psychology, florida state university, vanessa dennen |
New Advisor Lloyd Bromberg
Twigmore would like to welcome Lloyd Bromberg as an adviser. Most recently he was the Director of School Programs for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lloyd also served as Director of Social Studies and Director of Staff Development for the New York City Public Schools. His experience will be invaluable in helping us develop our service. We are very excited to have him on board and look forward to working together.
Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged: |
SCRABBLE TWIG: “Don’t Play Scared”
Back in my Scrabble-playing days, Joel Sherman, former World Scrabble Champion and director of the Manhattan Scrabble Club used to tell me, “Don’t play scared.” After all, I learned, it is much more important to play offensively, doing the best we can with our own tiles rather than worrying about how much better our opponents may be or what they may do with their tiles.
Joel’s mantra, a pillar of his “Newbie’s First Scrabble Lesson,” also happens to be a “twig,” or burst of enlightenment, that I have taken beyond Scrabble and applied to my life. Broadly speaking, I try to take risks and follow my instincts rather than lose sleep thinking about what others are doing or what could go wrong. The lesson continues to serve me well.
Although I no longer attend the Scrabble Club, I still play regularly online and read the Club’s weekly newsletter. After all, I never know where I will pick up a valuable twig.
Posted in: How To, Human Interest | Tagged: allison-baer, joel-sherman, manhattan-scrabble-club, scrabble |
Twigmore Presents at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable
We were proud to be selected as one of five companies to present last week at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable. The Roundtable is a monthly event that brings together entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and strategic investors. We want to thank Steve Brotman of Greenhill SAVP and others who provided great feedback on our presentation. Thanks also to Murat Aktihanoglu (@muratny) for organizing the evening!
Posted in: Twigmore Company | Tagged: entrepreneurs-roundtable, greenhill-savp, murat-aktihanoglu, steve-brotman |
Watch First Twigmore Class on Demand!
We are excited to bring you the full video on demand of our first class “How to Write a Winning College Application Essay” taught by education consultant Dr. Allison Baer! Hope you find it helpful and please let us know what you think. Happy Twigging!
Posted in: How To, Twigmore Company | Tagged: allison-baer, college-application-essay, video-on-demand |
Federal Effort to Push Junk Food from Public Schools
NY Times article says the Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, french fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that any vending machines that remain in schools should be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” We think it’s interesting that Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss is involved, given the fact that Coca Cola is based in his home state.
Posted in: Human Interest, Politics | Tagged: arne duncan, barack obama, ny times, public school |
Yale Faces $150 Million Deficit, Forced to Make Cuts
NY Times article on Yale University announcing that it’s planning a number of steps to close a remaining $150 million budget gap, including cutting staff, freezing salaries for deans and officers, reducing the number of graduate students — even turning down all thermostats to 68 degrees. Richard C. Levin, Yale’s president, and Peter Salovey, its provost, said the measures are necessary because of the drop in the endowment to $16.3 billion last June from its peak of $22.9 billion in June 2008. Many other elite universities have been affected by the economic downturn as well.
Posted in: Human Interest | Tagged: education, school, university, yale |
Apple iPad vs Kindle DX: Which is Better for Education?
Interesting PCWorld blog on the pluses and minuses of each device. The author points out that if the iPad doesn’t succeed as a consumer electronics device–its initial target market–it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader. The fledgling e-textbook market looks promising, and there’s little competition right now aside from the Kindle DX, which has undergone a few university trials in recent months, including one at Princeton University. It seems likely that new technologies like these will be useful in educating more efficiently.
Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: ipad, kindle, pcworld, princeton, technology |
My Time at Twigmore
It was a bit less than a month ago that I wrote my first post for Twigmore marking the beginning of an experience that I will truly cherish. I have learned a lot from working with the Twigmore team in terms of the challenges and rewards of starting and running a business. It has been a pleasure to be a part of Twigmore’s growth this month and I have enjoyed watching the success of a company so dedicated to advancing the way people learn. I look forward to Twigmore’s continued success as the company continues to grow.
Editor’s Note: Cory joined us as part of the MIT Externship Program.
Posted in: Twigmore Company | Tagged: internship, mit-externship-program, twigmore.com |
Donating Sound to the “Bass Guitar With No Sound”
My brother and his wife recommended Donorschoose.org to me over a year ago. I finally got around to trying out the site and recently making a donation. Donorschoose.org is “an online charity connecting you to classrooms in need.” In other words, teachers post descriptions of class projects and materials needed, donors choose the projects they want to contribute to and then the students follow-up to thank the donor and show what they learned.
As an example, I chose to contribute to the “Bass Guitar with No Sound” project. This project caught my eye because I grew up humming bass lines and wanting to play the bass guitar, but only getting that chance later in life. I love the fact that I can help a group of students to follow their dreams and twig a musical instrument. We at Twigmore like this kind of grassroots initiative – improving one classroom at a time!
Posted in: How To, Web/Technology | Tagged: bass-guitar, charity, donation, donorschoose.org |