Friday, August 3, 2018

‘Google It’ by Anna Crowley Redding

Book cover, 'Google It, How Two Students' Mission to Organize the Internet Changed the World' by Anna Crowley Redding. Image depicts white background with portions of typographic letters rendered in blue, yellow, red, and green
Google It by Anna Crowley Redding (Feiwel and Friends, 2018) tells the story of Google and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

This book follows Google’s origin as a doctoral thesis project at Stanford University, to its existence today as part of a company that has revolutionized technology and the seeking of information.

Prior to Google, Internet searches were based solely on keywords. “So if you were looking for information about horses, web searches would give you every site that mentioned the word horse. And you would have to sit there and load each result, searching for the information you needed.”

School library ‘climate’ supports diversity

A school library’s “climate” goes a long way toward acknowledging and promoting diversity. Michelle Easley offers several practical suggestions to help create a library climate where everyone is welcome. (Via Knowledge Quest, American Association of School Librarians)

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Early start on processing new curriculum

Stacks of educational materials in fabric sacks, or arranged in shrink-wrapped piles on a table-top.

Been getting an early start on processing new English language-arts curriculum for Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts. Appreciation to Santa Rosa City Schools for granting me these extra hours. It’ll make a big difference for getting these materials ready, as “user-friendly” as I can make them, for my classroom customers.

‘Escape to the Above’ by Adam Jay Epstein

Book cover, 'Escape to the Above' by Adam Jay Epstein
When a questing hero races through a tomb — pursued by an enormous boulder or bombarded with a flight of poisoned darts — do you ever think about whose job it must’ve been to set up those lavish obstacles?

Wily Snare is a “trapsmith,” employed by a reclusive wizard who jealously guards his treasure. Wily has worked for the wizard Stalag for as long as he can remember: keeping the traps in working order, cleaning up after and coaching the “monsters” who help to guard the tomb, and clearing away the latest set of unconscious heroes before the next “visitors” arrive.

Wily has never been above-ground because Stalag convinced him that he would die if he was exposed to sunlight. Stalag has told him a lot of things, actually. But an unusual set of tomb-raiding adventurers bring unimaginable change to Wily’s ordered existence.

Escape to the Above is an exciting tale, told from the perspective of a skilled technician who understands the dungeon’s secrets in a way that few others do. I look forward to further adventures of Wily and his friends.

In tight labor market, skilled applicants should ‘rise to top’

Inexperienced job applicants face “their best odds of success in years” as employers drop work-history and degree requirements. That’s according to Kelsey Gee, writing for the Wall Street Journal.