Broadband, the Internet, and Rural Education

In 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Part of the stimulus bill included about $7 billion to build or expand our broadband infrastructure. I was one of the independent, industry experts to serve as a grant reviewer for these broadband projects.

Clearly, education, specifically schools, would play a big part in building our broadband infrastructure. Putting a "big data pipe" on a campus would allow students and faculty the ability to leverage the growing learning opportunities out on the internet and it would set an anchor location for infrastructure that others could some day hook into. 

Earlier this month the Department of Education announced a new on-line community for rural educators where "educators will be able to connect with peers in their home states and across the nation to exchange ideas and learn from one another".

Building a classroom library 101

Summer is upon us! Teachers are packing up classrooms and new teachers are receiving their credentials and diplomas. Soon, the new school year will be upon us. 


For those entering the teaching profession in the upcoming year, this is a great time to get a jump start on your classroom library. We found a great on-line resource built by Maria Thibeault to help you plan your library.


To help you locate books, please remember to check out our on-line marketplace for building and maintaining classroom libraries. If you are changing grades or have extra classroom library books you'd like to sell our site provides a great opportunity to turn those idle books in to cash!

Entrepreneurial encouragement: solving real problems

Living in the SF Bay Area is a unique opportunity. Entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of the vibe. With that comes the challenges of starting a company. Sure, there are easy parts, but the hardest part is answering the question, will this thing fly? 

Having tried this before, I can tell you that there are ninety-nine reasons why your venture will never  get off the ground. I wouldn't suggest that you ignore them completely, that would be a fools folly, but you have to firmly believe in the one reason you believe this will fly.

Trend spotting

A few months ago, Dylan Ratigan was broadcasting from San Jose, CA. He was kicking off his 30 million jobs tour. This particular day, he had found his way into the offices of Chegg. 


During his broadcast, he focused on bringing technology to education, and leveraging technology to spot trends- both "hot" trends as well as "cold" trends. The trend information actually lies in the data behind what the user is actually seeing. 

"If every child had a book..."

I was rummaging around the internet this afternoon and found the latest ad campaign from the folks a Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).  

How many books are in a classroom library?

As I was researching classroom libraries, I came across an interesting factoid. A major publisher recommends that a classroom of average size should have a classroom library of 600 to 1000+ titles to offer a vibrant in-room reading resource center. 

At first blush, I thought the number of books was pretty high. I know the size of the library in my wife's second grade class and there was no way she had that many titles. Or, so I thought.

The economics of change

Change is inevitable. The seasons change; our stage in life changes; our work changes. Change is just a fact of life, but the personal economics of change is very different in the educational world versus change in the corporate world. 


I think a lot of folks outside of education don't understand how truly different the two worlds are when it comes to change. 

Savage Inequalities; Great Teachers; Desire for Change

In the dot com bust of 2000, I had decided to leave technology and enter into education. It started by substitute teaching in a local school district. I tried may hand at all levels. Finally, I had found my calling, teaching at the High School level. I enjoyed the kids and the faculty was passionate about education and I felt truly welcomed.

My next step was to enroll in a teacher training program. As I worked my way through the coursework, there was one book that we were assigned that has stuck with me to this day. I don't remember the class, but the book was Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol. 

Rainy days and avatars

May 26th, this is pretty late in the season for it to rain in California but it's good weather to remind us why teachers have classroom libraries. 

The Gods must be crazy

This is my first blog, and I'm going to start with why I decided to create Classroom2Classroom. This project began about 8 months ago. My neighbor was getting ready to relocate to Wisconsin and he was going to have a garage sale. So, if we had anything, "feel free to put it out".

Not one to pass up a chance to clear out the garage, we gladly joined in. At the last minute, my wife handed me three bags of children's reading books.