Archives December 2022

/ November 14, 2022

Creator of MEsquad, a brand of affordable, customizable, and nearly indestructible pairs of silicone-based glasses for children, Katherine Giovannone is a versatile entrepreneur who comes from a strong background in finance and business operations.

The “MEsquad” Journey

Katherine initially began her career in banking. After realizing very quickly that the profession wasn’t for her, she decided that it was time to peek inside and explore all the creative parts of her brain. From there she went on to land jobs in sales, distribution, and manufacturing roles, a journey of events that eventually led her to create the MEsquad brand after seeing that the children’s eyewear industry was desperately missing an affordable and durable kids’ collection that was also fun for them too.

The first MEsquad designs were meant to be launched in stores, however, the COVID-19 pandemic changed all of that, with all of their tradeshows

The Simplicity of Cider, by Amy E. Reichert has been on my TBR for a minute and I figured it was the perfect time of the year to (finally) pick it up. I’m so glad I did!

Sanna Lund and her dad, Einars, live on their family apple orchard in Door County, WI. While the business is struggling, Sanna stays devoted to making cider and tending to the orchard alongside her dad. Developers are more than interested in buying the orchard and turning it into a theme park, but the idea to Einars and Sanna is unthinkable. Einars hires Isaac Banks, a handsome father from California, for summer help on the orchard. He moves onto the land with his son, Bass, from whom he is keeping a big secret. While Sanna appreciates Isaac’s help on the orchard after her dad is injured, she can’t help but feeling like the newest

By Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera

Partners power Coursera. It is their expertise, content, and credentials that bring over 110 million learners to the platform to transform their lives. As we continue to expand these valuable partnerships and the job-relevant content on Coursera, I’m pleased to welcome Marni Baker Stein as our new Chief Content Officer, starting December 19, 2022.

Marni will be responsible for deepening our relationships with our 275+ university and industry partners. She’ll work closely with them on content and credential innovations that will increase access, align with job market demands, and meet learners where they are. She brings more than 25 years of experience producing and scaling online and hybrid education programs to Coursera. 

Most recently, Marni was Chief Academic Officer and Provost at Western Governors University (WGU), where she led its four colleges and served more than 135,000 students with programs that improved access and affordability

by Terry Heick

You try to fake it, but it limps right out of your mouth, barely alive: “How was school?”

You might use a slight variation like, “What’d you learn in school today?” but in a single sentence, all that is wrong with ‘school.’

First, the detachment–you literally have no idea what they’re learning or why. (You leave that up to school because that’s what school’s for, right?) Which means you know very little about what your children are coming to understand about the world, only able to speak about it in vague terms of content areas (e.g., math, history).

Then, there’s the implication–they don’t talk about the way that they’ve been moved or impressed upon or changed but in the rarest cases; you have to drag it out of them.

And there’s also the matter of form–you ask them as if a developing learner will be able to

One important finding from Moll and colleagues’ study is that the people with whom children interacted possessed a multidimensional understanding of a child. They report:

Thus, the “teacher” in these home based contexts of learning will know the child as a “whole” person, not merely as a “student,” taking into account or having knowledge about the multiple spheres of activity within which the child is enmeshed. In comparison, the typical teacher–student relationships seem “thin” and “single- stranded,” as the teacher “knows” the students only from their performance within rather limited classroom contexts. (pp. 133–134)

These teacher-learners were intent on learning from and with families, creating a two-way stream of communication that centered the experiences of their students’ households. Students were not separate from their communities. This intention, and the actions of home visits and observations of students’ family networks, established a level of trust with families that helped create a