Sara Jordan's 'Songs That Teach' Blog

The Frankfurt Book Fair - Celebrating Diversity Big Time

2009-10-28T09:51:00.002-04:00

Earlier this month I spent a very full five days at the the world's largest and most important book fair, the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. Try to imagine a world community of over 180,000 international trade visitors, viewing more than 400,000 books displayed by publishers from more than 100 different countries - all over a period of five days.

Click to enlarge images.

A bird's eye view of Hall 8 [left]. An impromptu concert (during the fair) by Alex Jacobowitz [right].

The experience was incredible. Visitors were ferried from hall to hall by shuttle bus, to meetings with hundreds of publishers from dozens of countries.

Always thinking as an educator, it came to mind that it be wonderful if we could find a multicultural experience equally as exciting for our students.

And then this week...I think I found it. I've discovered a free website which uses social networking to teach students languages. The Livemocha website offers students the chance to study and acquire 30 different languages through the help of other online participants who reside in all corners of the globe. The only caveat that I can see so far is that participating students must be at least 13 years of age. You can check it out at: http://www.livemocha.com

Now you'll know where I'll be spending my time! ¡Hasta luego!

My Procrastination and Professor Jason

2009-04-17T11:54:00.002-04:00

Do you feel that the time we spend on the internet is affecting us in a negative way? Yesterday I read this report (on line of course):
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1891111,00.html?cnn=yes

According to the article, students who spend time on Facebook, average one grade point lower in school. Facebook users, in general, become even more distracted and less focused. There have been other studies too, with similar report results. Earlier this year, Oxford University neuroscientist, Susan Greenfield linked Facebook use with diminished mental abilities.

Personally, I tend to procrastinate way too much when I should be tackling a creative project, such as composing songs for our next two albums. That’s how I know all about Facebook and YouTube.

But I find YouTube especially uplifting! Last week, while on YouTube, I fell in love with Professor Jason’s YouTube lessons. This amazing, amazing guy has made available, almost 40 teaching videos teaching grammar points in Spanish and Portuguese. It seems that I'm not the only one in love with Professor Jason. He has more than 2,000 subscribers to his video series and they come from all over the world. You can check him out at:
http://www.YouTube.com/languagenow

My Two Incredible Kids

2009-03-27T15:51:00.009-04:00

You know, I think that as parents, sometimes we neglect to tell our own children how proud we are of them. I want to take this moment to tell the whole world how proud I am of my son, Ben and my daughter, Jesi.

Benjamin, who is now 28, is an amazing web designer and photographer who combines extreme sports with philanthropic causes. He shoots amazing videos while paragliding through the sky which he then edits when he should be sleeping. Benjamin made the video below last year documenting the clear-cut forests and pine beetle infestation problems in British Columbia. To learn more about his plans to paraglide across the entire country of Canada visiting and photographing kids in summer camps from the sky, visit www.AboveandBeyondCanada.com.

My daughter Jessica, who is 23, has become a well known video artist in Toronto. She has made a name for herself producing animated music videos for Toronto bands. Each video takes her three months to complete. Last week, three of Jesi's music videos were featured on the Much Music website. All three videos can be viewed by clicking here: http://blog.muchmusic.com/get-animated-jessi-the-elders-videos/

Pueblo Inglés, Intense and Amazing

2009-01-20T16:41:00.003-05:00

Last year, when I was chosen to be a participant in the Pueblo Inglés program, I felt excited and full of anticipation.

Well, I am here now and would like to report that the experience (thus far) has exceeded my expectations. Take 21 Spaniards who are presently teaching English and are being sponsored by their government to polish their skills. Add 16 Anglo speakers (staying the week “gratis” and acting as volunteer tutors) coming from as far as Canada, the USA, the U.K. and Australia. Throw in 2 amazing program leaders. Then bus them all four hours from Madrid to a 4-star resort in the mountains and instruct them to speak nothing but English for 18 hours a day. This is life at Pueblo Inglés.

I would recommend this truly wonderful experience to any inquisitive person (and especially to any teacher) who is a native English speaker. It’s true, you will be asked to converse in English from 8 am until 10 pm and then encouraged to socialize (in English) at the bar for a couple more hours, but the entire experience is incredible and the many, new friends you will make, unforgettable.

Before the official start of the week, I spent a day or two walking the city of Madrid. Next time, I’ll definitely look for accommodation closer to Plaza Mejor, the true center of the old city, where everything of interest happens.

Walking through the historic city.

Our group is staying, in the mountains, at the Abadia de Los Templarios, where the views and the food are unprecedented.

Our Spanish colleagues are a lively bunch. Here you can see that the studying goes on all day and into the night.

To learn more about the programs at Pueblo Inglés and how you, too, can participate, visit www.puebloingles.com.

Home for the Holidays

2008-12-23T14:55:00.003-05:00

After a crazy couple of months taking me from Frankfurt, Germany to Orlando, Florida and then Guadalajara, Mexico, I can say that there is nothing better than being home! And there is some amazing talent here too! Really amazing! Last Saturday I had the opportunity to listen to some music at our local jazz venue, The Cat’s Caboose. What great jazz musicians! What a wonderful way to spend a snowy Saturday!

Musicians, Randy Stirtzinger, keyboards, Roman Lysiuk, bari sax, Bill Melymukah, trumpet and Al Robertson, tenor.

Here at Sara Jordan Publishing we will be “closing shop” for a few days to spend time with loved ones. We wish you all a wonderful holiday filled with fun, laughter, friends and family.

It’s a Crazy Season!

2008-10-24T16:19:00.005-04:00

Wow! The last few months have been crazy. We’ve completed all of this year’s new products including Bilingual Songs English-Mandarin, vol. 1, Character Building Songs (these are really neat rounds with activities) plus the Learning Sight Words series of reproducible resource/activity books to complement the four part Singing Sight Words series. Check them out! I think you’ll like them.

I’ve just come back from Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world. This was my third time and I still can’t get over how enormous it is and how wonderful it is to meet so many interesting people from all over the world. 300,000 visitors and buyers attend the Frankfurt Book Fair every year.

Pictured below, are two new distributors we met in Frankfurt. Angela Baron, owns the Spanish bookstore, La Librería in Bonn, Germany. Fotini Katranidou and her husband, own Editions Katranidou, a publishing company specializing in French resources, based in Greece.

Angela Baron from La Librería [left] and Fotini Katranidou and her husband [right] from Editions Katranidou.

Travels in the Golden State

2008-07-24T16:06:00.004-04:00

Very rarely am I ever this slow about writing entries here. Sorry! I’ve had lots on my mind. We are recording some great new albums next month! They are top secret right now but trust me, they’re great!

In late May I made a mad tour of California and was able to visit many of our vendors. I’ll share a few photos of my many visits and stops.

Michelle Potter hosts an awesome playspace for kids at the Kidspot Imagination Center. Sebastopol is a small semi-urban community located in western Sonoma County. I’d never actually driven through this part of California before. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Michelle Potter with her daughter [left] and the Kidspot Imagination Center.

Bob Krantz has been in the school supply business for 35 years and 34 of those years have been at the present location of School Daze in Santa Rosa. He can recount many, many interesting stories about the industry.

Bob Krantz [left] and his store, Skool Daze [right].

Bookworm Educational Supplies is located in Vallejo, California. According to owner, Kelli Orona, Vallejo is a bedroom community of San Francisco with many commuters leaving and returning daily. Kelli’s store is hopping with activity. Fueled by a neighboring tutoring service that Kelli also oversees, it seems that the Bookworm is always full of action and activity. Apart from the tutoring service and the store, Kelli and her husband also organize trips twice a year allowing local kids to visit the NASA program. Kelli is very proud of her programs and rightly so.

The Bookworm [left] and Kelli Orona [right].

Next stop was to El Cerrito where I visited with Charles Tai and his store Star Educational Supply. Charles has been a long time friend and customer. His store, in El Cerrito is just outside of San Francisco. According to Charles, over 112 different languages are spoken by children in the local school district West Contra Costa County Unified School District.

Charles [left] and his store [right].

Charles suggested that I take a trip to Pleasanton to see The Golden Apple Learning Store. John MacDougall, the store’s owner is a very high energy guy. You can see why the store naturally offers all sorts of events and fun activities for children. Just as I drove in, I caught John off to the local post office with a day’s worth of parcels to ship. Now with the price of gas, this might not be such a rare occurrence anywhere!

John MacDougall on his bicycle [left] and his store [right].

Falling in love with McAllen, Texas

2008-05-27T15:12:00.000-04:00

I have been in love with Texas ever since the three years I lived in Denton, while attending college. Two weeks I fell in love all over again, but this time it was with McAllen, Texas. McAllen is great. I’d love to live there! You can see the sun from every place in McAllen. No tall buildings. The air, although warm (or perhaps hot!) seems very clean. The people are friendly and the city boasts an enormous medical center. It seems as though I’m not the only person who feels this way. Upon my return I read an article on CNN online listing the top 10 places to live in the USA. Guess which place was #1? McAllen! Let me take you on a quick trip through Humble, Texas and on to McAllen.

As you know, everything in Texas is big; so big that it made sense for me to fly to McAllen rather than drive from Houston. On my way to the airport I stopped in to visit Debby Barnett Beal at the A2Z Educational Supplies Store in Humble, Texas. Debby’s store is filled to the brim with neat, educational resources and as she says, it’s really close to the airport!

The A2Z Educational Supply Store [left] and Debbie Barnett Beal [right] helping a customer in her store.

The gigantic Gateway Printing and Office Supply headquarters is located in Edinburg, a short distance down the highway from McAllen. The main store is housed in an old building with plank floors. It feels like stepping back in time, especially because of the friendly customer service. At the back of the store, within the same building, is the printing operation.

The enormous, Gateway store [left] and chatting with Shawnea Cantu [right], buyer.

O’Neil Specialty Company has been a McAllen family business for 3 generations. Although there are two locations for the O’Neil Specialty Company, I met with Nydia Garza at the home office and warehouse in McAllen.

The O'Neall warehouse located in McAllen [left] and Nydia Garza Califa [right] in her office.

Jones Cook Stationers is a well known chain right across Texas.
One of the main locations, which has an excellent selection of educational resources, is located right in McAllen. Austin Miller, Pily Almendarez and I had a great visit. I love McAllen and can hardly wait to return!

The educational audio display at Jones Cook Stationers [left], Austin Miller [right], manager and Pily Almendarez [bottom], sales associate.

Celebrating Texas – Where Everything is Big!

2008-05-09T10:04:00.007-04:00

I can’t think of any better place, to brag about our award-winning, English-Spanish Bilingual Songs series, than in Texas. For the past week I’ve been doing just that, criss-crossing Texas via planes and rental cars in order to visit as many educational retail stores as I can.

Now I can truly vouch for the old adage that everything in Texas is BIG! Big stores, big hearts and big aspirations! Texas is so big, as a matter of fact, that it’s easier and more cost effective to fly, from city to city, than to drive.

I began by visiting Cynthia Huereque in El Paso. Check-out her enormous, 9,000 square foot, store, Eraser Dust.

Then on to meet with Irma Escontrias, the owner of Houston’s Eraser Dust store.

Houston is also home to some pretty interesting and bright kids’ toy stores. About 30 minutes of GPS assisted driving took me to Esther Charubhat’s brand new colorful toy store, Westside Kinder Toys. This store has so many toys and activities packed into it that it is hard to walk!

It took a lot of sleuthing to find the site of Elayne Wolfe-McNeil’s A+ Literacy Education and Development but it was well worth it.

Next stop was Crystal Children and Teacher Supply to meet with manager, Merrylyn Thornton. This interesting store fills all of the curriculum needs of an educational store but also rivals the brightness and visual appeal of a toy store. With a teaching background, and presently directing the tutorial services, Merrylyn knows almost everything about every product in the store and can answer the questions of concerned teachers and parents with authority.

Houston’s West Side Teacher Supply store is managed by Rosalyn Arredono. Originally from El Salvador, Rosalyn is able to accommodate the needs of Hispanic as well as English speaking shoppers. West Side Teacher Supply is fairly new, and was one of the original sites of the Southwest Teacher Supply stores. The place was buzzing with the activity of teachers and parents doing last minute shopping before the beginning of the next school year.

Looking at the front of Coastal Teacher Supply in Houston, one would never imagine that Carole and Clyde’s store is as big as it is. This store is deceiving and you could spend an entire day inside discovering teaching materials.

Bright and cheerful Aurora Hart is the owner of Learning Tools in Humble, Texas. Since Aurora bought the business three years ago her store has now grown to 2 locations within the same plaza. Congratulations Aurora!

I’ll continue soon with the rest of my Texas tour, the home of big stores, big aspirations and big hearts!

p.s. If you ever rent a car, make sure you pay for the insurance package. Look at this damage and learn from my experience! Luckily I had paid the extra for insurance.

Many thanks to the guys at Midas Muffler, who found and replaced a burned-out fuse in my rental van, so that my GPS could continue to function. These guys saved my life as I tried to navigate the freeways of Houston!

Family Time is Special Time

2008-04-29T14:16:00.002-04:00

I have a nickname for my daughter. I call her G.G. That's short for Genius Girl. Last week G.G. came to visit and brought me a birthday present she had sculpted and painted - a cute little fridge magnet. G.G. has a talent for sculpting, illustration, animation, film making and designing clothes. School has never been easy for G.G. who daydreams and struggles through academic courses. I am mentioning this because I believe that all kids have a little genius inside of themselves. Of course, geniuses are not good at everything they do, but as teachers and parents, its an important and special challenge for us to spot and encourage the talents and strengths within each child.

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Educational Fun in Guatemala

2008-02-27T15:19:00.003-05:00

I'd like you to meet a unique woman, Silvia Saga de Pineda. Silvia lives in Guatemala where she teaches 27 kids (including her 5 year old daughter) in the garage of her home. Living in a high-risk, disadvantaged area, Silvia and her husband feel strongly that change can come about by offering each and every child a quality education. Silvia wrote to me last week, letting me know that she has been teaching her students using the songs in our newsletters. You can learn more about Silvia's program by visiting her website, http://www.compartiendoesperanza.ws, or contact her directly to donate supplies to her school: silvisaga@gmail.com.

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Silvia Saga de Pineda and her class of children from a disadvantaged area of Guatemala.

People en Español Gift Subscription!

2008-01-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

This week I was offered a second gift subscription to People en Español for FREE when I renew my own subscription.

I know that there are so many of you out there whose classes might benefit from having People en Español in the reading center of your classroom or library.

Please email me if you'd like to be the recipient of this gift subscription. There is only one, so first come first serve! You must reside in the USA.

¡Hasta luego!

Sara

Return from San Miguel

2008-01-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted many entries. I've just returned from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This time it wasn't even for business, so except for being sick a couple of days, it was a great, restful vacation. I am absolutely in love with the Bed and Breakfast, that has become our home away from home when we are in San Miguel. I recommend it to anyone. Maricela is a fabulous cook. Breakfast and the main meal of the day, la comida, is served to all guests 6 days of the week. You can check-out her website here: http://www.casamaricela.com

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The view from our window [top left]. The streets of San Miguel [top right]. The Botanical Gardens [bottom left]. The colors of the town square [bottom right].

Happy Holidays from everyone at Sara Jordan Publishing

2007-12-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Guadalajara Book Fair

2007-11-29T15:22:00.000-05:00

Life is good and the people are great. This is our fifth year exhibiting at Latin America's largest book fair. Always well attended by professionals and the public alike.

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Sheila and Rogelio Terán of Exedra Books, in Panama [top left]. Excitement, music, publishers and people at the Guadalajara FIL.

San Antonio – People Who Make a Difference

2007-11-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

I wasn’t looking forward to Tuesday morning! Behind the wheel of a rental car, I tried my best to maneuver myself through the freeways of San Antonio.

But the entire day was wonderful. The best thing about meeting with educational retailers and publishers is that everyone is as excited about helping kids as I am. I’m going to take you on a tour here, of the places and people I visited. I’ll include links to their websites so that you can have a close look at everything too. Isn’t the internet great?

My first meeting of the morning was with Leslie Boulet of PCI. PCI is an amazing place. In 1991, co-founders Janie Haugen-McLane and Jeff McLane had a vision of helping challenged children and adults become successful in life. They did this by publishing special education materials. Not only has this company become hugely successful with a staff of eighty, they also have a program, in-house, where they teach challenged adults to help out in the stock room. Leslie Boulet, who presently organizes the product for all of PCI’s catalogs was kind enough to take me on a tour.

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Leslie Boulet and the outside of PCI.

Next stop of the day was to the NES headquarters where I met with Joe Atkinson and Omar Cavacos in sales, and office manager Sylvia Cantu. NES is very well known in the state of Texas for its bilingual and Head Start programs which are thoughtfully assembled for school districts. The company was founded over a decade ago by Professor Lupe Garza.

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Sylvia Cantu and the outside of NES.

The Learning Zone is always a neat place to visit. Learning Zone has now expanded to include three stores in the San Antonio area. The most recent acquisition, The Education Shop, has kept its own name. I met with store manager Amanda Rendon who has such an incredible memory that she remembered everything about our last visit over two years ago. It’s easy to see that Learning Zone is a popular place. During my visit the place was hopping with teachers, coming in to pick up school supplies.

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Amanda Rendon and the outside of Learning Zone.

Last stop of the day was the beautiful SchooLocker where I met with Marlene Ehrsam. I was admiring the ceiling, which is “pillow insulation” painted blue to represent the sky, when Marlene told me that her sister, an architect before joining SchooLocker, had played a major part in the construction of the building. SchooLocker was founded by Marlene’s parents who own Guerra Publishing, a publishing company of educational resources teaching Spanish.

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Marlene Ehrsam and inside SchooLocker.

Halloween, ACTFL, and Literacy Breakthrough!

2007-10-29T15:59:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween Everyone! A big congratulations to the winner of our pumpkin photo contest. Check out this wonderful photo sent to us by Juanjo Ramos of Barcelona, Spain! Juanjo, we will be sending you a copy of Celebrate Holidays. Congratulations once again and many thanks to all of the entrants who participated in this contest.

Our winning Pumpkin Contest entry.

Anyone planning to attend ACTFL in San Antonio? Stéphane Derône and I can be found at booth 614 promoting Linguascope, the greatest way to teach students online. Please stop by to say “Hello” and qualify for terrific discounts on Linguascope subscriptions and Sara Jordan Learning Resources.

Literacy Breakthrough! Many of you know that I have been doing some volunteer tutoring in my spare time. This weekend, my student made a big breakthrough. It’s a great feeling for him and for me. Read about the unconventional ways he’s been learning and I’ve been tutoring. Some of these strategies might work for you!

The Frankfurt Book Fair - What a "Messe"!

2007-10-16T14:54:00.000-04:00

Actually, this is a play on words. The word "Messe" means "fair" in German. Having just returned from eight days in Germany where we exhibited as part of the worlds biggest book fair, I can't stop thinking about the Frankfurt Book Messe.

If you had the chance to see this fair, you'd be utterly amazed! The fair, which consists of ten enormous halls covering 172,000 square meters, attracts over 7,000 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors from around the world. Buses shuttle visitors back and forth from hall to hall.

It's a totally exhilarating experience. So many people from so many countries, speaking so many languages. I've posted a few photos here.

Click to enlarge images.

Meeting with Stephane Derone [top left] of Linguascope in the U.K. Conversing with Sean Charlebois and Peter Crabtree [top right] of Crabtree Publishing. The "messe" was crowded [bottom] with people and excitement from 9 am to 6:30 pm every day!

My Nephew the Genius

2007-09-28T14:18:00.000-04:00

My sister’s kid is a genius. I watch him from a distance. I say “from a distance” because it seems he’s always sitting glued to the computer screen. However, I worry about all the time that he spends and if it is being channelled into something challenging.

This got me to thinking. Chances are, there are hundreds of kids in my nephew’s French Immersion school, also sitting at home with their eyes glued to monitors. Are they learning new and exciting things or are they instant messaging their friends?

I can see a solution. For the cost of perhaps 50 cents or a dollar per kid, all of the students in your child’s school (and in my nephew’s school) could be accessing online arcade games teaching English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. These games are terrific. They would be a valuable resource for the students of any school.

A subscription price of $399 per year allows all students and teachers of a school to have access, both at school and at home, for an entire year. Teachers even have access to an additional 3 sites with downloadable lessons and quizzes to use at school.

Linguascope is something that every school and PTA across the country should consider. After all, we aren’t just investing in what students are doing at school, but what they are doing at home too. Click here to learn more about Linguascope, try some sample pages, and subscribe online.

The Most Precious Time

2007-09-18T10:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, in the big rush of meeting deadlines, we forget that our most precious times are those spent with family. Last weekend was a time of anticipation and celebration because my son, Benjamin came to visit. He lives across the country and spends much of his time traveling to distant and exotic destinations. I don’t get to see him often but we did spend some time in one of the most exotic places in our community, the Butterfly Conservatory. Ben, who is a professional photographer, can take great photos even with my small camera. I’ve included a few here.

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Speaking of the big rush to meet deadlines, we will be celebrating the launch of our “Singing Sight Words” series on October 15^th. This neat series is based on the famous list of ‘sight words’ compiled by Edward Dolch. This new program is a fun way to help all students, young and old, learn to read English. You can purchase “Singing Sight Words” in advance, at a very special discounted price.

Could Text Messaging Be the Cure for Illiteracy?

2007-08-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I went for my meeting with my literacy student. The hour I spend volunteering every week is always gratifying, charges me up and gives me so much to think about. While going through our usual routine of comprehension quizzes and worksheets reviewing important basic skills, he started to ask me about the word “our”.

“This is not what I had been expecting,” he announced. “I was expecting ‘R’.” That is what I have seen when texting my friends. This led to a conversation about the differences between “our”, “are” and the “R” which is used in text messaging.

At first I was horrified. My literacy student’s dyslexia had discouraged him from trying to read and write for over 25 years of his life. Imagine him now texting and using “r” instead of “our” and “are”. But, then again, here he was, inseparable from his cell phone, trying his best to message his friends. Before parting ways, we decided to make a short list of messages (using conventional spelling) that he could refer to when texting on his cell phone.

What an interesting phenomena! According to my Google research, text messaging has become the dominant mode of written communication for many young people. As such, it is starting to be adapted by many progressive educators as a learning tool. Apparently students, who would never write at all before, can’t be stopped now!

Next week, I plan to have my student teach me how to text message! I’ll keep you posted.

How Many Wrongs Make a Right?

2007-07-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

Do spelling and grammatical errors drive you whacky? They do for me. I was hoping to escape the problem, years ago, when I resigned from my position as a teacher. It wasn’t so much the students who were driving me nuts. It was the teachers’ mistakes!

I’ve heard that if something is written wrong enough times, it eventually becomes right. Perhaps this is why we now see CD’s with an apostrophe. ABC’s and 123’s often sport apostrophes too. Is this world ‘apostrophe crazy’? Perhaps people are hoping that if something is done wrong, often enough, it will become right. If you check out the alternate spellings on Google, I’m sure that you will find that we are coming close to the tipping point.

One of my favorite grammatical sites was created by The Apostrophe Abuse Society. http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/examples_1.htm

Although the society is no longer soliciting examples of apostrophe abuse for their website, you could carry on the tradition by having your children or students assemble a collage of photos demonstrating incorrect uses of the apostrophe.

Somehow the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar must have hear that I’m fanatical about grammatical mistakes. They now send me their newsletter. Check them out here: http://grammatically.blogspot.com

In short, we should remind ourselves that spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes are not tolerated on résumés in this very competitive world. How, then, can we accept them from our students?

A Whirlwind Tour of Calgary

2007-07-18T14:09:00.000-04:00

Sometimes things happen at the most unexpected moments.

With very little notice, we made our way to Calgary to see my son, Benjamin, honored as one of the parade marshals of the Calgary stampede. What an amazing experience. These four guys, who traveled 8,000 km across Canada last year, via skateboard, to raise money for breast cancer, were honored in front of 300,000 people. The event was covered by media from across the country. Ben is amazing at everything he does. When he is not skateboarding and paragliding, he is a web designer and commercial photographer. Of course, I am a proud mother.

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The "Push Boys", Benjamin Jordan, Carlos Köppen, Aaron Jackson and Rob Lewis, with me and Rob Lewis's mother, Lorraine Lewis [left]. Benjamin leading the parade on his skateboard [right].

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The "Push Boys" being honored during the stampede [left]. Me hugging Ben [right].

It’s a very rare occasion when I get to visit Calgary, so I was glad to have the time to visit some of our retail buyers and their stores. Many thanks to my Calgarian sister, Merry, who chauffeured me around, otherwise it might have been pretty tricky to find them!

KidSource was our first stop. This is a neat store with staff very dedicated to finding the perfect learning resource for every situation. I met with Penny Kunitz, Wanda Liski and Marilyn Block. KidSource has a new website, so now you can shop there even if you don’t live in Calgary. Visit www.KidSource.ca.

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Owners of KidSource, Wanda Liski [left] and Penny Kunitz [right].

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Marilyn Block, sales associate [left], and the actual store [right].

After a huge lunch (just like Texas, everything is big in Calgary), our next stop was Canadian Home Education Resources. It was a pleasure to meet Brenda Baradoy, in person, after so many years of phone calls and emails! Brenda’s shop mainly serves homeschoolers however she said that many teachers who stumble upon her place are always pleasantly surprised. Brenda’s store has a playroom where kids are happy to play for hours on end. According to Brenda, parents often come in from out-of-town and spend the entire day shopping for a year’s worth of learning resources. Good thing she has that playroom!

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Brenda [left] and her shop [right].

La Librairie Monette is located in a cute little area of Calgary. I think it’s called Brittania Square. It seemed to be an enclave including bookstores, a toy store, Starbucks and a high-end deli. Even though La Librairie Monette is in the basement of a building, you can see from the photos that the entire store is brightly lit and very cheerful. Bridgette and Claudette Monette carry an extensive selection of French and Spanish resources in their friendly store. You can visit La Librairie Monette online at www.librairiemonette.com.

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Bridgette and Claudette [left] and their store [right].

The Beginning of a Great Summer

2007-06-22T16:03:00.000-04:00

I know it’s been a long time since my last post. One would expect life to be simpler in the summer, but between a Spanish course at the local community college and the preparation involved in producing our new series for beginning readers, there hasn’t been much time.

The big news around here is not with me, it’s with my kids.

You may remember that my son, Benjamin Jordan, alongside three friends, Rob Lewis, Aaron Jackson and Carlos Koppen, made a trek across

Canada

last year on skateboards. The 5,000 mile (8,000 km) trip took over five months and raised $60,000. Next month they will be honored during the Calgary Stampede when they lead the parade as parade marshals. The city of Calgary literally shuts down for this parade and it is televised nationally as well. Congratulations boys! You can view the stampede promo video for these extraordinary young men here: http://cs.calgarystampede.com/video_popout/video.html?video_id=18 or visit the "Push for the Cure:" website here:
www.pushforthecure.com.

My daughter, Jessica, a video artist, has been just as busy. Tomorrow I’ll be attending a reception at the “X Space” gallery in Toronto, which is exhibiting many of her latest videos. You may already know of Jesi. She has been illustrating our books and creating our free cartoon lessons online for the last few years. Congratulations and a big hug to Jesi who spends endless hours creating her animated videos. You can watch a couple of Jesi’s videos by click on the following links:

http://blip.tv/file/get/Jesicarrot-TheUkraniansMusicVideo918.mov

http://blip.tv/file/get/Jesicarrot-jui887.mov

You must wonder if I have any spare time at all! I’m including a few photos of fun things I like to do in the summer. Often on the weekends, we drive to a little café in the neighboring town of Welland. The attraction here is that they serve "los huevos rancheros", a Mexican breakfast, and they also have a stack of free newspapers en español.

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The Welland Café [left] and Belinda [right] hard at work.

Belinda, who hails from Mexico City, and seems to know everyone in town, works there all day long and is happy to converse in Spanish.

We are lucky to live near the water here. Just behind the house, there is almost always a duo of geese pecking away at the grass. I’ve noticed lately that they squawk in two different pitches. I was hoping to do a little research to see if the males squawk one pitch and the females another. This goose squawks a C#. I took his/her photo but haven’t been able to discern whether he/she is male or female.

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The goose behind my house [left] and many ducks near the pier [right].

While looking for more geese for this informal survey, we decided to take a walk down to the pier. Alas, lots of ducks but no geese! Oh well.

Mother's Day and IRA

2007-05-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

It has been such a busy week with Mother's Day and the International Reading Association conference but it was nice to spend so much time with my daughter, Jessie, who helped me during the whole week.

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Jess and I at a great little restaurant on Mother's Day.

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Despite the large crowds [left] our booth [right] still looked great.

It definitely feels like spring again. There is a robin that has decided to make her nest on a porch lamp right outside my front door. Despite my best efforts to persuade her not to, I finally gave up and she moved in. Out on the pond the rowers are back in full force. Between the chaos on the pond and birds chirping, it sure sounds like spring again too!

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A crew of rowers practicing [left] and my new feathered neighbor [right].