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Our Interview with Lulu Delacre About Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees

Lulu Delacre’s recent book, Cool Green (Candlewick) takes readers on a trip around the world, led by a grandfather with his granddaughter, introducing readers to a range of trees in lyrical text punctuated by fascinating information accompanied by informative and varied illustration. It’s a gorgeous book and Lulu has answered questions that I posed to her.




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The Best Places in Brazil for Photography

I’m not sure why, but Brazil seems to be somewhat overlooked by photographers. It doesn’t quite add up for those who have extensively traveled the country. It’s such a beautiful nation. Hopefully, this guide to the best places in Brazil for photography will encourage a few photographers to give this wonderfully diverse country a chance. In this guide, I’ll delve into some of the top spots to capture stunning photos in Brazil, while also addressing some of the logistical challenges […]

The post The Best Places in Brazil for Photography appeared first on Brendan van Son Photography.



  • Travel Photography Blog
  • Brazil

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What is Travel Photography?

The genres of photography are so often mischaracterized. But, most of these genres are at least pretty obvious. In street photography, you’re photographing the street life. In landscape photography, you’re photographing the landscapes. And of course in wildlife photography you’re photographing the, well, you get the idea. So what is travel photography? What makes travel photography so interesting is that it isn’t a subject that you’re photographing: it’s an activity. But also, it is a subject…? Wait… let me explain. […]

The post What is Travel Photography? appeared first on Brendan van Son Photography.




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Is AI Photography Here to Stay? Ethics, Goals, and Questions.

I’ve been toying at the idea of recording a podcast about my thoughts on AI photography for a while now. For a while, I’ve put it off because I really don’t know if I want to add any more volume to a subject that’s already been talked about and debated for a while. But, it seems like AI photography, or even just AI photography tools aren’t going anywhere. So, here are my thoughts, questions, and my own personal ethics when […]

The post Is AI Photography Here to Stay? Ethics, Goals, and Questions. appeared first on Brendan van Son Photography.



  • Travel Photography Blog
  • AI generated photography

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How Hard Could It Be to Translate a Picture Book?

With so few words, most of them kid-friendly, it should be a piece of cake. But it depends on who’s holding the whisk. Translator Daniel Hahn say,"I believe my job as a translator is to preserve all the dimensions of a book, not just one of them. When I find complexity, my job is to keep complexity, or more accurately to reconstruct it. And some of the most complex books I’ve reconstructed have been children’s picture books."




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Le Petit Prince Turns 80: A Peek Inside the Library’s Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Collections

Author, poet, aviator and adventurer par excellence, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the most well-known French writers in contemporary history. This year marks the 80th anniversary of his most famous publication, Le petit prince (The Little Prince) published in 1943. Le petit prince is translated into over 250 languages with adaptations into radio plays, films, ballets, operas, musicals, children’s board books, and even an animated film. You can find a copy in Yiddish or the Burundian language of Kirundi.




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4 parenting priorities to prevent mental health 'summer slide'

With school on break, along with all the homework, tests and early start times that come with it, parents often assume that young people’s stress and anxiety will take a pause as well. However, that’s not always the case, especially as the novelty of summer dwindles. Without the daily structure of school and extracurricular activities, kids may struggle with boredom or restlessness. Maintaining a routine during the summer can be a powerful tool for supporting children’s mental health, and parents can play a crucial role in establishing and reinforcing this structure.




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4 Ways to Teach Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension

Teachers can use evidence-based strategies for delivering vocabulary instruction to improve reading comprehension and vice versa by integrating literacy across content areas. These should engage students in active processing, which is essential to student learning and retention.




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How Animal Research Can Inspire Elementary Students’ Writing

Teachers can assess young students’ literacy skills and knowledge by encouraging them to produce books based on animal facts.




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Teachers can assess young students’ literacy skills and knowledge by encouraging them to produce books based on animal facts.

A new children's book transforms a sad, scared and anxious little boy into a superhero. The book is called "Cape," in honor of the bright-red cape the little boy wears and finds comfort in following the death of his father. "Cape" is Kevin Johnson's debut picture book, and it's vividly illustrated by artist Kitt Thomas.




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Tennessee’s TCAP test scores climb for second straight year after pandemic

Tennessee’s third set of test scores from the pandemic era improved again across all core subjects and grades, even exceeding pre-pandemic proficiency rates in English language arts and social studies. The academic snapshot suggests that Tennessee’s early investments in summer learning camps and intensive tutoring are paying off to counter three straight years of COVID-related disruptions. But the performance of historically underserved students — including children with disabilities, those from low-income families, and students of color — still lags.




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4 Ways to Use Comics and Graphic Novels to Engage Students

Most classroom walls display rules about arriving on time or raising hands to speak. Tim Smyth’s has a sign reminding students: “You’re Not Allowed to Ask Which is Better, Marvel or DC.” Even as he sidesteps fervent debates about which comic book publisher is superior, Smyth leans into comics and graphic novels in his 10th and 11th grade social studies classes at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa. He believes they can offer students an engaging entry point into history and world cultures.




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3 Simple Ideas for Introducing AI Into Your Teaching

While many teachers are embracing generative artificial intelligence—the technology behind powerful new tools that analyze huge amounts of online data and then use it to create unique text and images from basic prompts—others are still wary of the technology and even feel overwhelmed by it. For that latter group, Kristen Brooks, a technology specialist in Cherokee County schools outside of Atlanta, has three simple strategies for teachers to get their feet wet.




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Back to Elementary School With Storytelling

Engaging in storytelling gives students an opportunity to connect with each other and understand classroom expectations. Teacher Matthew James Friday says, "I tell a story every day for the first two or three weeks. I also suggest that the students can become storytellers themselves. All they need to do is write a story at home. After a few weeks of my telling stories, something magical always happens: A student brings in a story."




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How to encourage children to read more books this summer

Every year, educators worry about “summer slide,” the potential for learning loss when children are not in school. This issue is more pronounced among low-income families who don’t have access to summer camps or other enrichment activities. One way to battle summer slide is through reading for fun, which is associated with many academic and health benefits, including strengthening the brain, increasing ability to empathize, reducing stress and building vocabulary.




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Students need over 4 months of extra learning to return to pre-pandemic math, reading achievement

Pandemic academic recovery in both reading and math is lagging notably behind pre-COVID achievement trends for students in grades 4-8 during the 2022-23 school year, according to a new report by NWEA analyzing MAP Growth test scores of 6.7 million students across 20,000 public schools. Third-graders were the only group who saw improvements, and they were slight, according to NWEA, an educational research organization recently acquired by learning technology company HMH.




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Preparing Families for the New School Year

A few tips for ensuring that students—particularly those with disabilities and English learners—and their families get the year off to a good start.




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From Bus Stops to Laundromats, Cities Embrace Play to Help Kids Learn

Philadelphia and other cities are quietly building installations like the “Urban Thinkscape” to layer on learning where families already spend time. On a tiny triangular lot in the city’s Belmont neighborhood, kids waiting with their parents for the No. 40 bus can also work on their executive functioning skills, playing a hopscotch variation designed to train their brains. In Chicago, a wooden game mounted on the wall of a laundromat teaches children, in two languages, how to find color patterns in a lineup of detergent bottle tops.




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How parents can help children with ADHD thrive in friendships

Parents of kids with ADHD often say their kids miss social cues, such as when peers are bored, hurt or offended, according to Amori Mikami, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada. “It can lead to a lot of outbursts or temper tantrums or whining and complaining or arguing with the friend,” she said. Mikami researches peer relationships, specifically focusing on children with ADHD. Additionally, she developed a parental friendship coaching (PFC) model where parents of elementary school-age kids can learn to support their child in making friends.




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What People Are Getting Wrong About the Science of Reading

The science of reading, while typically villainized for solely advocating phonics, is misrepresented as a phonics program, while really, it is a body of research that informs the most effective way to teach decoding and language comprehension. The definition of the science of reading, provided by The Reading League, is “the vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.” The term “science of reading” does not equate to phonics. That term does not equate to comprehension.




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New Report Highlights States that Are at the Vanguard of the Reading Revolution

A new FutureEd report, The Reading Revolution: How States Are Scaling Literacy Reform, tells the story of how Mississippi, Tennessee and other states at the vanguard of the reading revolution have redesigned reading instruction and raised student achievement in thousands of public schools through bold, state-level leadership. These states have addressed every aspect of early literacy, from how teachers and prospective teachers are trained to the curriculum they use, how students are assessed and whether children are retained rather than promoted to the next grade.




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Schools and students face difficult battle to close learning gaps worsened by pandemic

Billions of dollars were funneled to school districts across the U.S. to help them make up for learning loss from the pandemic. But new research shows that even with that extra money, school districts are still struggling to close the gaps in reading, writing and math. Stephanie Sy discussed the findings with Karyn Lewis of the Center for School and Student Progress and a lead researcher at NWEA.




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Opinion: Why the Science of Reading Is Right for My Young Learner

I’m writing this for all the parents out there: Don’t leave your child’s reading success to chance. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I was one of those parents. Sure, my wife and I read to our son every night, and we had plenty of books, newspapers and magazines around the house. Our local public school spent a lot of time on literacy too, but I cringe now as I look back on how they did it. They taught kids to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words using pictures, the first letter or other context clues.




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The Dean of Deadpan Finds His Muse

Folk tales are meant to be flexible things, open-source stories infinitely moldable to the needs of teller and era. That’s the wonder of them — and of “The Skull,” an old Tyrolean yarn distilled to its droll essentials and marvelously reimagined by the Caldecott medalist (and national treasure) Jon Klassen. Klassen’s version, accompanied by a generous helping of his odd and beautiful illustrations, follows a young girl named Otilla who, one snowy night, “finally” runs away from home. She becomes hopelessly lost in a deep, dark forest.




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I've been on 105-day cruises, but this 13-day one was the toughest. Its itinerary had a major flaw I'll avoid on future trips.

The itinerary on my 13-day Norwegian cruise was too packed. Spending only two of the 13 days at sea left me exhausted, even as a seasoned cruiser.





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Denzel Washington says he has 'not that many' films left to make before he retires — but one will be 'Black Panther 3'

Denzel Washington may have let slip that director Ryan Coogler is working on a third "Black Panther" film, which Marvel has not yet announced.




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Airbnb CEO says most employees don't want full autonomy at work — and those that do should start their own companies

"I think they say they want autonomy. I think their actions don't say the same thing," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently said in an interview.





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Taylor Swift is in her WAG era — here's every time she's cheered on Travis Kelce and the Chiefs

Taylor Swift has made a habit of cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs since she began dating NFL star Travis Kelce.





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I made 3 fall recipes in a Crock-Pot and they were easy and affordable to make

With the fall season in full swing, a Business Insider reporter decided to make three cozy, comforting meals in a Crock-Pot.




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Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers would give China's growing navy new reach, and researchers say it's working on the reactor to power one

A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, like American carriers, would be a major jump for China, giving its navy a global reach.






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Paleontologist rates 14 dinosaur attacks in the "Jurassic Park" movies

Paleontologist Dave Hone rates the realism of the dinosaur attacks in the "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World" movies.





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Diddy wins third-chance hearing to argue for bail in sex-trafficking case

A federal judge in Manhattan has agreed to hear Sean "Diddy" Combs argue again to be let out of jail pending his May 5 trial date on sex-trafficking.




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I helped Tom Cruise and other celebrities divorce, but I've been happily married for 38 years. I've learned that dates — and postnups — can be key to marital bliss.

Marilyn Chinitz has worked with celebs like Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas, and Wendy Williams. She has been happily married for 38 years.




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The biggest risk to stocks after Trump's victory is China's reaction to a trade war, research firm says

If Trump's proposed 60% tariff against China is enacted and the country responds aggressively, it could pressure some of America's largest companies.




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Top Ducati executive explains how the Army helped him succeed and shares 2 traits that make veterans great hires

Ducati North America CEO Jason Chinnock enlisted in the US Army out of high school and served with the Third Armored Division in Desert Storm.




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You can't buy a new Jaguar in the UK — its home country — for the first time since WWII

It's a British heritage brand driven by royals, including the late Queen Elizabeth. Now new Jaguars won't be on UK car lots until at least 2026.






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The best Amazon Black Friday 2024 deals

Black Friday is weeks away, but Amazon already has several great deals you can find now. Here are the best Amazon early Black Friday deals.




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US Navy destroyers unscathed after fighting off a complex attack of cruise and ballistic missiles and exploding drones

The Houthis launched a complex attack consisting of anti-ship missiles and drones, a Pentagon spokesperson said Tuesday.




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Bitcoin approaches $90,000 as post-election record streak rages on

Traders are eyeing $100,000 for bitcoin by the end of the year potentially. The total crypto market value has surged to $3 trillion since the election.




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When my job required me to return to the office, I used my emergency fund to quit. It worked out, but I should have saved more.

When my job announced we were returning to the office, I was able to quit and rely on my emergency fund while job searching. I still wish I had saved more.





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A brief history of America's love affair with fluoridated water — and why it's now up for debate

Too much fluoride can make your teeth brown, but getting a little bit is a dentist's dream. Here's the complete history of fluoridated water.