the highlighter

Introducing The Highlighter!

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I like to read a lot: books, articles, and everything in between. Since 2012, I’ve published some of my favorite articles on education on Iserotope and talked about them. Then I began bundling the articles into a collection, Iserotope Extras, that readers could access anytime. (This led to this screencast, which demonstrated my extreme enthusiasm about the new feature.)

A few years later, in 2015, Iserotope Extras migrated to a weekly email digest, published every Thursday morning. In addition, the scope of Extras broadened to include articles on race, education, and culture.

The digest has been growing since then. The first issue had just two subscribers, and 80 issues later, there are 115 readers (slow and steady, similar to the Kindle Classroom Project). The digest is alive and well.

I’m therefore happy to announce that Iserotope Extras is now The Highlighter. Take a look at the new nameplate!

Every week, I highlight 4-6 articles that I think you’ll love. Coming soon, you’ll be able to see my highlights to these highlighted articles. (Here’s a sample.) The long-term idea is not only to share high-quality writing but also to invite you to read these articles with me, as part of an “article club,” or a nonfiction reading community.

If you’re not yet a subscriber, check out last week’s issue, or take a look at the archives. You can sign up at either place! If you are already a subscriber, thank you, and please leave your comments here! favicon

Megabook Initiative donates 36 Kindles!

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I thought Karen-Alexandra Nogues was donating one Kindle when she completed the Donate Kindle form last week. It turns out that Ms. Nogues, founder and executive director of Megabook Initiative, intended on donating 36 Kindles!

Thank you very much for this wonderful and generous donation.

Megabook Initiative believes that today’s readers are tomorrow’s leaders. The program distributes devices to children in places where access to books is limited, including Ivory Coast and Togo. Ms. Nogues understands the importance of reading and found the Kindle Classroom Project through its partnership with Worldreader.

Here’s an interview with Ms. Nogues about Megabook Initiative. It’s a few years old, when Ms. Nogues was a senior in high school. Now she attends Harvard University and will graduate next year.

I’m impressed with Ms. Nogues, her commitment to young people, and her ability to explain clearly the importance of reading. We believe in many of the same things!

I look forward to getting these 36 Kindles ready for students in Oakland and San Francisco. Maybe they’ll go to ninth grade teacher Shannon, who maintains a robust physical classroom library and is ready for a Kindle pilot. favicon

issues in education

Please read: “Our School,” by Lauren Markham

Posted on by Mark Isero

“Our School” is the best article on education that I’ve read in a very long time. Lauren Markham reports on the new curriculum in Alaska’s North Slope Borough School district, home of the Iñupiat people. It is a story of how a community can rebuild its educational system in order to decolonize, resuscitate, and heal.

If you are an educator, or if you care about education, there are many connections here. It will push you to think again about the big questions, like: What is education for? and Why do I teach? This article will be well worth your time.

Excerpt
“THE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL education system in the United States fails people on the margins of society—whether it is impoverished communities in Appalachia, immigrants in Baltimore, African Americans in Chicago, or First Nations from New Mexico to Alaska. Free and universal education pretends to be our democracy’s great equalizer—but the system was made by and for a certain subset of people decidedly not on the margins. It can perpetuate inequality while intending, or pretending, to do away with it.”

You can read the article here: http://j.mp/2k6Dt4d. There’s also a chance that it’ll be included in Iserotope Extras, a weekly email digest that includes my favorite articles about race, education, and culture. Feel free to subscribe!

issues in education

Please listen: “How The Systemic Segregation Of Schools Is Maintained By Individual Choices,” featuring Nikole Hannah-Jones

Posted on by Mark Isero

Nikole Hannah-Jones is my favorite journalist and my second-favorite famous person (after Bryan Stevenson). Here she is being interviewed by Terry Gross for Fresh Air (~45 mins) about school segregation and her article, “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” (from Extras #46). Ms. Hannah-Jones argues that segregation will continue to exist in our country “as long as individual parents continue to make choices that only benefit their own children.” (Want more NHJ? Check out Extras #47, Extras #65, and Extras #4 — her gut-wrenching This American Life piece from July 2015.)

Excerpt
“One of the things I’ve done in my work is show the hypocrisy of progressive people who say they believe in equality, but when it comes to their individual choices about where they’re going to live and where they’re going to send their children, they make very different decisions.”

You can read the article here: http://j.mp/2jejEqu. There’s also a chance that it’ll be included in Iserotope Extras, a weekly email digest that includes my favorite articles about race, education, and culture. Feel free to subscribe!