The Kindle Classroom Project is lean and mean

Posted on by Mark Isero

bigstock-Touch-E-reader-With-Money-288951561-300x200favicon When you make a donation, you want to make sure your contribution is used well. You don’t want it to go toward administrative costs or other unrelated stuff.

Even though the Kindle Classroom Project is not a non-profit organization (yet), I did a little accounting today, just to see how well I’m handling the books. Here’s what I found out:

In 2013, the Kindle Classroom Project had…

  • 140 total donors,
  • 95 Kindles donated,
  • 221 ebooks donated,
  • 23 physical books donated,
  • 16 Kindle batteries donated,
  • A few other items (like Kindle cases) donated.

Overall, the total value of donations came to $9,152.79. Not a bad year!

I’m also happy to report that I kept costs low. The total amount spent to run the Kindle Classroom Project in 2013 was $136.28, just 1.5% of total donations.

In the future (when the Project gets huge!), I may use some donated money to pay for these administrative costs. But remember, I’m a contributor, too! Plus, it doesn’t make sense for Generous Donors to pay for their own thank-you cards! That would be silly!

That is all to say that 100% of your donations made in 2013 went directly to students and their reading lives. It’s all very simple: Everything goes to Kindles, Kindle books, Kindle cases, and Kindle batteries!

Please feel free to get the word out!

Thank you very much for a wonderful year. favicon

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Just a quick tweet…

Posted on by Mark Isero

Go ahead, follow me on Twitter! Or contribute to the Kindle Classroom Project!

reading

Books my students are requesting

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I have a little Google Form where students can request books. It’s simple and easy to fill out. Go ahead, take a look!

What’s neat is that students are really using it, and they’re helping me make the Kindle Library better and better.

Here are some of the books that are popular right now:

What’s great is that students are also recommending books to their friends. On the request form, I make sure to ask students why they want me to buy the book for them.

Here are some of the things they’ve written:

  • About Rapture and author Lauren Kate: “I want to read more of her books because they’re so interesting. After reading Teardrop, I wanted to read more of her stories.”
  • About Diary of a Wimpy Kid: “I like the whole series.”
  • About The Battle of the Labyrinth: “It has a lot of action and adventure.”
  • About Eleanor & Park: “I heard that it’s relatable to John Green books, and I love MOST of the books he’s written.”

It’s really exciting that the students are becoming avid readers, and they know what they like, and they follow authors and books in series. That’s what adults who read do, too.

What’s also exciting is that because of generous donors, I am able to purchase these books quickly for students. There’s not a big gap between when a student makes a request and when it’s available to them on their Kindle. That’s just one of the reasons that Kindlers, on average, are reading way more their their non-Kindle counterparts.

If you’d like to buy a book for a student, head on over to my students’ Amazon Wishlist or buy an Amazon gift card. There are eight other ways to donate, too. For all of your options, go to the Contribute page! Thank you! favicon

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Iserotope mentioned in The Kindle Chronicles

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon People are talking about Iserotope!

Well, at least a little bit.

In this week’s podcast on The Kindle Chronicles, host Len Edgerly interviewed Meg Griswold, a teacher from Nashville who uses Kindles in her classroom.

Right at the end of the interview, for about 10 seconds, Mr. Edgerly and Ms. Griswold mentioned me and Iserotope — and whether teachers should use technology to monitor their students’ reading progress. Ms. Griswold says no — as do I.

(They were talking about “Not Reading the Book? The Book is Watching You,” where I got a little freaked out about how some companies think it would be a good idea if teachers tracked their students’ “engagement” on tablets.)

For the very serious and loyal Iserotope follower, see if you can find the 10-second clip in this 45-minute podcast! (The rest of the podcast is excellent, too: Mr. Edgerly does an excellent job keeping up with all things Kindle.)

Thanks, Mr. Edgerly and Ms. Griswold, for mentioning Iserotope! It’s a small but very powerful world out there of folks interested in how Kindles can revolutionize (and improve) reading and literature instruction in high schools! I’m glad to be a part of it. favicon