Golden Apple Learning Store

2012-01-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

Tommie's Tools is a great teacher resource that we'll be sharing with you from time to time - Tommie works with Creative Teaching Press, and her blog is full of ready to use ideas to incorporate in to your classroom - you can find her blog here:

Tommie's Tools

Blocks for Learning!

2011-12-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

Some schools are rediscovering block play. This story from the NY Times give some details about how a school in Manhattan is using blocks in their curriculum. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, I was part of a grand educational experiment - all grades were in pods surrounding the kindergarten area, no walls. In the center of the pod was a play area filled with Unit Blocks. As 6th graders we loved spending part of our day building elaborate structures. This was in a public school. They never tested us on that subject!

Games for Makers

2011-11-19T11:16:00.001-08:00

Continuing with the theme of building skills for kids through play, I have a trio of family games to recommend. These games fall under this rubric:

17. Storytelling. We survive socially by telling each other stories. Encourage children to tell stories and release their imagination through whatever toy they have in their hands.

The first two are Rory's Story Cubes and Tell Tale from Blue Orange. Give the story elements and let your imagination run. Rory's Story Cubes are wildly popular, with many mentions around the internet. Tell Tale is new, but already a Best Toys for Kids award winner.Our staff favorite is Telestrations. This game is pictionary meets telephone in a family game that is both a riot to play and an insight in to how best to communicate with others. All these games build skills in the most entertaining way.

Toys for Makers P2:Joining Things

2011-11-15T09:12:00.001-08:00

Joining Things. Gluing, nailing, soldering, welding, tying, lacing, riveting, taping, stitching, screwing. Most of these are cheap to learn — give them an old log, a hammer, and a bag of nails, and let them bang nails until that log looks like a rusty hedgehog. Nearly any craft project or model kit.One of the areas we have endless choices: Number one for Makers - the Make-Do kits. These kits make projects out of recycled materials - imagination and joining all in one! We have a section on our web site just for Building/Joining skills This is one of my favorite categories, and it's a category that is always evolving, so call us for our latest ideas!

Toys for Makers Part I

2011-11-13T09:16:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I posted about the Curriculum of Toys. This list is a great starting place, and a reinforces what we do with our toys at The Golden Apple - we want toys that help kids grow! Not what used to be sneered at as "educational toys", but toys like the Trebuchet Kit from Mindware. From the Curriculum:

Forces. Gravity, levers (moments), projectile motion, friction, pulleys, mechanical advantage, gearing and gearboxes, torque. Mobiles, trebuchets, magnets, juggling, throwing and ball sports, board sports, sailing, seesaws, slides, Lego, and bicycles!

We've identified these toys as specific to learning about force:Mindware TrebuchetMindware CatapultZcurve BowMagnet ScienceI'll update with more toys as we develop the list. Keep Making!

Toys for Little Makers

2011-11-12T14:27:00.001-08:00

Saul Griffith has published a list of toys that help kids build important life skills - not the usual educational toy subjects, but skills everyone needs. I happen to agree with this list, nothing depresses me more than shoppers who ask for an "educational toy - something that teaches the ABCs!" I much prefer showing people toys that teach the skills outlined on this list. I'm in the process of adding toys from our store to the categories Mr Griffith has outlined. Watch for them here, and posted in the store.

2011-10-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

Our Holiday Toy Catalog is out! This is our big event for the year as far as marketing ourselves goes, and we want it to be really big. This year we have a contest:Our Holiday Catalogs have arrived at the store - which means yours should arrive soon too! With pages full of toys kids will love - there's somethng for every child. We're having a photo contest for our Facebook users - When your catalog arrives, let your kids pick their favorite toy - take a picture of them holding up the picture and post it to YOUR Facebook page, then tag The Golden Apple -the 1st 10 tags will win a $10 gift card, and one lucky kid will win their toy! Everyone who posts and tags is eligible for a $25 gift card drawing. Catalog arrives this week, and the contest ends 11/05!

President Obama: "Our Kids Only Get One Shot at a Decent Education" | The White House

2011-09-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

RIP No Child Left Behind. It does take an awful long time to figure out something is a failure. I wish something wonderful was rising from the ashes, but do more with less is all I see.
President Obama: "Our Kids Only Get One Shot at a Decent Education" | The White House

Rolling Libraries for Joplin

2011-09-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

This would be a great project for a public works program! Volunteers write the first chapter for Joplin books - KansasCity.com

Best Toys for Kids 2011

2011-09-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

The Specialty Toy Retailers Association has released this year's Best Toys for Kids list. We are happy to promote this list, not only because we voted for it, but also because we love the toys that made it! You can see the toys on our website right now. I'll be featuring this list in our emails and postings for the next few months - with more about the selection process and how a toy makes the list. In the meantime, stop by the store and ask us, we love to talk about these toys!

Day of the Dead Event

2011-09-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've always loved the Mexican Celebration of Day of the Dead - ever since I visited Oaxaca many years ago during the celebration on Nov.2. We have been helping the kids make sugar skulls, collecting stories and any other classroom resources we could find to help teachers bring this event in to their classrooms. Of course we run in to a few folks who say "ooh isn't that Satanic?" which I don't understand - it's about honoring and remembering those who have passed away - so much different than our celebration of Corn Syrup and Cheesy costumes that doesn't really celebrate anything.
This year we have decorations - which is good because it's a step towards greater awareness. If companies are starting to put out products, we might actually have a chance of making this a part of the Halloween celebration everywhere.
Our event is being held on Saturday Oct 8th this year - we do it early so teachers can take the ideas back to school with them. Join us if you are in the area 1 pm - 3 pm!

Our Rep Day is August 10th

2011-07-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

August 10th is Rep Day and it's huge! You can talk to reps from our biggest companies, save on items that you need to start the school year, meet up with friends and have fun! The first 150 teachers through the door get goodie bags filled with product we've collected all year. Talk to friends, meet other teachers, get pumped up for the school year!

The event starts at 10 am!

Science Education Goes to Maker Fair

2011-06-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Newshour speculates - too bad the tickets are so expensive. I would love to see Maker Fair sponsor some scholarships so every kid has a chance to become an engineer.

Tossing Text Books

2011-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

SF Tosses Workbooks

Big publishing shows its face - why would teachers toss perfectly good teaching resources? Because the administration won't let them use old, when new can be bought for top dollar from out of state publishers. And don't think these books are priced like workbooks at our store - you're looking at $30 books in this bin!

ASTRA Marketplace 2011

2011-06-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm just home from ASTRA marketplace. This is where specialty toy store owners and specialty toy manufacturers gather to plot and plan what kids will play with in the coming year! I had a great time, and I'll be posting more about what I learned and found. What I'm thinking about though is play. How can I make play more important - I make my living by retailing play, and I want it to have enormous value, because if it's valuable, people will want it.
This TED video is from TED Bulgaria, but it's very easy to just switch "America" for "Bulgaria". Play makes your brain bigger! How is that for an endorsement!

Steve Keil: A Manifesto for Play

Science and Uncertainty

2011-05-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

From an article on BoingBoing.net
"This is scientific uncertainty--where the things we know and the things we don't know collide, and we are left to figure out how to use what we have to make decisions anyway. If we want people to understand science, we can't just give them facts to memorize. Scientific literacy isn't about being able to win a game of quiz bowl. It's about understanding how science works, and how science can be used to guide human decision-making. It's about knowing that we don't have all the answers. But it's also about knowing that "we don't have all the answers" isn't the same thing as "we don't know anything." If we pump people full of facts, but don't teach them about uncertainty, then we can't be surprised when they dismiss anything that isn't 100% certain"

Just a note that uncertainty doesn't score well on standardized tests.

Point to Happy

2011-04-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to receive a new title "Point to Happy" from Workman. Here's a discussion with the authors:

It's a book designed for kids on the autism spectrum - we need more books like this!

Dave Eggers on Teacher Layoffs

2011-03-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

The lives of public school teachers have never been more surreal. While they're being pilloried in film and in the press - for their unions being too strong, among other things - last week, 2,800 teachers in the Bay Area were told they might not have jobs in the fall. How's that for job security?

Read the rest

Education on Counter-Earth

2011-03-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

A new comic from Tom the Dancing Bug

Test Prep Season

2011-03-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's that happiest, most educational season of the year! I would rather see parents working on skills, and we spend too much time saying so at the store, but that doesn't stop the wave of parents buying books to improve scores. This year, we cut the number of titles down to 1. That's right - we chose one series: Prepare and Practice from Teacher Created Resources. We've reviewed many titles - Spectrum, Carney, Kaplan, but all those publishers have failed to keep their books current. The Prepare and Practice series is new, and best of all, it is straightforward, with an emphasis on test-taking skills. These books strike a good balance, and students will finish the book ready to do their best!

What are Libraries Good For?

2011-02-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

Philip Pullman defends an alien concept - good things that don't make a profit!

“The greedy ghost understands profit all right. But that’s all he understands... He doesn’t understand libraries at all. That branch – how much money did it make last year? Why aren’t you charging higher fines? Why don’t you charge for library cards?”

The Value of Play

2011-01-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

From the NY Times:
SARAH WILSON was speaking proudly the other day when she declared: “My house is a little messy.”Ms. Wilson lives in Stroudsburg, Pa., a small town in the Poconos. Many days, her home is strewn with dress-up clothes, art supplies and other artifacts from playtime with her two small children, Benjamin, 6, and Laura, 3. “I let them get it messy because that’s what it’s here for,” she said.

Ms. Wilson has embraced a growing movement to restore the sometimes-untidy business of play to the lives of children. Her interest was piqued when she toured her local elementary school last year, a few months before Benjamin was to enroll in kindergarten. She still remembered her own kindergarten classroom from 1985: it had a sandbox, blocks and toys. But this one had a wall of computers and little desks.

“There’s no imaginative play anymore, no pretend,” Ms. Wilson said with a sigh.

From BoingBoing

2011-01-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

This won't be offered at the Golden Apple any time soon - but I agree with his point that doing things the old-fashioned way is often a much more valuable process.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

Today's my first day back at the store for this year. Last week, we started moving things around again - with the holidays behind us we can really set things up the way we planned. Our classroom is also a big item this week. We had to put our plan on hold - too busy and we needed the room for extra stock during December. Now it's full speed ahead - we'll be clearing the last storage items out, setting up tables and chairs and putting together a schedule for parents, teachers and kids. Watch for a Game Night coming towards the end of the month, Test Prep and GATE prep classes, Art, Preschool Readiness and some great active learning events! The new year is looking good!

What's Cooking?

2010-11-23T08:54:00.001-08:00

We have our play kitchen ready at the store - always a favorite place to spend an hour. It's wonderful to watch kids turn on their imaginations when they immerse themselves in pretending to prepare dinner, bake cupcakes, or just stir something interesting up. They're not following the script from a movie or cartoon, but they are remembering and reinterpreting things that have happened in their own lives, and using that to create. To see that flame get lit is one of the joys of education, and having it in the store every day is inspirational.

Are We Crazy?

2010-11-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

One of my broken record themes is the death of kindergarten. It's one of the saddest things about modern education. Kids are having kindergarten stolen away from them, and though it's happening right in front of us, everyone just throws up their hands and says "what can you do?"
This week, I had two kindergarten parents in, one looking for sight word flash cards, the other for addition flash cards. They both lamented the idea that their child needed rote memorization work, but both also said the children were being graded on their academic performance, they had no choice.
I told them my stock story (which is true) about the pediatrician who told us the number of kindergartners with stomach problems was epidemic. They didn't doubt it, but told me over and over that they had no choice.
We do have a choice. Kindergartners should be studying fingerpainting, singing and playing Duck Duck Goose. We keep slipping farther behind the rest of the world in education. Other cultures don't insist on ruining childhood for the sake of bragging rights about who can read at the youngest age. It's a sad world we're building, and insisting we have no choice is pathetic.

We're Ready!

2010-11-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Despite the the advice from wise heads, I went ahead with our store make-over, just as we were trying to get ready for our busy holiday season. The good news is it worked! We did have our share of bumps and bothers - and there are still a few things to work out. The change was a success, and as our new classroom comes together I think we will be ready to offer our community a much better education resource.

Punkin' Patch by Andy Z & The Beeheads

2010-10-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Our friend Andy Z has a new video!

He'll be appearing at The Golden Apple on Neighborhood Toy Store Day, November 13th

We're remodeling!

2010-10-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of our Facebook page, you might have noticed that we have been doing a make-over on our store. It's fun, sometimes, to shake everything up - and this change will make it so much easier to find the things you came to the Golden Apple to find! We started with new (used) fixtures from Borders in SF:

We started moving things in last week:

And we finished up the left half of the store on Saturday:

This week we're working on the right side - gearing up for Neighborhood Toy Store Day on November 13th. Stop in and see the changes, you'll be impressed!

Better Schools, Better Teachers?

2010-10-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Bill Ayers takes on the common wisdom that the problem with schools is the teachers:

Back to School: An Interview With Bill Ayers
Friday 01 October 2010
by: Maya Schenwar, Executive Director, t r u t h o u t | Interview

10 More Years!

2010-09-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

A wonderful thing about being in our 4th decade is it gives us confidence. Yes, the economy is rough, and teacher stores are'nt fairing very well in general, but we've seen some of this before, and like a shark, you keep swimming or you sink.

It's easy to divide our business into decades, because we sign a 10 year lease. We just signed up again, and that decision generates ideas and thoughts on how we can improve. During the month of October, be prepared to see some dust, because we will be remodeling and rearranging our store to get ready for the next decade! I'll be creating a photo gallery and video gallery documenting the changes, and we'll let you know what these excitng changes will mean to you...

A Longer School Year?

2010-09-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

President Obama has called for a longer school year, and increasing teacher pay.

Bring in the Fun, Bring in the Toyz

2010-09-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Seasons change fast, and the gap between Back-To-School and Toy Season is now non-existent. As we have increased our toy selection, we've found that our old way of waiting till the 1st of October doesn't fly. Many of the toy orders get booked in February, so stores are sure to have inventory in November. If we waited, customers wouldn't see the best and the newest on our shelves. We did place our orders, but we put a delivery date of September on them, so we wouldn't be up to our ears in both teachers and toys. Guess what? It's September - and the huge boxes (toys come in HUGE boxes) are arriving every day, and we are scrambling to find homes for things. Magformers came last week. The new Construction and Emergency sets are very exciting. Move over Plan Books!

Educational Trends - Sweet!

2010-09-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering what the trend for Back to School this year is - and aren't teachers are always the fashionistas? It was Chocolate Dots! Make of it what you will!

Annual Rep Day August 11th

2010-08-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

The quiet sounds coming from our blog are due to Rep Day IX - the biggest day of the year for us, and most likely the biggest day for Teacher Stores anywhere on the planet! Cool weather will keep the store from boiling over with excitement - but don't let that discourage you - rep day is fun! Details can be found on our Teacher Page. Doors open at 10am. You'll love it.

You Get What You Pay For!

2010-07-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: July 27, 2010
A new study found students with better teachers learned more in kindergarten — and earned more as young adults.

Rocks are Dangerous!

2010-07-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Students Aren't Allowed To Touch Real Rocks
Lenore Skenazy,
How the Consumer Product Safety Commission drives parents--and everyone else--crazy.

Michael Warring, president of American Educational Products in Fort Collins, Colo., had his shipment all ready: A school's worth of small bags, each one filled with an igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Then the school canceled its order. Says Warring, "They apparently decided rocks could be harmful to children."

>Read the Article

Why do Finland's schools get the best results?

2010-07-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Finnish Schools

Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.

They don't start until they're 7? Shocking!

Cycle Saturdays at the Golden Apple

2010-07-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated 10 years in our current location. Not by coincidence, it is also 10 years since I gave up driving and switched to bike-riding for all my transportation (with help from the BART train). I'm a convert, and I have the zealotry of converts of all stripes; I can't believe I was ever addicted to driving, and I can't believe that others don't stop driving as soon as possible!
I'm aware that non-stop preaching is tedious, so I mostly keep my bike life-style to myself, or I try to, but it just pops out because, well, don't get me started...
I do believe that once people try getting around by bike, they will find they like it. I also believe that as more people try it, every day bike riding will gain momentum, and the streets will get friendlier for everyone. I have been quietly slipping bike things into the Golden Apple - Balance Bikes, books about bikes, and anything more we can do to encourage kids to start down the alternative transportation path.
This summer, we're adding Cycle Saturdays. Ride your bike to the Golden Apple and do your shopping and we'll take 10% off your total. It's a fun way to get around, and if you have a good basket, you can load up on toys and save! This little step isn't going to turn Pleasanton into Copenhagen, but every evangelist knows conversion starts with small steps!
So pedal in soon!

Zoobies are cute!

2010-07-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

I'm getting better at cute. I'm pretty good at toys like the Faux Bow, or Mindware Contraptions, they're toys I would have loved, and I love to show them off. When the cute Carolle dolls come in, or Calico Critters, I admire them, but I don't always understand the attraction. Zoobies are cute. They are cute when they're in stuffed animal form, and they're cute when they are spread out like a blanket. I love toys I understand!

Creativity Crisis

2010-07-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Newsweek has a great article about declining creativity in the US. One interesting point:

"In early childhood, distinct types of free play are associated with high creativity. Preschoolers who spend more time in role-play (acting out characters) have higher measures of creativity: voicing someone else’s point of view helps develop their ability to analyze situations from different perspectives. When playing alone, highly creative first graders may act out strong negative emotions: they’ll be angry, hostile, anguished. The hypothesis is that play is a safe harbor to work through forbidden thoughts and emotions."

Now how do test for this?

This Blog is not Abandoned

2010-07-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the posting has been light this month! Here come the excuse:
We had our 10th anniversary in the Gateway Square on July 8th. This was an occasion for celebration, prizes and most importantly, a new lease! We're staying put, most likely. Moving isn't fun, and we have loyal customers that like where we are just fine. Changing things around though is part of the process - so that's where all the work has gone: how can we make the Golden Apple better?
Don't be surprised if you see a few Under Construction signs posted around parts of the Golden Apple over the next few months. We aren't giving away any surprises yet, but wait and see!

It's Summer, Things Heat Up

2010-06-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, while everyone's taking it slow, we're starting to get busy! I just returned from the ASTRA toy show in Providence, putting the final touches on our holiday toy selection. As soon as I got back to the store, I had to buckle down to getting all the back-to-school orders done - keeps me young this back and forth from toys to school supplies! On top of it, the on-the-ball toy companies ship the new items we ordered in Providence likity-split, meaning boxes are arriving before we've unpacked our luggage.
I'll be writing about a few of the new things on their way. One company I'm excited about is Lego Architect. Kits to build classic American designs like the Seattle Space Needle, Falling Water house and the Guggenhiem Museum. The kits arrived today, and they are cool!

Spot-It from Blue Orange Games

2010-05-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

Our local friends Blue Orange Games have a new game - Spot It

I think it will be perfect to carry along this summer!

Frankly, Frannie Doggy Day Care

2010-05-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

I was an entrepreneur kid. I sold walnuts door to door. I painted curbs, I worked in the student cafeteria (free food is a big motivator for me). I like Frannie's drive. She wants a job - she is ready to try anything. We need a kid like this to work at the store!

Summer Reading Lists

2010-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm working on posting our Summer Reading Lists this week. It's a happy chore, although I'm always tempted to just fall back on the old classics -Homer Price was good 20 years ago, and it's still a pretty good read today! But kids want new, or at least we think they do. I always look forward to sending someone off with Half Magic by Edward Eager or even Treasure Island if I can get them enthused enough. This year the Golden Apple staff put in the extra effort to create a solid list - books we have read and would recommend. It is still being pushed and pulled, but follow its progress and feel free to add your own favorite summer read!

The Toy that Time Forgot

2010-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about toys for a change! We have a "brand new" item at the Golden Apple that has been sitting on our counter for about a month. It's truly magical - no batteries, barely any moving parts, but the kids find it hypnotic. I don't even really know what the name of the toy is - we tell kids it was the Gameboy of past generations. It's a water-filled tube (you add the water - it is NOT filled with imported Chinese water) that has mysterious floating balls inside. When you push the button, the balls drift through the liquid and you try to capture them in (in this case) the pelican's bills. You know what I'm talking about. The amazing thing about this toy is - it's new to kids! They can't stop playing with it. In a 3d Avatar, Ipad world, this thing just seems full of wonder. Imagine that.

Pleasanton Kids Test Well - Success!

2010-05-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

My local electronic fish-wrap has thrilling news:

Twelve out of the 15 schools in the Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) are in the top 10 percent of schools statewide, according to API (Academic Performance Index)statistics released Friday from the California Department of Education.

Bubbled answers to the challenges of the future will be nothing to these kids, as long as they don't involve music, art, critical thinking, imagination, history, hands-on learning, etc...!

Yesterdays Technology - Today!

2010-05-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that someone has invented an "interactive" whiteboard! In fact, the School Supply industry, such as it is, is all abuzz about this new technology and its potential to revolutionize the classroom. Humbug is what I say. At least I'm not alone:

GOODBYE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD
I am sure a number of readers saw this column's title and groaned. You thought you were just getting ahead of the curve by working towards installing interactive whiteboards in your classrooms, and here I am telling you that they are going away.
Meeks, Glenn "Goodbye Interactive Whiteboard." School Planning & Management 12 Dec. 2009 December ed. : 13

My usual complaint is that while technology has many applications in education, its pretty shiny qualities should make educators grab their wallets with both hands. Interactive whiteboard technology has that, built-in obsolescence and a high price tag, all in one package. Good thing you can write on them, they'll work as plain whiteboards once they're unplugged and moved to the back corner of the classroom. When schools invest big money in a technology that is so obviously not going to be part of the future, it robs funds from real education. The IWB needs software, and training. The software and training will lag behind more dynamic platforms (here comes the IPad!) and soon, no-one will bother. Software companies will have moved on, educators interested in tech will have moved on and these pretty things will have lost all their usefulness. Bookmark this post and see if I'm wrong.

Race to Nowhere

2010-04-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

A screening will be held at St Elizabeth Seton Church on May 18th in Pleasanton.

Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in our achievement obsessed public and private education system and culture. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

More information about the film can be found at their website!

Summer Book Wars Heat Up

2010-04-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's April - and the endgame has started - parents are starting to ponder the summer brain drain. Keeping kids busy, and keeping minds active during the summer is made even harder this year - many schools in our area have cancelled Summer School. The Golden Apple has offered Summer Bridge books for about 10 years. These books offer a great day to day plan that helps parents keep kids on track. They've updated the books this year, making them more challenging, but also raising the price $1 to $14.95. The books are still a bargain, considering how effective they are at keeping kids skills sharp all summer. This year, they have some competition. Teacher Created Resources, one of our top publishers has published their own book, Summertime Learning. We're very excited about this new entry for a number of reasons. Summertime Learning has a similar schedule, workload and subject area range. It has much better reward stickers and retails for only $9.99! Either book is a great way to keep minds active. For more about these books visit our page devoted to Summer Workbooks. We'll be adding summer reading lists and a wonderful resource guide written by our in-house master teacher Gayla Peek very soon.

You Mean Phonics Alone Doesn't Work?

2010-03-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Many years ago we did reading workshops for parents and teachers at our store. The presenter, Dolores Hiskes, had the participants read a phonetic passage in a foreign language. Everyone carefully sounded out the words, which were broken into syllables. After everyone read the passage, perfectly, she asked us what it meant. Guess what - phonetic decoding isn't reading!

Progress stalls on NAEP
The Christian Science Monitor reports that for the first time since 2003, America's fourth-graders made no improvement in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the "nation's report card." Achievement gaps between whites and blacks, whites and Hispanics, boys and girls, public and private school students, and low-income students and their middle- or upper-income peers also remained unchanged, compared with 2007 and with 1992, when NAEP was first administered. Overall, "we've stopped making gains, we've stopped closing gaps... the last thing we need right now is an educational recession," says Amy Wilkins, vice-president of the Education Trust, which works to close achievement and opportunity gaps. One "glimmer of hope," The Monitor says, is that individual states have succeeded in whittling both racial and income-based achievement gaps. Still, "anybody paying attention over the past eight years" to NCLB's implementation should not be surprised, writes Valerie Strauss on The Answer Sheet blog of The Washington Post. At its heart, NCLB supported specific approaches to literacy instruction that emphasized explicit phonics instruction and didn't do enough to foster comprehension. Reading experts warned that the program would fail, according to Strauss, but the Bush administration didn't listen.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0324/US-report-card-on-reading-8th-graders-gain-4th-graders-don-t
Related: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/reading/naep-reading-scores-bad-news-w.html
See the results: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/

Another Educator Joins the Chorus

2010-03-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

From today's Times

I'm starting to turn this blog into a collection of anti-education policy articles from the NY Times, but the drum beat is getting stronger. Here's a bit from today's installment:

Among the topics on which Dr. Ravitch has reversed her views is the main federal law on public schools, No Child Left Behind, which is up for a rewrite in coming weeks in Congress. She once supported it, but now says its requirements for testing in math and reading have squeezed vital subjects like history and art out of classrooms.

Do you think?

Time to Dump Standards?

2010-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

I love trend spotting, and especially trends that go my way. In the past two weeks the NYTimes editorial page has featured opinion pieces that illustrate how wrong the current obsession with teaching to standards is, and how much harm it's doing to education. I hope this trend gains momentum - exciting and relevant teaching is what makes it all worthwhile, not making sure 22 24 26 28 kids can pass the same test!

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Where the Bar Ought to Be
By BOB HERBERT
Published: February 23, 2010
In Harlem, an educator is expecting the best, not the worst, from students at her charter schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html

What Are We Teaching?

2010-02-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

Susan Engel writes in the New York Times:
Imagine, for instance, a third-grade classroom that was free of the laundry list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students, and that was devoted instead to just a few narrowly defined and deeply focused goals.

In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.

Imagine an educational system that emphasized something other than testing! Might a literature-based classroom even save money, once we eliminate the textbook publisher's restrictive, expensive package deals?

Werner Herzog Interprets Mike Mulligan

2010-02-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty funny stuff if you're a fan of Mike or Werner. (via Daddytypes.com)

An Apple in Every Classroom!

2010-01-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

Edutopia is picking up the talk about Apple's big announcement this last week. Educators are weighing in on what this new device means to them. I was surprised at the negative comments, as I'm seeing a classroom tool that should be in every teacher's hands within a very short time. The reason? It's all about the apps. What the device can and can't do is outlined at WiredEducator, but here's the bottom line: the Ipad will be able to do anything you or some other clever person wants it to do. Just like the Iphone. Let's see, Grade Book, Class Roster, Plan Book, along with email and internet. That's while it's on the teacher's desk. Attach it to the Ipodium (or whatever the device turns out to be called) turn on the LED projector and it's good-bye interactive whiteboard. There is no way in the world those instant dinosaurs are going to keep up! If you know anyone in purchasing at any school or school district, tell them to save their money, sell what they have on Ebay and cut their losses today. Just check out what's available right now for the Iphone. That's available today, but once people get their hands on the Ipad, there will be a lot more.
I'm not usually a big tech fan when it comes to education. I think there are often too many bells and whistles and not enough basic skill transfer. The Ipad is not a way of educating, it's a tool for an educator, and as that, I think it will excel.

Who Killed the Wooden Train? (Part 2)

2010-01-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Those of you who remember the TV show Columbo remember that there was never any mystery about the crime - they showed the crime being committed in the first minutes of the show. The mystery was how Columbo would solve the puzzle. In that spirit, I am going to reveal the murderer of the wooden train right now!
Or at least I will very shortly. The important thing about the crime is not who did it, or why, or even when. The important thing is it was done. If I was to say that the wooden train died in early summer of 2007, you might guess that I'm blaming Thomas the Tank Engine (or more specifically his friend James the Red Engine) for the great train wreck. That's the day the victim died, but wrong on the date of the actual crime, as well as the how and the why, and most important, you would be blaming poor Thomas for his own murder! Thomas was hanging out with a bad crowd, and that led to his demise, but he didn't do himself in. Thomas, and the wooden trains he came to represent, are victims of a conspiracy! "I just had one more question" our friend Columbo would say "how can an over-hyped toy recall on a red engine kill a category of toys that defined childhood for generations?" We'll find out in part 3...

Who Killed the Wooden Train? (Part 1)

2010-01-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

Toys have their cycles. Pirates are popular, no-one wants pirates. We're in our 8th or 9th Dinosaur Age in 30 years. When you talk with someone about yo-yo sales, you find yourself fighting a mental battle not to say "they have their ups and downs". But throughout our 30 years, a constant has been wooden trains. Kids and wooden train sets seemed to arrive together in every American home. But not anymore.
In its first years, our little Golden Apple in San Ramon, made a bold decision to install a train table for the kids. Back then we were a Teacher's Store, with black reflective glass windows, in a warehouse behind another warehouse. Every now and then a brave parent would open our door and timidly ask if "anyone" could shop in our store. The magnetic allure of a wooden train table was so well known, we counted on it to send a welcoming message to parents.
We started with TC Timber, an American-made alternative to BRIO, the big name in wooden trains. We fought an uphill battle - every parent was familiar with the Swedish company BRIO, their quality was such a given that a BRIO set was considered a generational investment. The sets might cost twice what a comparable toy did, but educated customers knew the value, and the kids wanted a train! They didn't have faces, or even much detail, but the Scandinavian simplicity was part of the appeal. TC TImber's claim to having actually invented the product didn't help us break BRIO dominance of the market, but our train table was an instant hit, and put our store on the map, at least in the minds of boys (and a few girls). To be continued...

The Sound of Gears, Shifting

2010-01-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty quiet for the last 3 weeks - a combination of too much going on and nothing happening at all! The new year starts, and suddenly my mailbox is bursting with catalogs and new product sheets from my educational publishers. (There are lots of toy catalogs too, but I get to ignore them until February) For classroom teachers, there are new patterns, new cute designs and resources you never even knew you needed! Watch for them to arrive soon. Shifting from a December of toys to a January of education is always exciting... and exhausting.

Skuut Balance Bikes - a good toy!

2009-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

We sell lots of toys, but there are a few that I think make a real difference. Science kits, puppets, a first cookbook, there are lines you can draw back through your life to these toys and say "that's where it started". I think our balance bikes are truly a starting point for a lot of kids. These toys give a first taste of freedom. Skuut is the name of one of the two balance bikes we offer, the other is from Prince Lionheart. Both of them allow kids a chance to practice bike skills without pedals. It's a way to bypass training wheels and just go! I think there are more than a few kids that, in twenty or thirty years, will look back over a life of adventure and say "It started with that wooden bike I got!"

Is It Buy a Quality Toy Tuesday?

2009-12-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

This last weekend bugged me. The days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday seemed like an endless Soviet Era propaganda film about the decadence of the west. Sure I'm a retailer, but is it really all a big game, to trick people into spending money at your store no matter how, or why? Obviously I'm on a rant about what makes a specialty store different (see previous post), but I think things have gotten way out of hand.
ASTRA (the American Specialty Toy Retailers) worked hard this year to produce a list of toys - The Best Toys for Kids. We didn't come up with "Door Busters" or "3 at this Price" toys. This selection of toys, along with the rest of our products, our outstanding staff and pleasant shopping environment is what we have to offer. This weekend made it seem like that's not enough, but we're happy to offer these things on Friday, Monday and every day of the year.
Certainly media hype has a lot to do with "Black Friday". Send a reporter out, show some video of shoppers in the cold at 4 am. Big news story. Today The Golden Apple is holding our own "Dog Bites Man" news event. Customers thoughtfully choosing toys with our help. Free Gift Wrapping - film at 11. Hope you can find parking, what with all the TV news vans out front!

We Are Thankful for Our Great Customers

2009-11-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

People that make an extra effort are always appreciated, and shopping at a specialty store such as The Golden Apple Learning Store does require a little extra effort.
For one, you have to go against the powers of the big media/advertising machines that trumpet brand names and simple solutions. You have to gamble that you can judge an item's value on its own merits: few things in our store have ever had an ad campaign; they don't feature Sponge Bob on the package; They're just toys (but you can always ask us why they're great!). If everyone shopped like loose cannons, retailing in our country would likely collapse, along with the advertising industry.
Secondly, you have to buck the social norm of shopping where everyone else shops. It's not a small thing. The old saying "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" may not be true anymore, but the convention that going with a recognized, national brand is the safest choice is still prevalent. You may like being a rebel, but will the person for whom you are buying appreciate the effort?
We, of course, believe the benefits of shopping at a small independent store are many, and worth the effort. Check out the 3/50 Project for a few reasons. There is also one big benefit for us - the people that give us their business are the cream! We can't expect everyone to shop with us all the time, but the folks that do are exceptional, and we're grateful.

The playhouse in the picture is a Color Me House that was decorated by one of our exceptional customers, Julia. Thanks for sending us the pictures Michèle!

An Imploding Industry

2009-11-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

As readers of this blog know, we've been doing this a long time. So long in fact, that I am able to brag to the others at the Senior Center that I knew Frank Schaffer. If you don't know who Frank Schaffer is, let me tell you, he's a legend in the school supply industry. He invented the Cheap Chart! (Not quite at the level of inventing the laser, or the microchip, but...). Our history with the Frank Schaffer company is complicated. Once upon a time, we were joined at the hip. About half of everything we carried had the FSP logo. The company was famous for creating packages every year at the trade show - just buy the package, you get every new product, plus all the racks and displays, you don't have to pay for it for a year and we will take an extra 50% off the price for you. We filled our store with new charts, workbooks, bulletin board sets. When corporate merger fever arrived in the 80's, FSP was one of the first victims. They were bought by Instructional Fair, their chief competitor. That was ok, because we loved IF too. Then the new, merged company was bought by McGraw Hill. We loathed McGraw Hill. They were carpet-baggers, trashing companies, stealing the best stuff for their direct to schools division and firing all the people that made the companies good in the first place. Within a few years, McGraw-Hill sold the now hollowed-out company to School Specialty, who's entire business was selling directly to schools. After that, we dropped all FSP/IF/McGraw products. (By the way, this included dozens of other companies - Ideal, Judy Instructo, ATA, Good Apple etc. that had been swallowed at various times) The good news for the School Supply industry was that most of the great people that had made up all those companies drifted to new, innovative companies that still had ideas and energy. The main place they landed was Carson Dellosa.
Today I received an email telling me that Carson Dellosa has bought Frank Schaffer. This has turned into a giant Katamari that will eventually absorb everything. It's bad news for the industry - less publishers means less quality books. In the short term, it means we may carry Frank Schaffer products again. Wish I could be happy about that. I'll try to write more about this trend later.

Let's Celebrate the Private Sector!

2009-11-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's not news that California schools have suffered massive budget cuts. Many schools are getting by on $1000 less per student, along with increased class size and staff cuts. Not an easy environment to learn in. This week, report cards arrive in our local schools, with parent conferences following. What that means for the Golden Apple Learning Store is business! Parents will turn out in droves for flashcards, workbooks and games. This first report card is always an eye-opener, and this year there will be lots of open eyes. The only way to assure personalized instruction is to do it yourself, and that's our chance to shine!
I would prefer better schools. Happy engaged teachers, small class sizes, and excited students would be as good or better for our business. I would rather have kids excited about reading, math and science - oh the things I could sell! Bring back the days of energized teachers with money to spend!
Instead we sell lots of remedial materials. When report cards arrive this week we will all learn the real-world effects of budget cuts.

Build It Up, Knock it Down

2009-11-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

Apparently, this is something you don't outgrow. We see this live about 20 times a day. I hope his mother made him clean it all up.

Risk, Toys and Oysters

2009-11-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

From the New York Times
"A federal effort to ban the sale of raw oysters harvested during the warm months along the Gulf Coast has kicked up a hurricane of opposition from oystermen and members of Congress and threatened to derail a signature food-safety initiative by the Obama administration.
The government plans to ban the sale of raw oysters taken from the Gulf of Mexico in warm-water months unless the oysters are treated to destroy deadly bacteria.
At issue is how far the federal government should go to save the lives of 15 people each year who die from eating contaminated raw oysters."

What's the connection? The Toy Industry is being turned upside down by the new CPSIA law that was passed a little over a year ago. Many small toy manufacturers (and stores) are threatened with extinction because of a poorly written law that punishes the little guys, while letting the big guys skate. Read more about the status here. Meanwhile, the seafood industry feels that saving 15 lives a year isn't worth forcing them to take basic steps to insure a safe product. Remember, no deaths or serious injury have been attributed to unsafe toys sold at Specialty Toy stores. Not per year, ever. The issue seems to be more about power than protecting consumers.
(by the way, I love oysters, and don't really think they need to be nuked. What ever happened to not eating shellfish in months without R? Also, look both ways before crossing the street!)

Where Does Music Come From?

2009-11-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

Last month, Bill Harley visited our store. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bill, he is a Grammy winning singer/songwriter/storyteller. His songs and stories are perfect for school-age kids, as he captures the thoughts, feelings and trials of that age perfectly.
We were thrilled with the turn-out, and it was a special treat when Bill brought out his guitar and performed several songs for his fans. I was happy to see the kids enjoying music being made. It's very easy to disconnect the sounds that come out of cd players and ipods from the people that play. Seeing a person strum a guitar, open his mouth and produce music is magic, and the closer kids can get to the makers of this magic, the better. Live performances by musicians keeps them in business, and allows them to connect; it's an important connection for everyone.

How Do We Fix Our Schools?

2009-11-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

"To fix our schools, we need teaching programs that are as rich in resources, interesting, high-reaching, and thoughtful as the young people we want to attract to the profession. Show me a school where teachers are smart, well-educated, skilled, and happy to be there, and I'll show you a group of children who are getting a good education."
-- Susan Engel, senior lecturer in psychology and director of the teaching program at Williams College, in an op-ed in The New York Times, November 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/opinion/02engel.html?scp=2&sq=Susan%20Engel&st=cse

Is Merit Pay for Teachers Effective? Maybe not...

2009-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says paying public school teachers based on their performance is his "highest priority," and he plans to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars to states and school systems that embrace the idea. The Detroit News says the idea isn't such a slam-dunk... Read More

Non-Candy Treats for Halloween

2009-10-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

When I was of Trick-or-Treating age, I was on a food-allergy restricted diet. No chocolate for poor little me. My 15 pound pillow case stuffed with Snickers Bars, Almond Joys and Baby Ruths (and one toothbrush from a quixotic dentist) got upended on the trading floor to be exchanged for Smarties, Lemon Heads and Pixie Sticks. Other than the dentist, no-one thought twice about the pounds of candy we collected. I just remember thinking it wasn't enough, and plotting ways to gather more the next year.
Have things changed? Well, I can eat chocolate, and it seems that someone is now paying attention to the massive amounts of candy that come in to children's lives during the holiday season. I'm always for moderation, and since the Golden Apple doesn't sell candy, and does sell some really cool alternatives to candy, I'm in favor of it! Not all of them are as cheap as a Pixie Stick, but they do cost less than dental work, and kids get to enjoy them for much longer. Our top 5 suggestions:

Iwako Erasers

Try it out, maybe the kids will appreciate your refreshing approach to tradition. Maybe they will soap your windows. No promises.

We're a Real Toy Store!

2009-09-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we received a huge delivery from Playmobil. A truck dropped a pallet of these amazing little toys outside our back door. We brought Playmobil in with some trepidation. It's a perfect toy, lots of play value, clever, creative, not based on existing story lines (like much of Lego now days). Pretty much a match made in heaven for an educational toy store. So why did we wait so long to bring it in?

The answer isn't simple, but to make it simple, let's just say we made it 30 years without carrying Playmobil, why start now? It's not hard for parents to find elsewhere, the company is a bit of a bully when it comes to telling you how and what to order, and we had no clue how to get started.

As with any decision like this, all we did was close our eyes and jump! And guess what, we just had a week of customers ecstatic over our decision! We've sold bunches, we've handed out dozens of the catalogs and we've even had customers thank us for bringing it in - they're excited that they can start buying it from us now. Now we just have to figure out what to re-order!

Lük Learning Systems are cool

2009-09-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

We've been featuring this product since spring, a new way for kids to build creative thinking and problem solving skills. I love products that are absolutely different from any other kind of toy, and Lük Learning Systems is very different. We have found that when playing with this in the store, kids literally light up. They understand how to use it, understand the challenge, and find it addictive. I copied this how to play from their website. It's very simple, and not one of their more interesting challenges - basic matching, but you can see how the system works:

Top-Notch Teachers Found to Affect Peers

2009-09-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

From Education Week:

Teachers raise their games when the quality of their colleagues improves, according to a new study offering some of the first evidence to document a “spillover effect” in teaching.

Authors C. Kirabo Jackson and Elias Bruegmann based their findings on an analysis of 11 years of data on North Carolina schoolchildren. The study is due to be published in October in American Economics Journal: Applied Economics, a peer-reviewed journal.

The authors and some independent experts said the study results are important, because they carry implications for school staffing practices and debates going on now at the national level over how to structure merit-pay plans for teachers.

Happy Lunches

2009-09-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

I have a Laptop Lunch Box. It's an item we've carried for a several years now, and we sell quite a few over the internet. A Laptop Lunch Box is a "bento box" that I pack my lunch in, usually left-overs. I do not make kittens out of rice or any of the other cute ideas listed in the article in the NY Times about this "new" fad. What I like about the Laptop Lunch Box is the size and convenience of the box system, and that I can bring food I made myself for lunch. Although it's not for me, I heartily endorse parents getting competitive in creating elaborate designs for their school lunches. Send me pictures of your best efforts and I'll post them!

Best Sellers for Back to School

2009-09-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

We've always made lists of the things teachers loved most during our back to school rush. Everyone likes to know what's popular, and this year, through the magic of social media we are able to post our best seller list for the world to see, or at least a few more teachers than we see in the store on a regular basis. We've added these items to our web store, but keep in mind that some of them were so popular that we sold out - the Multi-Color kids for example. They'll be back in stock in a week or so. The partial list in no particular order:

Grammar Minutes from CTP
The No Yell Bell from EI
Dots on Black Anything! CTP
Multi-Color Kids Cut-Outs
Smencils from EI

I left off the old favorites like All-About-Me posters and Happy Birthday Charts. Teachers were in a good mood, despite the junk that got thrown at them this year. We're hoping this school year brings a little balance back to the curriculum - and allows teachers some job security and freedom to teach.

Trim Trade: What is it?

2009-08-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

Trim Trade in ended on Wednesday. I probably should have written this up before the event ended this year, but as usual, it was a big hit, lots of teachers took advantage of the deal, and we have a huge basket of recycled trim ready for the shredder. So where did Trim Trade In come from?

We started TTI in my 3rd year of running the Golden Apple. Our small San Ramon store was starting to burst at the seams, and our companies were really breaking loose with fun designs for classroom decorations. Every year, Trend, Creative Teaching Press, and ATA (now gone) would try to top each other with new, cute designs in borders. 40 or 50 new designs a year was now normal. It was easy to see that without discontinuing some old styles, we were going to run out of space fast. However, innovation in borders was a new thing. For many years, teachers had used the same style, year in and year out. I think I have some of the designs burned in my head. So when I decided to discontinue for example the plaid design that was in Trend's first catalog, it was a catastrophe for some teachers. And they told me about it by waving a strip in my face: "I've done my classroom in this trim for 5 years, what do you mean you don't have it!" Turning that strip of trim into a coupon for a new style was an easy solution. It often diffused the situation, and got teachers to change their classrooms decor around.

Twenty or so years later, teachers are now used to styles changing. We rarely have the same thing for more than a few years. Plaid came back into fashion for a while, Gingham was a hit again. Now we do it as a tradition, since most teachers like changing things around anyway. Many stores across the country do a similar promotion, since the idea caught on at other stores, but it started here and it's something we can't discontinue!

What is Wrong With California?

2009-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

There are probably many answers to that question! Here's what I'm wondering about. Have California 4th grade teachers stopped teaching about our state's history? I'm a 5th generation Californian, and I remember 4th grade, and all the amazing stories of our state. I also loved learning all about ranchos, missions, the gold rush and especially Joaquin Murrietta, the California Bandit.

At the Golden Apple, we have always kept a very large section of resources on California History. I ordered anything and everything that I thought a teacher might love. The demographics are such that there just aren't that many 4th grade teachers in a given area. Not enough to make California resources a high-traffic part of the store, but the teachers that came in appreciated our selection. When the internet came along, the first thing I put up on our site were our California materials. Finally, our huge assortment of books, music, charts etc could reach a state-wide audience!

The first disappoint was - it's hard to advertise California resources online. Every 4th grader working on his mission report clicked our google ad. The second disappoint was, even in the store, California history resources have stopped selling. Books that would sell in the dozens now sell in the 2-3 a year range.

Now bookstores love to blame Amazon for everything, but I checked - we have a better California history assortment than Amazon, at least for a 4th grade teacher.

I'm suspicious that the decline has more to do with Standardized Testing and NCLB. They're not testing on California history. No test, no teach, that is often the reality now days. That's a shame, because I can still remember our 4th grade field trip to the Irvine Ranch, our trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano, building a mission out of sugar cubes, and the crazy story of the little girl with golden curls who met the bandito Juaquin Murrieta. Kids that miss this in 4th grade don't have much chance of ever learning it again - but at least they can fill in bubbles!

Rep Day is Wednesday!

2009-08-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

It's our biggest event of the year, and we start planning for it one year in advance! So what is it exactly? Rep Day is August 5th this year. It's an opportunity for teachers to interact with the publishers who produce classroom resources. These publishers (most if not all founded by teachers) work very hard to match their products to classroom teacher needs. They are not encumbered by the rules for Textbook publishers - they watch for trends and try to have materials that match the trends as soon as possible. Many times, they are so out in front of classroom trends that teachers don't even know resources exist. That's why the reps come out, to show the teachers what the latest resources look like.

And then there are the free bags! All year, boxes of products arrive specifically for our Rep Day bags. Last week we spent the good part of a day stuffing bags and getting them ready. The first 200 teachers to arrive get a bag. Many teachers take their bags back to school and hold a big swap with other teachers, so everyone ends up with items appropriate to their grade level.

On top of that, every company represented at Rep Day is on sale for the whole day. This year, because it is our 30th year, 30% off. That's a big deal.

Finally, we try to make it fun. Prizes, games, silliness. Let's face it, so many teachers in a small space is going to be crazy. We go with the crazy. Come on out and have a good time, get there early and enjoy yourself. It's only once a year!

The Cookies are Here

2009-07-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Starting this week, we have a treat for our teacher customers. When I was attending UC Santa Cruz, I rarely had two nickels to scrape together for anything. The one thing, besides beer, that I could always find money for was a Pacific Cookie Company peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. There was magic in them, something that restored all the energy long hours of study had drained. As a penniless student, one a week was all I could afford. Fortunately, they weren't dependent solely on my purchases, and 29 years later, they are still making wonderful cookies down in Santa Cruz.

During back to school, Pacific Cookie Company next-day delivers us fresh cookies that we use to boost spirits in our store during the crazy days of August. Because of our big 50 party on July 29th, cookies are arriving early, like this week - if it's worth a trip to Santa Cruz for one of these cookies, it's really worth stopping by The Golden Apple this week. Get here before they run out!

Puzzles and Logic

2009-07-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

We're having a cold spell here, believe it or not. July 21 and it's about 57 degrees and howling winds, at noon. Almost typical for San Francisco, but not quite. Spending time outdoors is not always a summer activity in this city. So while others may recommend these games in January, we're putting them in our Summer Fun department. These recently received games test logic and deductive reasoning skills, a real challenge for ages 8 to adult.
When choosing puzzles, it helps to know what type of thinker you are buying for. I am a lateral thinker, I like analogies, scrambled words, crosswords and "you are the detective" type puzzles. Abstract puzzles, like rubick's cube drive me insane. What is the point? I would rather read. The game pictured above, Metaforms lands somewhere in the middle for me. Using deductive reasoning, you process each clue and place a form on the grid based on the given information. Each clue follows in a progression, so by careful reasoning, a solution is found. So simple!
Fortunately, we have several kinds of deductive and inductive puzzles and games. We have carried MightyMind for many years, and Meta-Forms (pictured above) is a bridge between MightyMind, SuperMind and more complex reasoning puzzles like Architecto. If you're trying to beat the heat (or the cold) test your deductive reasoning skills, your mind will heat up, but your problem solving will be oh so cool.

Teacher Gifts

2009-07-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Bill Harley talks about schools as a gift giving culture:

The good learning places I go to are filled with evidence of their being gift-giving cultures. Children bring in cupcakes and teacher presents. They happily wipe the blackboards or write get-well cards to sick teachers or other students. Math teachers show up at piano recitals; English teachers give books from their own libraries to interested students. All teachers buy supplies for which they aren’t repaid. These are all gifts, given freely, without thought of compensation. There is no way we can untangle the web of relationships that form in a learning environment.

LINK

826 Project at Sunday Streets

2009-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday San Francisco held an event called Sunday Streets in the Mission District. Much of the fun involved the freedom to zip around on streets free from auto traffic, but it was also an opportunity to showcase businesses in that part of the city. In my exploring I came across one of my favorite operations, the 826 Project and Pirate Supply Store. This idea came from author Dave Eggers. Yesterday, the kids from 826 were cartooning, which is part of the summer writing program. They were also making a push for volunteers, which I succumbed to. I'm looking forward to whatever they decide to do with me. The kids helping out at the their booth were full of enthusiasm, and I've always dreamed of being part of a pirate operation.

Dancing in the Streets!

2009-07-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will be volunteering for Sunday Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco. Sunday Streets is a tiny step in a world wide effort to reclaim a bit of the public common from the automobile, except only a little bit, and only for a few hours. The city of San Francisco will close a several block area to auto traffic, which will give families, older people, pedestrians, cyclists and everyone else a chance to enjoy the neighborhood without fear of getting clobbered by a car. One activity I have noticed during this year's Sunday Streets is lots of kids learning to ride, or practicing their skills. In a city of steep hills and few empty lots, this is a great time and place to learn. I love to see all the kids on Balance Bikes like the Skuut and Prince Lionheart Balance Bike racing around with confidence (and totally out of control). I hope the plan is to plant the seed in people's minds that streets are public space, and cars, for all their wonderful benefits, take away from that space. With the nice weather it will be a very fun day.

The Country that Sings

2009-07-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw a wonderful movie about the power of singing. It's called "The Singing Revolution" and it tells the story of Estonia, and their battle against cultural annihilation. A battle they won, in part, because they sing, and have songs. Last year at this time I was fortunate enough to be in Latvia for their Song Festival, where I was in the audience for the song that is featured in this video. It's a very powerful song, and for the Latvians, a very subversive song that gave them strength during the Soviet occupation. (They actually sang it three times in a row that night)

It's something that has been driven out of American culture for the most part. Music is a product, like many other things in our culture, and not something that belongs to us (unless we paid $.99 to Itunes) Children start out singing, and teaching kids through song is universal in preschool, less now in kindergarten and then over by first grade. We are hard-wired for singing, and it stays in all of us, but other than "The Star Spangled Banner" at a baseball game, we don't all sing together. I think that unless you travel, you don't notice how bizarre this is. I was on the tube in London one day, and the car filled up with middle school kids on a school outing. It was completely packed. The train rolled a few stations, and then stopped in between, pitch black, and sat dead for 10 minutes. It was very unpleasant, as they say in Britain. Then spontaneously, the kids started to sing. We waited for about 45 minutes, and the middle schoolers never ran out of songs.

On another trip, I spent several winter months in Sweden. The sun sets at about 3 in the afternoon, so the evenings are very long. The young crowd I was hanging out with in those days were typical 20 somethings. But at every evening party I attended, or dinner, they sang. One dinner of 30, at a large round table, each guest was required to sing a song. Those with sweet voices sang pretty songs, those who lacked singing talent sang funny songs. When my turn came, I was saved by the fact that my parents were Berkeley graduates. I went to Cal camp every summer, and I knew "The California Drinking Song". I don't know if parents teach their kids songs about "drinking to California til we wobble in our shoes" anymore, but it got me out of a jam!

Back to Estonia, and my point. The Baltic people didn't overcome the Soviet occupiers with high test scores, or by teaching their two year olds sight words. They knew songs, and they were proud to sing them. Music is a cultural heritage, and if we don't make it a higher priority, it will be completely lost. Which is a shame, because it's not just an important part of us, it's an important part of us that we may someday need.

Kids on Bluegrass

2009-07-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

The California Bluegrass Association has created a program to encourage kids to make music. The Kids on Bluegrass program helps young pickers grow their musical talent, performing at various festivals around the state.

What will you accomplish today?

2009-07-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Forty years ago, before we couldn't fund schools or provide decent healthcare for everyone we were able to to do this:

Visits to our Science Section will be manditory today!

Summer Books

2009-07-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Summer comes to an end early for us - our teachers, despite what the state puts them through, are eager to get back in there and teach. We have to have all our plans in place, and it sometimes puts the squeeze on our programs for helping kids have a fun, productive summer. We love all the young readers we see in the summer, and it's fun to get feedback on what kids have found to read. The real reading junkies are into their 3rd, 4th,10th book of the summer. It can be a challenge coming up with recommendations for kids that read like locusts eat. I'm putting out a quick 5 that have pushed to the top this summer - mostly because we like them!

The Mysterious Benedict Society. Trenton Lee Stewart
Little, Brown/Tingley, $6.99. ISBN 9780316003957.

Scat. Hiaasen, Carl
Knopf, $16.99. ISBN 978-0375-83486-8.

Three Cups of Tea Young Reader’s Edition
. Mortenson, Greg
Penguin, $6.99. ISBN 978-0-14-241412-5

The Penderwicks. Birdsall, Jeanne
Random House, $6.99. ISBN 0375831436.

The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)Scott,Michael
Delacorte, $17.99. 0385735294

Hopefully that helps someone - some of the kids we see would chew those up and spit them out in under a week! Good for us, good for them!

The Gears are Shifting

2009-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

July is a change month at The Golden Apple. Families are settling in to their summer, teachers are enjoying their break (usually by planning for next year) and for a brief moment, the Golden Apple quiets down. The quiet doesn't last long. First, we're having our carpets cleaned - when do we get a chance? Fourth of July is our only opportunity all year, so we will be closed over the holiday weekend so the carpets can dry. As soon as we reopen on Monday, we start setting up for the invasion. Less than 30 days until waves and waves of teachers arrive to stock their classrooms for next year.
School budgets may be under siege, the state may be broke, but on the first day of school, classrooms will be sanctuaries of hope and promise, and our teachers will make it happen. The Golden Apple is getting ready.

Home from ASTRA

2009-06-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night, and I'm still not quite down to earth after the amazing American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) show in St Paul. The toy business is a business of play, and the ASTRA people set the bar for high energy and excitement. I have a long list of posts highlighting some of the things I did,found and learned this year, stay tuned!

The Ghosts of Summers Lost

2009-06-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

We've unpacked about 19 bazillion workbooks this week. Math, Reading, Writing (all the parents want to work on writing!) and your general Summer Bridge workbooks of course. It makes for busy days, and much less blog posting. This thought struck me suddenly. What if all those workbooks are extracting a karmic toll? There's a legend that Sarah Winchester was haunted by the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles. It may come to pass that I will be haunted by the ghosts of Summer idles, ruined by workbooks from the Golden Apple. Terrifying.

TED Talks

2009-06-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

If I haven't blogged about TED talks before, I should have. If you are learning junkie like me, the TED talks are pure heaven, once you get passed the American Express ads. I posted about Gever Tulley "5 Dangerous Things For Kids" talk a long time ago, but I also enjoyed Ken Robinson's talk on Education and Creativity. Watch, then come back and discuss!

Maker Faire Report

2009-06-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Maker Faire, which did not disappoint. If my head had the capacity for 3 amazing innovations, I found them there. If my head had the capacity for 300 amazing innovations, I could have found them there. Overload came quickly.
The absolute best part of Maker Faire is the focus on kids. The media coverage misses this part, because all the dazzling, mind-blowing, flame-belching machines are the first thing you notice. But if you look around, all you see are kids going nuts. It's a huge playground, and the smart guys have latched on to it.
The Exploratorium had a big spot, Stanford's Kids Tech Program, the Tinkering School, Robotics Clubs, Model Rocket Clubs and dozens of other science outreach programs were putting on a show for kids. This one event probably does more for boosting science enthusiasm in the Bay Area than all other venues combined.
The sponsors of Maker Faire should host a preview day for schools on the Friday before, and invite field trips. Every kid deserves a chance to see this event.
I'm working on putting together some of the video I shot at the Faire, but I was excited to see one of our fun companies, Hape, had a booth that featured Quadrilla, and the the German inventor of the toy was on the floor playing with the kids! I'll post more as I get it put together.

Maker Faire this Weekend

2009-05-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

The Golden Apple is very fortunate to be located in a geographic area that teems with creative energy. Our store is about equal distance from Silicon Valley and San Francisco and a stone's throw away from Livermore Labs (though I don't think the Weapons Lab worries about thrown stones anymore). We get our science through the main line around here! This weekend the Bay Area hosts an event called the Maker Faire, which is a huge celebration of many things - Tinkerers, Mad Scientists, Crafters, TechnoGeeks, Steampunkers, DIYers and everyone in between. I have been to this event a couple of times, and it is a great way to get you creative energies dialed up to 11. See you there!

Blueberries for Sal

2009-05-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've eaten a lot of berries this week. It's the season, even if it isn't. Don't berries show up in summer? For Oldtime Storytime this week we're rolling out one of the big guns, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. There's a lot wrong with this story, according to bear experts, and I'm not sure blueberry picking is a familiar activity for local kids, but it's a good separation anxiety yarn, and it makes adults like me nostalgic for a childhood I didn't have either. Join us today at 4:30 - we might even taste some blueberries!

What is an Educational Toy?

2009-05-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

I do an occasional guest blog for TDMonthly. This week they asked me to write on the topic: What "educational toy" really means:

It happens very often. A customer comes in (often it is an aunt or uncle) and asks for an "educational toy for a two-year-old". My staff prefers it's not me they ask, because they know this is one of my "buttons". Depending on the length of my fuse, I may or may not spare them the lecture on why there is no such animal as an "educational" toy for a two-year-old. But who wants a lecture, so I show them something that has the alphabet printed on it, or it involves numbers, or colors. That's the reason they came in to my "Educational Store", they were told to get something educational, not to hear me spout.
So what is an educational toy? Our fall back criteria is the old BRIO credo, which formed their core philosophy, before they got lost in the woods. It's a child-centered toy. It doesn't play for the child, the child plays with the toy. It is open-ended and adaptable to all kinds of play. It lacks a built in-story (unlike say a SpongeBob figurine). Now this could be drawn into a flow chart, and applied to every toy, but we spend most of our time flying by the seat of our pants. We strayed from orthodoxy a long time ago, and a few popular items skirt close to the line of "not in the least bit educational". Nonetheless, when a customer is looking for "educational", we have to meet their expectations. They want a toy that "teaches" something. Going back to a visual chart, here's how I would represent an ideal educational toy: a Venn Diagram with three circles. The first circle is what I, as a life long educator and toy buyer would consider an "Educational Toy". The next circle encompasses what a customer with a specific idea of a toy that "teaches something" has in mind. The third circle is what a child thinks is a fun way to spend some time. A toy that can fit in the intersection of all three is an "educational toy" that I would gladly put on my shelves.
With some effort, I can usually convince the above aunt or uncle that a pounding bench is the perfect educational toy for a two year old. It teaches cause and effect, it does nothing if the child doesn't interact with it, and it's pretty fun to wail away at. As kids get older, a broader range of toys that will fit my diagram are available, and I can direct a customer to a toy or game that satisfies everyone involved.
But, you might be thinking, what about that D-Tech Smart Pad that speaks the alphabet in 10 languages and provides both visual and auditory feedback - that must be an educational toy! Oh, don't get me started!

Teacher Appreciation - It's Real!

2009-05-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

I slowed down on my posting this last week. My excuse is I was working on building a website (not Golden Apple related but you can check it out here) I was doing it as an exercise, to get my web skills up to date. Learning new things is hard, but what's harder is learning new things without the help of a teacher! I could have saved myself hours of time if I had had someone to give me some guidance, feedback and correction. It isn't something you can get from books, it isn't something available online.
I'm happy to have improved my skills, but I appreciate what teachers do even more than before.

Millions of Cats at Storytime

2009-05-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats. That's what we're dealing with today at Old-time Storytime. Space is limited!

Looking for Something Fresh

2009-05-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

...so I was willing to carry something fresh that I may look as a man minding business, which I have done too much for a great while to forfeit, and is now so great a burden upon my mind night and day that I do not enjoy myself in the world almost.

Samuel Pepys taught me everything I know about blogging! For the past 5 or so years I have been reading on a mostly daily basis the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Posting Sam Pepys diary as a blog was the brilliant idea of Phil Gyford. The diary was always something you were assigned to read in English Lit, and so at best you skimmed it and forgot it by the end of High School. Reading it as it unfolds is an incredible experience, and gems like his posting today - (excerpt above) reminds me so much of what I am doing with the Facebook, this Blog, Twitter the Enews (and who knows what is coming next) that it is uncanny. Keeping up, and having something new to report does get a bit oppressive. I'm still enjoying myself in the world, and I think Sam was just playing "poor me" for a moment. Check it out if you would like to find out how little has changed in 400 years.

Time for some Blogrolling

2009-05-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

Pufferbellies lures the press to their weekly storytime and gets a write-up! YoYoJoes is playing with some very high-end toys. Peapods has some fun with local logs. And they're parking new trucks over at Early Work in Petaluma.
As for the Golden Apple, we're just taking it easy today, it's too hot to do much. I'm almost too lazy to report that we unpacked another batch of Sunny Patch from Melissa and Doug, including a Grub Scouts Sprinkler that would make any hot day worth living!