The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps

While trolling around the Scholastic website recently I noticed something that seemed sort of interesting... the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps.

So I looked into it. And it's pretty cool. Basically, Scholastic has rounded up a team of about 50 kid reporters (aged 10-14) to report on things that are happening (news, sports, entertainment, etc.) around the country. Recently they covered Occupy Wall Street movements, had a sit down interview with President Obama, and geared up to start covering the 2012 election. Their articles are published online and in Scholastic's classroom magazines Scholastic News® and Junior Scholastic®

A big part of the Kids Press Corps is coverage of the election season. In fact that's how the Corps came into being in the first place, when a group of young reporters came together to provide extensive coverage of the 2000 presidential election. They not only interviewed candidates, but they also reported on campaign events including caucuses, primaries, debates, conventions, Election Day, and the Presidential Inauguration.

Since then, the Kids Press Corps has interviewed President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as celebrities, such as the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Smith, Kanye West, America Ferrera, Will Smith, Jordin Sparks, Dwayne Johnson and Tom Cruise. They have also talked to sports stars, museum curators, race car drivers, zoo scientists, tank commanders, other news reporters and more.

To become a member of the Press Corps, applicants have to write a biography about themselves and say why they would make a great reporter, as well as write a 400 word story (with interviews and quotes) about what makes their community special. Applications are accepted in August and September of every year.

Fun Fact of the Week

From age 6–17, the time kids spend reading books for fun declines.

But, the time kids spend going online and talking on the phone or texting increases.

Statistic brought to you by the 2010 Kids and Family Reading Report

Dear America: Live Webcast

I don't know about any one else, but I was obsessed with the Dear America series when I was in elementary school and I'm glad to see that it is still going strong.

On October 26 (Wednesday), Scholastic is sponsoring a live webcast "Dear America: History Speaks" for classrooms around the country.

During the live event, Dear America authors Lois Lowry, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Kirby Larson (who's books are based during WWI, WWII, and the Civil Rights Movement) will be on hand to answer questions from students and discuss the art of writing historical fiction, including how to research, develop characters, and craft a story told in diary form.

Teachers are invited to register for the event on the Teach Dear America page. While there, they have access to primary source materials, student activities, free classroom discussion guides, and whiteboard-ready slides and activities created in collaboration with the Library of Congress

The webcast is recommended for grades 3 and up.


Written by an array of award-winning and bestselling authors, the popular The Dear America® series has more than 14 million copies in print. The books are presented in diary format from the perspective of young girls living during different periods in American history.

Extending Literacy Beyond the Classroom

On Thursday Scholastic unveiled a new task force dedicated to raising student achievement.

The Scholastic Family and Community Engagement (FACE) team is designed to "create programs and partnerships that support literacy anywhere a child encounters a caring adult — whether in classrooms or at home, in early childhood, after school, during the summer, and through mentoring programs."

The team was created in response to evidence that greater family involvement and support have a positive correlation with academic achievement, especially in low-income areas. To that end, Scholastic is working with partner organizations, school districts, and education leaders to raise awareness about how important it is for children to be supported at home and in the community, as well as in the schools. Scholastic has also created a national advisory council who will work to promote the initiative.

According to the press release, Scholastic FACE provides programs and supports in five priority areas:

1. Early Literacy: Scholastic provides affordable, quality board books and resources to early childhood education providers to help emergent readers reach developmental milestones.
2. Parent Support and Training: The Scholastic Read and Rise® program provides training for educators, workshops for parents, and take-home books to connect families, schools and communities and inspire literacy-rich environments in the home.
3. Access to Books at Home: Through Scholastic’s long-lasting partnerships with literacy-focused organizations like Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and Reach Out and Read and through summer reading and MyBooks take-home book packs sold to school, districts, and local organizations, Scholastic helps ensure that every child has books in the home. Research shows access to books in the home leads to success in school and in life.
4. Expanded Learning: Scholastic After School Learning provides an engaging curriculum and resources to help students overcome learning gaps and build the social, imaginative and emotional skills they need to succeed in the classroom.
5. Mentoring Partnerships: Building upon research that shows students with positive adult mentors are more likely to pursue higher education and have a better attitude toward school. Scholastic created Scholastic R.E.A.L.: Read. Excel. Achieve. Lead.™, which provides a framework and the tools to launch a literacy-focused mentoring program in any community.

Frightbook!

R.L. Stine is turning Facebook into Frightbook next week!

For two hours, tomorrow (Oct. 28) Stine will take over Scholastic's Facebook and Twitter accounts, posting scary prompts, jokes, and trivia. He will also be answering questions from fans of his bestselling Goosebumps series (a personal childhood fav).

If YOU want to ask Stine a question, just visit the Scholastic Facebook page or follow tweets from @Scholastic and @RL_Stine during the event which starts at 1 p.m. (EDT).

And, while you're waiting to talk to Stine, check out the newest edition to the Goosebumps family, Why I Quit Zombie School (pictured at right), part of the Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors book series.

The event is part of Scholastic's third annual "Get Goosebumps" campaign, designed to create buzz about the Goosebumps book series and other media, including a TV show and online games, during the Halloween season.

Cribs: Scholastic Style

Mediabistro does this really cool thing called "Cubes" which is basically a spin-off of MTV's "Cribs" except they tour the offices of major publishers and entertainment people.

Today's episode featured the SOHO headquarters of Scholastic. And, while I realize that this doesn't really have anything to do with how Scholastic is evolving, I thought it was far too cool to ignore. Words cannot express how much this made me want to work there.... it looks amazing!

Enjoy!

Books for Comfort

Last night's Nightly News with Brian Williams did a story about how books and reading can help you cope with your personal issues. The story focused on a young homeless girl in Minnesota, who after being introduced to a book in class, was able to talk about her family's situation. 

Well, Scholastic took notice of this piece, and featured it on the On Our Minds blog, along with a list of books that deal with issues kids today face, from poverty to parental job loss to homelessness.

breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Scholastic's recommended book list

Picture books:

• Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen
• Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
• Shelter in Our Car by Monica Gunning
• Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting (I remember this one from Reading Rainbow)
• Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by Dyanne Disalvo-Ryan

Chapter Books/Middle Grade:

• How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor
• Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary
• Hothead by Cal Ripken, Jr.
• The Not-So-Great Depression by Amy Goldman Koss

Young Adult:

• Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal
• Tyrell by Coe Booth

Scholastic Rings NASDAQ Closing Bell

Today Scholastic rang the closing bell at NASDAQ in honor of the 25th anniversary of The Magic School Bus franchise.

READ 180® Success

There was an article on The News Dispatch (a newspaper based in Michigan City, Indiana) website about the success of the READ 180® program for Michigan City students.

According to the article, nearly 72% of the students (that's 540 out of 751) who participated in the program gained at least one grade level of comprehension. Students at the high school level saw a three-fold improvement in their lexile scores (a way to measure literacy levels and comprehension rates).

The READ 180 program is a comprehensive system of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development designed to help struggling readers in grades 4–12+.

Fun Fact of the Week

Let kids pick out their own books. 

Nine out of 10 children say that they are more likely to finish books they choose.

Statistic brought to you by the 2010 Kids and Family Reading Report

Social Reading for Kids

From today's Publishing Perspectives...

Scholastic Preps Social Reading Platform for Kids

By Roberta Campassi, PublishNews

Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, is working to launch an electronic platform for children comment and share information on books they are reading, said Deborah Forte, the executive VP and president of Scholastic Media, during the “Children’s Publishing Goes Global” Publishers Launch conference yesterday. Forte was prompted into the admission after Kelly Gallagher, publishing services VP for Bowker, noted that there are not yet any platforms, such as LibraryThing aimed at children. Forte said she couldn’t give further details of the project as it has not yet been officially announced.

Sounds cool... Can't wait to find out more!

Staff Changes

Dani Nadelhas joined Scholastic last Wednesday as Chief Digital Marketing Officer, Scholastic Book Clubs and e-Commerce.

She joins the team as part of a company-wide strategic initiative to transition to technology-enabled reading in Scholastic's children's book sector. She will be responsible for framing a comprehensive marketing plan and merchandising stragegy for the NEW COOL (Clubs Ordering Online) platform and e-bookstore that goes with it. In addition, she will be working with marketing teams to promote the soon-to-be-released Scholastic e-reading app.


From the press release:

"We are confident that the breadth and depth of senior executive level experience in digital marketing and media that Dani brings to Scholastic will be instrumental in helping us reach the goals we have set out for our company's — and our customers' — exciting digital future," said Judy Newman. "Her work with top tier clients in their respective industries makes Dani particularly well suited to help realize Scholastic's digital vision and strategy."

Free Books Anyone?

Check out this spectacular offer from Kellogg's, Walmart, and Scholastic...

Right now, Walmart's shelves are filled with free books. Well, technically, they're filled with boxes of food, which have codes that when entered online will give you a $5 coupon to buy books.

There is a code on specially-marked boxes of Kellogg's products — the good ones that you would buy anyway, like Frosted Mini Wheats, Fruit Loops, Eggo Waffles, Pop Tarts, Cheez-its, and tons of others — that you can redeem on the Scholastic website for a free $5 coupon. It takes two codes to get the five bucks, but you can redeem as many as you want... so if you buy 10 boxes of Cheez-its (my personal favorite) you get $25 to use at the online Scholastic Store or Scholastic Book Clubs.

The downside? You can only use one $5 coupon per transaction. So, while you can get a $5 book for free (plus shipping at the online store), you can't get $25 worth of books for free all in one go.

But hey, it's $5 for books from things you'd buy anyway.

So get shopping! All you have to do is figure out which book to get. Good thing Scholastic has thoughtfully selected their top picks for under $5. Just make sure to redeem your coupons by July 1.

Read the Book: The Hunger Games

I was looking through the Scholastic Facebook page this morning when I found something that I think is pretty cool... They posted the first two chapters of the first book of the Hunger Games series (for those of you not in the know that would be the book The Hunger Games).

Part of it is a promote the movie gimmick... the main image is not the cover of the book, but instead the movie poster and it lists the movie release date front and center, BUT it's also a great way to get kids interested in the book itself.

I know that in my personal experience, I only started reading the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I certainly wasn't expecting to like it and I definitely wasn't expecting to buy it (I had checked my copy out from the library). But by the end of the second chapter, much to my chagrin, I was hooked. Obsessed. I bought all three and read them in about four days. And I know a lot of people who had a similar experience to mine.

The point of that little aside is this... Scholastic made a GENIUS move when they decided to put those two chapters up online. Then, they followed that up by including direct links to seven online retailers — Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound, The Scholastic Store, Books a Million, Target, and Walmart — to buy the rest (by which I mean all) of book one.

They've also included a message board where people on Facebook can discuss this situation from the book, "Gale suggests that he and Katniss should escape their district in order to avoid The Hunger Games," and answer the question, "Would you leave town to save your own life, if it meant leaving all of the people you love behind?"

Connecting Teachers Across the Country

Back on September 26, Scholastic, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and DonorsChoose.org, launched Teacher Wall.

The Teacher Wall is a website designed to act as a virtual teacher town square, where teachers across the country can talk about things that are important to them and answer questions like, "What is the biggest challenge you face in your classroom and how do you tackle it?" and "What is one thing you've done in the past year to make yourself a better teacher?" America's educators post their answers to the Teacher Wall, giving them the chance to interact with and learn from each other.

The site seems to be pretty popular, when it launched last month more than 3,000 teachers posted more than 8,000 videos, and that number is growing. The Teacher Wall also gives participating teachers the ability to share videos or comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, as well as via email.

On the home page (pictured above) you just see a huge collage of videos — each square represents an individual video — from teachers all over America sharing little snippets of advice.

If you're looking for something specific, you can pick one of the nine questions that are currently trending... right now, those are:

• If you could change one thing about American education, what would it be? 
• Where do you go to get feedback on your performance as a teacher and why? 
• What has been your greatest success as a teacher? 
• What is the biggest challenge you face in your classroom? How do you tackle it? 
• What is the best thing about teaching? 
• What is one thing you’ve done in the past year to make yourself a better teacher? 
• What words of advice would you give a new teacher? 
• How do you introduce high expectations for your students and encourage their highest level of success? 
• What is one thing about teaching that would surprise people outside the profession?

You can also choose to see the most-discussed and most-liked videos.

Another neat feature of the site is the ability to search by zip code, allowing teachers to see what other teachers in their area are saying.

The Scholastic Mission

Mission
Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, has a corporate mission supported through all of its divisions of helping children around the world to read and learn. Recognizing that literacy is the cornerstone of a child's intellectual, personal and cultural growth, for more than 90 years Scholastic has created quality products and services that educate, entertain and motivate children and are designed to help enlarge their understanding of the world around them.

Credo
Scholastic produces educational materials to assist and inspire students:

• To cultivate their minds to utmost capacity
• To become familiar with our cultural heritage
• To strive for excellence in creative expression in all fields of learning, literature, and art
• To seek effective ways to live a satisfying life
• To enlarge students' concern for and understanding of today's world
• To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation

We strive to present the clearest explanation of current affairs and contemporary thought, and to encourage literary appreciation and expression consistent with the understanding and interests of young people at all levels of learning. We believe in:

• The worth and dignity of each individual
• Respect for the diverse groups in our multicultural society
• The right of each individual to live in a wholesome environment, and equally, the personal responsibility of each individual to help gain and preserve a decent and healthful environment, beginning with informed care of one's own body and mind
• High moral and spiritual values
• The democratic way of life, with basic liberties — and responsibilities — for everyone
• Constitutional, representative government, and even-handed justice that maintains equality of rights for all people
• Responsible competitive enterprise and responsible labor, with opportunities for all
• Cooperation and understanding among all people for the peace of the world

We pledge ourselves to uphold the basic freedoms of all individuals; we are unalterably opposed to any system of government or society that denies these freedoms. We oppose discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, or national origin. Good citizens may honestly differ on important public questions. We believe that all sides of the issues of our times should be fairly discussed — with deep respect for facts and logical thinking — in classroom magazines, books, and other educational materials used in schools and homes.

From the Scholastic website

Corporate Consolidation

In an effort to save money, Scholastic is cutting back on its toy business and one of the ripple effects of this decision is the closing of the Moberly, MO packaging center next year.

The 135 current Moberly Scholastic employees will have first dibs on the 90 jobs Scholastic is creating when they move the remaining toy operations to the Jefferson City Facility. According to a Scholastic spokesperson, the Jefferson City Facility hires about 1,500 workers during peak season, which will rise to about 1,600 when the new toy operations are added.


Source

Q1 2012 Results

Scholastic reported a 9.6% increase in total revenue (to $318 million) for its first quarter last month. Net loss was down to $27.1 million from $35.2 million.

According to a Publishers Weekly article, the numbers reflected higher sales of educational products and services to schools, as well as, increased sales of children's books in retail trade channels.

Scholastic's educational and technology services group saw sales up 18% and its classroom and supplemental materials publishing group had a 25% increase.

Sales were up 6% (to $77.3 million) for Scholastic's children's book publishing and distribution group, with the gain coming entirely from the trade segment (which also posted a 10% increase) thanks mainly to sales of the Hunger Games series in both print and e-books, as well as Harry Potter. These

Revenue fell at book clubs and book fairs, but that was expected because the first quarter is traditionally slow for both.

International revenue rose to $87.7 million from $81.9, reflecting a $9.8 million foreign exchange benefit.

The media, licensing, and advertising segment fell 37%, due to a planned decrease in custom marketing programs for third-party sponsors and higher, non-recurring production revenue.

Scholastic expects revenue for the full fiscal year to be about $1.9 billion.

After the announcement, Scholastic Corporation stocks (SCHL) increased 5.8% to $27.43.

READ 180® Sales Figures

Scholastic issued a press release last month that gave new details about the success of the READ 180® and READ 180® Next Generation program.

In the release they stated that since it's launch in May, the newest version — READ 180® Next Generation — has made $50 million in sales. The original version of READ 180®, which launched in 1999, serves more than one million students and it's effectiveness has been confirmed by more than 40 independent researchers.

As of the September 22 release, nearly 20% of all school districts using the original program have upgraded to "Next Generation" version and will implement it in the fall.

See the full press release here.

Happy 25th Magic School Bus!

Scholastic announced that it is kicking off the 25th anniversary celebration of The Magic School Bus franchise this month by releasing a Nintendo DS game and iPad app based on oceans and dinosaurs respectively.

According to the press release, the campaign will also include a host of other fun things. Identity Games is releasing GameChanger (an electronic board that works with the iPad) featuring The Magic School Bus game skins. The Young Scientists Club is launching "The Magic School Bus Science Club" and release five new Magic School Bus activity kits this year. Scholastic Audio has three new Magic School Bus audiobooks scheduled for release in 2012. Maximum Entertainment Productions and The Brad Simon Organization have teamed up to create a live touring show called "The Magic School Bus - Live! The Climate Challenge,"which will come to 60 cities throughout the U.S.

A new online game "Where Will The Bus Take You?" will launch on October 10 at www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus. It's designed to get kids, parents, and teachers to 'Get Out and Explore.'

Scholastic is also hosting a live 25th anniversary field trip event on October 20 along the Hudson River in NYC featuring author Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan (illustrator of the books).

The first book The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks was introduced in 1986. Today there are 58 million books in print and the series has been translated in 10 languages. The Emmy Award-winning TV series based on the books — now in it's 17th consecutive season — is seen in 39 countries and 16 languages.

The Magic School Bus has won many industry excellence awards, including two Emmys for Lily Tomlin (for her portrayal of Ms. Frizzle in the TV series), five CINE Golden Eagles, a Parents Choice Gold Medal, a National Conservation Achievement Award, an Environmental Media Association Award, and an Annenberg Public Policy Center Award.


A few quotes from the press release:

"For twenty-five years, The Magic School Bus has encouraged and motivated children and families around the world to 'get out there and explore' through immersive and interactive field trips," said Deborah Forte, President of Scholastic Media and Executive Vice President of Scholastic Inc. "We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone and introduce the next generation to a unique approach to science on new platforms." 

"The Magic School Bus was ahead of its time, predicting the current move to bring together science comprehension and English language literacy," said Francie Alexander, Senior Vice President of Scholastic Education and Chief Academic Officer of Scholastic Inc. "When kids jump on the Magic School Bus, they get to read, think about and take action in support of science. Kids need Ms. Frizzle's encouragement to excel at science now more than ever."

Tracking Scholastic

I'm going to be following the every move of Scholastic for the next few months to see what its next step will be in the ever changing world of book publishing