Book News
Lessons go digital.
Hitting the books is becoming a thing of the past, as more schools across Massachusetts implement virtual classrooms and equip students with laptops.
“If you look at a textbook, it’s very static. It’s very convoluted,” said Hopkinton High math teacher Carla Crisafulli, who will post homework assignments to and use Jing to create lesson voice-overs. “We’re going to be able to reach out via the Internet and make geometry come alive.”
Hopkinton High is piloting a physics course that will be conducted exclusively online, said principal Alyson Geary. For freshman geometry and junior American literature, students will carry laptops instead of textbooks.
The state Department of Education’s latest survey on school technology found that 474 out of 706 public school districts had plans to upgrade their curriculum material from print to digital.
“Students do not currently like to read textbooks,” said John Madis, business manager for Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. “It’s not just in their normal lifestyle to read from a book.” bostonherald.com
First Lines
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup. Later he would remember walking down the hospital corridor with the cup of horrible tea in his hand, alone under the fluorescent lights, retracing his steps to the room where Elspeth lay surrounded by machines. She had turned her head towards the door and her eyes were open; at first Robert thought she was conscious.
In the seconds before she died, Elspeth remembered a day last spring when she and Robert had walked along a muddy path by the Thames in Kew Gardens. There was the smell of rotted leaves; it had been raining. Robert said, “We should have had kids,” and Elspeth replied, “Don’t be silly, sweet.” She said it out loud, in the hospital room, but Robert wasn’t there to hear.
Elspeth turned her face towards the door. She wanted to call out, Robert, but her throat was suddenly full. She felt as though her soul were attempting to climb out by way of her oesophagus. She tried to cough, to let it out, but she only gurgled. I’m drowning. Drowning in bed. . . .She felt intense pressure, and then she was floating; the pain was gone and she was looking down from the ceiling at her small wrecked body.
Robert stood in the doorway. The tea was scalding his hand, and he set it down on the nightstand by the bed. Dawn had begun to change the shadows in the room from charcoal to an indeterminate grey; otherwise everything seemed as it had been. He shut the door.
Hardcover fiction
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Publishers Weekly
