Using your Kindle for Educators and Homeschoolers

Every day, I get free e-books for my Kindle as a variety of bloggers take the time to find some of the
best free books of the day and post them. I have reviewed these in the past, but what about kids? What about home educators? Well, this could save you time, money and headaches. Add the books to your Kindle library and they are available when you need them.

Also, Amazon has thousands of free classics available to download saving you a trip to the library (don't give up your library card as that is very important too). These classics are older, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books, many of which are worthwhile reading for your student. Many are well known authors such as G.A. Henty, Jane Austin, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Rudyard Kipling and so many more. Here is a blogger who has done some of the research and categorized some of them for you.

One of the great advantages I have found with the Kindle is that when reading a book, if I come across a word I don't know, I can touch the word and get a definition. That makes reading and learning new words so much easier so you don't loose the flow of the book. But I digress...

What did I find today that was free?

CK Geometry - CK-12 Foundation's Geometry FlexBook is a clear presentation of the essentials of geometry for the high school student. Topics include: Proof, Congruent Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Similarity, Perimeter & Area, Volume, and Transformations.

Algebra - The Boundless Algebra textbook is a college-level, introductory textbook that covers the important subject of Algebra -- one of the basic building blocks of studies in higher mathematics. Boundless works with subject matter experts to select the best open educational resources available on the web, review the content for quality, and create introductory, college-level textbooks designed to meet the study needs of university students.

CK-12 Biology 1 - Honors - CK-12 Biology I is a textbook for high school students covering cell biology, genetics, evolution, ecology, and physiology.

Jaimito va a la escuela (Spanish Reader Elementary Level) (Funny Tales In Easy Spanish 1) - JAIMITO VA A LA ESCUELA (JAIMITO GOES TO SCHOOL) is a funn tale about a young rascal who doesn´t like school, written in simple, easy Spanish for elementary-level language students. Fun and easy to read, the text was edited and simplified to increase language comprehension and ease reading practice using simple wording, short sentences, and moderate, elementary-level vocabulary.

The Agony of Apostrophes - The Agony of Apostrophes is for anyone who has ever had trouble working out where an apostrophe should go or whether an apostrophe is needed at all. It deals with almost every apostrophe dilemma you are likely to come across and is packed with examples and explanations to back up the rules.

Memograms: Easy Anagrams of Hard-to-Spell Words - Are you lost without your spelling checker? Don’t know whether “diction•ry” is spelled with an “a”… or maybe an “e”? “Memograms: Easy Anagrams of Hard-to-Spell Words” is a collection of humorous mnemonics (memory-helpers) for 120 words that many people find surprisingly difficult to spell.

Typing Exercises

You took typing but need to increase your typing speed? Job interview or just because? Typing has become critical in this computer based world, not only from the workplace but also resumes and communication now rely on the keyboard instead of pen and paper. I took typing in high school before corrective ribbons were on the electronic typewriters. I was lucky to get to 15 WPM, and that was on a very good day. My typing teacher was awesome. It really wasn't her fault that I just was not that coordinated and often made mistakes reducing my numbers to single digits. Fast forward to today, I teach Microsoft Office and often encourage my students to start or refresh their typing skills by increasing their speed. The website I use for "learning to type" is typingclub.com where you can easily learn the basics to more advanced techniques. Yes there are advertisements although you can pay for an ad-free premium. I don't benefit from this suggestion, but found the 684 lessons ...

Google: Now you know!

Google has released clear information on how to perform better in search engines. Provide useful, legitimate content! This update is called the " Helpful Content Update " and it is clear that original, informative information is king. A new sitewide ranking system is being added which awards people with good quality content. Now, this isn't really new, but it clarifies that your ranking can be impacted and if you are a subject matter expert in your field or business, make it shine! Utilize your website as informational, not just a short brochure or a business card. Show your knowledge and experience and make it work for your organically.

Is Your Website Ready for the Search Engines?

Photo by sarah b on Unsplash Let's be clear. When it comes to search engines, keep in mind that SEO is an experiment, there are no rules. The algorithms changes regularly (estimated 400 times a year) and Google doesn’t share specifics on those changes except general guidelines on their site. That being said, there are some best practices to help improve the rank of the website. We can't cover all of them here, but there are some obvious ones. This applies to the majority of search engines, so don't feel like you need to cater to each one individually. Most of all, if this is greek to you, consider hiring someone to handle your SEO. Also, if they make promises of specific results, run far away. SEO is a slow, continuous process. Make Your Content Clear According to Google, they want to "see your page the same way the user does". That being said, when you see a search engine entry, you notice the title and a brief description. These are...

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