Back to School: Ease the Pain with Shmoop
By · CommentsMountain View, CA (PRWEB) August 30, 2011
While the student and teacher population were off on summer vacation, Shmoopers (who are pale even at the end of August) were hard at work in the mountain shafts mining literary gems for intellectual consumption. Some nuggets Shmoop proudly present to students and teachers alike in honor of the first weeks back.
From the Young Adult Files:
The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody ?Bod? Owens, an orphan who is raised in a graveyard by dead people and supernatural beings. As students might have already guessed, the author admits that he was really, really into The Jungle Book.
From Lit:
Love in the Time of Cholera seems infinitely relatable to the high school condition. Even as the characters in the novel age, their thoughts, feelings, and interactions are so familiar to society today. Florentino constantly has love on the brain.
Is there anything that will impress the ladies or gents more than a claim that you have actually read ? and understood ? the great masterwork of Western literature? Imagine cruising the night scene with some prepared segues: “Oh, really? That’s very interesting. It’s just like Tolstoy writes in War and Peace.?
From Bestsellers:
Here is the situation in Ender?s Game: After aliens attack Earth, the government decides to train some special kids in how to defeat the aliens. This training is done primarily through playing games. Awesome.
From Poetry:
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” is a serious classic, one of the most famous war poems of all time. That means that generations of people have turned to this poem as a way to celebrate heroism.
From Shakespeare:
Still want that last bit of summer?
Like the modern-day romantic comedy genre it’s helped to shape and influence, A Midsummer Night’s Dream features young lovers who fall comically in and out of love in a ridiculously brief period of time (over the course of a single, enchanted midsummer night).
Of course, we have much beyond the world of lit.
For College:
Not counting on the stock market gains to pay for college? Nobody can. Check out Shmoop?s Guide to College Admissions, including financial aid and scholarships. Have Mom and Dad take a look at how to save for college while working on that application.
From History:
If you believe love is a battlefield, check out some new areas on Shmoop, which features, of course, battles.
In case you were curious about the battles we are still fighting, Shmoop takes a look at the War on Terror.
We also have our first foray into video. Let us know what we should do for our second.
About Shmoop
Shmoop is a digital curriculum and test prep company that makes fun, rigorous learning and teaching materials. Shmoop content is written by master teachers and Ph.D. students from Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and other top universities. Shmoop Learning Guides, Test Prep, SAT, and Teacher?s Editions balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous materials to help students understand how subjects relate to their daily lives. Shmoop offers more than 10,000 titles across the Web, iPhone, Android devices, iPad, Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. The company has been honored twice by the Webby Awards and was named ?Best in Tech? for 2010 and 2011 by Scholastic Administrator. Launched in 2008, Shmoop is headquartered in a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, Calif.
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(PRWEB) May 24, 2011
Kobe Howard a 13-year-old from Oklahoma has won a nine-week stay (with room and board included) to Camp Shane, the longest-running weight-loss camp for children and teens in the country, for the 2011 summer session.
Blonsky, the star of the funny and provocative ABC Family TV show, Huge, which followed the lives of teens and staff at a weight-loss camp, visited Camp Shane last summer to announce the scholarship in her name. Blonsky urged the campers to get rid of their negative self-image and make use of their time at Camp Shane to learn about healthy eating, nutrition, exercise, and most-importantly, self acceptance–urging them to not judge their insides by other people’s outsides. “I am proud of myself for being me, an individual,” Blonsky said. “You should be proud of yourselves too.” Her show, Huge, Blonsky said, ?was just like the program here at Camp Shane, not only about losing weight, it’s about finding out who you are are as person.”
Kobe’s winning essay submission (written with a little help from his mom, Brandy Howard) was selected from hundreds submitted and detailed why he wanted (and needed) to win the scholarship. Once an athletic kid, Kobe’s physical activity came to an abrupt halt when he suffered a debilitating knee injury. The enforced inactivity caused Kobe’s weight to balloon to 230 pounds, far too much for his 5-foot 4-inch frame. Recent surgery corrected the torn ligament in his knee, allowing him to once again begin exercising. He and his mom learned of Camp Shane online, but thought Kobe’s attendance would have to remain a dream.
?I am a student and the single-mother of three kids,? says Brandy. ?I couldn?t afford the fee for him to attend the camp.?
That’s when Brandy learned of the Blonsky scholarship and helped Kobe write his essay. The resulting entry touched Nikki Blonsky’s heart.
?To be able to help change one kid’s life for the better, by giving them a summer at Camp Shane, is very exciting,? says Blonsky. ?I wish I had all the money in the world so I could help all the kids who entered, but I am very proud to know I will be helping Kobe. I hope he has a great summer at this place I just adore?Camp Shane.?
?Nikki has inspired our campers with her confidence, energy and absolute belief that anyone can change their lives with hard work and the right encouragement,? says Ziporah Janowski, Co-founder of Camp Shane. ?We were delighted to partner with her on this scholarship and look forward to welcoming Kobe here, to help him lose weight, get healthy and start on the path towards a brighter future.?
When told of the win by phone, Kobe tearfully repeated, ?I can’t believe it, I just can’t believe it…?
His mother was a bit more eloquent, ?I can’t even tell you how much we appreciate this and how grateful we are to Nikki Blonsky and Camp Shane. Because of them, my son is going to get his life back.?
For more information about about the program at Camp Shane, which helps children and teens to learn about nutrition, exercise and weight loss (all in a fun summer camp setting), please visit http://www.campshane.com or call (914) 271-4141.
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