School Technical Ideas

Knewtonians are ravenous readers. From our book club to our book swap, there are a variety of ways to partake in the active literary culture at Knewton.

Heres just a taste of what folks at Knewton have on their shelves these days:

1. by John Kennedy Toole

David Ingber, Master Teacher

I find myself unable to read as many pages in one setting as I used to. Thats why Im almost glad that I ride the subway its at least an hour a day that I cant be distracted by the internet and my phone.

2. by Suzanne Collins

Will Fleiss,  Senior Marketing Associate

If you love gripping young adult novels (think) and muse about the effects of pop culture and entertainment on society, dont miss this story about child gladiators.

3. by David Foster Wallace and  by Hunter Thompson

Jayson Phillips, Software Engineer

“Its (Infinite Jest) a pretty meaty book and makes for a challenging yet enjoyable read.

“From what I gather via conversation and observation the reading culture is pretty alive and very diverse. People seem to be reading all the time and in many different genres/forms.”

4.  by Ben Mezrich

Andy Huang, Content Developer

If you enjoyed Bringing Down the House (the inspiration behind the Kate Bosworth movie 21) be sure to check out what Kevin Spacey calls the next addition to Mezrichs formidable canon of lad lit.

Trevor Smith, Software Engineer

6.  by Candice Millard

Charlie Harrington, Business Development Associate

During the perilous journey chronicled by Millard in this non-fiction thriller, three men died and Roosevelt himself was brought to the brink of suicide. For a taste of this adventure story, check out Charlies favorite quote from the book:

“Far from its outward appearance, the rain forest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary but, rather, the greatest natural battlefield anywhere on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day. Though frequently impossible for a casual observer to discern, every inch of space was alive from the black, teeming soil under Roosevelts boots to the top of the canopy far above his head and everything was connected. A long, linked mat of fungi under the soil consumed the dead and fed the living, completing an ever-changing cycle of remarkable life and commonplace death which had throbbed without pause for millions of years and of which Roosevelt and his men, knowingly or not, had now become a part.”

7. by Marcel Proust and by Jonathan Franzen

Hyunjin Kim, Associate Product Manager

Hyunjins two cents on reading in the age of tech:

“I think its becoming increasingly easier to become used to digesting information in smaller bits (from short articles to <140 twitter blasts), which, while useful for certain types of information/communication, often precludes (or make it more difficult to want to seek out) substantial analysis and engagement with thoughts, arguments, and issues.”

8. by Colson Whitehead

Nina Reed, Research Coordinator

Be sure to check out this post-apocalyptic Zombie horror novel, which GQ describes as glory, lyrical and human if brainy thrillers and full-throttle prose are your thing

9. by Dr. Seuss

Eric Garside, Software Engineer

10. The Queer Art of Failure by Judith Halberstam

Christina Yu, Marketing Associate

If you want a serious academic treatment of Little Miss Sunshine, Pixar movies, and Spongebob SquarePants; or if youre ever given serious thought to what it feels like to come in 4th place at the Olympics, check out this witty treatise on the art of failure, forgetting, and passivity.

One of many insightful moments from the book:

For Walter Benjamin the cartoons depict a realistthough not naturalistexpression of the circumstances of modern daily life; the cartoons make clear that even our bodies do not belong to uswe have alienated them in exchange for money, or have given parts of them up in war. The cartoons expose the fact that what parades as civilization is actually barbarism. And the animal-human beasts and spirited things insinuate that humanism is nothing more than an ideology.

HOUSTON – A 9-year old Houston boy can do something even world class professional athletes can’t do.

His talent has gotten the attention of some big names in basketball.

Jalen Howray is special in more than one way. He is autistic, and he has an amazing talent when it comes to basketball.

A superstar let Jalen know just how special he is when he dropped by his school in Galena Park on Tuesday.

“He touches my heart because he spins a basketball like nobody has spun a basketball before,” Harlem Globetrotter Kenny “The Blenda” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez isn’t just being nice. Jalen is really doing something that most people can’t, including professional athletes.

He can spin a ball on his thumb. Most athletes have to start the ball spinning on their finger, and then transfer it to their thumb.

“I think I need to work on that myself to spin the ball right on the thumb instead of transferring from the finger to the thumb,” Rodriguez said. “So I think that’s pretty cool. When I first saw it I was like wow this guy is special. He’s unique. There’s no body on the team that can spin the ball the way Jalen spin’s the ball.”

“The Blenda”, as Rodriguez is called, came by Jalen’s school, Green Valley Elementary, to tell him just how amazing his trick is.

The basketball star put on an interactive show for all 700 students. He gave Jalen a brand new ball and tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game in Houston on Jan. 28 at Toyota Center.

Jalen’s parents said he developed autism when he was a toddler.

“He was developing like a normal kid; then all of a sudden it just stopped,” Carla Howray said. “When it stopped, we, his parents, saw him regress to nothing. Zero words, zero speech, zero eye contact.”

A year ago, a basketball became more like a magical key, unlocking speech in Jalen and peeling away a layer from him that seemed to have him trapped inside himself.

“All of a sudden, his father was spinning a ball, and he saw it and it was like something just clicked, and he started spinning the ball with him,” Carla said. “So to see him come back, to see everything that was locked in come back, it’s just, I attribute it to God. It’s a miracle.”

“I don’t want to get emotional here on TV,” Wilford Howray added.

All of the attention made more than one little boy’s dream come true.

“I always wanted to be in the basketball spotlight myself,” Wilford said. “I’m 6’7″, almost 6’8″, so to have my son do it for me it’s a big excitement.”

“I think he’s more excited than Jalen is,” Carla said, laughing.

“I’m the happiest father in the world right now,” Wilford said, with tears in his eyes.

The Original Harlem Globetrotters —

FOX 26 Reporter John Donnelly contributed to this report

US News recently published a report that listed Highest Average GMAT Scores of admitted students.

Several B-Schools accept GRE instead of GMAT. Still several students take GMAT for MBA admission.

Business school (state) Fall 2010 Average GMAT score U.S. NewsRank

Stanford University (CA)3897281Harvard University (MA)9037242Yale University (CT)23172210Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)4017183University of California—Berkeley (Haas)2437187University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)8177183Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)2807167New York University (Stern)31471510University of Chicago (Booth)5797155Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)6477145

• GMAT scores range 200 to 800.
• 2/3  of test takers score between 400 and 600
• 10% of test takers score 700+

Now, you know to get into Top 10 Ranked B Schools, aim to 650 and above in GMAT.

Starting June 5, 2012 New GMAT Format comes into effect.

New Integrated reasoning section is added to Next Generation GMAT.

GMAT Test takers have to spend more time preparing for the New section with same time limit as current GMAT Test format.

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An Android phone has a lot of apps to go with, and they can handle just about any kind of task you might throw at them. For example, when you want to throw a party, you can use a ton of different apps.

Naturally, each type of party is going to be different, but Christmas parties aren’t too much different from any other kind. As the old saying goes, there’s an app for that. As cliche as it may sound, a Christmas party is a complex matter, and that mandates several apps.

Image via Flickr

Plot Out Every Detail You Can

Naturally, there are going to be last-minute things you didn’t plan for. However, your Android will be able to help you significantly. Christmas party planning on your Android phone starts with the Christmas Party App, which will allow you to plan out things like your timeline—your priority actions like purchasing non-perishable foodstuffs—and to keep you on track if you start to fall behind.

Food, Decorations, and Other Stuff

Image via Flickr

December is supposed to be a snowy month—there isn’t a snow-making app, unfortunately, but if you have any problems related to making sure your food is sufficiently delectable, try the Recipe Quest app to get some great recipes in a hurry. Maybe it’s intended to be a gift or it’s just a showcase of your cooking prowess, you can get Recipe Quest for free. If you think your guests will enjoy drinks, you might also want to download the Mixologist Drink Recipes app, which has a few thousand drinks of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Keeping the Memories Alive

Nothing makes July more enjoyable than relieving how drunk and bundled up everybody was at Christmas time. So the Camera Zoom FX app will give you plenty of laugh-out-loud all next summer.

Now, you have Android phone as your pocket-sized personal assistant with lots of apps to showcase, so what are you waiting for? Get the party started!