Help New Moon Teach Respect by Example

Long-time AEP member and former AEP Award winner New Moon Girls magazine and website is pushing to reach its goal of 500 new members before the end of the year. You can help by donating memberships, giving membership as a gift to a young girl in your life, or just helping spread the word. New Moon, the 2006 Periodicals Golden Lamp Winner, was featured in an AEP Awards profile, highlighting the organization’s innovations in product development and editorial practices.

New Moon Magazine: Teaching Girls Respect by Example

In 1992, Nancy Gruver saw her twin daughters approaching adolescence and sought out a way to help them make the transition to womanhood without losing “the girl within.” She was looking for more than just a source of advice; she wanted something that would teach them the larger lessons of responsibility, self-confidence, and respect for both themselves and others in the face of media and societal messages that dictate what a woman should be. She was disappointed to find that there were no such resources available, so Gruver decided to create her own. The result was New Moon, a magazine for girls that is written and published by girls.

Google, Grover, and a Gallery of Experts Discuss Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age

The Google-hosted, Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age Forum in Mountain View, CA, focused on the potential of digital media in education. Paula Maylahn, an education industry consultant, attended the day-and-a-half conference virtually and highlighted for AEP the key takeaways.

Yes, another conference on the need for U.S. education reform. So, if you missed this one, you might feel you didn’t miss much. And in some aspects, you’d be right. Familiar ground was covered:

• Technology has the power to transform learning
• Learning happens 24/7
• The current system is resistant to change
• Many innovative programs show great promise
• U.S. students are falling behind globally
• Teacher quality is the problem
• Teacher quality is not the problem
• Etc.

However, there were 2 markedly different aspects about this conference:

Using Industry Awards to Effectively Grow Your Business

In the current market where anyone can “publish” instructional materials on a website, educational publishers need to find ways to separate their products from the market and highlight their commitment to quality content. In this blog post, reprinted with permission from VerticalResponse, CEO and founder Janine Popick discusses why small businesses should enter industry awards.

If you’re running a small business today, congratulations! You should be proud that you’re  keeping the economy going. You should also give yourself a huge pat on the back for surviving and thriving. One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways of giving yourself that pat on the back is to apply for industry awards that you could be eligible for.

Support the Federal Teacher Tax Deduction for Instructional Materials Purchases

Under the Internal Revenue Service Federal Tax Code of 1986 there is a provision entitled, the EDUCATOR EXPENSE DEDUCTION, known informally as the “Teacher Tax Deduction.” It allows kindergarten, elementary and secondary school teachers an opportunity to take a tax deduction annually of up to $250 on their federal income tax, if they have spent their own out-of-pocket personal funds to purchase school supplies for their classrooms, receive no reimbursement for this expenditure, and if the teachers have worked in their schools at least 900 hours in a one-year period.

This federal tax law provision will expire on December 31, 2009, unless Congress takes action to extend, expand, modify or continue this provision. If you want teachers to continue to have a tax deduction for purchasing educational materials, then you need to contact Congress now.

Kim Kleeman, Shakespeare Squared President and CEO, Named an Influential Woman in Business

Kim Kleeman, President and CEO of Shakespeare Squared (an AEP member), has been selected as a recipient of a 2009 Influential Women in Business award presented by The Business Ledger, a Chicago area business news publication, in partnership with the National Association of Women Business Owners – Chicago area chapter (NAWBO).