Catch FableVision's 2021 Summer Tour!

Summer is almost here, and we’re just getting warmed up for all of the exciting events we have on the horizon. You’re all invited to make a splash with us at a number of virtual conferences and events throughout the season. Don’t miss out on the fun—keep reading for more details on how to catch us along our virtual summer road trip!

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BostonFIG Talks and Learns (May 29 - 30)

BostonFIG Talks and Learns are back, and we’re gearing up for two days of sharing, learning, and networking! FableVision is proud to sponsor this year’s conferences, featuring industry experts, educators, students, and more. Industry professionals and aspiring students or hobbyists are welcome to join us on May 29 for BostonFIG Talks, an annual game-creators conference that will include expert talks on game design, methodology, technology, and more. And come back the day after talks on hands-on learning games, academic research, classroom topics, and more at the annual Learns conference. Learns is perfect for educators, students, and professionals interested in the learning games space.

When: May 29, 30
Click here to register for free.

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ED Games Expo (June 1 - 5)

Next stop is the ED Games Expo! The expo is the Department of Education’s annual showcase of game-changing education technology. At this year’s conference, FableVision will showcase three of our learning games and tools. Join us at the expo to learn more about Cyberchase Fractions Quest, our award-winning fractions learning game based on the popular PBS KIDS show Cyberchase, Civics! An American Musical, our civics learning game that invites middle school students to produce their own hit musicals based on United States history, and FabMaker Studio, FableVision Learning’s digital fabrication software tool that inspires STEM and STEAM learning in the classroom! 

Check out the FableVision Learning website now to learn more about the products and how you can access all three for free through the month of June.

When: June 1-5
Click here to access the events.

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Tech + Social Studies LIVE! (June 5)

While you’re at the ED Games Expo, stop by the Tech + Social Studies LIVE! free virtual conference for innovative civics and social studies teaching resources and techniques. Whether you teach online, in person, or a hybrid, the demos and talks featured at this conference will show you new ways to engage your students. And join us later in the day to hear from FableVision communications director Sarah Ditkoff, Maryland Public Television director of PreK-12 learning design Karla Thompson, and educator Joshua Pleasant as they present on how you can use Civics! An American Musical to encourage creativity and primary source analysis in your classrooms.

Civic Action through Primary Sources in "Civics! An American Musical"
When: June 5 at 5:20 p.m. EST
Click here to register for free.

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Learning Ideas Conference (June 14 - 18)

Next, FableVision is headed to the Learning Ideas Conference to catch up on international innovations in learning and technology for the workplace and higher education. The Learning Ideas Conference brings together researchers and practitioners interested in using technology to improve education and workplace learning.

Join FableVision Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Product Solutions Shelby Marshall for his workshop on June 16. This session will cover ways in which online simulations can support and extend learning in higher education and corporate training. In his talk, Shelby will explore examples at different levels of complexity that have been developed by the studio, including interactives created in partnership with the Smithsonian Science Education Center, Noodle Partners, and Pearson Higher Education. You won’t want to miss it!

Using Online Simulations to Explore Complex Topics and Apply Systems Thinking
When: June 16 at 4:30 p.m. EST
Click here to register.

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Carly & Adam’s Heart of STEM Teacher’s Summit (June 21 - 23)

FableVision Learning is excited to join the Carly & Adam’s Heart of STEM Teacher’s Summit on June 21-23. During this virtual event, attendees will explore connections between STEAM, real-world problems, kindness, and social-emotional learning. Learn from FableVision Learning’s Peter H. Reynolds, Paul Reynolds, Sara Smith, and Andrea Calvin.

Keynote: The Hope of STEM with Peter H. Reynolds, Georgie Badiel-Liberty, and Susan Verde
The creative team behind The Water Princess storybook will be kicking off the three-day summit with their Keynote: The Hope of STEM. With new troubling problems challenging the world every day, it’s important to empower the next generation with creative problem-solving skills and hope to make a positive impact across the globe. 

When: June 21

Exploring Creativity with Fabrication and Animation with Andrea Calvin
Andrea Calvin will share her experiences about working with students and educators across the country to implement fabrication and animation tools into their classrooms. Attendees will create bravely by using Animation-ish and FabMaker Studio.

When: June 21

Keynote: Create Bravely - Self Design for a Purposeful Life with Paul Reynolds
Paul Reynolds will share his insights on the power of storytelling and foster your life’s journey purpose with a growth mindset. Educators will learn how stories and creative tools can help students discover their talents and strengths, and how to apply them in life. With courage and perseverance, we can make a change by using our creativity.

When: June 22

The Element of Surprise with Sara Smith
In this session, Sara Smith will discuss the benefits of using the element of surprise in STEM and SEL. Educators will learn how the brain engages with surprises in learning and why surprises help humans during hard times. 

When: June 22

Click here to register.

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The Creativity Symposium 

FableVision Learning and Eduscape have partnered this summer to offer the Creativity Symposium, where educators across the country discover ways to foster creativity into their classrooms. During the three half-day sessions, in June or July, educators will use collaboration techniques to develop practical, achievable, and scalable solutions to challenges. 

When: June or July
Click here to register.

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Serious Play Conference (June 23 - 25)

If you’re serious about serious games, you’ll also want to join FableVision at this year’s Serious Play Conference. The conference features expert changemakers and thought leaders who are reshaping the educational gaming and education technology industries. Don’t forget to check out FableVision’s panel at the conference on accessibility and game-based learning. FableVision lead UX/UI designer Loren Lee-Flynn will join experts from WNET and Bridge Multimedia to discuss how we created Echo Explorers, a born-accessible learning game based on the award-winning PBS KIDS show Cyberchase and designed for children of all abilities to learn about echolocation and coordinate-mapping. The panelists will also share suggestions for game developers to incorporate accessibility into their own games.

Cyberchase Echo Explorers: Exploring Accessible Game Design for All Children
When: June 25 at 1:45 p.m. EST
Click here to register.

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Connected Learning Summit (July)

And if you’re unable to attend our panel at the Serious Play Conference in June, have no fear! You will still have the opportunity to learn more about Echo Explorers and designing games with accessibility at the forefront of the development process at the Connected Learning Summit. Be sure to catch our expert panel, as well as other influential talks from leaders and innovators at the intersection of innovation, education, technology, and play. The summit aims to support and empower innovators who are using emerging technology to increase access to creative and playful learning. It will feature engaging presentations and workshops all month long.

Cyberchase Echo Explorers: Exploring Accessible Game Design for All Children
Click here to register.

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ASU+GSV Summit (August 9 - 11)

Last stop on our tour is ASU+GSV—and this time it’s in person! The summit connects leading minds focused on transforming society and business around learning and work, and their north star is that ALL people have equal access to the future. The Summit is a leading platform of innovation and ingenuity that offers a tangible look at the EdTech industry, with groundbreaking research and insights. FableVision’s Shelby Marshall is headed to San Diego to network with and learn from researchers, educators, and practitioners from around the globe. Make sure to connect with Shelby if you plan to attend as well.

Click here to register.

FableVision Studios’ Five Core Design Principles

As a mission-based studio, FableVision is committed to creating positive, story-driven educational media that moves the world to a better place. As a part of that mission, we pride ourselves on our people-first design process, always thinking about the needs of our end-user, the context of their learning, and the impact of our product.

When we approach a new project, no matter the topic or goal, we always prioritize accessibility, engagement, and play. Whether we’re creating a game-based app, animation, museum interactive, website, Augmented Reality experience, or any other form of media, our core principles stay the same. 

Want to pick our brains about your next media project? Reach out! We’d love to chat. 

1. Education is for Everyone

First and foremost, FableVision believes that every person—no matter their age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status—has the right to a quality education. Therefore, the studio is committed to lowering barriers of access in educational communities, both in formal and informal learning spaces. Whether our end-user is an educator in Iowa, a preschooler in Maine, or a grandparent in Texas, we always ask ourselves three key design questions: Is this approachable? Is it relatable? Will it lead to learning, behavior change, or action?

2. Using Research-based Design to Create Safe Spaces to Learn, Explore, and Discover

Our design process and media are crafted to engage and impact audiences in all contexts—including consumer, classroom, family, and museum markets. We believe learning media should provide a safe space for learners to practice, experiment, fail, and grow from their mistakes. With the appropriate scaffolding, learners can reach their full potential, proving to their educators and themselves that anything is possible.

3. Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

FableVision Studios believes that representation matters. Whether a project uses human or non-human characters, takes place on Earth or an imaginary planet, or utilizes fantastical or magical elements as plot drivers, believable, relatable characters are critical. Media should present an accurate, inclusive reflection of the audience consuming it. In that spirit, FableVision takes pride in writing and designing diverse characters. We also take care to cast diverse voices when selecting talent for voice over.

4. “Designed for One, Beneficial for All”

In all our work, FableVision strives to maximize accessibility in ways that are seamless to the user experience. The studio has worked with The Perkins School for the Blind, the Helen Keller National Center, National Braille Press, and Bridge Multimedia, among many other partners committed to accessibility standards. In addition, we have incorporated Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in our work for many years, and we apply those principles in creative ways to ensure the interactive experience is appealing and engaging to a wide range of visitors.

5. Playful Learning for Any Content, Any Platform

No matter the learning area, engagement lies at the crossroads of vetted content and research-based design. We have created learning environments that teach social-emotional learning, literacy, STEM, financial literacy, substance use prevention, civics, and more. FableVision works to ensure that all learning experiences match the content, spark curiosity, and offer an open invitation to playful exploration.

2020 FableFriday: FableVision’s 10 Year Challenge

With the #10YearChallenge making its way across social media feeds, we at FableVision Studios thought we’d get in on the action with our own 10 Year Challenge. As a new decade begins, we’re reflecting on the great innovations and changes that have occurred in the last ten years.

To take a look at exactly what has and hasn’t changed from 2010 and 2020, we asked some of our staff members who have been at the studio for over ten years to reflect on some of the changes at the studio over the last decade. Though many of the people, projects, and software that we use have changed, the thing that has always stayed constant is our mission to tell “stories that matter, stories that move” using engaging and innovative educational media.

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As co-founder of FableVision, what was the original vision for the studio? How has FableVision Studios continued to work towards that vision this past decade?

Gary Goldberger, President & Co-Founder: The original vision for the company was to use media, art, and technology to move the world to a better place and to help all learners reach their full potential. In the past ten years, this vision has stayed very near and dear to our hearts. People and technology change, but the mission has continued to be the core of the studio’s success. A big part of this is finding like-minded partners that come to us because they believe in using media to engage their audience to think or act differently. We’ve always believed that making small changes in our current system can cause long-term positive effects in schools, culture, and communities. This belief doesn’t just stop at the company level, but it also influences what we want to do in our lives; it comes from our personal beliefs and goals.

For the past 24 years, the ways to reach our audience have changed. We’ve seen a technology evolution, and with every new technology that comes, there’s a short “a-ha!” period where we see the potential. At FableVision, it’s our job to turn that potential into actuality. Personal connection and meaning need to exist within whatever technology you’re using to deliver an authentic experience. That’s been crucial to FableVision’s mission since the beginning, and something we’ve stayed true to throughout the years. I’m still really proud of that.

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How have the types of projects and how FableVision approaches those projects changed from 2010 to 2020?

Leigh Hallisey, Creative Director: The biggest change that I’ve seen is in subject matter, driven by the fact that we are designing learning experiences for older audiences. Although we love to produce media for younger children, FableVision is reaching more learners in middle school, high school, and college.

Within this last decade, we’ve tackled a lot of complex subject matter: bullying, financial literacy, substance use, neurodiversity, empathy, anxiety and peer pressure, mental health awareness, and more. I love that the educational media umbrella is always expanding—learning about being a human in the world, how to respect difference, how to take care of yourself and others. We continue to use our signature blend of storytelling, relatable characters and situations, and authentic language, but we are doing a deeper dive into researching the subject matter and working with experts in the field. 

It’s amazing to have a job where you learn new things with each project—the effects of drugs and alcohol on an adolescent brain, mindfulness techniques for relaxation, digital citizenship, managing crops, tips for resisting peer pressure, and how to save for retirement by managing a vampire nightclub (no joke). It’s never boring! FableVision’s work has always been unique and quirky, and a lot of that comes down to the trust our clients put in us because of the reputation we’ve built over the years. Between art, game design, production, and content, we have the vision to push the expectations around educational media, and we have the amazingly talented people to make beautiful things that really impact the world.

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What did FableVision’s animation process look like in 2010, and how has it changed over the last decade? What impact have these changes had on studio projects?

Didi Hatcher, Lead Animator:  This past decade, we’ve made a lot of improvements to the animation process to ensure better organization, optimization, and streamlining. One main focus has been better documentation and communication. We also learned to use a lot of new software and tools, and gained a lot of new skills. Before, we primarily animated in Flash (now named Adobe Animate), but to adapt to new platforms like mobile and AR, FableVision artists and animators have learned After Effects, Unity, Spine, and many other software platforms along with Adobe Animate. We have also expanded our process to include a lot more freelancers, and our management of the workflow has improved to accommodate that, especially given that most freelancers are off-site and often in different time zones.

These changes have improved our performance tremendously. Projects run smoother and faster, and our process is a lot more efficient. This allows for better quality of our work, and it lets us stay competitive by achieving more for less time and money. And, last but not least, it makes working less stressful and more enjoyable. All in all, it’s been a good decade of growth!

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What kind of technology was the studio using in 2010? How has technology changed this past decade, and how does FableVision stay on top of emerging trends?

Brian Grossman, Technical Director: The vast majority of the games, animation, and interactives we developed in 2010 were created using Flash. Knowing that Adobe’s support for Flash Player officially ends in December 2020, we switched to using HTML5 and Unity. We continue to push these technologies and use one of them on almost all of our projects.

In 2010, we just started developing iOS apps. Even though no one could have predicted mobile's full-scale takeover at that time, we made sure we were getting up to speed. In the past 10 years, we’ve created dozens of apps for iOS and Android phones and tablets for our clients. On the other hand, the technology in 2010 that people predicted would have huge growth in the education space was interactive whiteboards. At that time, we had several, large-scale projects designed specifically for classroom instruction on a whiteboards, including our own Big Screen Books. While the demand for interactive whiteboard projects has died out, we learned about the nuances of developing software for teachers to teach and entire class using a large display.

We’ve always strived to balance the need to deliver quality products built on stable, proven technologies with the need to research and learn about the latest and greatest technologies. We’re currently working on several extended reality (AR and VR) projects, and keeping an eye on advancements in AI and IoT. As we look toward 2030, it’s impossible to know which technologies we’ll be using, but FableVision will definitely be ready.

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Where do you see FableVision in 10 years?

Allie Caton, Production Assistant: In 10 years, I see FableVision reaching more and more communities and broadening our knowledge in new, upcoming technologies! I also see the "FableVision jokes" folder on my computer growing to take up 10GB of my computer storage. 

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Monica Chen, Communications Strategist: In 2030, I see FableVision continuing to break barriers in storytelling, technology, and interactivity through our engaging educational media. I also see FableVision using media to teach and inspire in new, innovative ways with our own educational games and animation.

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David Welsh, Game & Narrative Designer: In 10 years, I expect FableVision will take our experiences to the next level as we continue to innovate new ways to use storytelling to move the world to a better place. I'm already working on some exciting games that I think will be fondly remembered and still played in the next decade!

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Peter Stidwill, Executive Producer: I see FableVision working with even more fabulous partners to create impactful experiences, celebrating success with our latest research-proven XR game, and kicking off another season of our own original animated series! (And I see myself still gorging on super-tasty staff-made snacks).

December FableFriday: CAST’s Steve Nordmark, Director of Business Development, and Cassandra Sell, Senior Interaction Designer

With the growing trend of personalization in education and educational design, people are realizing that personalization extends beyond technology. While technology is an important part of addressing the needs of all types of learners, equity and inclusion are becoming crucial to building and designing whole education systems. CAST, an education nonprofit research and development organization, is addressing this by not only providing physical access to supports through technology but also supporting personalization across all design domains, focusing on accessibility and usability.

Partnership and cooperation is at the forefront of CAST’s work. “The more we continuously improve inclusive communication, trust, and foster an iterative mindset, the more we can put our common goals at the forefront and real people at the heart of the work to make continuous barrier-busting progress,” explains Cassandra Sell, the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST.

CAST, through their Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and other learning platforms, works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals. FableVision worked with CAST on their reading and reading comprehension platform, Udio. The online platform serves “as both an intervention and a context for conducting research” and is a holistic approach to learning resources for middle school students. 

The UDL framework is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. “Ultimately, it comes down to proactively and intentionally designing for learner variability in order to reduce barriers in the learning experience,” says Steve Nordmark, CAST’s Director of Business Development. “That’s what UDL is all about. This is at the heart of how CAST designs solutions.”

This intentionality also serves as the basis for how they design, develop, and maintain Learning Designed, an online learning platform that provides a supportive and collaborative community for educators and learners. To explain the mission of Learning Designed, FableVision designed a one-minute animated explainer video, which is now live on the website. In our December FableFriday, we sat down with Cassandra and Steve to learn more about CAST’s research platforms, the Learning Designed community, and their educator and learner-focused projects. 

Tell us about CAST and your roles there!
Steve: CAST is a nonprofit organization that believes learning should have no limits. We strive to help meet the needs of every learner, at any age, in any learning environment. We created the UDL framework over 20 years ago. It remains one of our core levers of change to make education equitable, inclusive, and transformative for everyone.

As the Director of Business Development at CAST, I focus on building strategic partnerships throughout the global education field to advance the adoption and implementation of UDL. This includes fostering strategic growth opportunities for CAST's products, consultancy services, and membership services, including:

1. Assisting publishers, technology firms, and other constituents to infuse their products with inclusive best practices.

2. Assisting federal, private, state, and local education agencies to identify, acquire, and use inclusive and responsive products and services.

Advancing quality UDL implementation through the promotion and implementation of Learning Designed and affiliated products and services.

Cassandra: I’ve been the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST for four years and I've been honored to contribute to a variety of awesome projects and initiatives within our organization. I work with our interdisciplinary teams in design and development, applied research, and professional learning. I also collaborate with others across the organization, supporting CAST with art direction and communications design as we find more opportunities to share who we are and what we do with the world and bring more of the world into CAST’s work. We try to hold ourselves up to a standard of constant and deliberate iteration around best practices for engaging the field and reaching beyond.

How did you start working at CAST, and what drew you to the organization?
Steve: I’ve been in educational product research and development for over 25 years. I always admired CAST’s work, especially the development and promotion of UDL, since I first encountered them in 2002. About six years ago, I became more directly involved with building awareness, adoption, and implementation of UDL throughout the global education industry. In 2016, I partnered directly with CAST to build Learning Designed, and global standards for UDL credentials and certifications for people, products, and schools. Then, at the beginning of 2019, when given the option to join CAST full time, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Cassandra: I came to CAST in 2015 from WGBH Digital where I was the lead digital designer on a handful of robust websites and experiences for PBS national brands, such as Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow. One of my design mentors mentioned her hope to build a design team at CAST, which I had not heard of at the time. As I got to know CAST and UDL, I saw so much kinship in how we applied design thinking and got super nerdy about the process. I also saw what intentional and goal-oriented collaboration could look like in the service of nothing less than all learners. I couldn’t pass up the chance to join a team of people so dedicated to learning and raising the bar for each other every day. 

What is “Universal Design for Learning,” and in what ways does CAST continue to lead the national conversation around UDL? 
Cassandra: Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. Based on scientific insights into how people learn and decades-long observations about what works in the classroom, UDL synthesizes a number of best practices into a clear framework to address the needs of all learners at all levels.

In the 25 years since CAST coined and defined the term, UDL has provided leadership to a growing, global field. We research and develop creative solutions to education’s thorniest challenges, usually in partnership with major research universities, R&D organizations, and companies. We work closely with educators at all levels from California to New Hampshire to improve the implementation of UDL’s best practices. We have also authored comprehensive guidelines for implementation, and UDL is endorsed by all the major federal education laws covering children and adult learners in formal and informal learning environments. Recently, CAST partnered with the UDL-IRN, an international research and implementation network, to scale up UDL and launch a credentialing and certification process. We’re busy!

What is Learning Designed? How does being a part of the Learning Designed community impact educators and learners on the individual, school, and district levels?
Steve: The animated video that FableVision helped us create really explains Learning Designed the best. FableVision brought our words to life. In summary, Learning Designed is a state-of-the-art, online learning platform for professional learning and collaboration that provides personalized experiences for educators in a supportive community. Learning Designed harnesses the evidence-based UDL framework to support educators in designing more effective learning environments and experiences for all learners. Ultimately, educators can better serve all types of students—especially students with learning disabilities, learning and attention issues, those suffering the effects of trauma, those who are often not served well by the system due to gender, race, language, class, culture—at scale.

How can educators best integrate the research of CAST and Learning Designed into their classrooms?
Steve: We view everything CAST works on as an opportunity to integrate research into educator practice, from technical assistance on accessibility and inclusion to innovative educational product R&D, to professional learning, to our consulting work, to Learning Designed. Research is embedded in all our work, and our research is used to empower educators and educational leaders to better design and implement learning experiences for all learners.

Learning Designed contains links to a variety of research-based resources for educators, including:

1. Universal Design for Learning Theory and Practice: a well-known resource book that provides a comprehensive research background on the UDL framework.

2. UDL and the Learning Brain: a white paper that provides a summary of cognitive neuroscience research within UDL and how it can be used to inform the design of environments that support all learners.

CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice—and change students’ lives—through UDL. Also, CAST Professional Learning partners directly with educators, teachers, administrators, and organizations to enhance their professional understanding of UDL.

What are the biggest difficulties when making education accessible, and how do you strive to overcome them?
Steve: Providing accessible learning for every learner requires an intentional and proactive design of many aspects of accessibility and usability, such as cognitive, developmental, cultural, etc. We must actively consider all learner variabilities to reduce barriers in the learning experience.

Cassandra: As a designer, I enjoy helping individuals designing in isolation to become problem-solving, collaborative teams. With all members’ skills and perspectives, we can improve access to education and move us all forward. Listening to, earning, and seeking honest feedback from all learners and other stakeholders is key - and so is agreeing on what to do with that feedback. It’s challenging, but satisfying when teams nail it.

You worked with FableVision in 2016 on a website for Udio, CAST’s online literacy intervention and research context. What’s happening with Udio now?
Cassandra: The Udio project was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new ideas we’d been working on, including data visualization and supporting student/teacher decision-making. One of the great things about CAST is that the work we do on each project always influences our future work. The ideas we had and the things we learned with Udio are now present in our CISL project as we think about accessible digital learning environments, our digital science notebook project, and many of our other design, development, and applied research projects. The concepts and ideas also make their way into our professional learning and publishing offerings.

We know that collaboration and user-testing are important, especially in the education field. How does CAST form and strengthen strategic partnerships, and how do you ensure that your audience—educators and learners—are at the forefront of all your decisions?
Steve: Collaboration and partnership are really important to our work. CAST is always seeking and working directly with partners who share our passion for increasing equity and inclusion in learning. We have partnerships with schools, districts, states, universities, government agencies, research organizations, companies, and foundations to explore challenging questions in education. We collaborate with these organizations due to their representation of the learners we care about. We often remind ourselves, “nothing about us without us,” to highlight the importance of having authentic relationships with people we design for and with on our projects. 

For example, CAST is currently partnering with career and technical education schools, industry partners, and colleges to produce prototype career exploration modules that showcase the varied pathways into these new industries. One example is our partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and several Local Education Agencies (Districts and County Offices) across central and northern California. SCCOE and the partner education agencies are using Learning Designed to enhance and support the state-funded California 1: Highway to Success for ALL initiative to address the equity needs of all students. 

Another example is our partnership with SRI International and the Inclusive Design Research Centre. Together, we are exploring and creating tools to ensure that K-12 students with disabilities receive engaging, high-quality, accessible digital learning materials, especially open education resources (OERs). This project, called the Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL), is actively seeking co-design and beta testing partnerships with schools and students who can help strengthen the quality and effectiveness of the software designs.

Fun Facts About Steve & Cassandra

Skill you’d most like to learn:
Steve: Playing guitar.
Cassandra: Playing the drums—let’s start a band, Steve!

Quote you live your life by:
Steve: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Ghandi
Cassandra: I have a new favorite every week. The communications team always comes across words of inspiration we want to share with the world. Right now it is, “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not” by Nicholas Kristof. But my go-to usually is “... the world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world” from Ani DiFranco’s song, “Joyful Girl.” 

Favorite educational game:
Steve: I love word puzzles and really enjoy the Wordbubbles and Wordscapes apps.
Cassandra: I’m not sure if it counts but my brother and I got really into history, geography, and strategy by playing Age of Empires together as kids. That’s probably an all-time favorite. 

Ultimate comfort food:
Steve: I could eat pizza every day, and I cannot say no to strawberry Twizzlers.
Cassandra: My husband has been making the most amazing soups lately, so at the moment it might be a rich soup —with warm, fresh, crusty bread. 

Favorite winter activity:
Steve: Downhill skiing. I would love to be able to enjoy it every winter.
Cassandra: Anything that combines being crafty with my family, a roaring fire, and the perfect blanket.