TWEEN GIRL: “What’s a tribble?” MY GEEKLING DAUGHTER: (Gasp!) ME: Don’t worry, dear. If everyone was a geek, geeks wouldn’t be so awesome. Similar:A former student contacted me to share her thoughts.A few years ago, I told myself I would s…AcademiaLanguage Log » 25 Questions for Teaching with "Word Crimes"A little perspective is good. So…
#geekgirlproblems Similar:Thank you, anonymous donor of Mardi Gras candy.Okay, on closer inspection I see the red…AestheticsStandardized-test robo-graders flunk“According to professor of theory of kno…AcademiaThe Hidden Subversive Messages of [MGM's Screen Adaptation of] The Wizard of OzWhen I tried teaching The Wizard of Oz i…BooksA 10-page paper? Are you serious? The running you do in a…
“Every good lesson plan has a culminating activity,” says Dr. Audrey Quinlan. “Sondra, it took six months, but here’s your culminating activity.” Similar:About to DM a journalism class role-playing exercise. Surprises coming! AcademiaIn-home schooling popularity slipping across stateWe were on our way out the door to see A…CultureAnother very rough day. Students are cheerful and patient,…
A blessing before the butterfly release at #sondrasgarden #setonhill http://t.co/z8rKzgc49B Similar:I'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsTweet: Came around the corner and saw my kids huddled on…Came around the corner and saw my kids h…TweetsDesert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever CreatedPenn and Teller are involved with…
While I’d rather see a reminder that we need to know the rules of formal writing, so that we can choose to ignore them deliberately, otherwise this author makes a good case for the value of poetry. (Great training for the art of writing engaging headlines and story leads.) (See also “Poetry Writing Tips.”) Poetry…
Similarly, “dived” is the traditional past tense of “dive”, but “dove” has overtaken it, as speakers have drawn an analogy with “drove” and “wove”. At some stage, like “stopt” – the old past tense of “stop”, common as recently as the 1940s – “dived” may be obsolete. When will we start to dock points for…
Here is the entry on it from The Times’s “Manual of Style and Usage,” a guidebook used by reporters and editors throughout the newsroom: transgender (adj.) is an overall term for people whose current identity differs from their sex at birth, whether or not they have changed their biological characteristics. Cite a person’s transgender status…
“There was a lot of writing involved. The one that stands out the most is, we were asked to compose a tweet, a limerick, or a haiku. I believe I did a limerick, and it goes: ‘Eyes fixed, gazing off into space My mind in awe of the human race This is all dizzying to…
As the recent death toll in Egypt surpasses 500, news of Muslim Brotherhood supporters being slaughtered in Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square has been an especially tragic manifestation of the powder-keg that is “post-revolutionary” Egypt. Just days before, our photographer found himself embroiled in an MB protest near to that now-tragic location. While this story does not…
With water already obscuring his vision, he had to turn upside down in order to release his safety cable. “Two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see — already compromised by the water – completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose — a really…
Because you know you have the chance to tell stories for a living. Which is pretty cool. via 31 Undeniable Truths That Journalism Majors Can All Agree On. Similar:The daughter is in "Very Berry Dead," a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two …The writer, director, and one of the cas…ArtRedemption,…
My daughter, having just received a hand-me-down paperback, is annotating it and consulting it as she cannibalizes multiple generic Lego sets for what looks to be an epic DIY “Lego Hobbit” video. (We did buy her a small “Riddles in the Dark” set so she could have a Gollum, Bilbo, and ring, but everything else…
Death is universal, so one day I’ll face these decisions. I just asked my tween to put down her Legos and my teen to put down his algebra, so I could tell them that when I’m dead, I don’t want them to pay for a fancy coffin, or cushions, or an open casket. I told…
For years, Shakespeare has been thought to deploy greater linguistic variety than contemporaries like Marlowe, Kyd, and Jonson; scholars have estimated that he coined as many as 1,700 words, and that he employed a uniquely large vocabulary of at least 20,000 words. As professor Alfred Hart, long the authority on Shakespeare’s vocabulary, wrote in 1943,…
“It’s not really fair to say, ‘Look at this guy who died 400 years before I was born. He certainly had different opinions than me about the value of women.’” North says. “There’s stuff that doesn’t age as well, and what you do is you either adapt it so it works better now, or you…
Being a word-oriented thinker, I don’t have much interest in emoji icons. I dislike it when an autocorrect turns a traditional sideways smiley into an icon. My daughter, who at age 11 is too young for a Facebook account, sometimes uses my Facebook account to chat with her slightly-older teen friends, which means that when…
RT @pewresearch: Teens Haven’t Abandoned Facebook (Yet) — @mary_madden says reports of Facebook’s demise among teens are premature http://… Similar:Tweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsRT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #context htt…RT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #co…TweetsParallel Structure vs. Faulty ParallelismI just touched up…
The name “Bottom” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is already funny, but I expect my students will likely snigger at it, thinking of the “Silas Ramsbottom” gag from Despicable Me 2. I read The Tempest before I saw Disney’s Little Mermaid, so when I think of Prospero’s spirit Ariel, I do not think of a…
I remember having a Fisher Price airplane pull-toy, and a school that came with a chalkboard and a tray of magnetic letters. But this Sesame Street playset was the best. I was so excited about it my mom let me look at it in the box before “Santa” wrapped it and put it under the…
Maybe I’ll start a cover band, cleaning up hip-hop songs, remixing them as instant breakfast food jingles. I’ll call it “Minced Oats.” Similar:Lawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over “We Shall Overcome” “We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the…Business1949 NBC Radio Adaptation of Orwell's 1984Long before the Apple ad, and Michael Ra…CultureThis is what…