December 27, 2014
I don’t remember why this book came on my radar. I wasn’t at ACTFL 2013, where Tony Wagner delivered the keynote address. I thought someone blogged about it but now I can’t find out where that was. In any case, I’m so glad someone recommended I read this book. Summary: Passion, purpose, and play. What […]
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December 26, 2014
I hope you had a great, worship-filled Christmas Day! 2015 is almost here! I think it’s kind of unfortunate the #2 post of the year is the one I titled “What I hate about TPRS.” Sometimes I word things very strongly on the blog because I want to make a point, and my point with […]
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December 24, 2014
Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! Three poignant, sweet stories today, all from war years or not long after. Stella Bain Plot summary: From GoodReads, When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in. A […]
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December 23, 2014
Here’s where the missing #7 and #6 posts have been hiding. The three posts I made about the method known as TPRS in the early part of 2014 caused a bit of a ripple, and all three of them landed somewhere in the top 10. But they make more sense if you read them in […]
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December 22, 2014
Three books from one of my favorite genres today, war nonfiction. Opening our eyes to the wars that have torn our past infuses more respect for the peace we enjoy and the evils we still fight. The Monuments Men Summary: From GoodReads, At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western […]
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December 20, 2014
Book Club ’14: The Kite Runner
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Plot summary: From GoodReads, Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashums. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir’s choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions […]
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December 18, 2014
Again, I skipped #6 and we’ll get to it later, and you’ve already seen #4 because it was part one of the post also including #8. So here we have the third most-popular post of 2014, the one offering up a more user-friendly version of my choice-in-homework project, along with several adaptations from amazing colleagues. […]
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December 17, 2014
Book Club ’14: Crazy Busy
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To give you an idea of how crazy busy I feel sometimes, I bought Crazy Busy and then it sat on a shelf a full six months before I even started it. Then I managed a chapter or two in a couple of months. Then I made a decision to spend 15 minutes or so each morning […]
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December 15, 2014
The Hobbit Reading the classics is always on my to-do list, thanks to my parents, who both loved a book that had stood the test of time (my dad and I had so many private jokes about the time he made me fight my way through A Tale of Two Kitties… I mean Cities). This year […]
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December 14, 2014
I’ve skipped the #6 post for now and you’ll find out later why. Two of the resources I released this year were verb charts, a free pack of the three most common tenses and a complete pack of 8 charts available for purchase. You can find both of them here. But before you use them, […]
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December 12, 2014
Today, a book I was eager to read but ended up disappointed with. Summary: From Goodreads: The children in this book defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented by the media. Tender, generous and often religiously devout, they speak with eloquence and honesty about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not […]
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December 10, 2014
If you’ve never read Richard Paul Evans, think Nicholas Sparks (but even sappier) with a much-needed sense of morality. These two titles represent the last two books in a five-book series that started with The Walk. Alan’s wife, the love of his life, has a horse-riding accident, and in the month that transpires between […]
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