A nice write-up in the LA Times on the jacaranda trees that blossom along Del Mar boulevard in Pasadena. The trees are always a treat in the spring, and unlike the cherry blossoms for which Japan is famous, the jacaranda blossoms linger for several months. L.A.’s oldest jacarandas are 80 to 100 years old, and... Continue Reading →
Featured image: "TSR Basic Set , circa 1980," by Bryan Costin is licensed under BY-NC-SA 2.0 ... for the most part, if you don’t cooperate you die ... In addition to encouraging students to work together and form social bonds, Callahan and other educators who use Dungeons & Dragons and similar role-playing games claim that their students... Continue Reading →
(El callejón del beso) The full moon bathed the auburn terra cotta shingles in its silvered light from her perch in the firmament. Below, the two young lovers stood on opposing balconies less than a foot apart over a narrow cobbled alley of a Spanish colonial mining town. Doña Carmen pushed him away, and Don... Continue Reading →
Now here's something worth celebrating. Boy, would Agustin Barrios be surprised that folks all over the world love and obsess over his music 124 years after his birth in Paraguay on May 5, 1885. But we do, and make no apologies for it, because what an incredible body of work! To celebrate, here are videos... Continue Reading →
Here's something to rattle off the next time you hear someone say, "I want to learn a little French": https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/1123180578948493312?s=20 Children need seven or eight years of intensive immersion to speak like a native. These years must start by about age 10, to fit them all in by age 17 or 18, when there’s a... Continue Reading →
This is a topic that's near and dear to my heart, as someone who practices creative writing as a hobby. Another thing to consider is that poetry offers additional avenues for vocabulary learning. Poets employ a larger repertoire of words than writers of prose. Either way, it's something to consider in the EAP classroom. Many... Continue Reading →
I'm trying out the Group Maker app this week to randomly select student groups. I used the Random Name Picker the last two semesters, but I decided to look for something with more features. I like that that the Group Maker lets me copy the group and paste it into my Microsoft Class Notebooks with... Continue Reading →
