Saturday, December 8, 2007

Wacky Wednesday

I spent a delightful Thanksgiving with friends. Talk turned to foods, familiar and exotic (several of us were from the Midwest, some from the south, and some from the Philippines). Succotash, which I had always assumed to be a Native American dish served throughout the Midwest, turned out to be unfamiliar to friends from Minnesota. In a quick search of the web I found references to New Hampshire Native American food and to Southern cooking and no references to the Midwest, so color me confused! Does anybody else from the Midwest recall this dish as an autumn staple? My daughter and I had a discussion about recipes for succotash and we both like it quite simple, with just salt, pepper, and maybe a little butter, but recipes abound calling for milk, cream, cheese, onions. . . . Maybe next time I make succotash I will experiment a little (a southwestern version piqued my interest).

Monday, December 3, 2007

SAT Word of the Week: ENIGMA, ENIGMATIC


An enigma is a mystery, a puzzle, or a baffling (confusing) situation.
Enigmatic is an adjective meaning mysterious, puzzling, or baffling.
The Enigma machine was a device the Germans used to encrypt (set into code) messages during World War II. The word is based on the Greek word for riddle or “dark saying.” (A dark saying is one not easily understood or explained.) The sphinx is a symbol commonly used to indicate an enigma.

Learning Alternatives


I absolutely believe that learning can (in fact, should) be fun! There are some great games for building communication skills. Two of my favorites are Taboo, and Catch Phrase. I have recommended Taboo to families wanting to improve their English fluency; it is also a great way to encourage kids to elaborate, explain, describe, and think about how to get an idea across to other people. Catch Phrase is something friends introduced to me recently, and I like the way it reveals different communication styles and makes you think about whether or not something might be familiar to your team members (this is particularly salient when different generations play together). Both games are timed and team-oriented. The Catch Phrase I used involves a relatively high-tech disk which is passed around, sets the task, buzzes when time is up, and helps keep score. My Taboo game uses a very low tech set of cards, a tiny “hour glass,” a score card, and a rather loud horn (the kids love that). Amazon sells both games as well as some other word-related games your family might enjoy.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wacky Wednesday – Mixed Up Words


My daughter has been complaining to me about people confusing the words ancestor and descendant. (Like her mother, she is a little in love with words.) Unlike the chicken and egg question, we can be absolutely sure that ancestors come before descendants in any timeline on our planet, just as ancestor would precede descendant in the dictionary. Think about the family tree they show in the front of an intergenerational novel: The first Devonhams (ancestors) are listed at the top and the most recent arrivals (descendants) are at the bottom of the page. The descendants are the result of DNA coming DOWN the line or DESCENDING from way back in history to the modern descendants.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Autumn Leaves (or Cactus Needles) & How to Last Through an Endless Test


Is it Fall yet? Although I have lived in Arizona for a while now, I still am having some difficulty remembering the timing of events in my recent past because seasons here are so subtle. I can’t even use the startup of school as a familiar marker because our kids go back to school weeks earlier than I am used to; some of them start back in mid-summer. On the whole, I think this sort of schedule is fine, but it throws off my sense of time and seasons. As a native of Wisconsin, I found the idea of attending football games in blazing heat odd enough in Virginia. I can’t even imagine a football game here on a scorching October day. Lucky for me I am a basketball fan. (GO SUNS!)

Anyway, it is Fall and kids are again taking PSAT and SAT tests and making up or retaking AIMS tests, and there are a lot of complaints about tests that take hours (the SAT lasts almost four hours). How do kids keep from fading in the stretch? I tell my students to eat a good solid breakfast (including some protein and complex carbohydrates rather than sugar) and take a snack. Be sure you get plenty of sleep the night before. (Believe me, cramming at the last minute is less helpful than getting enough sleep.) And don’t sign up for the test on Homecoming Weekend if you can possibly avoid it.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

SAT Word of the Week

Anomaly



XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXOXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

An anomaly (noun) is an irregularity, something that doesn’t fit in, like the illustration above of one lonely O in a sea of X’s. The adjective form is anomalous.