http://webenglishteacher.com/blog Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:06:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My students have been working on digital video projects in response to their most recent outside reading. I grouped them according to books with common themes and asked them to discuss what their books might say to their own contemporary lives. My original plan was simple: 1 day for discussion 1 day ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=48 I spotted this ad today. Do you suppose we can use it in class as an example of what NOT to do? Everyone makes typos -- I've certainly made my fair share! -- but someone should have caught this before it was uploaded to multiple national websites. What do you think -- ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=40 Earlier this week, Yahoo closed all its Geocities sites. Last night, as I deleted dozens of now-dead links from Web English Teacher, I couldn't help reflecting on what had been lost. Geocities was a great resource for its time. ("For its time" --  just 10 years ago!) When it was launched, ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=37 Earlier I blogged about a writing task inspired by a visit to the post office. Last week I used it, and it went well. The kids had fun writing about programs like Monk, House and NCIS, among others. But as I read their short paragraphs , I couldn't help noticing how ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=29 The  Valley Girl expression Whatever may have run its course. It was trendy in the 80s, along with gnarly and gag me with a spoon. Those locutions faded, but whatever remained. In a recent poll, however, whatever was rated the single most annoying expression for all geographic areas, income and education ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=24 I was planning an inservice on writing for the faculty at my school. I had a double whammy against me: inservice is never popular, and inservice about writing, even less so. The time had come for the hardest part: an email to the faculty telling them what was coming and ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=18 This morning I stopped at the post office to mail a couple of packages and buy some stamps. Larry was out of my favorites, the Liberty Bell "Forever" stamps; but he showed me something even better, the TV Early Memories series. Source: usps.gov The two of us exchanged a ... http://webenglishteacher.com/blog/?p=4