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Word of the Day #97: Sententious

Words change over time.  We know that.  Sententious is one of those words. Sententious once meant full of wisdom.  These days, it kind of means full of it.  (Hint.  The it in full of it is not wisdom.) In Latin sententiosus meant full of meaning.  This word came from...

Word of the Day #96: Penny

Penny: a small coin worth one cent. In German class this morning, we learned the word for penny: Pfennig.  Clearly related to English, my students and I went off to find out where this word came from. In Middle English, the word was peni.  In Old English, pening, and...

Tip of the Week #279: ThreeThingsMagazine.com

I recently finished writing a book about working online.  I hope to show other teachers how to make a living online. While writing the book, I researched dozens of ways to make some extra money online. I have been earning my living online since 2011. After all this...

Word of the Day #95: Pram

Pram: a stroller, a baby carriage, a small vehicle with four wheels designed for a baby to lie in while you push it around. I was born in England.  I remember stories of my mom pushing me around Bicester, England in a pram.  Back then, says my mom, the British moms...

Word of the Day #94: Derange

My local French students and I (I am not fluent.  We are learning together.) have been watching the language learning series Extra. In Episode three, one of the characters uses the phrase ça ne me dérange pas, meaning, it doesn't bother me....

Don’t think and grow rich. Do and grow rich.

The other day, I ran across my new favorite French proverb.  Not that I had a favorite French proverb before.  But, that's not the point. Qui s'instruit sans agir laboure sans semer.  Whoever learns without action, plows without sowing. For a while, I have had a...

Word of the Day #93: Cheesparing

Cheeseparing - Saving via extreme frugality If someone cuts for you a rather thin piece of cheese, they are cheeseparing.  Perhaps because they are frugal. Cheeseparing comes from the Old English word for cheese (case) and the Old French word for trimming, parer.  Not...

Word of the Day #92: Karmageddon

Karmageddon Karmageddon is like, when everybody is sending off all these totally bad vibes. And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer for all. Karmageddon comes from Sanskrit Karma, the sum of a person’s actions. This sum determines a persons...

Tip of the Week #278: Write it By Hand

I teach and work online.  I am also easily distracted.  Not a good combination. To combat distraction, I write everything by hand.  I have notebooks filled with tests, books, blogs, and tips I have written. I find I am much less distracted when I write by hand.  Once...