A. Word.A. Day.

If you are interested in a WOD for yourself or for students, I like this site. From it, you can receive a word a day in your email box and you can have it opened up before your students get there. I like the little word origin stories, too! Some of the words may seem too high for elementary students but they, the children, may surprise you.
Here is today's from WordSmith.org

This week's theme

People who have more than one word coined after them This
week's words

ciceronian

maudlin

Today's word inVisual Thesaurus
Mary
Magdalene by Titian

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg
maudlin
PRONUNCIATION:(MAWD-lin)
MEANING:adjective: Overly sentimental.

ETYMOLOGY:After Mary Magdalene, a Biblical character who was a follower of Jesus. In medieval art she was depicted as a penitent weeping for her sins (she washed the feet of Jesus with her tears) and her name became synonymous with tearful sentimentality.The name Magdalene means "of Magdala" in Greek and is derived after a town on the Sea of Galilee. The name Magdala, in turn, means tower in Aramaic. So here we have a word coined after a person, who was named after a place, which was named after a thing.

In an allusion to her earlier life, Mary Magdalene's name has sprouted another eponym, magdalene, meaning a reformed prostitute.

USAGE:"In this maudlin melodrama, all that was missing were the violins."Jeannette Layne-Clark; Minister on Stage; Daily Nation (Barbados); Mar 20, 2005.

The Epitome of Wordliness

Posted on Sun, Mar. 22, 2009
The epitome of wordliness
BY DAVE BARRY
(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Nov. 28, 2004.)

It is time for another rendition of "Ask Mister Language Person, " the only grammar column approved for internal use by the Food and Drug Administration; the grammar column that puts the "dip" in "diphthong," the "vern" in "vernacular," and the "dang" in "dangling participle."

Today we shall commence right at the outset by starting with our first question, which concerns vocabulary:

Q. What does "decimate" mean?

A. This often-misunderstood word is an anterior cruciate predicate that should be used in conjugal phrases, as follows:

"Noreen was totally decimated when she found Vern wearing her good pantyhose."

Q. What is the difference between an "effort" and a "concerted effort?"

A. An effort is when an individual gives between zero and 110 percent; anything above that is a concerted effort, and generally should result in knee damage.

Q. What is the correct usage of the phrase "With all due respect?"

A. It is correctly used to "soften the blow" when you wish to criticize someone in a diplomatic and nonjudgmental manner, as in: "With all due respect, you are much worse than Hitler, " or "No disrespect intended, but you have the intelligence of a macaroon."

Q. What are "metrosexuals"?

A. They are individuals who have sex (also known as "bling bling") on subways.

Q. I often am confused about the difference between the words "accept" and "except." Is there any way to tell them apart?

A. Not at this time.

Q. I am a real-estate developer building a residential subdivision on a former landfill, and I can't decide which name would be more prestigious: "The Oaks at Hampton Chase Manor, " or "The Estates of the Falls of the Landings of Hunters Run."

A. How recently was the property used as a landfill?

Q. In some of the yards, you can still see refrigerators sticking out of the dirt.

A. We would recommend "The Knolls at Cheshire Pointe Landings on the Greene."

Q. What is the correct pronunciation of "epitome"? I say it's "epitome, " but my friend Bill says it's "epitome."

A. With all due respect, you are both morons. "Epitome, " when pronounced correctly, rhymes with "penultimate, " and is used as follows: "In my concerted opinion, Ding Dongs is the epitome of the Hostess snack line."

Q. What is the best true headline ever to appear in an actual newspaper?

A. In our opinion, that would be a headline from the Petersburg (Va.) Progressive-Index, over a story about a mishap during the 2001 Bike Week gathering of motorcyclists in Florida. The headline, which was sent to us by alert reader Mary Ellen Lloyd, says: "Skydiver lands on beer vendor at women's cole-slaw wrestling event."

Q. Do you have any other true examples of excellent language use sent in by actual readers?

A. Of course:

* An alert Missouri reader sent in a newsletter from Rocky Mountain National Park containing this tip for visitors: "Avoid the traffic by using one of the park's shuttle buses and view the elk rut with a park ranger."

* Nan Bell and Elisabeth Lindsay sent in an Associated Press article concerning efforts to identify the person whose leg washed ashore in Bodega Bay, Calif., containing this quote from an official of the coroner's office: "We were stumped, basically."

* Claudette Knieriem sent in a Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader classified ad for a child-care center that says: "FUN AT PLAY where it's creative, safe, wholesome and neutering."

* Larry and Suzanne Tingley sent in an article from the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times stating that the Lewis County Board of Legislators had authorized the creation of a petty cash fund "for the weekly purchase of dry ice, used for incest control."

* Dolores Evans sent in an article from Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot News headlined: "Smoking organ causes stir at nursing home."

* Roy Winter sent in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article concerning a breakout at an animal-research facility, headlined: "Tulane center monkeys escape; half are captured in time for dinner."

* Alert journalist David Davidson wrote in to point out that there is a collegiate women's basketball team that is officially known as "The Lady Golden Bulls."

Q. What college do The Lady Golden Bulls play for?

A. That would be Johnson C. Smith University.

TODAY'S WRITING TIP FOR JOB-SEEKERS: When writing a résumé, be sure to use "power words" to describe your accomplishments and skills:

WRONG: "I supervised a team of 15 data-entry clerks."

RIGHT: "I can snap your spine like a toothpick."





http://www.miamiherald.com

Words of the Day Part 9

Affable: (Adjective) Friendly; easy to talk to. Christy's sentence: "I think Barack Obama is the most affable because I've been hearing him on the news a lot."

Ephemeral: (Adjective) :Lasting a short while. Christy's sentence: "I had a fish that had an ephemeral life."

Adjective: (noun) A describing word. "Adjectives can tell us color, size, shape and how many."

Words of the Day Part 7

Arsonist: (noun) A person who burns building on purpose. Sentence from a news story article: "Some of the California fires may have been started by arsonist." We also talked about how the suffix "ist" helps determine that this noun is a person.

Qualify: (verb) To fit by training skill or ability; trained. Terrance's sentence: "You do not qualify for this job." Obviously in different handwriting, possibly by the para on a day I was out for chemo.

Stymie: (verb) To block progress [The kids loved this word.] Christy's sentence: "He stymied her by not letting her throw the ball."

Words of the Day Part 6

The first term was a schoolwide WOD early in the school year. The second came from a current event.

Haste: Hurry; fast. "In her haste, she dropped her lunch tray.

Impromptu: (adjective) Done at the last minute without preparing. "Sarah Palin had an impromptu press conference at the airport."

Truculent: (adjective) Ready to fight or fuss. Terrance's sentence: "Christopher was my friend but now he is truculent."

Words of the Day Part 4

The WODs in the first photo are "hideous", "circa", and "nascent."

Hideous: (adjective) Extremely ugly. Terrance's sentence: "Someone I saw was hideous."

Circa: (preposition) Around or about a certain time. Approximate date. This word came from an online newspaper article about the restoration of an antique clock on the courthouse tower in St. Francisville, LA. Terrance's sentence: "President Bush was born circa 1998." Christy's sentence: "She was born circa 2000."

Nascent: (adjective) Coming to or having recently come into existence. "Her nascent school career started in the pre-K class last August."




Counterproductive: (adjective) Tending to "stymie" (a previous WOD at this point) reaching a desired goal. Terrance's sentence: "A class was doing their work but someone started being counterproductive."

Exploit: (verb) To use someone or something to your advantage. [We'd listened to the Storyline Online children's story GujiGuji. See the links in the sidebar.] Christy's sentence: "The crocodiles tried to exploit GujiGuji so they could eat his family."

Word of the Day: Part 3

With the first word, "calculate", Christy recalled it used in reference to her church adding a new building. That's pretty good for eight years old, isn't it? Terrance realized he'd heard the word "syllable" before in reference to reading and that his name has two syllables. The rest of that day we counted syllables in words in each content area.

Christy has developed a love for learning words with more than two syllables!

These are children who are in ESY every year to complete those old Mangold readers with piles of worksheets. I hate worksheets and so do the kids. I've suggested using other resources like this in conjunction with the old Mangold texts for braille readers as suggested by experts like Diane Wormsley, but--in the mind of this teacher-- since the idea came from me it doesn't matter what the experts say. The teacher in that class says that she has been teaching braille for 42 years and she doesn't want to change.

It doesn't matter how the kids learn. Some teachers would rather children learn the way they teach rather than the other way around. My husband likes that insanity definition for such cases. You know the one that goes, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Word's of the Day

A nice person said to me, "You know those Word of the Day cards you had posted in that classroom many months ago? They are still there. There are no new ones at all; Just the ones you made. That means that the teacher who is in there is not continuing what you started nor using the cards. So they are yours and I got them for you."

So I have taken pictures of them so that my readers will see how they are done. There is braille on each card. The later ones have sentences authored by the children. Remember these kids are eight to ten years old so don't ever think that the words have to be limited to third and fourth grade words. They were from the school-wide word of the day, current events, class activities, web sites and from those the children brought in themselves.

When our WOD Word Wall was full, the WOD was "ARCHIVE." The children would then pull the words down and put them in the archive-- which is simply a large manila envelope taped to the wall--and we'd fill the wall with new words. Sometimes for fun I would make an Intellitools activity from about ten of the words. I'd ask the children for their own sentences for the activity. They loved this and they'd get extra points in laguage arts.

If you should go to the Intellitools Activity Exchange site look for my uploads under the screen name "MsKathy0724."

Helping Out

I always like it when a teacher can use some of the things I bring for teaching his/her kids. I like to see that little light of recognition go on in a child's eyes that says "OH! I get it!" and "I am successful at this!" It's a wonderful feeling.

Yesterday and today I installed programs in teachers' rooms. There are so many things one can find on line for just about any type of lesson and learning style. The kids in Mrs. Weathers' class are very excited about their new program.

I'm taking a little break from designing a lesson for the resource class that she and the kids can use. That is such a joy for me to do so it does not only help them, it just does my heart good.

Since I like words and Word of the Day ideas, I'm going to look for a gadget to post here or I will post them myself based on what I did this fall with the class I taught. Usually I would find WODs at the Learning Network on the New York Times web site. There is also a WOD on Superkids.

Well, back to work!