When I was a kid I used to enjoy Mad Magazine, which I loved for many reasons, the irreverence, the hilarity, the satire, and more. One feature that I remember in particular involved cartoons that spelled out nonsense words as sound effects. For example:  ”Glomp!” “Flaaack!” ”Pffft!” ”Sproing!” (above – a page from Mad with...Read More

I always remember a radio ad that began:  ”People Judge You By the Words You Use” which promoted its own vocabulary development program. However, you don’t need to pay for an elaborate video or audio program or workbooks and texts.  Instead, here are eight simple ways that you can use to enlarge your vocabulary.  They...Read More

One of the neatest features of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is that it helps us understand ourselves better.  Since the theory is based on nouns (words, numbers, pictures, music, people, nature) rather than on verbs (e.g. judging, perceiving, seeing, hearing, achieving, investigating), it can be related to our personal lives more easily and...Read More

A school teacher was on his way to a new teaching appointment in a far-away land, and he’d been traveling on foot all the way, and was getting quite exhausted from his journey, when unexpectedly he came to a river that he had to cross.  As there was no bridge in sight, he hired a...Read More

Educator and media critic Neil Postman once remarked that:  ”children enter school as question marks and leave school as periods.”  In other words, kindergarteners and first graders are full of enthusiasm, raise their hands high when asked a question, and respond favorably to new learning activities, but by high school, the zip is gone and...Read More