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A gathering of momentous facts, anecdotes, ideas related to the many aspects of English language teaching and learning - including such related topics as sound, writing, reading, listening, speaking, oratory, silence, literacy, polarities. Sentences share identifiable patterns (or forms) that can be organized into eleven basic categories. This systematic identification and description of those forms opens a door of infinite possibilities for all those who study and use English. This is the answer that writing-across-the-curriculum has been waiting for.
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2008.09.03
bionicle alphabet of the Matoran biobots

This interesting, alternative alphabet for English, called the bionicle alphabet, used by the Matoran people of the Lego Bionicle storyline.

According to Wikipedia, bionicle "is a line of building toys created by the Lego Group that is marketed towards those in the 7-16 year old range. The line was launched in December 30, 2000 in Europe and June/July 2001 in the United States. The concept was derived from Lego Group's earlier themes Slizers/Throwbots and Lego RoboRiders. Both of these lines had similar throwing disks and characters based on classical elements. "Bionicle" is a portmanteau constructed from the English words "biological" and "chronicle" (not "biomechanical" or "Bionic-" as in the common belief). "

I first encountered this over at purplehell.com's Matoran and bionicle alphabet page.

I was able to see how the sentence, "today is sunny" would look:

bionicle alphabet rendering of *today is sunny*


Apparently, LEGO tried to trademark some Maori words, which led to legal backlash from the Maoris of New Zealand. The Matoran alphabet still includes some Hawaiian and some Maori words that were not trademarked.


posted by stedawa on 08 Sep 03 9:17 pm permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
is the semicolon girlie; speak slower when kids are around

from Salon: Is the semi-colon girlie?
Recently someone asked me what my favorite punctuation mark was. I did not even hesitate. The semicolon. Duh. To me, the semicolon has a certain elegance, like a vodka martini; I don't whip it out every day, but on occasion, and with great relish. So it was with shock that I read a recent Boston Globe article suggesting that my favorite punctuation mark is ... girlie? An excerpt: . . .
Read more


from SLT Today: Slowing speech eases child's ability to listen
. . . "My daughter says, `My teacher talks so fast, I can't hear her,'" Hull said.

"If teachers would slow down, they would be less frustrated, the children would be less frustrated, and children would learn with greater ease."
. . .
Read more


posted by stedawa on 08 Sep 03 3:59 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
2008.08.29
bigger than us - miley cyrus video; poster and passage on Love

Great song by Miley Cyrus!





singing with her Dad


Is Love bigger than us?

Here is a poster on the topic with a quote from 'Abdu'l-Baha:



Right click here and save as if you want to save it and print it out. Not sure if that works.

But Love works.





Send yourself (or a friend) a poem (in e-card format) Love by Bronwyth Horvath
(viewable here at poetry.com)


posted by stedawa on 08 Aug 29 12:20 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
2008.08.27
sparklines from edward tufte

Sparklines are intense, simple, word-sized graphics.

Thank you, Edward Tufte.

Do emoticons count?
@*_*@


posted by chairman dao on 08 Aug 27 6:06 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
2008.08.03
big-time rollout sketch pad, or chair





from the coolhunter


posted by stedawa on 08 Aug 03 2:41 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
2008.08.01
reciprocal spy or censorship efforts; popular search words; etc

snooper troopers 1
snooper troopers 2
last 24- and 48-hours most popular keyword searches

writers in peril

onine reading - does it count?

definition of 21C literacy




posted by stedawa on 08 Aug 01 2:23 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
2008.07.31
tag cloud fun at wordle

review wordle
website wordle.net


posted by stedawa on 08 Jul 31 2:07 am permalink AddThis Social Bookmark Button  
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Journalism [and this blog] is literature [or at least a written time capsule] in a hurry. Matthew Arnold