The Marshmallow Challenge

The "Marshmallow Challenge" is an easy, fun and interesting activity to study how we work in groups.  This exercise involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape, string and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

The glass half-full

Crisis in Spain.  Maybe it's time to look on the bright side.  Interesting video about the good things of our country:

The importance of learning a second language

Hello again English Breakfast team! I know you are having your meetings twice a week in the usual place and that you have new member which make part of our "select group" of English learners.
I want to share an hillarious video that explain in a very convincing way, why it is important to learn, at least, a second language. I'm even thinking of using it in the future...
Kindest regards,
Ana

exchange conversations

_Hello everybody
I post this link in case someone wants to speak English on Wednesdays and Sundays evenings.
Silvia and I will be there next Sunday.
http://www.cafegaldos.com/

The puzzle of motivation

We need to motivate our students and we usually think that traditional rewards are the solution: extra points, punishments, prizes...  But social scientists have demonstrated that they aren't always as effective as we think.  In the following talk, Dan Pink explains why:


What do you think?  Do you need your students to be creative?  I recommend you this Spanish article, too:
La sorprendente verdad sobre lo que motiva a tus alumnos

Human Rights

On December 10th we will celebrate The International Day of Human Rights. As I teach about this in English I will proyect this short video in my History class. It is very interesting!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3BbLk5UIQ

The English Ascent

 I recommend you this site. It is my friend Daniel´s language school in Granada. On Facebook he usually puts interesting things to listen to and to read. Take a look!!!1
Silvia       http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-ENGLISH-ASCENT/233237240112431

Six minutes English: speak any language instantly

I recommend you listen to this conversation from the BBC about how to communicate easily in other languages thanks to the technology:
speak any language instantly

Some Study That I Used to Know

I'm sure you know Gotye's popular song "Somebody That I Used to Know".  There are a lot of versions of this song.  My favourite is this one called "Some Study That I Used to Know":



The lyrics are here.

There is also a lesson about this video in TED-Ed: What Do You Remember from High School?  It is an interesting activity to think about the importance of what we teach.

What is the Higgs Boson?

Have you heard about the Higgs Boson or the "God particle"?  Do you know what it is?  Do you understand the importance of the experiments been made in the Large Hadron Collider ("LHC") at CERN in Geneva?  In Wired you have the article Higgs for Mere Mortals, where you can find videos to help you understand this crucial part of particle physics.  This is my favorite video:


The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

See you soon English Breakfast!

Hello friends:

As the academic year ends, we foresee with happiness that vacation time approaches . English Breakfast project has started up this year with great results and, I think, it is a good time to take a break and come back very soon, with fresh ideas and new proposals.

I would want to say goodbye to you all, since I wont be able to be with you at school in the future and thu,s I wont be at our everyday meetings to practise and improve our english level; BUT !!! I promise that I'll be in touch and that I'll try to post on the blog all the good stuff that I find to share with you all.

And because of that, I want to devote to you, my dear colleagues, my last post as a teacher in this highschool .It is a beautiful song, which belongs to a cartoon series called the Big Blue House.Even if its conceived for kindergarten children, I think it reflects perfectly the happy feelings I want to share with you.

 

                                                            
                             
 I wish you the best hollidays ever and would like to encourage you to keep working as hard as you've been doing. You make a fantastic team!

See you soon English Breakfast.

                                                                                                              Best Regards,

                                                                                                                                  Ana

 P.S Monica! I've found the french version. I hope you'll like it. Elle est très belle! (L'émission en français s'appelle la Maison Bleue, mignonne, n'est-ce pas?)

                 



                                                                        

Alice in Wonderland Cross Curricular Project

This term the Bilingual Section worked on a cross curricular project based on  the story Alice in Wonderland. After reading Louis Caroll´s famous story in English class, each student wrote a  semi- scientific version of the story based on what they studied in Natural  Science about the the Earth´s crust and core. Here is one student´s version!

 

Alice on the Continental Relief and Oceanic Floor

by Yusra Safouani Bouraiji

One day, Alice was at the beach with her parents.She told to her parents that she decided to dive.Her father told her:

-Don't go far and don't be late ok?

-Ok dad!

When she was deep in the beach,she found a shrimp.She asked the shrimp:

-What's your name?

-Wachifloppy and you?-asked the shrimp.

-My name is Alice,nice to meet you.

Wachifloppy showed Alice where she lived,she lived near a submarine volcano!.Alice asked the shrimp:

-You aren't afraid?

-No,because I'm used to this volcano.-answered Watchifloppy.

Then,alice started to ask her stupid questions like:Can shrimps talk?.So the swrimp took Alice to two places:oceanic ridge where her sister lived and to a continental shelf  where her best friend lived.When they arrived to the oceanic ridge,Wachifloppy said to Alice not to be shy.But when they arrived to the continental shelf,she met the friend of Wachifloppy.Alice asked herself:If there wasn't any sand on the continental shelf,what would there be instead?

The parents of Alice started to worry about her.Her father started to shout:

-Alice Alice!!Where are you?

Alice didn't listen to her father,so she continued in the continental shelf with Wachifloppy and asked herself many questions.But  Wachifloppy had to go home,so Alice went to the shore,but while she was going to the shore,there was a shark and she got nervous.The sahrk told to Alice:

-Don't be scared,I'm not going to bite you.

But Alice suspected because the sharks always bite you but this shark didn´t...it's very strange.but when the shark talked she recognized the voice.It was her father,he only wanted to do this to see if Alice was scared or not.Finally they went to the shore and Alice told all the adventures she had under the water.

THE END

engVid

English Video Lessons

Hey everybody. I'm posting hear an amazing website of english video lessons made by native teachers for free. Hope you enjoy them and could be useful now that summer is comming. Regards, Ana

Priego de Córdoba and the Natural Park of Sierras Subbéticas

Hello, English Breakfast!

I found this article about my parent's town, by an English girl.  I recommend it!
Priego de Córdoba and the Natural Park of Sierras Subbéticas

Pronunciation of "can" and "can't"

Good video about how to pronounce "can" and "can't":

Chatspeak

Last Wednesday we talked about some abbreviations and acronyms, which can be tricky to guess the meaning of. Below are a few common ones, but if you ever encounter one you don't understand I recommend you just type it into Google and usually the first result that will come up is Urban Dictionary, a fantastic resource where users submit definitions for slang and colloquial phrases.

Some common chat/texting abbreviations are:
lol - laughing out loud (although people use it often just to acknowledge something a little funny or ironic)
ttyl - talk to you later
brb - be right back
btw - by the way
jk - just kidding
omg - oh my god (associated with teenagers)

LOL and OMG have actually even been accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary!

Some common acronyms (less associated with young people) that people actually use in speech or even professional emails:
fyi - for your information (ex. fyi, the party's going to start a little late)
asap - as soon as possible (let me know asap)
aka - also known as (Michael Jackson aka the King of Pop)

Egypt for my students

This is a video that Monica prepared for the bilingual students. It is just four minutes and the English level is high enough. Kids could not understand every sentence yesterday but they gained the main ideas. As a teacher this video is a good reference.
Thanks Monica!!!!

We are star-stuff

Hello, English Breakfast!

I have found in the blog Meridianos this beautiful video about the most astounding fact about the Universe:

Microteaching: Electricity

A very interesting and useful approach to electricity knowledge. Electricity Micro Teaching

Microteaching: Egyptian gods

This microteaching could be a good way to make discover our pupils the universe of Egyptian culture and their religion. Egyptian Gods Micro Teaching

Microteaching: Cave art

Here you can find a beautiful microteaching about cave art. Cave Art Micro Teaching


And here you can download the Notebook version: Cave Art
Try the activities!

Microteaching: Guy Fawkes

Maribel C made this microteaching about a very British tradition: Guy Fawkes day which you can find below. Regards. Guy Fawkes Micro Teaching Lesson

Microteaching: Onomatopoeic Words

Hello again colleagues.
Both Maribeles, Mariano and me have made another microteaching about onomatopoeia in English and Spanish. Hope you enjoy it and learn a lot about this topic.
Best regards Onomatopoeic Words Micro Teaching

Microteaching superstitions

Hi colleagues!
Here you can find a microteaching about similar and different superstitions in Britain and in Spain that both Mª Isabel, Mariano and me have made. I hope you like it and you find it useful for your classes.
Regards. Superstitions Micro Teaching

Do you believe in Astrology?

Hello, English Breakfast!

I have been looking for information about Astrology and horoscopes:

• An interesting and complete article about how horoscopes work: How Horoscopes Work
• Some times it's hard to know how to respond politely to someone who takes this ancient superstition seriously.  Here you have an Astrology Defense Kit, including ten embarrasing questions and many studies that demonstrate that Astrology is just a nonsense: Astrology Defense Kit
• A lot of people still believe in Astrology: 25 percent of Americans Believe in Astrology

 Finally, here you can see the program about Astrology in Escépticos (Spanish):

The Show With No Name

The Show With No Name is one of the programs of the famous Vaughan Radio.  It's a variety show with a lot of energy.  I recommend it if your level of English is intermediate or advanced.  Pay attention to the totally native expressions!

Here you can listen to the last program:

TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

A new initiative from TED: TED-Ed.  Their mission: create the best video lessons in the world.  Here you have the presentation and a lesson called "Just How Small is an Atom?":





You can suggest lesson ideas!

How to write an essay

 Today Mónica recommended me this video to help my bilingual students. I think it is very useful for us too, because sometimes we forget the most simple points: organising and telling information
Thanks Mónica!

Hamburger Method

Micro-lesson plan: Similar Rectangles

Hello, English Breakfast!

Here you have another micro-lesson I have prepared for the English Seminar. It's about similarity and sheets of paper of the ISO A series.

Micro-lesson plan: Similar Rectangles

Two images from Wikipedia to illustrate the content:

Monocle

Hello my friends,
I have discovered a new website to practice our English and read about international news and reports. It contains programmes, news, articles, shop and even a radio channel. Maybe I am late and you already know about it. Anyway, enjoy it! Monocle

Silvia

Kony 2012

Hi everyone! Have you heard about the Kony video? At the beginning of the year we talked about viral videos, with the example of the University of California Davis pepper spray incident. Last week, a video went viral even more quickly--in fact, "Kony 2012", below, has become the fastest-growing viral video in history. (This article, in the Guardian, explores the implications of this kind of "virality".) At the time of writing this post, it has more than 74 million views.

The video aims to* raise awareness about Kony, a Ugandan warlord whose rebel army is known for abducting children and turning them into sex slaves and child soldiers. I thought we could talk about it on Wednesday in English Breakfast. It is quite a bit longer than your average popular video, at almost a half hour, but if you watch the first ten minutes and last three or so, you get a general sense of it (it includes English subtitles). Alternatively, you could read this article in the LA Times which presents some of the criticisms of the awareness campaign (or this shorter one in simpler English).



Some questions to consider: What do you think about the use of this kind of social media and marketing to raise awareness about such serious issues? Do you have any problems with how the issue was presented? Do you think the campaign is/will be effective, or do you think that ultimately it could do more harm than good?

*tries to, intends to

Classroom Vocabulary

Here are some frequent classroom words and phrases, in case you all ever need to reference them. Some of these may be intuitive, whereas others are set phrases you might need to memorize. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about other classroom words!


Do the exercises in your notebook.
Turn to/open the book to page 35.
Who wants to come up to the board/front of the class?
Take one and pass it on.
Let’s skip that question. Who wants to go next?
Can I go first/next? Sure, go ahead.
I'm going to collect the essays today, and I'll hand them back next week.
Who's out (absent) today? Who's missing?
Sit up straight, please!
Turn around and face forward/front, please!

Questions (not doubts) - Does anyone have any questions or comments?
Next class (not next day) - Next class, we'll work on chapter 4.
Due (date) - The paper is due on Thursday. The due date for this assignment is the 14th.
Remember to look over your work before you turn it in. It's very important to proofread for careless mistakes.
To go over a topic (ver un tema) - Have we gone over Unit 2 already? Ok, then let's move on to Unit 3.
To go over the homework (corregir) - We went over most of the exercises yesterday, so we'll finish going over them today.
To do a presentation on a topic, or to give a presentation on/about a topic.

To be on the exam/test (not enter) - Is this going to be on the exam? Yes, chapter 3 will be on the exam.
To give an exam. I'm going to give the students an exam on the new material tomorrow.
I hope I do well on the exam! If you do badly, that means you need to work harder.
How did you do on the exam? I did pretty well. I got a 7.

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman (2010) is a documentary about how America's public education system is failing its students, focusing on the controversial lottery to get placed in charter schools (similar to concertados). The film follows five children in urban centers across the U.S., including New York City, L.A., and D.C.. Although the documentary has been criticized for over-dramatizing the lottery process and limiting its vision to only successful charter schools, it was generally well-received and offers a critical view of the current state of American education.




The trailer is above, and you can find a review of the film in the New Yorker (magazine famous for its literary and film criticism) here.

I encourage you all to watch it online if you have the time!

International Women's Day

Hello my friends,

Do not forget tomorrow it is the International Women's Day.
Ladies... Congratulations!!!! You are doing so well...

Here you have information about many events: International Women's Day
Information for kids and young adults: UN Cyberschool Bus page - Women's Day

Micro-lesson plan: Estimation

Hello, English Breakfast!

Here you have the micro-lesson I prepared for the English Seminar. It's about estimation, an approximate calculation.

Micro-lesson plan: Estimation

In this video some students show how you can use estimation when you go shopping:


Toy Store Estimation from Jonah Salsich on Vimeo.

Learning English through multimedia

Hello englishbreakfast team,

I recommend you this website to learn English through videos, featured games.
http://lingual.net/


Enjoy it!

Adventure Tales of America

Here's a website containg tales about American history which can be worked online or printed to use them in class. I hope you find them useful! 

http://www.adventuretales.com/history.html

Universal Human Rights Project

During the first term the bilingual section explored the topic of universal human rights. The United Nations established 30 human rights after Worl War II. In class we watched videos that explore each of the human rights. Human Right Number 1: We are all born free and equal. You can watch all 30 videos on: http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

Affluent, Born Abroad and Choosing New York’s Public Schools

Good morning,

Here is a cool article about public schools in New York City. Wealthy foreign people prefer sending their children to public school in Manhattan and Brooklyn instead of private ones. Do you want to know why????


 Have a nice day!!!!

French Candlemas and Crêpes!

Hello Englishbreakfast team!

As you know some of us are doing an English seminar in which we talk in English and prepare micro-teaching of our subjects in order to use it with our students. I publish my first micro-teaching which talks about a typical holiday in France: The French Candlemas and the traditions it involves. At the end of the .ppt document you can a useful video to make crêpes just in case you want to do them at home.

Bonne fête et bon appétit!

Ana French Celebrations

This is, like, so interesting?

What do you associate with the filler, "like"? You may not associate it with anything. In a second language, outside of the cultural context of that language, it can be tricky to learn which forms of speaking are associated with which social group. Often, as a learner, it's wisest to pick the most standard expressions possible. However, it's interesting to learn about the social information stored in linguistic choices. Consider the huge variation that exists in Spanish--how might someone's accent, intonation, or word choice vary not only depending on the region where they're from, but also their age, gender, or profession?

In English, you often hear that using "like" makes a person sound dumb or insecure. Or, maybe you've heard that "like" is something teenage girls say. This article in the New York Times offers a different perspective, and some additional examples of social language features. It comes with a short (7 minute) podcast, which you can listen to to accompany it.

Does anything in the article surprise you? How does this compare to "o sea" in Spanish? Are there any  characteristics you associate with "young" speech, and do you think everyone will be saying them one day?

-If you like fun linguistic discussions, take a look at this series of articles, "On Language", in the New York Times.
-Also, for a more scientific/language processing take on filler words (rather than social), try this article.

Anthony Bourdain´s Food Show

Hey all! One of my favourite shows from the U.S. is No Reservations. It´s hosted by the very charming Anthony Bourdain, a chef and foodie who travels around the world in search of the best local dishes and the cultural influences behind them. Self- deprecating, amusing and articulate, Anthony provides a fun way for brushing up on English! Having lived in Japan myself, I found this episode which was filmed there, to be very entertaining. But whether he´s in Beijing, Bogota or Buenos Aires, his show never disappoints! Just don´t watch on an empty stomach!

Accents

Hello all! I'm glad to see you've all been enjoying the blog--the variety of things you've shared is so interesting! I would only suggest that when you post a link, you write 2-3 sentences explaining what it is and why you like it so that people can decide if they want to click on it or not. Also, I encourage you to add a small picture to illustrate or add to whatever you're posting.

In the case of videos, (and feel no pressure to do this if you're not technologically inclined), know that you have the option to "embed" videos, which means that people can see them directly on the blog, rather than opening them in another tab or window. To do this, you just copy the text next to the video (often where it says "embed" or "share") and paste it into the "Edit HTML" tab when you're writing the post. The only time you might not want to do this is if you're posting several videos at once.

It looks great, keep it up!

Here's a fun video of one guy doing a lot of different accents in English--can you hear the differences? Do you recognize any?



P.S. I don't think his Boston accent is that good. If you're curious to hear one, check out this clip from Good Will Hunting (my favorite Boston movie ever).

Super Bowl Ads

On the 5th of February the most important sport event of the year took place. I'm talking (of course) about Super Bowl. Millions of Americans get together to watch the match and because of that, the commercials shown on TV are perhaps the most expensive in the year...and the most original too!
In this link you can find a rank of wonderful Super Bowl ads:

http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/marketing-publicidad/20120206/54250523420/los-mejores-anuncios-de-la-super-bowl-2012.html

And here is my favourite one. I think it's just amazing. The photography, the record...great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

If you've liked it, maybe you'll love this cartoon spoof made by the puss in boots creators.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=8JsbSolUF5c

Monty Python

I adore this video!!! So much fun!!

Paradox

Paradox!!!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u42Y3RbP7JE&feature=related

The English Blog

I recommend this blog   http://www.englishblog.com/

Chemical vs Biological Products

Hello again English breakfast:

This time I want to share with you a video which is originally made in French (in fact it is a French production) but has been subtitled in English. It concerns the use of chemicals in food and its consequences on our health overall, in children's ones. 

Its name is Nos enfants nous accuseront (our children will accuse us) and I really find it's a hard but illustrative film that makes us aware of some issues of our modern society and lifestyle. 

Have a nice view and see you at high school.

Best regards,

Ana

CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning

Hello English Breakfast bloggers!
This is my first time in a blog, so I hope to do it well.
Here is an interesting webpage link about CLIL and teaching resources:
http://www.educa2.madrid.org/web/aicole/secundaria
I've found it very useful.

Regards.

Laura

True Stories in Under 7 Minutes!

Hello Everbody! The program Snap Judgement features true stories that are beautifully narrated and are told in under 7 minutes. This show is very well produced! The music in the background of the stories always works itself in as one of the main characters. Another jewel of a show featured on NPR! Have a listen! http://snapjudgment.org/

Clichés!

Hello English Breakfast:

Today, I had to read some texts about love and watch videos concerning this subject and I found this trailer of an American movie: Two Days in Paris.
Although I haven't seen the film, this short video has made me think about clichés and our vision of foreign cultures. In this case, the movie takes over the French people and their habits perceived from an
North-American man vision ...It is a romantic comedy and therefore, sometimes a little bit ridiculous, but I encourage you to spend five minutes watching it and discuss it next day.

Regards,

Ana

Crazy English

The loose relationship between English spelling and pronunciation is enough to drive both language learners and native speakers crazy. However, if you're feeling up for a challenge, give the poem below a try. For a recording of the pronunciation, click here.

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.

Well don't! And now you wish, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard but sounds like bird.

And dead: it's said like bed, not bead,

For goodness sake don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth as in mother

Nor both as in bother, nor broth as in brother,

And here is not a match for there,

Nor dear and fear, for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose--

Just look them up--and goose and choose

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword

And do and go, then thwart and cart,

Come, come! I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful Language? Why man alive!

I learned to speak it when I was five.

And yet to write it, the more I tried,

I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.

(author unknown)

For some more frustrating and fun English, take a look at these excerpts from Richard Lederer's book, Crazy English.

The 12 Days of Christmas

The "12 Days of Christmas" is a classic Christmas song in English.

You can find the original with lyrics here. "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..."

And a very funny parody called the "The 12 Pains of Christmas" here. "The first thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me...."

(thanks, Ana!)

The Future of Technology

This 1995 Newsweek article dismisses the idea that the internet would fundamentally change the way we do things.

"Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities . . . Baloney[*] . . .The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."

*Baloney = nonsense

How have we gotten so far? Which of the articles' predictions have come true, or totally missed the mark? Going into the future, what do you predict?

Check out this TED talk for a glance at the direction we might be heading.

War on Christmas?

In December, we briefly discussed the celebration of religious holidays in schools. How do you feel about this? What about in public places?

We concluded that the topic was not nearly as controversial in Spain as in the U.S., where it is subject to a very enthusiastic debate. If you're interested, check out this opinion article http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/family/10172-atheists-continue-war-on-christmas or http://www.waronchristmas.com/, which gives you an idea of one side of the coin, and an on the other, an opinion article that dismisses the idea that there is a "War on Christmas": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/war-on-christmas_b_1142492.html.

This cartoon is an example of the hyperbole characteristic of the debate. What do you think of it?

Do schools kill creativity?

Back in November, we discussed this TED talk by Ken Robinson. What do you think--do schools kill creativity? Are we educating the whole student?

(courtesy of Juanjo)

Recommended Links

Language Resources

Word Reference (wordreference.com) is my favorite bilingual dictionary.

For monolingual dictionaries, The Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com) is the most respected authority on the English language (from the British and historical perspective), but requires a subscription. Merriam Webster (m-w.com) is a good option for American English, and does not require a subscription.

News

The New York Times (nytimes.com) is my favorite newspaper, although it has a 20 article limit a month. The Sunday Review and Sunday Magazine sections are particularly interesting.

The Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com) is a news aggregator that has a "Cheat Sheet" of the top stories every day, with links to other publications--this is great for having a general sense of what's going on in an abridged format.

NPR (npr.org), the National Public Radio of the U.S., always has great programs--Monica's favorite is "On Point" (http://onpoint.wbur.org/)

Other

Radiolab (radiolab.org) is a fantastic series of thought-provoking podcasts; they recently won a MacArthur Genius Grant for their work.

The Daily Show (thedailyshow.com) is a satirical news program run by Jon Stewart--it's been on the air for years and has a huge following. You can watch it for free online by clicking on "Full Episode" or any of the individual clips. It might be a little hard to follow at first if you're not familiar with current events or popular culture in the U.S., but it's very funny and actually pretty informative--lots of young people in the States get their news by watching it. Stewart is super intelligent and is known for being very critical of the news media. I really recommend it!

(originally sent by email on 23/11/11)

English Breakfast gets a blog!

"English Breakfast" is a group for conversation in English at IES Las Veredillas: a collaboration between teachers and visiting native-speaking teaching assistants and teachers.

We meet in the Art Department during the break on Wednesdays and Fridays, and all are welcome! Whether you want to acquire some new vocabulary, increase your fluency, or just have a discussion over coffee which happens to be in another language, this time is yours.

As you all know, learning a language requires lots of accumulated hours of diverse kinds of practice, and it can be hard to find the time. The idea behind this blog (thanks, Juanjo!) is to provide a space for all participants to share links of interest to them (feel free to make use of the comments section!) to avoid those pesky Reply-All email chains. I will start by posting some past topics so we have them here stored in one place where they're easy to access, as well as posting short recaps of what we've talked about, and information in case you want to follow up and learn more. I encourage you all to contribute whatever you'd like to the blog, whether by commenting, posting directly (email me at stephanie.wye AT gmail.com to get access) or emailing whatever you'd like to me to post for you.

Take a moment to bookmark the blog or subscribe to it by email if you want to receive updates as they are posted.

--Stephanie