Question everything is a principle to live by--and to learn by. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) promote inquiry-based education, thrusting students into a hands-on relationship with their education. This is a great power and responsibility, but luckily the students have help. Every school has a secret resource, trained to support students and teachers alike. Who is this mysterious superhero? The school librarian, [...]
Last year when I studied abroad in the Netherlands, learning a few Dutch phrases became necessary for survival. (How can you buy cookies at the local supermarket without being able to thank the cashier with a dank u wel?) What I didn’t expect to learn was that German held a stake in the origins of not only the Dutch language, but English as well. [...]
Like many of my colleagues, I work from my home office, which is something I really enjoy. It gives me the opportunity to manage my own time and avoid the countless interruptions that can occur in an office setting. It also means that when the season changes, “someone” is responsible for “spring cleaning” my office. While I was cleaning up recently, I came [...]
Like most people I know, I studied a foreign language in high school, but I have had so little opportunity to speak it since then that I’ve forgotten most of what I learned. I feel a little guilty about this, especially since bilingualism is such a valued skill today. Whenever I hear policy makers or media personalities talk about the benefits of learning [...]
I recently read an article about how our own language can make a difference in how we understand things around us. The article referred to the research of Lera Boroditsky, a psychologist at Stanford University. She believes that the language we speak determines the way we perceive the world. When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, it [...]
Back in the 1960's, linguist Noam Chomsky developed a theory called "Critical Period Hypothesis." Chomsky stated that the time before puberty is the easiest time for children to learn world languages. Once children go through the puberty stage it's more difficult to learn another language. Furthermore, Chomsky explains that while a child is going through puberty, his/her brain is more able to absorb [...]