Category Archives: Announcement

Pinned posts with various announcements from Mark’s Text Terminal

Places in Asian American Pacific Islander History: Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, New York

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Places in Women’s History: Greenwich Village, New York, New York

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Places in Black History: 70 Fifth Avenue, Greenwich Village, New York, New York

70 Fifth Avenue Plague

Blog Post Number 6,001

OK, here is another milestone on this blog, passing the six-thousandth post. I don’t have much to offer in the way of commemoration, but I did find some preliminary documents in a unit I planned to write on interjections. These are pretty basic; I didn’t proceed with developing the unit for a variety of reasons, though primarily because I didn’t think this relatively minor part of speech required a full unit. Put another way, I decided that if students knew (they did and probably still do) that Homer Simpson says “d’oh” and Peter Griffin says “crap” when something annoyed, vexed, or otherwise exercised them, then they understood that an interjection, mainly, was “a cry or inarticulate utterance (such as Alas! ouch! phooey! ugh!) expressing an emotion.”

So, without further ado, here are the unit plan in barest outline, with the similarly graphically configured first lesson plan and second lesson plan, and, finally, this interjections review worksheet.

That’s it. Now it’s on to 7,000.

This is the place where I usually plead for peer review and notifications about typos in documents. There’s nothing much to comment on with these documents, which are basically templates. Nonetheless, if you think interjections require their own lesson, or even unit, I would be interested in hearing about that thought.

Matt Ritchel and Michel Martin on the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis in the United States

[This post appears to have drawn a lot of attention, so I’m moving it to the top of the site for another week so it’s easy to find.]

Last Friday evening, as I am wont to do at the end of the week, I was watching the week’s YouTube clips on the shows I follow. I stumbled across this clip from Amanpour and Company featuring Michel Martin and Matt Richtel discussing the adolescent mental health crisis in the United States. It served as a bracing reminder to me (which I seriously needed) of what young people have endured, and continue to experience, during the pandemic and after. Mr. Richtel, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has been researching and writing on the inner experiences of contemporary teenagers in a series in the The New York Times headlined “The Inner Pandemic.” If you’re dealing in any capacity with adolescents, I can say with considerable confidence that you won’t regret the twenty-minute or so investment of time this video requires.

Steve’s Trail Descriptions: Salisbury 2020 Trash Trail Connector to Eastern Marsh Bike Path

[My good pal Steve lives in Salisbury, Massachusetts, which is in the far northeastern corner of Massachusetts; indeed, Seabrook, New Hampshire is the next town north. I received this text from him this morning with the announcement that he plans, in his retirement, to o become a Bike Guide author. Here’s an excerpt from his upcoming article, “Salisbury on a Bike?” He asked me to read and critique the piece. I laughed out loud, then knew right away that I wanted to pin it to the top of this blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Riding the Trash Trail from the back door.

This short transit to the real bike trail gains a pathetic 20 feet of elevation over 1/8 mile cresting atop Garbage Truck Heights. 
A sassy eight foot section of single track along the way up will keep the short attention span crowd occupied for about 2 seconds.

The descent down Cemetery Ridge to the crossing of Route 1 should be uneventful save for Halloween and when the biker gangs are in town (no, not mountain bikers). Once across Route 1 ride south against traffic 100 yards or so and try not to get hit by someone texting in a car or pickup.

A left onto the dirt road known as Murderer’s Meander (M.M.) promises a thrilling 1/2 mile descent on dirt and gravel to one of the most scenic ambush locations on the North Shore.

You are now on The Eastern Marsh Bike Path

Something to look forward to coming back home?
 When you are huffing back up M.M. after a 16 mile ride heading home…don’t mind the 300 lb bearded gent with the giant German Shepard if he’s around.

He’s friendly. I promise the encounter will make you go faster up that last 70 feet of vertical than you thought possible.