Tag Archives: professional development

Acropolis

Posted on April 25, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Acropolis: (Gr, ‘high city’) The citadel of a Greek city, generally situated on a hill. The Acropolis at Athens, a rocky plateau about two hundred feet high, was the site of the ancient town. It was surrounded by walls, which were destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC, and later rebuilt by Themistocles. The Acropolis was the center of religious activity; many temples and statues of Athene were located there. The Erechtheum, the Parthenon, and the Propylaea are among the best known of its monuments. The acropolis at Thebes was the Cadmeia; that of Corinth, the Acrocorinth.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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Term of Art: Sensory Impairment

Posted on April 17, 2025 | Leave a comment

“sensory impairment: Any impairment of the sensory system; the most prominent and predominant forms of sensory impairment are hearing and visual problems. All standard and legal definitions of learning disability rule out sensory impairment as a contributing cause because those sensory impairments are classified separately in their own handicap categories. However, it is possible for a child with sensory impairment also to also have a learning disability. It is also difficult to tell the difference between the effects of a sensory impairment on learning and those effects that may be associated with a learning disability. It is likely that children with significant sensory problems who also have learning disabilities may generally be underdiagnosed and largely overlooked.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky

Posted on April 17, 2025 | Leave a comment

“L(ev) S(emyonovich) Vygotsky: (1896-1934) Soviet psychologist. He studied linguistics and philosophy at the University of Moscow before becoming involved in psychological research. While working at Moscow’s Institute of Psychology 1924-34, he became a major figure in post-revolutionary Soviet psychology. He studied the role of social and cultural factors in the making of human consciousness; his theory of signs and their relationship to the development of speech influences such psychologists as A.R. Luria and Jean Piaget. His best-known work, Thought and Language (1934) was briefly suppressed as a threat to Stalinism. He died of tuberculosis at 38.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Credo

Posted on April 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Credo (noun): A statement of belief, faith or doctrine; a religious, social, political or artistic principle or body of principles; dictum.”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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Term of Art: Stretch It Out

Posted on April 4, 2025 | Leave a comment

“stretch it out: A replacement for the customary expression ‘sound it out,’ referring to a technique for analyzing an unfamiliar word. When a student who has had little exposure to phonetic methods of analyzing letters and words confronts a new word, the literacy coach may tell the student to ‘stretch it out like a rubber band’ in hopes of finding the meaning of the word or perhaps similar associations.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Colette

Posted on March 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Colette in full Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette: (1873-1954) French writer. Her first four Claudine novels (1900-03), the reminiscences of a libertine ingenue, were published by her first husband, an important critic, under his pen name, Willy. She later worked as a music hall performer. Among her later works are Cheri (1920), My Mother’s House (1922), The Ripening Seed (1923), The Last of Cheri (1926), Sido (1930), and Gigi (1944; musical film, 1958), a comedy about a girl raised to be a courtesan. Her novels of the pleasures and pains of love are remarkable for their exact evocation of sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and colors. She collaborated with Maurice Ravel on the opera L’enfant et les sortileges (1925). In her highly eventful life, she freely flouted convention and repeatedly scandalized the French public, but by her late years she had become a national icon.”

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Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Ruth Benedict

Posted on March 14, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Ruth Benedict originally Ruth Fulton: (1887-1948) U.S anthropologist. Born in New York City, she received her PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1923 and taught at Columbia from 1930 until her death. In Patterns of Culture (1934), her most famous work, she emphasized how small a part of the range of human behavior is elaborated or emphasized in any one society. She described how these forms of behavior are integrated into patterns or configurations, and she supported cultural relativism, or the judging of cultural phenomena in the context of the culture in which they occur. In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946), she applied her methods to Japanese culture. Her theories had a profound influence on cultural anthropology.” 

­­­­­­­Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Lydia Maria Child

Posted on March 7, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Lydia Maria Child originally Lydia Maria Francis: (1802-1880) U.S. abolitionist. Born in Medford, Massachusetts, she wrote historical novels and a popular manual, The Frugal Housewife (1829), and founded the first children’s periodical, Juvenile Miscellany. After meeting William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, she became active in abolitionist work. Her Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833) was widely read and induced many to join the abolitionist cause. She edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1841-43) and made her home a stage on the Underground Railroad.”

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Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Brian and Eddie Holland

Posted on February 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Brian and Eddie Holland (originally Edward): U.S. songwriters and producers. In 1962 the Detroit-born brothers Brian (b.1941) and Eddie (b.1939) formed a team with Lamont Dozier (b.1941) which subsequently created a series of hits for almost every artist on the Motown label, and helped define its characteristic sound through blending elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues with elaborate arrangements. Their songs include ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ (two of the seven number one hits they wrote for the Supremes), ‘Heat Wave,’ ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ and dozens of other hit for such artists as Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Sarah Breedlove Walker

Posted on February 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Sarah Breedlove Walker originally Sarah Breedlove: (1867-1919) U.S. businesswoman and philanthropist, the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Born near Delta, Louisiana, she was a widowed washerwoman with a daughter to support in 1905 when she developed a method for straightening curly hair. She founded the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Co. to sell her treatment, and her door-to-door saleswomen became familiar figures in the black communities in the U.S. and the Caribbean. In 1910 she moved her company to Indianapolis. She augmented her earnings with shrewd real-estate investments, and she donated two-thirds of her fortune to charitable and educational institutions. Her daughter, A’lelia Walker Kennedy, hosted salons where artists and cultural figures mingled during the Harlem Renaissance.”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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