The 1890’s was a decade of great hope — and retrospection — in the United States. On the one hand, what is a mere one hundred years to a nation? But on the other hand, the new nation’s first century was marked a second war with England in the teens, by bitter civil war and the 60’s, and by great and life-altering innovations in transportation and i…

Yesterday, in our Word of the Week, which was home, I reminisced a little about the town in Pennsylvania where I grew up, a bittersweet experience for me. In case you’re wondering, the town is Archbald, right in the heart of the old anthracite coal mining district. Already by the time I was a boy, many of the things that characterized the town at i…

We scheduled our Word of the Week to go out on Monday as usual, but just see now that it did not go out. So here it is now, and we hope better late than never! When Joseph the patriarch was dying, he asked his brothers to make sure that his bones would not stay in Egypt. “God will surely visit you,” he said, “and bring you out of this land, unto th…

I’ve been holding a place for today’s Sometimes a Song for a very long time. And when we were discussing a choice for our Word of the Week, I mentioned to Tony that someday he’d have to give me an chance to use “Georgia on My Mind.” So, he immediately piped up with the word, farmer! I’ll take that challenge (but I do think that Tony should have off…

Time for a comedy for our Film of the Week! For a while after World War II, when a lot of soldier boys were going back to the farm they missed or they dreamed of carving out for themselves, there were a lot of comedies set out in the country. They were mostly good-humored, with some merry laughter at the supposedly simple ways down on the farm, and…

Our Word of the Week is farmer, so it’s fitting for us to choose a hymn to cheer the hearts of those who work the soil. “But,” you say, “it’s January! Nobody’s going to plow the soil in January.” Well, nobody will who lives in the north temperate zone and above. In the tropics or in Australia or Brazil or Argentina, a good lot of soil-working will …

Hello out there, all you who embody our Word of the Week! My father, who by preference sold insurance in the rural counties east and south and north of us rather than in our own urban and suburban county, always liked farmers, for their friendliness and their quite literally down-to-earth ways. The feeling was mutual, and that’s why he became so su…

From the Brothers Grimm, those great historians and linguists and collectors of folk stories from all over the German-speaking lands, we’ve got a story about a funny little man, half helpful and half malicious, who has a secret he manages to keep until his own glee gets the better of him! Enjoy this one with the children, and please let us know if …

The scene is a bright borderland between heaven and a drab city below. One of the blest, a cheery Scotsman named George, has come down from the regions of bliss to meet our narrator and to teach him the secrets of genuine joy and love, human and divine. They’re secrets, not because God hides them, but because we human beings, such as we are, have w…

The author of our Hymn of the Week, John Keble, was the sort of man it is hard to imagine outside of the nineteenth century, and that is to the credit of his age. His father was an Anglican minister, devout, intelligent, highly cultured, and satisfied with a modest vicarage in Gloucestershire, in the lovely surroundings of the Cotswolds. The elder …

Here at Sometimes a Song I’ve often commented that the great flowering of American popular music in the mid-twentieth century came about as a result of the convergence of talents and circumstances, and sometimes of hardship or happenstance. This week’s selection is an example of such a song. “It Was a Very Good Year” was far from the first song wri…

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a poem that schoolchildren once loved, and that has given us the idea of the “albatross around the neck,” the punishment that attends to the Ancient Mariner in our ballad today, because without any motivation, he had so little regard for the beautiful creature of God that he shot it, for no reason but that he could. T…

In this episode, we delve into the world of English Language Learners (ELs) in the Johnston School District. We're joined by Luke Dillon, Principal of Johnston Middle School, and Adam Busch, Director of Student Services, to discuss the unique challenges and triumphs of supporting newcomer students. What successful strategies are in place to help EL…

Join us as we discuss the vital work of the Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa (RACI) and how they support refugee families in Johnston. Learn about the challenges faced by these families, the resources available to them, and how you can help. https://www.refugeeallianceofcentraliowa.org/ Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for the RACI newsletter at t…

Join us for a conversation with Kyla Burns and Thomas Griffin from JHS and Aaron Meyer from Summit as they share valuable insights on how to effectively communicate with ESOL families during parent-teacher conferences. Learn practical tips for building rapport, overcoming language barriers, and fostering meaningful partnerships to support student s…

Chapters 17-19, Teaching english & Chapter 6, Unlocking

Let's begin from the very beginning. There are so many acronyms related to ESOL. You have probably heard such words as ESL, ESOL, ELL, EL, L1, L2, and LEP. What do they all mean?