iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 15/09/2025

One of my students just used the expression "to hold your horses" in a nonchalant way and entirely unprompted. We last reviewed this equine image more than a year ago. It made my day! :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 10/06/2025

A student and I just had a good laugh about their word choice. While he was describing his small farm, he used the word "carcass" to describe a wooden structure he had built. I let him know that -- yes -- definition existed but native speakers would never use it that way.

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 19/05/2025

I would love to see a series of this: What They (Don't) Teach You At NASA / The USDA / Girl Scouts.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 18/05/2025

We teachers so often learn from our students. Today, I was coaching a student through an upcoming work presentation. He's really good at his job (software development) and uses a lot of jargon. I understand about 90% of it but today, he used one I had never heard: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levensh...

en.wikipedia.org

Levenshtein distance - Wikipedia

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 12/05/2025

Oh my God. That's a definition of slavery.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 12/05/2025

Happy Monday, everyone. I spent yesterday cleaning my office and was so satisfied with the newly tidy space that I wondered how everyone else's teaching area looked. So, if you're feeling a bit voyeuristic about your work space feel free to share in this thread. #edusky #academicsky #teachersky

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 19/04/2025

This makes my heart happy. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 15/04/2025

Perhaps they could form a league. A “Big Ten” you might say.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 10/04/2025

I agree entirely. This is a dogma that leads away from creative thinking and towards dominance / control.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 09/04/2025

Also, Firefox thinks that the word 'synecdoche' is a misspelling for 'synesthetic.' No, Firefox. :(

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 09/04/2025

The leadership allowed the MBAs to take command of the ships of education. Leadership has become synecdoche with "quarterly profits."

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 09/04/2025

This might be the best kind of typo: suggestive and public. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 08/04/2025

Quoth the raven: “you can save a bundle with a Progressive home insurance plan!”

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 08/04/2025

This is how I've managed to explain the tariffs: a bully attacks one child? That's bad for the child. A bully attacks two children? That's bad for two children. A bully attacks 80 children? That's very, very bad for the bully. #AcademicSky, how are you making sense of this for your own students?

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 06/04/2025

Oh and if anyone from Mexico City follows Joseph here, yes — yes, I am aware of the quesadilla controversy. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 06/04/2025

A lot of us over 30 year olds reflect on our teen years - the cringiest of our lives - as the time in which we became our authentic selves. The art, fashion, and friends of that cringe festival formed our personalities. Trying to avoid it is like trying to make quesadillas without cheese.

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 04/04/2025

A beautiful morning in #Chicago. I'm at a favorite café trying to finish an essay. Writing is always challenge, but even more so when doing it in Spanish -- which is not my native. The added anxiety of knowing that my retirement fund is disappearing by the minute does not help. #AcademicSky

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 04/04/2025

Congratulations! May you pass to all of your students / junior colleagues the support and kindness that helped you arrive at this point. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 04/04/2025

M-W, you've been handed an opportunity to make your motto "A book of spells, the key to wonders." Copies would fly off the shelves.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 03/04/2025

On their way to Bethlehem to be born, complaining about what they don't understand.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 02/04/2025

You've described a splendid Tuesday evening. :) If I can blab a bit, tonight reminds me of the 2017 special election in Alabama. Lots of us employees were chaperoning a late-night Final Exams event. We went nuts on learning of Doug Jones' victory. The students were like... be quiet, please?

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 02/04/2025

Like marathon runners or binge drinkers! We all need a lie down. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 01/04/2025

I get you. Well, may it be of comfort to us both that Target hasn't been able to make up their lost profits from bigots.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 31/03/2025

Same! There’s a Target within walking distance of our house but we haven’t been there since summer 2024 when they pulled Pride merchandise. My husband and I spend our gay dollars elsewhere (mostly at Petco — which donates to the Trevor Project). www.petco.com/shop/en/petc...

petco.com

Celebrate Love: Pet Pride Month Collection | Petco

$75+ when you buy online & pick up in-store

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 31/03/2025

NYU’s current motto is “Perstare et praestare.” Perhaps it should become whatever the Latin is for “complying in advance with fascism.”

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 30/03/2025

Oh my God. What are the people in Evanston thinking?

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 30/03/2025

This is an exciting result. There had been anecdotal evidence suggesting this same effect. I wonder how GLP-1 will impact recovery communities. People who struggle with addiction might have a powerful new resource.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 26/03/2025

The government kidnapped this student. Where is Tufts’ statement calling for her release? #Academicaly

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 26/03/2025

A student just said, "see you next Tuesday!" and an internal war waged about whether I should have told him what that specific phrase meant. :) I saved it for... well, next Tuesday.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 24/03/2025

The word "concerned" in that headline is doing some Olympic-level heavy lifting. Whoever wrote it might next share with readers the concern about our always having been at war with Eastasia.

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 20/03/2025

I hope that you did a little strut along the way. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 17/03/2025

This would work really well in a few of my language exercises. Thanks, M-W!

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 16/03/2025

Reading “Don’t Go,” a collection of first hand stories about the racial segregation we impose upon ourselves in #Chicago. What are you reading tonight, #AcademicSky?

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 14/03/2025

A student recommended Natural Reader to me, so I checked it out. Red flags appeared right away. The male voices are "confident, engaging, and formal" while the female ones are "calm, emotional, and soft." Gender stereotypes are generally unhelpful but nefarious when applied to educational tools.

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 12/03/2025

Yessssssssss! It makes my heart grow when students tell me about encountering the language they learned in class out in the wild.

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 11/03/2025

The vocabulary (and joy) of Spring Cleaning. Check out this "Before" and "After" video of my living room. What 5 objects and what 5 verbs can you identify from the video? youtu.be/HFFs4v_kmHA

youtu.be

Spring Cleaning Part 2

YouTube video by The Chicago English Corner

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The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 09/03/2025

Oh God. I felt this truth in my bones. :)

The Chicago English Corner @chicagoenglishcorner.com · 06/03/2025

You're probably on point. They're fantastic artists. I have used their song "I Know Alone" -- an absolute banger in both lyrics and music -- with my students.