Saturday, October 18, 2025

Pontius Pilate by Paul L. Maier: Book Review



This is a reread.  I read this book before in 9th grade, and have mentioned it before on this blog herehere and here.  But because this is my first time reviewing this book on this blog, according to my new rules I'm doing this as a video only review.









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Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/48sBEsq    (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
Started: Midwest Futures by Phil Christman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/499fls7        (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
Started: Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata Series
I've decided to supplement my Latin study by also using the  Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata Series.  This has turned out to be a rather expensive outlay, as it has turned into the purchase of 5 different books to get the whole suite of study materials.  I have some doubts about whether this was a responsible use of money on my part, but as these purchases are already completed, I suppose it's no use thinking too much about it now.  For better or for worse, I now have these books.
In order to avoid cluttering up this blog with multiple started posts, I'm going to include all 5 books in this post.  And I'm only going to post an image for the first book, but you can follow the Amazon links to find images and more information about the other other books.

* Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana--https://amzn.to/4nQSTZq
* Exercitia Latina I: Exercises for Familia Romana--https://amzn.to/47xfsfS
* Colloquia Personarum (Lingua Latina)--https://amzn.to/4nikIc5
* A Companion to Familia Romana--https://amzn.to/3W8TkCl
* Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Teachers' Materials & Answer Keys for Pars I & II--https://amzn.to/49aXcdz

(These are all Amazon Associate's Links.  If you buy anything through those links, I get a commission.)


Wednesday, October 15, 2025


Here are 3 storybooks make by Google Gemini Storybook (of varying quality) with the intent of studying -an words, -at words, and -ap words all together.  The prompts for these books come from this chat, this chat and this chat.
* Ben and Ken: Storybook for -en and -an word families

This is a text I created using Google Gemini Storybook for reviewing both the -en word family and the -an word family.  The prompt was "create a storybook for brand new readers. Use these words: ben, den, hen, ken, men, pen, ten, zen, ran, van, fan, man, ban, tan, pan, can"
The chat which created this book can be found here.  

Matching Cards for CVC words with -in

 (TESOL Worksheets--CVC Word Patterns)

Google: docspub

I use these cards in several stages.
I start out with some of the alphabet cards from this previous activity.  I take the "I" card, and ask students what sound it makes.  Then I take the "N" sound, and ask what sound it makes, and then put the two cards together, and try to get students to tell me the sound.
I then take out several consonants, and get the students to tell me the sound, and then put these consonants together with the -IN to make different words, helping students to sound them out.  
At this point I put out the picture cards, and as we do different CVC -at words, I get students to identify the pictures.  
Once all the words and pictures have been identified, then we play a memory card game to match the words and pictures.  
Lastly, I put away the word cards, and just show students the pictures.  The students have to write down the word on their mini-white boards.

bin

fin

pin

sin

tin

win




As someone who is currently working in a public school, I can attest to the fact that the kids are indeed saying "6-7" all the time now.  We adults find the constant repetition of "6-7" to be annoying, but the kids don't seem to be tired of it yet.
The strange thing about "6-7" is (according to the kids themselves) it doesn't mean anything, it's just something that's cool to yell out.
Every time I hear a kid yell out "6-7", I'm reminded of what I wrote last February:
In the course of researching all of this, however, the thought occurred to me: the kids are always yelling out something.
Now, granted I've been outside of the United States for most of the past 24 years, but I've been teaching kids in JapanCambodia and Vietnam, and in all these countries, I've noticed that there's always some slogan or catchphrase that the kids are constantly yelling out.

Verily, I have never written truer words.