Welcome!

This site is my new dream, and I'm passionate about it! I want to connect international students studying English in Philadelphia with high school and community college students in Philadelphia and are working hard to educate themselves, sometimes in less than perfect schools. As a mentor in the Guiding Youth to Careers program at University City High School, I got to know several wonderful students who did not get enough vocabulary instruction in high school, in my opinion. It's hard for these two groups of Philadelphians to meet and interact, but they have so much in common and so much to learn from each other!

The format for the site grew out of an activity developed by Joanna Ghosh at UPenn's English Language Programs: the Vocab discussion board. Students in a class have to post 2 words every week that they have seen, heard, or read. The best words are those that seem to be important to know, that you feel like you've heard, but that you don't quite know the meaning or usage of. Students then comment on 4 of their classmate's words every week. Sometimes we discuss "hard words" that we read in articles or hear on the radio, and sometimes we talk about phrasal verbs and informal or slang words. Everyone should post about words they don't know, but you can comment on words you do know to help people understand them better.

Posts should include:
- the word
- where you heard or found it
- a definition
- the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.)
- an example sentence

Comments can be:
- an example sentence that you heard or made up
- a question
- more info about the etymology (historical development) or meaning of the word
- more info about the usage of the word. For example, what other words does it go with? When should we use it and when should we not use it?
- a comparison of the word to other similar words
- anything else you want to say

Have fun and let me know if you have questions or comments! Thanks for helping me realize my dream (make my dream a reality)!