The Words

Yesterday we had a good time on our goods and services walk, I told the kiddos about the original goods and services in our down town square of 1818.  There was a small dry goods store, I told them.  Did they provide goods or services?  Goods, they all yelled.  There was a tavern I told them.  Someone asked about the meaning of tavern.  "It's basically a bar.  The hardworking farmers would go there in the evening and drink some whiskey.  What do you think, goods or service?"
"Service?" someone offered tentatively.
"Yes sir, they provided an important service."  I was really amusing myself on the walk, in other words.

Today I gave a brief presentation on vocabulary to our district's literacy cohort of teachers.  I shared with the cohort that until recently, I had the wrong idea about what a hangnail is.  You may recall I blogged about this at some point.  I pointed out to the group that my lack of knowledge about hangnails really hasn't held me back at all.  We can't know every word, and we can't teach every word.  Somehow we muddle through.  The chat went well and after the talk several teachers came up to show me their hangnails.  I think they wanted to help solidify my knowledge of the hangnail concept.  One teacher had quite a brutal looking hangnail.  I grabbed her by the thumb and shared her horrible hangnail with several nearby teachers. Later, Pal Judith and I were able to follow up with a bevvie and app at a local tavern. No whiskey, but a pleasant sauvignon blanc. A grand day.