First Annual UAM Spelling Bee

TOMORROW in Collegium Novum, 212b Bloc B at 19:00 sharp:

First Annual UAM Spelling Bee!

A spelling bee is a contest to correctly spell as many words as possible. We will follow the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S. Every participant will have the opportunity to spell at least one word; however, once a participant misspells a word, he/she will be out of the running. There will be prizes!

There's even a Broadway musical about a spelling bee, let alone a number of movies.

To practice, check out the Merriam-Webster list of sample words. May the best speller win!

Green Eggs and Ham

As we read at our Dr. Seuss meeting last week, here's the text of Dr. Seuss' original Green Eggs and Ham.


And here's Moxy Fruvous' modified music version:

Wednesday meeting

Apologies for not being to post a reminder last week. I was away (with little internet access), so there was no meeting.

However, this week we WILL be meeting. In fact, because some people have a conflict later in the evening, we will start earlier this week only. For Wednesday, March 23 ONLY, we will start at 18:45 and end earlier. 212b as always.


Also, for those of you who are interested in studying in the USA, check out the Fulbright program. This exchange program (my program!) offers scholarships for Polish students and graduates to study in the US. It's recognized as very prestigious in the US, and the scholarship funds almost all of the costs of travel, living, and research expenses. The only catch is that you do need to apply about a year-and-a-half before you want to go. For example, for the 2012-2013 academic year (arriving in the US and beginning around Aug/Sept 2012), the application deadline is April 29, 2011.

If this is something that you are interested in, let me know! There's a Fulbright info session next Monday in Collegium Minus at 13:00. If you cannot make it, email me if you have questions. I'll bring extra materials to our meeting in a week.

See you Wednesday!

Meeting tomorrow!

Next meeting is tomorrow (Wed), again at 19:00 in 212b. We'll have some extra American students visiting (otherwise known as Liz drafting her friends to help), so we'll talk about the differences between university life in the U.S. and in Poland.

Also, if you haven't found our Facebook group yet, you should join.

Multiculturalism in the USA

Here's a couple of the videos that I wanted to show last time, but technology made things too difficult.

Schoolhouse Rock was a TV show (and later a musical on the stage) to teach kids about history, math, grammar, and more in a fun way. When I was in elementary school, teachers were still showing these videos in order to teach us different lessons, so I will probably share a lot of them this semester. This one tells the story of America, the nation of immigrants, and tries to explain the blending of cultures. (Lyrics)



Also, every few years there are TV miniseries which focus on our very different family histories. Americans generally are fascinated by genealogy (studying the family's past and tracing its roots through a family tree), but many of us may know nothing about our ancestors. This PBS reporter hunted through the history of a number of famous Americans and shared their families' stories, as a means to show just a glimpse of the diverse backgrounds of Americans.
Watch it here: Our American Stories: Faces of America