The Glass Castle Map

Follow this link to explore the many locations in the southwestern U.S. where Jeannette Walls and her family lived before moving to Welch, West Virginia.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=212487313279371181520.0004b6eb3dd4b103f53f7&msa=0

All Classes - Word of the Week: exacerbate

This week, all of Ms. Bourque's English classes selected exacerbate as the word of the week.  Exacerbate means, "to increase the severity, bitterness, or violence of, to aggravate" or, "to embitter the feelings of, irritate, exasperate."  Here are some of the sentences we created to demonstrate our understanding of the word:

1. My mom knew the truth about me skipping class, so my lie only exacerbated the situation.
2. Jerome was in an argument with the police when he exacerbated the situation by pulling a gun.
3. Mayowa had a bad sunburn, and Sam exacerbated the pain when she smacked him.

Period 6 Word of the Week - facade

This week, period 6 selected facade as our word of the week.  Facade means:

1. the front of a building, especially an imposing or decorative one;
2. a superficial appearance or illusion of something.

We wrote the following sentence to demonstrate our understanding of the word facade:

Bob put up a facade of happiness, but he was actually depressed.

Period 3 Word of the Week - enigma

This week period 3 chose enigma as our word of the week.  An enigma is:

1. a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation;
2. a person of puzzling or contradictory character;
3. a saying, question, or picture containing a hidden meaning; a riddle.

Our sentence that correctly uses the word enigma is:

All the windows in the house suddenly opened; it was a frightening enigma!

Periods 4 & 8 Word of the Week - pulchritudinous

This week, periods 4 and 8 voted, and pulchritudinous was the winner of our "word of the week" contest!  We looked up the word and discovered that it means "physically beautiful."

Each class created a sentence or two to reflect our understanding of the word:

1. All the ladies in this class are pulchritudinous.
2. The celebrity was pulchritudinous, but her inner beauty left much to be desired.
3. He felt his girlfriend was very pulchritudinous.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Zygomatic

Euphemism

Periods 3 & 4 Word of the Week - subordinate

This week, periods 3 and 4 selected subordinate as our word of the week.  Subordinate means:

1. placed in or belonging to a lower order or rank;
2. of less importance, secondary;
3. subject to or under the authority of a superior;
4. subservient or inferior;
5. subject; dependent.

The sentences we created to demonstrate our understanding of the word subordinate were:

1. The subordinate clause, in English, is a dependent clause.
2. GHS may be subordinate to QO in rank, but tonight we will show QO how subordinate they are.

Periods 6 & 8 Word of the Week - infusion

This week, periods 6 and 8 selected infusion as our word of the week.  In order to understand the definition of infusion, we had to look it up, and, in addition, we had to look up its root word: infuse.  Here are the definitions we found:

infusion:
1. the act or process of infusing;
2. something infused.

infuse:
1. to introduce as if by pouring;
2. to imbue or inspire

The sentences we created to show our understanding of infusion were:

1. Each year a class of new freshmen is infused into GHS.
2. The gunshot victim lost too much blood and needed an infusion of new blood.

repugnant

revengeance

All Classes - Word of the Week: myopic

This week, all four of Ms. B's English classes selected myopic as our word of the week.  Myopic has several meanings:

1.  Opthmalogically, it means nearsighted (only able to see things that are close by);
2.  Figuratively, it means unable or unwilling to act prudently;
3.  Figuratively, it also means narrow-minded.

The sentences we created to demonstrate our understanding of the word myopic are:

1. Infants are myopic when they are very young.  (definition 1)
2. My parents were myopic; they did not see the good points in that out-of-state college. (definition 3)
3. The government acted myopically when tapping our phones. (definition 2)
4. I am myopic without my contacts. (definition 1)
5. His myopic personality will be his downfall because he will never make a plan and stick to it. (definition 2)
6. The racist man was myopic to the pain he inflicted on others. (definitions 2/3)

Periods 4 & 8 Word of the Week: modicum

Period 4 and period 8 both chose modicum as our word of the week.  We looked up modicum and discovered that it means "a moderate or small amount."

Here are the sentences that we made up to show our understanding of the word:

1. I can't buy new shoes with the modicum of money that I have.
2. I only have a modicum of money, so I cannot buy what I want.
3. The bags of chips in the vending machine only give you a modicum of chips.

Period 6 Word of the Week: smite

This week, period 6 selected smite as our word of the week.  Dictionary.com tells us that smite has a number of meanings.  The two most common are:

1. To strike or hit hard, as with a hand, stick, or other weapon;
2. To strike down, injure, or slay.

We created the following sentence to demonstrate our understanding of the word smite:

If you don't leave me alone I will smite you!

Period 3 Word of the Week: moot

This week, period 3 selected moot as our word of the week.  When we looked up the word, we discovered that moot has a number of definitions.  The most commonly-used meanings are:

1. Open to discussion or debate
2. Of little or no value

We created the following sentences using definition #2:

1. Crayons are moot in high school.
2. Eight-track tapes are now moot to music listeners.

Period 8 Word of the Week: syzygy

This week, period 8 selected syzygy as their word of the week. We learned that a syzygy is an alignment of three celestial bodies (for example, the earth, moon, and sun), or, it can be an alignment of two related things, either alike or different, but that have something in common.

Coincidentally, syzygy was the first word spelled in last year's school musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

The sentence we created for syzygy was:

The twin sisters are in syzygy.

Period 3 Word of the Week: tub-thumper

Period three selected tub-thumper as its word of the week this week.  A tub-thumper is "a vociferous supporter or promoter (of a cause)."

The sentence we wrote to illustrate our understanding of the word was, "I am tired of the tub-thumpers handing out flyers during election week."

Periods 4 and 6 Word of the Week: gallimaufry

This week, both period 4 and period 6 chose gallimaufry as their word of the week.  A gallimaufry is a hodgepodge or mixture of unrelated items.  It is also a type of stew or hash sometimes made in France.

The sentences we wrote for gallimaufry included:

1. This school is a gallimaufry of races, ethnic groups, and personalities; there is a mixture of many different kinds of students.

2. My bookbag contains a gallimaufry of items by the end of the year: pens, pencils, headphones, old papers, snacks, and many other odds and ends.