To Compete In A Scrabble Tournament?

Last Wednesday, word lovers joined in Bliss Hall Lounge for the first Sigma Tau Delta Scrabble Tournament at TCNJ. Sixteen players competed in the tournament, hoping to win prizes including TCNJ library-approved mugs, Sigma Tau Delta swag, and Amazon gift cards.

The tournament used a single-elimination bracket.

Eric and Frank battle it out in the first round.

Lou contemplates his next move while Becca prepares to put down a word.

Ten players anxiously await the end of the first round, hoping they will advance in the tournament and gain the fame and glory they so crave.

Emily watches as Jenna plays another made-up word.

The tournament was set up so that no matter when a player was eliminated, he/she would receive a prize. This element of the tournament was important to the two Sigma Tau Delta students who organizes the tournament, seniors Enrico Bruno and Todd Petty. They wanted to make sure that each player left the tournament with a prize, even if they were eliminated in the first round.

Eight players made it to the second round, four advanced to the semi-finals, and finally Frank and Alexa played in the final match.

Frank and Zach begin the game that will determine who will make it to the final match.

Alexa organizes her letters while Kristen eyes her tiles suspiciously.

Congratulations to Alexa for winning the tournament and taking home the grand prize of a $30 giftcard to Amazon.com.

And thank you to all sixteen players who competed in the tournament!

To Read Dr. Seuss Books?

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our Dr. Seuss Day on Wednesday, March 2nd. Below are some pictures from the event. Special thanks to our member Cynthia, who organized the event and brought ample Dr. Seuss books for us to select and read!

The wonderful selection of books we could read.

Some of our audience members.

We can't forget to mention the delicious cake!

Kim reading Daisy Head Maize.

To Celebrate Read Across America Day?

Remember having fun with these?

If you are reading a book for class, which seems to grow extra pages the longer you read it, you might realize it’s time for a break. But you’re still a book-loving English major (minor, etc) and you don’t quite want to move away from your books.

Let me introduce you to Dr. Seuss Day on March 2nd. Clearly, an event all fans of the printed word would be interested in. Who doesn’t remember those early years when fish were red or blue, one or two? Look fondly back on the days when green eggs and ham didn’t refer to a bad dinner pick from our Eickhoff dining hall.

Come join us from 1-3 in Bliss Lounge. Why? Because we’re fellow adults who still love hearing Dr. Seuss. And eating cake. Did I mention the Dr. Seuss themed cake that will be available for free? Well let me now: there will be a Dr. Seuss themed cake that will be available for free. At 1:30 and 2:30 we will have marathon readings. If you want to read, go stop by and sign up; if you don’t, then sit back and have a story read to you for once in way too long.
At the end, don’t forget to sign the guest list and get your certificate e-mailed to you!

Check out our Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198371190191289

Hope to see you there! Wed March 2nd. Bliss Lounge. 1pm-3pm. Cake and other goodies from 1pm-3pm. Marathon Readings 1:30 and 2:30.

-Cynthia

To Learn Teenage as a Second Language?

As English majors, we are all required to take at least one linguistics course, but even learning about code-switching and vernacular was unable to prepare me for what I stumbled upon while surfing the Internet...a new book entitled, Teenage as a Second Language: A Parent's Guide to Becoming Bilingual.

It wasn't long ago that I was part of the teenage generation that made words like whatever and fine into dangerous verbal daggers. Whenever I wielded one of these words my parents instinctively knew I meant business and adolescence was rearing its ugly head.

I remember getting my first e-mail address, along with most of my friends, in 1999 when I was in fourth grade. My friends and I quickly integrated computer slang into our own e-mails and instant messages, asking each other wu? and telling each other we'll brb or we've gtg. And who can forget being warned about instant messages from strangers requesting our A/S/L?

But computer language is one thing--verbal speech is another scenario entirely. Would you consider "teenage" to be a separate language? Any thoughts?

-Kristen

To Discuss Pride and Prejudice?

Our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta recently met for another book club meeting. This time around we discussed the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice.




Sigma Tau Delta advisor Professor Steinberg began the meeting with a reference to an article she had recently read. The article stated that the American education system failed to teach one important lesson to teens: how to pick a suitable marriage partner. Professor Steinberg asked, is this one of the functions of teaching Pride and Prejudice?

Other topics of conversation included the original title of the novel (First Impressions), Austen's prose, and social norms in Austen's England, especially regarding marriage and the expansive age gap common in marriages at the time. The role of women in the novel was discussed at length, primarily the binary of the intelligent, composed female and the frivolous, rash female so common in Jane Austen novels.

One student questioned the recent phenomenon of infusing Austen's novels with monsters; does Pride and Prejudice and Zombies bring Austen's work to a wider audience, or is having the Bennett sisters protect a ball from a zombie attack sacrilegious?

If you weren't able to attend the meeting, sound off in the comment section!

To Host A Scrabble Tournament?

This year our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta will be hosting its first campus-wide Scrabble tournament.

We got the idea while in St. Louis during last year's convention. After spending the better part of our days attending each others panels and wandering the streets of St. Louis, we would often end our nights with friendly games of Scrabble. This attracted a lot of attention, both from members of Sigma Tau Delta as well as from various passerby in the hotel. It gave us the idea that we could possibly plan an event that would get not only members of Sigma Tau Delta and the English department involved, but professors and students from other disciplines as well.

The tournament will be held on March 16th, from approximately 1:00pm-4:00pm in the main lounge of Bliss Hall - the nexus of all things literary at The College of New Jersey. Participants will be randomly paired in brackets. Games will be timed (1 hour long) to ensure that the pace of the tournament is fair. We are currently in the process of selecting prizes, although there will be a prize for every participant. Although we are still in the planning process, we have already generated a considerable buzz on campus.

Please email us at enghonor@gmail.com if you are interested in joining!

To Teach in a Foreign Country?

YES. Do it. If you have the opportunity, it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I have been in Rome, Italy since the beginning of January. TCNJ has a unique program that allows Education majors to complete half of their student teaching overseas and I immediately jumped at the opportunity.

A long and arduous application process many months later and… here I am! A true Roman… kind of. There is nothing like spending two months in a foreign country to make you realize how hard communication can be when you don’t speak the same language as most people around you, and need to communicate using hand gestures that you silently pray are not rude or obscene.

My student teaching placement is in a 3^rd grade classroom at an American school here in Rome, and even if you feel as though you have experienced diversity within a classroom, you probably haven’t seen what I have. There are 22 children in my class, only half of which are native to Italy. The remaining half comes from the United States, Egypt, Israel, India, and China. Only the English language is permitted within the classroom because some of the children are still learning it, but the languages native to the various students are Italian, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, and Hindi. On my third day in the classroom, it was a child’s birthday and I listened to the “Happy Birthday” song in English, Italian, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Spanish, and Chinese. It was one of those eye-opening experiences that gave me goosebumps and made me realize just how lucky I am to be able to experience all of this.

While the variation of English language skills in the classroom ranges from late kindergarten to 11^th grade, I have not yet found teaching the children in English to be that challenging. There are a handful of students who leave the classroom daily for ELL, and I have to be careful not to talk too quickly, but the children are all wonderful and have a passion for learning that you don’t really get to see that often. Occasionally, they will have one of those moments where they slap their hand to their forehead and go, “Ohh…uhhh… ummm, Miss Gargiulo, what is the word for ‘[insert Italian word here]?” or “Miss Gargiulo, how do you say [insert Italian word here] ?” When this happens, I try to exercise the little bit of Italian I know or ask one of the students around us, who usually seem to know the answer.

To say the least, it has been an adventure and an experience that I know I will never forget. I will be sad to go but will be walking away with a newfound appreciation for those children who are bi- or tri-lingual and have acquired more language skills in their lifetime than I could ever hope to obtain.

-Katie G.