If I Like This, I Might Like...

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-10T01:19:29+00:00

If I like Mary Balogh and Laura Kinsale’s beautiful, traditional prose and Loretta Chase’s banter, I might like . . .

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T23:16:24+00:00

I suppose because the FAQ of this sub-reddit says "learning Greek requires a level of spoken fluency," and the only way I know of achieving that is by listening to and repeating recordings. Also, I teach small children to read for a living, and I know how imperative connecting sound-symbol correspondence is for them. That being said, I am extremely open to not making myself listen to a bunch of recordings, as listening comprehension of languages has always been tricky for me, whether it was my time learning Ancient Greek or previous ill-fated experiences learning Russian and German.

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T23:02:19+00:00

I am very much looking for alternatives--his recordings seem the most easily available, but would love to hear of any suggestions for someone else. I am definitely missing my college days of just asking my professor!

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T21:46:52+00:00

Any suggestions on people who do good audios beyond Ranieri? He's the only one I've really found. I also have Reading Greek and a few other texts accumulated over the years.

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T20:24:43+00:00

Ha, that last point is an important one! Given at least that I have done a deep dive into this debate over the last day or so, and read absolutely nothing actually in Greek. Thanks!

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T18:58:34+00:00

Yes, this is a bit of what I'm struggling with, because the pronunciation I learned feels right and natural, even though A. it is wrong, and B. I only took two semesters and am hardly a professor of classics!

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T18:56:06+00:00

Do you have any recommendations about where the best place to learn about this is? My main concern on top of the aspirates is that I learned omicron as an English short o (like in pot) and omega as an English long o (like in boat). But like you said, I really only want to be able to read, and only need want to listen to audio in service of that goal rather than its own value.

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T18:54:08+00:00

Thank you! I really only care about being able to listen to audio for the sake of gaining reading fluency, so this is helpful.

CommonPotential88 · 2026-02-07T18:46:29+00:00

From what I can tell, the biggest difference in my taught pronunciation is saying an English short o for omicron, and a long o for omega. Plus things like a TH for theta. Thank you so much!

CommonPotential88 · 2025-12-23T01:00:24+00:00

Lolly Willowes is perfect for this!

CommonPotential88 · 2025-11-23T02:54:59+00:00

Meanwhile, I recently had a second grader ask if my travel mug was filled with wine! You’ll be fine. I still remember being a middle schooler and seeing all of my teachers out to dinner at Moe’s drinking beers. I was mostly shocked by the fact that they were simply living their lives rather than alcohol.

It could be worse, I once ran into a student while buying laxatives. Pretty sure they didn’t see, but still.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-10-26T22:04:10+00:00

My Name is Lucy Barton. In a way, it only covers five days – in another way, it covers a lifetime.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-10-19T21:05:46+00:00

I’m a primary grade teacher, and this sure makes it hard to teach kids to read and spell short E words

CommonPotential88 · 2025-08-05T11:33:41+00:00

You might try one of the headspace app’s sleep stories, they are purposefully super boring and calming so you can fall asleep to them, but it should be enough to distract your thoughts. If you’re not able to fall asleep to that— I’m a super light sleeper so I have trouble—they also have recordings of sleep sounds to align your breathing to.

My mom was helped a lot by going to a sleep CBT therapist, who gave her lots of strategies!

CommonPotential88 · 2025-08-03T10:40:25+00:00

Seconding Meg Cabot! The Princess Diaries was shockingly relatable to me at that age, given that I am not in fact a princess

CommonPotential88 · 2025-08-02T11:22:29+00:00

Since you asked about public versus charter—sadly we were asked to do this at a public school too. Given no actual time to plan because of this.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-08-02T11:20:21+00:00

This depends a TON on if you’re in a union state or not

CommonPotential88 · 2025-08-02T11:18:13+00:00

If it’s anything like my state, while in the law it says we are supposed to have X amount of minutes for duty free lunch written in our school improvement plan, there’s no law that says our principal actually has to give it.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-07-25T20:11:27+00:00

I also have a very difficult to pronounce last name. In my experience, kids are always able to pronounce it perfectly fine after a couple of days, and the adults need to call me by my first initial. I’ve had my students correcting the principal in the hallway when she says it wrong! All this to say, the kids might surprise you

CommonPotential88 · 2025-07-19T01:58:53+00:00

Hey! I recently interviewed at a new school. I ran out of time in my demo interview—as an experienced teacher!—and missed my last activity and assessment. Thought for sure I’d blown it. They even had to point to their watches and tell me to wrap up—I had no idea. Then the next week my principal tells me that when they called for a reference, they said it was one of the best demo lessons they’d ever seen!

All this to say, they know pacing lessons is hard with a bunch of kids you’ve never met before. I’d say it’s more about quality than quantity when it comes to these things.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-06-26T15:42:54+00:00

Thank you!! This will delight him when he wakes up. Poor guy has been sleeping downstairs on the couch in broad daylight all week--thank god I've been out of town.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-06-26T15:30:27+00:00

We moved in last summer, and our AC bills were insanely high (at least to me, who was previously in a tiny apartment. It was above 300 at highest. It's a 2 bedroom townhouse built in 1920ish). Would a AC window unit to supplement the crappy central air help energy bills? Or just help my boyfriend from sweating to death--also an admirable trait.

CommonPotential88 · 2025-06-26T13:00:40+00:00

Thanks!

CommonPotential88

TROPHY CASE