Author Archives: Karyn

Karyn’s Essential Digital tools

Want to know what my Mac computer and I can’t live without? Here’s the short list of my essential digital tools. Later I’ll give you a list of my essential non-digital tools.

Mellel
The absolute best Mac word processor for incorporating both left-to-right and right-to-left (i.e., Hebrew) writing systems into your documents. Very active and helpful user forum (which the developers contribute to frequently). A reasonable price at $49 ($35 educational rate). You can buy Mellel and Bookends together (see next item in my list) at a 40% discount. That’s just $109 for both (only $89 if you are a university student!)

Bookends
This reference management and bibliography application works seamlessly with Mellel. Keeps track of all your citations and will build a bibliography for you that is customized to whatever standards you have to follow.

Accordance
What can I say? I use this bible software every single day. Powerful searches, great modules, and attentive support (blog and forum). It can be intimidating to know where to begin (as you build your own set of modules), but the staff will be very helpful. If you are studying biblical languages, start with the Scholars Collection. Module I could not live without: HALOT.

Things
A GTD program (see “Getting Things Done” for more generic info on GTD ) you have to love. I no longer keep paper lists. That says it all. Download the free trial for a month. You’ll probably have to buy it before the month is over, you’ll be hooked.
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Finding the Missing Root

Here’s a quick way to find the missing root for a BH weak verb:
Grammar Flash Cards

NOTE: the term “prefix pronoun” is what I would call a preformative. The term “pronoun” may be confusing but he is using it because the verb form indicates the implicit subject pronoun for the verb. This doesn’t cover every situation, but it is a nice little tool to keep in mind. I am still running possible verbs through this method to see how well it works. If you find one that does NOT work, please leave a comment.

This is just one Hebrew Grammar flashcard from the Hebrew course at the Free Church Seminary in Scotland. David Murray (now at Puritan Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI) developed a full set of video lectures and resources based on Bonnie Kittel’s Biblical Hebrew textbook. At the bottom of the page of lecture links, there is a link to download a set of grammar flashcards (PDF format). Not everyone will find Kittel’s method to their liking, but this website certainly complements the book nicely.

The website also has a useful set of vocabulary resources which I will highlight tomorrow.

Meteorology 101

At one time I taught an annual unit on Meteorology. We tracked hurricanes and snow storms. We learned to analyze satellite and real-time data. We identified cloud types and atmospheric stratum. My students could tell you how to categorize and rate tornadoes. The headmaster would come down to my classroom to ask the students if they thought we would need to call a snow day in 24 hours. But, at the end of the semester, there was really only one thing I wanted them to remember. After the jump see if you guessed correctly. Continue reading →

Comic books to learn by

Do you ever wish that “grown-up” books still had pictures to make reading more fun? If so, you can practice your Hebrew reading with these comics! But don’t keep this fun to yourself. The young kids in your life will enjoy looking at the illustrations while you read to them in Hebrew. You can practice your understanding by translating and explaining the story as you go along.


The first resource is an online offering from Charles Grebe, (Briercrest Seminary, Saskatchewan, Canada). He has created an “animated” comic of the book of Jonah. Continue reading →

Weak Verb Charts

These PDF format charts are a distillation of the weak verb grammar that I teach, so there are some things that won’t make sense if you were not in my class. Eventually I will write a guide to using these pages. Still, if you have been through a first year Biblical Hebrew course, you should be able to figure out most of it. You may post a link to these resources, but please do not re-post the actual documents. I want to keep the most up to date versions here.There is a version number at the bottom of each page (and in the document name) with a date in this format: YYMMDD. Feel free to email me if you have questions.



Page 1


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These charts, along with my Review Guide for a first semester Biblical Hebrew course will be kept on my Hebrew Resources page.

Iditarod Eyes

Iditarod EyesI admit it. I love to follow the Iditarod. We’re into Day 5 and Martin Buser‘s team has just left the Takotna checkpoint (that’s 419 miles out of the 1131 total miles completed).
This great race across Alaska began with 67 mushers and around 1067 dogs. It takes a lot of training, planning, strategy, and some luck. Even if you are not interested in how many dog booties have to be made, how many pounds of dog food are required at each checkpoint, when a musher takes a rest and when they push on, or how a musher cares for his/her dogs on the trail, you can still learn something from this race.
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2 bits ain’t worth what it used to be

You might be living under a rock if you are unaware of all the financial woes of the last year. It is hard to find someone who is not directly affected (or has a friend/family member affected) by unemployment, housing issues, or a loss in the stock market. But even if you are aware, do you really understand what’s going on and how we got into (some of) this mess? The folks at NPR‘s This American Life have boiled down some of the issues and done a superb job of making very complicated systems understandable.

I recommend two episodes in particular. The first is an explanation of the housing/mortgage crisis (The Giant Pool of Money, May 2008) and the second is an explanation of the collapse of the banking system (Bad Bank, Feb 2009). Each episode is 60 minutes (well worth the time) but you can also download a transcript to read at your leisure.

If you like their ability to explain financial things, you should check out their blog, Planet Money, or their podcast.

Here’s to your health

Working in a school/university/seminary puts you in contact with lots of people. Often, lots of sick people (for the sake of this post, let’s limit the definition of “sick” to a physical illness).

Everyone has their own secret (or not so secret) strategy for keeping healthy. Here’s the simplest: wash your hands. Often.

But getting people to actually wash their hands frequently and for the most beneficial period of time is not always easy. Let’s face it, it just isn’t fun. So, here’s a suggestion that worked with the kids (and even adults) that frequent our house. Install this.

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Learning Hebrew with Monty Python

I can get pretty creative (well, downright silly sometimes) in my BH classroom. I’ll do almost anything if I think it will help students remember a concept. If you are interested in understanding why some things “stick” in your mind, and why others fly out, you might like to read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. That book is worthy of its own future post.

For now, take a look at an example of how some of my students indelibly sealed a verse that I taught them to sing in class (Ps 121.1, 2) into their memory.


Watch out Monty Python!