1. The Great Typo Hunt
IN-SERVICE APRIL 10, 2013

3. TEAL Member Bios
Jeff Deck: Founder, Constituent, and Advocate
Deck has been an editor for half an age and thus came to embrace typo-
hunting as the lamp with which he, orthography’s evening
watchman, could brighten the world. After logging nearly twelve
thousand miles, over four hundred typos found, and over two hundred
of those corrected, he and his friends are eager to put the experience of
their diverse adventures to use in even grander campaigns against
carelessness, ineducation, and the insidious germ of apathy. Deck lives
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, home to Daniel Webster during the
Napoleonic Wars. Coincidence?
Benjamin “Squirrel” Herson: “I’ll show you a sidekick.”
Four legendary sages/high school English teachers trained him in the
arts of detail & word choice, poetic diction, careful syntax
craftsmanship, and document analysis. Herson crafted a thesis
concerning the end of all things, developing a sense of his own role in
the eschatological battle between grammatical right and wrong.
Subject-verb disagreement is his sworn enemy, though it’s those
slippery little homophones with whom he’s currently engaged in battle.
AKA: Ben B. Jammin’, Squirrel, Capt. Squirrel, ―That Guy‖ (for
complete list, please refer to NSA file).

4. TEAL Member Bios
Jane Connolly: Web Doyenne and Lore Keeper
Connolly came to the cause out of enthusiasm for bug hunts, after she’d
long dissected various troublesome insects like the run-time error in her
own field. She applies her considerable aesthetic and technological prowess
to web design, the science of the l33t. She calls New England her home, all
of it. It’s hers. Portsmouth, New Hampshire is the capital and governing
seat of Connolly’s northeastern empire. She happens to be smitten with the
handsome founder of TEAL, but that’s neither here nor there.
Josh Roberts: League Epicurean
Roberts has been a tireless defender of the virtues of correctness and justice
all his adult life, a good portion of his adolescent life, and even a few days
here and there during prepubescence. He currently lives in
NYC, historically a bastion of superheroes and never more so than during
his residence, editing films and ordering people around on TV commercial
production sets.

5. TEAL Member Bios
& YOU, O Eager Leaguer!
TEAL appreciates your zeal for good grammar– we have room
for you. Tell us what you can do. And keep an eye out for TEAL
action updates! History is never finished, and the next page is
being written today—we’re here to ensure it’s punctuated
properly. Help us. Join the League!

7. What is heroism?
 What does it mean to be a hero? What does
it take?
 Is Jeff’s quest a waste of time?
 Is Jeff’s mission significant or merely a
nuisance to the people he meets?

8. Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) Joseph
Campbell
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA
 In what way does The Great Typo Hunt fit the Hero’s
Journey?
 What is gained by looking at the way this story
follows patterns of all stories? How does it enhance
our experience with Jeff?

9. Making Mistakes
 What is the significance of typos in the story? How
do various people’s reactions to their own typos in
the story give the mistakes their meaning?
 How does the book discuss the nature of making a
mistake?
 How does the book discuss the nature of addressing
the mistakes of others?
 What methods does Jeff advocate in the discussing
of mistakes?

10. Education
 Reflect on Jeff’s statements in chapter 15 on the need
for a ―system of acquisition.‖
 What is the difference between teaching a ―skill‖ and teaching
a ―system of acquisition‖?
 If we were to be honest, how much time do we as educators
spend teaching students how to learn instead of focusing on
the specific answers to the specific problems we’re going to be
tested over?
 In which ways do you teach systems of acquisition for your
specific subjects?
 What can teachers do to fulfill the requirements placed upon
us and still provide students with the tools they need to learn
themselves? What are the challenges to finding this balance?