Word: Edify

I'm trying to get back into this word-a-day habit. I'm rusty. I can feel it, and I feel like the following exercise shows it. But it's a start.
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The smell of Dry Erase markers permeated the air, pungent and vaguely fruity. Mrs. Horvath always used berry-scented markers on the whiteboard in the front of the room. Between the white background and the hard, hot spring light pouring through the classroom windows, the marks on the board didn't look red; they looked like fuzzy pink heiroglyphics that Leo had to decipher letter by letter. He squinted at the words as Mrs. Horvath scribbled across the surface--Civil War trivia he had to know for tomorrow's test. Was that Sherman or Sherwin? Was that Chancelville? Leo sighed.

"Do you have something to say, Mr. Loetz?" Mr. Horvath asked.

"No, ma'am. I just . . . can't read your writing." Before he could amend his statement a giggle rippled across the classroom. "My glasses are busted."

"I see. Well, if you can't read something, ask. You should have said something at the beginning of class."


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Edify
verb tr.: To instruct in order to improve the mind or character.