Is Your Biology Online Tutor Guide Worth the Price?

Is Your Biology Online Tutor Guide Worth the Price?Did you know that a free biology online tutor can be of great help in learning the basic concepts and the other things that have to do with studying biology? This is because these guides can help students pass the exams. The reason why there are numerous free biology online tutor guides is because they know how to pass the exams and thus will provide the guidance to all the students who are studying biology.It is very important for you to take the initiative and start taking advantage of the one-on-one coaching to find out how to improve your level of understanding and comprehension. Also, these online tutors also give you the opportunity to study on your own schedule. With this, you will also learn to set your own timetable in which you can study on your own.There are so many free biology online tutor guides available on the internet today. These guidebooks are very useful especially if you are having some difficulties when it comes to understanding and comprehending the topics taught in the books. These guides also make your studies interesting and fun by offering creative exercises that you can practice.Now that you have a thorough understanding of the subject, it is time to choose the right kind of book. Once you have decided the right kind of book, you can start looking for good online biology tutorials and the best place to start searching is the internet. There are a large number of resources available on the internet that you can use for your learning.You need to understand that the research can be time consuming and a book is just a tool. Therefore, it is not essential to use the best book. You can also choose from the books that are included in the free textbooks and the best option for you is to get the free biology online tutor guide. This can help you understand the concepts that you need to study in detail.You must also take note that the free biology online tutor does not teach you everything tha t you need to know. As a matter of fact, these guides are full of topics and concepts that can help you become more proficient in your studies. It is a good idea to select a science textbook that is written by an experienced scientist who is well aware of all the intricacies of the subject.You will find many books that are being used as a biology online tutor. A lot of them are getting wide recognition as well. Before you consider buying one, you can always try out the free books and then decide which is the best one for you.

10 Useful Italian Phrases You Wont Find in a Travel Dictionary

10 Useful Italian Phrases You Won’t Find in a Travel Dictionary Suzy S. Are you planning on taking a trip to Italy? A travel dictionary is a great resource to have on hand. However, it doesnt always list common phrases and expressions used by native Italians. Below, Italian teacher  Christopher S.  shares 10 useful Italian phrases that you wont find in a travel dictionary Italian is an extremely expressive language. Not only is it beautiful for the way it sounds and the theatrical hand gestures, its also beautiful because of its rich expressions. Like many cultures, Italians use a variety of proverbs and idioms to help express themselves. When traveling abroad, its important to learn how to speak and understand these phrases, as it will help you carry on conversations with natives. Below are 10 useful Italian phrases and words you might want to consider learning before your trip. Modo di dire (Idioms) 1. In bocca al Lupo (into the wolfs mouth) Literally meaning “into the wolf’s mouth,” this Italian phrase means  â€œgood luck.” The expression is the English equivalent of “break a leg, comparing any challenging scenario to being caught between the hungry jaws of a wolf. If you want to have good fortune, the proper response to this phrase is crepi  meaning “may the wolf die.” If you want to tell someone good luck in Italian, you better use this phrase, because if you say the literal English translation buona fortuna,  youre not actually wishing good luck to someone at all. 2. Mangiare come un maiale (to eat like a pig) If you plan on doing any eating in Italy (which I hope you planning on doing, because the food is delicious), this is a phrase youll want to know. In English, this phrase simply means “to eat like a pig.” Use this useful Italian phrase when you want to describe to your Italian friends how much food you and your friend ate at the restaurant you recently visited. 3. A tutta birra / A tutto gas / A tutto vapore (full speed) Are you planning to go out on the town while in Italy? Meaning full speed, this is an appropriate phrase to use if you want to emphasize that youre ready to party it up in Italy.  Heres an example of what you can say to a friend, Andiamo di fretta. Forza, a tutto gas! (We are in a hurry. Come on, full speed ahead!) 4. Rompere il ghiaccio (break the ice) The phrase Rompere il ghiaccio  has the exact same meaning as in English. In other words, its how you would break the ice in a conversation with someone youve just recently met. Heres an example of how the phrase can be used in a sentence, Volevo parlare con Eleonora e alla fine sono riuscito a rompere il ghiaccio. ( I wanted to talk to Eleanor, and eventually I was able to break the ice.) 5. Spezzare una lancia a favorevole (to break a lance in favor of) This is an old saying which most likely comes from the medieval times. Meaning to break a lance in favor of, this phrase is the equivalent of the English expression to give someone a break. If someone says something bad about a friend, you can respond with this phrase and really sound like a true local. Heres an example of how to use the phrase in a sentence, E’ vero che Enrico si è comportato male, però spezziamo una lancia in suo favore: non conosceva tutti i fatti. ( Its true that Henry behaved badly, but break a lance in his favor, he did not know all the facts.) 6. Grana (grain) This word has an interesting history in Italy, which most foreigners probably dont know. The literal meaning of this word is “grain.” However by military bureaucratic jargon, the word passed through a phase of meaning a “designating nuisance” or “trouble.” It was also used as a form of referring to money in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 7. Essere al verde  (to be on the green) The English equivalent of the phrase to be broke, this expression is good to use if youve spent all your money, and youre trying to get away from vendors. When Italian speakers hear this phrase, they will think youre a true native and leave you alone. Proverbi (Proverbs) 8. Morto un papa, se ne fa un altro  (Once a pope is dead, there will be another one) Even someone as important as the Pope has to be replaced. This proverb is used to stress the fact that life goes on no matter what happens, or, as they say in English, “the show must go on.” If  you fall in love in Italy and get dumped, the phrase is also used to ironically encourage people who get dumped to move on. When used like this, the phrase is similar to the English expression, “There are plenty more fish in the sea.” 9. Chi nasce tondo non può morire quadrato  (He who was born round, cannot die square) This phrase essentially means that you cannot expect people to change radically. You will hear this phrase used commonly, especially in family situations. Therefore, its good to know if you need to make a point about a crazy uncle or aunt. 10. Meglio un morto in casa, che un pisano all’uscio  (It is better to have someone dead in the house, than a soldier from Pisa at the door) This is another phrase which most likely came from the medieval times. It is a war phrase that people from Lucca said when Pisa used to attack and loot their region. This is a good phrase to know if youre in Tuscany and you want to give people a good laugh. This is just a sample of the common phases used throughout Italy. While learning these useful Italian phrases is a good start, you might want to consider taking Italian lessons with an experienced teacher  if you really want to sound like a true local. Christopher S. teaches in-person Spanish, Italian, and guitar lessons in Randolph Center, VT. He lived abroad in Seville, Spain for two years where he studied classical and flamenco guitar and taught lessons to beginner students interested in classical guitar. He is currently working on his Masters Degree in Guitar Performance, and has been teaching students since 2004. Learn more about Christopher here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by  Tjflex2

10 English Idioms about Decisions - Learn English with Harry ??

10 English Idioms about Decisions - Learn English with Harry ?? Here you will learn English idioms about decisions to be in two minds, to sit on the fence, to stick to your guns, up in arms, and more.  You will also watch a short English video lesson about UP IN THE AIR meaning. 10 English Idioms about Decisions Do you have an important decision to make but cant decide between two good options? There are many interesting English expressions you can use in spoken English and written English. Today, were going to learn English idioms about decisions and priorities. 1. THE BOTTOM LINEThere are three possible meanings of the idiom:The financial position of a company as seen in the companies accounts.The final result or outcome.The main point.Example: The company signed a very important contract with its main customer. This would improve the financial position of the company and add profit to the bottom line.Michael resigned from the company after only 6 months in the job. The bottom line is that he did not enjoy the work and felt he made a mistake.The politicians argued about the new budget for several hours. The bottom line is that severe cuts had to be made to reduce the countries deficit.2. THE ICING ON THE CAKEto top something off, to make something even betterExample: Mary got a promotion because she worked very hard. She also received an increase in her salary and a bonus which was the icing on the cake. 3. IN TWO MINDS  where you are not able to make up your mind and are unsure as to what you should do or chooseExample: John received an invitation to attend a party. It was on the same day as the football game he really did not want to miss. He was in two minds whether to accept the invitation or not.4. TO SPLIT HAIR  to argue over issues that are not importantExample: David and Kate were arguing about the temperature that day it was very hot. Kate said it was 32 °C and David thought it was 33 °C. John told them not to split hairs, it was still very hot!5. STICK TO YOUR GUNS  to be firm and stick to your decision about something despite criticism from other peopleExample:   If youve thought things through and are comfortable with your decision, just stick to your guns. 10 English Idioms about Decisions 6. SIT ON THE FENCEto stay neutral and not take sides (in an argument), be undecidedExample: No decision has been taken about where to build the new school, city council is still sitting on the fence.7. TAKE A BACK SEATnot to participate in issue or situation, allow other people to have leading position.Example: I took a back seat and allowed my daughter to decorate the cake.8. UP IN ARMSstrongly protestingExample: The teachers were up in arms again over the new Junior Certificate reform. Up in the Air Meaning 9. UP IN THE AIRno decision has been made yetExample: It was up in the air whether or not I would be going on this trip.10. TO MAKE A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL to exaggerate unimportant problemsExample:   Ive been thinking far too much about this and made a mountain out of a molehill.  Now you can practice idioms about decisions in everyday situations. Share them with friends who might be stuck deciding what option to take or are unsure how to use English idioms about decisions correctly

How do students react to automated film-analysis essay evaluation

How do students react to automated film-analysis essay evaluation Recently, I reported on the perils and promise of a project I have been working on with Dr. Frank Bonkowski. We created an automated film-analysis essay evaluation system to provide the correction and formative scoring of essays to his advanced English Second Language learners at CEGEP de St-Laurent, in Montreal, Canada. The idea was to have the Virtual Writing Tutor process an essay and give formative feedback on grammatical errors, content and organization, vocabulary use, and scholarship. He tried the automated formative evaluation system with his students and we have some preliminary results to share. To see the first blog post on this topic and test the system with a sample essay, click below. Automatic Film Analysis Essay Evaluation Perils and Promise How will automated film-analysis essay evaluations help? We expected the system would help in two ways. First, we expected that the essay evaluation system would reduce the teachers workload by about 12.5 hours per week. Every time a teacher assigns an essay to his or her 120-150 students, the ten minutes spent correcting each essay adds about 25 hours of work to the teachers workload. Spread over two weeks, thats about 2 hours a day of extra work. However, by using the regularly scheduled computer lab hour to have students submit their essays to the VirtualWritingTutor.com online essay evaluation system, we expected that the teacher would be able to forgo much of that correction work. Secondly, we expected that students would be able to use the automatically generated feedback and scores on multiple drafts of their essay to improve the final result. That seems to be the case, also. Frank filmed semi-structured interviews with a handful of his students, asking them about their experience using the formative evaluation system. As we expected, students made multiple revisions of their essays, using the feedback and score from the Virtual Writing Tutor to guide the changes they made to their vocabulary, cohesion, language accuracy, thesis statement and topic sentences. The experiment Frank and I discussed the essay format, indicators of essay quality, and how students would use the system. Frank prepared his students with a series of lessons on researching and writing a film-analysis essay. Meanwhile, I worked with my programmer to define thresholds and comments based on essay features that we can detect with the Virtual Writing Tutor. With their research in hand, the students wrote a draft of their essays in the multimedia lab, but instead of handing them in to the teacher and waiting two weeks for feedback, the students ran their essays through the Virtual Writing Tutors formative film-analysis essay evaluation system. In just 2 seconds, the system generated four pages of feedback, scores, and comments on how to improve their grades. Using formative evaluation from the VWT, students revised for a week and handed in their final draft for Frank to evaluate. The results are encouraging. The students textThe first page of feedback The second page of feedback The third page of feedback The fourth page of feedback Bugs and catastrophic failures Until the system was fully debugged, the axiom held true that human intelligence fails by degrees but Artificial Intelligence fails catastrophically. Some students encountered Internal server error messages when they submitted incomplete drafts. Others balked at mystifyingly low scores triggered by a misspelled heading for their Works Cited list, two apostrophes instead of quotation marks, camelcase or other unexpected characters in their in-text citations, lack of paragraphing, and other formatting errors. Obviously, human teachers are still better able at handling the unexpected chaos in student writing than the VWT. We gleaned two insights from the failures. First, human coaching is essential for getting confused students to use the system successfully. (Incidentally, I have come to believe that the teachers prestige increases when students come to view him or her as an ally in a battle against the machine.) We expect that the second time they use it, they will understand the limitations of the machines AI and develop some persistence and patient problem-solving in the face of trouble. Second, we saw the need for a method to anonymously capture texts that trigger system errors and bad feedback. To that end, we added a Rate Feedback button and popup that would allow students signal a positive or negative reaction (thumbs up or down) and leave comments to guide our debugging efforts. Rate Feedback popup Semi-structured interviews What follows below are the video recordings and key findings from those semi-structured interviews. A summary of the increases in scores between the first draft and the final draft calculated by the Virtual Writing Tutors film-analysis essay evaluation system is given for each student interviewed. On average, the five students that Frank interviewed improved their scores by 21.2%. Frank told me that he selected the students to interview based on their willingness to revise their drafts, so it is doubtful that all of his students increased their scores by 21%. Student reaction #1: Ada Ada improved her score by 47% from 50% to 97%, making 7 revisions. She found the automatically generated comments detailed and useful. She rewrote her topic sentences based on sentiment analysis feedback to make stronger claims. She also added film and literary analysis vocabulary to improve the depth of her analysis. Student reaction #2: Sophie Sophie improved her score by 20%, going from a 59% to a 79%. She added literary analysis vocabulary based on suggestions of words listed in the automatic comments. Sophie also made corrections based on the grammar checker feedback. Student reaction #3: Alissa Alissa improved her score by 14%, going from 68% to 82%. She made her topic sentences more specific based on the sentiment analysis feedback, and she used the examples of a model topic sentences in the comments to rewrite her own topic sentences. She rewrote her conclusion based on feedback on her word choice. She increased the number and specificity of transition words to build cohesion. Student reaction #4: Valencia Valencia revised her essay 2-3 times and improved her score by 11%., going from 76% to 87%. She used the grammar feedback to improve her language accuracy (spelling). She increased the number and specificity of transition words to build cohesion. She made her thesis stronger using sentiment analysis feedback and the example of a model topic sentence provided in the comments. Student reaction #5: Rosalie Rosalie improved her score by 14%, going from a 63% to a 77%. She added film and literary analysis vocabulary to increase her score. She notes that the system did not recognize her Works Cited section at first. Part of the increase in her score may have been due to our debugging efforts. What have we learned about automated film-analysis essay evaluations? Remember that this was an early pilot of the system. Though we are optimistic that automated formative essay evaluations are likely to become a more common feature of ESL instruction in the future, this was simply a proof-of-concept experiment. We see this as encouraging evidence that there could be a place for automated essay scoring for formative purposes in our own courses. There is still a lot to learn. Franks comments Frank shared some of his own observations with me. He told me that his score of each students essay did not exactly match the score generated by the VWT. The system cannot tell the difference between meaningful reflections on a film and well-structured blather. Feedback overload Frank also told me that the volume of feedback (four 8.5 x 11 inch pages at a time) was overwhelming for some students. Some students told Frank that they just wanted the system to tell them what to do next. This remark prompted me to ask my programmer to put the comments into collapsed accordion sections showing just the score for each of the four dimensions of evaluation: content and structure, vocabulary, language accuracy, and scholarship. In some cases, we just want the headlines of the news and not all the details all at once, right? In the first iteration of the evaluation system, the comments were all regular black text. Since then, I have colour-coded the feedback so that green comments indicate 100%, black comments come with scores of 60%-90%, and red comments are for scores that less than 60%. In this way, students get a better sense of what requires immediate attention. How it works now with accordion sections and colour-coded comments. Reliability In terms of the system helping a teacher determine a summative score for the final drafts of the film-analysis essays, Frank told me that the system seemed most reliable at scoring the range and depth of vocabulary. Because it involved a straight count of literary analysis words and film analysis words, it helped him make an evidence based judgement about how much of the literary analysis toolkit he had taught them in class. Sometimes, even a straight count of vocabulary items can indicate achievement. Essays with literary terms suggest that student can and are willing to use literary terms in an analysis of a film. Thats good. Reliably less reliable were the automatically generated language accuracy scores. Foreign actors and directors names were flagged as errors even when correctly spelled. Whoops! Im not too worried about this, though. The system will perform better in the future. I added a list of exceptions to the grammar checkers internal spelling dictionary. However, the false alarms created some consternation for students. They were disappointed to see low language accuracy scores with no way to improve them. Frustrating. I get it. Coverage Frank noted that there were a number of glaring errors that the system missed. Obviously, the lack of error-detection coverage is a concern for me. I have been coding error detection rules for the past seven years, focusing mostly on high-beginner and low-intermediate learner errors. Now that Frank is using the system with his advanced students, I will have to write more rules to detect their most common errors. I will get there eventually. First, do no harm Frank certainly did not seem to think that the quality of his students writing declined. This automatic essay evaluation system is not doing anybody any harm. Nicks comments On the whole, we are both pretty confident that the system is helping students with their writing. Students seem to be able to use the scores and the comments to make changes to their essays. Gamification of revision I suspect that there is a kind of gamification happening. The student might enjoy using a comment to get an extra percent or two. Each revision provides a little boost and creates a kind of ludic loop. You play, your points increase, and you want to keep playing. Thats good. At junior college, students can sometimes lack college readiness. They can have the attitude of I did my homework and now its the teachers problem. Jock Mackay at a conference in 2014 called it efficiency syndrome. Students often try to get their school work done as quickly as possible. Think of it as optimal foraging. Students want a score above zero while expending as little energy as possible. Gamifying essay writing with automated formative evaluations seems to keep even underachieving students coming back to the task because they get immediate feedback that the job is not quite done yet. They keep plugging away at it, willing to make a micro effort in order to get the next bump in their score. Scholarship checker Upon reflection, I admit that the Scholarship calculation is still very rudimentary. Frank told me that some students reference lists were very sloppy but scored 100% anyway. I should explain that the system simply checks for a Works Cited heading and counts the number of non-empty lines below it. We have not made any attempt to check if the MLA style has been followed or not. At junior college, I am usually happy just to see that students are discovering and reporting other peoples ideas. They will have to up their game at university, but we can work on a more rigorous analysis using MLA or APA style requirements in the future. Revision strategies The fact that the students Frank interviewed reported making multiple revisions is the biggest news. Why? Getting students to reread and reflect on specific features of their writing is itself progress. Franks students said that the scores with comments were helpful in guiding their revisions. This tells me that the cognitive load of explicit, detailed feedback will remain manageable for some students with just accordion buttons and colour-coded comments. If we discover that only the most highly proficient students can use the comments productively and other weaker students find it all too bewildering, we will have to reflect on how teachers give feedback to that kind of student. Experienced teachers comments with stressed out students will tend to focus on the next concrete step toward improvementnot the next 30 steps. One strategy we could use might be an easy-win summary box of only the feedback with the biggest impact on the the students score. As a teacher faced with an anxious student, I would not want to try to give feedback on all aspects of the essay at once. Instead, I might draw the students attention to glaring omissions. For example, I might say, You have made a good start, but you forgot your works-cited section. Adding that will increase your score by 25%! Big score boosts can alleviate that sense of helplessness and allow for further revisions later. It is something to think about. Please follow and like us:

Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading

Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading 5 Reasons Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading The middle school years can be a difficult time. Students are adjusting to a higher level of academic expectations while all the while going through a major life transition. Emotions run high, and the stress of school can become overwhelming. As a result, middle school students begin to view learning as something negative and can take this feeling with them into their high school years. One of the best ways to keep a student interested in learning as well as to help them be successful academically is to encourage them to read. They dont need to read anything in particular; they just need to be working on reading comprehension in some form or another our private Orange County reading tutoring will help your child learn to love to read. 1.   Keep confidence high Middle school can be especially difficult if a student lacks the confidence to do well in their core subjects, one of which is reading and writing. Students will often be asked to read in front of the class or will need to comprehend something their teachers read to them quickly. When students read for fun, they have a chance to sound out difficult words or learn how to determine a word’s meeting in context in a low-pressure environment. When students complete all of this practice at home, it makes classroom reading much easier and keeps self-esteem high during this important part of life (READ: 5 Tips to Encourage Your Child to Read). 2.   Maintain reading as a skill Elementary school kids learn a ton of different skills, one of the most important of which is reading. However, students often start to backtrack on these important skills once they reach the stresses of middle school. Students who read at home for fun are a lot more likely to maintain the skills theyve already learned and been able to build upon them when new and challenging assignments come along. 3.   Learn how to speed read and look for keywords Middle school is also a time when students will need to be able to read fast and still understand information in the text or be able to skim for information and keywords in textbooks that are upwards of 1,000 pages long. This can be overwhelming in conjunction with all the other assignments students get from their classroom teacher, so its something thats better supplemented in a low-pressure home environment. If students need specific help learning how to search for keywords or terms, they can ask their tutor or parents to help them figure out what theyre doing right and what they need to work on. 4.   Learn about an exciting new subject Kids at this age often feel stifled because they focus primarily on core subjects in the classroom. As important as core subjects may be, kids need more intellectual and creative stimulation to maintain interest in their education. When students read at home, they can explore any exciting new subject that peaks their interest. In this case, kids can enjoy reading about whatever theyre into at the moment so that their love of reading, and learning in general, stays intact. 5.   Use the imagination Perhaps the most important reason for middle school students to get into reading is to use their imagination. Younger kids have great imaginations, but they often lose this way of thinking once they get into high school. The longer a kid reads about fantasy and fiction the more likely they’ll be to keep their all-important ability to imagine new things. Having an imagination can help older students think outside the box, find solutions to difficult problems, and just enjoy all the creative aspects of art and literature as part of a well-balanced academic life. Is your child struggling with reading? Our Orange County reading tutors are here to help. Call TutorNerds today for more information. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

What to Order In from Delivery in These 4 Situations

What to Order In from Delivery in These 4 Situations Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/food-japanese-asian-bowl-dish-eat-715542/ Finals Week Food Delivery You probably just cringed while reading the two words “finals week;” I know I did. When people are eating during finals, they tend to go one of two ways: (1) they forget to eat and end up not eating enough throughout the day/week, or (2) they eat constantly throughout studying without ever actually feeling satisfied. On college campuses, many local restaurants also provide delivery deals and food deals so that delivery is not as expensive as it normally would be. However, if you split up the delivery fee and food price between multiple people, the price goes down substantially. If you want some sense of normalcy during finals week, plan out your food deliveries to your 12-hour days at the library. Let’s start with lunch delivery. I know a pizza sounds delicious, but if you have hours of studying ahead of you, I would opt for something that won’t make you feel as sluggish. For lunch, order either a salad, a smoothie bowl, a grain bowl, a sandwich, etc. Make sure that whatever you decide on you get some form of protein in it so that you feel full and aren’t tempted to make another delivery order an hour later. In your lunch order, make sure you get some extra items to snack on if you get, in the words of Jack Peralta in Brooklyn 99, “snackie.” When getting snacks delivered, I would go for the classics: potato chips, pita chips, granola bars, etc. However, depending on where you’re ordering from, the restaurant may have some specialty items that are great for snacking as well. One of my favorite finals snacks that I would get delivered along with my lunch was a yogurt parfait and a vegan banana bread that tasted so delicious I always wished that I ordered more than one piece. Snacks, in my opinion, aren’t always used to satiate hunger, rather, I used them to help me focus while going over a long study guide. Finally, dinner. Dinner is so important and, since you remained relatively healthy during the stay, allow yourself to splurge and treat yourself a bit. Depending on where you’re located, options might be different, but most places have a restaurant that delivers pizza and pasta. Finals week is essentially a marathon; and what do marathoners do before a big race? They carbo-load. Therefore, you need to carbo-load during dinner to have the energy to make it across the finish line. Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/ice-ice-cream-ice-cream-flavors-1601932/ Break Up Food Delivery Whether you were broken up with, you did the breaking up, or the end of the relationship was mutual, a big part of your life has changed. This big change calls for some special food delivery. The hardest part of any breakup is getting adjusted to this new normal of not having this person in your life anymore. However, you need to let yourself grieve before getting back to a sense of normalcy, so let’s start with food delivery for that. I’m not trying to sound like a cliché, but ice-cream, popcorn, and pizza are essential, especially if your closest friends are sitting by your side helping you get through this tumultuous time. If you need to switch things up, Chinese food is also a FANTASTIC option; nothing like some fried rice and dumplings to get you through the harsh beginning of a breakup. Now that the hardest few days/weeks are over, it’s time to get back into routine and start taking care of your current number one priority: you. I’m not saying to get on any sort of health kick, unless you want to, I’m just saying to go back to some sort of regular eating schedule and eating practices that you considered regular pre-breakup. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in-between are essential to getting back into a routine. Let’s start with breakfast. If you still aren’t up to cooking, order in yourself a bagel with a side of fruit, or oatmeal, or a smoothie bowl (my mouth is watering as I write this). Eggs don’t deliver well, so avoid getting omelets or a BEC sandwich. As the saying goes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Infographic by Amanda Cohen Lunch is important as well, and it’s important to surround yourself with good people during lunch to give you a boost during the day. So, what should you and your friends order while watching Netflix and chatting? Mediterranean food is always the answer. Chicken and beef skewer platters, rice, grilled vegetables, some hummus, baba ghanoush, and tzatziki, and some pita bread. This also works for dinner, but I suggest doing this for lunch because filling up your day prevents you from holing up in your room looking through old photos and making yourself sadder than you already are. Now that you are already conquering your breakup in the best way possible, its time for, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” You don’t actually have to have chicken for dinner, but definitely have something tasty and substantial. I have one word for you: sushi. Not only is sushi delicious, but it classes up your delivery experience. In addition, if you’re anything like me, you always want something sweet after having sushi, so you can use up the rest of your ben Jerry’s pint if Phish Food after going ham on your spicy tuna rolls and miso soup. Plus, if you order edamame, you will feel like the epitome of health, which is fantastic. Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/friends-phone-bed-bite-a-vampire-1390679/ Girls Night In Food Delivery Unlike the two situations above, you only have two meals to think about during a girls night in: dinner and dessert. Let’s start with dinner. You can handle dinner one of two ways; you can either order in from one place and get a variety of dishes from there, or you can create a Smorgasbord of sorts and order from a variety of places. If you want to order from one place only, I suggest either Chinese, pizza, or Mediterranean. Chinese food is always large in portions, so you can order a variety of dishes and each have a little bit of everything (my personal favorite is sesame chicken, but you do you). Pizza is pretty straight forward, I would order multiple types of pizza pies, some salad, and a few pastas; don’t worry about over-ordering because pizza and pasta make for great leftovers. Finally, Mediterranean is great because you can usually get large platters from restaurants that have a variety of meats, vegetables, dips, and more! What to do for dessert? Here are some options. First, Get McDonald’s McFlurries delivered; they are already individually packed and they are excellent; definitely a fun splurge for a girl’s night. I prefer the Oreo McFlurry, but if you and your friends have differing opinions, no need to worry because everyone has a chance to order their flavor of choice! Another fun thing to order for dessert is a variety of cookies. Most places have an Insomnia Cookie or something along those same lines, and they usually deliver until very late hours of the night (and even into the morning). Order a dozen (or more) cookies, some ice-cream and either make some ice-cream sandwiches, which would be a fun girls night in activity, or you can just get the cookies and dunk them in some milk and re-create the Oreo commercials if you want. The world is truly your oyster! Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/pizza-food-italian-baked-cheese-3007395/ Syllabus Week Food Delivery Syllabus week is super busy; reuniting with friends, meeting new people, preparing for classes, and a jam-packed social schedule. During this busy time, cooking and grocery shopping are the last things on your mind, so you have to take advantage of delivery. Since you’re so busy, you are going to want every meal to be quick, easy, and tasty. To avoid tons of delivery charges, place one order at lunch and order extra so that you have food already in your fridge for dinner. Since you are going to order ahead of time, you need to order food that saves well and has a longer shelf-life, so to speak. If you plan on doing a lot of partying, it is important to nourish your body with carbs and protein. Italian food is the easiest food to order that saves well and will fill you up. Italian food is so much more than pizza: order a few pasta dishes, some salad, maybe a chicken parmesan dish, and so on. You will feel full and have lunch and dinner for the next few days. The beauty of Italian food is that it also helps to ensure that you get in all your food groups because it’s both meat, carb, and vegetable based food. You have good food to keep you going, both physically and mentally, which is all you can really ask for during syllabus week. If you are planning on doing multiple deliveries, you could order in some Thai food or sushi to switch things up. However, don’t place any orders until you talk to your friends because maybe you will go for a big group order where the options are limitless. Your group orders can follow the guidelines of the girls night in order talked about above. You probably won’t need to worry about breakfast because you’re a college student and will rely mostly on easy-to-cook items and power bars. Now that you have all the food you can order for a variety of scenarios, here are the apps to download to ensure that you have access to the largest and most diverse restaurants you can think of: Door Dash Grubhub Seamless Caviar UberEATS Take Out Taxi Yelp Postmates Instacart Delivery.com Foodler GoPuff Now that you have all of the tools, let me tell you my personal opinion about what type of cuisines deliver the best and taste just as good when they are delivered as they do when you sit down at the restaurant: Chinese food Thai food Italian food Mediterranean food (with the exception of cooked fish) American food (with the exception of steak) Health food (i.e. salads and grain bowls) Other foods deliver well, but are not nearly as tasty as they are if you were to eat them sitting down at the restaurant, so this is just something to keep in mind. I hope this has helped you and can help you achieve all of your delivery dreams and desires. These suggestions are especially useful in the winter where leaving your apartment/house/dorm room is treacherous because of the frigid weather. If you are worried about spending too much money on delivery, make sure you sign up for e-mails from the various apps on your phone. I know the constant flood of messages may be annoying, but these apps often offer promotions, opportunities for free delivery, and they will send you lists of restaurants that are having the best deals on food. If you are a college student, these deals should appeal to you and you should be okay with the extra volume of e-mails trickling into your inbox. So, don’t stress when life hits you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine, because you now have one less thing to worry about: what you’re going to eat during those times where there are high levels of uncertainty.

ALOHA Celebrates National Reading Month with 30 Day Family Challenge - ALOHA Mind Math

ALOHA Celebrates National Reading Month with 30 Day Family Challenge ALOHA Celebrates National Reading Month with a 30 Day Challenge for Families ALOHA Encourages Families to Make Reading Together Daily a Treat for 30 Minutes for 30 Days. EDISON, NJ, March 17, 2014 â€" ALOHA celebrates National Reading Month by encouraging parents and extended families to enrich their child’s reading and lives with books for 30 minutes for 30 days. Reading is a fundamental and critical life skills learned in school, which most take for granted because they are fluent readers. For thirty days set aside at least thirty minutes to read together. “By incorporating reading into our daily schedule as a family we help our children expand their attention span and thrive,” said Mani Manickavelu, ALOHA Chief Executive Officer and President. “It doesn’t matter whether the parents or older children read aloud to the family or each read silently. This family activity promotes the importance of reading and could also progress everyone’s reading skills. Even though we are honoring National Reading Month, at ALOHA we celebrate reading and math every day.” ALOHA offers some suggestions. Create an environment conducive to reading. Turn off the TV and all electronics. Treat this as a special time. Turn on the fireplace if applicable. Serve cookies and milk. Make a rule that everyone read. Children under 5 years old can participate by reading picture books, which can be found at the local library in the children’s section. Ask a librarian for help. Afterwards, parents should ask factual and inferential thought-provoking questions about what the children read. Ask, “Who are the characters? What are they like? What happened and why? Why do you think that character acted that way? How would you have reacted? What do you expect to happen next? What did you learn from the story? How would you have told it differently?” Have them draw particular aspects of the story they read. It is ALOHA’s hope to get more families reading together, talking about books, and advancing children’s literacy skills. For additional reading and literacy ideas visit the ALOHA Mind Math blog http://alohamindmath.com/blog/#.Ux9lds7ajSs and News and Article page http://alohamindmath.com/news/. About ALOHA The unique academic enrichment programs at ALOHA Centers help children 5 years-old through 12 years-old be the best they can be to get ahead in all academic areas. This interactive learning method promotes the development and engagement on both sides of the brain, designed for frustrated learners or high-achieving gifted students. Through instructor-led, small group tutoring sessions, children improve their focus, develop vital learning skills, as well as study and life skills, and advance their self confidence to excel in reading, math, language arts, and science, to ultimately persevere in the face of adversity to go after their dreams. Discover the genius in your child. ALOHA Mind Math was founded in 1993 and introduced in the United States in 2006. ALOHA Mind Math continues to experience growth beyond their current presence in 18 states, 23 countries, and 4,200 locations worldwide. To learn more about ALOHA, the mind math program, reading/writing programs, or to schedule an orientation at a center near you visit www.alohamindmath.com.

Adulting FTW 3 Reasons Why Adults Are Superior Language Learners

Adulting FTW 3 Reasons Why Adults Are Superior Language Learners 3 Reasons Why Adults Are Superior Language Learners Kids are great language learners, no question.You drop ‘em down in a foreign country, and the adults around them just enviously watch as they  soak in their new linguistic environment.  Before you know it, those kids are throwing around complex grammatical patterns that adults just can’t seem to wrap their heads around.Its sobering, isnt it?Except this isn’t how it happens at all.In fact, kids are pressured to learn languages well, tooâ€"the adults around them have unyielding expectations, and their peers certainly won’t let mistakes creep in unnoticed (lest we forget the cruelty of the grade school social hierarchy). Plus, they need to communicate to have their basic needs and wants met, as theyre dependent on adults to provide for them.Adults have the privilege of acting without these pressures, and that’s incredibly freeing. The only reason why adults seem to struggle isâ€"wait for itâ€"the  learning methods they choose. Once adults learn to harness their adult human abi lities, they run circles around children when it comes to language acquisition.Still don’t believe me? Here are three reasons why adults are way better language learners than kids!3 Reasons Why Adults Are Superior Language Learners1. Adults already know at least one languageAdults don’t realize that they have a wealth of independent language knowledge that they can tap into. Children are facing the world for the first timeâ€"they have to parse through thousands of new concepts along with new vocabulary.Children  learn their first language in a vacuum, and thats  not  very efficient.Luckily, this isn’t the case for adult learners! Adults are familiar with abstract concepts and advanced vocabulary in their native languages. Adults have some measure of education, and have tens of thousands of hours of experience communicating with people and solving problems. They already know how to buckle down and study, how to discover the best language learning strategies and how to track dow n all the resources they need. And that’s where the advantage lies!You can find resources you love because you have access to the world. The ability to find and use native resources to learn a second language is only possible  because you know a first language and because youre familiar with concepts kids hardly understand.You can milk this for all it’s worth when you take advantage of native resources like movies, TV  and music. If you’re learning a language related to your native language, you can take advantage of cognates and related grammatical concepts in ways kids just can’t.Even if you’re learning a completely unrelated language, you can leverage your adult knowledge of human nature while watching TV and movies. The visuals provide the context you need, and you can guess at the meaning of the language involved.2. Adults can readThis skill is totally underestimated when adults evaluate their language learning skills compared to kids. You might be thinking, sure, I c an read, but memorizing all those grammar tables sure didn’t do me any good in school.How about thisâ€"notice how toddlers need a huge number of repetitions to remember new words, phrases and grammar? We tend to gloss over these toddler mistakes in our minds. They’re kids, and they’re just talking like kids! Nevertheless, the way toddlers learn, through audio input and body language alone, is woefully inefficient. Grade school lessons on how to read and write cant come fast enough. Once they make those leaps in skill development, they start learning much more about the world around them.Reading, on the other hand, allows us to get those repetitions in relatively quickly and painlessly. Meanwhile, the littlest learners  cant just pick up a book or a pen and get to practicing.Sure, textbooks and grammar reference books are one way to leverage this ability to read, but I recommend homemade flashcards and word lists, especially if youre a visual learner. Writing down a word when y ou learn it cements it better in your mind.The best way to take advantage of your literacy skills is with a Spaced Repetition System (SRS). SRS is a programmed system that uses an algorithm based on human memory and how quickly individuals forget items they wish to learn. One way to use this is to  create flashcards with foreign words or sentences on the front, and translations on the back in your native tongueâ€"or even a definition written out in the foreign language. If you test poorly on the card, the program gives it back to you immediately. If you think the cards easy and nail the correct answer right away each time, the card comes back in increasingly longer periods of time as you do your repetitions.FluentU uses a one-of-a-kind SRS. Thats because  FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. These real-world videos then become part of your flashcard experience. Yup, there are multimedia flashcards there to improve your overall vocabulary retention with tons of great, interactive content.There are other independent flashcard resources like the well-known  Anki  program, so you can try out different programs and see what you like!  As for content, choose words that are exciting and essential to you.If you’re feeling very adventurous, the All Japanese All The Time immersion method has learners entering whole sentences  into flashcards.  With all the repetition youre going to get, you  end up learning grammar alongside vocab items.  Cool!Finally, trusty old vocab lists are a tried and true method of mine. It’s as simple as choosing specialized vocabulary that you want to learn, preferably in a certain field or family of words. I use Fluent Forever author Gabriel Wymer’s method of listmakingâ€"creating a basic word bank of several hundred words. FluentU has everything you need to create your own thematic, neatly-organized word lists and study them using the SRS, so you can jump right into this method whenever you want!3. Adults have the ability to learn how to learnThis is probably the most important point here. Think about it: Kids generally have no control over their lives or the way they learn, whether in school or otherwise.Kids learning a second language through immersion also dont get much choice in the matter. They move to the countries their parents pick and go to the schools their parents send them to. They succeed, sure, but there’s a lot of unnecessary anxiety and pressure that I’m sure you really don’t want to deal with.And you don’t have to! You have control over how you learn, and more importantly, you can choose to learn how you want to learn. Keeping up the fun improves your motivation and attitude, and that  helps you learn faster and retain more than an unmotivated kid ever could.For example, native Japanese students living in Japan learn the 2042 jouyou kanji (essential Japanese characters) al l the way through high school. That’s about 12 long  years of formal instruction and memorizing characters. Its no wonder the Japanese writing system has such a strong  reputation for being difficult to learn. But these native students are mainly using rote memorizationâ€"or at the very least theyre at the whim of their teachers teaching and learning strategiesâ€"which isn’t always the best way to learn things for every individual.If you’re a Japanese learner and feel so inclined, you can purchase  Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji, and store those characters  away in a fraction of the time it takes for a Japanese kid. James Heisig invented an innovative way to memorize kanji thats great for almost anyone learning as an adult. He uses mnemonic devices and fanciful stories to help you remember each portion of each character. I’ve used the method myselfâ€"soon you end up seeing pictures and stories instead of incomprehensible squiggles, and voilá, memorization! You don’t hav e to be a genius, you don’t have to have talent. Youve  just got to recognize that youre an adult who can recognize a better way of doing things when you see one!This same principle works well for learning any language. It all comes down to curiosity, control and figuring out when something isn’t working. Don’t like the textbook you have? Try  a new one! Don’t like using that deck of flashcards, or don’t think it’s working for you? Experiment with word lists or media-based immersion!For a bridge between learner-oriented and authentic media immersion, check out polyglot Olly Richards  Grammar Hero (all about the building blocks), Conversations (for fast fluency) or the Uncovered courses (targeting specific languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian.)You can also keep yourself motivated and accountable with your adult sense of self-awareness. You know youll need deadlines to make big strides in learning and measure your overall progress, so set goals for yours elf.Long-term goals, or where you want to be in several months or a year, are great for keeping your eye on the prize. Short-term goals, like daily or weekly tasks, help you concentrate on the little habits that will get you where you want to be. For example, when I was learning Spanish, I set a one year  goal to be able to read mainstream  novels  and understand radio in Spanish. And then I committed to doing SRS reps and listening to Spanish podcasts for set amounts of time each day.Work on your productivity skills with time-boxing, yet another learnable way to conquer procrastination and achieve huge goals. Time-boxing was first popular in tech fields, but its a time management technique proven to get people moving on big projects again and again. Basically, its breaking down your big task into manageable bites using timers to create time-boxes.Lets say you want to work on some textbook lessons, but youre having a hard time getting yourself moving. Well, set a 20-minute timer, an d decide to stick with that time period no matter what! At the very least, youll get 20 minutes of work done. However, a likely outcome is that, once the ball is rolling, youll be engrossed with your studies and keep moving for some time even  after the timer has run out. After you complete one time-box, reset the timer and try for another one after a small break.You can do this with listening to radio, watching portions of a movie or reading material in your target language. Youre turning an unfathomable project into a game that you can win! And if 20 or 30 minutes  still seems daunting, you might try even shorter time-boxesâ€"10 minutes, 5 minutes or even 1 minute. Anything to get trick your brain into thinking the task isnt  really  that big.All of this fine-tuned organization, planning, goal-setting and method selection simply cant be matched by children. This is something that you have the power to do because youre an adult. Three cheers for being a grown up!Kids might thrive i n their controlled environments, but adults have the advantage of freedom over their own lives. They have life experience and prior knowledge. With freedom and curiosity, they can leverage this  experience and knowledge to achieve goals kids can’t even fathom.So don’t beat yourself up for not having learned a second language when you were in diapers.You’re never too old!

How To Deal With Your Child With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

How To Deal With Your Child With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderThe Happy Tutor is a very valuable tool for every parent who wants to know how to deal with their children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. You can find out how your child gets that extra little bit of attention they require from time to time. You can also learn how to manage any disruptive behavior you need to deal with your child.This is a very valuable tool that you will be able to use. You will be able to give a voice to your child that is not being heard. If you have tried to handle this situation by ignoring them then you are doing yourself a disservice. If you continue to deal with these issues in a child's life you may be setting them up for trouble later on.A positive outcome from all of this is you will be able to communicate to your child with the Happy Tutor. The happy tutor will give you answers to all of your questions. You will be able to help your child achieve their goals in life.I t is important that you use this type of program. You will be able to find what you need and then use this program on a regular basis to help your child to deal with problems. Parents will be able to find out how they are able to handle problems like this.A parent will be able to find the best answer for each problem. If you are looking for a program that will be very helpful then you should use the Happy Tutor. There are many benefits that will come from using this program.Parents will learn how to deal with these situations with their children. Your child will be able to cope with the children that are in their class better. This is the result of parents using the Happy Tutor.The Happy Tutor can be used to help children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The Happy Tutor will make life much easier for you and your child. Use the Happy Tutor today and learn how to deal with your child's behavior.