Did you know that the average person uses only 2000-5000 words on a daily basis? One of the most important tools I use as an English, ESL & Literacy teacher is a most frequently-used-words list. It is possible to make countless vocabulary exercises & games from the crucial 2000 most frequently used words, and they…
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Well, up until today, I was only tweeting my blog posts once, but lately I have noticed that some bloggers that I am following are tweeting their posts more than once. So, I did some research and here is what I found:
I recently read an interesting blog post about the pros and cons of self-publishing vs. regular publishing that really made me think long and hard about how self-publishing could be made more successful. The answer that I came up with is a collaborative publishing platform. I don’t think it has really been done yet, and…
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During my research on spiritual fiction, I was recommended to read Daniel Quinn’s books, Ishmael and The Story of B. At my local new-and-used bookstore, Companion Book, I found a cheap copy of The Story of B and I was pleasantly surprised while reading it.
Xmind is a great–free–mind-mapping tool that you can use to explore yourself!
The best book I read in 2010 was Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S Lewis. It is a very small book and inconspicuous. This was the copy I picked up:
Social Media & Collaborative Education Here is a great blog about professors using Twitter in large lecture halls, to promote collaboration and discourse. History of Education This RSA Animate video is an animation of a lecture by Sir __Robinson about the history of education and the need to address education in new ways, in these…
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Reading this amazing book by Joseph Campbell, the classic, The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the first sentence just about blew me away. Not only is it extremely beautiful, it’s also incredibly long! It’s 538 characters:
List of Online Critique Groups critters.org scribophile (sorry, will add links later 🙂 writerscafe critiquegroups.com aylad’s writer’s group Authonomy inkpop the write-brained network Writing.com Critique Circle Online Writing Workshop Nothing Binding Review Fuse Hatrack Wrters Workshop Absolute Write Water cooler BookRix The Writer’s Beat internetwritingworkshop.org This list was taken mainly from this other blog post,…
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Michio Kaku’s book, Physics of the Impossible, has helped me to understand a subject that I thought I never would: quantum physics. Ever since my first year of college in 1997, when my philosophy of religion instructor, Dr.Katz, talked about atoms being mysteriously connected, I wanted to understand this process and became curious about quantum…
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If you are learning a new language, the most useful and pleasant thing you can do for your study is READ!!! As an ESL teacher, I have noticed that my students who are regular readers, really advance more quickly than students who do not like reading. Therefore it is important to foster the skill of…
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When we are young, we learn the sounds of our language automatically from our parents, but when we learn a new language we need to pay special attention to the sounds. In most languages, including English, sound is made with two types of letters: 1) Consonants and 2) Vowels. The consonants are similar in many languages,…
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Hi, I'm Shalon and I'm a writer and educator. I use this site to share what I learn on my journeys in creative writing, education, English, science, and psychology.
Each article you read here is a labour of love grounded in research, with plenty of references to professional, academic, or peer websites, books and articles. I aim to connect my writing to a larger knowledge community while offering my own unique perspective or contribution, which often comes in the form of free downloadable templates, worksheets and study guides.
Welcome. I hope you find something useful here.
You might enjoy reading the top post on my site, The 7 Types of Sentence Fragments and How to Use Them.
This post is used every day by teachers and students around the world to teach and learn the art of building beautiful, advanced sentences in English.
The free pdf download of the lesson in shortened form is free to copy, alter and distribute for non-commercial purposes.
If you are using this lesson, please let me know how you have used it and how it has helped you. I’m curious!
Below you’ll find works of art that I lovingly crafted just for you!
FEAR & HORROR IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
In this essay, I discuss why children’s literature is often scary, and why that’s awesome!
In this essay I discuss how to use comics to teach Language Arts, and how diversity in comics can help students enrich both their literacy and their life.
In this essay I discuss my personal journey with anxiety and some of the ways I’ve learned to manage my anxiety.
PLOT YOUR NOVEL WITH M.I.C.E. QUOTIENT
In this post I share what I learned at a writing conference about plotting with Orson Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient, and Mary Robinette Kowal’s adaptations to this technique, including nesting codes and try/fails. All of these techniques help you evaluate whether your plot keeps the promises you made to your readers.
