How To Teach Creative Writing To Middle School Students

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High schoolers are an easier group of students to teach creative writing to than middle school students, but as businesses are putting more and more emphasis on the importance of writing, it is becoming increasingly important for children to start learning about writing from an early age. If you are either the parent of a middle school child or a teacher in charge of lots of middle schoolers, you can give each student a leg up on the future by teaching them basic creative writing skills and exercises at this early stage.

While preparing your creative writing lessons, you should make sure you are including a lot of writing assignments, as the best way for each student to learn about creative writing will be through the process of actually writing. As you plan these lessons, you should divide them into a pair of categories: One category should be assignments that will help your students "loosen up," by being creative and having fun, and other category should be assignments that encourage your students to "tighten up," taking a more stringent approach to the rules of proper grammar, spelling, et cetera.

Eventually, you will want to begin combining the two types of lessons into one, grading your students (or gauging their progress) based on both their creativity and their ability to adhere to basic writing rules; also, if you are teaching your students other things at the same time you are teaching them creative writing, you can combine creative writing principles with projects for other subjects!

Finally, the most important thing of all is for creative writing to feel like "fun" instead of feeling like "work"; you can accomplish this in a number of ways, but a couple things to consider is changing the setup of the room completely when you are going to be doing creative writing, and to participate in the assignments yourself, so your students can see what you come up with!

When you put all these elements together, you will be able to train your students in the basics of creative writing, which will lay a foundation for them that will grow into success in the future!

Record All of Your TV Shows in One Place

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When it comes to finding something to watch on television today the options are endless. The choices become endless when you broaden the rage out to cable television. A huge amount of shows that they get hooked on is not uncommon for people to find. The only problem is that with busy lives we may not have the opportunity to stay up to date on all of them. VCRs and recordable DVDs have given us options to record them for later.

These options are unfortunately not very efficient though. The space they can record on is very limited for both. A VCR is by far the worst of the options since you cannot jump from show to show. Instead you will need to watch the tape through or fast forward and guess where to stop. The media is expensive to buy on the DVD even though it doesn't have these same issues. Each DVD also only offers small amounts of space to record on.

TiVo TCD746320 Premiere DVR.

The best option for recording TV shows is a DVR. The DVR does not need to use media in order for them to record shows on it. The shows are recorded onto the device itself instead. A tremendous amount of space is available on DVRs when they are compared to a VCR or a DVD. You can watch at your leisure a bunch of different shows on the DVR. If you wish to record the same show every week you just need to set it for that. The need to set it up for recording every time is eliminated.

Technology that has been left in the past for recording shows should be left there. Instead get a DVR that will allow you to record all of your shows in a very efficient manner. Digital TV is great to pair up with your DVR as well, allowing the DVR to pinpoint shows you want to watch and record them with ease. The solution to all of your recording needs is the DVR.

A Cheaper Way to Enjoy Luxury Coffee

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Many families have cut back on what they consider to be luxuries as a result of the current economic environment. Coffee is one of the most common luxuries and often the most common one eliminated from budgets. Starbucks is a company that is seemingly on every corner. Their coffee is considered to be one of the best by people all over as they become more and more popular. They also realize that many people cannot afford to buy coffee from them daily anymore, so they did their best to accommodate these customers.

One of the ways that they decided to expand their business in order to cater to more customers was to offer their coffee to be brewed at home. Customers can visit any Starbucks location in order to purchase bags of coffee. These bags can then be brought home to be brewed whenever it is convenient. This brought the many customers who had cut back on luxury coffee back into that world since this is an affordable way to enjoy it.

Starbucks Sumatra Coffee Whole Bean 12 Ounce Bags.

One of Starbucks most popular coffee beans is the Sumatra bean. This bean is known for its full bodied quality and syrupy consistency. It isn’t acidic which allows the coffee flavor to hang around on your palate for longer periods. It can also be considered a little bit spicy and herbal which add to its signature earthy taste. All of these qualities work together in order to create the flavor those Starbucks lovers have come to expect in the Sumatra bean.

You can still enjoy daily luxuries in different ways even if you have had to cut back your spending in these specific areas. Starbucks coffee that is bought at the store each day may not be affordable anymore but you can still brew it at home and enjoy it as well. Brew some Sumatra beans today buy picking up a few 12 ounce bags from a store near you!

Taking A Look At Things To Check On Your Car Before A Road Trip

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A road trip, by nature, is often a spontaneous sort of adventure, and even those road trips that have been planned in advance have a tendency to take on this persona, but in spite of the fact that "spontaneity" and "adventure" might be part of the fabric of your road trip, there are still some things you will want to make sure you are planning. If you are taking a fairly new car on a road trip, you will probably be perfectly fine to pack up the car and go, but while this might be the case in a car that is a few years old, it might also not be the case, and for this reason, any car that is a few years old should be checked thoroughly before you leave in it for a road trip.

Safety is the first thing people tend to think of when it comes to "checking a car," but if you are on a road trip, the first thing you will notice is comfort; if your cruise control goes out on you early in the trip, or if your air conditioner stops working, you will not enjoy the drive very much, so get these things checked before you hit the road, and you will avoid any serious discomfort!

Another thing that will help you if you keep it in mind is the fact that some small things might cause your car to get worse gas mileage than it should, and on a road trip, this can make a big difference; make sure your tires are properly inflated before you head out, and make sure your engine is running smoothly, without any hitches or problems.

And of course, safety is definitely a concern when you are taking a road trip, so make sure the oil in your car has been changed before you head out, and have the engine looked over to make sure nothing will happen to it while you are on the road; also, check the lug nuts on the tires, check the safety features, and before you hit the road, make sure your car is prepared to bring you back home in one uninjured piece!

Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist"

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Now that it is summer, one of the things a lot of people will be looking for is a "light, breezy read" that they can pick up when the mood strikes - enjoying the book out by the pool or out in the sun. If you do not do much reading, it can be tough to know exactly what book you should pick up, as there is a seemingly endless pile of options when it comes to books; but one book that you certainly cannot go wrong in reading is Paulo Coelho's masterpiece The Alchemist.

Paulo Coelho is a native of Brazil, and The Alchemist was originally written in Portuguese, and while Coelho is fluent in English, he did not translate the work himself; the book was popular when it was published in English, but it especially caught fire when Julia Roberts was photographed reading it, and the book has now been translated into nearly seventy languages and has sold over sixty-five million copies!

The book has also gained its fair share of detractors, especially with how popular it has become; the good news, however - should you read it and become a detractor yourself - is the fact that the book is a short, breezy read that will not rob you of much time or energy.

As Coelho approaches the book with the intention of encouraging people to follow their dreams - and the entire story is wrapped in this idea - lots of people view the book as a "parable" more than as a work of literature. But whether or not The Alchemist is a great piece of "literature" - or is instead just a great "parable" - it has had an inarguable impact on the lives of millions, and if nothing else, it is worth reading for the pure, simple joy that Coelho pours into the story.

Consider picking up a copy of The Alchemist this summer; the worst case scenario is that you fall among the detractors and wish you had not used a few hours of your life on this book; but the upside of reading this book is extreme, as you just might find yourself among those millions who have had their lives changed by this jewel of a book.

Planning A Wedding Guest List

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Unless you have unlimited space at your wedding, one part of the wedding planning process that is usually among the least fun is choosing your guest list, as you will quickly realize that there is not nearly as much space as you thought – or rather, that the people you want to invite take up space a lot more quickly than you would have imagined. And while you might have entered the whirlwind of wedding planning imagining you would easily be able to invite all of your friends, once you realize that you have to account for not only your significant other’s friends, but also for their family and your family as well, it can start to become overwhelming; this is why it is tremendously important that you follow the proper procedure in order to plan your wedding guest list.

Four different lists to be created in order to start to planning of the guest list; the bride-to-be should create a list of her own, the groom should create a list of his own, and both sets of parents should create lists of their own, as this should cover all the bases as far as who might be invited to the wedding.

The second step of the planning of the guest list should bring the people who helped create all four lists together so they can go through the four lists, making sure you (that is, the bride and groom) know who are the most important to attend, and who it might be okay to leave off the list; realize, of course, that each person who makes their list will want most of the people on their list to be able to attend – but sacrifices will certainly have to be made!

In the third step, the bride and groom can come together and start making these sacrifices; without the input of the parents on either side, the bride and groom should begin to pare down the list, deciding who from all four lists is a “must stay,” who is in the middle ground, and who can be cut out completely. Eventually, of course, many of the names on the middle list will also have to be cut out; but this is best done between the bride and groom together, without the help of others — and after much time and lots of effort (and perhaps a few fights!), the final guest list can be presented at last.

Building Believable Characters In Writing

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Many people who are just starting out writing have a tendency to make the mistake of thinking all they need to do in order to write a good story is have a good plot, but in addition to needing a good plot, you must also be able to write well – and perhaps, even more important than writing well, is being able to create characters in your story are absolutely believable. Truly writing believable characters can take a lot of time and practice – as it is not usually something that “just comes naturally” – but as you practice, and as you keep the following tips in mind, you will soon be creating stories full of characters who feel as real as life itself.

Rather than opening the computer and starting to write right away, you should get to know your characters before you begin your story, and one of the best ways to do this is to create character profiles; a character profile is exactly what it sounds like – simply a list of things but the character, such as where they grew up, who their parents are, what their likes and dislikes are, and anything else you can think of that pertains to their personality.

Another great way to begin getting to know your characters, after you've come up with character profiles, is to write flash fiction stories of your characters; flash fiction is short fiction – anywhere from 300 to 500 words – and with these stories, you can start to get your know your characters a little bit better, figuring out how they talk, how they act, and how they will react to different situations.

And perhaps the biggest key of all when it comes to creating believable characters is having patience; you will sometimes have to wait much longer than you thought you would in order to begin writing your story, as it may sometimes take a while to work out all the kinks in your characters. But it will be well worth your time if you make sure you get to know your characters; in time, you will be writing stories with characters who feel real to the reader – which will make for a much more enjoyable reading experience.