Add phonetic transcription to any English text with Phonetizer Five Card Flickr Famous Writers' Small Writing Sheds and Off-the-Grid Huts Previous image Next image Roald Dahl's writing hut, The Gipsy House When I hear the phrase "writing hut" or "backyard shed" my imagination practically squeals with delight. A small, intimate space furnished with the essentials. Low impact, high inspiration. Roald Dahl "The whole of the inside was organised as a place for writing: so the old wing-back chair had part of the back burrowed out to make it more comfortable; he had a sleeping bag that he put his legs in when it was cold and a footstool to rest them on; he had a very characteristic Roald arrangement for a writing table with a bar across the arms of the chair and a cardboard tube that altered the angle of the board on which he wrote. Mark Twain "It is the loveliest study you ever saw...octagonal with a peaked roof, each face filled with a spacious window...perched in complete isolation on the top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills. George Bernard Shaw Dylan Thomas
Using Siri and MailShot Pro to send email to groups One of the more useful features of Siri on the iPhone 4S is the ability to send email messages by asking Apple's intelligent assistant to do it. Telling Siri to "Email [name or nickname] about [subject]" produces a nicely formatted, but empty Mail message that Siri asks you to complete via dictation. This works fine with sending email to individuals, but what about sending to groups? Erica Sadun and I pondered this question as we were writing our popular ebook "Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple's Intelligent Assistant." We found the answer in a US$3.99 app called MailShot Pro. Installing the app on your iPhone 4S lets you create custom groups which Siri can use to send emails to several recipients at once. For the OCD folks out there, MailShot Pro includes a nice touch -- being able to sort the names in your group.
Boom Writer BoomWriter lets you easily incorporate and experience the benefits of technology as your students are engaged in the following (or similar) standards-based learning activities: Grade 3 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. Using BoomWriter’s feature allowing teachers to create their own story start, students collaboratively create imagined multi-paragraph personal narratives using a teacher generated prompt (e.g. “When I woke up on Saturday morning, I had no idea I was in for the craziest day of my entire life…”). Grade 5 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. Grade 6 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1 - Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Darwin vs God? Did the Origin of Species cause a clash between church and science? On 12 February 1809, Charles Darwin, the bearded Victorian sage on the ten pound note, was born. Many people believe he was the man who discovered we come from monkeys. Yet he did no such thing. Writers before Darwin had made connections between humans and apes and monkeys because of our obvious physical similarities. But the theory for which Darwin is so celebrated was not aimed particularly at human ancestry at all. The implications of Darwin’s theory – most famously espoused in 1859 in the Origin of Species – were so wide-ranging that a concise caricature of what it was all about was probably needed. Instead, Darwin set out to answer the question, how are new species formed? Charles Darwin pictured in 1874. More fantasy than fact We often hear that when the Origin of Species was published there was a great outcry and an historic clash of science and religion. The Victorian public that first read or read about the Origin of Species were, for the most part, not biblical literalists.
Readmill Queen Elizabeth I for Kids Biography Occupation: Queen of England Born: September 7, 1533 in Greenwich, England Died: March 24, 1603 in Richmond, England Best known for: Ruling England for 44 yearsBiography: Growing Up as a Princess Princess Elizabeth was born on September 7, 1533. Queen Elizabeth by Unknown King Henry Wanted a Boy Unfortunately, King Henry did not want a daughter. No Longer a Princess When the king remarried, Elizabeth was no longer heir to the throne or even a princess. Elizabeth's father, King Henry VIII continued to marry different wives. Her Father Dies When Elizabeth was thirteen years old her father, King Henry, died. Sister to the Queen Soon, however, young King Edward became sick and died at the age of fifteen. The people of England didn't like Queen Mary. From Prisoner to Queen Elizabeth was under house arrest when Mary died. Being Queen Elizabeth worked hard at being a good queen. Plots Against the Queen War with Spain Elizabeth avoided fighting wars. The Elizabethan Age Death
Online Speed Reading tools and software Simply start by clicking on the Play button on the left. Reading is that one activity that we do every day but we don't really practice. Most people learn the basics of reading in kindergarten and never graduate to the next levels. You are probably using the same basic rudimental tools and techniques that you learned when you were 6. The average American person reads at an average speed of 180 to 240 words per minute and has done so since he was 16 years old. Does it make sense that we hit our best performance at age 16 and that we don't improve much after that? Keep in mind less than 10% read at 400 words per minute and less than 1% faster than 600. Have you ever wished you could take one of those costly speed reading courses? The problem with those courses is that you have to keep practicing those techniques until they become second nature. That's the goal of this site. We are here to keep you focused and to help you improve your speed reading everyday. What is sub-vocalization?
Learning English with adventure games by Tomasz P. Szynalski © Tomasz P. Grim Fandango — possibly the greatest adventure game of all time. What is an adventure game? An adventure game is a kind of computer game which is similar to a movie. Why adventure games are good for your English Your main goal as an English learner should be to see and hear lots of English sentences (get lots of input). In most adventure games, you can hear what the characters are saying and read it at the same time. Playing adventure games gives you benefits similar to watching movies with subtitles: You program your brain with good English. How to use adventure games When you’re playing an adventure game, you learn some English even if you don’t want to. One useful technique when playing an adventure game is very simple: use a dictionary. If you are really motivated to learn English, you can write down all the new words. If you want to improve your pronunciation, pause the game frequently and try to repeat English sentences as well as you can.
Readable / TastefulWords.com Best Young Adult Novels, Best Teen Fiction, Top 100 Teen Novels It's almost a cliche at this point to say that teen fiction isn't just for teens anymore. Just last year, the Association of American Publishers ranked Children's/Young Adult books as the single fastest-growing publishing category. Which is why we were only a little surprised to see the tremendous response that came in for this summer's Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll. A whopping 75,220 of you voted for your favorite young adult novels, blasting past the total for last year's science fiction and fantasy poll at, dare we say it, warp speed. And now, the final results are in. Selecting a manageable voting roster from among the more than 1,200 nominations that came in from readers wasn't easy, and we were happy to be able to rely on such an experienced panel of judges. Summer, like youth, is fleeting.
EasyTestMaker Renaissance -- Exploration and Trade Tools developed in the Middle Ages for exploration continued to be used during the Renaissance. One of these was the astrolabe, a portable device used by sailors to help them find their way. By measuring the distance of the sun and stars above the horizon, the astrolabe helped determine latitude, an important tool in navigation. Another tool, the magnetic compass, which had been invented in the twelfth century, was improved upon during the Renaissance. Maps, too, became more reliable as Portuguese map makers, called cartographers, incorporated information provided by travelers and explorers into their work. The Beginning of Trade Although navigation was still an imprecise science, sailors were able to go farther than they had before. (For traders, sailing proved to be a better option than traveling by land, as the network of roads that crisscrossed Europe was poor, and the few good roads that did exist were frequented by thieves.)