Try this !

Copy the poem below into your word processor and see how many errors your spellchecker will find!

Owed to a Spell Checker

Eye halve a spelling checker

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marks four my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight for it two say

Weather eye is wrong oar write

It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as mists ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye has run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My checker tolled me sew.

Skype name

My Skype name is tutoringcentral

If you are new to Skype, you can simply go to the add contact area and type in my Skype name to add me.

The Brain !

Reading "A Father to His Freshman Son" by Edward S. Martin reminded me of some of my experiences with students.
I've quoted part of the article below:
                          Your mind, like your body, is a thing whereof the
                           powers are developed by effort. That is a principal
                          use, as I see it, of hard work in studies. Unless you
                          train your body you can't be an athlete, and unless
                          you train your mind you can't be much of a scholar.
                         The four miles an oarsman covers at top speed is in
                         itself nothing to the good, but the physical capacity to
                         hold out over the course is thought to be of some
                         worth. So a good part of what you learn by hard
                         study may not be permanently retained, and may not
                         seem to be of much final value, but your mind is a
                         better and more powerful instrument because you
                         have learned it.
                         Knowledge is power,' but still more the 
                         faculty of acquiring and using knowledge is power.
                         If you have a trained and powerful mind, you are
                         bound to have stored it with something, but its value
                         is more in what it can do, what it can grasp and use,
                         than in what it contains; and if it were possible, as it
                         is not, to come out of college with a trained and
                        disciplined
                         mind and nothing useful in it, you would still
                         be ahead, and still, in a manner, educated. Think of
                         your mind as a muscle to be developed; think of it as
                         a searchlight that is to reveal the truth to you, and
                         don't cheat it or neglect it.

The underlining is mine.
These are important points to all those students who cannot see the "value" in studying history, or geography, or the parts of a cell in science, or algebra, etc.
How often I have heard this refrain: "I'll never use this in my real life." 
Sometimes it is enunciated as a challenge: "When will I ever need to know this?"
           It is not so important that you become a massive "container" of information.  (Ever less important with today's technology.)  Rather the brain's stimulation strengthens it and your ability to work with material - sometimes new and challenging - sometimes review.
You become a better person. 
Of course, this is not only for young people.  New discoveries seem to indicate that exercising the brain helps stave off Alzheimer's. 
So keep learning and exercising your brain power!

Some limited classes are now offered using Skype™.
Ahhh, new technology! Sometimes it is a benefit, sometimes a curse. I am working to
making this technology work for us.
As with all L.T.L.'s programs, each program will be different and based on agreed terms of course.
Check website for further details.

Multiplication Tables

Many students have weak automatic multiplication skills.
Practising is the only way to improve.  The game below adjusts to your skill level as you proceed.
It takes a little while to get started, but then I've found students like playing the game.  (Don't worry - the ogres aren't too scary!!)
Best of all there is a FREE version - and it's the only one I've used so far.  It works well.
Give it a try!

www.BigBrainz.com

               


             

Happy New Year !

Well another year has come and gone.
Welcome to 2011!

Of course, the New Year is often a time when people decide to make resolutions - generally to make some improvements such as to quit smoking, lose weight, eat more healthy food, exercise more, etc.

While these are all fine goals, let me  propose another possibility.

One of the best ways to broaden our horizons is by reading.  Reading is not just educational, however, for it can reduce stress, make one feel less lonely, and improve one's general sense of well-being.
Looking outward can be so beneficial, even if the text is fiction.  There are often kernels of truth in most works.  And, of course, there is the added benefit of learning something new!

Just think, the average novel is 300 to 400 pages.  If you read just ten pages per day, you will be able to read the equivalent of ten novels in 2011!

Try reading a wide variety of material though  - not just novels.  Read a play or two, some poetry, a comic, a magazine, and local newspaper.  When reading short stories or poetry - you can be reading a novel in between, letting you absorb more from each short piece. 

The famous Canadian author Mavis Gallant once wrote the following:

"Stories are not chapters of novels. 
They should not be read one after another, as if they were meant to follow along. 
Read one. Shut the book.  Read something else. 
Come back later.  Stories can wait."
Gallant, Mavis. Preface. The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland & Stewart, 1997. XIX. Print.

At any rate, just a thought for the New Year.

Happy 2011 !

Happy Reading !

Merry Christmas !!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year !!

Don't forget that books are great gifts and easy last minute purchases for those loved ones on your list.

Enjoy the holidays!