7 Reasons Introverts Are Good at Writing Which Is Good for Their Career - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / 7 Reasons Introverts Are Good at Writing Which Is Good for Their Career - Introvert Whisperer 7 Reasons Introverts Are Good at Writing Which Is Good for Their Career It’s a well-established fact that writing is good for a person’s career. From communicating through email to being able to market and present yourself well, writing is essential. There’s no end of benefits that come from writing, especially now that social media posts are now such an important part of modern business. What many people don’t realize is that introverts are naturally inclined towards writing, not solely because it gives you a lot of time to spend alone and reflect. 1.            It’s Less Intimidating than Speaking For many introverts, being the center of attention is a total nightmare. You may find public speaking a bit of a nightmare, and you may not enjoy talking on the phone and dealing with unpredictable issues. Writing, however, gives an introvert a safe and quiet space where they can deal with everyone, and they can do so over email. This means that you can put your foot down on certain points, showcase how knowledgeable you are, and prove that you’re a great employee, without the panic that comes from speaking up in public. You can use Language Tool to check the work is well done, and you can also find some great advice on Paper Fellows regarding how to write for business. 2.           You Appear Credible If you’re introverted, you may seem quiet and some people will incorrectly assume that you potentially don’t speak up because you’re not sure of yourself. Writing helps you show that this is not the case at all, and it can give you a platform to showcase your knowledge. Being grammatically perfect also makes you look more credible and professional, and you can check on your work with Easy Word Count grammar checker or even from reviewing a grammar guide such as Quick Books. 3.           You Have Time to Reflect We all know that we should think before we speak, but by writing, an introvert can make sure that they have thoughtfully produced every piece of work, that it’s fact-checked and in line with company policy, there are no accidental mistakes. If you need to be authoritative, you can use referencing tools like Cite It In or have an editor at Write my essay test your work. 4.           You’re Aware of Your Surroundings An introvert won’t lose their cool and respond to someone too casually, or make it clear that they’re annoyed with a customer. They’ll always be aware they’re at work, and will maintain a professional attitude. If you want to be sure that you’re writing properly for business, you can use Custom essay. Introverts are less distracted by office chatter, and don’t get as bored and distracted when they’re working alone as some extroverts. 5.           Introverts Enjoy Some Alone Time Jobs that require a lot of writing are ideal for introverts as you have a lot of time to sit alone and work quietly. While a lot of people are wary of office politics, introverts are also happy to stay away from the gossip by the water cooler too, and instead, will happily read a guide like Grammar Presentation and thoroughly check their work. 6.           Introverts Are Good Listeners There’s no doubt that introverts provide awesome customer service because they will really listen to the customer and do what they can to respond properly. Plus, a lot of introverts are actually fairly creative, and so not only can they provide good answers, they can also often come up with creative solutions to problems when given a chance. Having the freedom to write responses or plans or new ideas can really exhibit just how much an introvert has absorbed since they started working somewhere. Through paying attention, and taking in everything that’s gone on around you, you actually probably have a much better idea of how things work, and how to produce certain tasks and assignments. 7.           Introverts Often Enjoy Writing While some people may enjoy art or public presenting, a lot of introverts actually enjoy sitting at a keyboard and writing. This is great, as it means they can enjoy their job, and happy staff consistently perform better. You may still want to use sources such as Essay service as a grammar resource to make sure writing is perfect. Any introverts at work should be aware of exactly how their writing skills can help advance their career, and should also know that writing is a great way to appear more professional and competent at work. Author’s bio: Gloria Kopp is a digital marketer and an e-learning consultant from Manville city. Now she works as a content manager at Assignment writing  service. Besides, she is a regular contributor to such websites as  Engadget, Academized, Huffingtonpost etc. Read her latest post  here. Go to top CAREER ACCELERATION Do you know what your next career step is?  Many people don’t. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my eBook on how to construct your Career SMART Goals â€" that will help you put together your actions and keep you accountable. Get your copy now and start your action plan today! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer

How Much Do Cooking Classes Cost

How Much Do Cooking Classes Cost How Much Do Cooking Tutors Cost? Chapters1. Duration Of Course2. The Qualifications And Experience Of Your Teacher3. The Location Of Your Course4. Other Key Factors To ConsiderExamples Of Cooking SchoolsPrivate tutorsSo, you have your mind set on attending your first course or hiring a cooking tutor to help you to develop some level of practical skill in the kitchen. Now, let's take some time to establish how much your learning experience will set you back, which will be determined by a number of factors.In the same way, you don't tend to find young, successful chefs in their prime taking the time to teach others (other than their staff, of course) because they are simply too focused on their career to look beyond it.High-profile chefs like Gordon Ramsay are often too busy to be able to run cooking classes. Photo credit: BreakingTravelNews on VisualHunt.comThat said, you can find a number of culinary schools set up by the greats, like Rick Stein (as previously mentioned) and Raymond Blanc, which have the chefs' valu es rooted in them. You can find out more about some of these highly-respected cooking schools below. GiovanniCooking Teacher 4.83 (12) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors HalimaCooking Teacher £12/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors HakimCooking Teacher 5.00 (5) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors VincenzoCooking Teacher £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors GinellaCooking Teacher £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ArronCooking Teacher 5.00 (2) £9/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JoshuaCooking Teacher 5.00 (5) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors FlickCooking Teacher 5.00 (1) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors3. The Location Of Your CourseWhile location shouldn't be too big a factor in the cost of your chosen course, you can expect to pay a premium when attending a class in central London, because naturally everything in the capital is more pricey than outside of the city!When I refer to location, I do al so mean the grounds on which your course will be held. Take for example a course held in a modern college, and one taking place in an 18th century manor house steeped in history. Which do you expect will be a more expensive location?Of course, any place that has welcomed a wealth of famous guests, or has been standing for hundreds of years, will usually lend itself to a nicer setting in which to cook and therefore enable the organisers to charge more.4. Other Key Factors To ConsiderOther things that might have an effect on the price of the course you opt for are whether you get a group deal (some offer a reduction in price if you bring a friend), have coupons or vouchers (if they have spaces to fill, an organisation might advertise places at cut-down prices to lure customers in) and the cost of the food (including refreshments for participants) you will be using whilst on the course to make those delicious recipes on the menu.As all foodies, or anyone who shops for groceries at the supermarket or the local food market for that matter, will know, ingredients don't come cheap! And depending on the class of course you choose to enroll on, you can expect the cost of the ingredients to fluctuate in accordance too.Anyone who has ever done grocery shopping knows how expensive food is! Photo credit: Indiana Stan on Visualhunt.comExamples Of Cooking SchoolsLe Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, OxfordThe cost of a cooking tutorial at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxford can cost anywhere between £185 (for a half-day intensive session) and £1,775 (for five consecutive days). This cooking school is run by the infamous  Monsieur Raymond Blanc himself and is set in a beautiful manor house, so this is probably on the higher end of the cooking schools spectrum.Llanerch Vineyard, Vale of GlamorganLlanerch Vineyard in Vale of Glamorgan offers prices starting at £25 for a demonstration. The cookery school is run by educator Angela Gray, a chef who has catered for big names like Andr ew Lloyd Webber, and offers a relaxed and informal setting whereby students can learn from the teacher and through interaction with eachother.The Bertinet Kitchen, BathIf you want to be taught by the best but for a smaller outlay than Le Manoir, then why not consider The Bertinet Kitchen in Bath which is run by french dough expert Richard Bertinet and requires a budget of £165 for beginners classes? You will learn about all things bread and pastry here, including pastry arts like how to make a buttery croissant worthy of a French patisserie!Leith's School of Food and Wine, LondonIf money is no object, then Leith’s School of Food and Wine in London is at your disposal with a £21,000+ diploma on offer, achieved over three terms! Past students include the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton herself, the epitome of class. Now there is a course that really is fit for royalty! I bet Kate cooks up a delicious feast for the young prince and princess.Private tutorsPrivate tutors are no different when you take into consideration the above, however they do have the advantage that they can pick and choose how they price their lessons because, ultimately, they are working alone.While this can go against you in some ways (one-to-one lessons can be priced higher because of the value of one-to-one time), it can also work in your favour. For instance, you might be able bring the price down a little if consulting a self-employed tutor, or you might be able to discuss reductions for blocks of lessons.Other benefits to hiring a private tutor are the flexibility they offer. In most cases, you will be welcomed into their kitchen where they will show you a range of cooking skills on display, but you might find a tutor who is happy to come and teach you at your home.You might attend a cooking demonstration at your tutor's house or they may come to your own home. Photo credit: tracie7779 on VisualhuntFurthermore, with one-to-one lessons, you can fit classes in around your busy sc hedule which means you don't have to miss out on doing something you love just because you work long hours. For instance, you might be able to book tuition on a weekend or on a weekday evening, which is something that you can look forward to while you are hard at work!When searching for tutors online, you will more than likely find a pretty expansive range (as much as £9p/h-90p/h!), which makes it hard to ascertain what the average price of a beginner cooking lesson is. Sadly, it is very difficult to narrow this down to a specific price range, because of all of the above elements that come into play.The key is to set out a realistic price in your head and start your search for a tutor with this firmly in place. You know what you can afford and what you can't, so rule out any tutors that come above (or fall below) your expected outlay. However, never forget that you do pay for the best, so if you find the perfect tutor who is just outside of your range, then consider stretching that little bit further for a richer experience in return.When it comes to the content, you can expect to learn a wide range of fundamental things from your cooking lessons, like the difference between vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian and traditional diets, what artisan bakery is, the flavours of authentic Thai cooking, the secrets of French cuisine, the art of cooking Italian cuisine, how to make next level Italian dishes, what cookware you should have in your home cooking space, how to prep vegetables, how to prepare a chicken, grilling meats, what makes a perfect British roast, the technique for making a garlicky cordon blue, how to bake a melting chocolate fondant, how to pack flavour in a broth and how to make sushi, for example. That's date night or those weeknight meals  sorted then!Your guide may be able to teach you some things you never knew about the hospitality management industry too, like how you should ideally wear closed toe shoes when using a knife and cutting board in ca se of any accidents, and the terms that the chef uses to communicate with his or her staff. This includes words like 'pass', 'oui chef' and 'chit'.Find cooking classes near me with a private tutor:Cooking classes LondonCooking classes GlasgowCooking classes ManchesterCooking classes Leeds

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.

5 Reasons to Work at a Bank

5 Reasons to Work at a Bank Image via isorepublic.com 1. Learn about finances If you spend time around people who know a lot about money, chances are good that you will end up learning something from them. What better place to learn about how loans, interest, retirement accounts, credit reports, mortgages, and finances in general work than a bank? So if you are looking to learn about the business and finance world, you should definitely consider working at your local bank. 2. Enjoy decent working hours Banks are not open for very many hours each day. For that reason, if you work at a bank, you will not have a weird early morning or late night schedule. You will likely work sometime between 9 in the morning and 5 in the evening. You will not have to work 10 p.m. closing shifts or 6 a.m. opening shifts. (This means your nights will be free to hang out with your friends or to get a full eight hours of sleep!) Similarly, banks are closed on holidays  so you will not have to work on holidays, either! You can enjoy time with your loved ones rather than having to spend those special days working. 3. Experience a classy job A bank is a classy place to work. It’s clean, air-conditioned, and the people there are professionals. You will not find people wasting time or playing around here. Also, some banks offer useful benefits, such as insurance. Although you might have to be on your feet for most of the day, it’s generally a pretty comfortable job. 4. Gain solid, professional experience for your resume Especially if you plan to work in a finance field, working part-time at a bank is the perfect work experience for you. Bank work looks professional on a resume or a CV. Bank work will help enhance other skills that you will use even in non-bank jobs for example, organizational skills and math skills. As I said in the previous point, banks are classy. They are the perfect place to start learning how to be a young professional! 5. Learn to work quickly and carefully Working at a bank requires you to be very careful with everything you do. Every transaction has to be documented. You cannot lose even one deposit slip or a single cent. Also, making a mistake could cause someone a lot of money. These little things can become big issues, so if you want to learn to work quickly and carefully, you can work at a bank. If you are considering taking on a summer job, consider working part-time at your local bank. It’s classy and professional, and you will learn a lot, especially if you are planning to work in a finance related field. If you would like to read more about the pros and cons of working at a bank, check out this link from Tough Nickel.

5 Free Apps Every College Student Should Have

5 Free Apps Every College Student Should Have Upgrade your study methods and enjoy paperless productivity.Akiko Aoki/Getty Images The task of  juggling a college workload is not an easy one. With papers, tests and so much reading your eyes become sore; its no  surprise  that things tend to slip through the cracks. These five free apps, however, can help you organize yourself and hopefully allow you to maintain some  semblance  of a social life. 1.    StudyBlue With a set of high quality study tools you can effortlessly condense hours of flashcard making into half that time. Studyblue allows you to take advantage of your phones built in microphone and dictate a flashcard in seconds; you can even snap a picture if you’d like a visual aid. Quiz yourself on the go and keep track of your scores to map your progress. Students can even share their flashcards on Studyblue’s website and search through hundreds of subjects to access pre-made flashcards. 2.  Evernote                 Record audio, capture pictures, store class notes, files, ideas and more; Evernote is the paragon of note taking apps. Functional with nearly every mobile device and computer, Evernote allows you to sync all your notes between devices and keeps everything up to date. Create multiple notebooks for easy navigation and search by keywords to find anything at a moment’s notice. Just like StudyBlue, you can download and share notes with anyone, they don’t even need an Evernote account. You can easily make your notes public with a URL link, email them to someone directly or create a downloadable PDF file. 3.  Alarmed As the name would suggest, Alarmed  isnt  just an alarm clock but your very own personal assistant. In addition to orienting you during your morning daze, Alarmed allows you set a series of reminders, countdown or up to events and quickly create alerts on the go through the use of your phone’s built in microphone. For the really important task, the nag-me feature will repeatedly remind you at intervals from 1 minutes to 1 hour until you acknowledge the reminder. 4.  Chegg It’s no secret that college textbooks are expensive, so at the end of the semester don’t let them collect dust. As an app that is geared toward renting, buying and selling textbooks, Chegg is a great way to quickly compare and contrast prices between retailers. Simply scan the  bar-code  of a book and peruse a list of opinions. Chegg allows you to purchase, extend rentals and manage your due dates all from your phone. You can even sell your textbooks directly to Chegg and track the shipping process. 5.  MyFitnessPal College is typically the time when healthy eating habits are flung out the window, but with MyFitnessPal that  doesnt  have to become a reality. Research studies have consistently confirmed the health benefit for keeping track of the food you eat and activity you do. MyFitnessPal offers a food diary and activity log, believing the more conscious you are of your food intake and physical activity the more likely you are to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The app offers nutritional guidelines and a food database with the nutritional facts of over 2 million items.