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Saturday, June 27, 2015

Essential Elements of an Honors Class

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Essential Elements of an Honors Class
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4 Ways Honors Classes Are Different
I can’t speak for every honors program out there, but there are some common hallmarks of a great honors class. There’s a safe bet that if you’re accepted to an honors program, you can look forward to a classroom with these four unique qualities.
1) Reversed Classrooms
A reversed classroom frees students from the typical lecture-based format. That means instead of having someone talk atyou about course material, you get to discuss big ideas and important questions together.
"Honors students spend valuable class time wrestling with dificult questions."
This style of learning works because students read their assignments before class, so they can spend valuable class time wrestling with difficult questions, debating important points, and working through activities or simulations.
This is called a flipped classroom model. It happens to be one of the 8 core elements of an American Honors class, but it's common in many other honors programs, too.
2) Sophisticated Materials
A giant wall of notes on the screen? No fun.
A great classroom discussion can be facilitated by great teaching materials. Ever had a professor display a giant wall of notes on the screen and then simply read them out loud? No fun, right? That’s where better teaching materials can come into play.
Heres an example: when designing a recent history class, an American Honors professor adapted non-ADA compliant powerpoint slides to online “magazine” style pages that included relevant images and links to external resources for enhanced content. Students could actually explore the info on their own.
Honors faculty tend to share teaching methods. The professor from our example shared that material with American Honors faculty at every community college in the network. Honors communities tend to be supportive for everyone.
3) Hands-on Learning
Not everybody learns best just by talking through ideas, or even reading them. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty and really experience something to understand it.
"Sometimes you have to experience something to understand it."
Here is a super fun example from an American Honors political science course this semester. Students enact a foreign policy simulation by role-playing as leaders of different countries. The simulation takes place over the course of several weeks while the professor writes fictional news updates based on current events. Students get to discuss the news and make decisions based on how they (and their country) would react.
Hands-on learning can be a lot of fun, but it’s also a way to geek out - which just might be what college is all about in the first place.
4) Quality Over Quantity
An honors education is about depth.
Ever felt like you were assigned homework just for the sake of giving you something to do?Fortunately, that doesn’t happen in honors classes.
That’s because an honors education is about depth. We’re not interested in assigning busywork to students. Instead, Honors classes help students attend to their learning in deeper ways--be it using different critical perspectives and theoretical lenses or through hands-on assignments that access multiple intelligences.
Heavy stuff. But so worth it! And weirdly fun, once you get into it.
Honors classes can sound intense. But don’t worry. Remember: if you got accepted, then you’re qualified.
So, does all that sound overwhelming, or exciting? Would getting into an honors program make you more likely to attend a college? If you didn’t get into an honors program at your school of choice, then maybe you should consider applying to just one more college.


Teach Further Maths

Friday, June 26, 2015

Parentheses

 

Parentheses


Parentheses (always used in pairs) allow a writer to provide additional information. The parenthetical material might be a single word, a fragment, or multiple complete sentences.

Whatever the material inside the parentheses, it must not be grammatically integral to the surrounding sentence. If it is, the sentence must be recast. This is an easy mistake to avoid. Simply read your sentence without the parenthetical content. If it makes sense, the parentheses are acceptable; if it doesn’t, the punctuation must be altered.

Correct: The president (and his assistant) traveled by private jet.

Incorrect: The president (and his assistant) were expected to arrive by 10:00 a.m.

Placement of other punctuation


When a parenthetical sentence stands on its own, the closing punctuation mark for the sentence is placed inside the closing parenthesis.

The idea that theoretical physics can be taught without reference to complex mathematics is patently absurd. (But don’t tell that to the publishers of such mathematics-free books—or the people who buy them.)

When parenthetical content occurs at the end of a larger sentence, the closing punctuation mark for the sentence is placed outside the closing parenthesis.

After three weeks on set, the cast was fed up with his direction (or, rather, lack of direction).

When parenthetical content occurs in the middle of a larger sentence, the surrounding punctuation should be placed outside the parentheses, exactly as it would be if the parenthetical content were not there.

We verified his law degree (Yale, class of 2002), but his work history remains unconfirmed.

When a complete sentence occurs in parentheses in the middle of a larger sentence, it should neither be capitalized nor end with a period—though a question mark or exclamation point is acceptable.

We verified his law degree (none of us thought he was lying about that) but not his billion-dollar verdict against Exxon (how gullible did he think we were?).

Specialized uses


Numbered or lettered lists should use a pair of parentheses to enclose the numbers or letters.

Please submit the following four items with your application: (1) a cover letter, (2) a resume, (3) a college transcript, and (4) a list of professional references.

Time zones are usually enclosed in parentheses following the time.

The conference call will be held at 9:00 a.m. (EST).

Area codes are sometimes enclosed in parentheses.

If you have any questions, please call me at (212) 555-7875.

Short translations in unquoted text can be placed in parentheses. (Use brackets for translations in quoted text.)

His knowledge of Portuguese is limited to obrigado (thank you) and adeus (goodbye).

In some writing, a person’s year of birth and year of death are provided in parentheses when the person is first mentioned. If there is uncertainty about the year, a question mark should follow it. Note that an en dash, rather than hyphen, is used between the years.

Guido Cavalcanti (1255?–1300) had a profound influence on the writings of Dante.

Abbreviations and acronyms


On the first use of an abbreviation or acronym that might not be understood by your readers, the full term can be provided in parentheses.

John Smith has been appointed CKO (chief knowledge officer) of the merged company.

In reverse, an acronym or abbreviation can be provided in parentheses upon its first use, and then used in place of the full term in the remainder of the document.

In conducting the study, researchers relied on positron emission tomography (PET) and, to a lesser extent, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Writing Simplified: How and When to Use Parentheses

Writing Simplified: How and When to Use Parentheses: Parentheses are most commonly seen these days as the lower half of emoticons. They're good for much more than just being the smile in...

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

List of Adjectives

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List of Adjectives

Adjectives describe or indicate the degree of nouns or pronouns. Also, they are occasionally used after linking verbs.

abrupt
acidic
adorable
adventurous
aggressive
agitated
alert
aloof
amiable
amused
annoyed
antsy
anxious
appalling
appetizing
apprehensive
arrogant
ashamed
astonishing
attractive
average
batty
beefy
bewildered
biting
bitter
bland
blushing
bored
brave
bright
broad
bulky
burly
charming
cheeky
cheerful
chubby
clean
clear
cloudy
clueless
clumsy
colorful
colossal
combative
comfortable
condemned
condescending
confused
contemplative
convincing
convoluted
cooperative
corny
costly
courageous
crabby
creepy
crooked
cruel
cumbersome
curved
cynical
dangerous
dashing
decayed
deceitful
deep
defeated
defiant
delicious
delightful
depraved
depressed
despicable
determined
dilapidated
diminutive
disgusted
distinct
distraught
distressed
disturbed
dizzy
drab
drained
dull
eager
ecstatic
elated
elegant
emaciated
embarrassed
enchanting
encouraging
energetic
enormous
enthusiastic
envious
exasperated
excited
exhilarated
extensive
exuberant
fancy
fantastic
fierce
filthy
flat
floppy
fluttering
foolish
frantic
fresh
friendly
frightened
frothy
frustrating
funny
fuzzy
gaudy
gentle
ghastly
giddy
gigantic
glamorous
gleaming
glorious
gorgeous
graceful
greasy
grieving
gritty
grotesque
grubby
grumpy
handsome
happy
harebrained
healthy
helpful
helpless
high
hollow
homely
horrific
huge
hungry
hurt
icy
ideal
immense
impressionable
intrigued
irate
irritable
itchy
jealous
jittery
jolly
joyous
juicy
jumpy
kind
lackadaisical
large
lazy
lethal
little
lively
livid
lonely
loose
lovely
lucky
ludicrous
macho
magnificent
mammoth
maniacal
massive
melancholy
melted
miniature
minute
mistaken
misty
moody
mortified
motionless
muddy
mysterious
narrow
nasty
naughty
nervous
nonchalant
nonsensical
nutritious
nutty
obedient
oblivious
obnoxious
odd
old-fashioned
outrageous
panicky
perfect
perplexed
petite
petty
plain
pleasant
poised
pompous
precious
prickly
proud
pungent
puny
quaint
quizzical
ratty
reassured
relieved
repulsive
responsive
ripe
robust
rotten
rotund
rough
round
salty
sarcastic
scant
scary
scattered
scrawny
selfish
shaggy
shaky
shallow
sharp
shiny
short
silky
silly
skinny
slimy
slippery
small
smarmy
smiling
smoggy
smooth
smug
soggy
solid
sore
sour
sparkling
spicy
splendid
spotless
square
stale
steady
steep
sticky
stormy
stout
straight
strange
strong
stunning
substantial
successful
succulent
superficial
superior
swanky
sweet
tart
tasty
teeny
tender
tense
terrible
testy
thankful
thick
thoughtful
thoughtless
tight
timely
tricky
trite
troubled
twitter pated
uneven
unsightly
upset
uptight
vast
vexed
victorious
virtuous
vivacious
vivid
wacky
weary
whimsical
whopping
wicked
witty
wobbly
wonderful
worried
yummy
zany
zealous

zippy