Thursday, January 29, 2009

Introduce Yourself

Welcome!

Let us get to know you. Where do you live? What do you study? What do you love to do? What do you plan for in your future? 

What activities would you like on this blog, like tutorials, problems, writing help, YouTube clips?

Tell us anything else you would like us to know about you!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Write a Math Problem

Write a math problem for others to solve.

1.  Think of a situation that requires math in your life. It could be making change, figuring our a percentage, adding fractions or decimals in cooking or building, figuring the interest on a loan, or deciding how much gas your gas uses (consumes).

2. Set up the information you need to solve the problem. For example: the total amount and the percentage you want to find in dollars; the amount of the loan, the interest rate, and the number of years you have to pay the loan; or the distance your traveled and the amount of gas you used.

3. Ask the question that you need answered. For example: How much will I save if I buy the shirt at 15% off? How much interest will I pay for each year I have the loan? How much mileage did my car get on the trip? 

4. When you have that information, click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post (message), and write your problem so that others can solve it.

5. Find a problem that someone else has posted, and solve it for them!

Write a Story

In this exercise, you will write a short story and make comments about stories that other students write. Read and follow the instructions below.

Before you write, respond to the questions on a separate piece of paper:

1. Think about something you like to read. Do you like adventure, romance, horror, suspense, comedy, drama?
2. Think about an interesting person that you would like to write about. This person can just be in your mind. It can be a child, a worker, an athlete, a musician, a parent, or anything else you want. This person will be the main person (character) in your story.
3. Think about where you want your story to take place. Do you want things to happen in a city, in the country, on the ocean, in a forest, in a desert? Where do you want your character to be?
4. Think about what will happen to your character. Will she meet other people, start an adventure, fall in love, get into trouble, be in danger? 
5. Now you are ready to write your story. Follow the instructions below.

Write your story

1. Introduce  your character or the place where the story begins.
Put the character in the situation you chose.
2. Tell us what happens to that character. This is where you create the interest in your story. You want us to read more and more. You want to build interest here. 
3. How does the situation end? Is it funny, suspenseful, scary? 

When you have your story written, click on the "Add a Comment" link below. Copy your story so that we can read it. If you want to add an image to (illustrate) your story, ask for help.  We'll show you how to do that.