All 5 volumes of 101 Fun Games, Activities, and Projects for English Classes by Cynthia Lapeña are now available on Amazon.com!
Coming soon: Materials Kit
Spread the word to all English teachers! Activities are adaptable to all levels (primary, secondary, tertiary, ESL)
…is now available on Amazon.com!
Don’t just think about something. Write about it. It’s good for the brain.
It doesn’t matter what you write about. It doesn’t matter how good it is.
Just a sentence a day keeps dementia away!
It’s good exercise for your fingers, especially if you type (more fingers are involved).
It’s good practice for grammar. You’ll eventually get those sentences right with practice.
It keeps your vocabulary active.
It makes you think. Thinking stimulates the brain.
It makes you remember things. One memory leads to another.
It brings back memories. Don’t just say something smells nice. Say how nice it smells. Say it’s a faint aroma that wafts in the air and reminds you the gentle fresh scent of a newly bathed baby. It’s the warm, satisfying smell of freshly baked bread just like grandma used to make.
It stimulates your imagination. When was the last time you had a fantasy and wrote about it?
It makes you read. After all, you read what you write, don’t you? And then, you’ll want to read what others have to say about what you write. Then you’ll write some more. It’s a vicious cycle.
It challenges you. If think you have nothing to write about, think again. You can write about not being able to think of something to write. That’s something to write about! When you’re done writing about not being able to write, write about other things. Write about what you like. Write about what you don’t like.
It teaches you to be observant. Write about what you see, hear, feel, taste, smell.
It expands your vocabulary. Look for the exact word to describe something. Don’t just say your desk is cluttered with stuff. Say that it is an endless expanse of treasure and trash that constantly surprises you with objects that you had forgotten you owned. The kiss you got wasn’t just nice. It could have been sloppy and wet, reminding you of your dog licking your face. Or it could have been completely titillating, creating a tingling sensation that travelled from the tip of your toes to the top of your head, and after that you felt like a marshmallow trapped within his tight embrace, warm, fuzzy, and melted like a smore straight out of the oven.
It makes you want to learn more. Every time you learn something new, write about it. Every time you think of something you’d like to learn, read about it. Then write about it. Then go ahead and do it, then write about it again!
It makes you creative. Don’t say the dog ate your homework. Say it blew over the balcony when your mom opened the balcony doors and got caught in the branches of the tall tree in your backyard. Or your father accidentally put it through the paper shredder because he thought it was one of his old files that he was disposing of.
It helps pass the time. If you have nothing else to do, write! If all the people in the world who had time on their hands wrote in their free time, there would never be an idle mind or idle hands. Nobody would be bored. And the whole world would be literate!
Coming soon on Amazon.com
Watch for it!
There is nothing like a natural high.
I don’t know why.
I just feel high.
but
I need to know
So when I’m low
Then I can go
Switch on that high!
© Cindy Lapeña, 2013
I just read an article about print vs. digital textbooks on this blog and pretty much agree with the article, which you can check out here: http://www.onlinedegrees.org/e-textbooks-vs-print-textbooks
<b>Please Include Attribution to OnlineDegrees.org With This Graphic</b> </br><a href=”http://www.onlinedegrees.org/e-textbooks-vs-print-textbooks”><img src=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/21etextbooks.jpg” alt=”E-Textbooks Infographic” width=”500″ border=”0″ /></a><br />
While many people I know already download reading material on their tablets and carry around as many as a thousand books with them, I still don’t think I’ll ever give up printed books for several reasons.
I like the feel of a good solid printed book in your hand, and each book has its own feel. Hard bound, soft bound, cloth bound–they all feel different. Inside pages also are different from one book to the next, as are the edges of the pages. I have recently noticed several hard bound books with rough-cut edges which gives them a quaint appearance and feeling and spares you from paper cuts. I love touching the embossed designs on some covers and many covers are worthy of being called art. I love the smell of paper and pages, especially of freshly-pressed books with that crisp, inky new-book smell. Sure, it might be the chemicals in the paper and the ink, but it still smells good! I love the feeling of flipping the page or sliding my fingers on the top or sides to separate the page I am reading from the next one, ready to turn as soon as I reach the bottom. I love stuffing a large coat pocket with a book and feeling the book through the cloth, knowing that I can read it when I want because pocketbooks were meant to be carried around in pockets. I love having the option to write in the margins or mark my favourite parts, even if I don’t really write on the margins–but I know some people who do. I love collecting bookmarks of all sorts and peppering my books with bookmarks so I can open any one of them and return to a page that, for some reason, a long time ago, I wanted to be able to return to, then realize why I wanted to bookmark that page. I love to grab a book and open it to any page at random and take a peek at what’s on that page. It sometimes makes me want to read the whole book, or reminds me that I have read that book already. I like seeing the whole page at one glance and skipping ahead to the last paragraph on the page or peeking at the facing page to see where the story is leading, or maybe peeking back at the previous page to recall certain details. I can read it without having to spend on upgrades or batteries. I can read books in any light at any angle and I don’t have to worry about magnets of scanners or any other device that might destroy all my book files. I can look at the pictures as closely or as far as I want and still see the whole picture. And the page.
When I study something, I like having my own book, because I do write in the margins of my textbooks. I mark parts and cross-reference them with other parts. I can flip back and forth and then look at two or more pages at the same time, holding the in-between pages straight up. I can put in several bookmarks and skip back and forth or curl the pages and save all the places I want to go back to. I know exactly where to find the table of contents or the index or appendices and if I need to without having to scroll through a page-less text. I like running my fingers across the spines of books on a shelf or in a pile, tilting my head to read titles standing sideways, studying the fonts and the colours.
A book will never hang on me, never run out of batteries, and can be dried with a flat iron. I don’t have to worry about dropping it or smashing it. I don’t have to worry that it will become obsolete. I don’t have to worry about running out of space to add more books because the memory only holds so many books. I don’t have to pay a subscription to anyone and don’t need to worry about not having a credit card to buy something online where only credit cards are accepted. If I need a replacement, I can get a new edition or a used copy for a very low price. I can open two books at the same time, or three, or ten, which is great when you are researching or studying and have several references that you want to compare. I think of all the people in the world who don’t even have a computer, let alone a tablet, because they can’t afford either. For the price of the cheapest tablet, I could get as many 10 books. Why would I buy the tablet and then pay for downloads of those 10 books on top of it all? I can see my real books and know I have them and just seeing them reminds me that I might want to read another book, or reminds me that I have read so much. Just seeing so many books around me gives me a cozy, comforting feeling, knowing that each book on my shelves is unique in so many ways.
I don’t see myself getting a tablet any time soon or anytime ever, as long as there are real books somewhere–even if they are just in my little library where I keep the books I want to keep. Call me old-fashioned if you will, but I like my books to look and feel and smell like books.
As far as digital vs. print textbooks are concerned, it’s print for me.
I do believe that the one true religion is the one that embraces everyone with no judgement. It is the one that treats all humans equally and respects all humans. It does not discriminate and declare that any one person, group, or nation is any better than the rest. It seeks only unity and community, peace and love. It teaches only respect and compassion for everything and everyone around us. It encourages us to share what we have and give what we can freely, with no obligations. In this religion, there is no room for selfishness or greed, power or politics. In this religion, individuality is celebrated, not shunned. In this religion, an attack on anyone, in whatever form, for whatever reason, is a breach of trust, a war against peace, a violation of the individual. I have my faults and failings, but I try to live my life this way, as much as I can, in whatever way I can.
Now available on Amazon!
Check it out at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00CYMPO80
Coming soon: Volume 2!
The Gatekeeper Burger at Eden’s Gate, Georgetown, PEI
Cindy Lapeña: Creativity Unlimited 
