Great News!

I found out yesterday that I have received a promotion! I'm very excited for this new opportunity for me! Currently, I work for a Human Resources company, where I help hire people for new jobs. I also help people move up the ladder in their company. Previously, I did testing for people, where I would have role-plays to see how people would be in their new roles. After my promotion, I will be organizing all of the role-plays that my colleagues do! I even get a raise! My new title is "Project Manager!" I'm very excited for this, but shhh! I'm not allowed to tell anyone at work until April!


Vocabulary words
Promotion (noun) - advancement in rank or position
Opportunity (noun) - a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success
Human Resources (noun) - a division of a company which works with the employment needs of a company
"Move Up the Ladder" (idiom) - to consistently make one's way through a company
Role-plays (verb) - to experiment with or experience by pretending to be a character
Organize (verb) - to make into a certain structure
Allowed (verb) to give permission to or for


Now see if you can fit these vocabulary words in other sentences!

My mom _____________ me to go to the park! But before I could, I had to ____________ my book shelf in my room.

I talked to the head of ____________________ when I was hired.

When I got my __________________________, it came with a raise! Now I can really _________________________!

Rebecca, if you have time, can we do some ______________________ to prepare for my audition tomorrow?

Can I please go to the show, dad? Its a great __________________ to see my favorite band!



Grammar Point: When discussing something exciting, its good to show your excitement using exclamation points! How many exclamation points did I use in my paragraph?

Winter Wonderland!!!

Winter is a great time of year! Although it is very cold outside, the world turns a beautiful shade of white! I love it when the trees are covered in heavy white snow! The animals seem to love it too; my neighbor's dog adores running around fast and playing in the snow! I make it a point to put on my warm gloves and jacket and go outside to play with my favorite puppy!


Winter also reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost

An Old Man's Winter Night

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him -- at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; -- and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man -- one man -- can't keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It's thus he does it of a winter night.

From "Mountain Interval", 1916



Vocabulary
Frost (noun) - a degree or state of coldness sufficient to cause the freezing of water.
Pane (noun) - one of the divisions of a window or the like, consisting of a single plate of glass in a frame.
Tilt (verb) - to lean, incline, slope, or slant.
Creak (verb)- to make a sharp, harsh, grating, or squeaking sound.
Clomp (verb) - to walk heavily and clumsily.
Concern (verb) - to trouble, worry, or disquiet.
Consign (verb) - to transfer to another's custody or charge; entrust
Icicle (noun) - a pendent, tapering mass of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water.
Jolt (verb) - to jar, shake, or cause to move by or as if by a sudden rough thrust; shake up roughly.
Farm (noun) - a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.
Countryside (noun) - a particular section of a country, esp. a rural section.


Grammar - Adjectives
There are several descriptive adjectives in the paragraph from above! Can you find them?

Winter is a ______ time of year! Although it is _______ ______ outside, the world turns a ________shade of _______! I love it when the trees are covered in ________ ______ snow! The animals seem to love it too; my neighbor's dog adores running around _______ and playing in the snow! I make it a point to put on my _______ gloves and jacket and go outside to play with my ________ puppy!

Vocabulary Words of the Week - Week 1

The first installment of the Vocabulary Words of the Week! For our first week, we're going to take some vocabulary words from America's National Anthem - The Star Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key!

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


Dawn (noun) - the first appearance of daylight in the morning.

Twilight (noun) - the soft, diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, either from daybreak to sunrise or, more commonly, from sunset to nightfall.

Gleaming (verb) - to appear suddenly and clearly like a flash of light

Perilous (adjective) - involving or full of grave risk or peril; hazardous; dangerous.

Ramparts (noun) - a broad elevation or mound of earth raised as a fortification around a place (also known as a fort).

Gallantly (adjective) - brave, spirited, noble-minded, stately, grant

Grammatical Appearances

I've noticed that many people take light grammatical errors to indicate a failure to know the language, or a lack of competence. For example, where I work there is a man who is our "receptionist" of sorts - he signs for our packages and refills the coffee machine. He has some issues with speech, and he tends to make quite a few grammatical errors. Some people at work thinks he has a learning disability, I just think he never learned it in the first place.
The other day, he wrote an e-mail to our office saying: Cookies @ tea are being serve at the conference table go get some cookies.
What did I notice? Well, for starters, he used the "@" symbol instead of the "&" symbol. He used "serve" rather than "served," which is improper syntax. Also, he failed to use punctuation.

Punctuation is key for anyone to understand what you are saying. And in our technological world, punctuation is everything!

Take this sentence:
A woman without her man is nothing

That sentence could be:
A woman: without her, man is nothing!
or
A woman, without her man, is nothing!
or, simply
A woman without her man is nothing!

By correct use of punctuation, the reader can better understand your intentions!

Think you're a hot-shot at punctuation? Then take this quiz!

And this fun video is an old favorite of mine! The Electric Company explains punctuation!



Remember - as cyber-communication takes flight, its important to send the right message!