Writing Exercise: Syrian Father Loses Entire Family

Tweet Follow @AmadeoConstanzo

Escaping from the violence in Syria, Abdullah (a father) mourns the loss of his entire family at sea (including his two little boys).

Freewriting Exercise

Directions: After watching the brief video, write two or more paragraphs addressing one or more of the following:

Millions fled Syria’s civil war.  Do you think this father’s story is an isolated case or do you think this is one of many?  Explain, or provide support, for what you think and why you think so.  

Abdullah now no longer wants to go to his original destination, Europe.  “Now, all I want to do is sit by the grave of my wife and children,” said Abdullah.  Do you sense what this father is feeling?  Describe or explain how this father is feeling.  Describe or explain how you would feel if you were in Abdullah’s shoes.

What do you think all the nations of the world should do regarding the Syrian refugees?  What policies should they adopt?  Explain.

More academic lessons and other lessons at SpirFit.org

Feel free to join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

CATW Practice: Your Smell or Your Cellphone (with Sample Passing Essay)

Tweet Follow @AmadeoConstanzo


This is a sample passing essay by a student in response to the CATW prompt Easier to Live Without: Your Sense of Smell or Your Cellphone.  It is highly recommended that you first read that article and write your own essay in response before reading this sample student essay.  

Sample Student Essay (Passing)

According to Easier to Live Without: Your Sense of Smell or Your Cellphone, most youths would rather lose their sense of smell than lose their cellphones and laptops if the youths were forced to make a choice.  Technology and social networks are very important and have made revolutionary changes such as in the Middle East.  However, your sense of smell is also important because you also lose your sense of taste if you lose your sense of smell (and you won't be able to savor that juicy piece of fillet mignon anymore.)  Therefore, this choice is more difficult than it may seem.  If I were forced to make a choice, I would choose to keep my sense of smell.  

It really is a dilemma as smell and technology are both important.  "It's a harder choice than you might think," as the author mentioned.  Your smell is also a tool from nature to keep you alive.  Without smell, you won't be able to detect smoke to keep you away from fire.  You won't be able to smell the gas before the explosion.  You see, your sense of smell is a survival tool from nature and not just for pleasure. Therefore, losing your sense of smell is actually more than losing the pleasure to taste that juicy steak.

Smell may also play an important role in relationships.  Without smell, you won't be able to smell the other woman's perfume on your cheating husband.  Therefore, your sense of smell may save you money that you would otherwise spend on a private investigator.  It would save you the hassle of contacting the investigative team on Cheaters (the television show catching cheaters for suspecting spouses).  Therefore, your sense of smell has many applications in life and it is a very important function to keep.

Although sense of smell is so important, technology is also very important.  Technology such as smartphones and laptops has undoubtedly revolutionized our lives in the last ten years, from bringing down tyrants in the Middle East to changing education around the world.  In the coming years, the poor in third-world countries will have access to a similar level of education as the well-to-do citizens of developed countries, as that is now more and more possible with the current development of educational technology (including social media and new media).  Because of the importance of new media and technology in improving lives, it really is a dilemma if we have to choose between technology and sense of smell.

However, if you are ever in a situation where you have to make a choice, it is best to give up technology because losing access to technology would not likely be permanent.  For example, one scenario where you might need to choose between smell or technology would be if you are captured by some crazy tyrant like the leader of North Korea.  In such cases, it is most likely a temporary situation.  On the other hand, if you give up your smell and have your nose removed, you will never get the senses back.  Once your smell sensors are removed, it's most likely permanent.  Even if bioengineers invent artificial noses, they will most likely be not anywhere near the capabilities of a natural nose.  This has been true in the development of other body parts such as the artificial mechanical heart, which lasts only ten years.  Therefore, it is best to keep your natural body parts and natural senses like smell.

Fortunately, we will probably never have to make such a tough decision in reality.  However, if you must make a choice, always choose to keep your natural senses like smell.  If you lose technology, it is unlikely to be permanent, but if you remove your natural smell sensors in your nose, it would most likely be a permanent loss.  Technology or anything man-made can usually be replaced, not like body parts which are more complex and would not be the same even if replaced,

New York Times Article in English and Chinese

Tweet Follow @AmadeoConstanzo

Here's our New York Times article pick of the day, in English and Chinese.  (For Chinese students, read the English version twice before reading the Chinese version.)

http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20151115/c15kristof/dual/

For more interesting readings that will improve your career and your life, feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

Past, Present, and Future Progressive (Continuous) Tenses

Tweet Follow @amadeoconstanzo

Printable PDF Copy

Reminder:  The importance of grammar is in writing or expressing your thoughts clearly, correctly, and precisely.

Instructions:  Answer each question in a complete sentence.  (You will need to use your imagination for many of the questions.)

1.  What is John doing right now?  (Present Progressive)

2.  What was Mary doing in the pool this morning? (Past Progressive)

3.  What will you be buying your mother next year for her sixtieth birthday? (Future Progressive)

4.  What is Miriam doing in the bookstore right now?  (Present Progressive)

5.  What were Sergei and Larry doing in the lab at Stanford University? (Past Progressive)

6.  What will the kids be doing at the park later?  (Future Progressive)

7.  What are you doing at the library right now?   (Present Progressive)

8.  What will James be performing tonight on the talent show, America's Got Talent?  (Future Progressive)

More materials and lessons at  SpirFit.org

Feel free to follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/amadeoconstanzo

or  Facebook at - https://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

Are You Going With the Majority? (Video and Writing Exercise)

Tweet Follow @amadeoconstanzo

Watch the video or read the summary.  Then free write according to the instructions below.

Summary of the Talk

* By the time Francis Chan was sixteen, his mom is dead, his step mom is dead, and his dad is dead.  (His mom died while giving birth to Francis.  His step-mother died in a car accident.  His dad died of cancer when he was twelve.)    Then his remaining guardians Uncle George and Aunt Sandra also died (in a murder suicide.)  At a young age, Francis Chan had experienced more instability than most of us have.

* When things around us become unstable, we tend to play it safe, and we hug and straddle the balance beam [instead of performing on it] as Francis demonstrated in his analogy of Olympics’ gymnastics.

After experiencing some instability, we tend to think, "This is crazy.  I'm just going to have my nice little family.  We're going to keep to ourselves.  We're going to live in a gated community.  I'm going to home school my kids [and] make them wear helmets everywhere.  I'm not going to let them outside because the sun has bad rays... You just live your life in this - I don't want to do anything crazy for God.  I just want to go to church and give maybe 2%, and may be serve/help the nursery (because I feel guilty.)  You do this your whole life.  Your greatest prayer is, "God, I would love to die in my sleep and not even feel it, and I would love to go to heaven."

* Then you wake up in heaven and stand before the judge and you go - [Francis does a pose of victory that Olympic gymnasts normally do at the end of a routine.]

Imagine watching the Olympics and the girl just straddles and hugs the balance beam for several minutes throughout the whole routine, and then gets off the balance beam in a pose of victory.  What is the judge supposed to do?  "Wow, well done!"  Is the judge going to say that?  "Well done!"  You lived the safest life possible.  You didn't slip.  You didn't fall."  This is what the majority will do with their life.  Do you want to go where the majority goes?  Are you going the same way as the majority?

* I don't want to go where the majority goes.

Free-writing Exercise

Write two or more paragraphs addressing one or more of the following questions.  Do you think you will be happy and fulfilled just pursuing a safe comfortable life with money, a nice house, a nice car, a nice family with kids, and nice vacations periodically?   Is this typical pursuit really going to make you happy when you obtain all of it?  For those who already have attained all of these, are they truly fulfilled and happy?  Not that we shouldn’t have this comfort and security, but is there something else, something greater than yourself you should also pursue?  Is there something greater you should pursue alongside working for these necessities and amenities of life?  How can you pursue something greater that would ironically also provide all these necessities and security in the long run?  How can going where the majority does not go, provide greater fulfillment (while also providing the lesser necessities and amenities most people pursue)?  Are you currently going where the majority is going?  Are you okay with that?  If not, what do you need to do to change course?


More life lessons, academic lessons, and other lessons at SpirFit.org

Feel free to join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

CATW Practice - Minding the Millimeter

Tweet Follow @AmadeoConstanzo

Assignment

Begin by reading the passage below.

Click here for the Printable PDF Version 

Are You Minding the Millimeter?

In any undertaking in life, it is important to mind the millimeter.  What is minding the millimeter?  To put it simply, it is minding (or attending to) the seemingly miniscule components in any type of work.  However, the minor factors add up to (or multiply into) major problems. On the other hand, if you attend to the right small matters, they would multiply into major desirable accomplishments or outcomes.

The importance of minding the millimeter is apparent in the sport of bike racing.  Mark Cavendish (professional cyclist and winner of many stages of major bike races such as the Tour de France and the Tour de Britain) is known to mind every small adjustment on his bike and in his training, down to the millimeter literally.  According to 453 and a Half, "Cavendish is well known for being completely obsessed with every detail in his preparation, paying close attention to everything from his wattage output to adjusting his saddle position a fraction of a millimeter."

Similarly, Phil Jackson (the former basketball coach who had won ten NBA championships) taught his players this importance of not neglecting the details.  He told them that a war is lost on a single nail of a ship.  Apparently, this was programmed into the mind of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend coached by Jackson.

The principle of minding the millimeter also applies to computer programming and software development.  For programmers, leaving out just a minor part of the code may result in major problems, such as the whole application not working at all.  Therefore, they must be mindful of every millimeter.

Does attending to the millimeter lead you for certain to produce the desired outcome?  No, it is not a guarantee, but it significantly improves your chances if you mind the millimeter.  Nothing in life is a guarantee.  An athlete training for the Olympics is not guaranteed to win the gold medal, but it would be foolish of him to neglect the training and neglect the millimeter adjustments just because there is no guarantee.  Unfortunately, people have the foolish logic of not minding the millimeter in other areas of life just because there is no guarantee.   Another reason for this common fallacy is that one minor adjustment in itself does not solve the problem and therefore, why bother.  This logic is flawed.  When you adjust for one millimeter here, a gram there, and another millimeter here, they will synergistically contribute toward the outcome you want.

Adapted from article by Amadeo Constanzo, life.SpirFit.com , September 14, 2015
(You may freely post and distribute this article if and only if you include this statement with the link or URL to the original article or website.  More CATW Practices and lessons are available at SpirFit.org  Send questions and inquiries to healthsciencewriter@gmail.com )

Writing Directions

Read the passage above and write an essay responding to the ideas it presents.  In your essay, be sure to summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s most important ideas. Develop your essay by identifying one idea in the passage that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance. Support your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in school, and/or personally experienced.

Remember to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that will help your reader follow your thinking.  You will have 90 minutes to complete your essay.

If you click "like" or if you tweet this page, it would encourage me to post more like it and more frequently.  Because I teach these writing workshops in CUNY, I am among the first to get new information.

For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

For more interesting readings that will improve your career and your life, feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

Academic Calendar: Keep an Eye on It

Tweet Follow @AmadeoConstanzo

Looking at the academic calendar is one of the most important things to do at the beginning of every semester and throughout every semester. This applies to all students, tutors, faculty, and staff members.  Why this is so important is explained at the bottom of this blog.  Academic calendars can be found at:

Kingsborough Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.kingsborough.edu/sub-registration/office_of_registrar/Pages/academic_calendar.aspx


In Alphabetical Order

Baruch College Academic Calendar
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/registrar/due_dates.htm

BMCC Academic Calendar
http://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/calendar/academic_calendar.jsp

City College of New York Academic Calendar
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/current/registrar/calendar/

Guttman Community College Academic Calendar
http://guttman.cuny.edu/academics/academiccalendar.html

Hunter College Academic Calendar
http://registrar.hunter.cuny.edu/subpages/academic_calendar.shtml

John Jay College Academic Calendar
http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/acalendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=8/26/2011&todate=12/31/2011&display=Month&view=DateTime

Kingsborough Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.kingsborough.edu/sub-registration/office_of_registrar/Pages/academic_calendar.aspx

Laguardia Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/Academics/Academic-Calendar/

Queens College
http://www.qc.cuny.edu/registrar/calendars/Pages/default.aspx  (Click the correct semester under "Important Dates" section.)


Why the Academic Calendar is So important
I know of a tutor who, when he was still new to the college, did not bother looking at the academic calendar. On one Tuesday that was a Monday schedule (as indicated on the academic calendar), he did not show up for the labs and workshops he was supposed to be teaching that day, because he did not pay attention to the academic calendar and therefore did not know about the schedule change for that specific date.

Keep an eye on the academic calendar throughout the semester. Enter the holidays and the days of schedule-changes (conversion days) into your personal calendars, Google Calendars, or smartphones. Such a simple action will prevent problems.


For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

Feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

Feel free also to choose the “Subscribe” options on the right side of this page.