To begin with here is a classic website that helps learn tenses both traditionally and the fun way!
It is called English Tenses With Cartoons.
I will be adding how I teach tenses in the Class soon! Till then, take care!
Other References I found useful:
My Place for English has a cute little table of Tenses – Downloadable
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Posted by Komarraju Venkata Vinay
Expansion of an idea or expansion of a proverb is simple and straightforward. It involves 5 easy steps. They are:
Step 1: Understand the symbol of the words in the proverb: Most proverbs or ideas are symbolic. The name of place or animal or thing or person stands as a symbol of some quality. We have to try to understand that in the context of the proverb.
For example take the proverb, ‘Rome was not built in a day‘. Here the noun ‘Rome’ is the name of a place. We also (should) know that Rome was a great city. So what does Rome stand for? It stands for Greatness or success. (Remember it was a great city).
Or take the example of ‘All that glitters is not gold‘. Here we have the noun ‘gold’. It is the name of a thing. We know that gold is a precious metal. So what does gold stand for? It stands for precious.
Step 2: Substitute the meaning in the idea or the proverb: Take the two previous examples.
‘Rome was not built in a day’ and ‘All that glitters is not gold’. Now substitute the symbols we found out earlier in the sentences. What do we have?
The proverb is now decoded and ready for understanding.
Step 3: Look for a story or anecdote or example or illustration: Now that you have understood what the proverb stands for or what the proverb means, we should look for a suitable example to illustrate it.
Where do we get these stories? There are plenty of them. Aesop’s fables are ideal. So are the tales of India, the Panchatantra.
We can also look for example from today’s world. We could, for example, for the proverb ‘Rome was not built in a day’, talk about the effort put in by Barack Obama to achieve greatness, and that it took many years to build it, that it did not happen overnight.
Step 4: Look for similar proverbs or ideas: “Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success” by Napoleon Hill is similar to ‘Rome was not built in a day’; so is the proverb ‘Do not judge the book by its cover’ similar to ‘All that glitters is not precious’.
Step 5: Sum up the paragraph: Use summing up words or phrases to indicate that you have finished the expansion and intend to sum it up. You could use ‘Thus’ or ‘In fine’ or ‘So’ or ‘The proverb advises that’. Let the reader know that you are signing off.
So we have 5 Steps on ‘How to do expansion of an idea or expansion of a proverb’:
Step 1: Understand the symbol of the words in the proverb
Step 2: Substitute the meaning in the idea or the proverb
Step 3: Look for a story or anecdote or example or illustration
Step 4: Look for similar proverbs or ideas
Step 5: Sum up the paragraph
This is how I do expansion of an idea or expansion of a proverb.
If you have anything to add or any question to ask, please feel free to leave a comment.
Related post from Komarraju Venkata Vinay
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Posted by Komarraju Venkata Vinay
The Golden Rule of Cultivating Habits is this: work on ONE habit at a time. This principle is the foundation of cultivating Good Habits. We must remember this at all times.
In the Step II to good habits we will look into these:
Shifting from Avoidance of Pain to Desire for Pleasure Mode
Both modes of motivation – avoidance and desire for – work. Let us look closely at them.
The habits we call ‘Good’ – getting up early in the morning, exercising, reading an hour a day, learning a word a day, positive thinking, tolerance, compassion – are essentially beneficial to us. You can add your own list also.
The catch is that they do not produce pleasure immediately. The pain of forming them is greater than the pleasure.
Getting Up Early: How I Did It
I used to get up at 7 am in the morning and I decided to cultivate the habit of getting up at 5 am, the task was uphill. All the benefits, I knew, come after I leave the bed and it is leaving the bed that is painful. You get the point, don’t you?
Getting Up Early: What Did Not Work
This is what I used to do till I discovered the principle of pain and pleasure. I would in fact get up a few times to check the alarm. At times I would switch off the alarm or even change it. Or if it rang, I would simply shut it down. And go back to sleep happily. My guilt would return only after I got out of bed an hour or two later. Then I would vow it would be tomorrow. And tomorrow.
Getting Up Early: What Worked
Now this is what I do and get up joyfully.
I discovered that if I enjoy (pleasure principle) getting up, then getting up is easy. I also found out that getting up in the morning begins the night before as I go to bed.
I repeat to myself that I enjoy getting up. And in the morning as the alarm rings, I tell myself that I am enjoying getting up. I roll around telling myself I enjoy getting up. I stretch, twist, bend. I make the entire process of getting up pleasurable.
It takes about 10 minutes and I am up, up and awake.
The Shift to Pleasure Mode
All it takes to shift is this: make the process pleasurable. More often it is the pain in the process that is the biggest hurdle to cultivating good habits. Find your pleasure drives to form good habits.
The Rule of 21
It takes 21 days to form a habit. We all heard that, didn’t we?
I always wondered why. Why 21 days? I looked around knowing well that it is all in the brain. Habits definitely had their origin in the brain.
We discussed earlier in The First Step that habits are formed as a result of neural pathways in the brain. These are physical pathways which control the way we think, the way we act and often the way we feel. These paths are like ruts or grooves. They are hardwired, programmed.
Psycho-Cybernetics
Dr. Maxwell Maltz, M.D, F.I.C.S, a world renowned plastic surgeon in his book Psycho-Cybernetics explains: ‘It usually takes a minium of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change…when an arm or limb is amputated the ‘phantom limb’ persists for about 21 days…people must live in a new house for 3 weeks before begins to ‘seem like home’.
Brain circuits form memory traces called engrams and produce neural-connections and neural-pathways only if they are fired for 21 days in a row.
That did put my quest to rest. 21 days to a better me. A renewed me. A rewired me. A revitalized me.
End of Step-II To Read Step 1 Click Here
Step III will discuss these key points:
Step IV will discuss these key points:
Related posts from Affirmative Thinking
The First Step to Cultivate Good Habits
Related posts from the web
Every habit is regulated by neurochemical patterns – Dr.Ajit
Creating New Neural Pathways – Sue Kira
Two Competing Neural Pathways in Your Brain
Related thoughts of Great Men and Women
“Only 10% of us die naturally from old age in our sleep. Another 10% die prematurely from bad luck. The rest of us — all 80% — will kill ourselves with bad habits.” – Dr. Lee Rice
“Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.” – John Eliot, Ph.D.
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Posted by Komarraju Venkata Vinay
I just started updating my blog and suddenly traffic started pouring in. Initially I had no clue and later when I checked my stats, 64 hits came from http://alphainventions.com.
I am not a computer guy. I am a writer, a poet. Though I do not understand how it http://alphainventions.com works, this I know: it is a traffic magnet. It is Real-time Interactive Blogging.
http://alphainventions.com is designed by Cheru Jackson. More information is at http://alphainventions.wordpress.com.
In the image below you will notice that 64 hits have come from http://alphainventions.com. In fact, it is the busiest day of my blog. And God knows how delighted I was!!
Indeed http://alphainventions.com is an alpha among inventions.
Thanks again to Cheru Jackson. And his brilliant idea!!
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Posted by Komarraju Venkata Vinay
John Dryden observed that we first make our habits and then our habits make us. How true! Studies have shown that about 45% of our actions are habitual, that our brain consciously processes only 40 out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses.
Amazing! Is it not time we realized that our success or our health or our prosperity is based on the habits we form?
This is a three-part article. In the first step to good habits we will look into these:
What Are Habits?
The thoughts we think and actions we perform repeatedly become automatic. These automatic thoughts and actions are called habits.
A habit once formed does not involve conscious thought. It becomes automatic. Getting up early, exercising daily, positive thinking, taking the dog for a walk in the morning, writing a diary are all examples of habits. Habits help to perform complex actions easily. Imagine having to learn how to brush the teeth everyday.
The Brain Behind Habits
A habit, any habit, is first a thought, a simple electro-magnetic bio-chemical signal in the brain. This in turn triggers (’fires’) another brain cell and that activates another brain cell, like a line of falling dominos creating a pattern or a pathway.
Once a pattern is formed, the brain finds it easier to work in the pathway. And with each repetition, the pathway becomes stronger. And a habit is born. This is how the brain forms habits.
It is important to understand this process because change also happens in the brain.
The Principle of Pain and Pleasure
I always wondered what drives us until I understood the principle of pain and pleasure. It is simply this: we are willing to do what we perceive will give us pleasure and are unwilling to do what we perceive will result in pain.
A little analysis shows all our actions are based on the desire for lasting happiness and removal of pain and want. Our habits – good and bad – are built on this common, universal motive.
This principle is important as cultivating a good habit is about using the right pain-pleasure trigger.
What Motivates us: Pain or Pleasure?
We are in general more motivated to move away from pain than move toward pleasure. In other words, our desire to avoid pain is however greater and more intense than the desire for happiness or pleasure.
Take a few seconds to think about it. Let it sink in. Now ask yourself, ‘What motivates me, pain or pleasure?’ Here are a few questions:
Once we learn what motivates us, cultivating a good habit or removing an unwanted habit becomes more streamlined, scientific.
What Are Good Habits?
Our brain does not know the difference between a good habit and a bad one. So how do we know what is a good one or a bad one?
The answer is pretty simple: Whatever is healthy for the body and is strengthening to the mind is good.
Cultivating Good Habits
In order to cultivate good habits, we have to first identify them. How do we do this? By becoming aware of how strong our strengths are, by noticing what is needed to progress towards our goals, our desires, our aspirations, our dreams.
Once we identify the necessary habits, we can start working on cultivating them. There are many proven methods. All of them are however based on four indisputable Ds: Determination, Diligence, Discipline and Drive.
The Golden Rule of Cultivating Habits is this: work on ONE habit at a time.
End of Step I
Step II will discuss these key points:
Step III will discuss these key points:
Related posts from Affirmative Thinking
I am today the result of my thoughts
Related posts from the web
Habits can be Both a Boon and a Bane to Humans
People are motivated by pain than pleasure
Related thoughts of Great Men and Women
Powerful indeed is the empire of habit – Pubilius Syrus
The skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame – Virginia Woolf
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Posted by Komarraju Venkata Vinay
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