Story – By the Numbers!

Character a new mother a photographer a recent high school graduate a restaurant owner or manager an alien from outer space a homeless child a 93-year-old woman an environmentalist a college student a jazz musician

Setting near a National Forest a wedding reception a celebration party an expensive restaurant a shopping mall a city park the porch of an old farmhouse a polluted stream a college library a concert hall

Time during a forest fire after a fight the night of high school graduation after a big meal sometime in December late at night after a big thunderstorm has passed in early spring first week of the school year during a concert

Situation/Challenge an important decision needs to be made a secret needs to be confessed to someone else someone's pride has been injured a death has occurred someone has found or lost something someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong reminiscing on how things have changed someone feels like giving up something embarrassing has just happened someone has just reached an important goal

TIP OF THE WEEK:

If you are working in Microsoft Word and find yourself using the same nouns and verbs over and over, the program's built-in thesaurus can make your writing less repetitious. The thesaurus is available from the Tools menu, but there is an even quicker way to summon this handy reference tool.

In most versions of Word for Windows, highlight the word you want to change and press the Shift + F7 keys to quickly open the Reference Tools box. On most Mac versions of the program, highlight the word and press the Shift + Option + Command + R keys all at once to see a list of alternatives.

On both systems, you can also right-click (or control-click) in a selected word and choose Synonyms from the menu to see your options.

By: J. D. BIERSDORFER

iPad vs. textbook: which one do you want?

iPad vs. textbook: which one do you want?

School? There's an app for that. According to the New York Times, an increasing number of schools across the country are replacing textbooks with iPads, and using the Apple gadget as an overall learning tool.

The iPads are being distributed by schools to students and teachers, and allow students to learn lessons, correspond with teachers and turn in assignments. Teachers say the devices let students to have a multimedia experience when learning English, math and more, and help to teach pupils using animation and games.

Schools in New York, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey have already embraced the gadget, and more states are expected to follow. However, the educational value of the hi-tech devices has yet to be proven by research.

"There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines," said Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. "IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning."

But teachers are in full support of the thousands of educational apps available, and praise the physical design of the iPad, which allows students to maintain eye contact with them. The lightweight device also relieves students of heavy, textbook-loaded backpacks, which can cause neck, back and shoulder pain.

Boy rescued after his tongue gets stuck on pole

Boy rescued after his tongue gets stuck on pole

In a scene straight from the movie "A Christmas Story," an 8-year-old Oklahoma boy got his tongue stuck to a metal pole after he licked it on a dare.

Officials say when rescue crews arrived Tuesday morning, the boy was standing on his tiptoes, trying to wriggle his frozen tongue free from a stop sign pole across the street from Woodward Middle School.

Paramedics were able to help the boy by pouring water on his tongue. Once free, the boy told officials he got stuck after his brother dared him to lick the pole.

The boy was taken to a Woodward hospital for treatment.

The scene was similar to one in "A Christmas Story," a 1983 movie adapted from Jean Shepard's memoir of a boy in the 1940s.

**From: Associated Press

What Are Your 2011 Hopes and Resolutions?

by KATHERINE SCHULTEN

 

The Week in Review encourages readers not to feel guilty if they've already broken their New Year's resolutions, and suggests some easy ways to have a "sustainable life." Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them? In general, what are you hoping for in 2011?

In the Sustainable Life issue of the Week in Review, Mark Bittman suggests three basic recipes to help change the way we eat and live, David Pogue writes about ways to recycle tech gadgets, Tara Siegel Bernard explains why budgets don't work, and Tara Parker-Pope explores how long-term relationships thrive. In the introduction to the section, the editors write:

It's the day after New Year's— broken your resolutions yet? No guilt necessary. After all, it's hard enough to make it through a day, never mind a year, of good intentions. The problem is often with the resolutions themselves: Stay financially upright. Be loving to your spouse. Eat better. Recycle. Easy to say, but hard to do. So here, a guide on making those resolutions stick — and keeping the guilt at bay.

Students: Tell us about your hopes and resolutions for 2011, and be as specific as you can in describing what you want and how you'll go about getting it. That is, rather than writing, "I want to improve my grades," tell us exactly what grades you'd like to improve and how you plan to make that happen; instead of writing "I want to have more fun with my friends," tell us what you idea of "fun" is and how and when you can find ways to have more of it. Do you agree with the Week in Review that, in making resolutions, the battle is in "finding ways to close the gap between good intentions and human nature"? What gets in your way?