Happy Smiles Ripple Like Sunshine

I like happy people. I like smiles. Happy people with smiles drop like a fat stone in small pond, rippling their waves of joy to the outskirts of our beautiful planet.

So poetic.

The best way to spread your own pond-ripples is to do something nice. To help us make the world a better place, I'm going to share a few nuggets of wisdom from Jen. I don't know Jen, but she makes some cute embroidered brochures that "promote positivity" in the world. I am going to spread the love and share her wise words with you:

Yes, smiles brighten bad days even at the grocery store. And don't forget the basics:

I like the one about taking someone's cart at the store after they are done shopping. So simple, and I could have done that last night if I wasn't such a rude dude. It's so easy to do nice things for people, and yet sometimes we need an embroidered post-card just to remind us.

So here is my question: What is one simple, specific way that you can make the world a nicer place? 

To my student bloggers: On your own blog, think up a way to show your niceness to the world (if you're a grouchy jerk, then I guess you'll have to fake being nice. Not to worry--if you fake it long enough, it will probably rub off on you and true niceness will shine through like a golden beam of rainbow sunshine).

Describe what you're going to do to change the world, and then go out and DO the nice thing in the next couple of days. Next week, we'll post about how our nice little social experiment worked out.

For now, work hard, and BE NICE.

Students, Start Your Blogs

Student bloggers and other kind visitors: Click on this post of pure genius in order to find out what you should write about for your first post.

Man, where does this guy get his ideas?

Anyway, feel free to comment. But most importantly, go to YOUR OWN blog and start your life as a writer.

Dumb Punctuation Sign

National Punctuation Day has come and gone with absolutely zero fanfare. Nevertheless, I start teaching the almighty apostrophe next week.

For a quick lesson in how NOT to use the apostrophe, check out "The Dumbest Sign of the Year" over at the National Punctuation Day website.

National Punctuation Day

I teach English, and I've never heard of it either.

The 8th National Punctuation Day arrives September 24, 2011, and there is a clever little contest to go with it. If you're interested, here are the rules:

Write one paragraph, maximum of three sentences, using these 13 punctuation marks: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. You may use a punctuation mark more than once.

Head over to the National Punctuation Day website and knock yourself out.

Advice For Commenting on Blogs

Leaving a comment sounds like a no-brainer. Really, who hasn't commented on a picture or status update on someone's Facebook? But what works with one group of people on Facebook doesn't always fly with the readers you encounter in the blogosphere. In order to avoid making ourselves look foolish, here are a few tips on how to leave a decent comment on a blog.

 These are not all-inclusive guidelines, and there might be room for disagreement on some of them. However, if you have never commented on a blog before, or if you have but need a bit of advice, here are some good starting points.

I pulled these from the blog Digitally Speaking.

The following tips for blog commenters are adapted from the collective work of Kelly Gallagher, Matt Copeland and Project CRISS:
To be an active blog commenter, start by carefully reading the original post and then working your way through the comments that have been left by others. While viewing the comments that have been added by other users, you should:

• Gather facts:  Jot down things that are interesting and new to you.
• Make Connections:  Relate and compare things you are hearing to things you already know
• Ask Questions:  What about the comments that have already been made is confusing to you?  What don't you understand?  How will you find the answer?  Remember that there will ALWAYS be questions in an active thinker's mind.
• Give Opinions:  Make judgments about what you are viewing and hearing.  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Like?  Dislike?  Do you support or oppose anything that you have heard or seen?  Why?

And now the DO NOT:

1. EVER USE YOUR REAL NAME OR THE NAME OF YOUR SCHOOL!  Remaining anonymous is the safest way to add comments to blogs.
2. Ever respond to anyone who says something mean or inappropriate.  Always find your teacher if this happens!
3. Forget to proofread your posts.  Tons of errors will make people think that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
4. Be afraid to challenge the thinking of other people!  Some of the best learning happens when people are forced to rethink their ideas.

English Answer Man Returns!

Yes, the English Answer Man is back. After taking the summer off to enjoy all that Southern California summers have to offer, I'm looking forward to another year of blogging with my young proteges.

What brilliant ideas and interactions await us this year? Will anyone emerge as a master of puns and wit? Will anyone top last year's prolific blogger of the year?


I'll start off the fun with a pun, a pic, and a quote:

 

In the words of the mysterious Edgar Allan Poe: "Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them." 

Best wishes to you all.