Deciding my spring break destination

Guest post written by Mike Carlyle

My roommates and I decided that we definitely wanted to go somewhere for spring break. But we had a really hard time figuring out exactly where we wanted to go. We weren't even sure if we wanted to go somewhere with a beach or a city for fun. Then we argued about budget too and how we should get wherever we were going.

While we were arguing about that earlier this year we decided to sign up for an internet package that we found on the website SatelliteStarInternet.com while we were looking up trip destinations.

Well, after much deliberation, we decided on the spring break idea of Panama City Beach, Florida. We decided that it would be better to just go somewhere that's really warm. But instead of paying more for Cancun, we decided on PCB where a few of our friends were already planning on going for the break anyway. I think that we'll be glad that we can hang out with more people from school in a place that isn't too expensive and caters to college students.


Reading many different authors helps you learned English skills because it exposes you to many different phrases, and also covers many different topics. Seeking out different things to read should be fun, and enjoyable. Articles about food, like the guest blog above, cars, engineering, current events, and anything else you might be curious are good topics for you to read so you improve your English skills. If you are interested in something, search for articles about in English. Look up any words that are unfamiliar to you in a good dictionary. Many are found online, just like translators.

Biscuit Toast

Guest post written by Donna Burlington

One of my favorite things about fixing biscuits is that once they're a day old you can make biscuit toast with them! I've always thought that biscuit toast is so much better than the regular biscuits that they start out as. I'm not sure if anyone else calls it that though or if it's something that my mom just made up a name for heated up biscuits.

I really had a craving for some biscuit toast over the weekend, but every time I've had biscuit toast it's been at home. So I went online to find a good biscuit recipe so that I could make a ton of biscuits and then enjoy a lot of biscuit toast. While I was looking for recipes, I came across a website WildBlue! Deals.com and after I read through it a little bit, I decided to change over my home service to the service.

I did finally find a recipe for biscuits that was well worth going to in order to make some biscuit toast later. I think I could live off that stuff.

Reading many different authors helps you learned English skills because it exposes you to many different phrases, and also covers many different topics. Seeking out different things to read should be fun, and enjoyable. Articles about food, like the guest blog above, cars, engineering, current events, and anything else you might be curious are good topics for you to read so you improve your English skills. If you are interested in something, search for articles about in English. Look up any words that are unfamiliar to you in a good dictionary. Many are found online, just like translators.

I'll be posting some guest posts here soon.

I hope you enjoy them. They won't be by me, but by guest posters. This means I will be able to bring you many more posts on topics I wouldn't usually cover. The more you read, the more you improve your English skills. If there are any topic you'd like to read about, let me know. I can help you search for them.

Just for the Sports Fans (and Those Interested in Learning About American Sports)

If you are interested in learning about how to bet on different American Sports, click here. I'm not interested in American sports, even though I'm an American. Since I'm not interested in them, I can't really teach about them, or how to bet on them. I know many who are learning English are also interested in American culture, and this is an excellent resource for you. Many Americans bet on different sports.

What I do know about American sports is minimal, but I do know that soccer is starting to become quite popular. Other sports include basketball, football, baseball, bowling, golf*, swimming, aquatic dance*, dancing*, wrestling, sailing, fishing, skating, ice skating, horse racing, boating, and the list goes on. The asterisks (*) indicate sports that are considered to not be a sport, but rather an activity by some people. Some people debate on if these are really sports at all.

PS: That is a betting site, where they teach you how to make bets on who is going to win in a game or match. When you win BIG, don't forget me!

For Other Teachers - Excellent Resource

Great source for those who want to teach ESL/EAL to students. It helps you teach better, and helps students learn more easily! You can have a class work on up to 20 projects together. They have free and paid options. Check it out and see which one works best for you.

They're, Their, and There

These are problem words, even for native speakers of English. They are phonetically identical, but it is the spelling that causes confusion. So this is more of a writing lesson, than a pronunciation lesson.

They're going to be happy because their package is there at the house.

'They're' is the same as 'they are', so the sentence could be written as They are going to be happy because their package is there at the house. 'They're' is a contraction, much like could've for 'could have', didn't for ''did not, and so on.

'Their' is a possessive word. It means more than one person, at least two are involved in the possession of the noun in question. If only one person was involved in the possession of a noun, then the word used would be either 'his', 'her' or 'hers'. If the sentence had been about a man, it could have been written 'He'll be happy his package is there at the house.' You can change he'll to she'll and his to her if you wanted to write the sentence about a woman. It would read then like this: 'She'll be happy her package is there at the house.'

'There' is a location word. 'Here', another location word, is closer to the speaker or writer than 'there' is. 'There' shows that distance exists between the speaker or writer and the noun in question. Remember, 'there' and 'here' do not rhyme. 'There' rhymes with 'air', 'dare', 'bear' but 'here' rhymes with 'ear', 'gear', and 'mere.'

The sentence 'They're going to be happy because their package is there at the house.' shows that the people will be happy that the package belonging to them is at home.

Possessives

Some possessives use an apostrophe, while a few do not. Its is not the plural form of it (this is possible, but that is an unusual usage of the word, and will most likely be covered later). Its is the possessive form.

When speaking about a dog, for instance, you might say 'This dog has lost its collar!' but another way to express the same thing is to say (or write) 'The dog's collar was missing.'

When a girl or a woman has something, it is her or hers. For example: That is her camera. or That camera is hers. We might say 'that camera belongs to her. She owns the camera.

With a boy or a man, we would say That is his camera. or That camera is his. We could also say 'That camera belongs to him He owns the camera..

Other possessive words are ours, our, theirs, their, mine, my, your, and yours.

The subject determines which form, and the possessor determines which possessive word you should use.

Here are some examples:

Those are ours.

Those are our cameras.

Those cameras are ours.

That is our camera.

******

Those are theirs.

Those are their cameras.

Those cameras are theirs.

That is their camera.

******

Those are mine.

Those are my cameras.

Those cameras are mine.

That is my camera.

******

Those are yours.

Those are your cameras.

Those cameras are yours.

That is your camera.

If you paid attention very closely, you may have noticed that the sentences with your and yours matched up with the sentences that used our and ours. All that was different in those written sentences is that there is a 'y' in the 'your' and yous' sentences.

Just remember, 'your' and yours' do not rhyme with 'our' and 'ours'! 'Your' and 'yours' rhymes with 'ore' and 'ores' (like iron ore, or silver ores, in the ground), and 'our' and 'ours' rhymes with 'hour' and 'hours', which are time words.

In the Midwest, 'hour' rhymes with 'shower'. 'Our' and 'ours' rhyme with 'shower' and 'showers'.