Community Service Bilingual Tutoring - Is It Helpful to Volunteer For a Job?

Community Service Bilingual Tutoring - Is It Helpful to Volunteer For a Job?When you decide to volunteer for a job, whether it's at a non-profit organization or an employer, there are many other good reasons for volunteers who need to get trained in a class called 'Community Service Bilingual Tutoring'. This class is for people who need help learning about English.As you can imagine, classes can be challenging and they are not like classes taught at the local high school or community college. Class takes place on a daily basis while meeting with people in a one-on-one environment. Class subjects vary from French to Spanish, from Latin to Greek, from Yiddish to Spanish, and more.One of the great things about community service programs is that they are designed so that they do not look like any other classes, as they have a variety of different ways to teach. For example, in addition to a group session, these programs also allow for conversations, to teach songs and stories, and even t o teach each person how to speak a second language. But all of the conversation is in the specific language that the student needs help with.There are other sessions that take place in the same way as a conversation, but it is not spoken in English. So for these participants, the purpose of the class is to teach their second language without going through all of the common problems of other language learning methods.Community service bilingual tutoring classes are always taught by people who are experienced in teaching in a classroom setting. They know what works and what does not, and also what kinds of communication are most effective in teaching these skills to someone who is learning English.Most importantly, this program will put the student's attention on the language and help them learn the language well enough to begin speaking it in everyday situations. Because it has the other benefits that a bilingual language course would, it can really change a person's life. It can mak e them feel more confident in their new language and help them become fluent.And it also helps to learn English as a second language, if that is the desire of the student. That way, it is easier to practice speaking the language in situations where only a native speaker can be present. It also is useful for those who need more practice with their English skills, so that they can then go on to talk on a regular basis.

What are the Main Elements of Creative Writing

What are the Main Elements of Creative Writing The Crucial Things to Consider in Creative Writing. ChaptersThe Main Elements of Prose Fiction.The Main Elements of Screenwriting and Stage Writing.The Essential Features of Poetry.Other Creative Writing Skills You Need to Know.Like all artistic endeavours, there is no one skill that creative writing demands. Rather, it is a collection of lots of different skills and elements that need to hang well together.Creating a compelling character, for example, is not the same skill as writing a beautiful description of a place or action. Nor is profundity and originality of thought the same as metrical fluency or ability to rhyme.All of the different elements of creative writing require different skills â€" and to write a masterpiece they all need to coalesce, balance, and complement each other. A novel with a cracking plot can easily fall down if the characters aren’t convincing, or if the writing style is clumsy or jarring.When you are writing your own work, fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, you will need to ensure that you practice all of the skills that you will need to make your work a marvellous whole. And that means cracking every single one of these main elements of creative writing.So, let’s take a look at what they are â€" for your fiction writing, your poetry writing, and your playwriting. Whilst some elements are shared between forms, they feature in different ways.At the end, we’ll take a look at three of the main skills that are relevant to all of the major forms of creative writing too. Find out more in our article,  What is Creative Writing? Why not take a creative writing degree? CalumDrama School Entrance Teacher 5.00 (15) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ToriSpanish Teacher 5.00 (1) £15/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors OliviaSchool support Teacher 5.00 (2) £21/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MarkESOL (English) Teacher 4.76 (17) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors YuweiChinese Teacher 4.33 (6) £19/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JenniferMusic reading Teacher 5.00 (1) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LouiseAutoCAD Teacher 5.00 (3) £60/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RickyPercussion Teacher 5.00 (7) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NicolasGuitar Teacher 5.00 (2) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MyriamOrganic chemistry Teacher 5.00 (13) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JonathanEconomics Teacher 5.00 (9) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors Oluwakemi imoleMaths Teacher 5.00 (1) £30/h1st le sson free!Discover all our tutors AlexPhysics Teacher 5.00 (1) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AdamSinging Teacher 5.00 (14) £48/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ValentiniMusic reading Teacher 5.00 (2) £50/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MilenaMaths Teacher 5.00 (5) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RashmiEconomics Teacher 5.00 (1) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsThe Main Elements of Prose Fiction.Prose fiction is the form of creative writing that is written in continuous prose â€" and that is fictional... Forms like the short story and the novel fall under this category, whereas prose texts such as the personal essay fall under the remit of creative nonfiction.In prose fiction, you are going to be wanting to create compelling character and engaging plots â€" enabled by convincing dialogue strong descriptive writing when it is necessary.Character Development.Some people will tell you that character development is the mos t important element of novel writing. And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.Characters are the things through which you propel your narrative forward, and they are vehicles through which you explore your theme. But they are more than that too: they are what make people remember books, they are what allow people to relate and empathise.Making time to think about who you want your characters to be is a crucial part of writing fiction.Plot Development.What is it that happens in your novel or piece of short fiction? A novel needs to have some forward motion, there needs to be some sort of events, conflicts, tensions, crises, and resolutions. Unless you are Samuel Beckett or Raymond Queneau, of course, who determinedly wrote books in which nothing happens.Despite this, there has to be a reason why your audience will keep reading. Plotting out the main events â€" even if these are purely cerebral happenings â€" can help you make sense of the structure of your fiction.Dialogue.Writing c onvincing dialogue in an age of realism is a notoriously difficult skill. Yet, it is one of the really crucial elements of effective fiction.The novelist, Will Self, has spoken of how, during his writing process, he would go to cafes just to listen to people talk. Listening carefully to the cadences of real speech enables you to render them well â€" whilst banal imperatives like ‘write like you talk’ are never quite as easy as they seem.Whilst writing dialogue, think about whether the speech in your fiction needs to be directly spoken, or whether it can sit indirectly in your prose.Find out how to improve your creative writing! Want to write a novel? Try a creative writing course.Descriptive Writing.Another major feature of fiction writing is writing the scenes themselves, the flesh of the world that you are creating.And one of the most important writing techniques in this is knowing what actually needs to be said. What are people wearing and where do they live? What details does your audience need to know? What can you leave out without harm? Too much irrelevant information bogs down the flow of your piece.Finally, how are you going to write this? To learn how to write well â€" in terms of the cadence, fluency, and sound of your sentences â€" is just as important as everything else here.The Main Elements of Screenwriting and Stage Writing.Now, it is a little unfair here to collapse writing for screen and writing for stage. The professional writers among you will surely have something to say about this.Yet, the difference between writing a text to be read and a text to be heard is huge â€" and if you are ju ggling both prose and drama, you’ll need to keep this in your head the whole time. Good writing in theatre or film is not the same as good writing when you are writing a novel.Dialogue.Dialogue, of course, is the main element of these texts â€" and you will need to hone your dialogue skills if you hope to stand a chance in the world of scriptwriting.A screenwriter and playwright needs to use dialogue in a different way. Dialogue is the action on stage â€" as much as it is the character. And it is much more alive than it can possibly be in a book.Character.On stage or screen, there is no way to verbally describe a character as there is in a book. You can show them, yes, or you can reveal their nature through the things that they say.A creative writer therefore needs to feed details about their character through that character’s own words, or through the words of other characters.The characters need to be more unified too â€" as they don’t have the markers that they can hide beh ind in novels.Check out our introduction to creative writing for more!The Essential Features of Poetry.You’ll see that creative writing courses split up those people interested in writing poetry from the writing program for novelists. This is because reading and writing poetry is completely different to writing fiction, or even drama: being a good novelist does not make you a good poet â€" and vice versa.In a poetry workshop you will focus on completely different things than you would in a creative writing course for fiction or creative non-fiction. In poetry, language takes on a different form, a difference as large as that between travel writing and technical writing.Metre.If you are a poet yourself, you won’t need to be told that the crucial feature of poetry is metre and rhythm. Take a writing sample from any poet in the history of English and you will see that rhythm takes centre stage.Finding a way to write both naturally and within the confines of the form is the great ne gotiation that a poet has to make, so that metrical alertness becomes second nature within the creative process.Structure and Form.Are you going to write an ode or a sonnet, a ballad or a limerick? And how do you engage with the specificities of these forms once you have made that decision? Moreover, indeed, how have you made that decision, and why?As the very essence of a poem, the form is the thing that gives the poem sense. And according to your personal poetics, you’ll give it that sense you feel most appropriate.Meaning and Symbolism.When we write poems, what happens to language? Does it become more compressed? More ambiguous? More symbolic, allusive, elusive?‘Meaning’ in the conventional sense doesn’t quite function in the same way. Language shimmers here, whilst it takes on much more of a solid form in a poem.What you are trying to say â€" or what you want the poem to be â€" matters. Someone's been busy with their creative writing...Other Creative Writing Skills You Need to Know.All of the above are elements that you will need to decide on with the form of your creative piece â€" whether a prose poem or a selection of personal essays.However there are elements of creative writing that go unseen in the finished work. These are the processes of research, planning and editing, which hold the book together and bring it into existence.Research.Research is everything that happens to a text before it is written into words. It is the ideas, the inspirations, the considerations of style, the factual details and descriptive phrases that you need to pin down and be sure of.No novel is possible without research.Planning.Planning brings together the research with the framework you will create. How is one event or idea going to follow the next one? And why? And is that the best way to do it?Editing.Once you have finished your writing, you still have more writing to do. That wr iting is what we conventionally call editing.Find out about jobs in creative writing!

How To Plan Your Budget For Your Trip To Portugal

How To Plan Your Budget For Your Trip To Portugal How Much Will Your Holiday Cost When You Visit Portugal ChaptersThe Price Of Accommodation In PortugalHow Much Does Portuguese Transport Cost?Let's Eat Portuguese Food, But How Much Is It?The Price Of Sightseeing In PortugalHow much will your holiday cost when you visit to Portugal? It is a subjective question. Because sightseeing, accommodation, food, the duration of your trip all mean that your holiday to Portugal can be more or less expensive depending on the type of traveller you are and depending on the choices that you make.A traveler who does some camping and cooks for themselves from supermarket brought foods and hitchhikes around the country will spend much less than the person who stays in a 4-star hotel, takes taxi’s everywhere and eat in Michelin star restaurants.Of course, only you can know yourself and your habits, and with this knowledge, you need to come up with a sensible budget for your trip. When you are on holiday, and you want to enjoy everything that the country has to offer, the bill can quickly rise.Here are some travel tips for your budget, whether for a romantic weekend to a cobblestoned town, white sand beach,  or a city break to Lisbon, Porto, or Madeira. Let’s prepare your budget! IrineuPortuguese Teacher £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors GabrielaPortuguese Teacher 5.00 (2) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JoanaPortuguese Teacher 5.00 (1) £12/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LouisePortuguese Teacher 5.00 (2) £27/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RodrigoPortuguese Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors BlancaPortuguese Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors CarolinaPortuguese Teacher 5.00 (5) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AdamPortuguese Teacher 5.00 (6) £11/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsThe Price Of Accommodation In PortugalModern villa, charming apartment, private rent, castle, palace or unusual tipi, from the most beautiful sandy beaches of the Iberian Peninsula to the Spanish bor der, finding the ideal holiday accommodation during your stay in Portugal can be done in different ways.Although when you leave home, you won't pay your household bills for things like food or electricity. You will still have costs when you travel, and one of the largest of these costs is the transport/airfare and then the accommodation.To find out the price of your accommodation you first need to ask yourself what is more important to you. Price or comfort, Although you can have both good pricing and comfort it is not guaranteed once the price of your accommodation falls below a certain range. Certainly travelling as a backpacker is not the same as travelling in luxury.Your stay is dependant greatly on the type of accommodation, the comfort of accommodation, the services offered and the location of the accommodation.   For example, camping will not be the same price as a 4-star hotel, they do not have the same facilities or probably even clientele.Generally speaking, like with many other countries, the price of housing increases when one gets closer to big cities and in the Summer months.  A Traveller Staying in the heart of Lisbon (capital city of Portugal) Coimbra, Faro or on the Atlantic coast does not require the same budget as a small accommodation in the smallest towns or countryside.You can guarantee a comfortable stay in Portugal, from about € 50 a night for a double room.  For example, in Lisbon, the four-star TURIM Lisboa Hotel welcomes you for around €54 a night.  Outside of the capital, in smaller cities like Porto, you can enjoy a night with breakfast for an average of €42.Airbnb bookings are much more advantageous for singles and groups.  You can meet Portuguese people and rent from them anything from a room, a studio or an entire house / large apartment and divide the price by the number of holidaymakers.  An option like this will cost about  â‚¬30 per night.If you want to meet new people as you travel, especially if you are alone and wou ld like some company. A bed in a youth hostel  could be an excellent solution for you and the price drop significantly with this option. With prices for a bed from about €8+.If you have an interest in meeting the locals and having completely free accommodation, then you can use a solution like Couchsurfing.  The site connects travellers with locals who want to offer a sofa or even a room for one or more days.  It is a great way to meet Portuguese people while saving money.Portugal cities to sandy beaches, from historical castles to religious monasteries, from bustling modern cities to mountainous villages with cobblestone streets. Photo Source: UnsplashHow Much Does Portuguese Transport Cost?Once you have your accommodation sorted for the destinations that you will visit. Then you should start to think about your itinerary and plan the best places to visit and which transport you will need to get around the city/country if you plan to travel around.Getting Around Travel TipsTo vis it a museum, go to the restaurant to taste the pasties of Belem, take a day trip to a neighbouring town or just go out dancing and listen to Fado music. It is not always easy to do everything on foot, and so you will need to hire transport or use the public transport system where ever you are.For example:In  Lisbon,  taking the metro costs € 1.40In  Porto, you will have to pay € 20.The  famous yellow tram in Lisbon Portugal will cost you € 85.How To Move Around PortugalTo change the city, take a day trip to the cities around your location or start your road trip. You will have a few possibilities,Hire a carTake public transport such as the train, coach or bus.Hitchhike - The more adventurous can use this to go from one city to another and discover the country without having to pay for a train or bus.  This method not only saves money but also takes  advantage of the transport time to ask your driver for the best places to visit in the country. Try to learn some Portuguese if y ou want to try this option so you can get to know the driver.The bus is the cheapest form of public transport however if you book in advance you can save a lot on the price of train and coach tickets. It costs roughly about  20 € for a trip from Lisbon to Porto by bus and 30 € on the train. However, the bus will always take you longer so it may be worth paying extra to save time especially if you are on a short trip to Portugal.  Prepare to fall in love. Portugal has secrets waiting to be discovered.Let's Eat Portuguese Food, But How Much Is It?Again how much you spend on food will depend on if you are a foodie searching for Portuguese Heritage on a plate or if you prefer to miss the Portuguese food to save a few euro. Portugal is a land flanked by Coastline on one side, With its long Stunning Atlantic coast Landscape, it's impossible to overlook seafood and fish dishes.Visitors have plenty to eat and enjoy with cod-based recipes being the most popular fish cooked by the Portugu ese. If you choose to go  to a restaurant, expect to spend from around 13 € for a meal.  This will be enough to fill you up and give you a drink to enjoy. If you are happy to pay more, you can enjoy a feast with a starter, main course and dessert.  It is also possible to eat in cafeterias or fast food chains in shopping centres for about  6 € to 8 € per person.And if you decide to go  shopping in a supermarket you can spend as little as €15 - €50 per week depending on what you like to eat.A practical guide for your trip to Portugal. Photo Source: UnsplashThe Price Of Sightseeing In PortugalPortugal, in addition to counting many scenic and picturesque landscapes, can boast many Awe inspiring sites, Journeys to the Coastline, Enchanting cobblestone towns, waterfalls, Roman ruins, tourist monuments, the Azores archipelago and a long list of Unesco world heritage sites to visit.No matter what your itinerary, Portugal will offer a colourful and enchanting journey for any touris t. Let’s not forget white sand beaches and other sea discoveries. While a lot in Portugal is free, there are some heritage sites, museums, and other kinds of tourism that carry a small charge. For example:The beach is freePortuguese museums charge  between € 3 and € 10 for admission.A  city tour in a City Tour bus in the cities including Bustling Lisbon will cost from 20 € to get a ticket.Some tips can lower the price of entry to monuments or museums in Portugal. For example, if you are a student, you can benefit from a 50% discount on some of the best places.  Some museums are even free for Europeans under 26 years old.The Lisboa Card, which is a discount card for tourists which offers free access to 25 museums and free public transport. Costs between €18 and €39depending on the number of days of use.Many museums and monuments are completely  free on the first Sunday of each month so if your trip coincides with this make the most of it.Avoid the tourist streets which te nd to have much higher prices. It is well known that restaurants and shops close to tourist attractions are particularly expensive.  To eat at a decent price,  stay away from historic centres If you want to have a cheap holiday in Portugal or treat yourself with some luxury. Everything is available because Portugal is accessible to all kinds of budgets and travellers. Once you make up your mind about how you want to travel, you will then be able to make your budget and make the most of your visit to Portugal. Have a good trip!

Graphing Linear Function

Graphing Linear Function Graphing linear function involves graphing function with one and two variables. Linear functions are the functions having independent variable x never having power greater than 1. Linear function can be written in slope intercept form:f(x) = m x + b where x and y are the co-ordinates on the graph, m is the slope of the line and b is the y- intercept. Slope shows how steep the line is. Let us see some examples based on linear functions. Example 1:- Form linear function for the graph. Solution 1:-The linear function in the form f(x) = m x + b From the graph it is clearly seen that y- intercept =2 so b= 2. The slope of a line can be find by taking any 2 points on the line. Slope of line (m) = change in y axis / change in x axis. From the graph slope of a line = 0.5 Therefore the linear function f(x) = 0.5 x + 2 or y = 0.5 x + 2. Example 2:-Draw graph of linear function f(x) = y = 2x + 7 Solution2:-Assume values for x and use the function f(x) = 2 x + 7 to find values of y When x = 1 then the value of y = 2(1) + 7 = 9 When x = -2 then the value of y = 2(-2) + 7 = 3 When x = -1 then the value of y = 2(-1) + 7 = 5 Now plot x and corresponding y values in the graph Draw a straight line that passes through the points. From the above examples we can clearly understood graph of linear functions.

Why Would I Need a Guitar Strap

Why Would I Need a Guitar Strap Advice for Guitarists on Selecting the Right Strap and Properly Holding Your Instrument ChaptersFive Parameters to Think about When Choosing a Good Guitar StrapChoosing the Material of the StrapChoose a Guitar Strap of the Right SizeThe Fastenings and Attachments of the Guitar StrapChoosing a Guitar Strap According to Aesthetics“To master the guitar, it takes ten years per chord,” according to a Spanish proverb.It is often said that learning to play the guitar is the work of an entire lifetime.For there is always something to learn, even for virtuosos like B. B. King (1925-2015), Chuck Berry (1926-2017), Paco de Lucia (1947-2014) or Biréli Lagrène. Be it a Gretsch that you play or a Stratocaster, or even a mandolin, it's a lifetime of pleasure.Nevertheless, even if we can always continue to progress, everyone can have fun even at the beginner level, as soon as we manage to string together a few basic guitar chords.Whether we are novices, experienced, or professionals, every guitar player has already had to confront the difficulty of choosing a guitar and its acces sories:PickCapoStringsTunerMetronomeAmplifiersJack plugs for electric guitarHeadsetA book for practicing and tablaturesThere is guitar accessory that is often skipped over: the guitar strap.However, this part is fundamental: without it, no one can play the guitar standing up, nor perform concerts for those who are in a music group.Buying a guitar strap can become a crucial challenge, almost more important than choosing the guitar itself.The strap must be high quality. To put it crudely, having good “stuff” allows for good playability as well as musical comfort. Imagine stand on a stage for two hours with a strap that is too short or not comfortable. What would Joe Satriani do without one, for example?A guitar without a strap quickly becomes unplayable.Superprof lists here all the criteria to take into account to choose a good guitar strap and properly holding your instrument before your first guitar lessons.playing on a beginner guitar, the strap won’t come undone during a con cert, a jam session, or a rehearsal.Choosing a Guitar Strap According to AestheticsString instruments undoubtedly reflect a certain style: the guitar player is often at the front of a stage, everyone watching him or her although there are numerous instruments behind them, such as brass instruments, percussion, wood, wind instruments, etc.With the guitar or bass strap, the musician gives himself a certain look depending on the different patterns, inscriptions, and colors of the strap.Personally, I wouldn’t opt to wear, for example, a pink guitar strap decorated with skulls or flags.It’s a matter of personal taste.None of the guitar straps for sale at the music store are attractive? Are they too colourful? Not original enough?And does the array of guitar strings on display boggle your mind?There is a site, Strap Graphics, where you can design your own strap that matches your particular look. Cool, right?Start taking guitar lessons for beginners today with Superprof!

Pattern-Making Basics for Fashion Design

Pattern-Making Basics for Fashion Design Mastering Fashion Design Basics: Pattern-Making ChaptersWhat is Pattern Making?How Can I Make My Own Dress Pattern?Where Can I Learn to Make Patterns?How to Adjust My Patterns?Where Can I Buy Sewing Patterns?There is simply no way around it: for humans, clothing is essential.So is looking decent â€" not that your Superprof is deeply concerned about appearances but, in these times so dominated by social media influencers, looking shabby is looked down on.The idiom The clothes make the man  has never been truer!Doesn’t that make you wonder why the clothing industry seems determined to only outfit people of average height and weight?It’s true! If you are tall, more than, say, a size 16 and/or irregularly shaped, you have to either shop for clothes at speciality stores or resign yourself to an ill-fitting wardrobe. Unless…Unless you know how to sew, in which case you can make all of the clothes you want, tailored to your exact measurements.Of course, you could always go to the dressmaker’s or tailor every time you need a wardr obe addition but have you seen the price of bespoke clothing?That is a great reason for you to engage in dressmaking â€" or tailoring, if you are male.Other great reasons are that you have a unique sense of style that you would like to express through your clothes, you are interested in fashion but not quite sure you want to make a career out of it, or you might be looking for a new outlet for your creativity.Whatever your reasons for entertaining the idea of home sewing, we applaud you.So, whether you are a student contemplating a career in fashion design, looking for your next ‘new thing’ or fed up with clothes that never seem to fit right, it’s time to gather ‘round.Your Superprof is about to tell you all about pattern-making and how you can make it work for you. RaySewing Teacher 5.00 (6) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors PrincessSewing Teacher 5.00 (2) £18/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AnaSewing Teacher 5.00 (4) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ArianwenSewing Teacher 5.00 (2) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ShaziaSewing Teacher 5.00 (2) £10/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ZanetaSewing Teacher 5.00 (1) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors GianmariaSewing Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JacquelineSewing Teacher £17/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsWhat is Pattern Making?If you have ever made an article of clothing, you know that it is not a simple matter of clipping fabric, sewing it together and applying appliques to the finished garment.Those sewing projects start with a desire to create but begin in earnest once the pattern is selected, adjusted and pinned.If you are a seamstress, you are familiar with that part of the process, but what comes before it? Clothing patterns start with a sizing template called a sloper Image by Maatkare from PixabayHow do patterns get made?Basically, it all starts with a sloper â€" a block, in industrial terms.A sloper is an unadorned template that pattern drafters use as a guideline to draw patterns; you might think of them as stencils.Most garment makers have several slopers/blocks: a top and a bottom for menswear â€" for shirts and trousers. For women’s apparel, they would have a top, a trouser and a skirt sloper. Both male and female slopers come in a variety of sizes.When it is time to draft a new pattern, the pattern drafter selects the appropriate sloper, traces it on pattern paper and then starts marking it with solid lines for the garment outline and dashed ones for the seam allowance.S/he then goes on to include notches to match the panels up; darts and pleats if the design calls for them. They will also draw in pockets, buttonholes and, if the garment is supposed to be ruffled, s/he will dr aw in the ruffle placement.Much like house builders follow blueprints, dressmakers use patterns to ‘build’ clothing. In that sense, you might call pattern drafters the architects of the garment industry.Now, find out if pattern making has always been so prevalent…How Can I Make My Own Dress Pattern?Perhaps, as a child, you loved to sit around on rainy days, colouring pad on your knees and pencil gripped tightly in your hand. What did you draw?It’s not uncommon to engage in fanciful drawing at a young age so, if you drew knights and warriors in full battle dress or maidens in shimmering gowns or a tunic dress, you already have an idea of what it takes to plan a pattern.You chortle: “It’s a far cry from a child’s drawing to pattern drafting!” We beg to differ.Would you be surprised to know that legendary designers like Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld never went to art school? And Michael Kors dropped out after only nine months. What did they do that you can’t?Whether you have an art education or not, the best way to start a dress pattern is to visualise it. Will it be a maxi dress? What fabric will it be made of? Will it have any embellishment â€" bows or ruffles? What about the bodice?How about dreaming up an open-backed summer dress?Once you have a good idea of the dress you want to make, sketch it out in as much detail as you can… and then, explode it.To get those explosive details, you have to read our step by step account of pattern drafting to learn exactly how to make that dress pattern. Store-bought patterns are pre-cut but, once you start making your own patterns, a rotary cutter is a must! Image by Gábor Adonyi from PixabayEventually, you too may mass-market the patterns you make but, for now, focus on making one-sized patterns; patterns to your measurements.To make your own patterns, you will need:a roll of pattern paperpencils and coloured pencils; having a rubber handy is a good ideascotch tapea tracing wheela 30cm see-through straightedgea French curve (you may also consider a Vary Form curve)an L-squarea fabric tape measurescissors or a rotary cutterIdeally, you should have a large table to work on; a sewing table with lines imprinted on it would be aces!As you might have noted from the shopping list above, you don’t necessarily have to have an artistic hand to guide your pattern drawings; most every mark you make will be guided by a straightedge or a curve.Now that you’ve got your shopping list, you only need to discover the best places to learn pattern making.You may choose between open sewing courses hosted by your local university or college, head to the library to check out some sewing books, or you could take a course in pattern making online.Don’t forget to stop by your local sewing shop to see if they offer courses, too!How to Adjust My Patterns?It’s a paradox: the clothing industry should cater to its buyers; if they don’t, people will simply stop buying… right?Wrong! For years, garment factories have been turning out cookie-cutter clothes that fit only averagely-proportioned people.  Curiously enough, it’s been only recently that the industry has conceived the idea that not everyone fits in a standard size.Thanks to independent designers with a strong online presence, activists and ongoing social media campaigns, there is a growing awareness that limiting sizing is seen as discriminatory.Those are steps in the right direction. Unfortunately, they are baby steps because it simply is not profitable for garment com panies to make a greater range of sizes.Where does that leave those of us who do not fit in that average mould?For the most part, we are still altering the clothes we buy and making our own clothes if we know how to adapt a pattern to our unique body type.You might think that messing with a professionally drawn sewing pattern is a recipe for disaster but, if you follow the hacks we outlined to adapt your patterns, you will marvel at your success in turning out that cute skirt or wrap dress in time for your next night out! Unlike many free patterns you can download, store-bought patterns provide a range of sizes Image by Katja Kuitunen from PixabayWhere Can I Buy Sewing Patterns?Of course, there is nothing wrong with buying a Simplicity or Butterick pattern, especially if you are just starting down the road to making your own patterns and/or designing your own clothes.In fact, it would be a good idea for you, at the outset, to work from patterns so you can get the feel for them.The big names in dress patterns â€" the two mentioned above and others, like Vogue, Lookbook, Kwik Sew, New Look and Burda Style pretty much all follow the same guidelines in making their patterns.Each pattern envelope offers the possibility of up to four designs and comes with instructions, sizing guidelines and, more often than not, fabric recommendations.You might know that not every fabric flows and falls the same way, and some are decidedly more difficult to work with than others.In that same vein, we might say that not all pattern makers are the same, either.For instance, independent designers offer free sewing patterns that you can get as a PDF download; they are a lot less 'crowded' than name-brand patterns you find in stores.Whatever you decide, perhaps it would be best if you spent some time in your local sewing shop, talking with people who have experience in the needle arts.They may be able to give you some pointers on the best patterns for beginner sewing; they may even offer you sewing tutorials.If you’re not sure where your local notions shop is, you may refer to our full-length article on the subject; if you’re certain there are none near you, surely you have a Hobbycraft store somewhere close.Those shop assistants may not be as knowledgeable as an independent shopkeeper would be but, rest assured: Superprof has sewing tutors if you need a sewing tutorial…

10 Free Physics Resources for Teaching Kids

10 Free Physics Resources for Teaching Kids This is a guide for the best online physics resources, many of which I used when learning about physics, and one of which I still use for revision myself as I study at Imperial College London. So, in no particular order . . . . 1. This first website is from the Institute of Physics and is great for learning about lots of aspects of physics. I especially like the teaching astronomy section which features fantastic videos for  11 to 16 year olds and  are great at  grabbing the imagination of kids. One of the key questions tutors are asked is “how can I get my son/daughter excited about science.” Well I say start here! 2. The Physics classroom covers a lot of key physics material that is certain to come up in exams. I particularly like the introduction to  waves by the folks at the Physics Classroom. More advanced students have plenty of scope to learn much more as they become interested, which is perfect for continuing their interest. Good to note that it is also available on iBook and iPad. 3. Providing resources for 9 to 11 year olds and perfect for help with the 11 plus,  Topmarks  is designed with fun colourful games to engage kids in learning about science and hopefully enable a continued interest in science. I have linked a game that teaches about solids, liquids and gases but you can search the site for other interactive games. 4. This is a fantastic GCSE physics site  from myPhysics that goes through each topic covered in GCSE. It’s highly interactive, colourful and easy to use. There should be an A level section coming soon which I am excited about. 5.  GCSE.com   (purely for GCSE surprisingly!) has lots of past papers and also resources to look up material when stuck. Perfect for making sure you have covered everything. They also provide some very simple, explanitory diagrams that hopefully should give a slightly new way at looking at topics. These diagrams may well prove more intuitive for your child.   Well worth a look. 6. I love the schoolphysics website  for its fabulous animations that  illustrate key physics ideas. There are an extensive number of them and they are all very simple and easy to use. If the animations aren't enough there are also thousands of other pages with beautifully laid out content for 11 to 19 year olds. I would particularly suggest anyone wanting to study physics at university to have a look over any content that hasn't be covered in the A level course. 7.  Discovery Education is great for tutors and teachers, as the site has full lesson plans for different topics. Well worth a look through if you find yourself getting stuck on how to approach a topic. 8. Created by Kishore Vyas, a science teacher in West London, My GCSE Science  has a video for every GCSE science topic.   All the videos are clear and, most importantly, designed specifically for the GCSE candidate in mind.  It has foundation videos and then more advanced videos, meaning that the explanations are always pitched at the right level.  Fantastic looking website too! For offline tuition  and inspiration why not head to the Science museum in South Kensington! 9.  Science teachers provides complete worksheets that are engaging and different. Very useful for teachers or tutors.  I find the most important thing when teaching kids science is presenting the material in many different ways. These worksheets are great for that. 10. My list would not be complete without mentioning the wonderful Khan Academy. It started as a way for Khan to teach his niece through videos  he uploaded on YouTube, but before too long they  spread across the world.   I’ll let the videos speak for themselves. If you are looking for extra help, why not try physics private tuition. Find the right tutor for you with Tutorfair. Happy learning!