5 Meaningful Alternative Spring Break Ideas

5 Meaningful Alternative Spring Break Ideas Image via Pexels 1, Give Back Through United Way: There are so many different ways to volunteer your time and give back through alternative spring break trips, and one meaningful way to do so is through United Way. The organization started “Storm Corps” in 2006 to give students an opportunity to help clean up and rebuild places affected by Hurricane Katrina. Now, United Way offers different spring break trips which focus on assisting and addressing issues in urban areas, like building affordable housing. You can visit the official United Way site for more information about their opportunities! 2. Get Your Hands Dirty with Habitat For Humanity: Habitat for Humanity is known for bringing communities together by building affordable homes for those in need. If you love carpentry, building, or just having a chance to offer your service for a greater cause, an alternative spring break trip with Habitat would be great for you. There are hundreds of locations across the country, so no matter where you’re located, there will be a chance for you. On what to expect, Habitat writes, “Students arrive on Day 1 and participate in activities that help them get to know the community, the family with whom they are building and each other. The next five days are spent working on the build site, with evenings free for activities, bonding with the team or just to relax.” 3. Explore Your Horizons and Volunteer Abroad: Alternative spring breaks aren’t exclusively reserved for domestic trips in the country, there are plenty of opportunities abroad as well! Some of the volunteer work you can do includes temple renovation efforts in Sri Lanka, organic farming in South America in places like Belize or Ecuador, or rescuing dogs and cats in Nepal. There are several different ways to be of service abroad, just be sure to do your research and be in touch with a counselor/advisor at your school to make sure everything looks legitimate and safe. 4. Reconnect with Nature: Reconnecting with nature is important on so many levels. For one, it helps us to get away from the stressors of daily life, and two, it humbles us to remember life is so much greater than what we think sometimes. An alternative spring break trip that focuses on nature can be both relaxing and rewarding for you! For instance, the American Hiking Society has volunteer vacations where you can help to clean and better different nature trails across the country through shoveling, trimming, and cleaning hiking trails. 5. Make a Difference with Disaster Relief Programs: Unfortunately, natural disasters are far too frequent. Whether it is devastating wildfires, catastrophic hurricanes, or deadly earthquakes, natural disasters are always occurring, which means there are always people who are in desperate need of help. For an alternative spring break, consider connecting with an organization that is dedicated to disaster relief of a cause you are connected to. Recently, there have been wildfires in Australia, earthquakes in Puerto Rico, and many more places where people need basic necessities like food, water, clothing or access to medical assistance. Image via Pexels There may be plenty of students are heading to tourist vacation spots this spring break, but that doesn’t mean that choosing to experience an alternative spring break trip is less significant. Not only can you give back to worthwhile causes, but you can also meet new people, make friends, have fun, and create lasting memories along the way!

Literature 101 Surviving Character Analysis - TutorNerds

Literature 101 Surviving Character Analysis - TutorNerds Literature 101: Surviving Character Analysis Every student from elementary school all the way through AP classes will have to learn how to analyze a literary character. Some students will easily pick up on imagining what it was like to be a different person in a different time period. On the other hand, many students struggle to understand what it would be like to be another person and often veer away from reading their literature assignments. Once a student stops reading a book from cover to cover and starts taking shortcuts, they are in danger of lower grades and test scores, as well as a general misunderstanding of literature and reading comprehension. So how does a student learn to empathize with a character and create a successful character analysis to hand in for a grade? 1. Choose a character similar to yourself Trying to analyze a character who is almost entirely different from oneself is not the right place to start and will frustrate students who have not learned earlier steps. Instead, they should start with a character who is like them in many ways. For example, if a student is 15 years old, female, interested in skateboarding, and living in Southern California, she should look for a literary character who is also a teen, also female, and also sporty. She can then write a character analysis without having to use too much empathy for a character she doesnt understand (READ: Tips Form an Orange County Tutor: Keeping Study Sessions on Track). 2. Start small Students who attempt to write a five paragraph, in depth character analysis without first having practiced on a smaller scale often become confused and frustrated. It’s recommended that students start with a simple 5-7 sentence, one paragraph analysis of a character in a book theyre currently reading. 3.  Make an outline Many literary students suffer from writers block because they simply dont know where to start. This is very common but can be overcome through basic organization and the creation of an outline. For example, students should consider the following questions. A. What is the character’s age/gender? B. What time period does the character live in? C. What are the struggles that the character is currently facing? Most characters in literature are facing some sort of struggle so that they can grow and persevere. (Students are always encouraged to look for the struggle or difficulty that a particular character is facing.) D. Who does the character react to and why? For the most part, characters will react differently to other characters throughout the novel. For instance, does the character always react negatively to their sibling? (In which case there might be a more complex issue with a brother or sister.) Alternatively, is a character always happy to see their next door neighbor? (A positive character bond has been identified.)   This will help students analyze the relationship between primary and secondary characters. 4. Share the analysis with a classmate or tutor When writing the first several character analyses, its important for students to ask an intelligent classmate or tutor to have a look at their work. Because this will be extra work for students, its essential that theyre on the right track before they move on to their second and third analyses. Both study groups and educators can help students figure out what went well and what they need to improve upon and can save them from additional frustration in the future (READ: Five Tips for Success in English Class). In short Learning to analyze a character is something that will be important all the way from first grade through the end of AP classes. Its important that students master this skill sooner rather than later so they can receive high grades on class assignments and also remain engaged in their school reading list as well as novels they read for fun. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us post about.