The "Do the Write Thing" program challenges students to reduce violence and its impact on their lives.All across America, students are rising to the challenge of doing something to end youth violence. The Do the Write Thing Challenge gives middle school students an opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives. Through classroom discussions and writings, students communicate what they think should be done to reduce youth violence. In addition, they make personal commitments to do something about this problem.

This innovative resource provides teachers with a road map for designing a comprehensive writing curriculum that meets Common Core State Standards. The authors zero in on several big ideas that lead to and support effective practices in writing instruction, such as integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening; teaching writing as a process; extending the range of the students' writing; spiraling and scaffolding a writing curriculum; and collaborating. These ideas are the cornerstone of best reseach-based practices as well as the CCSS for writing. The first chapter offers a complete lesson designed around teaching narrative writing and illustrates tried-and-true practices for teaching writing as a process. The remaining chapters explore a broad range of teaching approaches that help students tackle different kinds of narrative, informational, and argumentative writing as well as complexities like audience and purpose. Each chapter focuses on at least one of the uncommonly good ideas and illustrates how to create curricula around it. Uncommonly Good Ideas includes model lessons and assignments, mentor texts, teaching strategies, student writing, and practical guidance for moving the ideas from the page into the classroom.

DECIDE is the first book in a series of seven, speaking to how we can manifest the lives we really want as opposed to simply getting what we get. The first step is to simply have more than an idea but to be specific as to what it is we want. DECIDE is also meant to show that not only is it possible to get exactly what you want, but that we create our reality even now as we speak. DECIDE is but the first step in understanding just how we've been creating our reality up to this point as it is intended to take the mysticism out of the law of attraction and bring it into the realm of "real life" terminology and out of the realm of magic or superstition by pointing out that the law is you. DECIDE is meant to be your practical guide to becoming conscious of not only what we've been doing, but also of just what we are capable of. DECIDE is not only filled with ancient, proven wisdom, it also includes real life examples of the author's life to show how these principles play out in real life as opposed to simply reading about the law of attraction and how it has quite probably been playing itself out in your life but you may not have recognized it.

The Writing Productivity Bundle contains three books: The 8-Minute Writing Habit, Write Better, Faster, and Dictate Your Book. THE 8-MINUTE WRITING HABIT Ready to establish a consistent writing habit, once and for all? Monica Leonelle digs into the best literature on forming habits and shares the top strategies professional authors are using to make sure they write each and every day. Each tip is easy to implement and will get you writing more in the "in-betweens"—the inactive moments of your life where you are commuting, waiting in line, or otherwise physically stuck with your brain unoccupied! If you've struggled to find time to write due to a day job, family, or an active, busy lifestyle, this book will help you clear your blocks around writing for good and get you writing more often, just a few words at a time. For writers who still haven't found their rhythm and don't have time for long experiments, tracking spreadsheets, or full pomodoros—establish a writing habit that actually fits into your life! BONUS: This book includes the full 8x8 Challenge: 8 days to implement the very best shortcuts to writing more, 8 minutes at a time! WRITE BETTER, FASTER In 2012, fiction author Monica Leonelle made a life-changing decision to learn to write faster. Through months of trial-and-error, hundreds of hours of experimentation, and dozens of manuscripts, she tweaked and honed until she could easily write 10,000 words in a day, at speeds over 3500+ words per hour! She shares all her insights, secrets, hacks, and data in this tome dedicated to improving your writing speeds, skyrocketing your monthly word count, and publishing more books. You'll learn: - The Writing Faster Framework that Monica used to reach speeds of 3500+ new fiction words per hour - The tracking systems you need to double or triple your writing speed in the next couple months - The killer 4-step pre-production method Monica uses to combat writer's block, no matter what the project is! - The secrets to developing a daily writing habit that other authors don't talk about enough - How Monica went from publishing only one book per year from 2009-2013, to publishing 8 books in a single year in 2014 For serious authors, both beginner and advanced, who want to improve their output this year! Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day will help you kick your excuses and get more writing done. As part of The Productive Novelist series, it explores how to hack your writing routine to be more efficient, more productive, and have a ton of fun in the process! DICTATE YOUR BOOK Ready to get on board with dictation (finally)? Like many tools that have come before it, dictation is a new and exciting opportunity to write better, faster, and smarter. But many writers still believe it's not for them. Perhaps they've tried it in the past and it hasn't worked. Or perhaps this new technology is confusing, expensive, or frustrating and that's held them back from taking advantage of it. If you're ready to take the next step and learn a new skill set that will give you a huge advantage over what other authors are doing today, grab Dictate Your Book and start working through the challenges that are holding you back from reaping the benefits of dictation. It includes: - Why you need to get started with dictation, even if you tried it before and hated it! - All of Monica’s best tips for making dictation work for you, whether you writing fiction or nonfiction - Every piece of equipment Monica recommends, plus half a dozen ways to test dictation before you buy - How to reimagine your writing process to accommodate dictation and how to get that clean draft easily - Monica’s full setup for her innovative Walk ’n Talks which helped her hit 4,000+ words per hour For authors who are ready to take their productivity to the next level, this book will help you get started!

Data is at the center of many challenges in system design today. Difficult issues need to be figured out, such as scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability. In addition, we have an overwhelming variety of tools, including relational databases, NoSQL datastores, stream or batch processors, and message brokers. What are the right choices for your application? How do you make sense of all these buzzwords? In this practical and comprehensive guide, author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate this diverse landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications. Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectively Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools Navigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity Understand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are built Peek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.