I lay in the hospital bed with my six-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, holding her in my arms. "Mommy, will you stay with me the whole time?" she asked, looking up. "You know I can't be in the operating room," I said carefully, not wanting to frighten her. "But Daddy and I will be waiting right outside." Elizabeth nodded, but she stills looked anxious.
Elizabeth had broken her right leg in July. Seven months later, it still hadn't recovered. In fact, it had gotten worse. She was here in the hospital for surgery.
I wanted to promise that this would be the last time she'd have to go through this and that everything would be okay. But what if something went wrong again? How could I comfort my daughter when I needed comfort myself?
There was a knock at the door. A nurse? I thought. Time to say goodbye already? But the woman who came in wasn't a nurse. "Hi," the woman said. "I'm a volunteer here, and I've got something for Elizabeth." She handed a bright-blue box to my daughter.
Elizabeth sat up and took the box. She opened it and started pulling out goodies one by one--candies, stickers, a lovely toy in the shape of a star. She hugged the star, cheering up for the first time since she entered the hospital. "Thank you," she said. "I love them." There was a big smile on her face. It has been so long since I saw that big smile.
The gift was a great comfort not only to my daughter, but also to me.
Teachers at an Atlanta elementary school hold a mirror up while students shout positive affirmations (肯定) to themselves. "We live in a tough neighborhood in Atlanta. It's good to plant those seeds (种子) here," a teacher said.
In a video that recently went viral (迅速传开), fourth-graders at Gideons Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia lined up to shout positive affirmations to themselves in a mirror while their teachers cheered them on. "I am smart!" "I am a good person!"
"The idea came from something I practice with my 5-year-old daughter," said Neffiteria Acker, the teacher seen in the video holding the mirror." When we're on our way to school, I have her repeat affirmations to me, starting with, ‘I am.' Usually, I just ask her to tell me something good about herself. She'll say, ‘I'm a fast eater,' or, ‘I'm a fast runner.' Then I'll add to it, ‘You're also really brave.'"
"It lifts her confidence. So I thought, ‘Why not bring that to the classroom? ' " she added.
Cierra Levay Broadway, the teacher who filmed the video, said she was moved while watching the students shout their affirmations. "It was an amazing moment," she said. "I was really astonished when I saw the kids and heard what they were saying. For a lot of them, it was the first time they'd ever done that."
The teachers understand the importance of building self-confidence at a young age, especially for students who do not have such an opportunity at home.
"In our neighborhood the kids hear a lot of negative things about themselves. So a seed of self-love is the best seed to plant, and all Broadway and I have to do is water it," Acker said.
Here at The Literacy Site we're big believers in playtime. So is one school in Texas, following the tradition of many schools in Finland (芬兰). And now research is on board too.
Debbie Rhea, a researcher from Texas Christian University, designed the program now in place at Eagle Mountain Elementary, in which children have four 15-minute recess (课间休息) periods throughout the school day. She heard about the success of the Finnish school system and decided to take a trip there to study it. When she returned, she began working with schools here in the U.S. to do something similar.
At Eagle Mountain Elementary, students now get three times as much recess as they used to have; outdoor time has been swelled from 20 minutes to an hour each day. The program also focuses on helping kids develop character instead of just test-taking skills.
Since carrying out the program, teachers are noticing that their students are more attentive and less restless. They make more eye contact, have better test scores, and seem to be healthier and happier overall. They even need to sharpen their pencils less because they spend less time chewing (不停地啃) on them. Schools in three other states are starting a similar program after seeing this one perform so well.
In other areas of the country, however, schools have been cutting back on playtime to squeeze in (使挤入) longer lecture periods to prepare kids for standardized tests.
Cutting recess is, no doubt, a decision made with good purposes. But is the traditional lecture-and-test method really effective? Does reducing recess time make more learning happen? The results of recent research say no. A 2014 study showed that the benefits of high-quality recess programs include a drop in bullying and conflicts (冲突), and an increase in the amount of safety and happiness students feel. Children have even been shown to learn better immediately following a break like recess, according to research done by Robert Murray, an expert at Ohio State University.
"If you want a child to be attentive and stay on task, and also if you want them to understand the information you're giving them, you've got to give them regular (经常的) breaks, he said.
Habits Of Highly Successful Students
Never Over-Study
When you spend too much time studying you will quickly lose focus and the time spent in studying will become ‘junk time'. You think you're studying but you're just sitting there re-reading the same sentence about 100 times and you're not getting anywhere. Instead, take regular breaks.Besides, it will give your mind some time to take in what you have been doing.
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Top students don't just randomly sit down and complete work. They actually plan what they are going to do: They actually plan the time they will study and they set goals for what will be achieved. If you want to be successful, do as successful people do. Set a plan and, set a goal and stick to it, which will create a routine and a routine is the first step towards developing a habit..
Front Up To The Toughest Work First
Many of us like to do the easy things first to build our confidence. That's fair enough. The only challenge with this approach is that you use up your primary energy at the start of any study period and so if you are dealing with the easy parts with your primary energy your batteries will be low when it comes the time to deal with the hard part. So what happens then?We all do it. We really shouldn't, though. So develop the habit of giving your primary energy to the hard tasks and completing the easy stuff last.
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Do we really have to explain this? Just turn them off for an hour, we promise the world will still be there when you log back in! Don't text your friends, don't chat while doing memory activities，don't make phone calls, just focus on what you're doing. Even if you focus on work' for 15 minutes followed by 5 mins of chatting, it's better than 30 minutes of work while also chatting! You get that right?
A. Plan Your Study
B. Achieve Your Goal
C Positive habits decide future success.
D. Taking breaks can make you get everywhere.
E. You get tired and impatient and just give up.
F. Get Off Social Networking Sites And Turn Off The Phone
G. Taking breaks will make you energetic again and refresh your mind.
During my quiet moments I often think back to the days when my children were young. Life was hard and very 1 for me then, because I had a(n) 2 and challenging job. I worked from morning to night.
Then I was ill in hospital. After I 3 , I went back to work, only to be told I would be 4 . The company was making budget (预算) cuts, and 5 to lay off (下岗) some workers. I was one of them. My boss handed me an envelope (信封). I was 6 when I opened it and saw the check (支票) I had received. It was 7 enough to get us over the difficult time. I was 8 , though, and left the company.
Every coin has two sides. Then my children and I had the 9 of our lives as a result of my getting laid off. I 10 a great deal of money on childcare, and we discovered how much 11 we could have on a small amount of money. We did all kinds of activities and led a 12 and happy life together.
The week before my unemployment benefits ended, I found a part-time job at a local pharmacy (药房). I 13 during the hours my sons were in school. I kept the job for eight years. The 14 I got there enabled me to find a similar job 15 I moved to another town.
When I think back to the days I 16 my job, I realize that although I was sad then, it was the 17 thing that had ever happened to me. 18 being laid off, I had the 19 to spend quality time with my children, and even to find a more 20 job to balance my role as mother and employee.
A new group of free employees have been added to a French workforce. So far, a theme park in western France (employ) six birds, more exactly six crows (乌鸦), to collect and deal with garbage-- mainly cigarette ends and other small pieces. The birds take the (collect) rubbish to special bins where they can receive bird food in exchange putting away the litter.
Park president Nicolas said, "The purpose of employing the crows is to educate people to take up their social (responsible). Since the birds are able to do people are supposed to do, we should do this by ourselves."
Crows have long been observed for their (amaze) intelligence. They are one of the (smart) groups of animals on earth, with remarkable problem solving, tool making, and deductive reasoning skills.
In addition to inspiring humans to pick up trash, the clever crows are currently working at the park are pretty excited to put their intelligence to work.
"It has become exciting game for them," Nicolas says. "They pick up the trash on the ground, and every day they (reward) for what they have done."
1）现状说明；
2）具体措施；
3）发出倡议。
注意：
1）词数80左右；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
We were out to change the world. This was our time, our senior year. My best friend Beth and I had big dreams and hopes for our last year in high school.
"Kris, did you see the girl standing by us in the lunch 1ine—she looks so lost, so out of place." We had heard of a family that had just moved to our town from the country of Cambodia. We knew there was supposed to be a new girl at our school from that family, but we had yet to meet her until now.
Lucy was a small dark-haired beauty. She was starting her freshman year in this new country. She struggled with the little English she knew and that made it very hard for her to get to know people in our small town.
In most cases, students of the same grade would sit together. We watched in the lunchroom from our "Senior Table". This table was reserved (预留) for our "senior sports jock (运动健将) friends," and no one else. Most of the time, Lucy would get her lunch tray (托盘) with the rest of we students but she always kept her head down with her eyes focused on the floor. She would then head to the table of the freshman class. Unfortunately, it was the table for the most popular girls in the freshman class. Every single day Lucy would sit at the very edge of her seat and eat as fast as she could. She kept her eyes fixed on her food and we never, ever saw her look up. We would watch quietly as the other girls were interacting with each other at her table. They would make gestures to one another and laugh at Lucy while she ate.
As we paid attention over the next week, we never heard anyone at her table say "Hi" to Lucy. We decided to try our hardest to let one lonely girl know that there were people who knew she existed.
Para1: We sat with Lucy at the freshman girl's table.
Para2: From then on, Lucy began to change.
