1 . The Music Educator Award, this year, went to Annie Ray, an orchestra(管弦乐队)director at Annandale High School.She was recognized for her efforts to make music accessible to all students, particularly those with disabilities.Ray got to attend the awards ceremony in Los Angeles and bring home a $10,000 prize.

Ray created the Crescendo Orchestra for students with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as a parent orchestra that teaches nearly 200 caregivers a year to play the same instrument as their child.Ray also works with a local charity to give damaged instruments a second life in her classroom.

The orchestra is about much more than just making music.The most important is to give students a chance to develop their cooperation skills, make mistakes and learn the art of refining something.Ray pushes her students to be brave, go outside their comfort zone and realize they have to learn how to make bad sounds before learning how to make good sounds.And they teach her a lot in return.” They changed my educational philosophy.I understand what it truly means to meet a student where they’re at and apply that elsewhere,” she said.

The warm reception on the ceremony was meaningful.Actually, not many people understand what exactly music educators do or how much their work matters.While her administration is supportive, that lack of understanding is a problem facing the profession in general.Another is resources.She says her school “desperately” needs new instruments.She will use some of her prize money to buy more.

Ray also plans to put some of the money towards an ongoing scholarship for students who want to pursue music when they graduate.She knows of several, those particularly interested in music, and aims to offer financial support needed to realize their musical dreams” It is hard but truly satisfying,” Ray said.“And there’s nothing else like it for them.”

2 . As to psychological well-being, the comfort zone is frequently perceived as a haven, a familiar location where individuals feel calm and peaceful. Pushing beyond this psychological state might have benefits.

The comfort zone can be understood as a behavioral metaphor. Within a comfort zone, an individual takes on a state of minimal anxiety without a perception of risk, responding predictably to deliver a consistent level of performance. These include behaviors that people do commonly, find relaxing, or that take them away from high-stress situations. Engaging in the same manner over time leads to a predictable and familiar zone of comfort. As creatures of habit, we become dependent on these routines that we know we can complete well to feel secure. However, by stepping outside of our comfort zone, we learn about our ability to handle new situations and control risks, leading to greater self-confidence, and lower levels of anxiety.

One study found that individuals who are more secure in stepping out of their comfort zone are more likely to be excited by and look forward to new experiences, feeling greater confidence in their ability to take them on.

One behavior that demonstrates the benefits of stepping out of a comfort zone is learning to play a musical instrument. When we consider actions outside of our comfort zone, we must assess our desire to engage in that activity. By weighing the pros and cons, we evaluate how uncomfortable a situation may seem, and whether the danger of entering such an unknown situation will be worth the risk.

Music offers a safe way to step out of your initial comfort zone because you can begin by practicing in an isolated setting, which offers a casual, safe way to build a new skill set. By picking up and practicing a new instrument, you have proven to yourself that you are capable of meeting an unfamiliar objective, thus decreasing anxiety.

5 . While many animal populations seem to dwindle, one species that is moving in the opposite direction of such loss is America’s native wildlife — wood stork.

The wood stork is the only stork that breeds in North America. In 1984, it was declared an endangered species after its population decreased sharply to just 5,000 mating pairs. At the time, scientists predicted that the bird would become completely extinct by 2000. Today, it numbers 10,000 mating pairs, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a delisting of the wood stork as an endangered species. So how did the population bounce back?

The success is in part down to the resourcefulness of the wood stork. The wood stork’s native home was in the Everglades in Florida, but it migrated north as the Everglades were being destroyed by development of mankind. Wetland preservation and restoration, protection of nesting areas, and management of water flows began with the approval of the wood stork’s first recovery plan in 1986. In the following year, former Savannah Coastal Refuges biologist John Robinette noticed stork nests in Georgia as stork populations moved to safer wetlands.

According to Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Endangered Species Act is also to thank for this recovery. She said, “The act saved the wood stork and it helped preserve and rebuild vital habitats throughout the southeast, which has improved water quality and benefited countless other species who call the area home.” “The Endangered Species Act has saved 99 per cent of the species that were on the list since 1973. A hundred types of plants and animals have been delisted as their populations become stable again.

If the wood stork is delisted, it will remain protected by other laws and a monitoring plan will be put in place to ensure the population remains stable.

7 . To much of the world, bullfighting has always been distinctly Iberian. But these days, parts of France are laying claim to this tradition. From the Cte Basque to the arenas of Arles and Beziers, it has spread to towns where bullfighting has long been banned, and been embraced with such enthusiasm you’d think the sport had been born there.

The rising passion for blood and sand has been resisted by animal-rights activists. Last month someone set off a bomb near the bullring in Carcassonne. Yet France’s enthusiasts fiercely defend their right to these moral rituals. Bullfighting, they insist, is part of the heritage, an expression of a shared regional culture that should be protected.

The rest of the Continent should take note. The paradox (自相矛盾) of an ever-more-united Europe is that as borders between member states become less important, so do the nations themselves-and regional identities are valued. It’s easy to forget that most European nation-states were created as we know them only during the 19th century, after a long series of bloody conflicts. “If the chances of war had been a little different, all the regions sharing bullfight might have been together,” argues Jean Michel Mariou, a huge fan of bullfighting. On both sides of the Pyrenees there are Basques, there are Catalans, there are common cultures, he says. “Bullfighting is only one expression of it.”

Bullfighting isn’t the only cultural tradition that has begun to go beyond borders, of course. To name but one other: the Celtic revival, built largely around musical groups along the coast of Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall, Brittany and Normandy. But while bagpipes (风笛) may stir the blood, they don’t spill it. And the violence of bullfighting horrifies many people who don’t feel they share in its culture.

“The concept of lasting local tradition doesn’t mean anything anymore,” says Josyane Wuerelle, coordinator of the Federation de Liasions Anti-Corrida in Agde. Bullfighting is about attracting tourists, not honoring local history, she argues. Robert Marge doesn’t see it that way, of course. He recently declined an invitation to organize a bullfighting in Paris’s enormous Stade de France. “We didn’t want to sell our souls by bringing bullfight to a region where it doesn’t exist,” he explains. But he has also got the sense to know that some traditions don’t travel well.

8 . This 3-mile stretch of sand and tide pools beneath a castle of 80-foot cliffs is a California tourism poster if there ever was one. Nothing disturbs the perfect, sunny view, except — once you’re aware of them — microplastic particles (颗粒). But you have to look close-on-your-hands-and-knees close-to see one. And once you do, you see another and another — so many that you may not think of this, or any beach, the same way again. These tiny preproduction plastic balls that manufacturers (生产商) melt down to form everything have been escaping factories, container ships, trains, trucks — and public notice — for decades.

The 2- to 3-millimeter, multicolored balls are a subset (子集) of microplastic-plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size. Microplastic particles accumulate where water takes them, and they’ve been found on shorelines of every continent.

Dr McReynolds is an environmental scientist who’s now joined a global movement studying their trail into the environment. Establishing a baseline count of the presence of microplastic particles — and, more broadly, any microplastics — is the focus of Dr McReynolds’ scientific study here. Charting the count, noting tide, current, and weather conditions will show if amounts are increasing, and perhaps at what rate and why. That knowledge, he says, can inform solutions to plastic pollution such as regulation of their use.

“What are you doing? Picking up trash?” asks a steady stream of beach walkers whenever Dr McReynolds’ crew walks onto the beach and sets up equipment. These are teachable moments for Dr McReynolds.

One recent morning he told some beach walkers how microplastic particles are believed to absorb toxic chemicals, and — because they resemble fish eggs — are eaten by fish and birds and enter the food chain. Almost right on time, a seagull hopped up to a plastic-coated photo of microplastic particles and hungrily pecked (啄食) at it.

Will his work help save the world? Dr McReynolds waves a finger at that idea, “I won’t ever use that word — I won’t save the world from this pollution problem. Preserve it, yes. We want to take care of it.”

9 . “Bike buses”—adult-led group bike rides to school — are taking over neighborhoods. Many families are abandoning cars and starting a sweatier morning ride with friends, biking in organized groups led by grown-up volunteers. The effort is a call to fight against climate change, encourage exercise and reduce school drop-off traffic. And both parents and kids say it just makes the children happier.

Minneapolis dad devil Olson organized a bike bus for his local school zone. Olson says cycling create connectivity between all walks of life.

Six years ago, Olson partnered with Minneapolis Public Schools to run a 2- mile bike bus that dropped off students at two elementary schools. So far, Olson has led 11 semi-annual bike buses that have grown from about 60 participants to nearly 150. “We meet at 8 am. To play soccer and football, and eat do nuts,” said Olson. “Then we review safety measures and start our ride. It’s nothing but laughing, shouting and pure joy.”

The group makes about eight stops along the way to pick up children, many of whom are accompanied by parents. “We want kids to celebrate going to school,” explained Olson, adding that the kids who participate enjoy opportunities to communicate with students in different graded.

In San Francisco, lake Bornheimer co-runs SF Bike Bus, which organized city-wide school routes, with the goal of inspiring people around the country to start bike buses. “Our first 3- mile ride included more than 100 kids, families, and adults in one trip to school,” said Bornheimer. The bike bus experience has reassured parents who were otherwise nervous about their children biking around traffic. “Our hope is to create a bike bus for every school in San Francisco,” he said.