Helping your teens adjust to their new high school
Switching peer groups, adjusting to a new academic schedule, and leaving behind old friends can be very hard for adolescents. Use these strategies to help your teen adjust to a new school.
Keep a positive attitude
The adjustment period begins before your teen ever steps foot into the new school. Offer a balanced outlook by acknowledging the challenges of moving, but also recognizing that a new school may offer exciting new opportunities. Point out the new opportunities that’ll be available.
Avoid saying things like, “Oh, you’ll make new friends right away, so don’t worry about it,” or “It’s not a big deal. I used to change schools all the time.” Instead, say things like, “I understand you’re worried about how to stay in touch with your old friends.”
Listen to your teen’s concerns
Acknowledge that change can be hard. Comfort your teen by saying you know it will be hard for him/her to leave his/her school and friends.
Your teen might not express their feelings with words but you might see some changes in their behaviour that indicate they are stressed out about the move. Keep asking questions about their biggest concerns. Are they worried about new teachers? Do they doubt their ability to make the basketball team?
Learn about the new school ahead of time
Carry out as much research as possible about the new school before your teen starts attending. Get your teen involved in finding out about the size of the school, the types of classes offered, and extra-curricular opportunities etc. Most schools have websites that offer a wealth of information.
Talking to a guidance counsellor or coach ahead of time can also be helpful. If possible, arrange for your teen to have a tour of the school too.
If at all possible, help your teen meet some students from the new school before the first day. Seeing a familiar face or two when they are the “new kids” can go a long way towards helping them settle in.
Life is full of changes. Someday, your teen will likely need to adjust to a new job, a new home, a new boss, and living with a partner. So changing schools can be a good practice for embracing changes.
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Studies have shown that children from poor families have more difficulty in school than other boys and girls.Children with higher socioeconomic roots seem better prepared and perform better on school tests.
Now, American researchers may have found a biological reason for that difference.They found differences in the brains of students who had low standardized test scores.Their brains had less gray matter and their temporal lobes(颞叶) developed more slowly than the other children.The findings were reported in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.Temporal lobes and gray matter are very important brain areas, says researcher Barbara Wolfe.“The brain areas are critical in the sense that they keep developing until individuals are well into their adolescence or early 20s,and critical in the sense that they are important for executive function,” she said.
Researchers studied brain images of nearly 400 children and young adults.The youngest subjects were four years old.The oldest were 22.Researchers looked for a connection between the person’s socioeconomic status and his or her test results.On average, young people from poor families had test scores between 3 and 4 points below what is expected for their age group.The poorest students scored between 8 and 10 points below the developmental norm.
Ms Wolfe says there are several reasons why poorer students often have lower scores.One reason could be poor children do not get the food they need for healthy development.Poor parents are less likely to stimulate their children’s brains through talk，play, and activities.Ms Wolfe also blames the “stress that parents face in trying to deal with poverty, putting food on the table”. The researchers say that up to 20 percent of the achievement gap, or difference in test performance,could be tied to poverty.
Ms Wolfe suggests early action may improve the brain development of children living in poverty.Reaching out to children when they are very young could help raise their test scores and academic performance when they are older.
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Computer Science Career Opportunities
Computer scientists and engineers continue to be in great demand. As businesses everywhere use increasingly sophisticated and complex computer technology in their daily operations, there is a greater need for the expertise of highly-skilled professionals. As a result, there are more jobs created in the U.S. than transferred offshore.
In fact, good jobs — offering a high salary, interesting work and benefits — are plentiful in the computer science field. However, to obtain one, you will need to complete a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in the subject area. Most colleges and universities offer degrees in computer science and computer engineering, and Cabrillo College courses transfer to the majority of them.
Once you have completed your degree in computer science, a typical career path is software development. The U.S. Department of Labor lists software developers among the fastest growing occupations in the U.S. The most recent study predicts that software developer jobs will grow by 24.0% nationally in the ten-year period ending in 2026. By comparison, the average job growth rate for all occupations is 7.4% for the same period. In California, jobs for software developers, applications are expected to increase by 40.1%, between 2016 and 2026, far exceeding the average rate for all occupations of 10.7%.
Because of the high demand for job candidates with a computer science background, careers in computer science-related fields are well-remunerated. The average starting salary for a new computer science graduate is over $72,000 per year nationally, while the median salary for all software developers and programmers is over $103,000 annually. By comparison, the median salary for all occupations is $50,516 per year. Thus, as a computer science graduate, you can expect to make more than twice the salary of most occupations.
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7 December is International Civil Aviation Day. Of course, we immediately think of the Wright brothers, the great pioneers who invented and put the first airplane into the sky.
The more you study the efforts the brothers made, the more you admire them. These were men who had a dream—to do what only the birds had been able to do. For thousands of years it had only been a dream and a mad one, too. It’s mad because it seemed against nature and mad also because of the dangers involved. But the Wrights flew up to 100 times a year. It was the process of trial and error that led to them producing a machine that could actually carry people through the air safely.
They were brave men. They showed courage, without which human beings would never have made any progress. A Wright brothers expert, David McCullough, gave an example of their courage. He noted that the brothers never flew together. Why? “If one got killed, the other would still be alive to carry on with the mission (使命)，” he wrote in his book The Wright Brothers.
Determination was all that they had in the beginning. They weren’t from fancy, rich backgrounds. No business or university sponsored (资助) their efforts. They had to do everything themselves. They put their lives on the line every time they climbed into the pilot’s seat.
The philosopher Aristotle had something to say about courage. He said that it is “the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees (保证) all the others”. Surely the story of the Wright brothers backs up these words. Courage is also part of the American belief that anything is possible if you put your whole heart and soul into it. The Wright brothers certainly had a cando attitude, and they taught us one great lesson: We need ambition and courage if we want to see our plans through to the end.
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In the development of mobile communication technology from 1G to 5G, Chinese mobile communications have made great advancements. For example, China has accounted for 21 items in the 5G standards that have been drawn up for the world, while the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea possess 9, 14, 4 and 2 items respectively.In particular, the Polar Code of Huawei has been accepted as the control channel code by 3rd Generation Partnership Project, which is regarded as a significant breakthrough for Chinese mobile telecommunication in the international standard formulation.
It is obvious that 5G is able to provide technological support for equipment connectivity and the transmission (传输) of massive amounts of data and this will enable the Internet of things, driverless vehicles, virtual reality and smart cities.For example, it will enable smart homes that make life easier for people, and effectively help ease traffic pressure in cities and create a safer driving experience.Moreover, 5G can realize integrated connection (集成连接) and remote control of equipment, personnel and production, which will greatly improve the production efficiency and intelligent manufacturing level of enterprises.
It is believed that China holds favorable conditions in three aspects for the development of 5G in the future.First, the consumer market is huge in China.It is estimated that Chinese 5G users will account for 40 percent in the world, which means it would give huge market for 5G commercialization.Second, with the high maturity of 4G technology, China has the world’s largest and most extensive 4G networks, and with its 40 percent of 4G base stations in the world, the equipment will provide a solid foundation for the construction of 5G networks.Third, China has displayed complete mobile communication industry chains, which, therefore, provide an advantageous industry ecological environment for the commercialization (商业化) of 5G.
Owing to its technological advantages and huge market potential, it is expected that Chinese 5G will transform to powerful industrial advantages and economic dynamics (经济动力). While sharing the benefits of its 5G technology with the people of the world, China still needs to make continuous efforts to maintain its leading position in 5G.
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When a student cuts class, fails to prepare for class or do homework, or is unable to answer even simple questions about the topic being studied in class, it is clear that the student is not learning well, and teachers may wonder why. One of the causes might be language anxiety. Language anxiety is a fear occurring when a learner is expected to perform in the foreign language. That is, when a student is asked to perform in the target language in class, he is likely to become nervous and fail to do it.
The good news is that so far some research has suggested language anxiety can make students focused, get good grades and build up high self-confidence. Despite these benefits, most research has also shown a negative relationship between language anxiety and performance.The negative kind of anxiety harms learners’ performance in many ways. As time goes by, they will doubt themselves, refuse to join in discussions and try to avoid using the language.
Teachers and researchers might sometimes be able to judge language anxiety through measuring scales (评价标准)．There are a number of scales, the best known of which is called the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale or FLCAS.The FLCAS was developed to measure the specific anxiety reaction of a student to a foreign language situation. However, this is not recommended because researchers consider that language anxiety is observable in class.
To help students to deal more effectively with language anxiety, teachers are advised to allow students to perform differently according to their own abilities. More importantly, teachers ought to provide various opportunities for classroom success in the language. In this way, students can be freed from the pain of severe language anxiety.Gradually they will become more and more confident of their language abilities and eventually experience what it means to succeed in the language classroom.
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The largest land animal remaining on the earth, the African elephant is of much importance to African ecosystem. Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a giant plant-eater, it significantly shapes the forest-and-savanna (大草原) surroundings in which it lives, therefore deciding the conditions of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat.
It is the elephant’s great desire for food that makes it both a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and underbush, as well as pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in not only deep tropical forests but also the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth, which attract a variety of other plant-eaters.
Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants create open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations,the forest becomes suitable for large-hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small-sized plant-eaters to obtain their food as well.
Scientists are worried now that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant dies out, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem.
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Whether you’re communicating in person, over text, or on the phone, being a good listener is an important part of any healthy relationship. “Being a bad listener, or repeatedly misunderstanding what the other person is saying, or appearing uninterested when you don’t mean to be, can break that person’s trust in your relationship,” says marriage counselor Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby. If you’ve wondered whether you could be a better listener, the answer is almost certainly “yes”. Making sure the people in your life feel truly heard is something that you can improve upon.
You appear more interested when you invite the speaker to give explanations, by asking them things that need more than a “yes” or “no” answer. “An open-ended question is an invitation for the other person to say more, and continue going deeper into their train of thought, versus a close-ended question that invites a factual answer,” Bobby explains. This is something you can do to show that you’re really listening.
What you’re transmitting (传递) through your nonverbal (非言语的) communication is as important as what you say. It’s about looking in someone’s eyes, smiling and nodding. Showing with your face that you’re following what someone is saying is really important. This is equally key in virtual conversations on a video chat. Remember that looking into your laptop camera is like making eye contact, while breaking it to look downward makes it appear that you’re doing something else.
Listening doesn’t always require offering solutions (解决办法) — quite the opposite, in fact. “People can be considered as poor listeners when they don’t understand what the conversation is actually about on a high level,” Bobby says. Sometimes, people simply want to talk about an unhappy situation. Maybe they’re really just wanting to vent (发泄), or talk about their day. So don’t try to give suggestions; just listen instead.
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The influence of America is increasing in Spain. Spanish people drink CocaCola, wear blue jeans, watch Hollywood movies, listen to American music, and eat fast food, and they do all these things daily.
I think that American movies are a good way to spread American culture because people are often influenced by what they see in the movies. Most of the entertainment programs and documentaries we watch on TV are from America, and most of the movies we go to are made in Hollywood.
In the last few years, the government has tried to protect the Spanish movies. Now, in our cinemas, at least twenty percent of the movies which are shown must be from Spain or from a country of the European Union.
American culture is very much a part of Spanish life. It’s certain that many things from America are as much a part of their lives as Spanish things. For example, CocaCola is as familiar to everybody as any typical Spanish product. I’ve known CocaCola my whole life.
However, it’s different with Western fast food. For example, I don’t think McDonald’s is as successful in Spain as it is in other countries. In my opinion, one of the reasons may be the lifestyle of the Spanish people. The Spanish people normally eat at home.
It may be that McDonald’s hamburgers will eventually replace the famous Spanish tapas because in every city in Spain you can find a McDonald’s, and they are more popular among the Spanish children than among the adults. In any case, it’s obvious that American culture is more and more a part of our everyday life.
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In 2002, an Australian man went to his friend’s 21st birthday party. He got drunk, fell off some steps and cut his lip. He took a picture of his injuries and shared it with his friends online. “And sorry about the focus,” he wrote, “it was a selfie(自拍).” That was the first recorded use of the word “selfie”, according to some experts at Oxford Dictionaries.
Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” Word of the Year for 2013, in honor of the term having taken over the world thanks to millions of smart phone selfportraits and the resulting shares on social media. In recent years, the act of taking a picture of oneself with a mobile phone, placing the subject centerstage, has won great popularity with everyone from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ to US with former President Barack Obama joining in.
But the rise of selfie photography in some of the world’s most beautiful, dangerous places has also inspired a lot of risktaking behavior, such as hanging from a tall building, standing in front of a rushing train and crossing a busy street. People who get addicted will never stop taking selfies, completely ignoring where they are. In fact, there have been several reports about people losing their lives while taking selfies. Several governments have now begun treating selfie as a serious threat to safety, warning visitors to pay attention to the dangers when taking selfies.
“Walt Disney World is also banning selfiesticks from its theme parks because selfiesticks have become a growing safety concern for our guests,” Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said. Under the new policy, guests will be checked for the equipment during the routine bag check that happens near the parks’ entrances.
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