The word contortion has appeared in five articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 16 in the dance review “Reveling in Live Dance at Japan Society” by Brian Seibert:
Japan Society’s contemporary dance festival, an event that samples recent works from several East Asian countries, skipped last year, with the assumption that surely by 2022 everything would be back to normal. Oh well.
… The preshow was wonderfully live. As part of the Taiwanese choreographer Wei-Chia Su’s FreeSteps project, the exceptionally agile dancer NiNi (also known as Yu-Ting Fang) performed on a stage island in the lobby of Japan Society. Twisting her body to the edge of contortion, she spiraled sensuously. Occasionally pausing to stretch skyward before slipping back into her floating groove, she looked like someone continually embracing and escaping herself. This was dance as moving sculpture, a three-dimensional study best appreciated in person.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word contortion in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how contortion can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
If you’re starting a new programming job, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all that you’ll have to do to settle in. On top of your core job responsibilities, every company has their own preferred methods of keeping the team in the loop and staying organized.
The good news is, there are tons of great tools and software packages that engineering teams all over the world rely on to help them work together more seamlessly. Sure, there’s no one-size-fits all solution, but there are options.
Whether this is your first engineering gig, or you’re a seasoned dev looking for recommendations for new tools to use, we’ve rounded up a list of tools for you to consider — many of which are top picks from Codecademy engineers.
1. Code version control and collaboration
With 73 million users, it’s clear that GitHub is a favorite in the development community. GitHub is an online platform for keeping track of Git changes with a web UI, while Git is a command line tool for code version control. In other words, devs use Git to track changes made to their code, and they host their work and collaborate with other devs on GitHub.
You can have your own personal account on GitHub to showcase your work, and there’s also a paid version of GitHub made for teams of devs to collaborate internally.
As a developer, you’ll likely spend a decent amount of time participating in collaborative coding with one or more developers from your team. This might happen remotely or face-to-face and the tools you use here can make all the difference. There are a few popular options you can look into.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud9 uses shared environments, which allows multiple developers to collaborate on the same cloud-hosted project in real-time. The fact that you can use Cloud9 directly in your browser and you don’t have to install anything on your computer makes this a favorite among devs. Another bonus of Cloud9 is it comes with tooling for over 40 programming languages, including Ruby, Node.js, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go, C#,HTML, and CSS.
Another popular option is Visual Studio Code Live Share and its extension pack, which comes highly recommended by Codecademy devs. When working on code together in Live Share, you don’t need to sync the code or configure the same development tools, settings, or environment as your partner, which is a nice feature. One extension in particular that Codecademy devs love is called GitHub Pull Requests and Issues. With this extension, you get GitHub comments inline as they come in and you might find that you don’t need to go to github.com much anymore. Git Blame and GitLens, which show you who changed something in the code and what it was, are two other helpful features to check out.
Tuple is another option you can look into if you’re looking for a solution for macOS.
3. Project management
The number of developers needed to work on a single project depends on the complexity and timeline of a project. And while it’s one thing to keep track of a smaller project, it’s a whole other thing when you have multiple developers, a data scientist, and a product manager involved. Thankfully, there are several project and task management solutions for productivity enthusiasts.
Jira is an Agile project management product that’s very popular among dev teams. It was originally designed to be an issue-tracking and bug-tracking product and has evolved into a powerful work management tool for teams of all sizes. Along with built-in features like commenting and categorization, teams can pick from numerous plugins and integrations to get the most out of the platform.
Asana allows you to assign and prioritize tasks and workflows for multiple projects at once. There’s also a timeline tool to help you manage dependencies and foresee potential project bottlenecks. A big advantage of Asana is that there’s full transparency on what everyone on a project is supposed to do. This makes it a great choice for Agile projects, especially sprints.
Trello is another popular project management solution that was essentially designed for Kanban, which is another Agile methodology. Once your team sets up its first project in Trello, you’ll notice that the app mimics the sticky notes of a Kanban Board with cards and columns (or lists). One big advantage to this approach is that it’s easy for everyone on the team to see who is doing what. And, unlike paper-based Kanban sticky notes, Trello allows you to open cards for more information, including labels and attachments.
Notion is a project management solution that we know very well here at Codecademy. Through our partnership with Notion, anyone involved in the project can access updates to learn who is working on what, what the status is, and what the timeline is. It’s been particularly helpful for Codecademy engineers to organize all their information in one place and eliminate the need to bounce between numerous tools for project details.
GitHub Issues, which is available by default in every GitHub repository, helps you to plan and track your work. You can focus on important tasks and keep plans up to date simultaneously with GitHub Issues.
Lastly, if you’re looking for a task management option yourself, the Google Tasks extension is a Kanban-style list that’s helpful to track your own to-dos, and you can easily share it with anyone.
4. Document creation, storage, and management
With 73 million users, it’s clear that GitHub is a favorite in the development community. While devs use the software Git to track changes made to their code, they host their work and store different versions of a project on GitHub. Devs can have their own personal accounts on GitHub to showcase their work, and there’s also a version made specifically for entire teams of devs to store and manage files.
For API documentation, Swagger is a solid option to check out, especially for RESTful APIs and GraphiQL/GraphQL Playground for GraphQL APIs. One feature Codecademy devs appreciate about Swagger is how it updates docs on the endpoint every time you change a field, so self-documentation isn’t necessary if you use Swagger.
The two other big players here are Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Both options are browser-based experiences that allow engineering teams to collaborate in real-time on a variety of documents, as well as manage your own file storage and share documents and folders with colleagues.
If you’re interested in looking into Notion for its project management software, it’s also worth noting that you can use Notion to manage, save, and share files directly in the app.
5. Communication
Real-time messaging is the core function of Slack, but that’s a bit like calling your smartphone a tool for just talking. Engineers use Slack to bring together project groups, whether everyone is based around the world or just around the office. Slack makes it easy to create and manage messaging channels based on specific topics, and groups of related messages within a channel can be bundled as threads. So, when you need to look up responses to a question you posted, it’s easy to see everything as one group rather than searching through a ton of message bubbles.
Sometimes text-based communication just doesn’t cut it or maybe you just want to see your teammate’s face once in a while. Zoom can be particularly helpful these days to get through a long stretch of remote work or to help flesh out what might be lost through text.
6. Support and troubleshooting
If you have a question about coding or a problem you need help with, Stack Overflow is likely the first place you go, and you’re definitely not alone. (Though if you’re not familiar with Stack Overflow, it’s a public platform that features questions and answers on all things computer programming.) Over 100 million programmers and code enthusiasts use Stack Overflow to problem-solve and connect with others in the community. It’s truly an invaluable resource!
Collaboration is a key skill for developers
As a developer, you’ll likely be doing a lot of solo work, but you’ll also collaborate with your teammates in some capacity, whether that’s through pair programming or just checking in for a one-on-one. Either way, having the skills to effectively collaborate with your team is important. Also, one way to stand out as a job candidate is to highlight your knowledge and experience with different collaboration tools, so don’t forget to add these to your resume if you have experience with any of these tools.
The superstar quarterback Tom Brady recently retired, only to announce his return to football less than two months later. Have you ever found it hard to say goodbye to something?
In this lesson, students will learn about the contributions of Black soldiers during the Civil War and consider the importance of honoring their service.
In this lesson, students will reflect on the work of Francis Kéré, including a school he designed. Then they will examine their own school to try to understand the decisions architects make.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about one of the largest private Black history collections, reflect on their relationship with their grandparents, look closely at an image, share their March Madness predictions and watch some winning 15-second vocabulary videos.
Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post. Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
1. Learn about one ofthe largest collections of Black history.
In this Lesson of the Day, students learn about an unexpected location of an expansive Black history collection: the home of a 90-year-old former schoolteacher. Students will learn about her collection through text and videos and then curate their own art exhibit of objects from Elizabeth Meaders’s collection.
3. Respond to an image about March Madness.
This Picture Prompt asks students if they have filled out a bracket or joined a pool for this year’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournament? They can share the predictions they’ve made in the comments section and read some advice on picking a bracket for the men’s or women’s tournament.
4. Look closely at a photograph.
In this What’s Going On in This Picture, students make observations about a photograph originally published elsewhere in The Times and join a moderated conversation with other young people from around the world. They can read what other students have said about the image, and then share their thoughts in the comments section.
Cryptocurrency — the universe of more than 10,000 digital currencies powered by public, permanent databases of information — is everywhere. How do you feel about it?
Are you a crypto optimist who believes these decentralized and largely unregulated currencies will shape our political and economic future for the better?
Or are you among the movement’s skeptics, who argue that crypto is overhyped, and even potentially destructive to the economy and the environment?
Maybe this world feels too confusing for you to make a judgment yet. In “The Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto,” the technology columnist Kevin Roose writes that his most firmly held belief about crypto is that it is poorly explained. He writes:
Until fairly recently, if you lived anywhere other than San Francisco, it was possible to go days or even weeks without hearing about cryptocurrency.
Now, suddenly, it’s inescapable. Look one way, and there are Matt Damon and Larry David doing ads for crypto start-ups. Swivel your head — oh, hey, it’s the mayors of Miami and New York City, arguing over who loves Bitcoin more. Two N.B.A. arenas are now named after crypto companies, and it seems as if every corporate marketing team in America has jumped on the NFT — or nonfungible token — bandwagon. (Can I interest you in one of Pepsi’s new “Mic Drop” genesis NFTs? Or maybe something from Applebee’s “Metaverse Meals” NFT collection, inspired by the restaurant chain’s “iconic” menu items?)
Crypto! For years, it seemed like the kind of fleeting tech trend most people could safely ignore, like hoverboards or Google Glass. But its power, both economic and cultural, has become too big to overlook. Twenty percent of American adults, and 36 percent of millennials, own cryptocurrency, according to a recent Morning Consult survey. Coinbase, the crypto trading app, has landed on top of the App Store’s top charts at least twice in the past year. Today, the crypto market is valued at around $1.75 trillion — roughly the size of Google. And in Silicon Valley, engineers and executives are bolting from cushy jobs in droves to join the crypto gold rush.
As it’s gone mainstream, crypto has inspired an unusually polarized discourse. Its biggest fans think it’s saving the world, while its biggest skeptics are convinced it’s all a scam — an environment-killing speculative bubble orchestrated by grifters and sold to greedy dupes, which will probably crash the economy when it bursts.
I’ve been writing about crypto for nearly a decade, a period in which my own views have whipsawed between extreme skepticism and cautious optimism. These days, I usually describe myself as a crypto moderate, although I admit that may be a cop-out.
I agree with the skeptics that much of the crypto market consists of overvalued, overhyped and possibly fraudulent assets, and I am unmoved by the most utopian sentiments shared by pro-crypto zealots (such as the claim by Jack Dorsey, the former Twitter chief, that Bitcoin will usher in world peace).
But as I’ve experimented more with crypto — including accidentally selling an NFT for more than $500,000 in a charity auction last year — I’ve come to accept that it isn’t all a cynical money-grab, and that there are things of actual substance being built. I’ve also learned, in my career as a tech journalist, that when so much money, energy and talent flows toward a new thing, it’s generally a good idea to pay attention, regardless of your views on the thing itself.
Do you consider yourself a crypto optimist, a crypto skeptic or neither? Why?
Do you agree with Mr. Roose that crypto is “terribly explained”? Why or why not? How well do you feel like you understand crypto? How much did Mr. Roose’s explanations help?
According to the article, what do proponents of cryptocurrency see as its benefits? Which of these arguments are most compelling to you, if any?
Are you worried about any of the criticisms of crypto that Mr. Roose names, for example, its environmental impact or the fact that it might be attractive to extremists? How valid do you think these objections are?
Do you hope to eventually, or do you already, own cryptocurrency or NFTs? Why or why not?
What questions do you still have about the world of crypto?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
