On the beaches of Western Australia, by California’s crashing waves and in sight of Hawaii’s blue depths, “shark attacks” are slowly disappearing, at least as a phrase used by researchers and officials who have been rethinking how to describe the moments when sharks and humans meet.
Last week, two Australian states drew mockery when The Sydney Morning Herald reported that they were moving away from the phrase in favor of terms like “bites,” “incidents” and “encounters.”
A new installation covers 20 acres of federal park land near the Washington Monument with hundreds of thousands of white flags, and visitors have come from all over to walk among them, reflect and mourn.
Do you know what this piece memorializes? If so, what do you think of the installation and its message? How else might the United States, or other nations, memorialize this crisis?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Learn more about Picture Prompts here and find all of our prompts in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
1. a vigorous act or acts done quickly
2. rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms
3. an outburst resembling the discharge of firearms or the release of bombs
_________
The word salvo has appeared in 57 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on April 16 in “Is Fashion Hacking the Future? Gucci Says Yes.” by Vanessa Friedman:
Gucci is singing a brand-new tune. (Emphasis on “brand.” Or maybe “branded.”)
The designer Alessandro Michele called his newest show “Aria” — he rejected the whole spring-summer, fall-winter groupings as false seasonal equivalencies at the start of the pandemic — but a more appropriate name for the first salvo of the company’s centenary year might have been “Mash-up.” Because it turned out he was sampling notes not just from the house’s own archive but from its stablemate Balenciaga — another powerhouse brand owned by Kering, Gucci’s corporate parent.
Can you correctly use the word salvo 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 salvo can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.
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.
Featured Column: Sunday Routine
Sunday Routine is a weekly series that profiles “newsworthy New Yorkers” and how they spend a typical Sunday. These routines — which can include going to church and spending time with family or meeting up with friends and binge-watching TV — are as diverse as the people who have them.
In this lesson, we invite you to use this column as a model for writing about your own life. What do you do on a typical Sunday? What do these activities say about you? You’ll read the routines of several New Yorkers, then you’ll write one of your own — tracing your day from when you wake up to when you go to bed.
Ideas for Teachers: Use this writing activity to get to know your students at the beginning of the school year. Or, use it to introduce a unit on personal or narrative writing. See our full narrative writing unit here.
Start by responding to our writing prompt, “What’s Your Sunday Routine?”
What do you do on a typical Sunday? Where do you go? Who do you spend time with?
3. Look closely at the introductory paragraphs to each Sunday Routine. What is the purpose of this section? From whose point of view is it written? What kind of information is included?
4. Now look at the routine itself. How is it formatted? From whose point of view is it written? About how many activities are included? What kind of information does each description include?
5. What themes do the writers write about in their routines? Name at least four. (For example, in “How an Artisanal Doughnut Maker Spends Her Sundays,” Kimberly Camara writes that she spends time with her mother and brother on Sundays. So the theme would be “family.”)
6. Choose one activity from each routine that intrigued you. What did you find interesting, entertaining or memorable about this activity and the writer’s description of it?
7. Finally, consider the language and style the writers use. How would you describe the tone of each routine you read? How would you describe the tone of this column overall?
Now, it’s your turn. Create your own Sunday Routine based on a typical Sunday in your life. (Your Sundays might have changed during the pandemic and that’s OK. As the writers do in many of the profiles you read, feel free to also write about things you did before Covid and how those activities have changed.)
Your Sunday Routine should be formatted like the columns you read and include:
A headline, written in the style of the column.
A few introductory paragraphs that give your reader an idea of who you are.
A routine that starts from when you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night. Aim for eight to 10 activities.
Go further by adding photographs or illustrations of your Sunday.
Once you’ve finished, reflect on the assignment: What was it like to write about your own life? How did your style of writing change with this genre? What did you learn about yourself? What might others learn about you from reading your Sunday Routine?
For the past decade, we’ve strived to lower the barriers to entry for programming and make it easier to learn how to code. Millions of learners around the world have used our courses to transform their lives. Some have launched entirely new careers. Others have gained new skills and unlocked new possibilities in their current roles.
And these stories aren’t just motivating for us — we’ve heard from all of you in our community how inspiring it can be to see how others have enriched their lives by learning to code. So, to celebrate our learners’ many successes and help show you what you can achieve with code, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Learner Stories in one spot so that you can see what’s possible and maybe even start your own journey.
These stories follow self-taught learners — people just like you, who faced many of the same challenges you’re facing now — as they use coding to chart a totally new path forward.
Whether you’re looking to totally switch industries (like Alison, who went from Architect to Senior UX Designer) or level up at your current job (like Giacomo, who learned JavaScript to better serve his clients while working in marketing), there’s likely a Codecademy Learner who has been there and done that.
Check out our Learner Stories page for more tips and insights that’ll give you a boost as you work to achieve your own goals. Or, if you’ve already had some wins, why not help motivate others? Tell us your story!
If you’re learning to become a Front-End Developer, Back-End Developer, or Full-Stack Developer, then you’re probably already familiar with languages like:
These are some of the most popular languages for web development, but did you know that many Web Developers use Python, too?
While people often associate Python with data science and analysis, it can also be a helpful tool for creating powerful web applications. In fact, you may have already heard of Flask and Django — two Python frameworks used to develop web apps.
But what exactly are Flask and Django, and why are they so popular?
In this article, we’ll briefly introduce different types of Python frameworks. Then, we’ll compare Django and Flask by going over:
Read on to learn more about Flask and Django, or use the table of contents below to jump to a specific section.
A Python framework is a collection of packages and modules that help developers create web applications without having to worry about the details involved. Without frameworks, developers would need to code in low-level but critical essentials like protocols and sockets.
Imagine for a moment that you want to build a new house. You can certainly do it all yourself, but it’s going to take a lot of time and effort.
Instead, you might build a pre-designed model home. While you have a few choices in the design, you’re ultimately selecting from a group of choices presented by the architect. There’s less flexibility, but you’ve saved yourself a lot of time.
That’s how a Python framework works. Frameworks save developers a lot of time and allow them to focus on creating web apps without worrying about the time-consuming details.
If you’re familiar with Python, then the chances are that you’ve already seen multiple Python libraries. But how are libraries different from frameworks? In short, it all comes down to complexity.
Python libraries are collections of functions and methods that must be explicitly called by the developer. They’re designed and organized to solve specific types of problems. For example, you could use a Python library for:
To use a baking analogy, think of a Python library as your flour. Now, imagine having to mill your own flour whenever you want to make bread. Isn’t it so much easier and faster to buy flour at the store? And you’re always in control of when you can buy flour and how much you can buy.
This is how a Python library works. Compared to Python frameworks, Python libraries provide a lot more flexibility, but it’s still up to you to decide how to incorporate the library functionality into your overall structure.
Now that you understand what a Python framework is and how it differs from a Python library, let’s focus on the two major types of frameworks used for web development: full-stack frameworks and micro-frameworks.
As the name implies, a full-stack framework offers full functionality for both the front and back ends. Full-stack frameworks are regarded as one-stop solutions for everything you need for web app-building, including template layouts, form validation, and form generating.
Unlike full-stack frameworks, micro-frameworks (AKA lightweight frameworks) provide less functionality, particularly on the front end.
While a micro-framework offers more overall flexibility than a full-stack framework, anyone using this type of framework should be prepared to put more time into code development for their web app development project.
So, now that you understand the differences between full-stack frameworks and micro-frameworks, let’s examine an example of each.
Django is a high-level, full-stack framework used for quickly developing clean-looking apps.
“High-level” means that Django is designed to minimize actual coding during the app design process. Instead of writing code, developers who use high-level frameworks can define options with forms, tables, and other interfaces.
Django was created in 2003 by Web Developers Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison. They began creating web applications using Python, and Django was born. Two years later, it was publicly released.
Django is named after Django Reinhardt, a famous Belgian-Romani jazz guitarist of the early- and mid-20th Century.
Today, Django is maintained by the Django Software Foundation and is one of the most popular Python frameworks for web development.
To better understand how a Django web app works, let’s consider four fundamental components of the app design pattern:
Like any well-designed website or web application, URLs in a Django-powered website should be systematically organized for easier content creation, search, and retrieval.
For example, in a simple blog that has content URLs organized by year, month, and day published, the URL “posts/2021/09/01” would retrieve the blog post published on September 1, 2021. Similarly, the URL “posts/2021/09” would retrieve an archive with links to all posts published in September, while the URL “posts/2021” would do the same for the entirety of 2021.
An article page may be laid out quite differently than a monthly or yearly archive page. The Django URL file is where you can define URL patterns that determine how the page will look based on the URL request.
Django web apps manage data and communicate with databases through Python objects called models. For example, the data structure used in the web app is defined by the model, which can define characteristics like size, default values, and label texts for online forms.
The biggest value of the Django model is that it handles all communication with the database for you, saving you time on SQL coding.
Template files define the basic outline or structure of an application page. Templates can contain either:
Think of Django views as the central point of the web app design. Django views accept HTTP requests and output HTTP responses while working with the other components to dynamically create that HTTP output.
Django views coordinate with the URL file, model, and template files to create dynamic app content. While the content is based on the URL request pattern and information from the model, the template file determines formatting and layout.
If you’re familiar with Python and looking to branch into web development, learning Django is a good place to start. Django offers some of the most complete and detailed documentation and tutorials. Plus, many cities have Django-specific support groups if you prefer to connect locally.
Even after you’ve mastered basic Django, there are plenty of resources to help you with its more advanced features, such as profiling and settings, caching, and working with Stripe to accept payments on your web app.
What does Django offer that makes it so popular and unique among all the other Python frameworks? Below are a few of Django’s biggest advantages.
Django was designed to help developers create a web application as quickly as possible, from idea to release. So, it’s ideal for developers working against tight production and release deadlines.
As a full-stack Python framework, Django includes plenty of features that you might need in your web app, from user authentication to RSS feeds.
Django is designed to accommodate heavy traffic demands, which is one reason why this framework is so popular for large web applications.
Whether your web app is designed for content management, complex computing, or anything in between, Django can handle it.
One of the best parts about Django is that it comes with all the security features needed to protect your web application. The alternative would be for you, the developer, to think of every possible security issue and how to protect against it.
The more you read about Django, the more you must be thinking about how perfect it is for any project. Isn’t there a catch? It turns out that there are a few disadvantages of Django that make it unsuitable in some situations.
While Django comes as a full package, there’s no way to separate anything out of that package if you just need a few features. So, Django can feel like overkill for small projects that have no plans to scale up.
Not only can the framework be confusing and overwhelming for developers of small projects, but all that Django coding takes up valuable bandwidth and server processing time.
The Django framework is written in Python, which is fine if you already know the language. The problem is that most Web Developers are stronger in other languages, like JavaScript or Ruby. If you want to master Django, you’ll need to have a solid understanding of Python, too.
It seems odd to think of code as being opinionated, but that’s the technical term. A framework is opinionated when it’s designed to be used in a particular way or according to particular assumptions.
While it’s not impossible to use Django in a way other than what was intended by its designers, doing so will lead to a lot of extra work. This can make Django seem monolithic.
Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of Django’s pros and cons, let’s explore Flask.
Flask is a micro-framework, meaning that it’s designed to perform a more limited role than a full-stack framework like Django. But, as you’ll find out, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Starting as an April Fool’s joke in 2010, Flask was created by Armin Ronacher — a member of an international Python enthusiast group known as Pocoo. The project became a quick success, and the Pocoo team managed the development of Flask until 2016. After the team disbanded, the management of Flask was transferred to the Pallets Projects group.
Flask is named after an earlier Python micro-framework called Bottle. It’s easily one of the most popular Python web-development frameworks, coming in just slightly behind Django in terms of the number of stars on GitHub.
As a micro-framework, Flask has few dependencies on external libraries compared to the full-stack Django framework. But, there are two big dependencies with Flask: Werkzeug and jinja2.
Werkzeug is a Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) utility library in Python. When you create a web application, you’re focusing on using HTTP requests to create, query, and manage how content is put together.
But, another big part of an HTTP request is the web server, which handles details like network connections and actually receiving the request and sending the response. WSGI is a standard convention for creating and processing these requests with applications written in Python.
Remember how Django uses templates to create standard-looking pages that can be populated with custom text? Well, jinja2 is a Django-inspired template engine that helps you do the same thing in Flask.
Now that you understand the supporting dependencies behind Flask, let’s look at the three main components of a Flask app: the Flask controller, the Flask model, and the Flask view.
This is where you write the bulk of your web application code based on inputs and client requests. The controller is the central part of the Flask framework because it manages and changes the view and model based on client input to update what information is presented.
The Flask view is similar to a Django view in that it generates output in the form of content from the model presented and formatted based on a template file.
This is similar to a Django model in that it manages communication with a database. But, unlike Django, there’s no included Flask model. It’s up to the app developer to design a model to work with Flask’s other components.
As a micro-framework, Flask is designed to perform a few tasks extremely well. There are also other reasons why Web Developers choose Flask over other frameworks like Django. Let’s take a look at some of Flask’s biggest advantages.
Compared to the opinionated Django framework, Flask is more flexible to different working styles and approaches to web app development. Programmers with more coding experience or who need more control of the app design prefer Flask for this reason.
Because Flask has no default model, it inherently supports multiple types of databases. This also makes databases easier to integrate into a Flask application.
If you’re looking to design a relatively simple web app with a few static pages, Flask will make your life easier than Django. For smaller web applications, many programmers find that Flask is easily scalable as well.
Flask, just like Django, isn’t perfect, and there are a few disadvantages that make it less popular in certain circumstances.
If you’re trying to build a complex web app with lots of dynamic pages, then Flask isn’t the right framework to use. Over time, the maintenance costs and efforts will be much higher compared to a framework like Django, which is better suited for large projects.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t a large community of developers to answer questions when you run into a problem with your Flask application. But, the communities and documentation out there are a little smaller and harder to find compared to Django support resources.
Now that you understand the differences between Flask and Django and what each is used for, let’s review why you should pick one over the other.
Use Django when:
On the other hand, you should use Flask when:
Regardless of which Python framework you prefer, what’s important is that you start expanding your knowledge of web development by building a Python app with Flask or Django. Just remember that you should understand the basics of Python before creating your first app.
Once you’ve got the basics of Python down, learn how to use either framework in the courses below:
Web Development Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy
Web Development is the practice of developing websites and web apps that live on the internet. Whether you’re interested in front-end, back-end, or going full-stack, the content in our Web Development domain will help you get there.
Python Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy
Python is a general-purpose, versatile, and powerful programming language. It’s a great first language because it’s concise and easy to read. Whatever you want to do, Python can do it. From web development to machine learning to data science, Python is the language for you.
Online tutorials, videos, and coding books are a great place to learn the basics of a programming language, but not much of that knowledge will stick if you don’t use it to write code.
Solving coding challenges is a great way to practice your programming skills. Coding challenges are bite-sized coding projects that exercise your skills using data structures and algorithms. Unlike bigger projects, they can usually be completed in a few minutes.
In this article, we’ll show you 10 advanced Java coding challenges that you can solve to test and develop your programming skills. Try a few today and see if you can tackle them.
These are advanced challenges. So, you’ll need to know the ins and outs of programming with Java as well as basic knowledge of data structures and algorithms to come up with an efficient solution. If you need to brush up on your Java knowledge first, check out our Learn Java course.
This exercise will teach you about how Java handles strings. First, you should create a class with a main method that accepts a string and then returns a string where the characters are in reverse order. But, you can’t use the reverse method of the String class because that’d be cheating.
Even without doing that, there are at least three ways you can solve this exercise. Can you solve it in three different ways?
This program should accept an array of numbers. It should iterate through the array of numbers and determine if each is prime or not. Once it’s done processing, it should return only those numbers that are prime in an array.
The singleton pattern is a design pattern that restricts the instantiation of an object to only one instance. To do this, you’ll need to create a Singleton class that has a non-parameterized constructor.
The class should have one public variable called str. It should also have a static method called getSingleInstance that’ll return the single instance of the class.
MD5 (Message-Digest algorithm 5) is a cryptographic function for creating 128-bit hashes from strings. It was designed by Professor Ronald Rivest of MIT, and although the function is considered cryptographically broken, it’s still useful as a programming exercise.
Research the algorithm and write a Java class from scratch that accepts an alphanumeric string and returns the MD5 hash for that string.
This exercise will test your ability to write lambda expressions in Java. Java lambda expressions take in parameters and return a value. They’re similar to methods but don’t need a name and can be implemented in the body of a method.
In this challenge, you’ll write three of them:
Write a program in Java that’ll accept a phone number with letters and convert it to a phone number with only digits. For example, if you sent the program a phone number like 800888TEST, it should return (800) 888-8378.
Note that it shouldn’t only convert letters to the digits they represent but also format the number correctly with parentheses and dashes. And, if you send the program an invalid number, it should throw an error.
Create a method in a Java class that accepts an array of numbers as a parameter. If the array of numbers can be rearranged so that they’re consecutive numbers where no number appears twice, return true. If this isn’t possible, return false. The array can be of any size.
In this challenge, you’ll create a method in Java that accepts both a string to be searched and a string that’s been encoded in hex and embedded in the first string as parameters. The method should search the first parameter and return the index of the occurrence of the second parameter.
Write a method in Java that accepts a string as a parameter. This method should return a string that reverses the letters in the string sent as a parameter but keep all the numbers in order. For example, if you sent the method a parameter of “ez56d” then it should return “ed56z”.
Pig Latin is a language or language game. Here are the steps with any word. First, move the first consonant or consonant cluster to the end of the word. Second, add “ay” to the end of the word. For example, the word “banana” would become “ananabay.”
Write a method in Java that turns a string that contains words into the equivalent in Pig Latin.
If you like putting your Java skills to the test with challenges like the ones above, then learn more about coding challenges here. We have daily and weekly coding challenges and completing them is a great way to keep your coding skills sharp.
If you’re a beginner and want to brush up on your Java skills or take them to the next level, check out our Learn Java course. If you’re already past the beginner stage, then our intermediate courses, like Java for Programmers or Learn Spring could be a good choice for you.
Should I Learn Java?
Are you new to programming and wondering if Java is a good programming language to begin with? The simple answer is yes, and we show you why in this article.
Java Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy
Java is one of the most popular programming languages out there. Released in 1995 and still widely used today, Java has many applications, including software development, mobile applications, and large systems development. Knowing Java opens a lot of possibilities for you as a developer.
If you’re a regular Times reader, you already know that the profusion of articles, essays, photojournalism, graphics, videos and podcasts we publish daily means that there is no simple answer to the question “What is the reading level of The New York Times?”
In fact, as The Times expands its reporting to include new formats like the “burst,” shown in the image above — and in these pieces about the Western droughts, how to eat less sugar and why Simone Biles is the GOAT — we think that’s more important for teachers to understand than ever.
This year, The Learning Network is committed to making the most of these new formats to welcome a broader range of learners to our site, and to The Times in general. We want to show teachers and students — who may have assumed that all Times reporting looks more like this, from 1865, than this, from 2021 — that there is something in the paper for every reader, every day.
To help, we’re starting a new feature called Accessible Activities. In each Wednesday’s edition, we’ll be rounding up five student activities that draw on highly visual reporting across Times sections. These activities will also offer additional scaffolding that invites all kinds of learners to grapple with what might be unfamiliar language or concepts. Some of these will be features that teachers across levels already love — like our What’s Going On in This Picture? exercise — and some will be new.
For instance, if you look at our first Lesson of the Day to follow this format, you can see that we have included streamlined prompts and directions; a printable PDF version of the article for students to annotate; and a new vocabulary section. We’ll be creating these kinds of lessons regularly, drawing not just on new storytelling formats like “bursts,” but also on more traditional Times reporting.
Want to take a look? We’ve already published our first edition of Accessible Activities, and we’d love to hear what you think.
As the school year continues, we expect to tweak both the roundup and the features themselves thanks to your responses, so please submit a comment here, or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com. Then look for our next Accessible Activities roundup on Wednesday, Sept. 29, and each Wednesday after that for the rest of the school year.
Welcome to our first edition of Accessible Activities, a new feature to support teachers for the 2021-22 school year.
Each Wednesday we’ll round up five student activities that draw on highly visual and more accessible reporting across Times sections and that offer additional scaffolding that invites learners of all kinds to grapple with what might be unfamiliar language or concepts. Some of these will be features that teachers across levels already love — like our What’s Going On in This Picture? exercise — and some will be new.
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. Share a summer memory.
In this Picture Prompt, we invite students to tell us about one wonderful moment, big or small, from the summer of 2021. They can share their writing in our public comments section, discuss with their classmates or journal in a notebook.
2. Learn about a reporter who spent a year traveling around the country.
This Lesson of the Day features a short slide show (with under 250 words) about a New York Times reporter who converted a minivan into his home during the pandemic and then visited 39 states. We provide a warm-up activity, 10 vocabulary words, questions for writing and discussion and a going-further activity in which students imagine their own road trip.
3. Think about how you spend your money.
In this Student Opinion, students read an illustrated article in which 11 teenagers talk about the role that money plays in their lives. Then, they reflect on their own experiences with, and relationship to, money. They can share their responses with peers or in the comments section.
4. Look closely at a Times photograph.
Each week we remove the caption from an image published elsewhere in The New York Times and then ask students: What’s Going On in This Picture? They can share their observations in the comments section and then check back on Thursday afternoon when we reveal the photo’s back story.
5. Watch a short film about a pear tree that lived through 9/11.
Via this six-minute film, students can reflect on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks through the story of a single tree that was wounded that day. Then, they can respond to our Film Club discussion questions in writing or in class discussion.
“We all have one — a dish we don’t need a recipe for,” begins a recent Times article. If that is true, what is yours?
It could be something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich or the perfect popcorn. How do you make it? How did you originally learn the recipe — or is it something you invented yourself?
If you don’t know any recipes by heart, what do you wish you knew how to make without consulting directions? Why?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn how to make chicken soup from scratch, classic brownies, arroz con pollo and more.
Learn more about Picture Prompts here and find all of our prompts in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
