The world’s densest collection of freshwater springs is at the center of a slow-motion environmental tragedy.
Word of the Day: dismal
This word has appeared in 162 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
Lesson of the Day: ‘Why Do We Yawn?’
In this lesson, you will learn about what happens in our bodies when we yawn and investigate the question of whether yawning is contagious.
Film Club: ‘The Great American Lawn: How the Dream Was Manufactured’
How did a perfectly manicured lawn become an iconic symbol of the American dream?
What’s Going On in This Picture? | April 11, 2022
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!
More?
• See all images in this series or slide shows of 40 of our favorite images — or 40 more.
• Learn more about this feature in this video, and discover how and why other teachers are using it in their classrooms in our on-demand webinar.
• Find out how teachers can be trained in the Visual Thinking Strategies facilitation method.
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.
7 Tips For Applying To Jobs In Tech If You’re Really Busy
If you’ve ever applied for jobs before, you know it can basically be a full-time job in and of itself. And it’s not uncommon for the process to take months.
Some of the reasons why it’s such a time-consuming process are out of your control — you can’t get a hiring manager to devote more time out of their day to reviewing applications, and you can’t clear people’s schedules so they can do interviews sooner. Fortunately, there are some things that you can control when it comes to speeding up the job application process, even if you’re really busy.
Here are seven ways to make the job-hunting process more efficient and help you land your next gig.
1. Get clear on your goals
When you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to your job search, it’s important to establish what your goals and expectations are so that you don’t waste precious time applying to a wide range of jobs that won’t actually line up with what you’re hoping to achieve.
The first step is figuring out exactly what you’re looking for in your next role. Try dedicating 30 minutes to putting your goals in writing. Are you looking for more flexible hours? The opportunity to manage a team? A new title that’ll help you advance in your career? What about your salary requirements?
You could also create a target list of companies that you’d love to work for and focus on their job boards. Thinking through the characteristics you’d like your employer to have is a good way to help you narrow down the companies for your list. For example, are you interested in working at a large company or a small company? Venture-backed or bootstrapped? Would you work for an international company?
Another way to approach this is by writing out your “must-haves” versus your “nice-to-haves.” Maybe health insurance, parental leave, and a 401k are in your “must-haves” column, and unlimited PTO and a sign-on bonus are in your “nice-to-haves” column.
Taking the time to figure this all out before you start sending in applications could save you time in the long-run so that you can narrow your search and focus on roles and companies that are more likely to be a good fit for you.
2. Optimize your LinkedIn presence
When you’re trying to make the most out of the little time you have for job-hunting, one thing you can do is focus your energy on doing the things that lead recruiters and hiring managers to you, instead of the other way around. In other words, let the employers do some of the work. “This is a very competitive job market, so we — the recruiters — are doing more proactive searching than ever,” says Danny Roberts, Senior Technical Recruiter at Codecademy.
Danny recommends starting with LinkedIn. “The secret is optimizing one’s internet presence as much as possible for SEO, especially LinkedIn profiles,” he says. A good place to start is setting yourself “available” for work on LinkedIn. When you turn this feature on, you can select to share your status with recruiters only or share with all LinkedIn members.
Another great way to get on recruiters’ radars is by using keywords in your LinkedIn headline and summary. You’ll want to pick out keywords that are directly related to the position you’re trying to get. You can find these keywords in job descriptions, and you can also get ideas by looking at the profiles of people who have the job you want. Pay attention to what keywords they decided to use and the phrasing they used.
Also, it may sound obvious, but keep your LinkedIn experience updated. When a hiring manager finds you on LinkedIn, they’ll scan your experience section to see if you have the background they’re looking for in a new hire. So you want to keep this section up-to-date with relevant details and measurable results to make sure you don’t miss out on any potential job opportunities.
Want more LinkedIn advice? Here are more tips about the do’s and don’ts of LinkedIn profiles.
3. Use job descriptions to help revamp your resume
When you’re starting out with the job-hunting process and want to revamp your resume, it can be hard to know exactly what skills and experience to include to get noticed, especially since the use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) — software that scans resumes for specific keywords and phrases — is increasingly used by hiring managers today.
But one way to make sure you’re including the right keywords is to find a few job postings that pique your interest and pull words and phrases from them to use on your resume. You’ll also want to include any specific tools, software, or technology that are often noted in the “Requirements” section. This way, you’re upping your chances of the ATS finding those keywords and flagging your application as a promising one.
Learn more about how to read a tech job description and incorporate details from it.
4. Set up a cover letter template to make quick edits
While many tech companies are moving away from cover letter requirements, it can be a helpful way to showcase what differentiates you from other applicants, especially if you’re just starting out or making a career shift. Thankfully, it’s not necessary to write a completely new cover letter for each job you apply to. But unlike your resume, where you can use one version to apply to similar jobs, you’ll need to make small tweaks to each cover letter you submit.
One way to make these edits as quickly as possible is to set up a template and highlight the text that needs to be edited, like who your letter is addressed to, the title of the role, and the name of the company. Here’s an example from the first paragraph of a cover letter.
Dear Hiring Manager,
I’m excited to apply for the Full-Stack Developer position at Reddit, Inc. My experience with both the back-end and front-end stacks, as well as my proficiency in Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery, would be a great addition to your team and company.
If you have the bandwidth, it’s also a good idea to include a slot for a sentence that addresses why you’re particularly excited about the specific role or company. When you’re strapped for time, you want to avoid doing time-consuming edits, so the other details in your cover letter, like your experience and skills, can remain the same.
5. See if someone you know is connected to the company you’re applying to
It’s not uncommon for open positions to be filled by referrals. Sometimes the referral can come from someone already working at the company or from someone connected to the company in some way, like a former employee or a friend of the hiring manager. Take a look at the company’s employees on LinkedIn and see if you know anyone or have a mutual connection with someone there.
Depending on how close you are with the person, you could reach out and let them know you’re applying for a position at the company and ask if they could bump your application to the recruiter and/or hiring manager. Sometimes companies offer bonuses for employee referrals who get hired, so your contact may even want to upload your application into the system themselves.
6. Network efficiently
A feature like Open to Work on LinkedIn is a really efficient way to let recruiters and your professional network know when you’re job-hunting — but of course, you can’t always broadcast that you’re looking for a new role. If that’s the case for you, doing some individual outreach as early as possible in your job search is a good idea, especially since someone in your professional network could already be looking to fill a position or know of an opening that might be a good fit for you.
If you’re super busy, you could write one general BCC email to your personal and professional network letting people know you’re looking for your next job opportunity. Just make sure that these are all people who you trust and have a good relationship with. In your email, you want to include details like the positions you’re open to taking, the types of companies you want to work at, and when you can start your new role. Also, include a 2-3 sentence professional bio that your network can use to describe you in any referrals, and make sure to provide all relevant links for them as well, like your portfolio, professional website, and LinkedIn.
If there are any people in your network that you’d prefer to reach out to 1/1 — like mentors, former managers, or any colleagues you’re particularly close with — you could also take the time to send a few personalized emails. Just remember: Before sending any 1/1 emails, do a few minutes of homework about the person. Where do they work now? Do they know anyone on LinkedIn you might want to be connected with? Take a look at their company’s career page or LinkedIn jobs page to see what roles are open. Who knows? Maybe there will be a great role for you, and your note can mention that you’re interested in applying for it.
7. Use calendar reminders to stay on top of communication
Once you launch into the interview process, it can be easy to lose track of time when you’re trying to fit applications, emails, and interviews into an already-busy schedule. Remember: Technology is your friend when you’re trying to save time and reduce the stress of keeping up with communication. Get the information out of your head and onto a reminder app (like Google Calendar) so that you don’t have to worry if you missed an opportunity to show your interest in the role.
One way to help you stay on top of communication is to use calendar reminders to nudge you to send thank-you emails after interviews. Whenever you add an interview to your calendar, also add a reminder to send that person a thank-you note. While you’re doing that, you could even add a calendar reminder to let you know when to check in with the recruiter if you don’t hear back after a certain amount of time (at least a few days).
If you need some help drafting your follow-up email, here are some tips on how to write a professional follow-up email after a job interview.
Want more job-hunting advice? Here are some tips for writing a technical resume that will catch the hiring manager’s attention, plus tips for navigating a career change. And check out our Career Center, which is full of tools and resources to support you along every step of the job-hunting process.
Interview Prep Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy
Interviewing is an important step in your journey towards landing a job in tech. Technical interviews let you showcase your skills and knowledge, but practice is key. You’ll need to understand technical concepts and be prepared to talk through solutions with your interviewers.
How Important Is Mindfulness to Your Daily Life?
How do you cope when you feel stressed, sad or overwhelmed? Have you ever practiced meditation? Is it important to your daily or weekly mental wellness?
In “Meditations for Uncertain Times” Tara Parker-Pope shares a series of five-minute meditations. She writes:
Meditation won’t solve all your problems, but it can give your mind a rest and help you approach each day with more clarity and purpose.
We asked the teachers of the Unplug app to create a week of five-minute meditations to help you cope with some of life’s challenges. You’ll find meditations that will calm your mind, transport you to a happier place and leave you feeling energized.
So take a moment for yourself, and get comfortable.
Let’s get started.
Now, notice how you’re feeling in this moment. Are you excited? Tired? Bored? Annoyed? Then, choose one of the three meditations below, or one from the article, and listen to it in its entirety.
Students, try one of the meditations in the article, then tell us:
How do you feel after doing the five-minute meditation? Any different than you did before?
Is meditation or mindfulness a practice you’d like to include in your daily life? Why or why not?
In your experience, what are the benefits of meditation or other mindfulness practices? What, if anything, do you find difficult or frustrating about meditation?
Over the past two years, how have you coped with the pain, sadness and stress of the pandemic? What strategies have helped you to navigate this difficult time?
Some schools teach mindfulness to help students deal with stress, anxiety and to cope with other difficult emotions. Do you think every school should teach this practice? Why or why not? Would you participate in a mindfulness class if it were offered at your school?
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.
Do You Like Romance Stories?
Do you enjoy romance stories, whether in books or movies or on TV? If so, what makes a love story compelling to you? Witty dialogue? Character development? Suspense?
How much do you care about the identities of the protagonists? Do you enjoy romances more when aspects of your own identity — like sexual orientation, race, gender identity or disability — are reflected?
For years, Lana Popovic Harper wrote novels for a pittance she described as “jars of pennies.” So when her new project drew bids from seven publishers, she was thrilled. Stunned, really: The book was a romance about two women. Two women who happen to be witches.
“It was completely surreal to me,” Harper said. “People really wanted these queer witches.”
L.G.B.T.Q. romance novels have been around for decades, but they have been a quiet presence, almost entirely self-published or put out by small niche presses, and often shelved separately from other romances in bookstores. Now, they are coming from the biggest publishers in the industry. They are prominently displayed at independent bookstores and on the shelves at Walmart, and advertised on New York City subway platforms.
And when Harper’s book, “Payback’s a Witch,” was published last fall by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, it became a best seller.
“L.G.B.T.Q. romance is booming,” said Shannon DeVito, director of books at Barnes & Noble.
In many ways, this echoes a broader cultural shift. Gay characters were once confined to niche markets, or to peripheral roles and tragic endings in the mainstream — a tendency that spawned the sardonic catchphrase “bury your gays.” No longer. An L.G.B.T.Q. romance novel, in fact, promises two things: It will have L.G.B.T.Q. characters at its center, and the main couple (or thruple!) will have a happy ending.
“People want to see themselves,” said Laynie Rose Rizer, the assistant store manager at East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C. “Customers will come in and say, ‘I just want something that’s gay and happy.’ And I’m like, ‘I have ten different options for you.’”
Lesson of the Day: ‘In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees’
Lesson Overview
Featured Article: “In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees,” photographs and text by Anne Readel from The Times’s The World Through a Lens series.
Do you have a front lawn? If not, have you ever fantasized about having one? Why do you think a lush, perfectly manicured lawn is a dream for so many Americans? Did you know that kind of lawn can hurt the environment and contribute to the decline of bee populations?
In this lesson, you will learn how the No Mow May movement aims to transform the traditional American lawn into an ecological benefit. In Going Further activities, we invite you to make the case for or against a similar environmental campaign in your own community. You’ll also have an option to act as a photojournalist and document the often overlooked life in a front lawn or field of grass.
Warm-Up
Part 1: Closely observe a lawn or patch of grass in your neighborhood.
Do you have a front lawn? If not, think of a familiar field or patch of grass that you pass by or visit regularly, such as a schoolyard, park or neighbor’s backyard. What plant and animal species do you imagine live there?
Go to this lawn or patch of grass and take some time to observe the life, big or small, there. Be sure to record and annotate your observations in a notebook. Consider bringing a magnifying glass, binoculars and a sketch book.
After conducting your observations, respond to the following prompts in writing:
What did you notice? What plant or animal species did you identify? (Don’t worry if you’re not sure. It’s fine to write descriptions like “insect,” “bird,” “small yellow flower” or “strange looking bug.”)
What stood out from your observations? Were you surprised by the variety of life you found? What did you learn from looking closely at something you may have passed by without much thought before?
What did you wonder? What questions do you have about the life you observed?
Part 2: Watch a short video on the decline of bees in America.
Before reading the featured article, watch the four-minute “Why Are the Bees Dying?” by PBS from 2016 on the alarming rates at which bee colonies, wild and domesticated, are disappearing.
What are three reasons that bees are dying?
Why are these tiny pollinators so important to the world’s food supply? What will happen if all bees disappeared?
What are some possible solutions to help prevent the decline of bees, according to the video?
What remaining questions do you have about bees?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the featured article, then answer the following questions:
1. What did Anne Readel, a photojournalist, discover was different about the lawns in Appleton, Wis., when she drove through it last spring?
2. What is the No Mow May movement, and what are its goals? How did Appleton become the first city in the United States to adopt No Mow May?
3. Look closely at the photos in the article: What story do they tell about Appleton or the No Mow May movement? Which image stands out to you most? Why?
4. What animal and plant species have flourished since Appleton adopted the No Mow plan? How do these species compare with the kinds you observed in the warm-up activity?
5. Why are some residents and communities not so happy about the initiative?
6. Dr. Israel Del Toro cautions that No Mow May is only a starting point for bee conservation. What else can communities do to be more bee- (no pun intended, we promise) and eco-friendly?
7. What is your reaction to the article? What did you find most interesting, surprising or memorable? Does the article change how you think about the traditional American lawn? Will it make you notice the often overlooked and ignored natural world around us more fully?
Going Further
Option 1: Make the case for or against a No Mow May in your community
What are lawns like in your own neighborhood or community? Are they neatly manicured? Wild and weedy? Or a rarity?
Imagine that your town or city is considering adopting a No Mow May plan and that you have been invited to speak at an upcoming community meeting. Make a passionate and reasoned case for or against the proposal. Be sure to present evidence to support your arguments. Anticipate possible counterarguments to your claims. Inform listeners why they should care about the issue. And consider how you can draw upon your own experiences with lawns as well as your distinct point of view as a teenager.
As a bonus, create some visual media — a poster, infographic or public service announcement — to support your case.
Option 2: Watch and respond to a Times video
In 2019, The Times published a seven-minute film, “The Great American Lawn: How the Dream Was Manufactured,” that explored how a perfectly manicured patch of grass came to represent the pride of homeownership and community. Watch the film and respond to the following questions adapted from our Film Club:
What moments in this film stood out for you? Why?
What did you learn about the history of lawns, lawn mowers and how the dream of the ideal front lawn was created?
Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know — or thought you knew?
Option 3: Learn more about bees — and contribute as a citizen scientist
Why do bees buzz? How do they clean themselves? How can we all help with their conservation? What questions do you still have about bees and their alarming decline?
To answer these questions and learn much more, scroll through The Times’s Bees topic page or read one of the articles or short ScienceTake videos below:
After conducting your new research, respond to the following prompts in writing or through discussion with a partner or small group:
What is one new interesting fact about bees you learned?
How did your article or video deepen or challenge what you already knew about bees?
What questions do you still have on the subject?
Still interested in bees? Want to help efforts to prevent the decline of bee populations in North America? Become a citizen scientist and learn how to help efforts to collect better data on native bee populations and to build more bee-friendly environments with collaborative projects like The Great American Bee Count, Bumble Bee Watch, the Beecology Project or the Great Sunflower Project.
Option 4: Document lawns where you live
What role do lawns and fields of grass play in your life? Why should we stop to notice, appreciate and, perhaps, rethink them?
Imagine that The Times hired you to document the lawns and fields of grass in your own community for the World Through a Lens series. Using the main article as a mentor text, photograph the overlooked life and beauty of a patch of grass in your neighborhood.
How would you reveal this setting to others? What would you photograph? What details would you show? When would you use wide, medium or close-up shots?
After you have captured at least three photographs, write a short artist’s statement that explains why you chose them and what they reveal about the lawns in your community. Additionally, where possible, include identifications for each plant and animal species you documented. (Free apps like Leafsnap, Picture Insect or iNaturalist could help.)
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
