Marble is one of my favorite textures. Paired with gold accents, it makes a stunning masterpiece that will decorate your screens in June. I think it has a perfectly balanced shade for a wallpaper that isn’t too dark or too bright. Let me know what you think about it in the comments!
As always, our June’s free wallpaper comes with two different mobile phone layouts. They are great to use at once – the simple version for your phone background and the one with a quote for the lock screen.
Quote for June
This month’s quote is simple, and I hope it will bring you a smile every day you will see it.
Today is a good day for a good day
P.S the square image is also included in the download package below! Feel free to post it on your Instagram.
What font is it?
Free June’s wallpaper features a serif font called Coachella and script one called Aurora. Coachella is actually one of my newest fonts but I’m using it quite often since I got it. It has a modern and very stylish look so make sure to check it.
In conclusion, the free download includes three desktop options – one with the calendar and one without the calendar and one with a quote. There is also a wallpaper for tablet and two options for the phone. We have also included an Instagram ready square with the weekly quote.
Your voice matters!
If you have your favorite quotes and would like them to appear on the next free wallpaper, make sure to post them in the comments below or send us your ideas via email.
Enjoy!
FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
Lastly, we would appreciate if you can share this freebie. It is really easy! Just click on the buttons below. It is completely free for you but helps us grow and produce even more content.
Share and help us grow. Thanks!
P.S This post includes affiliate links so by clicking them you are supporting us. Thanks!
Here is the May edition of Teenagers in The Times, a roundup of the news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com. We publish a new edition on the first Thursday of each month during the school year.
For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.
An alienated teenager finds questionable companionship in this playful coming-of-age romance by Suzanne Lindon, who was in her teens when she wrote, directed and starred in the film.
Representative Andy Kim of New Jersey, who picked the painting to represent his district in the Capitol, did not know it was inspired by a canceled TV show.
The other day, I went to Tombstone, the tourist trap of the Old West. Of all the amazing things you can see, and get, uh, ripped off (when did the Old West start pricing a meal like it was Vegas?), was the number of reenactors, walking around. I should note, that there is one street, that has remained the way Tombstone used to be, building wise, etc.
I digress.
Anyway, I assumed that all these people wearing clothing from the 1880s were employees. What I learned though, was that half of them were residents of Tombstone and surrounding areas, who everyday/weekend, dress up in their old west best, and walk around. Each of these people paid for their own costume, including those who actually are reenactors and those in the shops and restaurants.
I wondered to myself, what if Tombstone, purchased a learning system, to provide learning and training content to their employees, reenactors and even townsfolk on everything from customer service, to communication, to dealing with groups and teams?
Would they need certain functionality in the system for the days to come, or rely on what is in existence today or in the past?
Would they as frontline workers need classroom management or would vILT suffice? Would they want content/courses assigned to say only the Wyatt Earp lookalikes or for anyone who is a gunfighter? (I learned that the locals, were using real guns). For the professional workforce (i.e. in the office, or a part-time office via a hybrid workplace or working remote – hey who is to say Virgil Earp lookalikes prefer remote?), did they require certain functionality? The old west wasn’t known for internet connectivity, and even modern-day Tombstone looks like it isn’t on the bandwidth speed of many of us. Thus, issues such as video content and the ability to view it and perhaps read the transcripts would make sense.
Restaurants in the 1880s were mainly gambling halls, where they served food and a lot of people got killed, one in fact over asking a Clayton to have a drink with them. He declined, then shot him in the head.
If they had a learning system back then, they would have been able to keep metrics and reporting around such incidents, after all, the barkeep would need certain skills to uh, clean up.
Present Day
I hear all the time, features and functionality folks want in their learning system when it comes to employee training/learning. There are features who make absolutely complete sense, then there are others, who while, they have frontline workers, focus on capabilities for their in-house workforce (again, hybrid, all office or works remote).
Then there are people who seem so focused on security, they forget the basics, such as net connectivity issues (which is relevant) and support (another reason why the customer excellence pledge is so important).
Security? I know and understand why customers focus heavy on it, but be aware that the majority of vendors are on AWS, plus have 256 bit AES (minimum) and numerous fail safes. I’ve been in the e-learning industry for over 20 years (yowsa) and to date, I know of only one vendor in all those years, who has been hacked. They were not on AWS btw.
Thus, submitting to a vendor hundreds of questions around security, while understandable, isn’t necessary to that extent. I mention this, just as an fyi, and sure you can argue what does have to do with employee training and my learning system?
Well, from a security standpoint since most white-collar professionals (pre COVID) were already taking courses from home, and now they are definitely are either 100% or hybrid, and even those in the office, likely will still access the system from home, and/or courses, the security questions that must be asked include:
Can they access via a VPN – nowadays a lot of folks use VPNs to surf the net
If they access via a VPN – will the speed slow down or will be there any type of impact to accessing video courses or content with a lot of data? The answer by the way is yes. But you want some specifics here. If a vendor says no, there isn’t any impact, well, Morgan Earp (Sheriff) would like a word with them, because lying is an offense here in Tombstone.
256 AES security or higher?
Where are your servers being hosted? (And if your country of residence or for any of your employees/customers requires the data center to be hosted in that country, find that out too)
How will you protect credentials and data transmissions from detection while in transit to your application?
Do you support the California Consumer Protection Act? (If you have customers or employees in CA, this is now the law – but only for companies who generate 20M USD in revenue)
Do you support GDPR – There isn’t a certification process here, but the answer should be YES. Anyone who isn’t uh, move on.
What is your backup process and how often do you back up the system? Is it once a day? Multiple times? Overnight, etc. I have heard of vendors who backup twice a week. Yeesh.
If there is a security breach, what are your protocols? When will we be notified?
Reportedly, according to a source, the hacking breach that occurred with their system, the client wasn’t immediately notified.
Doc Holliday loved to gamble. But trust me on this one, he wouldn’t want to gamble here.
Employee Learning System Features you must have
This isn’t about “oh, maybe I need this, ” or “I do not need this now, maybe later” approach, because let’s remember a few items, we all tend to ignore (as the head of L&D, Training, etc.)
People leave companies. This includes your administrator, heck could be you? So if a replacement comes in, they may want those features – you are not interested in – and thus, if the system doesn’t offer them, or has no plans to do so, they are stuck. Until the end of the contract. How would you like it, if you take another job, and that scenario happens to you?
You may change your mind in six months or a year from now. Too late by then.
Employees may inquire whether they system can do this or that? But you selected a system, that didn’t have it, because you didn’t see it as a benefit or need. The system has no plan to ever add it. Now your stuck.
The industry is starting to revert back to add-ons as a method of tailoring. I prefer the tailoring approach, but everything is included. No one says, I have to turn it on right away or ever. But at least, I know it is there, in my back pocket. Like a map of Boot Hill (graveyard and yes, they have one).
Onto the functionality.
If they are specific for say frontline and/or blue-collar you will see (F, BC). Otherwise, it is for all employees. I won’t be going into all the functionality a system has. Based on my data, overall industry-wise, I find that systems tend to be in the 85% range of features to one another. Now how good it is versus someone else is completely different.
Information is presented via the following
Learning Environment – This is what the Learner sees
Administration – The Administrator (if you have like a super admin, that is this person, it can also be sub-admins, but the main admin sets the rules)
Additional Functionality – Again, these are musts, and I will include a couple (I) which means ideal. One such is a custom domain. A vendor may say yes we have a custom domain, but that does not mean custom as in widgetuniversity.com (i.e a true custom domain, like elearninfo247.com). The majority of the time, what they are referring to is your name, then their name in the domain, like widgetuniversity.lmsvendorname.com – For the record, you can purchase a custom domain for like $12 on most sites, and then a URL mask if they do the above with their name as part of the domain (the site hosting the domain, will have directions on how to do this). I had to go this route many times.
Learning Environment
How could anyone miss? The Earps and Doc Holiday are wearing black. Not visible, Kurt Russell.
I’m sure your learners feel the same way of the Claytons. Surprised, confused and realizing that it is a no win situation, but darn it, let’s go out with a bang. I refer to this, when it comes to the learning environment, after they log into the system. Who doesn’t love “I do not know how to navigate” inquiry or the “I can’t figure this out” retort. Then you have learners, who use only partially the front-end (what they see), and thus your data is skewed because they are ignoring all that wonderful assigned learning, just as the Claytons ignored the fact that they were up against serious gunslingers, and uh, Doc had a shotgun.
The front end of the system (i.e.) Learner side is crucial for employee training/learning regardless if the employee is white-collar professional, frontline or blue-collar. It is what they see first, every time they go into the system. It is where the courses/content they are taking, regardless if assigned or not, is placed. If there are playlists – they are there. Some vendors show progress bars, others show circles of progress, and plenty do neither.
Some learning environments have announcements for the employees on various subjects. Some LEs are widget based where the learner can change the placement or turn them off (admin decides). Other systems have LEs that can change in terms of where the widgets are placed or what is added – but it appears across the board for everyone, not individual.
I am a huge fan of a system whereas it has widgets or blocks, and the learner can move them around anywhere they want and add/remove. This is true personalized experience. The OK Corral picture above, and where these folks are placed is based on the personal experience of one said, Wyatt Earp, in the 1920s.
Learning Environment as a whole
Learner home dashboard (this means that when the learner enters the system, they see a home dashboard that contains high level information, including their current courses)
Search functionality allowing learners to find specific courses, materials, delivery format, based on keywords, title, delivery format, and other tagged identifiers (usually appears as a search bar – like you see with a search engine)
Learners can enroll or request enrollment in course or cancel their enrollment
The courses/content have identifiers such as title, category (if applicable), brief description (if applicable), Tags, format
Learner progress bar or similar (My recommendation is color-coded, whereas red means past due, green in progress and blank for not started)
Learners can view entire catalog and select own courses – Usually they click a link or similar off the home page and it goes to the catalog for them to select from.
Catalog (it exists in the system, again on the learner side) has filters, which include – duration, delivery format, category/subject, tags, skills. Some systems include a filter for CPD or CEUs. Many list publishers – which makes no sense. I hate to say this, but a learner doesn’t care if your leadership course came from Sammy’s or House of Cards University. There are catalogs that have ratings, based on learner ratings of the courses.
Learners can be assigned materials, videos, etc. – If you think everyone system can do this, well, you are 85% right.
Search by TAGS – Skills, Interests – eventually job roles (for those who want it – but for now, not a necessary need)
Ability for development paths or curriculum/learning paths to have contents placed in a specific order/hierarchy of learning – For those who want a “lockdown”, which means the learner cannot jump to the next course/content until completed, you will want to make sure the system can do this. Never assume.
Individualized learning plan (including required -i.e. assigned courses/content and optional courses/content)or similar appear on the same screen
Support for the hierarchy at the enterprise, business unit or other desired levels
Ideal
Playlists/Channels with “assigned” (for those who want this), “recommended”, “most popular”, “based on skills of interest or skills tied to job role”.
You also want a system that has a clean and modern crisp look. This is what your employees see every day when searching the net, watching Netflix or visually experiencing. Cluttered never looks good. And a dated look, is well, dated.
Administration
This is the view and capabilities seen by the administrator. NOT THE LEARNER. Or James Earp, the one brother who wasn’t at the OK corral or Tombstone for that matter.
Administrator dashboard – The best ones have high level metrics for the administrator to see. I’ve seen new ones where they also list the top skills, their employees are selecting.
Allow administrators to create, modify and cancel a course/content (very common with systems)
Assign users to groups, can assign X number to X number of courses, Y to a different number of courses or course (Majority of systems have this capability)
Learning plan can be assigned by job role, region, department (Common)
Allow administrators to set multiple levels of approval (e.g., no approval needed, supervisor approval, instructor approval, etc.) (Most systems have this, but there are plenty who do not)
Allow administrator and/or tech team to load learner learning history via batch import (excel template) (Always check, some vendors think this is the same as a batch upload of courses/content. It’s not)
Allow administrators to track attendance status (e.g., no show, cancelled, attended) of all types of training (e.g. instructor led, online, virtual) (This is especially relevant for those who have frontline workers, and those in the “workplace”).
Assign and enforce access based on user profile (A must, and most systems have it)
Capture multiple user attributes (e.g. Organization, department, Manager, Job role, etc.) – Common, but always verify what are the attributes
Create user groups through defined attributes (e.g. organization, departments, country, etc.) – Common, but again, verify what are the attributes. Never assume it is the same for every system.
Control profile settings by field (e.g., allow learners to change email addresses but not change user name) – This will be in the learner profile, where they can update or change their password for example.
Administrator can limit access to catalog items based on user profile (i.e. job role, location, group, etc.) – A must you want this, majority of systems offer this – ‘job role’ is always the wild card, but still most can do that.
Provide multiple levels of administrative access and privileges – Crucial! You want this. You also want the ability to assign different rules as well.
Allow administrators to create and assign system roles – Example – Dave, as a Manager, can access the Manager view and nothing else. Never let other employees, except those in Training or L&D or HR or whoever is running the system, get access. Some companies think “IT wants access”. ?Okay, assign one person in IT as a sub-administrator, give them access to some reports and that’s it. And yes, it is possible in the majority of systems
Create user groups through defined attributes (e.g. organization, departments, country, etc.) – Most systems offer this – again, verify the attributes
Batch upload courses/content and batch upload learners. I would love to tell you this is very common, but I see systems that lack the first, and thus you have to go one by one – which is a huge yuck, especially if you have like 100 videos and 75 courses you have created. Even the batch upload of learners is not a guarantee – I promise you this is a must. Just as checking out Boot Hill in Tombstone, trust me worth the $3 – cash only.
Ideal
TAGS- Administrator can create TAGS by Skills, Interest, Job Role, etc. – This will be a must by the end of 2022
Administrator can create job roles, job titles, edit and delete
Administrator can create skills – needed, requested and assign to learner, learners or in general in the system – A must if you are using a Talent Development Platform. Another must will be the ability to add/delete a skill/job role in the system’s skill/job role library
Ability to assign courses based upon skills, interests, or other variables
Classroom Management
If you have frontline workers, or blue-collar workers you must make sure to have a classroom management capability. Classroom management refers to physical ILT (Instructor Led-Training), on-site. This will be crucial for these employees. For your workplace professionals, not a need, but vILT (Virtual ILT) will be.
Classroom management features
Resource management – Ensures that the projector is available, or those six laptops haven’t all been checked out
Facilities management – If your facility has multiple locations on-site for example, this feature will cross-check to see which ones are available at that given time.
Print out sheets – The instructor does this either ahead of time or via a mobile app
Instructor View
Regardless if you are going on-site or vILT, always make sure your system has the following (all are essential for employees)
Allow instructors access to course enrollment information
Instructor can push survey/assessment during active class
Instructor can update rosters
Allow instructors ability to print rosters, send emails to participants and update course attendance post class
Some customers want the instructor to see some metrics. Again, this is doable via your administrator creating a rule around it, and what the instructor can access. Personally, I’m not a fan of this. I mean, you as the administrator can create a report and send it to them.
Manager View – A must for employee training/learning
And as noted above earlier, you can decide what the manager(s) see – so some might see all below, others may not – your choice.
Manager can to see their team in a manager dashboard or view
Manager can assign content/courses to team and/or individuals
Manager can monitor learning paths for each team member
Manager can update on the job training, mark training complete – This refers to OJT – (F, BC)
Manager can manage training of indirect or virtual reports
Manager can add/reject/update/approve learners/users
Manager can approve/disapprove of learners applying for opportunities (a must for a TDP)
Manager can approve/disapprove of content, employee wants to take
Ideal
Manager can compare team members by skill(s)
Manager can compare team members by self-ratings
Manager can leave a self-rating of what they see the learner needs or has related to skills
Mobile as it relates to OJT
The internet is not the greatest when it comes to the warehouse, manufacturing site, plant, retail, restaurant, and so forth. Thus, a mobile app is crucial here. Remember when a vendor says mobile first! or Mobile Learning, it does not mean they have a mobile app. All it means is that you can access the system via a mobile web browser
Mobile App – Native iOS and Android (Vendors who offer a native mobile app, usually support iOS and Android, but there a few who support only iOS) iOS is Apple
On/Off synch – This means that your worker can take content/courses, surveys and some other functionality within the app, and can continue to do so offline. When a net connection is re-established, the data gets pushed into the learning system. This is a big win, if the system has a native mobile app
Mobile responsive – People always ask for it, every vendor supports it – now to how well it looks on the screen? Different story.
Can take content/courses, surveys in the mobile app
Ideal
Can record employee with mobile device and upload into the learning system – for the manager to verify – great for compliance, and even can be used as content too
Digital signature within the mobile app. It is not common in the space, but for any vendor who has a native mobile app and focuses on frontline workers, blue-collar, even a combo of workers, this is a need.
Bottom Line
I could write a long list of everything you want in a system for employees, from reporting and metrics with segmentation – including KPIs, to a coaching capability (a nice plus for onboarding and frontline), to content curation, playlists, even machine learning. Skills is now a must – a reason I created a template specifically for skill capabilities in a learning system.
Event management is related around webinars and seminars (ILT), you want this. For frontline, you will want SMS notifications beyond just e-mail. Forget password is a must, same as self-registration. Social is a must, but how much you need is totally based on your employees.
Some systems offer communities tied to groups, the system itself, a piece of content, skills and so forth. These are nice to have, and can spur engagement, if they are utilized correctly. Compliance is essential if your are a company whereas employee compliance training is a requirement or in an industry whereas compliance attributes with a system is a must. Such as FS or Life Sciences.
There are two key takeaways in this post.
The features and functionalities employees need and are must for you, are presented
Tombstone wasn’t a great place if you decided that Morgan Earp was overrated as a gunslinger and that there is no way the rest of his brothers and Doc Holiday will show up to protect him, in a small area known as the OK Corral.
By Jyoti Motwani, Senior Product Manager, Coursera
Today, we’re excited to announce that educators can now seamlessly import content from select learning management systems (LMS) directly to Coursera. This new feature supports scalable content creation, enabling educators to quickly migrate large amounts of content between an LMS and Coursera. It is enabled via an integration with K16 Solutions, an industry leader in large-scale LMS migrations, and currently supports content ingestion from Blackboard, Canvas, Desire2Learn (D2L), Moodle, Open LMS, and Sakai.
Creating high-quality educational content requires considerable time and resources. LMS ingestion helps educator teams focus on creating impactful lessons, perfecting course assets, and supporting real-time student needs, rather than navigating tedious migrations or re-creating content from scratch.
Today’s general availability comes after a successful pilot, which showed that the new LMS solution could help educators save up to 67% in time when building courses on Coursera. Take for example the University of North Texas, which used LMS ingestion during the pilot for its Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree on Coursera. With it, the UNT team was able to save a significant amount of time adding and refreshing individual courses for upcoming terms.
“Without this capability, I highly doubt that the course would be as far along as it is today. This capability could be a game changer to how quickly we can have a course ready!” – Lauri Morrow, Asst. Director, Instructional Design, University of North Texas
To get started with LMS ingestion, reach out to your Coursera partnership manager today. Once set up, you can begin migrating content such as videos, quizzes, readings, discussion prompts, peer review assignments, learning objectives, and LTIs from your LMS to Coursera and unlock valuable time to best serve students. Additional information about LMS ingestion is on the Partner Resource Center [login required].
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.
Have you ever been involved in activism on behalf of a particular candidate or cause? If you have, what inspired you to do so? If you have not, what might motivate you? Do you think a direct message on Twitter from another teenager could bring you into the fold?
Dana Depelteau, a hotel manager, had just gone public with a long-shot candidacy for mayor in Boston when he noticed that someone in city politics was going after him online.
The effect of this attack, he said, was lightning-fast and pervasive. The morning after he announced his candidacy on Twitter, he showed up at his local barbershop and, while staring at himself in the mirror, overheard a customer describing his views as white supremacist.
“I’m thinking, ‘Man, politics is dirty,’” recalled Mr. Depelteau. He rushed home to fire back at his critic, a sharp-edged progressive who had dug up some of Mr. Depelteau’s old social media posts and was recirculating them online. But that, he discovered, was a big mistake.
“I didn’t know how old she was,” he explained. “I just knew she was a prominent person.”
That is how he became aware of Calla Walsh, a leader in the group of activists known here as the Markeyverse. Ms. Walsh, a 16-year-old high school junior, has many of the attributes of Generation Z: She likes to refer to people (like the president) as “bestie.” She occasionally gets called away from political events to babysit her little brother. She is slightly in the doghouse, parent-wise, for getting a C+ in precalculus.
She is also representative of an influential new force in Democratic politics, activists who cut their teeth on the presidential campaigns of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The full strength of these activists — many of whom are not old enough to vote — did not become clear until last fall, when they were key to one of the year’s most surprising upsets, helping Senator Edward J. Markey defeat a primary challenge from Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, who had been heavily favored to win.
In conversation, Ms. Walsh tends to downplay her movement, describing them as “Markey teens” and “theater kids” who “formerly ran, like, Taylor Swift or K-pop stan accounts.”
But the Markeyverse carried out a devastating political maneuver, firmly fixing the idea of Senator Markey as a left-wing icon and Representative Kennedy as challenging him from the right. They carried out ambitious digital organizing, using social media to conjure up an in-person work force — “an army of 16-year-olds,” as one political veteran put it, who can “do anything on the internet.”
They are viewed apprehensively by many in Massachusetts’ Democratic establishment, who say that they smear their opponents and are never held accountable; that they turn on their allies at the first whiff of a scandal; and that they are attacking Democrats in a coordinated effort to push the whole party to the left, much as the Tea Party did, on the right, to the Republicans.
Ms. Walsh, for one, is cheerfully aware of all those critiques.
“I won’t lie, I was terrified,” she said. But then, she said, the fear evaporated.
“That’s when I realized I had a stake in this game: They are scared of me, a random teenager on the internet who just happened to be doing some organizing with her friends,” she said. “I think that made us all think, ‘Hey, they’re scared of us. We have power over them.’”
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.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed when a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine agonizing minutes. His death sparked an uprising for racial justice nearly unparalleled in American history, and many believed it might be a turning point in the way Americans confront issues of race and racism.
How did you feel on the anniversary of Mr. Floyd’s murder? As you reflect on all that has happened since last summer, how much do you think has really changed — in the country, your community or yourself? Have you begun to think differently about race and racism? Have the people around you?
In honor of the anniversary of Mr. Floyd’s death, The New York Times Opinion section published a series of essays that grapples with Mr. Floyd’s legacy, the acceleration of the racial justice movement, and what comes next.
In one of those essays, “‘We Still Aren’t Safe’: 6 Young Americans on George Floyd’s Death,” Times Opinion asked young readers about how the protests affected their approach to social justice, politics and life in general and what changes they’ve seen, if any, in their communities:
Many who responded said the video of Mr. Floyd’s murder awoke them to the reality of racial inequity in the United States and set them on a path of self-education and activism. But for some, those actions seemed fleeting.
“Even though millions of people committed to racial justice last summer, my neighborhood still struggles with the same issues it did before the protests, the same issues it faced decades ago when my grandparents were my age,” wrote Caleb Dunson, an 18-year-old reader in Chicago.
Six people described how the experience had influenced their thinking over the past year, including Dylan R. Crane, 22, from Missoula, Mont.:
As a young Indigenous woman, George Floyd’s death and the conversations that followed were brutal reminders of the pervasive nature of anti-Black sentiment in places like my home state, Montana. Even in Indian Country, while many stood in solidarity with protesters, many others needed to be reminded of the similarities that Black and Native American history share. I was reminded of the urgency of the situation and that I needed to shed my protective layers of ignorance and the apathy I adopted to save myself heartache.
The protests in my city happened under the watch of armed individuals that looked like private militias. Protesters were followed home and harassed. There were constant displays of intimidation. Eventually, these protests just became too unsafe for people of color.
There are still small pockets of community activism, but last summer really opened my eyes to how hard it can be to trust people in a majority-white town. There’s a reason these places lack diversity. Sometimes it feels like a game of catch-up, people of color standing at the finish line of humanity and basic rights while white people take their time debating how best to word their diversity mission statements, how to best deal with a murderous cop.
I’ve been a lot louder these days. A lot less keen to let subtle microaggressions slip by for the sake of maintaining the peace. My anger has gotten deeper, more nuanced and more directed. I’ve adopted the mind-set that if I don’t do it, no white person in my position would even know how to start, so it has to be me. I’ve found anger and ignorance and courage and heartache that I didn’t know I had this past year.
Caleb Dunson, 18, from West Side, Chicago:
George Floyd’s death has made me resent the power that white people have to define justice in our society. Black Americans have been getting murdered by the police and vigilantes for as long as this country has existed, and yet it feels like our deaths only matter if they can provoke an emotional response from white Americans. This time around, it took a nine-minute video of a Black man’s brutal killing to elicit that response. That, and last summer’s protests, pushed me to start writing about politics for the first time. Now I write a column about race and justice for my college newspaper.
I live in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Chicago, a neighborhood that is majority Black. Even though millions of people committed to racial justice last summer, my neighborhood still struggles with the same issues it had before the protests, the same issues it faced decades ago, when my grandparents were my age. I turned 18 in 2020. Becoming an adult during a time of political change has been strange. So I reached out to my grandmother, who turned 18 in 1968, and we had a conversation about the similarities between her experiences and my own. That conversation showed me just how much we have in common and how little our country has changed over the past 50 years.
And Avalon Gupta VerWiebe, 23, from Louisville, Ky.:
The protests were intense. I had already “woke up” to the reality of racism in America, but seeing people out in the streets gave me some small hope that I was not so alone in my anger anymore. But things didn’t change like we wanted, and in Louisville, where I’m from, people lost their lives. The second night of protests, we were tear-gassed in the streets. Not long after, David McAtee was killed by law enforcement.
The nonstop barrage of violence only made me a stronger abolitionist. I spent the summer learning as much as I could about abolition and police violence. We must come up with a way of implementing police abolition in our communities. There have been small changes in Louisville since. But things are moving slowly. The private sector made promises of change but I saw very little happen on a local governmental scale.
Every time I meet someone who is racist, I’m surprised. I guess I’ve spent too much time with a community moving in solidarity and not enough time trying to convince folks that Black and brown and Asian and Indigenous people deserve to live on equal ground. Those conversations are really painful.
How have Mr. Floyd’s death and the protests that followed changed you? Have you become aware, or more aware, of racism? Do you feel encouraged, energized, saddened or angered by what you have seen over the past year? Have you taken action? If so, in what ways?
Do you believe that racism is a problem in your school or community? Have there been any changes over the past year to address it? If yes, do you think these actions have helped? If not, what kinds of laws or policies do you think could help address racism where you live?
Do you think justice has been served for George Floyd? Are you encouraged by the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was found guilty in Mr. Floyd’s murder? Why or why not? Are there other actions that you think should happen to seek justice for Mr. Floyd?
How much do you think America has changed since Mr. Floyd’s death? Do you believe this moment was a turning point in the way Americans confront issues of racial injustice? Do you think there have been any meaningful changes on a national level? Do you feel hopeful about the future of racial justice in America? Or do you believe are we still far from achieving justice for Mr. Floyd and Black people in America? What do you think should come next?
If you like looking at trees, and bark, and the pattern of veins in leaves; if you are fascinated by clouds or the spots on a ladybug’s back; if you like to split open rocks and see what’s inside, then you are already an outdoor scientist. The best part is you don’t need any special or fancy equipment, you don’t need to remember a charger, you just need your eyes and the power of observation.
Are there one or two sets of paw prints in the snow? Three or four kinds of birds having a conversation in a grove? What kinds of plants are strong enough to push their way through the cracks in the sidewalk? You may not always find the answer, but these are the questions an outdoor scientist asks about the world.
One way crystals form is when magma, or liquid rock, begins to cool. Different kinds and colors of crystals will form depending on factors like the temperature of the liquid and the amount of time it takes to cool. It’s the same process with snowflakes, also known as snow crystals.You can observe crystallization up close if you leave a solution of water and salt out all night at room temperature. The water will evaporate, and the salt will crystallize.
1. Bring water to a boil in a pot (adults can help with this if you’re not allowed to use the stove yourself).
2. Stir in salt, adding until it no longer dissolves. The water should look almost clear with a few grains of salt swirling around (which means you’ve added slightly more salt than the water can absorb).
3. Transfer the solution to a jar.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want to make colored crystals.
5. Tie one end of your string around the middle of your pencil and lower the other end of the string into the jar. The string should be long enough so that it almost touches the bottom of your jar.
6. Balance the pencil across the top of your jar.
7. Crystals should start to form in one or two days.
Capture a Paw Print
Dogs and humans go way back. Just as we evolved from primates, dogs evolved from wolves. Dogs were the first animals to live with humans. We call this domestication, which describes how a wild animalbecomes our furry friendwatching Netflix beside us on the couch.
Today, there are over 300 breeds of dogs, but even after thousands of years of evolution, a dog’s paw and a wolf’s paw are still so similar that you can’t really tell them apart.
You’ll need:
4 cups plaster of Paris
2 cups cold tap water
Instructions:
Warning: Never completely submerge your hand or a pet’s paw in plaster of Paris, and remove it quickly while still moist. Plaster of Paris gets hot when it dries and you don’t want to get stuck.
1. Spread out newspaper on your work surface.
2. Place plaster of Paris and water in a plastic container, and use your mixing spoon to stir well until your mixture is the consistency of pancake batter.
3. Pour the mixture into the aluminum cake pan and smooth it with a spatula. Let it rest for an hour to set.
4. Place your dog’s paw (or the paw/ foot of any other animal) onto the mixture and press it down about ½ to ¾ inch — press firmly. Your dog will probably be more cooperative if you set the plaster of Paris container on the table and the dog on your lap. Remove dog’s paw and rinse thoroughly.
5. Allow the plaster of Paris to dry for 24 hours, and you’ll have a life-size keepsake of your pet’s paw.
Note: If you don’t have any domestic or outdoor animals, you can always use a human “paw.”
Measure a Tree
You’ve probably learned that you can figure out the age of a tree by counting its rings, but each ring is really made up of two parts. One entire year is represented by a lighter band of a layer of tissue known as cambium and a thinner, darker band of cambium measured together. The light-colored band shows growth during the warmer, rainier months and good growth conditions. The dark-colored band shows growth during the colder months and difficult conditions.
Trees grow outward, meaning that the center of a tree is the oldest part, and the outer rings the newest.The central core, or heartwood, is the strongest wood in the tree even though it’s no longer alive.
Because human records of daily weather conditions only go back so far,trees serve as useful tools for scientists studying climate change. Trees often live hundreds of years and can tell us about weather conditions long before humans started keeping track.
You’ll need:
More information on tree growth can be found in “How Old Is My Tree?” by Lindsay Purcell, which you can find at purduelandscapereport.org.
Instructions:
1. Measure the circumference (distance around) of your tree at approximately 4.5 feet from the ground with your cloth tape measure.
2. Use your calculator to divide that number by 3.14 (which is, approximately, Pi).
3. Multiply that number by the “growth factor” of your tree. The “growth factor” is an average estimate of your tree’ species’ growth over time. The International Society of Arboriculture has published a table of growth factor numbers according to tree species that you need to search for on Google or look up in a guide to trees to complete the formula for measuring your tree.
4. The result is the age of your tree. For example: If your silver maple is 20 inches in circumference, and you divide that by 3.14, you get 6.369. Multiply that by the growth factor (3) and get 19.108. That means your tree is approximately 19 years old.
Make a Constellation Map
The night skies have always been important to humankind, primarily as a navigational tool.
Today, stargazing isn’t as easy as it used to be. The main reason is light pollution. When we think of pollution, we tend to focus onwater and air pollution because they directly affect what we drink and breathe. But light pollution has long interfered with our ability to see the night skies in cities and suburbs.
An exciting citizen science project that you can participate in involves capturing the night sky from where you live and sharing it with people across the globe to track light pollution. To take part, visit the website Globe at Night.
You’ll need:
Instructions:
1. Measure the circumference of your flashlight’s lens with a drawing compass. Copy the measurement onto cardstock with your pencil.
2. Cut out a few circles for different constellations. These should fit snugly over the lens and inside the lip of the flashlight (if your flashlight doesn’t have a lip, you can use tape to hold it in place.) It is important to leave a tab on the circle a little larger than a pencil eraser to pull your circle out of the flashlight’s rim.
3. Find images of constellations on the internet or in a book about astronomy.
4. Using your pencil, mark dots on your circles that look like your constellation images.
5. Using the points of your scissors, punch holes through the dots.
6. Insert one disc into the top of your flashlight. Turn on the flashlight in a dark room and shine it on a blank wall or ceiling. Enjoy viewing your constellation!
Make a Pine Cone Bird Feeder
Birds need four basic things: food, water, shelter, and a place to lay their eggs. For most common backyard birds in North America, such as the goldfinch, blue jay, robin, hummingbird, cardinal and sparrow, their diet consists of nuts, seeds, fruit and nectar. Ospreys, large coastal birds, like fish and will plunge into the water to scoop them up. Up the food chain: Herons like frogs, roadrunners like reptiles, hawks will eat other birds, owls like rodents and vultures will eat just about anything, including roadkill.
You’ll need:
String
Pine cone (f you don’t live near pine trees, you can buy a pine cone at a local crafts store)
Birdseed (can be purchased at a grocery or pet store)
Plate
Honey
Butter knife (optional)
Branch or other place to hang feeder
Instructions:
1. Tie a string around a pine cone’s top so you can hang it up later.
Pour about an inch of bird seeder on a plate, enough to roll your pine cone in.
3. Drizzle honey over your pine cone. (Do this over the plate to catch any honey that drips off your pine cone.)
4. Once your pine cone is covered in honey, roll it around in birdseed on your plate until it’s covered. You many need to use a butter knife to get into the nooks and crannies.
5. Hang your pine cone from a branch and move a safe distance away to observe the birds that come to dine.
Podcasts are great. They’re entertaining. They’re informative. They’re perfect for when you need help staying awake during your commute to work or when you want a little background noise while you’re tidying up.
They’re also a great way to stay informed of recent developments in the programming industry. When we asked our learners about their favorite programming resources, they offered several podcasts that help them stay up to date. Here’s what they shared.
The Stack Overflow Podcast
Stack Overflow recently featured in our list of our learners’ favorite resources, as their platform is a great place to get tips and insights from other developers. Now, they’re back with The Stack Overflow Podcast, where their hosts explore “what it means to work in software and how code is reshaping our world.”
“The Stack Overflow Podcast is a really nice general podcast on the world of programming. It’s a good place to go to keep up to date with the wider world of software engineering, and not just the area you work on most.” — Ben, member of the Codecademy community
The Stack Overflow Podcast provides listeners with real-life insights into the industry as professional developers and executives of tech companies share their opinions on various technologies. In a recent episode, the podcast’s hosts interview the CEO of Bold Penguin, who discusses the advantages of Ruby and explains how the company’s developers used the language to build a flexible yet stable infrastructure.
The podcast can also help you learn about new tools and software. In another episode, they interview the head of Anvil — a platform that allows you to create web applications with Python.
Soft Skills Engineering
Soft Skills Engineeringis hosted by two professional developers who give their listeners advice about the field and respond to their submitted questions. You’ll definitely want to check out this podcast if you’re considering a career in programming, as it sheds light on the expectations around common roles.
Take Junior expectations and manager flakinessas an example. In this episode, the hosts address a team leader who’s dissatisfied with a new hire’s performance. Then, they examine a similar situation from the employee’s point of view after a listener asks for advice about dealing with unreliable managers.
In a different episode, the hosts respond to a new product manager who became disillusioned with their new role after realizing it’s not quite what they expected.
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman is a self-described “AI researcher working on autonomous vehicles, human-robot interaction, and machine learning at MIT and beyond.” While many episodes of his podcast focus on programming, you’ll also find conversations about machine learning, interstellar travel, physics, and more — often with celebrities and notable figures like Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Noam Chomsky.
The Lex Fridman Podcast is a great way to get a glimpse into the minds of celebrities and notable public figures like Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Noam Chomsky. Earlier this year, Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, guest-starred in the podcast’s 160th episode. In this episode, Lex and Brendan discuss the history of programming languages, JavaScript’s origins and development, TypeScript, and more.
Command Line Heroes
Command Line Heroes is a podcast created by Red Hat — an open-source technology company and subsidiary of IBM. This podcast covers the latest developments in open-source technology, but they also branch into data science, machine learning, and more. In 2019, the podcast won the Shorty Award for Best in Technology.
In the first episode of their fifth season, Becoming a Coder, the hosts discuss the many different ways people get into programming. After comparing traditional degree programs to coding boot camps, they contemplate people who switch to development from other careers.
In another episode, The Data Explosion, the hosts explore data science’s potential to improve our quality of life by revolutionizing healthcare and other industries.
Talk Python To Me
Talk Python To Me is a podcast about (you guessed it) the Python programming language and its associated libraries and frameworks. Recently, the podcast featured a group of panelists who discussed the latest developments to the Flask framework and their implications for its utility.
A different episode, Deploying and running Django web apps in 2021, examines the recent updates to Django, a framework used for web development.
Each episode of Talk Python To Me is around 45 minutes — the perfect length for you to listen to during your commute. For those with shorter attention spans, they also offer 15-minute long Python Bytes.
Hopefully, these podcasts will keep you entertained and informed during your upcoming commutes. Let us know what you think, or recommend your own favorite podcasts in a comment below.
When it comes to learning new technical skills for work, finding the time to make progress on your learning can be tough. Whether it’s making space in a busy schedule, or finding ways to stay motivated, we know how challenging it can be to make learning a regular activity.
To help you make learning a habit, we’ve put together some tips — including ones that our Codecademy for Teams learners and community members have shared with us — for staying motivated while learning to code.
Tip #1: Set weekly and long-term goals
Having goals that you can work towards can be a great motivator for creating a consistent learning routine. Telling others on your team what you plan to accomplish, and how you’re progressing toward your goals, can help you stay on track.
In your Codecademy account under “My Home,” you can set long-term goals and weekly learning targets for yourself. Decide how many days you want to learn each week, and track your progress in the top right corner of the screen. You’ll be able to see how many days you’ve logged into Codecademy for the current week, and how many weeks in a row you’ve met your target.
Looking for a little extra accountability? Share your targets with your coworkers or your friends on social media!
It can also help to set small achievable goals to make the learning process feel a little less daunting. Some ideas include “I’m going to complete the first module of a Skill Path” or “I’m going to build a small applet that’s useful for myself, my friends, or my family.” Here are some more examples of bite-sized goals that you can set for yourself to take those first few steps back into coding.
Tip #2: Schedule time in your calendar for upskilling
Blocking out time each week on your calendar can help make upskilling and personal development a priority. This ensures that learning becomes a regular part of your schedule, rather than a task that you only get to when you have the time.
And it can help to talk with your manager or team lead about when you can set aside time for uninterrupted learning. During these blocks of time, make sure to minimize distractions by pausing any email, phone, or Slack notifications.
Tip #3: Make learning to code a team activity
One of the best ways to stay motivated is learning with others. Whether your team members are working on the same courses or courses specific to their role, they can help provide support and motivation on your learning journey.
At Motley Fool, employees learning Python together held weekly meetings to go through assigned lessons, discuss projects, and share tips on how they worked through a problem. The meetings also helped set a pace for learning the material. Gary T, a Senior BI Analyst at Motley Fool, tells us:
“The nice thing about doing it in a group is there’s some accountability. You don’t want to let the group down. You don’t want to show up being the guy that doesn’t know what’s going on or didn’t finish that day. The group was a strong motivator.”
Learning with others at work can be a great way to keep yourself accountable to your goals and to make your learning journey more enjoyable.
Tip #4: Remind yourself why you started learning to code
Remembering why you started can help you find the strength and motivation to keep going. In fact, there are a lot of professional benefits to learning to code, including having better conversations with developers, getting an opportunity to work on bigger projects, and setting yourself up for learning new tools in the future.
Knowing what you’ll eventually be able to do, and being able to see your progress, can serve as a positive reminder to keep going. Calli, a product manager at Paradox, learned to code so that she could better understand the technical aspects of what her product team works on. She explains how it has helped her and her fellow PMs advance in their careers:
“We’re getting the opportunity to work on more strategic initiatives that involve looking at our database, looking at the data we have, and thinking about how we can potentially restructure it. I don’t know that leadership would give us that opportunity if we didn’t have a basic understanding of how the product works, what’s possible, and what’s not possible. We’re getting more opportunities, bigger opportunities as product people.”
Tip #5: Embrace the learning process
Learning new technical skills can require you to think in new ways, which isn’t always easy. It’s important to give yourself time to practice challenging concepts, and to be realistic about what’s achievable in a given amount of time.
And if you’re ever feeling stuck or frustrated, take a break or shift your focus to something completely different. Returning to a coding problem later on can allow you to spot a solution that you may not have noticed before.
In a Codecademy forums discussion on how to stay motivated, Dwayne D. says, “Just stick with it. In no time at all, if you keep trying it just kinda clicks and things get easy from that point on.”
It’s also important to enjoy the learning process — whether it’s taking time to celebrate your wins, reflecting on how far you’ve come, or sharing with others the things you’re proud of accomplishing. Paulina D. offers this advice: “I think it’s important to find those bits of joy, make it more playful for you so that the journey (whether short or long) is enjoyable.”
If you’re feeling like it’s hard to find time for learning, we hope these tips will help you create opportunities to continue on your learning journey. What are your strategies for making time to learn to code for work? Let us know in the comments!
