The World Economic Forum lists cloud computing roles, including DevOps Engineers and DevOps Managers, among the top jobs projected to grow over the coming years. This presents an opportunity for individuals to step into an emerging field and take advantage of growing job possibilities. To avoid talent shortages organizations need to train employees in DevOps technologies, such as the ones Juniper develops and supports.
Designed for people who need to configure and monitor devices that run on Junos OS operators, Juniper’s new Specialization provides learners with the core knowledge needed to automate Junos using DevOps tools and best practices. Learners will explore the industry-standard tools and languages needed to manage DevOps and Junos automation, including Python, PyEZ, YAML, and more.
The Specialization takes roughly 20 hours to complete and costs $49 per month. Though it’s a beginner-level Specialization, learners should have a basic understanding of computer networking, the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, and the TCP/IP protocol suite. Upon completion, learners will be prepared to take Juniper’s JNCIA-DevOps: Automation and DevOps, Associate certification exam.
“Juniper Networks is committed to skills transformation for automation and DevOps in the networking industry. By offering our Specializations through the Coursera platform, we strive to enable a global audience of learners to grow their skills and increase the availability of talent for our customers and partners,” said Sanjiv Varma, VP of Education Services, Juniper Networks.
We’re proud to work with Juniper, a global networking leader committed to equipping organizations and individuals with the training required to use its products. Over the coming months, Juniper will launch additional Specializations on Coursera that cover the Junos operating system, security, and fundamentals of cloud.
By Anthony Tattersall, Vice President EMEA, Coursera
More than 1.6 billion students were disrupted due to abrupt campus closures at the peak of the pandemic. Things are slowly getting back to normal, but disruption was a wake-up call for higher education institutions worldwide to find new and innovative ways to deliver learning to their students. The pandemic has forever changed the way students learn and educators teach. We’re humbled by how more than 4,000 higher education institutions around the world embraced Coursera for Campus to accelerate their digital transformation journey, offer blended learning, and integrate job-relevant content into their curricula.
Today, we’re proud to recognise Bold Innovators across EMEA who played a critical role in driving academic innovation and creating job-ready students amid a rapidly changing skills landscape. Their hard work and passion turned the crisis into an opportunity and laid the foundation for a more inclusive experience for the learner community. These innovative educators were recognised during the region’s first Coursera for Campus forum meeting.
Bold Innovators were recognised under five categories:
Digital Content Creation
Institutions driving accelerated engagement and enrolment with online learning content.
Africa Nazarene University (ANU) – Kenya was recognised under this category for guiding students to online learning by creating more than 10 Guided Projects and courses in partnership with Coursera. The effort resulted in over 1,000 enrolments in a short period of time.
Faculty Adoption of Online Learning
Universities driving the adoption of online learning via their faculty and academic staff.
We’re pleased to recognise the University of Salzburg – Austria and the leadership of Professor Wolfgang Pree. Professor Pree teaches several Computer Science courses at the University of Salzburg. He quickly designed online courses and motivated learners by giving ECTS credits for completion. More than 90% of students enroled in all the prescribed courses and 67% completed four or more courses.
Skills Transformation
Institutions driving the highest number of learner completions
With more than 10,000 unique learners and over 6,000 course completions, University 20.35 from Russia has been leading the way in preparing students with the skills required to launch their careers in high-demand fields.
Curricula Transformation
Institutions with the most innovative and impactful use of Coursera to supplement their curriculum.
We’re thrilled to recognise the Morocco Consortium, a group of universities across Morocco dedicated to up-levelling skills. Professor Hayar, University President at University Hassan 2 de Casablanca, led this effort. Under her leadership, 14 Moroccan universities collaborated to offer Coursera as part of their curriculum to improve student employability.
University Transformation
The most diverse and innovative use of Coursera by a university.
We’re excited to recognise Covenant University – Nigeria for its effort to create Africa’s first blended curriculum with a skills-first approach to learning. They redesigned the academic experience to include industry-relevant learning and entrepreneurship. Covenant partnered with Coursera to deliver a wide range of skill-based learning to more than 9,000 students. In the first year, more than 85% of students completed a course from the catalogue.
We’re inspired by the innovation and dedication of the academic community to deliver the best learning to their students and their commitment to exploring bold ideas. Coursera is honoured to be their partner at every step of the way.
Choosing to become a project manager is a demanding yet satisfying career choice. The project manager is the glue that holds a team together and needs to be in possession of a wide range of skills. They steer the ship in the right direction, motivate their team and help them achieve greater results.
Project managers have to monitor progress, make sure deadlines are followed, and maintain constant communication with superiors, clients, and the team they’re managing. As such, strong leadership and communication skills are two vital attributes of a successful project manager. In total, there are 6 must-have qualities for all great project managers.
Here are the 6 skills you need to develop to excel as a project manager.
1. Communication
Regardless of what industry you’re in, communication is an essential skill. When it comes to project management, communication issues are among the most common problems. Missing information, poorly explained deadlines, a team member failing to understand the team strategy, any one of these can result in project failure. The most important content marketing pain points are about communication and being unique.
When it comes to communicating effectively, it’s important to remember that too much information is always a bad thing. You need to be concise when expressing ideas while, at the same time, making sure your team has all the information they need.
Structure is also crucial when it comes to communication. Make sure you give your team step-by-step instructions whenever you need to communicate something, rather than just giving them information in drib and drabs.
2. Process and Expectation Management
A successful team is a team that knows what the expectations of their superiors are. They are aware of all the steps they need to follow and how to execute the tasks given to them.
If you don’t explain the goal of the project and how to get there, then your team will not be able to deliver the desired results. The process that your team needs to follow should be streamlined and outlined to them clearly. This applies to deadlines as well. A good project manager sets very clear deadlines and makes sure everyone has the resources they need to meet them.
3. Learning Mindset
In a highly competitive environment, everyone has to be continuously learning and upskilling. This is why you need to develop an intentional learning mindset. Adopting a learning mindset will not only help your team and your company to stay competitive, it will also make you a better leader. It’s not a surprise that the best leaders are constant learners.
As a team manager, it’s your job to be aware of new trends and methods within your industry. A project manager that is not constantly improving in their role and growing their team is ultimately working against the growth of the company.
4. Teamwork
A great project manager can utilize the strengths of each team member and achieve results by finding a harmony that allows everyone to be their best self. In order to find those strengths, you’ll need to listen. Listening is a very powerful tool for getting your team to achieve great results. There are many leaders out there who are focused on giving orders and telling people what to do but are not able to carefully listen to the team around them.
By listening carefully, you will be able to give personalized instructions. As a result, the members of the team will respond better to your directions. Encouraging your team is very important. Don’t be the person who is only focused on bad results. Your team needs to know what works. Give them feedback and compliment their work.
5. Strong Leadership
Managing a project can be demanding and stressful and there will be times when you will not have the answers. However, as the project manager you’re the one who needs to act. You need to stay composed and focused. If you are able to stay organized and calm during a storm, you will become a source of motivation for your team. People will be inspired by you and will try their best not to disappoint you. Strong leaders create strong teams. This podcast about leadership will give you insights from different professionals and help you to effectively lead your team.
6. Know the Tech
A good project manager needs to follow trends in technology and know what are the best tools and apps available in their industry. Since the pandemic started, software outsourcing tools became a necessity for product managers, while tools like this website traffic checker can make your life easier by providing you with useful analytics. By following the latest developments in project management, you can learn how to implement new technologies which can improve the productivity of your team and create that competitive edge that all successful project managers want.
Nina Petrov is a content marketing specialist, passionate about graphic design, content marketing, and the new generation of green and social businesses.
After dedicating time and energy to learning how to code, the natural next question is: What’s next? How do you actually find a job in tech?
As we explain in our breakdown of the journey to your dream tech job, the next steps will involve improving your coding skills by building projects, creating a portfolio, and preparing for interviews. And now, you can do all this right here on Codecademy with workspace.
Workspace is an integrated development environment (IDE) you can use to practice unguided coding right in your browser. Plus, it supports many of the most popular programming languages and frameworks, so you can use it to build on the skills you develop in your courses by tinkering with code in a pre-setup coding environment. Currently, the languages workspace supports include:
So how, exactly, can workspace help you build your portfolio?
Build your skills and experience
Our courses are a great way to learn basic programming concepts and syntax, but to truly master the tools in your tech stack, you’ll need to take your learning into your own hands. That means experimenting with code — testing out different functions and methods to see what works and what doesn’t.
It also means building projects. Building projects will deepen your understanding of not only your preferred programming languages but also the overall development process.
With workspace, you can copy over the projects you built in your courses and then expand on them to test new ideas. Or, you could start from scratch. Workspaces are also shareable, so you can send them to other developers for tips and feedback or even practice code reviews.
Code reviews are when two programmers go through each other’s code to find bugs and potential optimizations. Development teams are often collaborative, so learning to work with other developers’ code will help give you an edge over the competition when you’re applying to jobs and also give you a glimpse of real-life software development.
How do you use workspace for code reviews? It’s easy. Just copy and paste a project that’s been shared with you into a new workspace, add your comments line by line, then send it back to your partner. There’s no limit to how many workspaces you can create, so no need to worry about running out of space.
Develop your portfolio
After making sure your coding skills are up to par and getting some experience with code reviews, it’s time to start looking for jobs. That means you’ll need to create a portfolio, and with workspace, it’s super easy.
To start, check out our Portfolio Projects. Included in each of our Career Paths, Portfolio Projects are more complex than the projects you complete in your other courses.
Essentially, you’ll be given a headstart with a set of requirements and some starter code — then the rest is completely up to you. Upon completion, you’ll have a full-featured, unique project that you can share with recruiters and hiring managers to showcase your skills.
Get ready for technical interviews
You can also use workspace to prepare for technical interviews. During a technical interview, you’ll be asked to solve a coding problem. This helps the interviewer assess your technical skills, and it also gives them a peek into your approach to problem-solving.
Many developers point to technical interviews as the most difficult part of finding a job. But, with a little preparation, you can wow your interviewer and improve your chances of getting hired. All you need to do is find a couple of technical interview questions on Google and solve them in a workspace.
Or, you could use Codecademy’s Code Challenges, which are coming (very) soon — stay tuned. Code Challenges are real coding challenges pulled from some of the top tech companies. After completing a few, you’ll be able to more confidently take on technical interviews.
Learn how to use workspace
Ready to get started with workspace? On Wednesday, October 20th, 2021, at 1PM ET, we’ll show you how.
Click here to register for our Getting Career Ready with Workspace event, where Curriculum Manager Alex Kuntz and Curriculum Developer Jamie Rich show you how to use your favorite new IDE. Or, if you can’t wait that long, click here to create your first workspace and test things out yourself.
Wanna learn more about finding a job in tech? Check out our Career Center for tips on finding the right role, advice from tech recruiters, interview prep resources, and more.
Until you started exploring web development, you may have never heard of the term “web hosting.” Or, if you did, you probably had no clue what’s involved in hosting a website or app. It’s an underappreciated part of how the internet works.
Everything you access on the internet, including podcasts, memes, blog posts, tweets, videos, images, and more, lives on a server or multiple servers that either a company or private individual pays for so that you can access this content.
Once you get past this simple description, web hosting can get complicated. There are many types of web hosting and ways to host web applications.
In this article and the video below, we’ll explore:
Setting the scene
To get an idea of why web hosting is important, imagine that you’ve just developed a web application. It’s what Web Developers do, after all. Let’s say that it’s an app that allows users to save snippets of code along with related data to make flashcards that other users can use to teach themselves to write code.
Everything in your app is running fine locally. You have a great user interface using React or some other modern front-end framework. You also have a back-end service that works like a charm.
But there’s one problem with your app. It currently lives on your computer, and you want to share it with the rest of the world, but because you’re the only one who can access it right now, you’re the only user.
You can’t let the public access your computer to check out your shiny new application. Well, you could, but that would be reckless and unsafe.
What is web hosting?
This brings us to web hosting. Instead of hosting your application on your own computer and server, it’s much safer to deploy it to another server owned by a company that specializes in these things, called a web hosting provider.
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t want to go out and buy a bunch of servers, hook them up yourself, and deal with network setup and everything else related. Wouldn’t it be easier to rent a server from someone who’s done all the hard work for you?
A web host or hosting provider is a business that provides all the services needed by Web Developers to run their apps on the internet. When someone wants to view your website, all they have to do is type its domain name in a browser, and the servers provided by your web host will serve it up.
Some hosting companies will require that you have a domain that you own to host your site. Others will provide you with a sub-domain they own. If you need a domain, most web hosting providers will help you purchase one.
An important part of web hosting is making sure that you choose the right type of web hosting for your project. If you create a web application with a front end, a back end, and a database, you’ll need a different type of web hosting than you would for a static website.
When you find the right host, it’s also important to allocate the right amount of resources to your application so it doesn’t time out when traffic hits it. For hobby applications, you rarely have to worry about this. But, if your app will be getting thousands of visitors every hour, you’ll have to plan on having more resources available when you need them.
Types of web hosting
A couple of decades ago, there were only a few types of web hosting providers to choose from. But technology changed, and now there are a lot more choices.
The type of web host you choose depends on what you want to do and your technological skills. Some types of hosting require you to know a lot about the technology involved in serving your web application up to users. Other web hosts require little knowledge other than how to navigate around a user interface.
Website builders
Website builders are online platforms that allow you to build a website quickly in the browser. They usually have a drag-and-drop type of interface you can use to arrange the elements on your pages and a selection of pre-built themes you can apply to your whole site with one click.
Some website builders you may have heard of include Wix and Squarespace. Hosted content management systems like WordPress.com could also be considered website builders because you don’t have to deal with all the technical details of deploying or installing WordPress.
You can choose from hundreds of themes and thousands of plugins to install from your browser to customize your site. You can also add new blog posts and pages that get stored in a database somewhere that you never have to worry about.
Many small businesses use website builders like Wix to build a presence for their company online. It’s simple and easy to build a basic site with no technical knowledge and is a great choice when you don’t have to update your website that often. But, for the most part, your content is static. You can add effects and other features, but each change requires logging in again and arranging things manually.
Website builders backed by content management systems like WordPress.com have one advantage over other website builders because you can add new content much quicker. You don’t have to create a whole new page on your website for every new piece of content you add. All you have to do is create a new post or page, which gets stored in a database, and that post will be dynamically rendered using the theme and plugins you’ve installed.
Another type of website builder is a static site generator. This type of website builder generates complete static HTML pages based on markdown files you edit.
Static site generators support custom themes that you create yourself or find online. When you run the build command, a static site generator will use the markdown files and your theme to generate your site.
While static site generators aren’t hosting, some web hosting options, like GitHub Pages, only support static hosting and use a static site generator to build your site.
Website builders aren’t suitable for deploying custom code. Some will allow you to use JavaScript or CSS, but that’s about all. They’re designed mainly to put your content in a nice-looking theme you can modify using their interface. They’re a good choice for your blog or portfolio site, but not for showing off your custom code.
Some popular website builders include:
GitHub Pages: GitHub Pages provides you with the static website generator Jekyll to publish your site and will host it on one of their sub-domains or using your own domain.
Wix: You can build your website using Wix’s online interface with drag-and-drop elements and an extensive selection of themes.
WordPress.com: Here, you have all the power of WordPress’s themes and plugins to build your site, and you don’t have to worry about configuring a server or installing WordPress.
Shared web hosting
Shared hosting is a step up from a website builder. With this type of hosting, your application shares the same server with multiple other users, and the hosting provider takes care of all the server configurations.
Shared hosting providers have other services like email and databases that are also hosted on servers shared by other users. Usually, you can purchase a package with a monthly subscription that provides you with these services for one price.
If you’ve ever had roommates, you already have an idea of what this type of web hosting is. Just replace roommates with apps that other people have built.
When you use the shared hosting plan, you share a server with other people. So, essentially, you’re getting a portion of the resources the machine has to offer. Much like having roommates, this makes rent cheaper, but you have to share evenly. If someone else’s app starts consuming lots of resources, your app’s performance will suffer.
There can be many disadvantages to using shared web hosting. Your web applications’ performance will depend on the type of applications also hosted on the same server.
Sometimes you get lucky, and all of your shared hosting neighbors get very little traffic. Other times you aren’t as lucky, and one of the other users sharing your server hogs all the resources, and your site will take a while to load.
Other disadvantages of shared hosting include:
Vulnerable to security issues. If one website on the server gets hacked, then your application is at risk. If the server itself gets hacked, then every website on the application goes down.
There are limits on what you can install. If you’re building an application using PHP and MySQL, then shared hosting will work for you. But, if you want to use Python, Node.js, C#, Java, or another programming language for your app, then your options could be limited.
You don’t have root access, so you’re stuck with how the hosting provider configured the server and cannot customize it.
You get what you pay for, so the support you receive when you run into issues will be limited.
Most shared hosting providers also provide dedicated hosting.
Dedicated web hosting
Dedicated web hosting has a lot of advantages over shared hosting.
Dedicated web hosting is a hosting option where you rent a whole physical server from a hosting provider. No one will share your resources. You’ll get full control over your server and can install any software that it supports. You’ll also have root access, so you can configure the server in any way you want.
When you order a dedicated server, you’ll choose between having an unmanaged server where you handle all the changes needed on the server, or a managed server, where the hosting provider’s staff will manage the server.
When you order a dedicated host, it’s important to know what type of server you need first since you’re ordering an actual physical machine. You can usually choose the operating system the server will use, the amount of physical RAM, the type of CPU, the amount of physical storage, and other options.
In the past, many companies started with shared hosting and moved up to dedicated hosting when their traffic picked up. If the traffic load increased so much that one dedicated server wasn’t enough, they’d have to configure a load balancer and add more servers to handle the load. While this is still an option, many companies have opted to go with cloud hosting, which gives you this type of scaling capabilities without all the manual setup.
Some popular shared and dedicated web hosting providers include:
HostGator: HostGator provides multiple types of shared and dedicated hosting packages.
GoDaddy: GoDaddy will sell you the domain and offer both shared and dedicated hosting.
InMotion: InMotion offers shared, dedicated, and WordPress-specific hosting.
Note that there are also virtual private servers (VPS). A VPS’ functionality lies somewhere between shared and dedicated web hosting. They’re generally more affordable than the latter, and they’re more reliable and secure than the former. They also provide users with root access, and they’re commonly used for game development.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting providers have data centers across the globe. All the services they provide are virtual, which means even the “hardware” you rent is software that can be configured, scaled, and backed up on the fly.
The worldwide servers allow you to spread your applications and data across multiple interconnected servers. This allows your users to access them from a server that’s closer to them with lower latency. Because cloud servers can scale dynamically, you always have just enough resources at hand.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
With IaaS, the cloud provider delivers your infrastructure over the internet. So all the networking, storage, servers, memory, and CPU you’ll use will be virtualized and highly scalable. You’ll still have to configure and maintain these resources, but you won’t have to worry about the underlying physical infrastructure.
Because everything is virtual, you can do all this maintenance and configuration through the browser or via the command line and make almost real-time changes to your infrastructure.
Popular IaaS providers include:
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
With PaaS, the cloud host delivers a framework for developers to build their applications on top of. Instead of worrying about setting up your servers and configuring your virtual machines properly, you only have to create your application, and the cloud provider takes care of the rest.
But, since you’re using a specialized framework when you go with PaaS, you’ll have to code your application according to the rules of the framework.
Popular PaaS providers include:
Heroku: Heroku makes it easy to deploy Node.js, Ruby, Java, PHP, Python, Go, Scala, and Clojure applications with a few commands.
Google App Engine: Google App Engine lets you build highly scalable applications on a fully managed serverless platform.
Function as a Service (FaaS)
With FaaS, you don’t deploy services to the cloud hosting provider, just functions. That means you don’t have to worry about configuring a server or configuring resources. You just choose the runtime you’ll be writing your code in and write functions to return the data you need.
When you use FaaS, the physical hardware, virtual machine operating systems, and web server software are all handled by your cloud service provider.
Popular FaaS providers include:
Suggested hosting solutions for beginners
We just covered a lot, and you may feel a little overwhelmed, but we have a few suggestions if you’re just beginning with web development. The following web hosting providers should give you what you need to get started.
When choosing a web hosting provider, experiment with simple demo projects and see what works for you and what doesn’t. Always make sure you evaluate your options against what you’re trying to build.
Remember that at the end of the day, all of these are just tools you can use. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so you might use some of these, you might use none, or you might use a mixture of all three — or even other solutions.
GitHub Pages (static site generator)
GitHub Pages uses the Git version control system and a static website generator called Jekyll to publish websites for its users, and it’s free. Because you can only publish static pages, you won’t be able to deploy your web applications here, but it’s good for blogs, your portfolio site, or possibly a compiled version of a React application that doesn’t require back-end code.
Heroku is a PaaS provider that’s very popular with developers because it makes it easy to deploy full-stack applications with no worry about configuring servers.
Heroku will also give you a free trial, which is good for hackathons or if you have a web application that doesn’t get a lot of traffic. Our Deploying with Netlify and Heroku course will teach you how to use Heroku and also Netlify, a static hosting provider.
Digital Ocean (IaaS)
If you want to scale your application and Heroku doesn’t fit your needs, Digital Ocean is a good option. Especially if you want to use an IaaS cloud provider but don’t want to deal with all the complexity that comes with some of the bigger providers. It’s easy to build your applications on Digital Ocean, and they have a lot of resources to help beginners get started.
Learning more about web development
If you want to show your shiny new app to the rest of the world, you need web hosting. There are plenty of options, from website builders to cloud hosting. It all depends on what type of website or application you want to deploy.
For blogs and sites that are mainly content, a website builder may be enough. If you want to deploy an actual web application that’ll execute server-side code, you’ll need to go with either a shared host, a dedicated host, or a cloud hosting provider.
If you don’t have a web application to deploy yet, we can show you how to build one with our courses.
Each Wednesday, we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners in middle school, high school and beyond. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about influential Latinos, reflect on their family’s screen time and read about flying cars while also practicing their vocabulary.
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. Build your vocabulary while learning about flying cars.
In this short quiz, students read the first several paragraphs of a Times article about flying cars, and see whether they can identify the missing vocabulary words. Then, in the final question, they test their reading comprehension.
2. Reflect on whether you’re spending too much time on your devices.
How much time do you and your family spend using digital devices? Have you been looking at screens more during the pandemic? These are the opening questions we ask in our recent Student Opinion prompt about screen time. In the comments section, or in a class discussion, students can share their own experiences and react to the five tips for reducing family screen time that are presented in the featured article.
3. Watch a short film about a child actor who wasn’t picked for that big role.
“Almost Famous: The Unchosen One” is a 16-minute film that touches on themes of childhood, fame and disappointment. It profiles Devon Michael who was a rising child actor in the 1990s until he auditioned for the role of the young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars.” Reflecting on the experience many years later — the pressure, the criticisms, the dashed hopes — Mr. Michael urges the public not to forget that child actors are just kids. Closed captioning is available.
4. Learn about influential Latinos who died in recent years.
In this lesson, students will learn about seven important Latinos from the past — artists, teachers, lawyers, writers and activists — through their obituaries. Then they choose one person to learn more about and create a one-pager about him or her.
5. Look closely at an intriguing photograph.
In this activity, students carefully study a New York Times photograph without its caption as they answer the question: 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.
Eleven from “Stranger Things” loves Eggo waffles. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live on pizza. Harry Potter routinely chugs Butterbeer. What do you think your favorite characters eat? What does Katniss Everdeen in “Hunger Games” eat when she’s hungry or the Incredible Hulk when he is hangry? Does Baby Yoda eat baby food?
Chelsea Monroe-Cassel is currently developing a recipe for a dish whose traditional version she’ll never be able to taste, and whose place of origin she’ll never be able to visit: Plomeek soup, a staple on the fictional planet Vulcan. In writing “The Star Trek Cookbook,” out next March, she has spent hours watching old episodes and movies from her home in West Windsor, Vt., trying to deduce what might be in the reddish soup.
“We know shockingly little about Vulcan cuisine, given how much of a fan favorite Spock is,” she said. Some people believe that Vulcans are vegetarian, as their strong morals and fear of their own capacity for violence would mean they avoid food that requires slaughtering. But do those arguments hold up, she wondered, in a universe where meat can be replicated with machines?
The result: “A cold gazpacho with tomato and strawberry and a little bit of balsamic.”
For fans like her, “it is a big way, a new and tangible way, of connecting with a world that they love,” she said.
“Video games are a form of escapism and books are a form of escapism,” she added, “and I think this is a form of escapism that appeals to extra senses.”
The article continues:
As fan cultures have deepened, these cookbooks have evolved, too. Less prevalent are the ones that simply name recipes after characters. Today’s pop-culture cookbooks are heavily researched tomes about their fictional worlds. They consider climates and character motivations. They fill in gaps in the narrative. Authors pore over every element — down to the props in recipe photos — so fans can feel fully immersed.
“For better or for worse, if a brand isn’t publishing and merchandising itself,” Mr. Miers said, “it isn’t as alive as fans want it to be.”
“If we had written this book 15 years ago, you probably could have gotten away with including a lot of things from the entire continent of Africa without giving explanation to why they existed,” saidMx. Banda, 39. “There is this need for people coming up with these recipes to know what they are talking about” in terms of both the comics and African foodways.
Mx. Banda’s recipes — like chambo, a traditional fish dish from Malawi — speak directly to Wakanda’s varying locations in Africa throughout the run of the comics.
Mx. Banda considered the role that colonialism played in adding a Western influence to certain African dishes, and how to explain that influence when they included those foods in the book — since Wakanda is supposed to be isolated from the rest of the world. (Mx. Banda found a solution in referencing more recent comics about Wakanda opening itself up to outsiders.)
This approach is a far cry from the early books in the genre, which place little emphasis on compelling recipes and complex storytelling.
What do you think your favorite book or movie character eats or drinks? Tell us your most beloved character and make the case for what you think his or her favorite foods are. Justify your claim based on what you know about the character. What do you think this food reveals about that person?
What do you think of all these fictional cookbooks coming out? Are they silly? Fun? Informative? Have you ever read or purchased one? What do you think this growing genre says about pop-culture fandom?
The article says that there are cookbooks for “World of Warcraft,” “Harry Potter,” “The Simpsons,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.” Which of these titles interests you most? Which dishes and recipes would you most likely try? Which pop cultural book, movie or television show would you like to see a cookbook published for?
What other types of information about your favorite characters and stars would you like to know? Maybe the music they like? Preferred mode of social media? Favorite book or sneakers?
The article refers to “the Narnia problem”: when children who read about Turkish delight in “The Chronicles of Narnia” later tried the actual candy and were greatly disappointed. Have you ever eaten or cooked something because it was in a book, movie or show? How did it go?
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.
This lesson is a part of our new Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times in general. Learn more and tell us what you think here.
Greenland is the world’s largest island, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and it has rare minerals needed for green technology like electric cars and wind turbines. But protesters are blocking a project to mine those minerals, sending a message to mining companies that they can’t exploit people or their land without a fight.
In this lesson, you will learn about the predominantly Indigenous residents of the village of Narsaq, Greenland, who stood up for their home and fought the outside mining companies. Then, you will write about a time when you stood up, spoke out or took action for what you thought was right.
Warm-Up
What are you willing to stand up and fight for?
Brainstorm a list of things — people, places and issues — you would fight for. Your list could include your family and friends, as well as animal rights, the environment or a good education.
Next, find a partner and share and discuss your lists.
Finally, reflect together: Why is it important to stand up for what you believe? What if nobody did?
Vocabulary
Here are 10 words you’ll find in this article that you may not know:
1. Look at the photos: What can you learn about Greenland from them? What story do they tell about the anti-mine campaign on the island?
2. What group of people has led the effort to block the mine near the village of Narsaq? How has Mariane Paviasen in particular been important in this fight?
3. Why did the farmer Aviaja Lennert say “I feel I have a responsibility” to support the protest group? When have you felt a strong responsibility to speak up or take a stand?
4. What does Elna Jensen, an activist, love and appreciate about Greenland and the way of life there? What things do you love most about where you live?
5. What is your reaction to the article? Pick one quote or image that stands out most and explain why.
6. What inspiration can we take from the women profiled in the article? Does the article change any of your ideas about how protests can bring about change?
Going Further
Write about a time when you stood up, spoke out or took action for something you believed in.
Did you get involved in a protest, a march or a demonstration? Did you step in to break up an argument or a fight? Did you give something up, like eating meat?
Keep in mind that your action doesn’t have to be big or dramatic. Sometimes standing up for what you believe in can just mean offering a kind word or a hand on the shoulder, or simply saying, “I disagree.”
Take a few moments to reflect on these questions, then respond in writing using the sentence starters below as a guide:
A time when I spoke up, spoke out or took action was when I _________.
I felt I had a responsibility because __________.
My efforts helped to make a difference because _________.
Additional Teaching and Learning Opportunities
Learn more about the anti-mine efforts in Greenland. Watch the short video “Greenland Election to Decide Fate of Rare Earth Mining” by TRT World. How does what you watched add to or change your understanding of the issues you learned about in the featured article? If you lived in Greenland and could vote, would you have voted for political leaders and parties who supported the development of mining? Or would you have supported the efforts of Ms. Paviasen and her anti-mine party to protect the land and people from the dangers of rare mineral extraction? In general, how should we decide how to balance business and consumer interests (being able to buy things cheaply) with the rights, safety and well-being of local communities?
Learn more about growing up in Greenland. Watch “Arctic Boyhood,” a five-minute film that explores the lives of the coastal inhabitants of Greenland’s Tasiilaq villages, and in particular, of Asser Boassen, an 8-year-old Tunumiit boy. Afterward, discuss with a partner: What are the joys, beauties and challenges of growing up in Greenland? How different is it from your own childhood? What further questions do you have about life there? Would you want to live there?
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
What’s your favorite thing about this time of year? Describe it as vividly as you can.
Or, if you aren’t a fan of October, tell us why — but, again, try to be as descriptive as possible.
Post your writing in the comments, then read the related article to learn about all the “szns” happening right now.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
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.
The word bode has appeared in 84 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 26 in the Opinion essay “This ‘Shazam’ for Birds Could Help Save Them” by Margaret Renkl:
Naturally, I had to try out the new technology. I am far from an expert birder, but I do know my avian neighbors, and I figured a good way to test Merlin’s accuracy was to try it with birds I can already recognize by ear.
The first test didn’t bode well. I was reading on the sofa when I heard a Carolina wren singing just above my head. It was hopping around in a hanging basket barely a foot beyond the glass and singing its head off. That wren was as close as any bird was ever going to get, but the app was stumped. “Merlin has no matches,” it reported. Merlin fared no better in the two other recordings I made indoors.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word bode 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 bode can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
