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What Is Your Relationship With the Weight-Loss Industry?

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What Is Your Relationship With the Weight-Loss Industry?

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Have you heard about the “quarantine 15”? Are ads for diets and fitness apps filling your feeds right now? How do you react to them?

In general, how much do you think societal pressure to lose weight, or get that perfect “beach body,” affects you? Have you ever downloaded apps, joined programs or bought books or products designed to help you lose weight? Have any of them been effective?

One recent guest essayist in The Times feels strongly about this issue. In “The Weight-Loss Industry Is Coming for Our Post-Lockdown Bodies,” Jennifer Weiner writes:

Perhaps you’ve heard someone bemoan the “quarantine 15” that they’ve gained during lockdown, or their struggles to “flatten the curve” of a body that looks different after a year inside.

It was inevitable. The pandemic has made us more sedentary, and many of us have sought comfort in eating. We are languishing, as Adam Grant wrote recently, living in “the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being.” And where there’s insecurity and unhappiness, there are companies looking to make money. So here come the weight-loss profiteers, the misery merchants dressed up as purveyors of “wellness.”

They’re looking to make back whatever money they missed out on during 2020 and then some. In a normal year, the weight-loss business ramps up in January and goes strong through spring and into summer. Last year was not normal. There was stress snacking and procrasti-baking. There was no shedding for the wedding in a year when most weddings were postponed or drastically downsized; no pre-high-school-reunion crash diet or worrying if Grandma would body-shame you at Thanksgiving. The closest we got to beach season was tut-tutting at the Kardashians’ private-island getaway last fall.

She continues:

You can consume a lot of this marketing without ever hearing the words “weight” or “diet” or “calories.” The diet industry has gotten impressively subtle, even as it’s incessantly in your face. Everyone knows that diets don’t work in the long term; buzzwords like “wellness” and “strength” have replaced “diet” and “calories.” It’s all about being the best you that you can be — a you that is significantly thinner than the you right now.

I have one word for you: resist.

As we should all know by now, diets don’t work. Studies show that 41 percent of dieters gain back more weight over the next five years than they lost, and that dieters are more likely than nondieters to become obese over the next one to 15 years. For some, the language of diet culture can be downright dangerous, contributing to life-threatening eating disorders.

There’s nothing wrong with taking action to improve your health. Want to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, or get back to regular workouts? Go for it. Get outside, now that we can do that again. But you don’t need to enroll in a program, download an app or buy frozen meals to do any of this.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • To what extent do you agree with this writer? What points, if any, does she make that resonate with your own experience? Do you agree with her overall message? Or have you found weight-loss programs, apps or packaged meals useful in the past?

  • How has “the language of diet culture” affected you or those you know? Do you agree that it can be dangerous — leading, for instance, to eating disorders? Why or why not?

  • What is your own history with the weight-loss industry? Have any of these products and programs helped you? If so, how? If not, why not? Has it been your experience that “diets don’t work in the long term”?

  • How do you, or can you, take action to improve your health? If you “languished” during the pandemic, do you feel a need to exercise more or eat better? What plans do you have to help yourself feel healthier, if so?

About Student Opinion

• Find all of our Student Opinion questions in this column.
• Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it.
• Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

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.

Productivity Tips

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Productivity Tips

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

How productive are you? What systems or habits do you rely on to ensure you get things done? Are there special tricks, tips, hacks or apps you can share with others that might help them, too?

Tell us in the comments, then read a related article to learn about a simple method one writer relies on.

About Picture Prompts

• Find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
• Have an idea for a Picture Prompt? Tell us about it.
• Teachers, discover more ways to teach with our Picture Prompts and learn how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

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.

How Much Do You Know About Algeria?

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How Much Do You Know About Algeria?

Can you find Algeria on a map? What else do you know about this African nation with about 43 million people?

Should High Schools Post Their Annual College Lists?

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Should High Schools Post Their Annual College Lists?

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Many high schools publish annual lists of colleges — or trade schools and military service branches — that their graduates will be attending or joining. Is there anything wrong with that?

Does it matter what the purpose of these lists is? For example, some schools use these lists to celebrate students’ hard-earned achievements, while other schools use these lists as promotional material to impress parents — and to compete with other schools.

What do you think such lists say about a school? What don’t they say?

In “High Schools Are Posting Their College Lists. Don’t Be Misled,” Ron Lieber argues that such lists overlook decision-influencing factors like money and value. The article begins:

Once the first of May comes and goes, eagle-eyed observers in communities across the country await the list. Who is going where? How does it compare with last year — and other schools nearby? And what will it mean for private school applications next year, or real estate values or the college counselor’s standing?

Maybe this isn’t your town. But in hundreds of places where the upper classes (and those who aspire to place their children in them) dwell, the list of colleges that high school seniors will attend is often as closely watched as the homecoming score and the police blotter. It’s true in private schools, and it’s equally so in high-achieving public systems.

It probably shouldn’t be. With each passing year, these lists become ever more misleading, owing to their fundamental financial ambiguity. When college can cost over $300,000 and discounts are legion, we can’t know why any given teenager attended one over another. Publishing these lists without any context about who is paying what (and why and how) is to pretend that we can.

Mr. Lieber draws a distinction between lists that include the students’ names and are shared with the community, and lists without names that then become the school’s “track record,” for sharing with families who are considering sending their children to the school:

Before we outline why that is, let’s be clear on what we are quite specifically not talking about here. If yours is a community that publishes a college list as a form of celebration, complete with names, that can be lovely. And if yours is one where continuing education is not a given, then acceptances and subsequent college matriculation (or graduates headed for trade school or an apprenticeship) may well be an outright triumph.

In either type of place, if all teenagers truly do want their intended destination available for public consumption — if you’ve asked, and they’ve consented — then fire up the confetti cannons and cue the Instagram sweatshirt reveals.

What we’re talking about instead is the list of colleges (without seniors’ names) that schools post on their websites or hand to parents of overeager kindergarten applicants. This is the same list that some sheepish suburb shoppers go hunting for online in the dead of night.

Mr. Lieber states that the lists don’t provide necessary context:

Now consider the money. We are mostly ignorant about the household incomes and family assets of the students who are able to attend (or not) any particular college. We remain clueless if, in fact, a more “respectable” (to again use the term that the financiers once did) school did not give a family enough need-based financial aid. And we have no awareness of which slightly less respectable colleges offered so-called merit aid to affluent families to persuade them to say no to other institutions.

“These are CliffsNotes versions of multiple, untellable stories that communities are co-opting into their own achievements,” said Emmi Harward, executive director of the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools.

Moreover, to publish these lists is to encourage ill-advised comparisons. “There was a point when I felt as though my job as a college counselor felt like the role of our basketball or football coaches,” Ms. Bell said. “The results were not only public to our families but to other schools, and it was like ‘We beat them’ or ‘They beat us.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no, that is not what this is.’”

A collective movement to ban the lists may not be the right solution, either, given what could be lost. Plenty of parents are very much not shopping for a hothouse prep school, and having a diverse variety of colleges on a list helps signal that a high school isn’t a pressure cooker or some kind of factory. Ms. Bell likes being able to broadcast that some students go to, say, historically Black colleges or certain public universities that some families may have turned their noses up at a generation ago, she said.

There is probably no set of asterisks for these lists that wouldn’t bring their own problems — and more granular financial disclosures run the risk of invading families’ privacy.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Do you think that high schools should share their graduates’ future plans? If so, with whom and for what purpose? What, if any, details does your school share with the public about its graduates?

  • When you graduate, do you think you’ll be eager for the world to know your plans? Or, will you likely prefer to share them only with people you know personally? Explain.

  • What can you tell about a school by its graduates’ future plans? What can’t you tell? Explain your answer.

  • What is your reaction to Sonia Bell’s observation that comparing her students’ lists of colleges and universities to those at other schools brought on feelings of competition, as though one school “beat” the others? Ms. Bell goes on to say “that is not what this is.” What does she mean? To what extent do you think people judge a school by how impressed they are with where its graduates go next?

  • Mr. Lieber ends the article with some hypothetical caveats for schools to include when they publish such lists. One of them reads:

Let’s be blunt: If you’re picking a school or a suburb based on this list, you’re almost certainly doing it wrong. While we have a role to play in preparing teenagers for college, their readiness is also born of the social class privilege in which much of this community is absolutely drowning.

Do you think such a statement is relevant? In communities that are not “absolutely drowning” in privilege, is social class also worth mentioning in introductions to graduation lists?

About Student Opinion

• Find all of our Student Opinion questions in this column.
• Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it.
• Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

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.

What is C++ used for?

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What is C++ used for?

C++ can be found just about everywhere you look. It powers search engines, VR applications, air travel, movie production, and even exploration on Mars! In fact, C++ is one of the most widely-used programming languages there is.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what makes C++ unique and dive into a variety of real-world applications. If you’re interested in learning more about the fundamental programming concepts behind C++, check out our Learn C++ course to get started.

What makes C++ unique?

C++ is a general-purpose programming language, created by Bjarne Stroustrup and his team at Bell Laboratories in 1979. Over the decades, C++ has become the language of choice for certain kinds of applications.

C++ is most popularly used for building large software infrastructure and applications that run on limited resources. Because C++ can directly manipulate the hardware (or machine) that it runs on, programmers can fine-tune their code to run efficiently in any environment, even when there’s limited hardware space or energy available to power the application. This translates to applications that run quickly and reliably on a variety of devices, making C++ ideal for forming the base layer of many important applications.

For these reasons, C++ is an excellent choice for building software that is fast, efficient at managing system resources, and reliable in performing critical tasks.

What is C++ used for?

C++ can be found in a wide variety of industries. Check out the following list for some of the most notable, interesting, and even surprising real-world applications of C++.

Operating systems

C++ plays an important part in well-known operating systems, from MacOS and Windows to mobile operating systems like iOS. In general, operating systems need to be fast and efficient at managing system resources. With the low-level (close to machine code) capabilities of C++, developers can structure their code to make even the smallest details of an operating system fast and energy efficient.

Game development

C++ is one of the most widely-used programming languages in game development. It has been used to create: games, such as World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, and StarCraft, game engines like Unreal Engine, and gaming consoles, including Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.

Gaming involves lots of resource-intensive functions, whether it’s generating graphics or facilitating multiplayer sessions. C++ helps in optimizing the use of resources, such as allowing programmers to adjust exactly how data structures and memory allocation are handled.

IoT devices

IoT (Internet of Things) devices include embedded systems that often rely on C++. Some examples of these devices are appliances, cars, smartwatches, TVs, and medical devices. Because the hardware is often embedded inside of an object, these devices have to operate with limited computing resources and strict power requirements. C++ helps programmers control how these resources are used in order to run programs more efficiently.

Databases

C++ is used to build popular database tools like MySQL and MongoDB. These databases form the backbone of many well-known applications, including ones created by Google, Netflix, YouTube, Adobe, and more. C++ is ideal for helping structure databases to support efficient storage.

Web browsers

C++ plays a role in web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera. It is used to develop back-end services that retrieve information from databases and render code into interactive web pages. C++ helps web browsers carry out these tasks with speed and minimal delays, which means we don’t have to wait long for content to appear on our screens.

Machine learning tools

Machine learning tools, such as TensorFlow, rely on C++ as a back-end programming language. Even though data scientists can use TensorFlow with Python, for example, the core machine learning calculations are carried out with C++ code. In fact, C++ has a large collection of libraries that power these highly-sophisticated calculations that train machine learning models.

AR/VR applications

C++ is widely used for developing augmented reality and virtual reality applications. In fact, many of these applications run on Unreal Engine, which is built using C++. AR/VR applications need to handle large amounts of data that adjust continuously based on input from camera sensors and user interactions. C++ is ideal for helping process all of this data while creating seamless virtual experiences.

Scientific research

C++ plays a notable role in scientific research, from space exploration to high-energy particle physics. At CERN, scientists use C++ for analyzing data on subatomic particles that can help answer questions about how our universe originated. At NASA, C++ has been used to build autonomous driving systems that help the Mars Rovers navigate unknown terrain. Many parts of the International Space Station are built using C++ as well.

Financial tools

Many banks and financial institutions use C++ to build their software infrastructure, which powers applications for banking, trading, and financial modeling. The speed and reliable performance of C++ is ideal for processing millions of daily transactions, facilitating a high volume and frequency of trades, and creating data simulations for large portfolios.

Flight software

C++ is a commonly-used language for flight software that powers commercial airplanes and military and defense aircraft (such as the F-16 and F-35 planes). C++ is used to build a lot of the safety-critical software, which is required to follow strict coding standards to make sure that the wings, engines, and other critical parts work predictably during each flight.

Google search engine

Google’s search engine relies on C++ to make sure that search results show up quickly and with minimal response time. C++ also powers the machine learning and other complex algorithms that make sure we get the best possible results for our search. Google’s crawling and indexing infrastructure is also implemented in C++.

Medical technology

C++ can be found in a variety of medical applications, from MRI machines to lab testing equipment to systems that handle patient information. C++ is also used to model data and run data simulations for bioinformatics research, because many advanced algorithms written for the medical and biological sciences are implemented in C++.

Telecommunications

C++ is widely used in building telephone, Internet, and other telecommunications infrastructure. It’s ideal for managing resources to handle tons of simultaneous communication with speed and efficiency.

Movie production

Many of the graphics and special effects that you see in movies are created with C++. C++ is great for this role because it can handle large files with high-quality footage and run many of the advanced calculations that make the special effects possible.

Getting Started

Just about everywhere you look, you’ll find that C++ is involved in some way! If you want to explore even more real-world examples of C++ in action, see this list of C++ Applications.

And if you’re feeling inspired to learn more about the world of C++, check out our Learn C++ course for an introduction to the fundamental concepts behind one of the world’s most widely-used programming languages.

Word of the Day: parable

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Word of the Day: parable

1. a short story or tale that illustrates a religious teaching or moral, or one that teaches a lesson

2. (New Testament) any of the stories told by Jesus to convey his religious message

_________

The word parable has appeared in 94 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 23 in “The Time Dad Locked Down Elgin Baylor” by Kurt Streeter:

Memory fades, but simple tales we hear as children can drill so deep down into us we do not forget. It’s because of such a tale, short and sweet and told with some regularity by my late father as I grew up, that I will always hold tight to the memory of the basketball great Elgin Baylor, who died this week at 86.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I played Elgin Baylor?” my father would say as he looked into my eyes, filled with wonder no matter how many times he’d begun this way.

“Elgin couldn’t score on me, no he couldn’t. Not in that first half he couldn’t.”

There would be more to this parable, which my three older brothers also grew up hearing. It would turn into a lesson about humility and a meditation on witnessing greatness, but that start was how dad hooked me in the years not long after Baylor’s 1971 retirement from basketball, when the Lakers’ great was still widely known as a star. With that opener, and the account that followed, Baylor came to be one of the great pillars of my early imaginings.

Can you correctly use the word parable 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 parable can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.

Do You Think You Live in a Political Bubble?

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Do You Think You Live in a Political Bubble?

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

America is increasingly politically polarized. How politically diverse do you think your neighborhood is? Do you think your neighbors are mostly Democrats or Republicans? Do you think you live in a partisan bubble?

In “Do You Live in a Political Bubble?,” Gus Wezerek, Ryan D. Enos and Jacob Brown designed an interactive tool to help you find out. Enter your address to see the political party of the thousand voters closest to you and see if the data matches your answers above.

In the Opinion essay that follows, the authors look at how we ended up with such a segregated political landscape and what we can do about it:

More than half of Republicans believe that last year’s election was stolen from Donald Trump. Rather than reject claims of election fraud, Republican lawmakers have used the premise that the election was stolen to justify restrictions on voting.

Mr. Trump most likely deserves much of the blame for the widespread belief among Republicans that the election was illegitimate. But there’s another reason so many Republicans might not believe that Joe Biden won: They don’t live near people who voted for him.

Surveys have shown that Americans’ animosity toward the opposing political party is higher than it has been in decades. At the same time, we’ve found that geographic political segregation has increased over the past 10 years. Could the two trends be connected?

“It’s a lot easier to demonize people on the other end of the political spectrum if you don’t personally know many of them,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “That’s not a healthy situation for the country.”

The essay continues:

In many places, political segregation overlaps with racial segregation. People of color, who tend to identify as Democrats, live in densely populated urban communities. Republicans, who are mostly white, are spread out across exurbs and rural areas.

Our data reveals the racial and political segregation that exists even within cities. In Mobile, Ala., for example, Black Democrats live along the water, while white Republicans are bunched up farther inland. This division has existed for more than a century, in part because of the government’s racist housing policies.

In 1937, the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation made a map of Mobile for the real estate industry to use when assessing an area’s risk level. Across the board, Mobile’s Black neighborhoods were shaded in red and rated as “hazardous,” making it more difficult for residents to get loans or build enough wealth through homeownership to move elsewhere.

Today, redlining lives on under the guise of single-family zoning laws. By banning multifamily housing units, many communities have essentially locked out people of color who have less wealth and can’t afford single-family homes’ higher down payments.

But even if racial segregation disappeared overnight, there’s evidence to suggest that people would still be sorted into red or blue communities.

The authors explore some possible remedies:

But for a more durable solution, President Biden should dismantle zoning laws that have kept Democrats and Republicans apart in the first place.

Middle-income Democrats who can’t afford a single-family home should still be able to raise their children in a duplex with a front yard. And young, lower-income Republicans shouldn’t be priced out of the cultural amenities that city life provides.

By making it easier for Democrats and Republicans to live side by side, President Biden might also restore some of our trust in one another. Our democracy only stands to benefit.

Students, read the entire essay, then tell us:

  • Do you live in a political bubble? Were you surprised by the results of the interactive map? In what ways did it confirm or contradict your perception of the political diversity of your community?

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation says, “It’s a lot easier to demonize people on the other end of the political spectrum if you don’t personally know many of them.” How concerned should we be about the growing political bubbles Americans live in? Which of the maps depicting our segregated political landscape do you find most interesting, thought-provoking or worrisome?

  • How important is diversity of thought, information and perspectives to you? Do you like to surround yourself with like-minded people? Or do you make an effort to seek out people with different experiences, viewpoints and opinions? Do you have any friends with differing political views from your own? Do you enjoy having your beliefs challenged? Or would you rather have them confirmed and validated?

  • The writers ask: “This year’s violence at the Capitol is a frightening harbinger of the future of American democracy if our political parties grow more estranged. Is it too late to pop our political bubbles?” How would you answer their query? Do you think it’s too late to bridge the political divide? Or do you think we can still find ways to get out of partisan bubbles and to have civil conversations?

  • What do you think of the remedies to our political isolation offered in the essay, like reforming discriminatory zoning policies? What other solutions do you think might get us out of our bubbles and build greater trust, open dialogue and understanding?

  • What is your big takeaway from the article? Do we all need to pop our bubbles? Do you? What’s one thing you might do now to bring greater intellectual and political diversity to your life?

Word of the Day: topography

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Word of the Day: topography

1. the configuration of a surface and the relations among its man-made and natural features

2. precise detailed study of the surface features of a region

_________

The word topography has appeared in 74 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on April 9 in “Where Boars Hog the Streets” by Patrick Kingsley:

The growing presence of the boars has sparked a rumpus in local discourse. For some, the boars are a menace, and the Council is to blame for their continued presence. For others, they are a charming addition to an already unusual place.

Israel’s third-largest city, with a population of nearly 300,000, Haifa has an eccentric topography. Built on the side of Mount Carmel, the city in Israel’s north is divided between districts that line a flat waterfront and neighborhoods that straddle a rugged mountaintop. Ravines, or “wadis,” run through the city, creating a rare blend of urban and natural (albeit one often pockmarked by industrial waste).

Can you correctly use the word topography 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 topography can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.

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.

The Word of the Day has been provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

How to Draw Nature

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How to Draw Nature

If you enjoy watching birds floating by or chipmunks scampering across your lawn, why not have a go at drawing them to remember what gave you some cheer? With a few basic tips, you can begin making simple drawings. Don’t worry about how good they are. Enjoy that you are learning to see nature. As the writer and naturalist Rachel Carson said, “Those who notice nature will never be bored.”

All you need is a pencil and paper. (You can start in the space at below right.) If your desired subject is not right in front of you, or moves too quickly for you to capture, a field guide or a clear photo from a magazine or online search will do. Choose an image that is in profile, which makes it easier to see your subject’s shape. Keep your drawing small, no more than four inches to begin.

How to begin: Find five or 10 minutes in your day to slow down and be with nature. What would you like to draw, to learn more about? It could be anything — a butterfly, a chickadee, an oak tree, even a green pepper or an apple.

Look very carefully at your subject, figuring out its basic shape. How did it grow and where? How does it live? Remember, this is a stress reliever, not a stress creator. Getting to know your animal is the important thing. Try doing sketches of what you see directly, mostly looking at the animal and not at your paper.

Don’t take more than 15 minutes. If you think folks won’t know what you drew, label it and jot down the date so you remember when you drew it. And if you want to get better, keep drawing.

To help you get started, here are some tips:

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

1. All mammals can be drawn beginning with three basic circles for hip, belly and shoulder.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

2. Once you have those, you can sketch in the other parts — the neck, head, tail, legs and the beginning details.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

3. When you have your proportions worked out, add the details of the fur, eye, nose, etc. to create your finished drawing.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

1. All birds are drawn beginning with two basic circles for the body and head, their relative size determined by the bird’s anatomy.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

2. Add the tail, wing, bit of neck, legs.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

3. When you have your proportions worked out, add details of feathers, beak, toes, eye to create your finished drawing.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

Whatever kind of animal you are drawing, it’s important to position the eye correctly and to put in a highlight so that it doesn’t look dead. In birds, make sure to draw the upper and lower bill so that the bill can open.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

1. Find the basic geometric shape of your flower. Here, the daffodil has a six- pointed star shape as there are six petals.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

2. Draw the petals around your star, the center trumpet, the stamen and pistil inside, and then the veins of the petals plus stem (and maybe) leaf beside.

Credit…Clare Walker Leslie

3. In profile, the flower shape is no longer round but oval as it is foreshortened.

Clare Walker Leslie is an internationally known wildlife artist, author, and educator. She has written 13 books on drawing and connecting with nature.

A Simple Exercise For Encouraging Independent Reading

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A Simple Exercise For Encouraging Independent Reading

When the school year started, I focused on the important issues — racial justice, the pandemic, the election — yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could share with students the Weird Al profile that made me laugh and cry, the article about sheep shearing off the coast of Maine, the photo tour of the chalk factory that built a cult following among mathematicians, the bizarre story of the prank-commissioned Soviet-style mural of Cookie Monster, and the multimedia article that brought me 12,000 feet up the Grand Traverse in the Teton Mountain Range.

Finally, I realized that these articles weren’t extraneous. They were a model of the lifelong reading habits that I wanted my students to develop. I shared all those articles as a text set and used one to demonstrate the summary and reflection I would have them compose for the articles they would find. My students were familiar with the concept of texts as mirrors and windows, so I asked them to look for one of each. I showed them how to use the search bar to find a topic they were already interested in, as well as how to browse the many, many sections of the New York Times website in order to discover something unexpected.

They found a trove of articles, Opinion pieces, videos and photojournalism that I had not encountered on my own. When they shared with one another in class, all of our worlds widened with new understanding. Many students revealed personal connections in their written reflections that taught me more about them, revelations that were profound, touching, fun and surprising. Ultimately, everyone gained something from the experience, including me, and I feel hopeful that they will take this with them on their journey as lifelong readers.

Nora W.

Mirror: “Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Hit No. 1 in a Week. Here’s How”

The day “Drivers License” was released it completely blew up on TikTok, and my For You page was filled with videos of people listening and reacting to it. While I was reading the article, I knew this song was breaking records left and right, but I had no idea it had gone worldwide.

Window: “Ancient Remains in Peru Reveal Young, Female Big-Game Hunter”

Ever since I’ve been a kid, whenever I watched a movie or documentary about past civilizations the hunters were always depicted as male and the gatherers, female. I just really appreciate the fact there is more information to be uncovered that could prove women and men had somewhat equal roles.

Jakyra A.

Mirror: “​The Talk of the Super Bowl Is Quarterbacks, Except One​”

I appreciate this article a great deal as someone who is not only Black but cares deeply about making people aware of the racism that still occurs today. The main question was why did it take the N.F.L. so long to say that Black lives matter, when according to the article, “N.F.L. rosters are 70 percent African-American”?

Window: “​An Unleashed Dog, Sentenced to Death After an Attack​”

I have never had a pet before, not even something as small as a hamster, so to me this was very informative in that I don’t necessarily have to worry about my nonexistent pet being attacked by my neighbor’s unleashed dog. Now, though, from looking through this “window,” I can understand the importance of leashing your animals for their safety as well as others’.

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