1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
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.
When you earn a degree on Coursera, you get the same diploma as on-campus students. It’s why many learners pick Coursera! Don’t believe us? Take it from Jasmine, a former on-campus student at Georgetown.
Complete your education on Coursera.
Jasmine looks forward to graduating with her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies this spring. At first, Jasmine chose Georgetown simply because it was nearby, but later decided it was also the best option due to its reputation, revealing, “My mom is a Georgetown alumna. I always knew Georgetown was a prestigious university, so it made the decision easier.”
Jasmine’s journey may have begun by attending classes in person, but when the degree transferred online through Coursera, the flexibility of a virtual learning environment made her even more determined to complete her degree while simultaneously balancing her job. She says, “The online learning environment was better than I expected. I got the same resources online as on campus, and it was great to have the flexibility. It’s been easy to work full-time and attend school because of the format.”
An innovative degree that can be tailored to you.
Flexibility is another word Jasmine uses to describe the degree and its curriculum. She says, “I loved the creativity and flexibility of the degree. It allowed me to build on my work experience. I wanted something to add to my skill sets, and the [Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies] did just that.”
The BLS program allows students to tailor their learning to their current professional skills as well as future career interests by selecting from concentrations like these:
Business & Entrepreneurship
Media, Communications, and Humanities
Interdisciplinary Studies
Politics and International Relations
Cybersecurity, Analytics, and Technology
While describing the program as flexible, Jasmine points out the benefit of being able to choose a focus for her degree by selecting the Business & Entrepreneurship concentration, noting, “I chose the Business & Entrepreneurship concentration because it fits my skill sets the best. It was most relevant to my experience.”
Amplifying the learning experience by going online.
Reflecting on her experience as an online student in the program, Jasmine acknowledges, “Georgetown does everything to provide online students with every resource that they’d get if they were on campus, and it’s amazing.” Specifically, she mentions, “I feel like the networking aspect was amplified compared to when I was on campus. The networking held longer bonds. There was more obligation to create a personal touch.”
When asked what advice she has for anyone considering the program, Jasmine says, “It’s simple. Just do it. If you’re a working professional, it’s a no-brainer because you can control your schedule. It would have taken me longer if I hadn’t had access to a platform like Coursera. Just sign up and knock it out. There’s no difference between in-person or online.”
What comes next for a Georgetown graduate?
A versatile skill set and a prestigious degree can make all the difference in opening doors to exciting career opportunities. By earning a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown, Jasmine gains a valuable career credential that sets her apart in the job market. Employers recognize the interdisciplinary abilities and rigorous education that come with a Georgetown degree, making graduates highly sought-after in various fields.
Completing the program also lays the groundwork for further academic pursuits. By emphasizing mental agility, adaptability, and a wide range of skills, graduates have a solid foundation for more academic success. Through her interdisciplinary studies, Jasmine is developing problem-solving, communication, and negotiation skills, while also honing her leadership, financial, and project management capabilities.
Jasmine echoes all this by confidently stating, “I hope to advance further in my career. I knew I wanted to complete my bachelor’s, and this was just the right time to do it. I want to eventually go for my master’s or apply to law school. A law degree in business would be a great asset. I want to stand out amongst my peers, and a Georgetown degree can help me do that.”
If, like Jasmine, you recognize the benefits of being flexible, the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown could be the right fit for you. Take a closer look at the program and the many ways you can tailor it to your skills and interests—all while enjoying the advantages of online learning and Georgetown’s prestige.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration, or write about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
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 and may appear in print.
The word mediocre has appeared in 96 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 2 in “Anime Is Going Digital. Fans Are Wary” by Calum Marsh:
“Fans often balk at any announcement that a show will be produced in 3-D, especially when it’s from an established franchise,” May said in an interview. “The gap between good and bad C.G. anime is wide, and fans can spot mediocre 3-D animation easily thanks to having seen decades of top-range American 3-D films.”
Some 3-D anime has fared better with fans. The series “Beastars” and “Land of the Lustrous,” from the studio Orange, have won acclaim for their innovative style and visual effects, and tend to be admired even by skeptics.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word mediocre 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.
If you want a better idea of how mediocre can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
What stories in the news have you been paying attention to recently?
Perhaps you’ve been following headlines in a newspaper like The New York Times or watching breaking news on CNN. Maybe you’ve been seeing videos or reading links people have posted in your social feeds. Perhaps you’re having current events discussions with your classmates in the cafeteria or with your family around the dinner table. Or maybe you’ve been exchanging texts with your friends about what’s going on in your school or community.
News can be many different things: reporting on major events or political issues; sports features or theater reviews; or even news you can use, like exercise tips or financial advice. And it can be global, national or local.
No matter where you get your news, or what kind of news you’ve been following, simply tell us about one story that has interested you lately, where you learned about it, and why it got your attention. You can post your response as a written comment OR as a 90-second video.
This prompt is inspired by our Summer Reading Contest, where, every week for 10 weeks, we’ll be inviting you to tell us what you’re reading, watching and listening to — specifically in The New York Times — and why. You can use this space to practice before it begins, and if you enjoy this exercise, we hope you’ll join us this summer!
If you’re not sure where to start …
As we said, you can tell us about any news story you’re following from any source. But here are some recent articles, features and multimedia articles in The New York Times if you’re looking for inspiration.
Choose one article, essay, photo, video or podcast published in The Times or elsewhere that interests you. (Just make sure it’s something that’s appropriate for a family newspaper.)
Tell us about it and why it got your attention, either in a written comment of up to 1,500 characters (about 250 words) or in a 90-second video. (If you choose to make a video response, you’ll need to upload it to a third-party site, such as YouTube or TikTok, and then post the link in the comments section. Make sure your settings are public, and please take care not to use any copyrighted images or music.)
If you’re not sure what to write or talk about, here are some prompts to help:
Why did you choose the piece you chose? What about it got your attention?
What connection, if any, does it have to your life and your experiences?
How did this piece affect you? Did it teach you something? Challenge you? Reassure you? Move you? Make you angry? What emotions did it stir, and why?
What happened as you read? What was going through your mind? What specific lines, quotes, words or details stood out? Why?
What questions did it raise for you? What does it make you want to know more about?
What connections can you make between this piece or topic and something else you know about? Why? For instance, does it remind you of something else you’ve read, seen or heard? Something you’ve studied in school?
What did you think of the piece overall? What were its strengths and weaknesses? Did you agree or disagree with what it said?
What would you most like to remember from this piece? Why?
What ideas or information from this piece can you apply to your own life?
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 and may appear in print.
4. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
If you live in one of America’s cities, you probably see homeless people all the time. You might pass them on your way to work. Maybe you avoid eye contact. If they ask you for money, maybe you pretend you didn’t hear, and walk on by.
But what if you stopped and listened to what they have to say?
As you’ll see in the Opinion video above, you might find their stories of landing on the streets strikingly relatable. Such accounts reveal a hard truth about our country: Amid an affordable housing crisis, where 70 percent of all extremely low-income families today pay more than half their income on rent, becoming homeless is easier than we’d like to think.
That’s what Mark Horvath discovered firsthand in 1995, when he lost his job and wound up homeless for eight years. He started interviewing people on the street in 2008, and began sharing those stories on his YouTube channel, Invisible People. He wanted to try to help viewers who might ignore their homeless neighbors see them not with scorn, or indifference, but empathy.
These stories are even more important today, as a record number of people experience homelessness and face increasing threats from the law. On April 22, the Supreme Court is set to hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass, the most significant case in decades about homeless people’s rights. The case will determine whether cities can arrest or fine the homeless — even if there’s no other shelter. As the homeless plaintiffs wrote, this would be “punishing the city’s involuntarily homeless residents for their existence.”
Every homeless person’s path is complicated, and in this video, we haven’t remotely captured anyone’s whole story. Yes, some are addicts, some are mentally ill, some have made unwise choices, and some are simply unlucky. Some are many of those things. But all of them argue that in the hardest moment of their lives, they have been largely abandoned, and even punished, by the rest of us. So we hope you’ll do more than dismiss, or judge, the people in this video, and instead listen to them.
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.
Every week in our Picture Prompts, we post at least one image from The New York Times, without a caption, and invite students to try and decode it. What do they think the image is communicating? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can they relate to it personally? What is their opinion of its message?
This week, we’ve rounded up teenagers’ responses from three such prompts.
We often get imaginative interpretations from students from all over the world. And it’s always interesting to see how their perceptions are influenced by where they’re from, what they’ve experienced or how much they know about a certain topic.
But this is also just a useful exercise for classrooms everywhere to see how images, like words, can carry messages, and how we all “read” them differently. If you’re a teacher and you want to try this activity in your classroom, here are two ways you might use this post to do so:
Show students one or more of the images below and then invite them to respond to the questions above. What do they think the image is saying? Then, show them the student responses below to see if any are similar to their own.
Or, do the reverse: Let students see the responses first and then have them create an illustration that conveys one or more of those messages. Next, show them the actual Times image and have them discuss how it’s similar to and different from their own illustrations.
If you try either of these exercises, let us know the results in the comments! And remember, we post a new image like this each week.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the conversation on our writing prompts this week, including students from Greenbelt Middle School in Greenbelt, Md.; Helen Stacey Middle School in Huntington Beach, Calif; and Thailand.
Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length.
_________
We’ve all seen it in a cartoon or sitcom before. A closet or piece of furniture is stuffed full of trash and junk, which will eventually spill out everywhere.
But in real life, the same thing can be said for the way we all handle pollution — more specifically, plastic pollution. We treat it as a big and giant issue that is generally hidden from the human eye.
Sure, there’s a giant mass of it all in the Pacific Ocean, but who really cares? Big Corporations and Entities are not paying attention to extremely pressing matters such as continual trash buildup, whether in the ocean or on land. And one day, perhaps closer than you might think, that bubble will burst and all that will be left is the Flying Plastic.
I think that this image is saying that people litter a lot. A lot of people never pick up after themselves and leave a mess. It ruins the Earth. I remember seeing something at a hiking trail gift shop that showed three glass containers of dirt from 2018. One had a banana peel in it, that was gone because it had decomposed, one had a piece of paper that also decomposed, and one had a plastic fork, knife, and spoon, that were still there and never decomposed even a little bit.
This picture makes me think of how keeping our problems hidden, tucked away in plain sight, does not make them disappear. Many times we may realize that doing so makes the problems even bigger and less feasible to solve, eventually causing them to blow up in our faces. To me, assessing a problem I encounter and (if appropriate) tackling it head-on rather than avoiding it helps me learn and grow past my mistakes.
I feel like this image is communicating that humans are thinking that they are being green so they ignore what happens and parts of consumerism. As an example, where I live, everyone is going “green” by having Tesla or electric cars. This genuinely has the same effect as gas cars and shows how consumerism affects our country. It can also be like the Stanley cup-obsessed people (not all people with Stanleys are obsessed). They think that they are being smart by buying so many reusable cups, feeding into consumerism and buying “cute little” add-ons that are unnecessary and expensive, cheap-material items.
I think this picture looks a bit like me! I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate (…hate) cleaning my stuff. If you took a tour of my room, I wouldn’t show you my closet or under my bed, because under my bed … let’s say that I don’t feel the need to hide my legs from monsters because there is zero room under my bed for them. Every time I fling open the doors to my closet, I brace myself earthquake-style (school drills, anyone?) against the barrage of random things, so I don’t get a concussion.
I believe this image communicates the arts and power of the mind. Such as abstract painting. You let the brush and the colors paint the masterpiece. It represents how unique and intelligent the mind can be and it allows us to draw any sort of image we want, and visualize it.
I think this image demonstrates how our brain works. When you are writing an essay of some sort, you get thoughts from all over the place. You’re trying to connect the thoughts and have good word choices. When it’s something you think sounds correct, then you write it on paper. The idea soon goes away and new ones appear.
I think this image is communicating how monotonous and repetitive tasks are in people’s lives, such as in work or school. The ball goes to the pink head, resulting in the hand attached to it writing something and the ball receiving a green check. The ball then descends from its place above the pink head, and this process repeats over and over. This image, to me, seems to show someone who does redundant tasks for the sake of marking them as complete or adequate. I see this a lot in my own life at school, particularly when students do assignments just for their grades.
I think this image communicates that when students study or learn something, they write it down. But after they learn it and write it down, it slips away from their mind. I can relate to this because I think that most of the time it’s hard for me to really remember information. It takes a few times to comprehend it because the first couple of times, it just slips from my mind. This is a struggle when studying for tests so I just have to recite the information multiple times till it is stuck in my brain.
Personally, I feel that the image communicates the same obsession that our generation, as well as society, is often involved in within the topic of technology. The individual/user is seen scrolling through a website, rather quickly … they seem to be “scrolling” as a form of entertainment. Taking it into deeper consideration, the eye of the individual is “locked into” viewing only what is on their device, leading me to believe that their attention is solely directed to the content they are viewing. Rather than spending our spare time with loved ones, outside, or going on an adventure, I feel that we as a society are quite invested in the use of technology …
I believe this image is trying to convey the message of connection and understanding online. Through the reflection seen from this person’s eyes, I observe a stream of texts. Sometimes, people aren’t able to present their true selves in public or face to face. As a result, many seek a sense of belonging in the online world. Without the pressure of a front that many put up in real life to cater to others so as not to be left out, people can become themselves online. Other times, there are introverts who aren’t able to clearly express themselves or have the courage to reach out to others in real life. As a result, they turn to the online world due to it being easier for them to communicate without the anxiety of talking face-to-face. Personally, I’m an introvert as well, so the online world serves as a comfort zone sometimes when I find it difficult to exhibit my emotions to others.
This image seems to represent how when we are on our phones, we get immersed in it to such a degree that we lose track of time, and forget about homework, and plans we have, or we just do not go outside. I always see people in class on their phones, staring at their laps. These people are usually the ones who get sat in the back. They usually get caught, but when they can get away with it, they learn nothing in that particular day’s lesson. A lot of them either have really bad grades or cheat on tests regularly. These particular people rely on others to help them and sometimes copy work off of other people who pay attention in class.
I think this image is saying that we are spending too much time on our electronics. We are spending so much time that our eyes are getting damaged by all the lighting, especially during the night when your eyes naturally have a bigger black dot (I forgot what it is called). Your eye needs this because the bigger the dot is, the more we take in light so that is why you can see not bad in the dark. Since there is a bright light like your phone, your eyes take in a lot more light than it normally would at night. Overall I think the image is saying to take a break from your phone and go to sleep.
I think this image is saying that everyone is on their phones and that people have lost all of the fun in them. When I was in videography last period, Mr. Andrews let us watch videos from the past on our school YouTube channel and they were so much more creative than our generation now. In the videos, everyone looked like they had fun and had nothing to be embarrassed about. In the videos, people actually danced at the dances. Nowadays, everyone has a phone and they go on apps like TikTok and Instagram. We scroll on our page and see people that are in the current trends or fashion and want to be like them. Now, people don’t want to be embarrassed to do things and show creativity because they don’t want to be the only one.
And, too, at a time when some educators are alarmed by the ability of chatbots to do students’ work for them, this is a contest that rewards the human touch. As our step-by-step guide to participating shows, what we’re looking for are genuine personal connections to the news, explored with voice, style and personality — something A.I. can’t (yet?) do with anywhere near the verve of the teenagers we hear from.
Another reason? For some teachers, assigning the contest over the summer helps them to quickly get to know their new students when school starts. In our related webinar, Karen Gold, English department chair at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., details how she uses the contest in this way.
But maybe the most compelling reason to assign this contest is what students themselves say about it. In 2017, Emma Weber, a student from London, posted that, thanks to the contest, “I feel grounded in my views and understand what’s going on in the world. It’s amazing what a change 1,500 characters a week make.” In 2020 we invited Emma to help judge the entries, and here is what she had to say after Week 10:
I know firsthand that the Summer Reading Contest has the ability to change the way one engages in the news — I went from passively reading to actively thinking and questioning. The more you reflect on what is going on in the world and what interests you about it, the more you will understand your place within it. I urge all those who enjoyed participating this summer to continue reading, reflecting and writing.
Thank you for making this contest a hit year after year, and please spread the word that it’s back for its 15th season.
Good luck!
How to Submit
Any 13- to 19-year-old anywhere in the world is invited to join us, if you are in middle or high school, or if you graduated from high school and haven’t yet started college.
Every Friday starting on June 7, we’ll post a fresh version of this question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” We will link to each week’s version at the top of this post. Here is an example from last summer. How you respond to this question will depend on your age and whether you are choosing to respond via writing or video, but all responses will be judged together.
Marty Huitt is a seasoned educator and visionary leader dedicated to revolutionizing how schools support children struggling with behavioral and academic challenges. For over two decades, Marty has served as the Director of the Behavior Intervention Support Team (BIST) program in Kansas City, Missouri, shaping the landscape of educational intervention and support in more than 330 schools in nine states across the country.
With a steadfast commitment to fostering environments of empathy and understanding, Marty has trained over 4,000 educators annually and coached leaders and teacher teams nationwide, equipping them with the tools and strategies needed to empower students, teachers, and parents alike. She is a champion of the BIST Model, a transformative, trauma-informed approach that centers on nurturing a shared belief system among educators, one that prioritizes compassion and consistency in care for all students.
This February, Marty published her first book, “Cultivating Behavioral Change in K-12 Students: Team-Based Intervention and Support Strategies,” a comprehensive text that covers timely topics including fostering family partnerships, increasing teaching time, and collaborating with students and other adults to create lasting change. As a respected authority in her field, Marty has taken the stage as a keynote speaker for several national conferences, drawing on her charisma and fervent passion for the BIST Model to instill hope and resilience in educators.
Reflecting on Marty’s impact, one educator shares, “Listening to and learning from Marty changed not only my sense of obligation to students who struggle, it truly changed my life. From that point on, I began to see my purpose as teaching students, not content, and working to have a life impact with those students who deserved it the least but needed it the most.”
Can you start by telling us a little bit about your background? How did you get to where you are today?
I “accidentally” started as a teacher for emotionally disturbed students in a residential facility in 1990. My original goal was to be a PE teacher and coach; however, at that time in education, very few PE positions were available. There were numerous available positions to work with students who struggled with behavior, so I picked up an additional certification.
After teaching for several years in residential, I went to Liberty Public Schools, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, to work with 9th-grade students who struggle with behavior. That position provided the opportunity to collaborate more frequently with parents, something I now see as key to children’s success in the classroom. While teaching at Liberty, I was introduced to BIST (Behavior Intervention Support Team). The building in which I was teaching implemented this model, and I had the opportunity to become a lead teacher.
Inspired by the impact of BIST on my students and myself, I left the classroom in 1997 and joined BIST as a consultant. This opportunity afforded me the privilege of being mentored by Nancy Osterhaus, the visionary behind the BIST model and then Director of BIST. This was an invaluable experience in my development and growth in supporting educators in their care for children. During this time, I had the opportunity to work with numerous schools and educators in how they support children who struggle with behavior. In 2003, I was invited to step into the role of Director of the BIST program.
Two decades later, we are a growing team of 26 consultants partnering with teachers, administrators, and families in more than 300 schools in nine states. I have witnessed the remarkable growth of this program, driven by passionate, innovative educators who are willing to be vulnerable and open to new ways of working with students who struggle behaviorally. I continue to be amazed by how dedicated teachers are to helping their students experience success. That original drive to become a coach has translated into championing aspiring educators and coaching my BIST Consultants, and I love what I do.
What is the BIST model?
In a nutshell, BIST is a psycho-educational model that helps support students who struggle with behavior. It was implemented in schools in 1989-90 and has continued growing since its initial implementation. It is also a philosophical model that allows adults to become cohesive and like-minded in the way they think about students who struggle.
In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, staying ahead means continuously updating your skills and knowledge. Anas Malik Radif Alubaidi, a clinical research coordinator and public health medicine practice advocate, shares his experience with Alison, highlighting the impact of upskilling while employed. His story serves as a foundation for understanding the significance of keeping pace with industry trends, learning new skills, and how Alison facilitates this journey of growth and advancement.
The Power of Flexibility and Accessibility
One of the greatest challenges for working professionals is finding the time to pursue further education. Anas points out how Alison’s flexible online courses perfectly cater to this need. These courses are accessible at any time, from anywhere, and on any device, making them ideally suited for busy workers. This level of accessibility ensures that learning can be seamlessly integrated into one’s daily routine without disrupting work commitments or personal life.
Keeping Up with Industry Trends
The medical field, like many others, is constantly advancing. New discoveries, practices, and technologies emerge, making it essential for professionals to stay informed and skilled. Alison’s rich, up-to-date course materials are designed to enhance learners’ understanding and keep them abreast of the latest developments in their field. Anas’s experience underscores the importance of such resources in maintaining a competitive edge in the workplace.
Diverse Learning Opportunities
Alison offers a wide array of free courses across various disciplines, providing learners with the opportunity to diversify their knowledge and skills. Whether a Certificate or a Diploma course, Alison’s courses are recognised and valued by employers and institutions worldwide. This variety not only allows professionals to deepen their expertise in specific areas but also to explore new interests and career paths.
The Impact of Continuous Learning
For Anas, Alison has been a pivotal resource in advancing his medical knowledge and practice. The well-designed and self-paced courses, equipped with informative curriculums, have significantly improved his understanding of various medical topics. This continuous learning journey has not only enriched his professional life but has also empowered him to advocate for public health medicine more effectively.
In an era where knowledge and skills become obsolete rapidly, upskilling is no longer optional but a necessity. Anas Malik Radif Alubaidi’s story with Alison illuminates the path for professionals seeking to enhance their expertise while balancing work and personal commitments. It’s a reminder that learning is a lifelong process and that platforms like Alison are here to support that journey, offering flexible, accessible, and diverse learning opportunities. Let’s embrace the culture of continuous learning and stay ahead in our respective fields, inspired by stories like Anas’s.
