What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related Opinion essay to learn more.
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.
Thanks to dramatic museum displays, many of us can imagine a Triceratops wielding its horns and sprawling neck frill to ward off a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex. But some scientists believe that Triceratopses used their deadly headgear against each other, too. Like dueling elk brandishing their antlers, Triceratopses may have interlocked their horns to woo mates or vanquish rivals.
While scientists have long speculated about such behavior, conclusive evidence of these clashes has proved elusive. But in a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of Italian scientists describe what they believe is a gaping scar from one of these ancient battles on the neck frill of a high-profile Triceratops known as “Big John.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word vanquish 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 vanquish 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.
Professional free divers are a daring lot. The best of them can hold their breath for over 10 minutes at the surface, and plunge to depths of well over 300 feet on one breath. When they aren’t competing, they dive for fun, sometimes in extreme settings or alongside wildlife. Instagram is speckled with images of divers swimming with humpback and sperm whales, crocodiles and even great white sharks.
More often than not, those are one-off encounters or expeditions. But when Grosmaire is home in Tikehau, where he has lived for five years, he swims with tiger sharks at least once a week.
Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about careers in their community, reflect on their relationship with their inner critic, watch a film about the history of immigration between Mexico and the United States, read a winning essay from our STEM Writing Contest and react to the racist massacre in Buffalo.
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. Learn about life as a dog walker.
In thisLesson of the Day students will learn about the daily routine and responsibilities of a dog walker in Brooklyn, New York. They will reflect on their own experiences with work and then interview a community member about their job.
2. Share how they deal with their inner critic.
This Student Opinion prompt asks students to think about that little voice in their head that creates self-doubt or criticism. They will read an illustrated story about the inner critic and share if, and how, they relate to it. Students can discuss their answers in a class discussion, write a short essay or share their reflections in the comments section.
3. Watch a film about the history of immigration to the U.S. from Mexico.
In this Film Club students watch a film that traces the history of the U.S.-Mexico border from 1848 to today. Students will learn how the border between the two countries became so political and divisive and share what they can learn from this history.
4. Read an entry from our STEM Student Writing Contest.
Our 3rd Annual STEM Writing Contest features writing from students around the world who — in 500 words or less — explain an issue or question in science, technology, engineering, math or health. Invite students to read one of the winning essays and then react to it: What did they learn? What does the essay make them want to research or study?
5. React to the racist massacre in Buffalo, N.Y.
This Student Opinion offers a space for students to share their thoughts and feelings about what happened in Buffalo on May 14 when a white teenage gunman opened fire at a supermarket, methodically shooting and killing 10 people and injuring three more, almost all of them Black. Before responding, they should read — individually or as a class — the featured article that details what is known about the shooting.
Today, you will read about studies that try to identify the optimal number of close friends a person should have in order to feel connected and happy. If you had to choose such a number, what would it be, and why?
In “How Many Friends Do You Really Need?,” Catherine Pearson writes about studies that try to answer that question. Though her focus is on adult friendships, the information is relevant to younger people as well. The article begins:
An ongoing argument my husband and I have — which has become more contentious during the pandemic — is about how many friends we should have.
We both have one or two close friends and siblings we like to spend time with. Plus, we are busy parenting two young boys who sap most of our energy. As a textbook introvert, this feels like plenty of friends to me. Excessive, even. But my husband is an extrovert who comes alive around other people. As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, I can feel him yearning for more.
He’s not alone. For years, friendship in America has been in decline, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic. Three decades ago, 3 percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters they had no close friends; in 2021, an online poll put it at 12 percent. About a year into the pandemic, 13 percent of women and 8 percent of men age 30 to 49 said they’d lost touch with most of their friends.
There are health implications to all of this. Friendship can be an important factor in well-being, while loneliness and social isolation — distinct but related conditions — can be associated with an increased risk for conditions like depression and anxiety or heart disease and stroke. An often-cited 2010 meta-analysis led by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in Utah, concluded that loneliness is as harmful to physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
“It’s a natural question,” Dr. Holt-Lunstad said about the “ideal” number of friends. “Just like we have guidelines and recommendations for the amount of sleep we get and how physically active we are, this is health relevant.”
While she and other friendship researchers admit there aren’t many studies that have specifically tackled the question of how many friends people should aim for, those that have been done offer a range — and somewhere between three and six close friends may be the sweet spot.
Have you experienced changes in your friendships during the pandemic? If so, how would you describe what is different now?
How do you define “close friendship”? What distinguishes it from other friendships? How many close friendships do you have? Do you agree that three to six close friends is ideal?
The article says that “research suggests the size of a person’s online network may not have any meaningful impact on their perceived well-being.” Does this data reflect your experience? Do you feel that your internet friendships are as satisfying as your in-person ones?
Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, said that “your personality and the characteristics of your life are going to make a difference” in the number of friends that you want and need. How do your personality and the characteristics of your life influence your friendships? For example, are you an introvert, like the author, who might be satisfied with fewer and closer friendships? Or do you like to have a lot of different friends who bring out different parts of you?
Do you feel satisfied with the friendships you have? Do you feel supported, cared for and heard? Do you and your friends have fun together? Do friendships ever feel complicated or confusing? What advice would you give someone who is struggling with friendship?
Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders and that no matter what you do and how hard you work, you just can’t seem to get ahead of your daily to-do list? Does work sometimes leave you feeling intensely demotivated and overwhelmed? Answered yes to any of these questions? You could be heading toward burnout. We recommend you continue reading to discover how learning more about yourself can help prevent burnout.
What is Burnout and What are the Warning Signs?
What is burnout?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, burnout can be defined as “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress” and according to a recent survey by Indeed, many people are feeling the pressure. The report shows that 52% of all workers are feeling burned out, up +9% from pre-pandemic times.
What Are the Warning Signs of Burnout?
Apart from the obvious symptoms like exhaustion and anxiety, burnout can present itself in many shapes and forms. Understanding the symptoms and knowing what to look out for can help prevent you from burning out.
7 signs you may be experiencing burnout at work:
You are constantly tired and can’t seem to get enough sleep! Even if you go to bed at a decent time, you wake up feeling exhausted. This symptom of burnout typically goes hand-in-hand with waking up feeling anxious and on high alert.
Low motivation. You just can’t get into the swing of things. Even if you know exactly what you need to do to get through your day, it feels like you can’t find the motivation to start ticking off items on your task list.
Decreased productivity. You’re used to operating at a certain level of efficiency, but lately, you’ve noticed that even the simplest of tasks take longer than expected to complete.
Lack of creativity and general brainpower. You find it difficult to generate new ideas, find solutions to problems and in general, think creatively.
A change in your mood. You’re not feeling like your usual sunny self.
You’re feeling anxious. Anxiety can show up in different ways and may be related to something more serious. If your job or work environment triggers your anxiety we recommend speaking to your direct manager or seeking professional help.
Panic attacks. Just like with anxiety, this is a massive red flag and should set off all of your warning signs that something is not right.
How to Stop Yourself from Getting Burnout
Prevention is the best cure! The easiest way to prevent burnout is by nipping it in the bud and self-awareness is the best way to go about it.
Check Up on Your Mental Wellbeing
You know yourself better than anyone else. The first step in keeping burnout at bay is to check in with yourself. How are you coping at work? Are you feeling stressed out? Are you getting enough sleep? How are your anxiety levels? If just the mere thought of these questions gets your heart racing, it might be worth taking a closer look at your mental wellbeing.
Our free mental wellness assessment allows you to identify your wellbeing strengths and growth potential, assess your personal wellbeing drivers and equip you with actionable insights into your mental health. Self-awareness is incredibly powerful and can help you manage stressful situations and a highly demanding job with a seemingly never-ending to-do list.
We’ve developed the test in partnership with Welliba, a leader in workplace psychometrics. The short assessment helps you to understand what drives you and how you can fuel your positivity and confidence levels.
Is Your Current Job the Right Fit for You?
The reason why you’re not coping at work might be because you’re following the wrong career path. Think about it; if the thought of speaking in front of people terrifies you, you might not be the best person for a job in sales, but perhaps that’s the career path you’re following. So – what is the link between work satisfaction and burnout? A study conducted to determine the relationship between burnout syndrome and job satisfaction among mental health workers found that “the highest degree of correlation was found between emotional exhaustion and pay and rewards dissatisfaction, which indicates that workers who are less satisfied with their pay and rewards report a higher degree of emotional exhaustion.”
Just like with your mental health, empowerment starts from within. A personality test, like our free Workplace Personality Assessment, can help you determine your natural strengths and weaknesses and give you insight into why you do the things you do. The test will also tell you which jobs you will be naturally good at. A job matched to your strengths and weaknesses will in return lead to higher job satisfaction and lower your chances of getting burnout.
6 Ways to Prevent Burnout
Speak up. If you’re feeling the pressure, let someone know!
Ask for help.
Take a break – especially if you work in front of a screen for most of the day.
Power up with a healthy diet.
Keep your stress levels low by exercising.
Switch off during non-working hours.
Self-knowledge is key – knowing your own limits and personal drivers is vital in fighting off burnout. Remember that you are only human and even if we would all like to have them, you don’t have superpowers.
NM Dayton can easily point to the proudest moment of their career: Using voice-to-text to submit code as a software engineer working on Google’s Voice Typing in Docs accessibility team. It was a full-circle moment for NM, who is disabled as a result of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, and relied on these accessibility tools while learning to code in school.
Now, NM is the technical program manager for Google’s web and mobile accessibility standards, where their job is making sure that Google’s products are accessible for people with disabilities. At its core, accessibility is about reducing barriers that people with disabilities face when using digital products and web-based services.
“There’s so many aspects to digital accessibility,” NM says. “It’s a very broad field, just as disability is a very broad category and identity.”
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guarantees access to public and private spaces for people with sensory, cognitive, and physical impairments — and that includes being able to easily navigate and understand content on websites, mobile applications, or other electronic-based information. Accessibility touches pretty much every role within tech, so whether you’re interested in becoming a developer or UX designer, it’s a skill set you can’t ignore.
In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, here’s how NM got their job working at Google in accessibility standards, what makes it so rewarding, and ways that all developers can think about accessibility in their own work.
What got me interested in the job
“I took a Java class because a boy in my high school told me I couldn’t do it — joke’s on him. I always really enjoyed learning about technology, and I had a knack for problem-solving. I was constantly thinking of ways to get over the hurdles that I ran into.
I’m disabled myself as a result of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, so I use digital accessibility tools in my daily life, like Select-to-Speak and Voice Typing. College was really the first time I needed to utilize these tools as my disabilities presented themselves. I had serious issues typing my papers during my senior year of college, and I couldn’t afford my own copies of voice-typing software.
Frankly, getting my CS degree was really challenging for me. In hindsight, I wish that I had known the full extent of my disability and could have asked for accommodations. Working in accessibility now and understanding all of the assistive tech options, I look back at my time in college and things could have been a lot easier for me.”
How I got in the door
“I showed up to the Google info session for internships my second week at Wellesley College. Technically, it was only open to sophomores through seniors, but I decided to sit in the back and take notes for the next year. I arrived a little early — totally by accident — and helped the recruiter set up the projector. At the end of the info session, everyone rushed to the front to hand in their resumes, and I tried to sneak out the side door. The recruiter flagged me down and invited me to a resume review session the next day.
I ran to my dorm, quite literally Googled ‘how to write a resume,’ and I ended up interning with Google for three summers in a row. My whole life changed. And it was that on-the-ground experience of contributing to massive products and understanding what that process is actually like that really was so pivotal for me.
It’s really no exaggeration that Google Docs Voice Typing allowed me to graduate college. When I had the opportunity to join the Docs, Sheets, and Slides accessibility team that made that feature, I just jumped at the chance. Submitting code through voice typing was, at that point, the proudest moment in my career.
The most important piece of advice I have is: If you see a door, even if the door is locked, check if maybe you just have to push instead of pull. Maybe you don’t have to listen to the sign on the wall. Sometimes taking a different path can change everything.”
What I actually do every day
“I lead all content changes to Google’s web and mobile internal accessibility standards — so I get to touch everything. I’m partnering with product teams to evolve those guidelines, factoring in external accessibility standards, doing our own research, and a whole host of things that go into that process.
Accessibility engineering can be tough; it’s a lot of debugging, a lot of cross-platform and cross-team work. In my work on standards, I am helping write guidelines that are going to impact products with more users than I can count. What can kind of help you get through the slog is just having that North Star of: These are the people that I’m providing access to through my work. That’s a really huge motivator for when things get tough.
In any form of engineering, you’re going to have those days where you can’t figure out that bug, or why something weird is happening. Why does this work on this browser and not that browser? Those sorts of things are really common in the accessibility space. Having that internal motivation is really helpful. I’m getting my master’s in disability studies right now, because it helps me in my career to just have a more extensive knowledge of who I’m building for.
One of the most interesting things to me about working in accessibility is that things are always changing and shifting. I think you can always do better, because there’s always a user who has an access need that you hadn’t even thought of before — and that’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to include disabled people in this work.”
Here’s what you need to get started
First things first: You don’t have to be part of a dedicated accessibility team to start implementing accessibility into your work as a developer.
“The best way to incorporate accessibility into a product is from the very beginning,” NM says. There are lots of technical resources that you can turn to that are just a Google search away, like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There’s also a checklist created by The A11Y Project, that you can reference to gauge whether your product meets the WCAG criteria. For mobile app developers, NM recommends Google’s Accessibility Scanner, which suggests accessibility improvements for Android apps.
Of course, “you need to make sure, obviously, that you have solid software engineering skills under your belt — then start looking into accessibility fundamentals,” NM says. Not sure where to start? Our pro skill path Learn how to build websites will get you started with HTML and CSS, the building blocks of web design, and introduce you to responsive design, which is fundamental to making websites that are usable on different device sizes and screen readers. From there, practice putting your skills to work with these HTML and CSS challenges.
Reading firsthand accounts of people who are using accessibility tools is another way to learn about what hurdles people hit while trying to access different products. (You can find real stories about how people with disabilities use the web on the Web Accessibility Initiative website.) “You can’t do accessibility right if you’re not thinking of who you’re building for,” NM says. “And that’s really the same for engineering in general.”
Note: This is the last Film Club for the 2021-22 school year. Our regular features will resume on September 8.
In the coming days, the number of known deaths from Covid-19 in the United States is expected to reach one million. It is a stark and staggering number, but the emotional toll on the survivors is unquantifiable.
“Not Even for a Moment Do Things Stand Still” is a 15-minute Op-Doc film that poignantly and powerfully documents the mourners from across the country who gathered this past September among hundreds of thousands of white flags to honor those lost to Covid.
How should we remember, celebrate, honor and mourn those who have died during the pandemic? How do we come to terms with the enormity of the pain and loss?
Students
1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.
2. After watching, think about these questions:
What questions do you still have?
What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?
3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: How should we honor and remember those we have lost to Covid?
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.
In September 2021, more than 660,000 white flags were planted on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of a participatory art project by Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg titled “In America: Remember.” It was not the first time the National Mall served as a memorial for those lost to a pandemic; in 1987 the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt had its first public display there.
Each white flag in Ms. Firstenberg’s project represented a life lost to Covid in the United States, adding up to a nearly incomprehensible number. Visitors were invited to personalize and dedicate flags to honor loved ones who had died. Some of those in attendance granted us permission to film with them. The result is the short documentary above, which bears witness to intimate moments of mourning and farewell.
Even as we were filming, more and more flags had to be added to reflect the continued loss of life. Walking through this expanding sea of flags, I was overwhelmed by the vastness of death and tragedy caused by the pandemic.
My hope is that through these moments of remembrance, we can empathize with the immensity of each loss. With close to one million lives now lost to Covid in the United States, it may be impossible to truly make sense of the vast impact of the pandemic. But perhaps we can at least see its waves in a new light.
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 world has never been so wide,” I whisper. Hugo barks in reply. I laugh and rub his head. Stargazing is a new practice for me, having lived in a city for much of my life, but this is amazing.
“We’ve been missing out, Hugo.” I say seriously, looking down at my dog. He meets my eyes, his tail flashing in the corner of my vision. I smile at him, lying down in the cool grass. He joins me, flopping down with his body pressed against mine, his big head nestled in the crook of my armpit. I can feel his tongue against my bicep as we lie there, silent, watching the stars glimmer over us. Lighting bugs, another thing that doesn’t occur in the city, flash their bright bottoms in the grass. Hugo watches them suspiciously.
The trees lining the field glisten with warm summer light and rain. I can feel the beginnings of a misting rain dancing around my face. I breathe deep, closing my eyes against the brightness of the stars. Hugo nudges my hand and I turn to look at him. His mouth is open, pulled up in a smile.
In the warm, humid summer air, the low buzzing of cicadas and chirps of crickets plays in the background. The fireflies’ comforting glow reminds me that I’m not alone. A light breeze comes by, causing the leaves to rustle and lifting my hair off my shoulders. With the cool, dewy grass against my back, I gaze up at the endless sky, locating the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. How can I be sad when there’s a vast world out there, beyond my life and my worries?
On Fourth of July last year, we went to a friends back yard to watch the fireworks. The moon was a crescent in the sky giving us perfect darkness for the fireworks. From the corner of my eye, I spotted a meteor across the sky. The sounds of the fireworks woke the fireflies. They were dancing like stars in the grass and trees. Lo and behold what a sight!
A mind stirring, directionless and pondering. Straight was the path before him, yet all around was fuzzy. The concrete was bitter, the lights were loud. He waded through the monotone colors Wondering where he had to go. Atop that hill, next to a field all too familiar – It seemed so new to him all the same. To his left, he heard shouting; then he looked down Three young lads, around his age, having a time. Down in the painted, rusty playground That seemed like home Is that all there is? Can I really just go down and say hello? He pondered what three young boys could even be doing, Out so late in such a strange place. That was the void though, the one that often came with him: Loneliness. He yearned for their attention, yet felt safe atop the hill. He waded into the field of maroon grass. Am I really happy here, in this field on the hill? He looked to the sky and stopped. There were perhaps hundreds, no, thousands of stars All dotted across a pink and navy canvas. He was not sad then. He was not necessarily happy either; Or confused to say the least. He understood. He understood that was not so bad in the field. He understood how those boys felt to have companions. He understood that it was alright to be alone> And no loneliness would be the same again. As the stars began to either multiply or speed up – And he cared not for what they were doing – That lone boy did not feel so lonely anymore. Submerged in the embrace of all the galaxy, He woke up.
I sing the praises To an unspoken peace. Everything is still, Quiet, shrouded in dark As if coated in ink. The moon’s pale gaze, Fireflies’ beam, Starlights’ caress. A celestial body streaks past. Beware not of blight, In my ode to Night.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Post it in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
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.
