Everyone wants their site to be easy to find. To achieve that, you can promote your posts, share links or improve your site SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The key to SEO is understanding how search engines view your website. This post will focus on optimizing your images to help your site rank better.
Titling Images for SEO
Adding correct titles to your images has huge importance for SEO. Below are a few elements you should always check.
The right file names
To help your images rank well, it’s important to save images using file names Google can understand. Google can’t actually “see” your images unless you are saving them using file names that accurately describe what each image is about. For example, if you were saving this cute pug dog image for your blog…
…instead of saving it with a random file name like DSC9324.jpg, you would instead save it with a file name that accurately describes the image like pug-dog-in-blanket.jpg.
Be sure to remember the keyword you are trying to rank for and use that at the beginning of the file name. In this example, the main keyword is “pug dog,” so it was placed at the beginning of the file name to help this image have a better chance of pulling up when someone enters “pug dog” into a search engine.
Alt Text
Adding Alt text to each of your images is important so there will be descriptive text visible if, for whatever reason, an image can’t be displayed. It also helps people with disabilities browse your site easier.
How to add alt text to images in Blogger:
First, upload an image to a post or page. Then click on it (#1) and choose the cogwheel icon (#2) from the image tools panel.
The new window will pop up and allow you to set additional parameters to your images including its Alt Text.
How to add alt text to images in WordPress:
After uploading your image to the media file, you’ll see a gray area on the right side of the screen that will allow you to change or add info for the photo. In the Alt Text section, you can add the description for your photo. Then click Insert Into Post to add the photo to your post. WordPress may automatically use the image title as your default alt text if you don’t add any alt text to your image.
You can add alt text to images directly in the image block too (not sure how to use blocks? Check this guide). All you need to do is click the image and find the alt text section in the image settings on the right.
Sizing Images for SEO
Image load time can have a massive impact on your site’s overall speed and SEO. Resizing images before uploading them to your site help your site load quickly and boosts your SEO. The general rule is to keep the images not larger than 1200px and 500kb.
The perfect option is to resize your images to the exact size you need before uploading them.
If you have any questions about anything discussed here, please leave them in the comments, and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Do you like pizza? What, in your opinion, is the best kind? Where is the best pizza in your area? And finally, what is the best slice of pizza you’ve ever eaten, and what made it so good?
Describe all this in vivid detail in the comments, then take a look at this related slide show 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.
Togetherness is a word enjoying a revival. The Ukraine war appears to have dented a cycle of growing loneliness in which Covid-19 played a significant part. The unbearable lightness of online being has given way to the unbearable gravity of a European war.
Very soon, almost overnight, Europe did what it is rarely capable of doing. It united to end that disgrace and face down Mr. Putin.
As the German philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, “Under conditions of terror, most people will comply but some will not. Humanly speaking, no more is required, and no more can reasonably be asked, for this planet to remain a fit place for human habitation.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word habitation 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 habitation 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.
In the landmark case Engel v. Vitale in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment — breaching the constitutional wall of separation between church and state.
Do you think prayer has any place in public, state-financed schools? Why or why not?
On April 25, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Joseph Kennedy, a football coach at a public high school in Washington State, who was told by the school board that he could no longer offer prayers on the 50-yard line after games.
BREMERTON, Wash. — Joseph Kennedy, who used to be an assistant coach for a high school football team near Seattle, pointed to the spot on the 50-yard line where he would take a knee and offer prayers after games.
He was wearing a Bremerton Knights jacket and squinting in the drizzling morning rain, and he repeated a promise he had made to God when he became a coach.
“I will give you the glory after every game, win or lose,” he said, adding that the setting mattered: “It just made sense to do it on the field of battle.”
Coaching was his calling, he said. But after the school board in Bremerton, Wash., told him to stop mixing football and faith on the field, he left the job and sued, with lower courts rejecting his argument that the board had violated his First Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on Monday, and there is good reason to think that its newly expanded conservative majority will not only rule in Mr. Kennedy’s favor but also make a major statement about the role religion may play in public life. The court’s decision, expected by June, could revise earlier understandings about when prayer is permitted in public schools, the rights of government employees and what counts as pressuring students to participate in religious activities.
The two sides offer starkly different accounts of what happened and what is at stake. To hear Mr. Kennedy tell it, he sought only to offer a brief, silent and solitary prayer little different from saying grace before a meal in the school cafeteria. From the school board’s perspective, the public nature of his prayers and his stature as a leader and role model meant that students felt forced to participate, whatever their religion and whether they wanted to or not.
The community in Bremerton appeared to be largely sympathetic to Mr. Kennedy, who is gregarious, playful and popular. But the school board’s Supreme Court brief suggested that some residents opposed to prayer on the football field may have hesitated to speak out given the strong feelings the issue has produced.
“District administrators received threats and hate mail,” the brief said. “Strangers confronted and screamed obscenities at the head coach, who feared for his safety.”
Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represents the school board, said, “What we’re focused on is the religious freedom of students.”
“Going to the 50-yard line directly after the game when you’re the coach, with the students assuming they’re supposed to gather with the coach, and praying at that time puts pressure on kids to join,” she said.
Mr. Liptak provides some constitutional background on prayer in public school:
Over the last 60 years, the Supreme Court has rejected prayer in public schools, at least when it was officially required or part of a formal ceremony like a high school graduation. As recently as 2000, the court ruled that organized prayers led by students at high school football games violated the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion.
“The delivery of a pregame prayer has the improper effect of coercing those present to participate in an act of religious worship,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
Mr. Kennedy’s lawyers said those school prayer precedents were not relevant because they involved government speech. Rather, they said, the core question in Mr. Kennedy’s case is whether government employees give up their rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion at the workplace.
The school district, its lawyers responded, was entitled to require Mr. Kennedy to stop praying as he had. “Regardless of whether Kennedy’s very public speech was official, the district could regulate it,” the school district’s Supreme Court brief said. “His prayer practice wrested control from the district over the district’s own events, interfered with students’ religious freedom and subjected the district to substantial litigation risks.”
The sweep of the Supreme Court’s decision may turn on which side’s characterization of the facts it accepts. But even a modest ruling in Mr. Kennedy’s favor, saying that his private, solitary prayer was protected even if it took place in public and at least tacitly invited students to participate, would represent a sea change in the court’s approach to the role religion may play in public schools.
Does prayer have any place in school? Why or why not? How do you think we should navigate the tension between individuals’ First Amendment right to freely exercise their religious beliefs and the separation between church and state? How do your own religious views shape your opinion?
What is your reaction to the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which is now before the Supreme Court? What do you see as the most important facts in the case?
Do you think the Bremerton School District violated Mr. Kennedy’s First Amendment rights? Or was the board entitled to require that its employees refrain from public prayer if students were likely to feel coerced into participating? Which arguments presented in the article did you find most persuasive? Which less so? Why?
How would you rule if you were one of the nine Supreme Court justices? How do you think they will rule? What impact do you think the ruling will have on the role of religion in public schools?
What questions do you have about the case or the constitutional law around it?
For more information and resources on the question of prayer in public schools, see ProCon.org, the mission of which is to “promote civility, critical thinking, education and informed citizenship by presenting the pro and con arguments to debatable issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, freely accessible way.”
Over the last 10 years, Coursera has flourished because of the passion and dedication of our partners and customers. We honor all of our partners and customers, who inspire us every day with their commitment to our shared vision of a world where anyone, anywhere, can transform their life through learning.
We are delighted to present Coursera’s 2022 Outstanding Achievement Awards at our 10th annual Coursera Conference on May 5th. This year’s awards celebrate the exceptional partners, course teams, and customers that make powerful learning experiences a reality.
Without further ado, here are our 2022 award winners — leaders in the future of work and learning:
Career Transformation Award
This award is given to the instructor, course team, or partner whose career-focused learners are experiencing the highest rates of success for achieving their goals.
This certificate takes learners with no background in the field through all the fundamental skills they need to become a UX designer. Impressively, more than 2,000 learners have reported getting a new job as an outcome of completing this Certificate. The team at Google integrated career advice and recommendations directly into the course content, making the material not only applicable to a new career but also enabling learners to gain the new UX Design role they desired.
Congratulations to everyone at Google who worked on this UX Design Certificate program!
Learner’s First Award
The Learners First Award goes to the course that maintains the highest learner rating on the platform launched in the last calendar year.
This course grew immensely in popularity and attracted a large number of learners from India, Vietnam, the United States, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, and Egypt. More than 20,000 learners flocked to this course in 2021 alone, bolstering their already strong course rating to 4.84 out of 5.
Congratulations to the team at Sungkyunkwan University!
Innovation Award
The Innovation Award is given to the partner and course that has successfully piloted new features, released a piece of cutting-edge content on the platform, and combines industry and university expertise.
This course provides a pathway into CU Boulder’s innovative degree program. Instructors used nicely-scaffolded Jupyter Notebooks to test learners’ understanding frequently, implementing Coursera’s new nbgrader functionality for faster custom grading and more robust feedback provided to learners. Without having to wait for the next cohort, learners can dive right into this degree-level content with hands-on coding projects. With more than 10,000 individuals enrolled and an average rating of 4.7, this CU Boulder Specialization erases traditional application processes to a Master’s degree and leads with the learning instead.
Congratulations to the CU Boulder team that made these courses a reality!
Talent Transformation Award
This award recognizes the business that has helped its employees achieve extraordinary success and career growth through the power of online learning.
This year the Talent Transformation Award goes to Capgemini.
Capgemini is one of the world’s leaders in consulting, digital transformation, and engineering services, and in 2020 they partnered with Coursera to launch an in-house learning organization called Capgemini University. More than 216,000 Capgemini learners have joined the program globally and are demonstrating critical skills across a number of areas including professional services, technology consulting, cloud adoption and Data and AI.
Capgemini’s passionate and dedicated Learning and Development team sets the gold standard for corporate learning strategy, with their commitment to progress forging innovations and pushing Coursera to become better, as well.
Congratulations to the learning and development team at Capgemini!
Campus Transformation Award
This award is given to the top institution that has contributed significantly to the growth, adoption, and scale of learning to benefit developing economies, regions, or communities by improving access to student education at scale.
The award this year goes to Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM).
GITAM’s mission is to pursue education as a means to social and economic advancement. This is why partnering with Coursera was a perfect fit for them. The blended learning approach and integrated courses empowered over 20,000 students across three campuses and nine departments during the height of COVID-19 pandemic. In total, GITAM achieved nearly 400,000 enrollments, 700,000 learning hours, and 250,000 course completions. Students continue to experience career impact after completion, and over 80 percent of student learners say they would recommend Coursera to their juniors.
Congratulations, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management!
Government Innovation Award
This award recognizes a public sector program – in partnership with Coursera – that is delivering substantial value to a local economy, its employers and their citizens by improving the employability and prosperity of their workforce.
This year the Government Innovation Award goes to the New York State Department Labor.
In 2020, the New York State Department of Labor approached Coursera with an urgent mission to serve ‘unemployed citizens’ impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. New York’s leadership needed to rapidly deploy an accessible training solution to serve those communities hardest hit by the shutdown, with a goal of providing access to health and wellness training, foundational skills, technical certifications and job readiness training. Together, New York and Coursera have served over 120,000 citizens, who have invested approximately 1-million hours, and completed over 1-million skill assessments, in their pursuit of a more sustainable living wage.
In 2022, the program was expanded to also fund the upskilling and reskilling efforts of ‘part time’ citizens seeking a full time position, or salaried career.
Congratulations New York, for this innovative approach to your workforce development!
Thank you to all of the partners and customers who continue to serve the world through learning – and a special congratulations to our award winners. Our 100 million learners and all of us at Coursera are honored to work with you!
We received an overwhelming response to our call for sleep questions—more than a hundred (and counting). Surprisingly, the vast majority weren’t about falling asleep, but about staying asleep. And many readers wanted advice on how to get to bed when there’s still so much to do (and watch on Netflix).
… You might also try scheduling your emails for just before or after dinner, and setting up an end time for that. That way, you’re less likely to get sucked in too late. It’s better to stay off devices as you get closer to bedtime, anyway. I always like to remind myself, too, how much clearer my head will be at 7 a.m. after a decent night’s sleep—and how I’ll get twice as much done, twice as well, if I just tackle my task in the morning. If you want to be draconian about it, you could set your Wi-Fi to shut off at a certain time.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word draconian 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 draconian 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.
This lesson is a part of our Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times in general. Learn more and tell us what you think here.
James Whiteside is a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater in New York City. In this lesson, you will follow Mr. Whiteside, via photographs and videos, through a day in his life as a dancer. Then, you will write your own “day in the life” — either for yourself, or for someone whose career you admire.
Warm-Up
What do you know about what it’s like to be a professional dancer? Before you find out what Mr. Whiteside’s day is like, watch at least two minutes of his performance in “Beauty and the Beast,” for which he was both a dancer and a choreographer:
Then, make some predictions:
How might a ballet dancer prepare for a performance?
What special equipment might he or she need?
What might a dancer’s daily schedule look like?
What do you think would be exciting about this kind of work? What would be challenging?
What questions would you ask Mr. Whiteside about his routine if you could?
Vocabulary
The article includes vocabulary that you might be unfamiliar with. Look at the list below and see how many words you can define and use in a sentence.
Note: You will also encounter some vocabulary related to ballet and classical music, such as pointe shoe, tutu, adagio, pirouette and fondu. You can find the meaning of those words in the American Ballet Theater’s dictionary.
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, also available as a PDF, then answer the following questions:
1. How does Mr. Whiteside define his personal style? How would you describe yours?
2. When did Mr. Whiteside begins his training as a dancer?
3. What are the elements of a dance class at American Ballet Theater?
4. What does Mr. Whiteside mean when he says “his life is his body”? What does he do to take care of his body?
5. Write a numbered list that summarizes the steps in Mr. Whiteside’s day. Include at least five things he did.
6. Was there anything about Mr. Whiteside’s daily routine that surprised you?
Going Further
Option 1: Write About a Day in Your Life.
You might not be a professional dancer, but your day is still unique and special.
Look at the question 5 in the section above where you summarized Mr. Whiteside’s day. Using this same structure, write about a typical day in your life. Here are some prompts to help you structure your writing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning? How do you get ready for school?
How do you get to school? What do you do when you arrive? What classes do you have during the day?
What do you do after school? How do you wind down or relax each evening?
Option 2: Research a Day in the Life of Someone in a Career That Interests You.
You just learned about what an average day is like for a professional dancer. What is your dream job or career? What do you know about the daily responsibilities and tasks of that job?
Spend some time researching your dream job. Be sure to answer the following questions:
What does a person in this job need to know to be successful? What education, skills, talent or expertise might be necessary?
Who is someone who is successfully doing this job? Learn about three tasks that person does on daily basis.
What is one step you could take today to get closer to that career? For example, could you interview someone currently working in the field? Can you apply for an internship or take a specialized class?
Finally, share your findings with your peers by creating a slide show, one-pager or poster with facts about this job. You can make your project visually appealing by including photographs, drawings or quotes from people who are in this profession.
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
Do you ever hear a voice in your head telling you that you are no good or that says to give up what you’re doing?
In “How to Quiet Your Inner Critic,” Grant Snider, a cartoonist, author and illustrator, presents a humorous visual story about that voice and how to silence it:
Students, read the entire comic, then tell us:
Are you your own worst critic? Do you find yourself saying things like “You’re no good” or “Why bother?” when you try to do something? If so, how does it affect your daily life and efforts?
What do you think is the meaning or message of the illustrated story by Mr. Snider? What can you learn from it?
What kinds of things does your inner critic give you a hard time about? Your writing? Your athletic abilities? Your appearance?
The person in the drawing above finally yells “You’re imaginary!” to drive away her inner critic. What strategies do you use to give yourself a confidence boost?
Does your inner voice ever give you praise or encouragement? Do you have any advice for other young people about how to better appreciate their own talents and efforts?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Here is the April edition of Teenagers in The Times, a roundup of the news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com. We publish a new edition on the first Thursday of each month.
For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.
Sunisa Lee, who won the all-around gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year, is competing for Auburn in the N.C.A.A. championships. Yet the field is so tough, she finished second in the collegiate all-around.
