I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career.

    I wasn't an excellent student because I didn't do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn't have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn't the type to have a career.

    I then found myself a job — looking after two little girls. It wasn't too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she'd give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn't often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early mornings with the children.

    One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification（资格证书）if I wanted to work with children. I didn't think I would be accepted because I didn't take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a part-time course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten.

    Now I've got a full-time job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren't top of the class at school.

    Doing homework not only can help children master the knowledge they have learned, but also can train their abilities of finishing the work alone, planning the time and doing the duties. But some children don't like to complete the work. Why? There are some reasons.

    Some children feel it is very difficult to do their homework, because they can't understand their teacher clearly, and can't follow their teacher's teaching process. Maybe there is something wrong with their intelligence.

    But some children's intelligence is normal. They are even cleverer, but they don't listen to the teacher carefully. It is hard for them to sit well and pay attention to anything. It needs to carry on the attention centralized（集中注意力）training to help the children.

    Some children love their teacher and then they like the subject. Their interest depends on the teacher who teaches them. So every teacher should be helpful and kind. It can make children love you and the subject you teach. So they can do their homework happily.

    Going green seems to be fad(时尚)for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can't really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.

    On April 22,2011,we decided to be green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond the easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different things to do and this was no easy task.

    With the idea of going green every single day a year, Our Green Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.

    Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyles. We now shop at organic(有机的) stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don't need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.

    Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planets.

    2018 FIRST Robotics Competition Game—FIRST POWER UPSM

    The adventure begins on January 6, 2018. Play for real! Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors(严酷)of science and technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you'll ever have”.

    Team Basics

    The really cool thing about FIRST Robotics Competition is that all skill levels are welcomed and needed, technical or non-technical. Read more about team basics, time frame, commitment, and skills required.

    Cost & Registration

    What does it cost to participate? There are costs involved with forming a FIRST Robotics Competition team and they can vary from team to team and region to region depending on what level of participation the team chooses.

Here are some basic cost standards:

    There are never any “per student” fees; all costs for individual team members are assumed by the team as a group.

    The annual fees for team registration, a robot kit of parts, and event participation are $5,000—$6,000. Additional costs for travel, food, team shirts and other optional items will vary.

    Scholarships

    A big advantage of participating in FIRST is gaining access to millions in college scholarships made available by colleges, universities, and corporations who support FIRST. This is exclusive financial help open only to FIRST team members, giving them a competitive leg up on other students seeking educational funds.

How to Be a Winner

    Sir Steven Redgrave

    Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals

    "In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes(糖尿病). Believing my career was over, I felt extremely low. Then one of the specialists said there was no reason why I should stop training and competing. That was it -- the encouragement I needed. I could still be a winner if I believed in myself. I am not saying that it isn't difficult sometimes. But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't finished yet. Nothing is to stand in my way."

    Karen Pickering

    Swimming World Champion

"I swim 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I manage that sort of workload by putting it on top of my diary. This is the key to success—you can't follow a career in any field without being well-organized. List what you believe you can achieve. Trust yourself, write down your goals for the day, however small they are, and you'll be a step closer to achieving them."

    Kirsten Best

    Poet & Writer

    "When things are getting hard, a voice inside my head tells me that I can't achieve something. Then, there are other distractions, such as family or hobbies. The key is to concentrate. When I feel tense, it helps a lot to repeat words such as 'calm', 'peace' or 'focus', either out loud or silently in my mind. It makes me feel more in control and increases my confidence. This is a habit that can become second nature quite easily and is a powerful psychological tool"

    An unconventional new initiative(首创)in Canada will soon allow doctors to prescribe art to their patients—by giving them free access to a local museum. Wandering through the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts(MMFA), these patients and their loved ones will be able to feast their eyes on the peaceful collections of art.

    The initiative is the first of its kind in the world. And while you certainly can't replace a conventional treatment with a couple of paintings, the idea is for such “prescriptions” to assist a person's current treatment plan. Under the new program, members of the Francophone Association of Doctors in Canada(MFDC)will be able to hand out up to 50 prescriptions for their patients.

    These prescriptions will be available for those with a wide range of mental and physical illnesses, and each of them will allow two adults and two children to visit the museum for free.

    “By offering free admission to a safe, welcoming place, a relaxing experience, a moment of relief, and an opportunity to strengthen ties with loved ones, MMFA—MFDC Museum Prescriptions contribute to the patient's well-being and recovery, ”explains a news conference from the MMFA.

    It may look a lot like a marketing effort for the museum but there's also increasing evidence that the display of visual art, especially if it's showing nature, can have positive effects on health outcomes.

    In some ways, the benefits of looking at art appear a little similar to physical activity. A systematic review of clinical art therapy(疗法) found that visual art has significant and positive effects on depression, anxiety, mood, and self-esteem. Findings like these are slowly gaining attraction in the medical community, making artwork a higher priority(优先)in hospitals around the world.

    In the US, nearly half of all health care institutions have reported including art in health care programming, such as art therapy and the placement of visual art in hospitals. With spaces dedicated(专用的)to art therapy and also a medical consultation room, the MMFA already provides services for people with mental health issues, eating disorders, and Alzheimer's disease, just to name a few.