Absence   

    If a student is absent, parents are asked to contact the school and report that absence. Simply ring the school and you will be directed to the absence phone system. You should then give the name of the student and their tutor teacher.

Attendance

    School hours are 08:35 to 15:00. If a student is late, they must sign in at the Student Office.

    School times are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

08:35 - 09:35  Period 1

09:35 - 10:35  Period 2

10:35 - 10:50  Tutor Time

10:50 - 11:10  Interval

11:10 - 12:05  Period 3

12:05 - 13:00  Period 4

13:00 - 13.45  Lunch

13:45 - 14:05  School-wide reading

14:05 - 15:00  Period 5

Wednesday Only

09:00 - 09:55  Period 1

09:55 - 10:50  Period 2

Rest of the times are the same as for the other days.

Cellphones

    The current cell phone policy is that, although permitted at school, they must not be used or turned on during class time.

    In my living room, there is a plaque (匾) that advises me to “Bloom (开花) where you are planted.” It reminds me of Dorothy. I got to know Dorothy in the early 1980s, when I was teaching Early Childhood Development through a program with Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. The job responsibilities required occasional visits to the classroom of each teacher in the program. Dorothy stands out in my memory as one who “bloomed” in her remote area.

    Dorothy taught in a school In Harlan County, Kentucky, Appalachian Mountain area. To get to her school from the town of Harlan, I followed a road winding around the mountain. In the eight-mile journey, I crossed the same railroad track five times, giving the possibility of getting caught by the same train five times. Rather than feeling excited by this drive through the mountains, I found it depressing. The poverty level was shocking and the small shabby houses gave me the greatest feeling of hopelessness.

    From the moment of my arrival at the little school, all gloom (忧郁) disappeared. Upon arriving at Dorothy's classroom. I was greeted with smiling faces and treated like a queen. The children had been prepared to show me their latest projects. Dorothy told me with a big smile that they were serving poke greens salad and cornbread for “dinner” (lunch). In case you don't know, poke greens are a weed-type plant that grows wild, especially on poor ground.

    Dorothy never ran out of reports of exciting activities of her students. Her enthusiasm never cooled down. When it came time to sit for the testing and interviewing required to receive her Child Development Associate Certification, Dorothy was ready. She came to the assessment and passed in all areas. Afterward, she invited me to the one-and-only steak house in the area to celebrate her victory, as if she had received her Ph. D. degree. After the meal, she placed a little box containing an old pen in my hand. She said it was a family heirloom (传家宝), but to me it is a treasured symbol of appreciation and pride that cannot be matched with things.  (360 words)

    Do you have trouble trying to create the next big idea? Sometimes the answer isn't to just force an idea out of your mind. Instead, you might want to try sitting back, relaxing and letting your mind wander. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you are in need of a new idea, try daydreaming.

    Researchers from the university of California, Santa Barbara, found an association between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study includes having participants first do an "unusual-use task". They had to try to come up with as many different ways to use an object as they could.

    Then, the participants chose to do one of the following four things before doing the "unusual-use task" again: complete a difficult task; complete an easy task; take a 12-minute break; or skip the 12-minute break and move right on to the task exercise again.

    Surprisingly, the group that performed best was the one that completed the easy task. Many participants reported that they were daydreaming while performing the easy task. So the researchers believed that this daydreaming might have helped unlock their creativity.

    But how could daydreaming help the brain come up with creative ways? The answer is something known as "unconscious thought". Even when you are not actively working to solve a problem, it is still in the back of your mind. Your brain is still thinking about the problem, but in a much more subtle (不易察觉的) way.

    When you daydream, your mind is allowed to think in ways it normally would not. Because it is free of control, it can create completely new and out-of-the-box ideas.

    Great ideas never come easily, but that does not mean you always have to work hard to get them. Feel free to do what you want and let your mind wander.

    Who is smarter? A human being or artificial intelligence?

The question swept the world last week when a Google-developed program called AlphaGo defeated the world top player, South Korean Lee Se-dol, 4-1.

    So, what comes next?

    Some people have been arguing that artificial intelligence, or AI in short, will be a bad thing for humans. In an interview with the BBC in 2014, UK scientist Stephen Hawking warned that “The development of full artificial intelligence could mean the end of the human race.”

    So are we really about to live in the world shown in the Terminator movies?

    “Not quite,” answered The Economist. After all, it's not hard to get a computer program to remember and produce facts. What is hard is getting computers to use their knowledge in everyday situations.

    “We think that, for the human being, things like sight and balance(视觉平衡), are natural and ordinary in our life.” Thomas Edison, founder of Motion Figures, a company that is bringing AI to boys, told the newspaper. “But for a robot, to walk up and down just like human beings requires various decisions to be made every second, and it's really difficult to do.”

    As The Economist put it, “We have a long way to go before AI can truly begin to be similar to the human brain, even though the technology can be great.”

    Meanwhile, John Mark off of The New York Times said that researchers should build artificial intelligence to make people more effective.

    “Our fate is in our own hands,” he wrote. “Since technology depends on the values of its creators, we can make human choices that use technology to improve the world.”

Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits (翼装) to fly for many years. However, the pull of gravity makes it impossible to speed up or fly higher. To push past the limitations, Peter Salzmann teamed up with German car maker BMW. The result is an electrified wingsuit, which allows flyers to rise to higher altitudes at the speed of up to 186 miles per hour!

The 33-year-old professional wingsuit pilot first thought of creating the design in 2017, "At the time, I was developing suits for skydiving with a friend," he explains. "One evening after a day of testing, we threw out lots of ideas about how we could improve performance. One of them was a supporting motor-and it's an idea I just couldn't shake off. I found the idea of being able to jump from my local mountain wearing the wingsuit and land in my garden exciting."

To help with the process, Salzmann reached out to the experts at BMW's Designworks Studio. It took the team three years and multiple test jumps to perfect the design. The result is an updated version of wingsuit with two 5-inch propellers (螺旋桨), Powered by a battery, the propellers can be controlled using an on/off switch and even stopped mid-flight using the emergency button, if the flyer encounters an airplane or a flock of birds.

On November 6, 2020, Salzmann, wearing his hi-tech suit, leaped from a helicopter from an altitude of 10,000 feet to soar around the mountain peaks. The expert pilot fired up the electric motors and rocketed forward, gliding above four mountain peaks. The task completed, the pilot opened his parachute (降落伞) and gently landed.

It is unclear if Salzmann and BMW plan to make the electrified wingsuits available to the general public. But, one can always hope!

About Byron

Whether you're in Byron for fun or work, there are plenty of things to do to fill your spare time.

Byron, Georgia makes travel sweeter with its slower pace and breathtaking attractions. It's full of historic sites, museums, shopping malls, and more. In this city at the center of Georgia's peach industry, you can take a vacation that leaves you rested, not annoyed.

Events

Georgia Peach Festival-June 

Fall Market Days-September 

Georgia National Fair-October

Byron Christmas Parade-December

Local attractions

Byron Welcome Center

Located in the Peach Shops, the Byron Welcome Center is your first stop in our area. The Byron Welcome Center is ready to help you make the most of your stay in Byron, Georgia. 

North Peach Park

North Peach Park is the place for traditional festivals, movies in the park, and many other events. The park has picnic shelters, playgrounds, football fields and soccer fields all year round. North Peach Park also has an indoor, climate-controlled multi-purpose room. 

The Big Peach Shopping Mall

One of Georgia's major shopping malls, and Central Georgia's biggest and best variety of goods, the Big Peach has something for everyone! Open seven days a week and located directly off I-75, the Big Peach is Central Georgia's favorite shopping destination.

Party Playground Indoor Fun Center

Let the kids work out some energy with an hour or two at the Party Playground Indoor Fun Center. This room full of safe and soft play equipment will let your little ones run, jump and play, rain or shine. It's also a great place to have a birthday party.

Contact us

For more information, contact us at (478) 956-2409 

Email: byronwelcomecenter@gmail. com