The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.

    For thousands of years, we have looked for ways to measure time. Early humans found that the regular movements of the sun, the earth> the moon, and the stars made good ways to measure time. The rising and setting of the sun were used to distinguish (辨别) day from night.

    But, eventually, people needed to tell time more accurately, or exactly. So, by using the sun's position in the sky, they divided the day into dawn, morning, midday and evening.

    Then it was noted that the sun cast a changing shadow as it moved across the sky. Time could be told more accurately by setting up a stick and marking the positions of the sun's shadow. It was the ancient Greeks who divided each position of this “sundial (日晷)” into hours.

    But the sun doesn't always shine. So, for the past 6,000 years, many other ways of keeping time have been tried. Slow-burning candles were divided into hours, and the hourglass was invented. When all the sand in the top of an hourglass has shifted to the bottom, an hour has passed.

    Later, the pendulum (摆钟), with its regular back-and-forth movement of weights, was used to move the hands on a clock. Pendulums are still used in grandfather clocks.

    Today, even more accurate clocks are in use, such as battery-operated quartz clocks (石英钟), digital clocks, and clocks run by electrical tuning forks and tiny atoms. These atomic clocks are the most accurate clocks ever invented. The exact time can be kept to within 1 second a century.

    Long before they can actually speak, babies pay special attention to the speech they hear around them. Within the first month of their lives, babies' responses to the sound of the human voice will be different from their responses to other sorts of hearing stimulation. They will stop crying when they hear a person talking, but not if they hear a bell or the sound of a rattle. At first, the sounds that a baby notices might be only those words that receive the heaviest emphasis and that often occur at the ends of utterances(讲话，说话). By the time they are six or seven weeks old, babies can detect the difference between syllables pronounced with rising and falling tones. Very soon, these differences in adult stress and intonation can influence babies' emotional states and behavior. Long before they develop actual language comprehension, babies can sense when an adult is happy or angry, attempting to begin or end new behavior, and so on, merely on the basis of clues such as the rate, volume, and melody of adult speech.

    Adults make it as easy as they can for babies to pick up a language by exaggerating(夸张) such clues. One researcher observed babies and their mothers in six diverse cultures and found that, in all six languages, the mothers used simplified utterances and nonsense sounds, and transformed certain sounds into baby talk. Other researchers have noted that when mothers talk to babies who are only a few months old, they exaggerate the pitch, loudness, and intensity of their words. They also exaggerate their facial expressions, hold vowels(元音) longer, and emphasize certain words.

    More significant for language development than their response to general intonation is observation that tiny babies can make relatively fine distinctions between speech sounds. In other words, babies enter the world with the ability to make those precisely perceptual（知觉的，感性的） recognition that are necessary if they are to acquire listening language.

    Babies obviously obtain pleasure from sound input, too: even as young as nine months they will listen to songs or stories, although the words themselves are beyond their understanding. For babies, language is a sensory-motor delight rather than the route to boring meaning that it often is for adults.

    We are looking for a full-time nanny to help care for our young children. This position is suitable for people with 3 years or less teaching experience that are looking for a new direction or a break from teaching. It is also suitable for school leavers.
    Responsibilities will include:

    Helping us take care of our young children

    Handling small projects and light housework as needed

    Please apply by sending your resume(简历) to prudolph@architects.com.

    Pre Kindergarten(幼儿园) Teachers

    Are you energetic and believe that children learn best through play-based activities? We do, too. At Montgomery Child Care Association, we try hard to provide the best early care and education for children. Our salary(薪水) and benefits package is one of the best in the industry. An AA (a two-year college degree in the US) or higher in Early Childhood Education plus previous experience with children in a child care setting is preferred.

    Consider a career with us! E-mail: resumes@mccaedu.org.

    Learning Center Instructor

    School on Wheels is a non-profit(非盈利的) organization to support the educational needs of homeless children. We are now searching for an experienced teacher to instruct children during the after-school program at our Downtown Los Angeles Learning Center.

    You should have 3 + years teaching experience and excellent communication skills. Knowledge of the Spanish language is required.

    Please apply by e-mailing your resume to administration@schoolonwheels.org.

    Special Education Teacher

    An exciting teaching opportunity is offered by De LaSalle Academy, a non-profit school for 96 students with special learning needs. De LaSalle Academy has very high expectations for teacher performance, particularly in the areas of teacher-student-parent relationship, classroom management, high level of understanding of disabilities of the student and the ability to recognize student needs.

    If you are 25-35 and have experience in special education, you could be the person we are looking for.

    Please e-mail to imoreau@delasallefm.org.

    The introduction of the iPad, with its touch screen technology, has allowed even very young children to take advantage of a computer. So what if all children in a school were given an iPad to use in class and take home with them?

    Anne Laure Bazin works in a school where every child, teacher and teaching assistant is given a free iPad to use in and out of lessons. For her, the main advantage of everyone having an iPad had been the improvement in communication. Documents can be emailed straight over to workmates during a meeting. Children submit their homework by email, or through the school's learning environment. Teachers now take the register (点名) using their iPad, which means that there is a record of which children are in school, and which classroom they are in.

    The use of iPad has encouraged greater sharing of resources among teacher. All communication with parents is now done by email. Working as a group in class is much easier as children can share documents. The whole class can look at one child's work by attaching (连接) the iPad to the whiteboard. If a child has forgotten the textbook, the teacher can take a photograph of the relevant (相关的) page and send it to the student in class.

    While the use of the iPad in schools has revolutionized (变革) the way children are taught, it hasn't completely replaced more traditional methods of teaching. Worksheets are still used in class as some children prefer the contact with paper. The children all have a textbook and exercise books. In Anne Laure's school, parents feared that the iPads would replace exercise books and children would lose handwriting skills. Anne Laure says, "The teacher are not ready to let go of the traditional style of teaching. We have welcomed the iPads in so much as they help communication and widen the resources available but we are not ready to let go of paper yet. The children themselves still value their exercise books and depend on them for review."

    Teen Art Show

    Do you want to see your artwork displayed alongside other teens' artwork? Don't miss your opportunity! Showcase your paintings, sculptures, photographs and other artworks at the Environmental Educational Center. The show will provide an opportunity for artists to network, provide feedback and become a resource for others.

    Activity fee: $25

    Night Fishing

    Escape the night and join us as we fish at Desert Breeze Park. No experience needed. We will provide the fishing poles, transportation, the bait, help you catch a fish and best of all, teens 14 years and under do not require a license to fish.

    Location: Desert Breeze Park

    Activity fee: $22

    Overnight Snow Trip

    Join the City of Chandler in an exciting new trip! We will travel up to Camp Tontozona and enjoy great food and a campfire in the early evening. Snow play will be the highlight as we explore the snow-filled meadows(草地) of Woods Canyon Lake and sled down small hills in the area. You will be responsible for your own ski/snowboard equipment.

    Location: Camp Tontozona

    Activity fee: $30

    Paintballing

    Come out and play paintball with all your friends! Join the City of Chandler as we go to Tempe Indoor Paintball. This is a great way to join in the fun of playing paintball for a low, low cost. All equipment is included. Please wear old clothes because clothes can get dirty easily!

    Location: Tempe Paintball

    Activity fee: $28