I was going through my son Matthew's backpack when I saw an envelope in the bottom of it. Immediately, I knew it was a “thank you” card from one of his 1. Totally not necessary since my Christmas gifts to them are my way of saying, “Thank you”. I2I read it quickly. And then I stopped.

    I 3 the card and read it again. One word caught my attention. “I love working with our Matthew.” One word. Our. That one word 4 the meaning of the sentence for me. If she had written “I love working with Matthew”, I would know that she loves working with my son5 by adding that one word, “our”, it meant “I love working with this boy who 6 here, is accepted here and we all take responsibility for caring for.”

I 7 knew this, of course, seeing a blog I wrote previously, but it's always good to be8. In that blog post I mentioned ten reasons why his 9 is the right place for him. Since that blog we have had his IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting, where I was 10 of that feeling again. In that meeting, someone 11 “Everyone loves Matthew. We all love Matthew”. And it was genuine and12. As we went around the room and the staff 13 us on information about Matthew, it was apparent that it went way beyond sharing what he is doing 14and behaviorally. Each person had a unique little 15 to tell about Matthew. Stories that show that they really know who Matthew is and that they 16 him.

    In fact just today I had written a note in his communication book that it was 17 Matthew to see new snow and not be able to play in it. Later in the day I got an email and a picture of Matthew 18 with snow in a big container inside the school.

As I was reflecting on this, I realized that as a family we are really lucky 19 school isn't the only place where they think of him as “our Matthew”. It 20 to other parts of our lives as well — our friends, our family, our neighborhood, and our church.

    Singing or listening to music during math class is usually not accepted. However, in Kurt's classroom, it's not the1 . Kurt is a math teacher in a high school. This former hip-hop artist is using his 2 background to make math a lot easier and less 3 for his students.

    As a child, he had difficulty 4 math. However, as he grew older, he realized that it wasn't completely his 5 and that the traditional education system just doesn't work for all the students. So he decided to come up with a new 6 which would make kids more interested in school. Finally a good idea 7 him.

    With the help of some friends, Kurt 8 60-second math tracks（跑道）. They are given a(an) 9 name, like “Van Guard” and she 10 multiplication tables（乘法表）to hip-hop beats. He also encourages dancing during class, 11 it helps the children get into the mood（情绪）and 12 them in their learning. So far, Kurt has only invented musical materials for the multiplications, but the13 have been so positive that he is now working on new learning materials.

    Even since Kurt 14 hip-hop into the classroom, he has had 15 trouble during class. And attendance（出勤率）is always at 100% and the students' grades have gone up greatly. What's more, the kids 16 love learning math now.

    Kurt wants to 17 the traditional way of teaching, but he's not saying that it doesn't work. It just doesn't work for 18, because not all students learn in the same way. He only 19 to show that we need to keep a(an) open mind when it 20 children's education.

    During the war, my husband was stationed at an army camp in a desert in California. I went to live there in order to be 1 him. I hated the place. I had never 2 been so unhappy. My husband was ordered out on a long-term duty, and I was left in a tiny shack(棚屋) alone. The heat was 3 — almost 125°F even in the shade of a cactus(仙人掌). 4 a soul to talk to. The wind blew non-stop, and all the food I ate, and the very air I breathed, were 5 with sand, sand, sand!

    I was so sorry for myself that I wrote to my parents. I told them I was 6 and coming back home. I said I couldn't stand it one minute longer. I 7 be in prison! My father answered my 8 with just two lines — two lines that will always sing in my 9— two lines that completely changed my life:

Two men looked out from prison bars,

One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.

    I read those two lines 10. I was ashamed of myself. I made up my mind I would find out what was good in my present 11； I would look for the stars.

    I made friends with the natives, and their 12 amazed me. They gave me presents of their favorite artworks which they had 13 to sell to tourists. I studied the delightful forms of the cactus. I watched for the desert sunsets, and 14 for seashells that had been left there millions of years ago when the sands of the desert had been an ocean 15.

    What brought about this 16 change in me? The desert hadn't changed, 17 I had. I had changed my 18. And by doing so, I changed an unhappy experience into the most amazing 19 of my life. I was excited by this new world that I had discovered.  I had looked out of my self-created prison and 20 the stars.

    Growing up in Georgia in the 1970s, I always felt that the bad old day of Southern prejudice (偏见) and ignorance had passed and that we were1a new South built upon hard-won racial equality, charity and the sense that no one was 2 than anyone else.

    I'm not so3anymore. Lately, I feel like our moral compass has been4, spinning to intolerance, greed and meanness.

    In times of 5, I put my faith in Elvis Presley, who6the South's better angles. He was a hard worker, and 7 he lived the high life, he never forgot that he had been born into 8. I don't think you'll 9hear an interview with the man when he didn't express 10for all that life had given him.

    And he was a self-made talent, perhaps the11entertainer of all time, born in a two-room shack(棚屋) in Tupelo, Mississippi. I've been there many times, reflecting on what it says about America .Greatness can be born12.

Elvis was famous for his generosity—13cars, expensive gifts and other handouts to anyone in need. That's how the Presleys14 the Great Depression(1929-1933). His father Vernon was a laborer who was often out of15, and the Presleys relied on the kindness of family and neighbors to get them 16 the hard time.

    Today's politicians please the crowds with messages that praise the rich and powerful and think of the poor as 17 their fate18, the crowds believe that their problems could be solved if only the poor people below them didn't 19 so much. To blame an immigrant (移民)for “ 20 ” a job, instead of the CEO who won't pay a living wage.

    Yet, I still believe, as Elvis once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it can't go in a way”.

When I was a kid, my family didn't live a rich life. As a result, we couldn't 1 to eat out in a restaurant. My mother 2 cooked in the evening after she returned home from work.

One day, my mother had a very3 day in the office and was exhausted. After work, she went into the kitchen and started preparing supper for us. When she was frying some eggs, she 4 to concentrate on her cooking and the eggs burned. She wanted to throw them away, but eggs were 5 for a family like mine back then. So she placed them in a plate and6to eat them herself.

After the eggs were put on the table, my father looked at them for a while. But he said 7. He just smiled at my mom and then asked me how my 8 was at school. Then he started eating the eggs. He finished them 9 so that my mother and I wouldn't have to eat them.

Later that night, I heard my mom 10 to my dad for burning the eggs. And I'll never 11 what he said, "Honey, I love burned eggs."

The next day, I asked Dad 12 he really liked burned eggs. He held me in his arms and said, "Your mom had a 13 day at work yesterday and she was really tired. I didn't want to 14 her. Besides, a little bit burned egg won't hurt anyone."

My father was a very 15 man, and I learned to be such a man from him.

Earlier this year Rodney Smith Jr. made headlines when he drove eight hours from his home in Huntsville. Alabama, to cut the lawn for an elderly soldier in North Carolina who couldn't find anyone to help him with his yard work.

That wasn't the first time the twenty-nine-year-old Bermuda native had gained such attention. To do his good deeds, Rodney often finds leads for those in need through social media.

Back to one August afternoon in 2015, Rodney Smith Jr. was driving home. That's when Rodney saw an elderly man struggling to mow his lawn. He would take a couple of shaky steps, using the handle to stabilize himself, pause, then slowly push the mower again. Rodney decided to help. Mr. Brown thanked him greatly, and Rodney went home feeling satisfied.

Sitting at his computer to do his homework, Rodney couldn't get Mr. Brown out of his mind. There must be many Mr. Browns out there. He went online and posted that he would mow lawns for free for senior citizens. Messages flooded in.

One day a cancer-battling woman said she wasn't having a good day. Rodney decided to do more than mowing lawns. After he finished mowing, he knocked on her door. "You're going to win this fight, Madam", he said. Then he asked folks to pray for her on social media.

Word of Rodney's mission spread. A grandmother in Ohio said he'd encouraged her 12-year-old grandson to mow lawns. He got a letter from a seven-year-old boy in Kansas. "Mr. Rodney, I would like to be a part of your program, and I'll make you proud," he wrote.

That gave Rodney an idea. In 2017, he decided to establish a programme Raising Men Lawn Care Service to make a national movement for young people. The kids learn the joy of giving back.

Yard work seems like a small, simple thing, but taking care of the lawn means a lot to the people they do it for. "When we mow their yards for free, they can use the money for healthcare and food etc. It means more than you would think," Rodney said.