My students entered the art room with their usual eagerness to see what they would be learning in today's class. Little did they know they were going to be students for a new teaching method that is spreading the nation.

    I often use videos as previews and supplements (补充) to our art lessons providing students with a variety of artists showing their skills in real-life situations outside the classroom. Finding a new painting technique called glue batik(胶水蜡染),  I thought of something new I hadn't tried before!  How awesome would it be to learn a new technique together with artists? The lesson was planned, presented to the students without any introduction or set objectives. I also asked the students to watch and pause the video as often as they needed to.

    They watched as the artist explained and showed her skills, taking notes on her steps and results. After the video, they shared what they felt the artist's objectives were, her end result using art vocabulary as well as the steps they would need to know to present their own examples. Then they began creating their works using the glue batik technique.

    Surfing the Internet a couple of weeks later, I found that the teaching method I used sounded very familiar to a new movement in education called flipped teaching, which was developed by Jonathan Bergmann. He asked his students to watch video lectures at home and do exercises (homework) in class under supervision (监督). He found that grades went up and he also found time for other types of activities, which Bergmann states are more important than the videos.

    Back to my art class, the students were learning to get ideas, make predictions, and explain reasoning to their classmates. Together they compared, asked questions and made discoveries as they presented the technique.

    In Shanghai's Grand Theater, a fashionable, mainly young audience applauds enthusiastically as Guo Yong takes center stage. He holds a large bushy tree branch with leaves. Blowing on one of the leaves, he produces a sound like the singing of birds as he plays a traditional Buyi folk song. Some other musicians are also playing the traditional instruments from various ethnic groups in China.

    It's the first time such music has ever been performed in the Grand Theater. But all this is the efforts of Zhu Zheqin, a Cantonese-born singer; who has made it her mission to help preserve China's traditional ethnic music.

    Several years ago, after being appointed a United Nations Development Program ambassador, Zhu traveled through some of China's remotest regions in an attempt to document the traditional music of various minority groups. In the course other four- month trip, she recorded more than a thousand songs. But she noticed that many of the best musicians were old, and some of the music was at risk of dying out.

    "I was shocked the beauty of what I heard-it was so good," she says. "But it needed support. I hope to let people see the beauty of these things in the contemporary times."

    So Zhu decided to introduce some of the musicians to a wider audience. By doing this, she hopes to rekindle (再次点燃) the interest of the younger generation. "Young people don't like this music much; they prefer pop music and love songs. They think these songs are something their grandma sings. This kind of repackaging gives young people a new door into their heritage."

    Zhu believes China needs to look again at its own roots. "China today is basically all Western art; in our conservatories (音乐学院) Western classical music is the top," she says. "For China to really contribute to the world, we need to go on our own path. So what can represent China today?" The answer, she suggests, is to move from "made in China" to "created in China".

    You've probably visited the Tian'anmen Gatetower—the landmark building of Beijing, but you may not have heard of Kuai Xiang. Along with him, the following remarkable architects all took the center stage at their times.

    Kuai Xiang(1399—1481)

    Tian'anmen Gatetower is universally considered the brainchild of Kuai Xiang. By following in the footsteps of ancient homebuilders, he successfully presented the Emperor Judy with a grand wooden structure which has stood the test of time for almost 600 years. Visitors are also hooked on its delicate paintings.

    Ieob Ming Pei (1917-present)

    His motto is: Traditions should be sealed in glass boxes at museums. He is always struggling with innovation. Although under grilling from French conservative critics, he still planted a glass pyramid into the courtyard of the Louvre. His other works include John F. Kennedy Library, Beijing Fragrant Hill Hotel and Suzhou Museum.

    Zaha Hadid(1950-2016)

    In 2004, she became the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Nobel Prize for architecture. She used tricks to maximize available space. Her fluid-style works pioneer the concept of micro-living. The curves(曲线) of Guangzhou Opera House perfectly match the rise and fall of its surrounding buildings, forming a unique view.

    Meng Fanchao (1959-present)

    Many people dismissed the building of a mega bridge as a pipe dream, but Meng Fanchao turned this into reality by building Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. This longest cross-sea bridge, when viewed afar, looks like a dynamic dragon braving the rolling waves of Lingding Sea.

    Starbucks will stop using plastic straws from its stores globally by 2020, in a nod to the growing push for businesses to be more environmentally friendly. The Seattle-based company said on Monday it will instead use straws made from other materials, and lids designed not to need straws. McDonald's also recently said it would switch to paper straws in the UK and Ireland by next year, and test alternatives to plastic straws in some US locations. In February, Dunkin' Donuts said that it would refuse polystyrene foam (塑料泡沫) cups from its stores by 2020.

    Environmental activists have been pressuring businesses to ditch plastic straws because they can end up in the ocean and hurt marine life. The push gained great support after a video in 2015 showed rescuers removing a straw from a sea turtle's nose in great detail. Local governments have also been looking at the issue. Last week, Seattle's ban on single-use plastic straws and utensils in food service outlets took effect, and Starbucks says it already offers alternative straws there. Similar proposals are being considered elsewhere, including New York and San Francisco.

    While straws have become a highly-concerned issue, they make up only about 4% of the plastic trash by number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9m tons of plastic waste that hits waters each year.

    Life in the summertime is often full of pests. Like most Long Island homeowners, I want to ensure my suburban life with pest-free living. So it was with wide-eyed wonder that I greeted the smiling exterminator (灭虫者) who rang my bell.

    “We'll be serving your neighbors, Mike and Sarah (I'm not familiar with either one by name),” he waved in the other direction. “Since we'll have a team here tomorrow, we're offering a discount.” He came out with numbers beginning from $299 then in seconds to $89.

    “You've probably been seeing the ant hills around.” he moved toward my front walkway and lawn. “And have you seen the bees that dig nests in the ground?” he continued with his head shaking up and down pushing me to do the same.

    “What we do is spray three feet out from your foundation and three feet up.” As he was talking, and without breaking eye contact, he opened his iPad cover and began operating at the screen to show me frightening images. “It also kills other pests, like spiders. It is the best pesticide (杀虫剂),” he said, pausing for effect.

    He then went into soft talk to close the deal, correctly foreseeing that I would be concerned about safety and the environmental impact on my vegetable garden, plants and our little patch of planet here on Long Island. “The products are environmentally responsible, safe with children and pets,” he said.

    I'm unkind when it comes to unwanted visitors entering on my out-of-doors moments. Any insect found in my house or on my deck is bound to be poisoned or pancaked.

    Unfortunately for the exterminator, just as I was considering making an appointment, Billy, my fearless husband, pulled into our driveway, which made me ask for a business card out of politeness instead.

    Visit Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music and the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Forty -day bus tour starts from Pittsburgh.

    Departures August 23, September 13, September 27, October 11, October 25.

$185 per person based on double occupancy. Includes private motor coach from Pittsburgh, hotel rooms, reserved tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. Country Festival Friday and Saturday nights, sightseeing tour of Nashville, admissions to places of interest.

    For information, free booklets, and reservations, call 4212 — 6060. Travel and Tours, 2245 Market Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219. 14-day advanced booking required. Visa and Master Card payment welcome.