Amy Maplethorpe, a first-year speech-language teacher at Raymond Ellis Primary School, used tennis balls, a hot glue gun, Mod Podge and a bit of paint to create two chairs that help students with sensory (感官的) problems.

    According to the school's Facebook page, which became very popular, the chairs provide a “different texture (质地) to improve sensory regulation (调控).”

    Maplethorpe told ABC News that the chairs will service about 15 to 20 students. Children with sensory problems often have a hard time “dealing with sensory information”. Things, such as coats, blankets and Maplethorpe's chairs, often comfort a student.

    Maplethorpe was excited to create the chair after seeing something similar on a website, and she made some changes to the idea.

    “I wanted to continue to help students with sensory problems at Ellis and provide a different kind of seat for the students,” she continued. “I was excited that this chair could help my students.''

    The two chairs are now in the school's sensory room, which was created recently, according to headmaster, Beth Kiewicz.

    “When a child's sensory needs are met, we then can move on to their needs in study,” Kiewicz, who has led the school for six years, told ABC News.

    Maplethorpe said the chairs have already made a difference for some of her students.

    “Students have become more patient, and have followed directions, while waiting for activities,” she said.

    Stained glass (彩色玻璃) artists create different designs by making cuts on the glass to “score” it and then breaking off the pattern that they want to use in the finished product. The most difficult cut in stained glass is called an inside cut. Basically, it's a curved (弯曲的) line where you throw away the part inside of the curve. The problem with inside cuts is that the edges of the curve tend to break off when the pieces of scored glass are broken apart.

    As the artist talked about inside cuts, he said, “The glass will break into pieces if you try to cut too much off at once. The best way to do an inside cut is to slice off smaller curves piece-by-piece. In fact, it's not just the best way to do it, but it's the only way to do it.”

    How many times do you try to make a big change and cut the entire piece at once? We convince ourselves that we can do this all the time. We'll commit to transforming our diet overnight or we get inspired to launch a business in a weekend or we finally get motivated to work out and push ourselves to the edge of burning out.

    Why not approach your goals and dreams like a stained glass artist? Starting by slicing a shallow curve and breaking a small piece off, you cut a slightly deeper curve and break that off until you have your full inside cut. By slowly cutting deeper and deeper curves, you prevent the glass from breaking as it changes shape.

    Of course, change isn't easy — no matter how you do it. Slow gains are boring, but if we keep making small improvements, then pretty soon we will end up with a beautiful masterpiece on our hands instead of a bunch of broken pieces.

    We have a problem，and the strange thing is that we not only know about it, but also celebrate it. Just today, someone boasted (自夸) to me that she was so busy she's averaged four hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks. She wasn't complaining; she was proud of the fact. She is not alone.

    Why are rational (理性的) people so irrational in their behavior? The answer is that we're in the midst of a bubble (泡沫). I call it “The More Bubble”.

    The nature of bubbles is that something is overvalued until—eventually—the bubble bursts, and we're left wondering why we were so irrational in the first place. The thing we're overvaluing now is the opinion of doing it all, having it all, achieving it all.

    This bubble is being enabled by a combination of three powerful trends: smart phones, social media, and extreme consumerism (消费主义). The result is not just information overload, but opinion overload. We are more aware than at any time in history of what everyone else is doing and, therefore, what we should be doing. In the process, we have been sold a bill of goods: that success means being supermen and superwomen who can get it all done. Of course, we boasted about being busy—it's code for being successful and important.

    And our answer to the problem of more is always more. We need more technology to help us create more technologies. We need to move our workload to free up our own time to do yet even more.

    Luckily, there is a solution to asking for more: asking for less, but better. A growing number of people are making this change. I call these people Essentialists.

    These people are designing their lives around what is essential and removing everything else. These people arrange to have actual weekends (during which they are not working). They create technology-free zones in their homes. They trade time on Facebook with calling those few friends who really matter to them. Instead of running to different meetings, they put space on their plans to get important work done.

    So we have two choices: We can be among the last people caught up in “The More Bubble,” or we can join the growing community of Essentialists and get more of what matters in our one precious life.

    Supermarket shoppers who buy lots of foods on "two for one" deals are far more likely to be obese (肥胖的), a major study suggests.

    Cancer Research UK found that those with highest consumption of discounted foods were at 50 percent greater risk of obesity, compared with those with low take-up of such deals.

    The study of more than 16,000 households found almost one in three food and drink items in UK supermarket baskets were bought on promotion. And the discounts were far more likely to be applied to unhealthy foods, with almost half of all chocolate, crisps, popcorn, and savoury snacks bought on promotion.

    Shoppers whose baskets contained between 40 and 80 percent of goods on special offer were 54 percent more likely to be obese than those with a maximum 20 percent of foods on such deals. Those with highest take-up of the deals bought 30 percent less fruit, and nearly 25 percent fewer vegetables than those shunning the deals.

    The study follows a government consultation on proposals to ban "buy one, get one free" deals on unhealthy foods and supermarket "guilt lanes" as part of its childhood obesity strategy.

    One in five children are overweight or obese when they start primary school, rising to around one in three when they leave.

    Research has found that obesity increases the risk of 13 different types of cancer including bowel and breast disease.

    Alison Cox, director of cancer prevention at Cancer Research UK, said: "The government's proposed 9 p. m. ban on junk food ads is a step forward in fighting childhood obesity. Now we want to see restrictions on price promotions for unhealthy food and drink items, as well as those strategically placed at checkouts. This will help families to make healthier choices.

    "There isn't one magic fix for the problem, but getting rid of these encouragements to buy unhealthy food is key to changing it."

The term "SMART goals" was coined by in 1954. Since then, SMART goals have become popular with business managers, educators and others because they work. The late management guru Peter F. Drucker developed the concept. Drucker shaped many top managers' career. Management by objectives was one of his primary business theories.

In 2002, Drucker received the highest civilian honor in the U.S.—the Medal of Freedom. He died in 2005 at age 95. Drucker's family decided to look forward instead of backward, and they gathered distinguished business people to form The Drucker Institute.

The institute's website states ""Their work is to transform the archival (档案) treasure into a social enterprise whose purpose is to strengthen society by encouraging effective, responsible and joyful management."

If you have been to a business management class, you may likely have learned how to write goals and objectives in Drucker's way: SMART. If you haven't heard about Drucker, you are in for a treat that will help you achieve what you want and be more successful, whether you are a teacher trying to teach well, an adult learner or a person who seeks to achieve your dreams.

SMART goals are: "s" stands for specific. Make your goal or objective as specific as possible Say exactly what you want to achieve in clear, concise words. "M" stands for measurable. Include a unit of measure in your goal. Be objective rather than subjective. When will your goal be achieved?

How will you know it has been achieved? "A" stands for achievable. Ensure that your goal is feasible in terms of the resources available to you. "R" stands for realistic. Focus on the end results you desire rather than the activities necessary to get there. You want to grow personally, so reach for your goal—but be reasonable or you'll set yourself up for disappointment. "T" stands for time-bound. Give yourself a deadline within a year. Include a timeframe such as a week, month or year, and include a specific date if possible.