Make a difference at school

Besides being a great place to learn, school offers a great opportunity to make friends, try new things, and give back to others. The beginning of a school year is a good time for you to take advantage of opportunities and activities that your school offers. 【小题1】. Here’s how to get started.

Reach out

Try to be more involved in activities, clubs, and teams. All of these help you meet more people, including teachers and staff, who can give you an idea of the needs the school might have. 【小题2】. Ask if you can attend meetings to share ideas and listen to what others want to change at school.

【小题3】

Your school may have a variety of clubs — from robotics to anime. If you have an interest that’s not covered by a current school club, you could consider forming your own. Many schools have a standard process for approving clubs, which may include asking a teacher to advise the club, and finding a place and time to meet.

Identify a need and take action

Think about what makes you feel happy at school. Maybe you enjoy having lunch or playing soccer during break. Now think about ways those could be even better. You might wish there were more food options or more balls to play. Once you have your idea, talk to a staff to see if students could help. 【小题4】.

Be kind

【小题5】. However, you can help create a positive atmosphere at school by being kind and respectful to others. This includes respecting a teacher’s rules, saying thank you when a student helps you, cleaning up any mess you make, and saying hello to others in the hallway. Attitude is infectious!

Housing officials say that lately they are noticing something different: 【小题1】 “We have students who are mad at each other and they text each other in the same room,” says a teacher, “So many of our roommate conflicts are because kids don't know how to negotiate a problem.”

And as any pop psychologist will tell you, bottled emotions lead to silent seething(不满）that can boil over into frustration and anger. At the University of Florida, emotional out-bursts occur about once a week, the university's director of housing and residence education says, “It used to be: “Let's sit down and talk about it, '” he says. “Over the past five years, roommate conflicts have sharpened. The students don't have the person-to-person discussions and they don't know how to handle them. ” 【小题2】 And housing professionals say they see improvement as some students move toward graduation, but 【小题3】 because they never seem to understand.

【小题4】 Why express anger in person when you can release in a text? Facebook creates even more friction as complaints go public. “Things are posted on someone's wall on Face-book: 'Oh, my roommate kept me up all night studying,'” says Dana Pysz, an assistant director in the office of residential life at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It's a different way to express their conflict to each other. " In recent focus groups at North Carolina State University, dorm residents said they would not even confront noisy neighbors on their floor.

Administrators point to parents who have fixed their children's problems in their entire lives.Now in college, the children lack the skills to attend to even modest conflicts. 【小题5】

My problems started after I went to a boarding school. I was only 14, and at first I missed my family a lot. I often called them and cried on the phone. But after two weeks, I found I enjoyed being with my classmates at school.

I had many friends who were boys. I thought of them as my best friends—but only friends. I never guessed my friendships with boys would become a problem.

Then, three months later, my friends told me that some teachers and girls said I was hanging out with boys all day long in order to get attention from them. Seven months after that, the head teacher Mr. Wang asked the class to choose some students to join the Student Union. I thought I could win for I was doing well in school. I’d already won prizes for the best math and English exams. A week later, the list came out and it didn’t include me. I was sad.

Mr. Wang came to me and said, “Don’t be sad. I know you’re excellent! Maybe you’re a little distant from the girls in our class. They don’t know much about you, so some of them didn’t choose you. It doesn’t matter. Do your best to get along well with everyone and I think you’ll make it next time.”