Fights at school sometimes happen. But how can you keep away from a fight? Here’s something you can do.

Be calm (冷静). Sometimes, you feel so angry that you really want to teach somebody a lesson. But being angry can’t solve problems. Neither can a fight. Instead, it may bring you more problems. In the school, everyone involved (卷入) in a fight will be punished, no matter who started it. There are winners in a fight.

Shout loudly. If you know someone is coming up behind you to attack, turn toward the person with your hands up in front of your body and loudly say “stop” before walking away. Loud voice can usually make the attacker calm down. If the person doesn’t stop, cry for help by calling out the name of a teacher whose office is nearby.

          .Your friend may ask you to join in a fight. Learn to say no. Helping him fight is not really helpful to him. If you really want to give him a hand, try to ask him to give it up. Also, you can tell him if he gets involved in a fight, he may get hurt and be punished. Then, try to learn why he wants a fight and help him find a right way to deal with the problem.

It’s time to go back to high school. Students are excited about the new beginning. But for many kids, the first day is more about friends than classes, and maybe with good reason. On that day, the teacher takes attendance (考勤), hands out books, and describes the teaching plan. If a student hears the same things in seven classes, you can’t blame (责备) them for thinking it’s going to be another long year. When the high schoolers’ parents ask what they did in school, it’s pretty likely that the answer will be “Nothing.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. Kids always want exciting changes, and you can give them a taste of how interesting your course will be. One English teacher asks students to write 77 words about what they want to get out of her class. Then she reads their responses (回答) out aloud. She keeps the responses until the last day of the school year when she hands them back to students so they can see if they achieved what they wanted. After encouraging kids with a year-long game, she begins the English course.

On the first day of science, a teacher gives students 30 minutes to build something to improve people’s lives. A history teacher organizes a debate on whether Swiss cheese is better than cheddar. In math class, another teacher puts students in groups of three, and gives them six minutes to come up with as many answers as possible to the question, “What is math good for?”

The new class activities are part of our school wide movement to improve the first day of classes. Many teachers choose to use creative ways to encourage kids from day one. And all students seem to enjoy the changes. Quite a few parents told me that their kids said, “I think English (or math or biology or Spanish) is going to be great!”

Walk Out of the Comfort Zone and Try New Things

For most high school students, free periods (课，节) are useless. From what I have seen, few do homework. 【小题1】. This makes it impossible for those who actually want to do work to complete any. As a senior next year, I think extra periods should be used to take optional subjects.

【小题2】. Now is the time for us students to choose a suitable one. We will experiment in different fields of study. We will never know if we are interested or talented in a subject if we don’t try it.

In my 8th grade, I was told that I had to take an art class as a graduation requirement; so in the 9th grade I took Studio and Art. One of the projects was to build a clay pot, but I built mine incorrectly, so it broke in the kiln (窑). 【小题3】. Now I know for sure that I do not want to be an artist. However, the class was one of my favorites that year. I was able to try new activities and test my ability.

【小题4】! College is when we should focus on a specific major, but high school is when we have to figure it out.

Half of all college students change their major at some point. By doing that hundreds of dollars are wasted on classes that they would have never needed to take. So use our extra periods to find out what we want to do in college. 【小题5】.