愛、生活、人生系列

Giving Thanks and Expressing GratitudeEach holiday season comes with high expectations for a cozy and festive time of year. However, for many, the Thanksgiving season might be tinged (著色) with sadness, anxiety, or depression. Research suggests that giving thanks and expressing our gratitude can actually lift the good and right spirits. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. In some ways, gratitude encompasses all of these meanings. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, people usually recognize that being grateful helps them connect to something larger than themselves as individuals. In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish (喜愛) good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. Furthermore, gratitude is strongly related to wellbeing (康樂). The positive effects of experiencing and expressing gratitude are endless. Gratitude has been found to be beneficially linked with social wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing, too. Gratitude appears to have a constant effect. People who are thanked are presumably more apt (易於) to extend help to others in the future. Indeed, the expression of gratitude is beneficial for both individuals and society.People feel and show gratitude in multiple ways. They can apply it to the past (retrieving positive memories and being thankful for childhood or past blessings), the present (feeling good fortune all the time), and the future (maintaining a hopeful and optimistic attitude). Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have done much of the research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics. One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. The second group wrote about daily irritations (惱怒) or things that they displeased, and the third group wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to doctors than those who focused on irritations. Other studies have looked at how being grateful can improve relationships. For example, a study is that couples who took time to express gratitude for their partner not only showed more positive toward the other person, but also felt more comfortable expressing concerns about their relationship. Managers who say “thank you” to employees would let employees get motivated to work harder. While it’s easy to feel a rush of joy after winning the lottery or receiving a big promotion at work, gratitude extends to the smaller blessings in life as well that they might be often overlooked or taken for granted. Even the smallest moments, such as a brief chat with a friend, a kind gesture from a stranger, a cool breeze on a hot day, or a peaceful stroll (散步) in nature, are things that we can be thankful for. Nevertheless, whatever our circumstances in life, oftentimes, we may find that consistently showing gratitude can be surprisingly difficult. Many of us get caught up in a negativity bias, where we linger on bad news and unpleasant experiences, but, yet allow moments of positivity to fade into the background. Fortunately, gratitude is like a muscle that we can build. With the right exercises and practice, we can find, at least, something small to appreciate in even the bleakest (陰冷的) day. In doing so, a little gratitude can do wonders for our mood. When we practice gratitude, we shift our thoughts away from negative emotions and uncomfortable sensations. Instead, we begin to focus on good things. For example, we sense that how fortunate we are to have close friends who are willing to company us and drive us home. Moreover, because gratitude can boost our mood, it’s no surprise that it can also improve our overall physical and mental health. That is, approaching life with a more positive mindset can do more than just improve our health. It can also let us have better sleep, higher self-esteem, increased patience and acts of kindness toward friends and family members.Gratitude is, in effect, a way for people to appreciate what they have, instead of thinking what they can’t feel satisfied. In other words, gratitude helps people to refocus on what they own instead of what they lack. Here are some ways we can do to cultivate gratitude on a regular basis:Write a thank-you notes or emails. It can express our enjoyment and appreciation of people who help us a lot.Thank someone mentally. It may help us to think about someone who has done something nice to us.Keep a gratitude journal. We can write down the things and thoughts about gratitude immediately every day.Count our blessings. We can count three to five good things every day to remind us of our blessings.Pray. People who are religious can use prayer to cultivate gratitude. For ordinary people, prayer is also a process of learning to trust Almighty God.Meditate. Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment without judgment. We can often practice meditation to let us have a peaceful mind.Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. We perceive that a positive attitude is not just thinking happy thoughts. It takes effort and determination to remain positive, especially in today’s world. In truth, a positive attitude is formed by the choices we make daily, and how we react to situations and others around us. When we brush off disappointment or rude comments, we maintain a positive attitude. Our attitude is also influenced by how well we ignore negative self-talk and accept our current circumstances. It is important to express thankfulness when something good happens. Being thankful is not inherently bad. On the contrary, it is part of showing appreciation to others or for our good fortune. We are really thankful when we get a new job or meet a new friend. However, where thankfulness is an emotion, gratitude is an attitude of appreciation under any circumstance. Gratitude involves being thankful, even when nothing exciting happens. That is to say, we do not need something good to happen to have gratitude, and when bad things happen, our gratitude does not falter (動搖). Gratitude is about being content physically and mentally with the state of our lives. In other words, we may not always be happy, but we can still practice gratitude. Gratitude deepens our inner connections. Thankfulness is external. When we practice gratitude, we rely on our inner voice to stay positive and remain appreciative in all circumstances. So, let’s take action to have gratitude always.Powered by Firstory Hosting

Evaluations and FeedbackFor many, the evaluations encourage readers to continue practicing and learning because when people receive thoughtful evaluations, they feel heard and become motivated to improve. Delivering an evaluation is an excellent way to practice and demonstrate our suggestions to readers. As good evaluators, we give helpful feedback to others. We take the time to work on topics and to assess the contents. Actually, the evaluators really play an influential role to provide constructive and positive comments to readers. The key to presenting a high-value evaluation is not just observing areas for improvement, but also offering specific and feasible recommendations for how readers can improve in the future. For the readers, evaluations are like formal observation, while the share personalized, detailed feedback is a way in a private follow-up conversation with the readers. Feedback plays a crucial role, too, with valuable insights for building upon readers’ strengths and improvement. Additionally, feedback fosters a supportive and encouraging environment, where readers feel empowered to take risks, and push themselves out of their comfort zones in non-public areas.In fact, teachers and students are both readers, responding authentically to the texts. Teachers always give students specific advice about what to keep on doing and what to work on doing in future pieces. Students also share their works with one another all the time through mutual discussions. Furthermore, teachers and students are both evaluators, offering sincere feedback to the pieces. For the public speaking, the effective feedback is as follows:Keep on choosing topics and developing them deeplyKeep on using strong imagination to create good storiesWork on organizing the ideas into smooth and logical paragraphsWork on proofreading carefully, especially for missing keywordsAs evaluators, teachers can list the specific, accurate and clear guidance to students, while students would also pinpoint precise strengths and weaknesses among peers in the public speaking. Such a well-constructed feedback is very helpful, especially, in the classrooms. In large group classes, whatsoever, students sometimes get frustrated doing evaluation activities with other students. For these situations, feedback from teachers and peers can help students appreciate the value of their tasks, and improve their confidence, accuracy and fluency. Feedback is not only about error correction, but also about finding out the main topics, giving and exchanging opinions and developing ideas. What’s more, it’s a good idea that students make their own notes from any feedback. Thus, students can recognize their own typical errors and correct them at once.Except for the public speaking, essentially, asking for feedback at any stage of the writing also helps students a lot in the understanding of their writing. By seeking feedback from others, students are taking positive, constructive steps to improve their own writing and develop as writers. However, occasionally, students might worry that the feedback will be negative. We know that many people avoid asking others what they think because they have a sneaking (卑怯的) suspicion that the news will not be good. Nevertheless, if we want to improve our writing, constructive criticism from others, definitely, helps. In order to become efficient evaluators, we must share our writing often with a variety of readers. When we ask someone, “Could you take a look at my writing?” or “Could you tell me if this is OK?” can sometimes elicit wonderfully rich responses. Besides, we do need to ask different persons for feedback at different stages in the writing process. For example, the effective feedback might be as follows:The Beginning Introduction: Do I understand the writing? Am I gathering the right kinds of information to answer this question? Are my strategies for approaching this writing effective? How can I discover the best way to develop my early ideas into a feasible draft?Outline: I have an idea about what I want to argue, but I’m not sure if it is an appropriate or complete response to this writing. Is the way I’m planning to organize my ideas working? Does it look like I’m covering all the points? Do I have a clear main idea? Do I know what I want to say to the reader?The First Draft: Does my writing make sense, and is it interesting? Have I proven my thesis statement? Is the evidence I’m using convincing? Is it explained clearly? Have I given the reader enough information? Is the information in the right order? What can I say in my introduction and conclusion?The Second Draft: Are the transitions between my ideas smooth and effective? Do my sentences make sense individually? How’s my writing style?The Final Draft: Are there any noticeable spelling or grammar errors? Are my margins and formatting OK? Is the writing effective? Is there anything I should change at the last minute?In addition, a notebook on asking for feedback after a writing has been double-checked by students. More importantly, taking the time to read, at least twice, throughout the evaluations and feedback is necessary, for sure.At last, feedback is essential in personalized learning. Personalized learning to education, in our country, is an excellent approach to education for students’ abilities, learning styles, interests, and preferences. In other words, personalized learning is an effective way of promoting students’ engagement, motivation, and achievement in school. However, personalized learning can only be useful if it includes timely, meaningful, and relevant feedback. Feedback is really a critical component of personalized learning that helps students monitor their progress, identify their strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and adjust their learning strategies. We can say that evaluations are the information provided to students about their performance, progress, and goals. On the contrary, feedback can be informal, verbal or written, immediate or delayed, but could be provided by various sources, such as teachers, peers and parents. The key characteristic of feedback is that it is specific, constructive, and actionable. Feedback is not praise or criticism, but rather an opportunity for improvement and growth. Feedback, actually, is great in personalized learning for several reasons: 1. Feedback helps students monitor their progress. 2. Feedback provides students with information about what they have learned, what they still need to learn, and how to improve their performance. 3. Feedback allows students to see the relevance of their learning and potential to achieve the goals. Positive feedback, indeed, boost students’ confidence, self-efficacy and persistence, too. By the way, feedback further encourages teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their instruction and make necessary adjustments. All in all, personalized learning with feedback can promote higher-order thinking skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity among teachers and students. These skills are necessary for lifelong learning and success in the twenty-first century. Therefore, the importance of evaluations and feedback cannot be overemphasized in our actual classrooms.Powered by Firstory Hosting

How to Be a Good English-writing TeacherIn our writing classrooms, we are writers, including teachers and students. In other words, in order to teach effective English writing, we must be effective English writers ourselves. We can try starting blogs or vlogs, writing articles, or developing short stories for English writing. We, then, practice and write out the paragraphs by ourselves. Once we figure out the themes and topics of our writing, reading articles and brainstorming with others are essential because they are the sources of our writing. Teachers, in the writing classroom, should encourage students to write well. In a supportive writing environment, teachers participate as writers to demonstrate the importance of writing. By taking part in writing lessons and activities, teachers are also models to teach the writing skills and to create good pieces of English writing for students. Teachers help students to collaborate throughout the writing process by brainstorming ideas in a writing group, and ask students to keep notebooks in which they record topics for English writing. No matter what we write, we are able to share our written works and ask for the feedback. In this way, we can improve upon our English writing over time. Thus, teachers ought to urge students to share their works with each other in the classroom or through online. We might say that others’ opinions are also very important for our writing, especially our peers. Students need to know whether their writing is accurately and appropriately conveying its message or not by way of teachers’ advice and peers’ feedback.Next, vocabulary and spelling skills affect the words we choose for our writing, for sure, because they can generate strong, interesting sentences that vary in length and complexity in order to convey the intended meanings in our writing. For this purpose, students should be encouraged to learn new words, as well as words they wish to include in their writing. Teachers should also help students acquire the skills to generate and check plausible spellings for words in the writing. Afterwards, students gain good and suitable words correctly, connect these words to form sentences, and, eventually, build a group of sentences to communicate particular ideas.Furthermore, when teachers focus sentence-level instruction on sentence construction, encouraging students to consider the meanings and syntax of the sentences, teachers, at the same time, explicitly demonstrate how sentence construction and sentence mechanics for students, such as punctuation and capitalization, etc. Students, then, practice to create solid sentences and to use a variety of sentence structures in their writing.An article is a piece of writing about a particular topic. It might also be flavored by the writer’s style. Depending on the purpose of the article, we might use very direct informative language, or more poetic language to create the subject matter. Normally, we use complete sentences (S + V + O) to convey ideas, and past tense, present tense, present perfect tense and progressive tense to indicate the timeline. Here are some typical subjects covered by article writers:TravelSportHistoryHobbies/Home/CraftMusicCelebrities/Famous figures (i.e., an article about an actor’s life and career)The basic structure of an article for a newspaper, magazine or website, is usually in three parts: Opening is engaging the reader, or outlining the main point of the article. The middle part is a series of paragraphs that go into more details and examples. The end is a concluding paragraph that draws the points together. The conclusion should connect back to the opening idea. For example, here’s an article that tries to persuade the reader to eat a more balanced, healthy diet. The title is “Eat Right, Live Longer.” In the first paragraph: It has been scientifically proven that the less junk food a person consumes, the longer they are likely to live. “So why isn’t everyone dumping the junk?” Jordan McIntyre investigates. A staple part of twenty-first century British home-life is the weekly takeaway treat. Finger-licking burgers, sticky ribs and crispy chicken wings are, for many, the normal Friday night feast. The average national calorie in the UK is a whopping 4500 a day, a key factor in the obesity cases that are soaring. Fast food packed with fat and obesity contributes to a range of health issues, such as most significantly heart disease and depression. So why aren’t we changing our lifestyles? In the second paragraph: Families, in these days, are spending less and less time at home during the working week. People always engage a lot of school commitments, work meetings and extracurricular activities. Therefore, fewer people are able to put in the effort to prepare fresh, healthy meals for their daily lives. When time is tight, it seems that we are even more willing to compromise our routines for a little bit of what we fancy i.e., fast fatty food. In the third paragraph: However, Georgia Thomas of the University of Food says, “I am convinced that it is possible to live a busy lifestyle and prepare healthy, satisfying meals at the same time.” Nowadays, people have simply got out of the habit of cooking. That’s not healthy. Even though we are busy people, we still have to treat us well. How do we reward ourselves? Of course, we, certainly, need to eat healthy food. In the final paragraph, the writer uses quotations from an expert to add credibility to the argument. As readers, we really expect this article to go on to explore how we can eat healthily. And in the end, we are clear to see that the writer concludes with an explanation of how easy it is to do this. In the above-mentioned article, we know that taking examples and listing facts are very much necessary to increase the contents and ideas of our writing.At last, proofreading is, extremely, necessary. Proofreading is the ability to read through a written piece, while editing errors and correcting them in order to let the writing become better. Strong editing and proofreading skills mean that students can identify areas in their works that need correction, such as tense, spelling and punctuation. They can also spot and revise errors in their styles, structures and sentences. The main purpose of proofreading is to improve the quality of the writing, ensuring that there are no lingering mistakes, and sentences’ errors or writing inconsistencies. Proofreading is the last writing process before the writers submit their writing. Thus, it is not only important to check grammar and spelling, it is also highly advised to ensure that the idea of the writer is in agreement with what he or she wants to communicate with the readers. No writer creates an excellent writing without reviewing, reflecting, and revising before the final version of their writing is complete and submitted.Powered by Firstory Hosting

Coffee Break咖啡休息時間聽朋友說，在義大利喝咖啡，就像喝水一樣，早餐來一杯，中餐飯後一杯，晚餐吃飽，再來一杯。在米蘭的餐廳裡，就連吃中式、日式、韓式、泰式，甚至巴西烤肉等，各式異國料理，餐後，侍者都會很有禮貌地詢問，要不要來份甜點，或一杯咖啡？大部分的義大利人，真的三餐飯後，都會來一杯咖啡，他們不怕喝太多，或者喝太晚睡不著，他們在飯後喝咖啡，就像我們吃完飯配水果一樣。「咖啡休息時間 (coffee break)」大約10-15分鐘，義大利人通常在早上和下午，各有一次，讓大家暫時放下手邊的工作，一起喝杯咖啡閒聊，放鬆休息一下。而在日常生活中，義大利人也不管是逛街、血拚，或是看表演、展覽，只要正事結束，他們一定會問：「要不要一起喝杯咖啡？」「咖啡休息時間 (coffee break)」就是他們最自然與最真實的生活方式了。在台灣，我也發現愈來愈多人喝咖啡了。其實，一起喝咖啡，就是聚一聚、說說話，互相分享生活中的大小事，喝咖啡只是藉口罷了！Have a break, have a … coffee! Is there anything that we can get together to have a cup of coffee and take a break at the same time? I guess that, nowadays, coffee break has become a part of our daily lives. Actually, a coffee break serves as the perfect time for most of us to enjoy the drink, take a rest and regain the focus as well. Essentially, taking a brief pause during our workdays to enjoy a cup of coffee really helps us revitalize both our minds and bodies. All humans need breaks. It’s simply biology. Our nervous systems are much easier to burnout. And our brains and bodies are more attuned and responsive to our busy surroundings. We tend to have lots of ideas for things that we want to do all the time without stop. It seems that we don’t have excuses to end our works. However, we should have to take a break in order to go further. In our society, stopping seems like the exact wrong thing to do when there’s so much to be done. But, it turns out that those of us who take that extra time for ourselves may achieve something. We must remind ourselves that life is a marathon, not a sprint (短跑). Therefore, having a cup of coffee is necessary and very important. Breaks are acceptable and encouraged. There will be times to speed up, just as there are times to slow down.Moreover, taking a coffee break helps us at work. In fact, coffee breaks also play a crucial role in fostering social interaction among team members in companies. The informal setting of a break room or coffee area in the office provides a space for employees and colleagues to connect on a personal level, share ideas, and build relationships and networks. These casual interactions of coffee breaks, indeed, shape a cohesive and collaborative work environment effortlessly. In other words, team cohesion is vital for effective communication and collaboration, and coffee breaks exactly offer a platform for team members to discuss projects, exchange insights, and brainstorm perspectives. These spontaneous discussions during coffee breaks, in effect, become a good way for innovation and problem-solving in the workplaces.Additionally, without others, the change of environment during a coffee break even provides a mental break only for ourselves along to rethink and explore new ideas while doing something simple and rewarding. Enjoying a cup of coffee just by ourselves is so great in terms of personal privacy. It lets us escape temporarily from our work environment, and encourages us produce fresh outlooks. We, then, can return to our workday tasks with a heightened sense of creativity, ready to approach challenges with a novel mindset.Truly, the humble coffee break holds massive potential as a tool for enhancing productivity and fostering creativity both on a personal level and as a team. Just a simple coffee break does allow us having the opportunity to step away from our works, so that we can have clear minds to calm down and create new thinking. Furthermore, if we have regular coffee breaks, they also bring employees together to have strong relationships, interactions and cross-department collaborations. Coffee breaks offer moments of relaxation. Such a positive atmosphere leads us to creative breakthroughs, innovative ideas, new insights and novel approaches. Specifically, for the team work, taking a short break stimulates employees’ imagination and productivity constantly. All in all, coffee breaks not only let us feel more energized and focused, experience greater satisfaction and fulfillment in our personal lives, but also permit employees seizing the opportunity to promote cohesion, become more manageable and boost business profits.Now, let’s have a cup of coffee and take a break!Powered by Firstory Hosting

不要拿別人的過錯，來懲罰自己在我的為人處事與生活中，我總是把每個人與每件事，都很認真地去處理與看待，唯恐怠慢了別人，或沒把事情做好。但，不是每個人都把我當一回事，或想努力去做事。於是，我常常會認知失調，自己難過與生氣···，也許我沒必要那麼serious吧！掌控情緒這件事，說來簡單，但是要做到卻很難，那是要經過很多歷練，才能改變觀念，繼而改變態度的。人為什麼會焦慮、有情緒呢？因為我們太重視別人與事情，太把別人與事情當一回事了，對很多人事物太認真，覺得別人怎麼沒有像我一樣，那麼看重情誼，那麼積極做事呢？其實，他是他，我是我，他的思維模式，本來就跟我不同，我何必被自己的情緒牽著走呢？碰到狀況時，也許我要先想想，我有沒有不對的地方，如果有，就要及時改進，如果沒有，請不要拿別人的過錯，來懲罰自己。重點是，千萬不要動怒，不要拿別人的過錯，來懲罰自己，傷害自己，那是多麼得不償失啊！人難免都有生氣的時候，心理學家說：「生氣是一種很好的情緒發洩方式。」每一個生氣的原因，都不相同，例如：沒睡飽、掉東西、被誤會、別人得罪我、考試考不好···等等。生氣時所做出的事情，也不一樣，有人會亂摔東西，有人會嚎啕大哭，有人會到處訴苦，也有人會去跑步、打球等發洩情緒，這些都是很好的發洩方式。但是，我們千萬不要用生氣，來處理事情，生氣雖然是一種很好的發洩情緒方式，但是，生氣會讓人一整天不開心，而且，生氣也會把自己氣出病來。「不要拿別人的過錯，來懲罰自己。」不要跟自己過意不去，否則，自己傷心傷身，別人還莫名其妙、若無其事呢！其實，要做好情緒管理，就是要將複雜的事情簡單化。我們常常會遇到很多棘手的事情，會焦慮、會不安，但那都不能解決問題。我們遇到不懂的事，就要去看書、翻書，請教別人，多跟人群接觸，改變對事情的看法···等等，久而久之，我們就會有定性，較不至於有劇烈的情緒起伏，也較不會隨對方的情緒起舞，那是很好的情緒管理之道。人生在世，我們無法控制別人的行為，與事情的發生，但是，我們可以控制自己的情緒。當我們選擇放下憤怒時，實際上是給自己一份自由，那是一種無價的解脫，智慧的體現。當我們遇到讓自己不舒服的人事物時，就是一種不對勁的感覺，我們感受到了不舒服的感覺，真的不需要反應過度或情緒化，好好地想想，處理並面對別人帶給自己的不對勁感，感到「那個行為很沒禮貌」，用客觀的角度去思考，冷靜下來，把對方失禮的行為當作笑話，笑笑就算了，讓自己內心平靜地過日子，才是王道。我們要守護自己，不要被劣質的人際互動擺佈，帶著信念，捍衛自我認同與自尊。無論別人如何，事情多麼糟，我們都要不動氣地用簡短、堅定的口吻，點出錯誤之處，表達自己的意見，修正言行舉止，下次再做得更圓滿、更好。Powered by Firstory Hosting