Take some time to think about your answers to these questions. Spend a few hours journaling or go for a long walk. Once you have processed the information, make an effort to talk to your best friends. Let them know how much you appreciate them! Write them a card, take them out to dinner, or make them a pan of your famous brownies! Now that you have figured out who your best friends are, focus on further developing your relationships with them. Continue to spend time with them, make an effort to be present at all of their major milestones and minor events. Keep the lines of communication open and never take your best friends for granted!
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One-sentence summary -- Reflect on your answers. Talk to your best friends. Continue to work on your friendships.


Let’s face it, some subjects you need to teach students are exciting while others can be downright boring. And not everyone (teachers and students both) agrees on which subject is which! Therefore, regardless of what subject you’re teaching, you need to make it inviting, interesting, and intriguing to your students.  Engage and interact with your students while you’re teaching, don’t just write endless words on the board. Rather than telling your students everything, ask them to provide opinions, ideas, or even guesses. Ask your students to explain WHY something is the way it is. Sometimes understanding the ‘why’ makes understanding the ‘what’ much easier. Invent and play games that teach the subject in an interactive and exciting manner. Use images, pictures, and videos as often as possible. If the subject can be taught ‘hands-on,’ get your students involved in the lesson. Read the article How to Make Learning Fun. Laughter is the best medicine sometimes. But it can also be a great learning and teaching tool. Being able to make something funny, or joke about something embarrassing makes you human. Students like to see their teachers as human.   There is a never-ending array of comics and memes on the internet for just about any subject you can think of. Consider finding these pictures and putting them up around the classroom. Think about including a joke of the day or other activity to your classroom to start off a lesson and grab your students’ attention. Laugh at some of the jokes your students say as part of their answers. Yes, it may mean they didn’t study, but getting mad at them isn’t likely to help. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Teaching isn’t easy and you’re going to mess up every now and again. Try not to get upset about your mistakes, instead, find humour in the situation when you can and laugh about it. There’s a reason you wanted to be a teacher. Maybe it’s because you love kids, or because you like the idea of preparing the next generation for the future. Regardless, you’re a teacher because you wanted to be and you have a great personality. Use your personality to customize the way you teach, or the way you decorate your classroom. You may teach a subject that you absolutely love more than anything else in the world. Show that passion off to your students. It’s amazing how contagious passion can be. You are both a teacher and a human being. You have your own personal problems outside of the classroom. While it’s hard, don’t bring those personal problems to the classroom. Remember that your students have nothing to do with your personal problems (most likely) and don’t need to be punished because you have a personal problem ongoing in your life.  Once you walk in the door of the school, put your personal problems aside until you’re outside of school again. Smile to your students and other teachers. And keep that smile going throughout your whole day.
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One-sentence summary -- Make the subjects you teach interesting. Add humour to your classroom every day. Show off your great personality. Smile.


Although Halloween excitement can build early in October (especially for children), do not buy your pumpkin too early. Most pumpkins will be rotten beyond recovery after a week and a half to two weeks. With this in mind, buy your pumpkin about a week or less before Halloween. Many venues will sell carving pumpkins as Halloween approaches. Visit your local supermarket or pumpkin patch for a good offering. If you live near a farmer's market, vendors there may also sell pumpkins. Find a location with a healthy selection of pumpkins and a range of sizes. If you're pumpkin hunting with young children, a pumpkin patch may be the most fun for them. You can find a local pumpkin patch by searching online or keeping an eye open for advertisements around the area where you live. When you're choosing a pumpkin, try to pick one that's free of nicks, bruises, and cuts. Look for a sturdy stem that doesn't feel too bendable, and for a mostly consistent color all the way around. Knock or thump on the skin like you would a melon; if you hear a hollow sound, the pumpkin is ripe.  Look for a pumpkin with a flat base. This will make it easier to display the carved pumpkin on Halloween night. It's not important if the pumpkin you like is clean or dirty. Remember you can always wash the pumpkin with an old cloth when you get home. If you're planning on an elaborate pumpkin carving, note that a larger gourd will provide more surface space, but also takes more work to carve. Selecting a round, medium-sized pumpkin is a popular option. If you have kids and simply plan on drawing faces on your pumpkins with a permanent marker, try picking up several small to medium samples for them to put different designs on.
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One-sentence summary -- Buy a pumpkin shortly before Halloween. Select a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch or supermarket. Select a healthy pumpkin. Pick the size you need.


There are several ways to get out of class without getting in trouble. Get help from an adult who can vouch for you, like your parents or school administrators.  If you just need a break, call your parents and ask them to send you an early dismissal. If you are not feeling well, go visit the nurse’s office and see if you can get sent home.  At the very least, you will have gotten a break from class for a little while. Visit the counseling office. Speak to your counselor about what is bothering you, or why you need a break, and ask if they will excuse you from your class. There are several rooms available at school which may be empty or acceptable for you to spend some time in. Try the bathroom, library or cafeteria. You may be able to use an empty classroom if it is the teacher's off-period or lunch break, but be aware, they may return and you could get caught.  Get a pass to go to the bathroom and just hang out there until you feel ready to return to class. This will likely only work once or twice per class since the teacher will notice if you continue to stay away for long periods of time. Get a pass to the library or just go there between classes and stay after the bell rings. You will have plenty of reading material to keep you entertained during your break. Sneak into an empty classroom and hide in a corner where you can't be seen from the hall. You can hide in the cafeteria by going during a lunch break other than your own, or hiding out in the corner when it is empty. Note that there may still be cafeteria personnel working even when no one is eating lunch. If you are going to skip class, don’t make a big show of it. People who are nervous tend to react with either fight or flight mode. If you feel like you are about to get caught, avoid running or being combative with someone who approaches you.  If you are feeling nervous, take several deep breaths to calm yourself down. Don’t act super sneaky or brag about it, just do what you need to do to take a break. This will make it less likely for you to get caught in the process and easier to explain yourself afterward.
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One-sentence summary --
Enlist the help of an adult. Hide in safe place. Act normal.