Prezados Pais/Alunos

Dentre os objetivos traçados para o ano 2011, destaca-se a condição de escrever em English. Para tanto e visando estimular WRITE IN or REWRITE INTO English, nesse mês de junho, os grupos dos alunos do English Course Elase desenvolverão tarefas, através do “ENGLISH TASK-CONTEST”, voltadas para escrita criativa.
Também dentro do conceito de reconhecer talento, esforço, dedicação, assiduidade, ativa participação, comportamento e fomentar alicerces do aprendizado, Prof. LLEAL, no esforço de tornar firmemente consciente o sentido desses quesitos, oferecerá dentre os sete (07) indicados, no mês de JUNE/2011, além do HIGHLIGHT STUDENT OF THE SEMESTER, totalizando a entrega de oito (oito) prêmios, por meio do 5º LLEAL STUDENT OF THE MONTH, a seguinte premiação:

DENTRE TODOS OS ALUNOS DO ENGLISH COURSE
UM (01) ALUNO
HIGHLIGHT STUDENT OF THE SEMESTER
01 (UM) NETBOOK

The “pursuit of happiness” has been something Americans have valued ever since the founding fathers inserted it into the Declaration of Independence. Yet some psychologists now question whether happiness is, indeed, a worthwhile goal, since new findings suggest the pursuit could actually make us more unhappy.
In a review paper published this week in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, researchers define what they call the “dark side of happiness”: feeling happy all the time can destroy relationships and careers, while avidly pursuing happiness is bound to lead to disappointment.
While some of us may envy those manic folks at the extreme end of the cheerful spectrum, they often have the same level of dysfunction as a person who's too sad, some recent studies suggest. They may completely tune out sad events around them like, say, their spouse being laid off or a parent dying.
“It’s happiness turned inward,” says June Gruber, a professor of psychology at Yale University who is studying mania. "They're attuned only to their own happiness“ and completely oblivious to what loved ones are feeling around them. It's the flip side of depression, where individuals can only focus on their own suffering.
In fact, mania can sometimes go along with depression -- a condition known as bipolar disorder -- which affects some 1 percent of Americans.
Researchers have found that people with high emotional states are more likely to engage in riskier behaviors like drug and alcohol use, gambling, sexual promiscuity, and drag racing.
"They have persistent euphoria, may feel like they have special powers or instantly fall in love with strangers," says Gruber. They also may constantly feel inspired but don't use this creativity to produce very much.
Far more common than extreme happiness, though, is the overwhelming need to seek out happiness, evidenced by the current #1 advice book on the New York Times paperback bestseller list called The Happiness Project. The author, Gretchen Rubin, spent a year thinking about what makes her happy by making lists, keeping a journal, and engaging in activities centered around increasing her state of well-being.
While the approach makes sense in theory, the latest studies have shown that trying to increase happiness can actually be counterproductive. "People often fall short of their goals and that can make them feel unhappy," says Iris Mauss, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Denver. Perhaps they were expected to feel happy all the time or an activity designed to boost their mood didn't go as planned.
In her recent research, Mauss discovered that those who value happiness the most have a lower state of well-being, less satisfaction with life, and are more likely to be depressed. She also found that teaching people to adopt happiness as a value caused them to feel more lonely and socially disconnected.
"People may be happiest when they're not monitoring their own happiness," Mauss contends. That doesn't mean we should completely abandon the pursuit of happiness and resign ourselves to leading unhappy lives. But rather, we should pursue happiness the right way -- defining it as leading a meaningful life, rather than partaking in hedonic pleasures.
Engaging in activities that will provide novel, meaningful experiences where you learn something new or connect with other people will, in turn, likely make you feel more content and satisfied. “Rather than saying 'I want to be happier' and following that goal," Mauss says, "go about pursuing it in a more indirect and less deliberate way."

The thorniest issue at Tuesday's "Future of the Academic Library" symposium—and the most personal to the more than 200 librarian attendees—was the role librarians should play in tomorrow's academic library. However, the large yellow pins sported by a sizable minority of the audience, pronouncing that "Academic Librarians ARE the Future," made it clear that some had already answered the question.

The tension was most palpable during a session on hiring postdoctoral candidates into traditional library positions, titled "Supporting New Modes of Research: New Staffing Patterns."
Three participants from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries program spoke about their current positions and the idea of alternative education and experience paths.
Marta Brunner, Head of Collections, Research and Instructional Services at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), described two newly redesigned library positions she said call for "a new kind of librarian." During questions afterward, she clarified that an MLS is one of the desired qualifications for the positions, but that equivalent qualifications would also be considered. "To tell you the truth," she said, "the top qualification is 'Do you understand the position and why we need it.'"
John McClachlan and Noah Shenker, both postdoctoral fellows at McMaster, spoke of the hybrid nature of their studies and positions. Shenker's research background is in film and media studies as well as Holocaust studies, while McClachlan studied geography and earth sciences while performing pedagogical research.
"I don't think I even knew what metadata was ten years ago," Shenker said, but added that "librarians have been incredibly useful to me" during the course of his Ph.D. and in his position at McMaster.