The Catcher in The Rye: Depression Catcher

American Lit 12, March 2012 Depression Catcher Do you have helpless outlook on your life? One minute it's an outburst of anger. The next you're crying uncontrollably. Do you need help? The Catcher In The Rye is a novel based of the main character’s point of view, his name is Holden Caulfield. Set in 1950s New York and California, where Holden is a mental hospital telling us, the readers, about his few days after leaving Pency. The movie Ferris’ Bullers Day Off , also set in Chicago, is a movie based in the 1980s. Ferris makes his friends skip school and run all around town trying to make Cameron have fun.In both the film and novel, you see many examples of depression and suicidal thoughts from both Holden and Cameron. Teenagers face a lot of pressures, from puberty to questions about who they are and where they fit in. In The Catcher In The Rye, Holden runs away from his fancy high school, Pency, 3 days before break begins. He felt isolated with no friends. â€Å"I alm ost wished I was dead† (48). Holden had just gotten in a fight with his roommate, Stradlater. Now Ackley was trying to have a conversation about the fight with Holden but he keeps talking nonsense to Ackley.In Ferris’ Buellers Day Off, Cameron, Ferris’ best friend always seems to be sick. His family isn’t really in his life and when they are, they seems to only bring him down. In the beging scene of Cameron, he is in bed acting like he’s dying. Holden says: â€Å".. she wouldn't've been the ones that answered the phone. My parents would be the ones. So that was out† (pg. 59). He doesn’t seem to have a great relationship with his parents either. Holden wants to talk to his little sister Pheobe or anyone for that matter. He feels isolated within himself which makes him depressed.Cameron is the same in that he is very awkward and no one really seems to want to be friends with him. Towards the end of the book, Holden takes a visit to see P heope but is unable to find her. He looks in the park and museum. â€Å"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deer would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom ould still be weaving that same blanket† (pg. 121). Therefore, Holden would love to live in a world where everything stays frozen, where nothing changes. This way, Holden can never grow up to be an adult. Cameron is very mad after they got the car back because of all the miles that were added. He goes in to shock and is unable to move. Ferris and Sloan try their best to get him out of it but he won’t budge. While at the pool, Cameron falls in, almost committing suicide. Ferris jumps in to save.Cameron starts to laugh saying â€Å"I got you good†. Holden goes home to find Pheobe. Phoebe is the only person Holden seems to actually like and have a stable friendship throughout the novel. She is the only one who tries to push him to do better: â€Å"You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things† (pg. 169). When Holden hears this, he becomes upset and states: â€Å"`I do! That's where you're wrong-that's exactly where you're wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ I said. Boy, was she depressing me. Holden and Cameron are depressed teenagers who have suicidal thoughts because of depression. Depression: severe despondency and dejection, accompanied by feeling of hopelessness and inadequacy, a condition of mental disturbance, typicaly with lack of energy and difficulty in maintaining concentration or interest in life. People who are depressed don’t look for a way out. They have zero motivation and are always second guess ing stuff. They think the only way out is death; suicide. Just like what Holden and Cameron seem to feel.

European History Essay

The Third Reich represents one of the darkest moments in Germany history. Established during the height of the fascist frenzy which propelled the National Socialist party to power in post-War Germany, the Third Reich and Nazi Germany are terms which are often used synonymously to describe this particularly ominous period. As a totalitarian dictatorship which replaced the Weimer Republic and officially lasted for a dozen years, the Third Reich was established on the supremacy of the fascist political doctrine and the supremacy of the German Aryan race. Seeking to explore the emergence of Nazi political dominance in the wake of the collapse of the Weimer Republic, this question will explore the political evolution of fascism in Germany. Many questions will be discussed with reference to the creation of German fascism and how it came to be the underlying ideological underpinning of the Nazi regime. Arguing that unlike the Republican parties of the Weimer Republic, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Party never lost sight of politics, this essay will explore the evolution of National Socialism in Germany with an eye to how the Nazis appealed to their constituents and grew, up to, as well as after the Weimer Republic collapsed. An authoritarian political movement which evolved during the early half of the twentieth century, fascism was the dominant political ideology in Germany for more than a dozen years. Championed by the charismatic torchbearer of this new and increasingly powerful political movement, Adolf Hitler brought fascism to the forefront of German politics by tapping into widespread social discontent following World War I. The section below will describe nascent fascism and its early years in Germany. What lead to the development of fascism in Germany? Fascism arose in response to a variety of domestic and international factors following World War I. Fascism can be defined as a militant political movement which promoted a unique mixture of ideology and organization in an attempt to create a â€Å"new type of civilization†. German fascism advanced an ideology of extreme nationalism, secular idealism and national rejuvenation. From a tactical and organizational standpoint, this movement employed the use of violence to achieve its aims and rejected parliamentary democracy. Additionally, it drew upon corporatist ideas of harmony through hierarchy and advocated national efficiency. Revolutionary in nature, it sought to transform and renew German society though a rejection of egalitarianism and by embracing rigid hierarchical classifications. German fascism evolved during the Weimer Republic and was created in opposition to socialism, communism and liberal democracy. It evolved in juxtaposition to the egalitarianism espoused by political movements of the era including communism and liberal democracy and early fascists found fertile ground for their movement in Germany after World War I (Gay 2001). Dissatisfaction on a variety of fronts paved the way for the emergence of the fascist political movement in Germany. From a foreign policy standpoint, many Germans were dissatisfied with the results of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a peace treaty which ended the Great War and imposed a negotiated solution on the warring parties. Germans were particularly upset with heavy reparations at the Treaty of Versailles including loss of land and steep financial payments culminating in national embarrassment. The Great Depression of the 1930s exacerbated an already dire economic situation in Germany and many Germans turned to a doctrine which promoted the restoration of German national pride through strong government and cultural renewal. In addition to Versailles, another international impetus for the rise of fascism in Germany was the so-called â€Å"Red Menace†, the communist threat to the current political order and the revolutionary appeal of international communism. The fear of communist revolution played into the hands of early fascists who were vocal in their dislike of communism and their rejection of its emphasis on class struggle. Importantly, the Red Menace was also a particular important domestic antecedent for the rise of fascism in both Italy and Germany. As mentioned above, a rejection of class cleavages and the divisive class ideology of communism gave fascism wide appeal among members of the upper strata of German society. A patrimonial society with deep social and economic divisions, Germany was beset by strong social cleavages. Fascism was able to appeal to the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie as well as the working classes in its appeal to a strong and unified and strong Germany. Accordingly, National Socialism is anti-liberal and anti-individualistic; by implication it is irrational, mystical, and romantic; by its results it is totalitarian to the point of religious obsession. That such a world-concept has conquered a nation which is famed for its scientific thoroughness, is mainly due to the fact that National Socialist philosophy coincided with a spiritual vacuum in Germany, created by the humiliation of political defeat and the difficulties of economic post-war adjustment (Loewenstein 1926). As an ideology, fascism promoted a strong and united Germany – extremely important during a period of national embarrassment and deep economic woes – and nationalism was an inherent component of the German fascist movement. Through the oratory skills of Adolf Hitler and a persuasive propaganda machine, the fascist doctrine served to unify all peoples of Germany when in 1933 the Nazi Party carried out their successful machtergreifung (seizure of power) and established the Nazi dictatorship and Third Reich in Germany (Dietrich 1988). The fascist doctrine in Germany also paved the way for the concept of a Greater Germany which required territorial expansion and was a direct cause of outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. As an inclusive doctrine movement which sought to unite all ethnic Germans into one state and against all divisive stripes, Nazism successfully unify the German people under the umbrella of Nazi fascist ideology. Accordingly, early into his assumption of power in 1933, Adolf Hitler implemented Gleichschaltung – literally, to bring everyone together or in line – and consolidated his rule (Fulbrook 2002).

American Involvment in World War I Essay Example for Free

American Involvment in World War I Essay This investigation assesses American involvement in World War I before military intervention, and how this led to military intervention. In order to assess these causes, one must examine America’s involvement in the war before combat, the events that launched America’s military intervention in the war, American sentiments about the war before military intervention, and Woodrow Wilson’s actions before the war. Two sources used in the essay, America’s Great War: World War One and the American Experience by Robert H.   Ziegler and Woodrow Wilson’s speech to congress on April 2nd, 1917 are evaluated for their origins, values, purposes and limitations. The investigation does not asses the pre-war situations of any countries but the United States, and does not asses American military involvement during the First World War Summary Of Evidence Prior to 1917, America was already deeply involved in the First World War, though they did not have troops fighting in the trenches overseas. First, American involvement in the war was purely as a producer and creditor to the Allied Powers. The war, while catastrophic for the countries involved in its atrophied trench battles, provided America with an astronomical boost to its economy, from 2 billion dollars in exported materials in 1913 to nearly 6 billion dollars in exports in 1916. This economic boom was mainly brought on by Britain’s dependency on American foodstuffs and manufactured goods.. The economic ties between America and Britain tightened with public subscription loans. By 1917, Britain had borrowed 2. 7 billion dollars from American creditors. Historian Paul Koistinen wrote â€Å"Without American supplies, Britain could not continue the war; without American financing of almost 10$ million a day †¦ Britain would exhaust its reserves of gold and securities by March 1917. Its dependence was total. Cutting back procurement . . . would produce disaster in England† Originally, America did nothing but reap the reward of â€Å"neutrality†. When Americas turned their eyes to the stage of war in Europe, they were truly terrified. One Chicago newspaper joked â€Å"A hearty vote of thanks to Columbus for having discovered America†. This sentiment was echoed by many American citizens, who showed pride in President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to declare America a neutral state in the war. Americans thoughts on the war lied in their bloodlines, as a majority of Americans were descendants from either Allied or Central Powers nations. Most Americans, early in the war at least, didn’t understand the war or why it was being fought, and were glad that America wasn’t involved. However, these robust Anti-Involvement sentiments began to fade after May 7 1915, the day of the Lusitania crisis. German U-Boats torpedoed and sunk a passenger liner in British waters, killing nearly 1,200 civilians, including 128 American citizens. The murder of these innocents set off the first widespread pro war feelings in Americans. This outrage was justified, but was also heightened by yellow journalism that demonized Germans as barbarians and deranged killers. President Woodrow Wilson, taking note of this event and the outrage it caused, warned the Germans that any further violation of American rights would result in â€Å"Strict Accountability† for these actions. This, as well as the bloody war dragging on in Europe, brought up the question of military preparedness in the United States. By 1916, pro-preparedness sentiment was widespread, as 135,000 supporters of expanding the military marched on New York City’s 5th Avenue, for 12 hours. In Chicago, 130,000 telephone operators moved in the shape of an American flag, goose-stepping down State Street. In the election of 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran against Charles E. Hughes, who was backed by Theodore Roosevelt, former president and staunch Allied Powers supporter, as well as an advocate for military preparedness. Woodrow Wilson won the election by only about 600,000 popular votes. However, these sentiments were met with an equally strong anti-militarism force, saying that in a chaotic world, America must be a beacon and resist entrance into war, and resist building an enormous military. Strong anti-militaristic sentiments began to fade when British intelligence officers intercepted a telegram sent from Foreign Secretary of the German Empire Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador of Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. This infamous proposal, known as the Zimmermann note, proposed that Mexico wage war against the United States. Throughout America’s neutrality in World War 1, President Wilson had acted as a mediator, but with tension building to a terminal level and with the Zimmermann note, Wilson was forced to ask congress to bolster America’s military forces on April 2nd 1917. Later in the same year, America sent its first military forces oversees Evaluation Of Sources Robert H Zieger: America’s Great War: World War One and the American Experience Origins- (2000) Zieger is a respected labor historian Purpose- Provides an in-depth look at American involvement in the war. Value- The economic statistics and quotations from various primary and secondary sources allow the reader to evaluate the validity of the claims Zieger makes. Limitations- does not provide any new opinions or claims Woodrow Wilson, April 2nd 1917 to congress to persuade congress to bring the United States Origin- German hostile actions towards the United States Purpose- Persuade congress to declare war on Germany and the Central Powers Value- clearly outlined Wilson’s reason’s for entering war Limitations- doesn’t explain the underlying causes of military intervention or pressure from big business to declare war for entry  Analysis America’s involvement in World War One began with producing vital weapons and foodstuffs for the Allied Powers, as well as economically supporting the Allied nation’s governments. Throughout the war, the German Empire repeatedly acted belligerently towards the neutral United States, sinking passenger lines, killing Amer ican civilians. Tension with Germany also rose after the proposal to Mexico asking the Mexican army to wage war on the United States. These belligerent German acts, however, would not have held as much effect as they did if American political opinions had not been shifted by the German actions, the economic pressure of close ties to the Allied nations, or social pressure brought along by shifting political attitudes. These all contributed to tensions growing regarding American military involvement I World War One President Woodrow Wilson was a stalwart proponent of American neutrality in the First World War for the almost all of the war, but the American political climate at the time forced his hand.. He was able to win this election because most voters at the time had pro-neutrality sentiments. However, Wilson took into account his slim margin of victory, and the Republican’s yearning for a prepared military. These yearnings were brought on mainly by the Lusitania sinking. A major proponent for intervention, the previously mentioned Theodore Roosevelt, denounced these acts of the German Empire as acts of piracy. Roosevelt’s popularity made these statements extremely well heard. This shift in public opinion helped force President Wilson’s hand. America’s involvement in World War One before it entry in combat was extremely vital, producing millions of dollars’ worth of material for Britain and France, as well as financing the war through small loans. This dependency was built by J. P Morgan, who traded nearly 3 billion dollars’ worth of goods with the allied powers. By 1917, America had invested 2. 7 billion dollars in Britain alone. Historian Paul Koistinen’s quote regarding British dependency on American trade shows how deeply entrenched America was with the war’s affairs pre involvement. These statistics show that the allied powers were completely dependent on American economic support American corporations had an immense amount of wealth in the war, and if they Allied powers lost the war, all of their investments would be worth nothing, because the countries that had been responsible for repaying these debts would no longer exist. The war was taking a detrimental toll on the populations of the warring nations, and the war was almost completely atrophied. It was only a matter of time before one side lost, and it was essential to American business that it was the Allied Powers. Had the allied powers lost to the central powers, American financers would have lost 2. 7 billion dollars as a whole, 2. 7 billion dollars that were needed to give to American business, 2. 7 billion dollars that banks needed to stay in business. Throughout pre-involvement America, as early as the dawn of the war, so called â€Å"hyphenated Americans†, had opinions on what side of the war to support, dependent on their country of origin. German-Americans, the largest ethnic group at the time , supported what they thought of as their motherland, Germany, therefore supported the Central Powers. The second largest ethnic group, Irish-Americans, saw Great Britain as an oppressor, therefore were also supporters of the central powers. However, most Americans at the time were still pro-neutrality. A Chicago newspaper, expressing thanks to Columbus, wrote an article on the blessing of the Atlantic Ocean. This was a popular sentiment at the time, and many Americans were proud of Wilson’s decision to be neutral. After the sinking of American ocean liner Lusitania the support of neutrality began to fade. Before the Lusitania disaster, however, 92 ships had been sunken by aggressive German action. None of these attacks had gained as much publicity, partially due to the fact that the previous sinking’s hadn’t been as destructive. But this was also due to the fact that the Lusitania sinking was grabbed onto by yellow journalists. â€Å"The blood of these murdered victims cries for vengeance. If that cry is unheard, the people of the United States will always bear upon them the stigma of the greatest humiliation ever put upon a nation. Writes a reporter from the Toronto Telegram. President Wilson demanded that German U-Boats stop sinking civilian liners, and if they continued to do so, they would be met with military retaliation. This didn’t stop Germans from sinking boats, and Wilson’s failure to take action against them infuriated Americans. Observing the protests in American cities at the time, one can judge that huge masses of people were strongly in favo r of interventionism. The process of the American military joining the Allied Powers seemed inevitable from the start of the war, but still took hostile action and over reaction to spark military involvement. America’s pre-war economic ties to Europe and America’s reliance on trade with these nations during the war made America’s involvement with these nations too deep to let them lose the war, therefore forcing combat. Woodrow Wilson’s strong stance on neutrality couldn’t stand up to the enormous pressure he faced from the people of the United States. American Involvment in World War I. (2016, Sep 14). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Digital electronics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Digital electronics - Essay Example Another application for Flip-Flops is division frequency devices. From J-K flip-flop can be used to build a frequency divider by taking the output of one cell to the clock input of the next. The J and K inputs of each flip-flop are set to 1 to produce a toggle at each cycle of the clock input. For each two toggles of the first cell, a toggle is produced in the second cell, so its output is at half the frequency of the first. Specifically, the combination J = 1, K = 0 is a command to set the flip-flop; the combination J = 0, K = 1 is a command to reset the flip-flop; and the combination J = K = 1 is a command to toggle the flip-flop, i.e., change its output to the logical complement of its current value. Both PS and CLR HIGH, a negative-going CLK, and J and K at 0, or LOW. In this condition the FF holds the previous condition of the output. In this case the FF is reset. If the circuit were set when these inputs occurred, it would remain set. In the following experiment we build a binary counter using J-K flip-flops by taking the output of one cell to the clock input of the next. The J, K inputs of each flip-flop are set to 1 to get toggle at each clock pulse. For each two toggles of the first cell, a toggle is produced in the second cell, and so on. This produces a binary counter device. The count can be in forward or backward direction making a modification like shown below. The BCD counter showed above can be build using several binary counters but with a small modification, by terminating the count when the count reaches decimal 9 or binary 1001. Since the next toggle would set the two most significant bits a NAND gates tied from those two outputs to the asynchronous clear line will start the count over after 9. A 2-bit binary counter using two J-K flip-flops is done by taking the output Q of one J-K flip-flop to the clock input of the next. The J, K inputs of each flip-flop are set to 1 to

Preserve the luxury or extend the brand Case Study

Preserve the luxury or extend the brand - Case Study Example ?s fellow grand cru classà © owners complained about the nà ©gociants’ margins whom Gaspard accepted because they have a ready buyer even in their bad years. What Gaspard missed is that their brand had been classified by de Vallois had in 1855 as a Premier Grand Cru Classà © (First Growth) making their brand already saleable at a commanding price even without a nà ©gociant who would readily buy it. Sticking to their two brands, this may not be enough to secure the chateau in the long run because new wine makers with cheaper wine are already coming in the market. These new competitors’ offer an alternative to their products that could shrink their market share and pose a real threat to Gaspard’s business. Gaspard must adapt to the new realities in the wine industry. Extending the brand has many advantages. First, Gaspard can widen their market share to include the younger market who could not afford their high end wines. This market is already a captured market and there is a greater probability that they would come to them when they are ready to purchase high end wines. Second, Gaspard has the advantage of being classified by de Vallois had in 1855 as a Premier Grand Cru Classà © which they could use in marketing their branded wines. Claire was right, they could either buy grapes or land and mention that its either ‘Bordeaux origin’ or that the de Vallois team is in charge of making it in case they would buy cheaper lands abroad to grow grapes. This option will not harm the brand of Gaspard’s premiere wine because they will not be mixed up. In fact, the de Vallois brand can complement the upcoming branded wine by suggesting quality and class by association. In addition, these branded wines can easily adapt to the changing tastes of the younger market and make the most profit by catering to what they want. When this younger market can already afford the high end wines, they can also graduate to the Vallois team’s high end wine. True there is

Growth and earnings per share Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Growth and earnings per share - Essay Example This reporting effects business operations in a positive manner by changing their course according to the report. Income growth helps organizations realize their profitability and income generation, according to this the stakeholders are given their share of profit in the form of more stocks or cash. This effects the business operations in a positive manner as they are pointing towards a positive direction. The earning per share helps the company decide the price of their stock, as the company's earning per share increases it becomes more profitable. EPS also helps tell the stakeholders the position of the company in the market and the risk associated with it. This effects the business operations of the company and they try to organize their operations according to the plans and strategy that are being implemented by the company. All these three revenue growth, income growth and earning per share are the fundamentals of the business and their overall impact on the business operations is to aware the management of the necessary changes that are required. Net profit and cash flow are two separate things that help in analyzing the business progress and where a company is heading to. These two also determine whether the company is a success or a failure. The two components help the company in organizing itself and predicting the future. Net profit is basically all the revenue minus cost of goods sold which equals to gross profit then we minus the operating expenses from the gross profit we get the net profit. Net profit is then used to pay the dividends to stake holders and save amount for future investments. Cash Flow: Cash flow is basically all the cash that is flowing into the company and all the cash that is going out of the company. Cash flow only includes current assets and mainly is cash related. The cash flow does not include the assets and other profit related aspects of the Income Statement. The difference between the two components is that net income indicates the money that has been generated by the company but cash flow only indicates the money flowing out and coming into the company, though both of the components have an important use for the business but are different from each other. If a company runs out of available cash it has problems paying employees and running business operations. Another major difference between profit and cash flow is that when a product is sold and as it may have been sold on credit the profit is realized immediately but the cash flow is recorded when the cash is received. The 2005 article "Understanding your Balance Sheet" describes three categories of assets. What are they Give examples of what belongs in each category. The balance sheet is an instrument that helps government know how much a company owns and how they are positioned. A balance sheet has all the assets on one side and the liabilities and capital on the other side. Both sides balance each other. The assets column mainly consists of three types of assets. Current Assets Current asset refer to those holdings of the company that can be easily liquefied and exchanged for cash. For example cash

Impact Of Patient Engagement In Key Areas Of Health Care Assignment

Impact Of Patient Engagement In Key Areas Of Health Care - Assignment Example However, this has worsened the health of patients. For example, a poor engagement between family, care provider and a patient could lead to a patient taking medication for a simple illness yet they are suffering from something worse that they may not have been informed by their health providers. All this is brought about by the lack of transparency. Patient engagement in their safety has also enabled them to provide important information that may be lacking from their medical records hence improving the severity of their illness.  Quality and patient outcomes  Patients have also been engaged in as far as quality and outcome is concerned, and this has also impacted positively in their welfare. There has been involved and informing them when choosing options of treatment and, therefore, they are given a chance to choose what they are comfortable with (Mullins, Abdulhalim, & Lavallee, 2012). For example, both patients and their families are engaged in educational initiatives on heal thy eating habits and the provision of better healthcare services at lower costs hence making it affordable to many people. Improvement of health outcomes has also been witnessed due to patients being involved fully in prevention, decision -making and self-management activities (Herrin et al., 2015).  Effective communication  Patient engagement in effective communication has led to a successful relationship between patient and care provider.  

The Ethics of Research Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Ethics of Research - Article Example The research in the article followed an ethical context because the two authors gave credit to all the authors of the data that he relied on to construct the graphical analysis presented in the paper (Dolnicar & Leisch, 2014). Moreover, the authors maintained confidentiality by not revealing the names of the managers used to offer their opinion in the paper (Miller, 2012). Maintaining confidentiality is a central aspect in the ethics that govern research in any field. Notably, prior to conducting the research, the participants offered their consent, and the authors obtained permission from the relevant offices (Elliott, Stern, & Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics 2007). In my opinion, the authors did their best in observing all the ethical guidelines that have been defined to guide any form of research. It is evident that the authors have given credit to all the authors whose data has been used in the paper (Gregory, 2003). This only indicates that they observed the rigorous research process of research, while abiding by the defined ethical rules. Therefore, they succeeded in this sector (Miller, 2012). Elliott, D., Stern, J. E., & Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics. (1997).Research ethics: A reader. Hanover, NH: Published by University Press of New England for the Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics at Dartmouth

Engineering Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Engineering Management - Research Paper Example borrowed from the society practices and must consider the immediate environment to ensure that the organization’s operations are not against the norms of the society, which may work against to their disadvantage. Managers should also understand that organization norms vary from one company to another and are set based on what every organization values most. One missing link that most construction managers need to comprehend is the connection between the organization’s culture and efficient delivery of construction projects. This is because organizational culture influences the perception of its members, controls their behaviors, and integrates its internal processes with the external demands to ensure harmonious correlation with all the factors influencing construction (Cheung, Wong & Wu, 2011). Practicing engineering managers need to understand that all construction contractual agreements, procurement procedures, and utilization of construction materials are based on culture of the organizations. This will help protect the organization against abuses and leaves management with no room for guesswork. In case engineering management fails to appreciate organization culture, there is the risk of conflicts and resistance in the execution of the constructions plans from several quarters (Fellows, 2010),such as the community, the employees, and different dependable departments that directly impact the construction like procurement and finance, thus minimizing the overall

Co-ordinate implementation of customer service strategie Essay Example for Free

Co-ordinate implementation of customer service strategie Essay Brief Background McDonalds is a well admired, large organization of approximately 5,500 locally owned and operated businesses all around the world. Food quality is the key at McDonalds as is has implemented rigorous food safety standards for almost 50 years, and the fast food restaurant has been recognized for its popular and well known meals, ranging from delicious burgers, well known French fries, healthy salads, rolls, fruits, deserts, and also breakfast foods such as bacon and eggs, cereals and pancakes. The restaurant also has Ronald McDonald House Charities and its global network of independent local Chapters, which help find, create, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. There are many employees in each McDonalds restaurant which are well trained to help serve the more than 47 million customers, in 119 countries from more than 30,000 different restaurant locations. The specific department on which is being focused on this report revolves around working on the front counter; this includes customer service, preparation of the meals, dealing with cash, cleaning and stocking. Organisations internal and external customers Working on the front counter at McDonalds deals with the external customers, these are the people who pay for the product/food that the business has to offer. The employees, who work on the front counter, act as internal customers towards the employees at McDonalds who work in the back. People working on the front counter next-handle the jobs that have been completed from out the back where the food is made. When an external customer walks into a McDonald restaurant, straight away their main needs and expectations is to firstly walk into an attractive well maintained and clean environment, to have a fresh tasting meal delivered to them politely from a well organized employee, who should prepare the meal quickly but carefully, making sure no mistakes are made. Each and every employee has the resources they need to serve the customers so they can be prepared as each customer approaches. Restaurants are adequately staffed to allow for a good customer experience as well as to provide schedule flexibility, work-life balance and time for training. When serving the customers, employees should act in ways which make the customers feel as though they are happy with the service and would continue to do business with the organisation. Therefore the employees are trained to use appropriate communication techniques to make the customer feel comfortable, welcome and satisfied with the service. This means that every customer should receive respect, patience, friendliness, and good quality products. On behave of McDonalds (2004), claims that At McDonalds, we know that people are our most valuable resource. We aim to be the best employer in each community around the world where we do business. Read more:Â  Customer Service Essay How the organisation recognizes its customers requirement McDonalds is well known as a fast food restaurant, therefore the meals are expected to be delivered to each customer in a fast, efficient way, but in the same time, the meals need to be prepared cautiously to make sure no mistakes are made and to also make sure that the meal is fresh and of great quality. Another issue concerned with the service is the customer rush this is when many customers all approach at once. This usually occurs during lunch time, straight after school hours, and around dinner time. When there is a customer rush, the store should be adequately staffed to allow employees to be prepared and deal with the large group of people as quick as they can. The organisation becomes aware of the requirements from previous circumstances when customers complain that their food is not fresh, or if they have been waiting a long time for their meal to be prepared. All McDonalds restaurants have possession of a particular McDonalds owned clock which works as a timer and helps in the process to distinguish how long the burgers have been sitting for. This process prevents the burgers from going past the stage where they are not fresh anymore. The fry station in which the fries are made also has a separate timer which goes of when the fries are no longer fresh. From time to time, accidents may happen and the timers may not be used efficiently. This is when the food gets cold, and customers begin to complain. When a customer complains of their food being cold or not fresh, they should be treated with extra consideration, get an apology and then have their meal replaced. The only way this problem can be resolved is for workers to make sure they keep an eye on the timers, and if there are no fresh burgers when a customer is served, they should be seated and have theyre meal taken to them within a few minutes. If a customer feels that they repeatedly receive food which is not fresh enough, and they do not mind waiting a few extra minutes, they can ask for a fresh burger. Then, they will be asked to be seated while their meal is being made. Another circumstance may be if a customer is allergic to something in a meal, or dont want a particular ingredient in their food such as pickles in their burgers or salt on their fries. All they need to do is make the person who is serving them aware of this. This is called a grill, and their meal will be freshly made as of above. All the staff of McDonalds are trained to deal with the customers in a pleasant manner. Any suggestions from customers on how the service, environment, etc. can be improved would be taken positively and the matter would be discussed with the management because McDonalds wants all customers to be happy. Some McDonalds restaurants have suggestion boxes where customers can give their thoughts of any improvement which can be made for customer service delivery. The suggestions from customers are a great help to the management, as the customers are the ones who the store is trying to impress. Within time, business technology can assist with the service at McDonalds by creating higher technology cash register, which may help with interpreting the order and assistance with the cash. The quicker the meal is ordered the quicker the meal can be delivered. Business technology could also assist with serving the customers on drive through. Our People Promise is more than words. McDonalds and its independent owner/operators have made a commitment to our employees that we strive to achieve with our actions every day McDonalds.com (2004). To deliver the People Promise, there are in place, five people principles which promote customer service strategies. They include Respect and recognition, Values and Leadership Behaviors, Competitive Pay and Benefits, Learning Developing and Personal Growth and Resourced to get the job done. The delivery of a quality service is essential to a successful business. For McDonalds to achieve our goal of being the worlds best quick service restaurant experience, we must have the best experience for all McDonalds employees. This quotes that the quality of the McDonalds business revolves around the employees actions. Another main issue is that there is always a clean surrounding of each restaurant, to make everyone feel comfortable to dine in. The main customer objective is when food is not fresh. To fulfill this objective, budget recourses which may help with the solution could include a buzzer or alarm to indicate that the food is off. Stronger heat may help so that the burgers, and fries stay hot, but this brings danger to the employees with the high risks of burns. The company can look further towards these issues to come to a resolution to the complaints. Conclusion The company of McDonalds is a largely known and popular business. The reoccurrence of so many customers indicates that it is successful. But there can never be enough of pleasing customers, because the more pleased customers become, the more business the store will get, this is from word of mouth. Therefore if a customer has a bad experience, the companys earnings may slightly drop. McDonalds is cautious of the way they handle customers, the environment, and the quality of their food. They are also aware of customer complaints or suggestions of improving the service, food, etc. This helps a lot to improve the business which is becoming more and more popular everyday. Bibliography * http//:www.Mcdonalds.com.au * Burbury E, 2003, Deliver and Monitor a Service to Customers, Software publication Pty. Ltd., Sydney. * McDonalds Pty Ltd, 2001, Crew Member Handbook. * http//:www.Mcdonalds.com (world wide)

Diversity management

Diversity management Evaluate how diversity management could have more impact within organisations? Diversity management is one of the most sensitive issues that an organisation has to go through. However, it can be rewarding if it is managed successfully. Diversity can cover many issues such as educational background, lifestyle, ethnicity, age, disability and gender. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate how diversity management could have more of an impact within organisations. Redman and Wilkinson (2001), implies that â€Å"managing diversity refers to the systematic and planned commitment on the part of organisation to recruit and retain employees from diverse demographic backgrounds.† The definition by Redman and Wilkinson suggests by planning, organisations will be able to create a good working environment for their employees from different backgrounds. In order to structure my essay I will begin by writing about the legislations that are involved in both diversity management and equal opportunity. Following up by writing about both equal opportunities and diversity management and why should different organisation adopts this approach Both diversity management and equal opportunity began as a result of various incidents. Discrimination was a common theme within organisations. The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) has had a huge impact in the reduction of discrimination amongst males and females. This legislation improved equality within the organisation especially for women. According to Torrington, et al. (2005) the participation of females in the workplace has increased from 56.8 per cent to 72 per cent (between 1971 to 2001). The legislation has also benefited males, allowing males to pursue â€Å"female jobs† i.e. midwife. Age discrimination can also be common in the work place especially during the later stage of the individuals career. Employees get forced to retire so other young workers can take their place. Young workers are also being discriminated against. A lot of employers believe younger workers are not as loyal as older workers. The Age Discrimination Act helps to minimise any prejudice. The Disability Act has also had a large impact within organisations. Torrington, et al. (2005) explains that disabled workers are less likely to be hired compared to their able-bodied counterpart. Disability discrimination is often overlooked by organisations. Some organisations believe it is not as important as other discrimination laws. Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations (2003) have also been put in place to help diminish discrimination against ethnic minority. This encourages equality in regards to recruitment. These legislations have allowed organisation to be more aware of discrimination. This was one of the key reasons for the increase in globalisation. Globalisation is the cause of diversity trends, this is clearly monitored by the increase in the â€Å"number of women and members of ethnic minority groups†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.., Additionally, the age profile of the working population is changing,† (Redman and Wilkinson (2001)). This suggests that the age of employees working is on the increase. The quotation also suggests that organisations are opening up to women and members of ethnic minority. This indicates two points. The First point illustrates organisations are hiring male/ female, older/ young workers, disabled workers, and people from ethnic backgrounds due to the positive contribution that they can make into the organisation. The second point is organisations only hire male/ female, older/ young workers, disabled workers, and people from ethnic backgrounds due to the legislations. There are various legislations which influence organisations see appendix 1 for the legislations. Northumbria-police-authority (2009) Point one indicates the organisation believes in managing diversity. Diversity management is very important to businesses, managing it right or wrong could either lead to the success or failure of that business. Hence it has a major impact on the organisation. According to Armstrong (2006) â€Å"managing diversity is about ensuring all people maximize their potential and their contribution to the organization.† This suggests that by valuing diversity there will be a positive effect on the organisation as employees will bring their diverse knowledge into the organisation i.e. experience or fresh ideas. Redman and Wilkinson (2001) stated in their book ‘Contemporary Human Resource Management the general principles of managing diversity, that one of the principles (TO WHAT) was â€Å"given current shortage of labour effective use of diverse skills make good business sense†. This point was perfectly demonstrated during world war two when the men were out at war. Business had to hire female workers to take their place, in order for them to survive. This is a perfect example of diversity management in practice. WW2 is a prime example of how important it is to have a diverse workforce. Having a diverse work force is still important to this very day. It is important from a legal requirement as well as an objective (because it allows the business to move forward). There are various other reasons, why organisation incorporate diversity into the organisation as mentioned later. There are a range of advantages for diversity management. It enables good decision making within an organisation. Seba cultuurmanagement (2004) shares a similar view believing that â€Å"studies of diversity in organizations have shown that an exposure to diverse colleagues helps managers make better decisions†. IKEA can relate to this statement, IKEA is based all around the world, meaning the ideas which revolves in the organisation is the combination of different cultures. MJ, Browaeys and R, Price (2008) backs the statement of Seba, in which they mention a diverse organisation â€Å"as being more flexible and open to new ideas† by being more open to suggestions this will reflect on to the customers not only will they come up with new ideas but they will meet (Browaeys and R, Price (2008)) â€Å"customers needs† this will result in (Seba cultuurmanagement (2004)) â€Å"increase market share† due to â€Å"an increasingly diverse customer base.† The BBC is good at increasing a diverse customer base due to their diversity policy. Their scheme includes taking care of all types of workers i.e. disable workers, male/female, older/ young workers, disable worker, and a person from an ethnic background. All of this is achieved thanks to their diversity management. Out of all of the diversities, Disability is the most undermined diversity by organisations. However, the BBC are the opposite because the encourage and employee disabled workers. They also have TV programmes underlining the importance of disability. They have several experts in sign language, who assist (by helping people hard of hearing), on different programs such as the news. They also clearly layout their diversity message on the BBC website for all to see (BBC 2009). A journal article by C. W. Von Bergen et al, indicates another advantage of having diversity, within the article it declares that â€Å"researchers who have studied top management team diversity have found that they experienced more positive financial returns than more homogeneous teams†. This links to the advantage above. As the increase in the customer base increase so will the financial rewards. Further down the article C. W. Von Bergen et al also mentions â€Å"For tunes 1999 list of Americas 50 Best Companies for Asians, Blacks and Hispanics out per formed the SP 500 over three- and five-year periods† this clearly indicates how important diversity is to any organisation. Another important advantage of diversity management in organisations is attracting new talent as well as retaining current staff. One Workplace Equal Rights (2009) also agrees with diversity management â€Å"recruiting and retaining people from a wide talent base.† The wide talent base indicates the future consists of applicants from different ethnic backgrounds as well as disabled people. This is what diversity management is all about giving everyone a fair chance. The advantages clearly demonstrate why managing diversity is beneficial to any organisation. So applying managing diversity is crucial and there are various ways of managing diversity but the MOSAIC model is one of the most essential models. According to Redman, T and Wilkinson, A (2006), â€Å"Kandola and Fullerton (1994) suggested managing diversity must pervade the entire organisation if it is to be successful.† For this they came up with â€Å"MOSAIC vision†. CIPD (2009) gave a definition of MOSAIC in which they write about the meaning of MOSAIC and what each letter stands for See appendix 2. Firstly they illustrated that mosaic is a strategic tool to â€Å"map your own organisation against this vision and to identify priority areas for your diversity strategy.† They also mention ‘vision, suggesting a picture of a diverse organisation this statement is suggesting MOSAIC helps to look at the current strategy in diversity and helps it improve by construct ing a new policy. The other effective way of applying diversity is through training. Yawen Lai and Brian H. Kleiner (2001) defined â€Å"Diversity training is the process by which a work force is educated about cultural, socio-economic, racial and religious differences among employees and taught how to embrace those differences†. Tthis is similar to Kandola and Fullertons views on diversity management. The most important phrase on the statement is â€Å"process†. This is because employees are required to learn about diversity so diversity becomes one of the top priorities within the organisation. Diversity Training Group (2004) mentions â€Å"Top 10 Reasons Diversity Training Programs Succeed† . It is written by Mauricio Velà ¡squez, and gives 10 principles on effective diversity training. See appendix 3. Diversity management has a good impact on businesses, but it is in no use if the organisations dont conduct diversity in the right way. An example of this is if HR is not involved. In terms of business cases, it is very important that diversity management gets integrated with HR policies and practices. Many, if not all the advantages of diversity management will be successful if they get the backing of HR and the Senior Management. Redman and Wilkinson (2006) indicates â€Å"HR professionals have a wide range of tools available to them for changing the attitudes and the behaviour of their organisations employees.† Form this statement it clearly indicates that HR are influential in the running of the organisation. With the tools HR can attract and retain staff. This example specifically determines how important it is to have HR involved in thriving towards the success of diversity management. A prime example is IKEA. IKEA is a very successful organisation and diversity has played a vital role. IKEA they implemented diversity management during the opening of their first store in Belfast. They demonstrated it by (Business communities 2009) â€Å"the fact that it provides translation for non-UK applicants, both at the recruitment stage and during the induction process†. These polices also helped future employees to reach full potential. Due to HR the policies were successful as HR were involved during the recruitment process. Furthermore IKEA (Business communities 2009) â€Å"continuously promotes cultural diversity through culture and development days.† This process consists of the staff being made aware of the companys diversities ethos during induction. For managers and supervisors there are (Business communities 2009) â€Å" mandatory workshops†. This leads to the staff rating the fairness of their managers, and these ratings are included in the salary review. This process shows IKEAs intentions on diversity management. The Belfast IKEA store was a success it attracted (Business communities 2009) â€Å"3,000 applications were received for 400 jobs†. The diversity work had also dropped the turnover to a low â€Å"9%.† Also, â€Å"external bodies such as Disability Action, Princes Trust and local employability groups† recognised there polices. IKEA also did an advertising campaign on diversity (advertolog 2009) which they called â€Å"long live Diversity†. The number of applicants indicates that if diversity management is done in a right way the organisations reputation will increase resulting in attracting new employees, retaining staff and finally bringing in new customers. Earlier I mentioned two points. The second point relates to Equal Opportunities. Kirton and Greene (2000) said â€Å"equal opportunity exists when all individuals are enabled freely and equally to compete for social category.† Further on Kirton and Greene 2000 mention that people should have the same treatment within the organisation regardless of the individuals social category i.e. gender, disability, age and etc. Equal opportunities can be seen as a free market where everyone is allowed to apply for any jobs and not be discriminated against. A prime example is Torrington, et al. 2005. They say that a selection procedure will not be influenced by stereotypical characteristics. They say â€Å"women will not be prepared to work away from home due to family commitments, that a person with disability will have more time off sick† these are not proven facts but due to these stereotypes many disable workers and women will be discriminated against. This is the reason why equal opportunities legislations are in action. Appendix 1.Northumbria-police-authority (2009) these laws are there to provide a â€Å"level playing field† (Torrington, et al. 2005) for all workers. The legislation ensures that all workers are not at a disadvantage and gives importance to those workers in order for them to compete with other applicants, i.e. â€Å"British Rail has given members of minority groups extra coaching and practice in a selection test for train drivers, as testing taking was not part of their culture† (Torrington, et al. (2005). Equal opportunities will also apply during job advertisement. Organisation will need to be careful of what they write on the job advert, according to an article written by business wings (2009) also agrees with my statement for example â€Å"Avoid stating any requirements that are not directly related to the job such as the candidates marital status or race†. It is very important for the or ganisation not to break the law as there could be hefty penalties as well as the decimation of their reputation. There are various positive to equal opportunities in terms of business case. Redman, T and Wilkinson, A (2006) mentions â€Å"in 1995 the equal opportunities commission launched a campaign to highlight business case for equal opportunities†. This helps link the equal opportunity to organisational goals. One of the positives of equal opportunities is that it brings out the best of HR. It also brings in new business ideas with more diverse work force there would be more ideas generated within the organisation. Kandola and Fullerton (1998) wrote in their book that equal opportunity has changed in recent years. They say â€Å"There is more concern for the business case†. The reason being, organisation look to enhance the profits and reputation, and equal opportunities is one of the important polices that would achieve this. Above is one of the various reasons why businesses integrate equal opportunity and only follow the minimum legal frame work. The foundations of organisations follow the minimum legal frame work that is needed. This is due to the fact that organisations are not simply big enough and do not acquire the resource to carry out diversity management. HR department is one of the vital resources that small organisation lack, HR is a very important asset to an organisation but it is also very costly and the reason why small organisations do not have HR. Another reason why businesses only follow the minimum requirement is the lack the support from Senior Management. For example, a line manger may like to bring in diversity management into the organisation, but due to saving cost or other reasons the Senior Management will reject that proposal. One of the key reasons why organisations follow the minimum obligation is due to the disadvantages of conducting diversity management. One of the disadvantages is means of communicating (CIPD 2009); with different cultures working together they all have different ways opinions, therefore creating conflict within the organisation. It is also difficult when one of the workers has a disability i.e. difficult to speak, this will slow the work down which results in low morale in the workplace. In conclusion, after writing about the diversity management I have realised that it is very important to peruse with diversity management as there are great rewards to be achieved both for the employee and the organisation. Core legal obligation is not the way forward. It is a short term answer to a long term issue. Even with disadvantages of diversity management in mind, the positive outweighs the negative. For example IBM started off by applying minimum obligation in their â€Å"Diversity 1.0† scheme they followed this up by â€Å"diversity 2.0† and now â€Å"Diversity 3.0† (IBM 2009). Then they realised that they could obtain creativity and harmony through diversity management. They believed that a diverse work force can be an advantage â€Å"for innovation†. They also mention â€Å"Our diversity is a competitive advantage and consciously building diverse teams helps us drive the best results for our clients.† (IBM 2009). IBM is one of many examp les of organisations moving towards diversity management hence realising how diversity management impact on the organisation. It is therefore important for all organisations to adopt diversity in order to stay competitive HTTP://WWW.DIVERSITYATWORK.NET/EN/EN_IMPLEMENTING.HTM http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HR022

The Optimists Daughter: A Look at Death and Dying Essays -- Optimist

The Optimist's Daughter: A Look at Death and Dying  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Fay struck out with her hands, hitting at Major Bullock and Mr. Pitts and Sis, fighting with her mother, too, for a moment. She showed her claws at Laurel, and broke from the preachers last-minute arms and threw herself forward across the coffin on to the pillow, driving her lips without aim against the face under hers. She was dragged back into the library, screaming, by Miss Tennyson Bullock, out of sight behind the blanket of greenery. Judge McKelva's smoking chair lay behind them, overturned" (86). This is a short excerpt from The Optimist's Daughter (1972) by the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, Eudora Welty. The story is centered around Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who left her home in the South to live in Chicago. While in Chicago she meets Philip Hand, and they are married. Philip, however, goes to war and never returns. Laurel is now venturing to New Orleans to be with her dying father. After his death Laurel and her obnoxious stepmother, Fay, travel back to Laurel's home town of Mount Salus, Mississippi. Once in Mount Salus, Laurel is greeted with many friends and acquaintances. The whole town has already prepared for Laurel and the remains of her father. The day of the funeral the whole town stops to pay their respects; the school ,the bank, the post office, and the court house all close. The funeral is perfect, but Laurel struggles with letting her father go. Laurel's "bridesmaids" also struggle; the "bridesmaids" are Laurel's closest friends and range from young to elderly women. After the funeral is over Fay returns with her family to Texas for a few days while Laurel finishes saying goodbye to her old house. Fay is very bitter t... ...eels about her. Fay, on the other hand, would be lost without her Texan accent. The Optimist's Daughter opens the mind of the reader to let him see the many reactions of friends and relatives to death and dying. As Fay strikes out during the funeral it is easy to recognize that culture also plays into people's reactions. When Fay kisses her husband goodbye, while he was in the coffin, it is because that is what her mother would have done. It can be very hard to deal with the death of a loved one, but sometimes it is even harder to deal with how others are reacting. The novel explains that, "Memory lived not in initial possession but in the freed hands, pardoned and freed, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns of restored dreams"(179). Works Cited: Welty, Eudora. The Optimist's Daughter. The Vintage Book 1990 Edition. New York.

Christmas As I Know It :: Personal Narrative Religion Papers

Christmas As I Know It Christmas used to be a tradition in my family — or at least I thought so. I had always associated Christmas with Storyland, and since we are Jewish, that always pleased my father. I think he felt comfortable labeling his children Jewish, and as long as that didn’t upset my mother, he would take us to Storyland to help us forget Christmas. But we still got to go to Storyland. Storyland was always closed in December. We drove by my favorite summertime childhood experience, and I watched as we sped by, wondering why I couldn't hear about Mother Gooses children. "Storyland is closed now, honey," my mom said as she glanced in my fathers direction. He seemed to hide behind the steering wheel, almost ashamed of telling me where I thought we were going. But I know that deep down, he was satisfied that for at least the rest of the day, I wouldnt ask him about Christmas. Instead, the real purpose of the drive was to go to the Christmas Farm Inn, a quiet, quaint inn in Jackson, New Hampshire. I think I was four years old when my family started coming to the Christmas Farm Inn. I still dont understand why my father agreed to go each year, but I guess it was only fair to my mom. My mom came from a Lutheran household where Christmas trees and Sunday services were the norm. She agreed to give up part of her past to raise my sister and I Jewish, but the Christmas Farm Inn was her way of celebrating Christmas. We may not have had a family tree, but we still woke up on Christmas morning with presents awaiting us. I remember I loved Christmas Eve dinner. But I also remember how I loved it too much. There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, you name it (its funny how I only eat that type of meal once a year on Thanksgiving, while most of my friends have it on Christmas and Easter as well). After dinner, my family went to a party with all the Inns guests, and I made sure I was the first to sit on Santas lap when it was time to read The Night Before Christmas. A tall, blond-haired man who looked like my elementary school principal read the story out loud and I spent my time listening attentively.

Faulners The Bear :: essays research papers

In many books, there are characters that are written into the story to show the strengths of the main character. In this case it is Ike who because of Boon we see as a main his weaknesses and his strengths. Ike is a young boy who has just come unto the age of a hunter. He’s first time at the camp we see that Ike is a strong young boy whose main fault is his youth. However we meat Boon in the beginning of the story and slowly through out the story we learn that Boon is not perfect and that he is related to Sam Fathers, who is Ike’s teacher. Ike like all main characters show some prevalence over the thing, which holds him back, the woods. Ike slowly becomes a great woodsmen and tracker. Boon is still a man verging on hunter but not one because he doesn’t have the ability to be patient and non-violent when he kills. Ike runs into the indestructible bear Old Ben two times in his growth towards manhood but never with the intention to kill him. So, Ike who Sam Fathers and maybe even Ike himself thought would kill the bear did not get to. Ike even though not able to kill the bear becomes an awesome tracker and a great woodsman. He says at one point in the book that he knows the woods better then Sam Fathers. Ike is slowly becoming not only a man but also a hunter. He loves the wilderness and has gone into the woods with nothing except his close and come back out fine, This is to prove though that even in his youth Ike is a great hunter and that it is his right to kill the bear and not anyone elses, however Faulner decided that Boon should kill the bear.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Boon ends up killing the bear that everyone thought was invincible with a knife which seems very much the way a real hunter would have done it, this shows that Boon in his own way is a hunter and not a straggler who just hangs around the camp for free drink. Since boon killed the bear, he becomes insane and once more becomes a pygmy as Faulkner says. Someone who is afraid of the woods and kills with the intent to kill not eat.

Grear Rafting Analysis

Introduction Grear Rafting Company, owned by Peggy Grear is a company that provides rafting services to rafters. Grear Rafting Company, henceforth referred to as Grear Rafting, has just gone through its first season in business on which it provided rafting services to 1,048 rafters for seven (7) days. During these seven (7) days, Grear Rafting also provided meals to the rafters three times a day, it also provides the rafts used during the season. During its first season, however, Grear Rafting experienced a loss.Peggy Grear has enough savings to get Grear Rafting through another season or two of business, but Grear Rafting would have to shut its business down if it does not make a profit (Houston Baptist University, 2012). In this paper, I would show what Grear Rafting requires to break-even and make a profit. Grear Rafting’s income statement from its first season is shown below on Table 1. Table 1. Grear Rafting CompanyIncome StatementYear Ended December 31, 2012| Revenue | | $1,048,000| Rental Expense| (208,600)| |Meals Expense| (314,400)| | Advertising Expense| (50,000)| | Compensation to Guides| (471,600)| | Salary Expense| (16,500)| | T-shirts and Hats Expense| (31,440)| | Office Utility Expense| (3,850)| | Gross Income (Loss)| | $(48,390)| Variable and Fixed Costs There are different types of costs associated with the running of Grear Rafting. In order to develop a plan for Grear Rafting to make a profit, it is necessary to identify those costs that can be changed, and those that cannot be changed. 1. Variable Cost:A variable cost is a cost that increases in total as output increases and decreases in total as output decreases. (Rich et al, 2010). For example, cotton used in making cotton shirts is a variable cost. As a company makes more cotton shirts, it needs more cotton to produce the shirts. The variable costs incurred by Grear Rafting are: * Meals provided to rafters ($314,400): the rafting trip is for seven (7) days, so as more rafters use G rear Rafting’s services, Grear Rafting would incur more costs in providing meals to the rafters for the time period of seven (7) days.If less rafters use Grear Rafting, the cost of providing meals would decrease. * Compensation paid to guides ($471,600): the compensation paid to the guides is paid on commission basis. Therefore, if more rafters use Grear Rafting’s services, the commission to the guides would increase, causing the compensation cost to increase as well, and if less rafters use Grear Rafting’s services, the compensation cost would also decrease. * T-shirts and hats provided to rafters ($31,440): the number of rafters that used Grear Rafting this season was 1,048.This incurred the cost of t-shirts and hats of $31,440. If more rafters come in the next season, the cost of providing t-shirts and hats would also increase. So also, if fewer rafters come in the next season, the cost of providing t-shirts and hats would decrease. 2. Fixed Cost: A fixed cos t is a cost that does not increase as total output increases and does not decrease as total output decreases. For example, the cost of property taxes on a factory stays the same no matter how much the factory produces.The quantity produced does not have an effect on the cost of property taxes; they only change because the city or county government raises taxes (Rich et al, 2010). Fixed costs incurred by Grear Rafting in its first season include: * Rental cost of rafts and camping equipment ($208,600): the rafts and equipment are rented on an annual basis, and additional rafts and equipment are not available to Grear Rafting. Since the rafts and equipment are rented annually, the number of rafters does not affect the cost of the rafts and equipment because these are rented not based on the number of rafters expected, but based on what is available. Advertising expense ($50,000): the cost for advertising Grear Rafting does not depend on how many rafters use Grear Rafting. Advertising is a way to introduce the company to the public, and whatever advertising means Peggy Grear decides to use is billed to Grear Rafting no matter how many rafters it serves. * Salary of office manager ($16,500): the salary paid to the office manager is a fixed cost because no matter how many rafters come for the season, the salary is an established amount that is agreed upon by the manager and Peggy Grear.Therefore, the cost of paying salary to the manager is fixed and is not based on how many rafters there are in the season. * Office utility expense ($3,850): this expense is a fixed cost because it is based on the utility that is used in the office and not on the number of rafters there are. Product and Period Costs 1. Product Cost: Product costs are costs, both direct and indirect, of producing a product in a manufacturing firm or of acquiring a product in a merchandising firm and preparing it for sale (Rich et al, 2010).For example, the metal used in making a car, the hours put int o making that car, and depreciation on equipment are product costs. The product costs incurred by Grear Rafting include: * Rental cost of rafts and camping equipment ($208,600): this is a product cost because the rafts and camping equipment are rented for the current season. These would be used during the rafting season at Grear Rafting. * Meals provided to rafters ($314,400): this is a product cost because the meals are provided for the rafters during the seven (7) days they are rafting.The meals are not prepared for the long-run, but only for the space of time for the rafting season for Grear Rafting. * Compensation paid to guides ($471,600): the compensation paid to the guides is a product cost because the compensation is paid for the specific rafting season concerned; it is not a long term payment to the guides. * T-shirts and Hats provided to rafters ($31,440): this is a product cost because the t-shirts and hats provided to the rafters are purchased for the specific season bas ed on how many rafters available. They are not purchased on a long-term basis. . Period Cost: Period costs are costs that are not carried in inventory; all costs that are not product costs. That is, all areas of the value chain except for production (Rich et al, 2010). For example, costs of advertising, salaries to the CEO, and research and development activities are not added to inventory, thereby making them period costs (Rich et al, 2010). The period costs incurred by Grear Rafting include: * Advertising expense ($50,000): the advertising cost is only incurred when Grear Rafting advertises the company for rafting services. Salary of office manager ($16,500): the salary of the office manager is a cost that does not deal with production, or in this case, with the activities of Grear Rafting during this season. * Office utility expense ($3,850): this is a period cost because the cost is expensed in the period it occurs. Break-Even Based on the information provided earlier, there are several changes Peggy Grear can make that would affect Grear Rafting’s ability to break-even or even make a profit. A breakeven point is the point where total revenues equal total cost, and net income is zero (0).Break-even can be calculated in sales dollars and in units. Break-even is calculated by dividing total fixed cost by the price minus the variable cost per unit; and break-even in sales dollars is calculated by dividing total fixed expenses by the contribution margin ratio. The contribution margin ratio is the percentage of sales dollars remaining after variable costs are covered (Rich et al, 761). The table below is a contribution margin income statement from which we can understand how to calculate break-even. Table 2.Grear Rafting CompanyContribution Margin Income StatementYear Ended December 31, 2012| Sales ($1,000 X 1,048)Total variable expenses Total contribution marginTotal fixed expenses Operating Income| Total$1,048,000 817,440 230,560 278,950 (48,390)| Per Unit$1,000 780 220 | Contribution Margin Income Statement Contribution margin is the difference between sales and variable expenses. It is the amount of sales revenue left over after all the variable expenses are covered that can be used to contribute to fixed expense and operating income (Rich et al, 758).To calculate break-even, the Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis is needed. CVP analysis estimates how changes in costs, both variable and fixed, sales, volume, and price affect a company’s profit. CVP, an important tool used by managerial accountants, is used to reach important benchmarks such as a company’s break-even point. It is useful to organize costs into variable and fixed components for a CVP analysis. The contribution margin income statement format is based on the separation of costs into variable and fixed components. Table two (2) above shows the format for the contribution margin income statement.When recast as an equation, the contribution margin income s tatement becomes more useful for solving CVP problems. The operating income equation can be expanded by expressing sales revenues and variable expenses in terms of unit dollar amounts and the number of units sold. So, the operating income equation becomes: Operating income = (Price x number of units sold) – (Variable cost per unit x Number of units sold) – Total fixed cost (Rich et al, 758). For a company to break-even, its operating income should equal zero (0). Grear Rafting’s break-even point will be calculated in units and in sales dollars.For Grear Rafting to break-even, we need to consider the number of rafters that came for the past rafting season. Grear Rafting had 1,048 rafters in the past season; to be able to reach break-even, Grear Rafting needs approximately 1,268 rafters. This was determined by dividing the total fixed cost ($278,950) by the price per rafter ($1,000) minus the variable cost per unit ($780). To calculate the break-even point in sale s dollars, total variable costs are defined as a percentage of sales rather than as an amount per unit sold. The break-even point in sales dollars for Grear Rafting is $1,268,000).This was calculated by dividing the total fixed cost ($278,950) by the contribution margin ratio (22%) which was calculated by dividing the contribution margin per unit ($220) by the price per rafter ($1,000). The contribution margin per unit was calculated by subtracting the variable cost per unit ($780) from the price per rafter ($1,000). To determine how Grear Rafting can make a profit, there are several costs that need to be reduced. First, however, it is necessary to determine the number of rafters Grear Rafting needs to achieve a target income that would yield a profit.If Grear Rafting’s target income is $49,000, then the number of units it needs to earn it can be calculated by adding the total fixed cost ($278,950) to the target income ($49,000) and dividing it by the price ($1,000) minus the variable cost per unit ($780). The number of units Grear Rafting needs to earn its target income is $1,490. 68 or approximately $1,491 rafters. Therefore, Grear Rafting’s margin of safety in units, which is calculated by subtracting break-even units (1,268) from sales (1,491), is 223 units, and ts margin of safety in sales dollars, which is calculated by subtracting the break-even volume ($1,268,000) from the revenue ($1,491,000), is $223,000. Recommendations Meals: The first cost that needs to be tackled is the cost of meals to the rafters. The cost of meals provided to the rafters in Grear Rafting’s first season cost $314,000. It can be deduced that Grear Rafting is spending a lot of money on meals for the rafters. To reduce the amount of money spent on meals, Grear Rafting could look for cheaper means of providing meals to the rafters. Impact of Recommendations Conclusion References

A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)