Thursday, November 28, 2019
Essay Examples on The Great Gatsby Essay Example
Essay Examples on The Great Gatsby Paper 1st Essay Sample on The Great Gatsby In the book the Great Gatsby, none but a few people had the idealistic American Dream. To some characters it seems the American Dream, has replaced by materialism and greed. What does the American Dream mean? What does it stand for? If a person has achieved their American Dream how should they go about living?The American Dream is the vision to be successful and to provide from and family the best way you can. Their dream is to also have money. In the book the Great Gatsby there are many characters with money. Someone who assume they have really accomplished their mission to have the American Dream. Confused with the tremendous mansions, jewelry, fancy cars and clothes, however they have yet to discover the feeling of the American Dream. These characters are reluctant to live their lives on a positive note. Therefore, they peruse lives of materialism and greed. The characters such ass Tom and Daisy Buchanhan, Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson have all misplaced the American Dream with materialism and greed. Tom Buchanhan has replaced the American Dream with materialism and greed in many ways. He works for nothing he has and plays all day. Another thing he does which takes up much of his time is have an affair. Never the less he has his wife Daisy sitting in his huge mansion alone with his daughter which he barley sees regularly. He has an Affair with a woman named Myrtle Wilson. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on The Great Gatsby specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on The Great Gatsby specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on The Great Gatsby specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer A woman who has no feeling for anybody but herself and cares about living the highlife rather than living he own life.She lives to have Tom shower her with gifts and take her as her number one priority. Jay Gatsbys obsession with materialism and greed is somewhat different from others in the novel. Gatsby had an overwhelming love for Daisy, Tom Buchanhans wife. He felt so in love that his greediness of mind overwhelmed his actions. He began buying jewelry, furniture, clothes, automobiles and mansions to buy her love. 2nd Essay Sample on The Great Gatsby Throughout F. Scott Fitzgeralds letter to Scottie we identify his anger yet attends carefully to his audience.We will examine in depth Fitzgeralds relationship with Scottie. In Fitzgeralds letter his anger towards his young adolescent daughter Scottie age twelve is evident.Fitzgerald quickly establishesa connection from one genre to another.He takes stand by expressing his feelings and concerns with use of wit and humour. Evidently F. Scott attends carefully to his audience, his letter is geared to a adolescent, young adult audience. The letter is written with human experiences to deal specifically to this specific genre.This then shows realization to the audience that he in fact is concerned and wants the best for Scottie. I personally feel that F.Scott Fitzgeralds letter was appropriate for its intention of guidance.H e expressed his anger midly, with the use of humour, wit, concern.He makes the generation gap evident.He saysyou think of me as an older person, an authority†¦ for the young cant believe in the youth of their fathers.F. Scott uses his past experiences and knowledge to guide his troubled daughter in the right foot steps intellectually and emotionally.Scotties lack of interest and guidance is evident as Fitzgerald says, you will reject it now but at a later period some of it may come back to you as truth. In conclusion, F. Scott development of letter writing has proven to attend to his audience with great interest. It was evident that his letter to Scottie was appropriate and indeed has yielded a strong message through letter writing.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
French Verbs of Perception Follow Their Own Drum Beat
French Verbs of Perception Follow Their Own Drum Beat French verbs of perception are verbs that, logically enough, indicate a perception or sensation. There are six common French verbs of perception:    apercevoir to catch a glimpse of   à ©couter  to listen to   entendre  to hear   regarder  to watch   sentir  to feel   voir  to see Verbs of perception and sensation may be followed by a noun or an infinitive. Note that in this construction, the French infinitive following the verb of perception is often translated into English as a present participle.For example:   Japerà §ois un arbre.I see (a glimpse of) a tree.    Japerà §ois tomber un arbre.I see (a glimpse of) a tree falling.   Jà ©coute les enfants.Im listening to the children.    Jà ©coute parler les enfants.Im listening to the children talking.    Jentends les à ©tudiants.I hear the students.Jentends arriver les à ©tudiants.I hear the students arriving.    Je regarde là ©quipe.Im watching the team.    Je regarde jouer là ©quipe.Im watching the team play.    Je sens le vent.I feel the wind.Je sens souffler le vent.I feel the wind blowing.    Je vois le chien.I see the dog.Je vois courir le chien.I see the dog running. Word Order With Verbs of Perception Word order with French verbs of perception depends on whether the infinitive has a subject and/or object and whether these are nouns or pronouns. How do you know whether the noun or pronoun that precedes the verb is the subject or the direct object? If the noun or pronoun is the person or thing performing the action of the infinitive, it is the subject of the infinitive. If the person or pronoun is not performing the action but rather is being performed by the infinitive, it is the direct object. When the infinitive has either a subject pronoun or object pronoun, it must be placed in front of the main verb. Subject    Jentends les enfants arriver.(I hear the children arriving.)Je les entends arriver.Je regarde la fille à ©crire.(I see the girl writing.)Je la regarde à ©crire. Object    Jentends lire lhistoire.(I hear the story being read.)Je lentends lire.    Je vois coudre une robe.(I see the dress being sewn.)Je la vois coudre. If the infinitive has a non-pronoun direct object and no subject, it must be placed after the infinitive.    Jentends lire lhistoire.(I hear the story being read.)    Je vois coudre une robe.(I see the dress being sewn.)    Je regarde nettoyer la chambre.(Im watching the room being cleaned.) If the infinitive has a non-pronoun subject and no object, the subject can be placed either before or after the infinitive.    Jentends les enfants arriver.Jentends arriver les enfants.(I hear the children arriving.)    Je regarde la fille à ©crire.Je regarde à ©crire la fille.(Im watching the girl write.)    Je sens le vent souffler.Je sens souffler le vent.(I feel the wind blowing.) If the infinitive has a non-pronoun subject as well as an object, you must place the subject in front of the infinitive and the object after it.    Jentends les enfants casser le jouet.(I hear the children breaking the toy.)    Je regarde le monsieur à ©crire une lettre.(Im watching the man write a letter.)    Je sens le vent caresser ma peau.(I feel the wind caressing my skin.) If the subject is a pronoun (a.), it precedes the conjugated verb. If the object is a pronoun (b.), it precedes the infinitive.    a. Je les entends casser le jouet.(I hear them breaking the toy.)b. Jentends les enfants le casser.(I hear the children breaking it.)    a. Je le regarde à ©crire une lettre.(Im watching him write a letter.)b. Je regarde un monsieur là ©crire.(Im watching a man write it.)    a. Je le sens caresser ma peau.(I feel it caressing my skin.) b. Je sens le vent la caresser.(I feel the wind caressing it.) If both the subject and object are pronouns, you must place the subject in front of the main verb and the object after it.    Je les entends le casser.(I hear them breaking it.)    Je le regarde là ©crire.(Im watching him write it.)    Je le sens la caresser(I feel it caressing it.) Agreement With Verbs of Perception The rules of agreement for verbs of perception in the compound tenses are a bit different than for other verbs. Rather than agreeing with the direct object, as for most verbs conjugated with avoir in the compound tenses, verbs of perception only require agreement when the subject precedes the verb. How do you know whether the noun or pronoun that precedes the verb is the subject or the direct object? If it is the person or thing performing the action of the infinitive, it is the subject of the infinitive and follows agreement rule 1 below. If it is not performing the action but rather is being performed on by the infinitive, it is the direct object and follows rule 2 below. 1. If the subject of the infinitive precedes the verb of perception, there is agreement:    Jai vu tomber la fille.I saw the girl fall.La fille que jai vue tomber.Je lai vue tomber.    Jai regardà ©Ã‚ les enfants à ©crire.I watched the children write.Les enfants que jai regardà ©s à ©crire.Je les ai regardà ©s à ©crire.    Jai entendu arriver les à ©tudiants.I watched the students arrive.Les à ©tudiants que jai entendus arriver.Je les ai entendus arriver. 2. There is no agreement with the direct object of the infinitive.    Jai vu les enfants à ©crire les lettres.(Enfants is the subject; lettres is the direct object. Even if we leave out enfants, lettres is still the direct object, so there is no agreement.)Jai vu à ©crire les lettres.I saw the letters get writtenLes lettres que jai vu à ©crire.Je les ai vu à ©crire.    Jai entendu le monsieur lire une histoire.(Monsieur is the subject; histoire is the direct object.)Jai entendu lire une histoireI heard a story get read.Lhistoire que jai entendu lire.Je lai entendu lire.    Jai à ©coutà © une fille chanter les cantiques.(Fille is the subject; cantiques is the direct object.)Jai à ©coutà © chanter les cantiques.I listened to the hymns (get) sung.Les cantiques que jai à ©coutà © chanter.Je les ai à ©coutà © chanter.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Ami-Quebec and Forward House Community Service Essay
Ami-Quebec and Forward House Community Service - Essay Example The researcher visited Ami- Quebec community center and Forward House community center. Ami-Quebec community center is located in Boulevard Decarie, Montreal in Canada. Its contact numbers are (514-486-1448) for those within Montreal and (1-877-303-0264) for those outside Montreal. Ami-Quebec is a mental facility that aims at helping families cope with the effects of mental illness through education, information, support, and advocacy. The center also aims at raising public awareness of mental illnesses and dispelling the shame and stigma surrounding mental illness. Ami-Quebec center adopts various programs to support the community. One of the programs adopted is the education programs. This program aims at educating families living with Borderline Personality Disorder. The other program is through the use of support groups. These groups allow the interaction of peers through weekly private sessions whereby members are encouraged to share in a small group setting. Similarly, the faci lity makes use of counseling as a one-on-one service program that addresses the challenges encountered by caregivers when providing care to someone with a mental illness. Forward House community is located in Parksville, Canada. The facility provides care to patients with persistent mental health and addiction recovery. The facility aims at meeting the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs of the clients, both the patients and their families and friends. This facility has several partners.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 42
English - Essay Example The answer is that there are serious problems in terms of distribution. Food is not accessible to everyone. Some governments, for example, steal food from their people. They might buy large quantities of rice on the world market and store it in warehouses hoping to resell it when the price goes up, instead of giving it to the people who need it most. This is a serious problem. Also, may poor countries have bad infrastructure. They simply lack the ports, railways, and roads that are needed to distribute food to rural areas. If a country lacks a port to bring in cargo it can be much more difficult to feed people. In Africa this has long been a problem. Fortunately new infrastructure is being built by the Chinese there which will hopefully alleviate the problem. Hunger is a terrible problem. But the cause is not necessarily or simply a lack of food. In order to solve this problem we need to empower people to build up their infrastructure so as to have better access to food. Mad Max Auto is a famous car company. We have a good market share, but we are looking to expand in a new direction. For the last few years there has been a lot of talk about the environment and about how to go green and save the planet. This is becoming a very important part of the decision consumers make when they buy a car. Therefore, I, as CEO, have become convinced that we need to make our cars greener. We need to develop the ultimate green car. This change in the culture has been several years in the making. People have slowly been learning more about climate change. They want to change their buying habits to reflect their new â€Å"green consciousness.†When they look at cars, they no longer want a big gas guzzlerâ€â€they want something that will have low emissions and use less gas. They want something they will good about. In short, they want a car that makes them feel like a good person rather than a wasteful person. As a businessman it’s very important that I make note of changes
Monday, November 18, 2019
Course of Conduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Course of Conduct - Essay Example an who acts voluntarily does so at his own peril and is liable for the consequences of the actions voluntarily undertaken, whether intended or as a result of failure to obey the duty of care he owes to other parties. Using the cases of Lynch v. Fisher and Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road, the paper also investigates which of the two theories is more compelling. Contrary to the view advanced by the criminalist theory by Austin, the mental anticipation of risk must never be required as an element for the imputation of the tort liability. This is because such a legal dimension would permit the incorporation of several unjustified assumptions. These assumptions would more often than not lead to high level miscarriage of justice. â€Å"It might be assumed that trespass is founded on the defendant having caused damage by his act without regard to negligence†(Lynch v. Fisher 2). Secondly, it is very difficult for the jury to determine with certainty, the mental intentions of the act, which was done sometime in the past and damages incurred by another party. Oliver Wendell Holmes points that every man assumes the risk of his acts, be it the consequences are intended, or not, since the acts are voluntary, as demonstrated in the case of Lynch v. Fisher. In ordering, the restatement of the Law of tort’s section 435, the Louisiana appellate court upheld an earlier ruling in which the defendant, Gunter was charged with and convicted for negligence that resulted in physical injury of the plaintiff. This was done on three major grounds; the claim that the defendant was delirious at the time he shot the plaintiff and that he was out of his mind and suffering from temporary derangement of intellect, was rejected on the grounds that because of the defendant’s own negligence, he temporarily lost his power to reason. Additionally, all the rescue efforts had been made and that the actions by the plaintiff were just before the shooting, given that he was giving comfort to the
Friday, November 15, 2019
Theories and Approaches to Learning
Theories and Approaches to Learning Write about helpful and unhelpful approaches to learning during your own education. What was positive about those approaches? Did they reflect or express any particular theories of learning? Life is a learning experience. When I was a young girl I was so confident and positive about what I wanted. Maths and Science were my favourite subjects but I was not given freedom to learn as I wanted to learn these subjects. I realized this after I gained a very good experience in teaching primary school children. Student motivation is rooted in students subjective experiences, especially those connected to their willingness to engage in lessons and learning activities and their reasons for doing so. (Brophy, 2004, p. 4) According to Brophy, I must say learning is, interesting fun and exciting when the curriculum is well matched to students interests and abilities and the teacher emphasizes hands-on activities in order to keep the students busy and engaged. When the teacher teaches the right things the right way, motivation takes place by itself. If students are not enjoying learning, something is wrong with the curriculum and teachers instruction. At times I felt my school life was boring and frustrating because I hated all subjects except Maths and Science. I had to sit and listen to longtime instructions and copy the notes from the chalk board. I managed myself for learning because I had to show the Progress Report with good grades to my dad. Ê »Science is like everything, I guess and I think everything has a science to it. [When] baking cookies you have to add the right amount of eggs and milk and stuff like that (Kaufman, Moss, Osborn, 2003, p. 48) As I agree with Kaufman, Moss Osborns point of view, these two subjects add lot of fun to learning as they contain lot of practical activities which are conducted in the school laboratory. I loved to learn through doing and touching, it is because I had trouble sitting still and learning. My worst day during Science period was when my teacher said no when I offered him my help to fix the Bunsen burner to the gas cylinder. He said ‘you are still young so must stay away. Now I understand that I was a kinaesthetic learner that time, my teacher could have engaged me in his work because I could be better able to understand information by doing hands-on activities. I am not going to blame my teacher for this because at the time of my learning teacher centred education was given importance by educators. If teachers are able to understand childrens learning needs, it will reduce lot of frustration like homework incompletion, failures in assessments and sports and speaking in public. A s long as I know sometimes kids are just doing what works for them but, the curriculum in practice when I was in school did not cater the childs individual needs and the educators did not consider the childs learning style. I know that cognitive focuses on the inner mental activities such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving so, I think at cognitive stage the children should be catered carefully according to their learning needs. I gained lot of experience in teaching, today I am an experienced teacher, I wish I was my teacher when I was in school because when I was a child I did not get what I give to the pupils in my classroom now. As a teacher, I work in my classroom according to my childrens expectations. I believe in group work, differentiated planning, reading a lot for fun, guided reading, shared reading, classroom policies, and ongoing assessments which help me know the level of progress frequently. The few hyperactive boys in my classroom are always my helpers; they are always engaged in classroom jobs. In a typical classroom, some children process information best by hearing the teacher explain it, some learn by seeing whats on the chalkboard, and others learn through hands-on exercises. Nowadays colleges have increasingly begun teaching new students about learning styles so they can develop effective study habits. Three basic learning styles are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual. Auditory learners prefer listening to explanations over reading them and like to study by reciting information aloud. These types of learners may want to have background music while studying, or they may be distracted by noises and need a quiet space to study. Kinaesthetic learners learn by doing and touching. They may have trouble sitting still while studying, and they are better able to understand information by writing it down or doing hands on activities. Visual learners process new information by reading, looking at pictures, or watching a demonstration but, they may grow impatient listening to an explanation. I still remember the learning style and classroom setting when I was small which is mostly similar to what shown on the video clip of ‘The four UK teachers experience in a Kenyan school. At least for ten years my classroom strength was 35-40 children, our tables and chairs were laid in rows, teachers table and the chalk board was at the front of the class. The classroom layout was so congested, though we learnt how to move around without any incidents, our teachers never approached each table in order to assist the individual needs. Teacher instruction was mostly lecture based and activities contained more board work. We were never treated according to our learning styles which are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual instead the whole class was given the same type of activities only the able children understood them and completed on time and the rest were neglected. Regret to say that our teachers failed to realise that all of us are designed to absorb information differently; each learning style results in people with various interests, desires and talents and learning is more fun and effective when the teachers look into multiple learning styles. Children learn more efficiently on their own way and can reach their potential by working smarter. Once a teacher identifies the childs learning style, she can give that child the freedom to learn which will support his work at home, at school, and in life. Once my English language teacher asked us to write a simple paragraph on ‘Good Schools, since I like role play activities, I wrote the paragraph and drew pictures of girls and wrote two dialogues in the speech bubbles as they speak the positive things in the school. My teacher saw my work and crossed out the picture and said ‘this is not required here. That time I took this as my teachers valid point of view but later when I became a te acher I thought my teacher should have appreciated my speech bubbles and corrected the sentences or showed me what rules I should follow when I write statements in the speech bubbles. In this way the teacher put a full stop to my desire in learning or trying new concepts. The educators should be able to understand the learning styles of the learners and should provide opportunities accordingly. A kinaesthetic learner should be given more activity based work, for an example- in maths lesson for addition; this type of a learner can be given counters rather than asking him to work out the sums mentally. Kinaesthetic learners should be able to experience and explore the learning aids/ models which are available in the classroom or lab. Learners with strength for visual learning tend to process information by visualizing and seeing it. During a PD training which I attended recently I learnt that about 65% of the population prefers to learn visually. Visual learners in schools can be given opportunities to use colors to organize, receive written instructions and lists, look at graphics like film, flow charts, or diagrams, use visualization when memorizing information, take detailed notes and draw graphics as they learn by looking. People with strength for a uditory learning tend to remember information they hear and discuss. According to what I learnt, about 30% of the population prefers learning with an auditory style. Auditory learners in the classroom can be given recordings of materials like video clips of rhymes or documentaries to be learned; can participate in discussions or discussion groups, have questions read out loud, receive verbal instructions and read written information out loud. It is very sad to say at the time of my learning in the schools I did not see teachers had any knowledge of the types of learners and teach them according to their needs but learning was on going in the classroom. If this is the case how did I learn? This is a very difficult question for me to answer. The learning theories of the school where I studied were forced me to learn in the way I did not want to, the classroom instruction in my school life was mostly suitable for visual learners as there were activities like reading text with pictures, key points of the lesson given on the chalk board and copying texts from the chalk board to the note books. There were hardly any resources around the classrooms; the teaching aids were the text books, chalk board and the chalks. I liked to spend more time in the Science lab its because of the laboratory equipment which our Science/Maths teacher used during practical lessons. I enjoyed these subjects though there were limited resources available in the school lab; the teachers conducted the lessons as for the whole class without realizing the individual needs of the children. I did not study the English language as the way I studied Maths/Science. English was taught through visualizing things, long instructions and reading paragraphs in tex ts. If teachers use a lecture style for instruction, the English language learner will not receive as much comprehensible input. (Haynes, 2007, p. 6) Haynes argument is right. I became impatient listening for long periods during English. Once my English teacher caught me reading my favourite story book in the class and said ‘you must spend time with your text books, you should never read story books it is a waste of time. I followed her instructions and never read story books ever since she told me. Why did not this teacher realize that reading open doors for many worlds? Had I read a lot or be encouraged to read that time I would have had a rich vocabulary when I entered the High school. Another day a story teller visited our school to read stories to each year group and involved the students in making story props and acting out the stories. This was the most enjoyable moment during my English lesson; I had an opportunity to learn new vocabularies too. Everyone had fun during this lesson because the story teller involved each and every student in a kind of activity. Another issue was no school policies were read to us on the first day of school as there were no many policies constructed for the school at that time. We knew how to go in a line to the library, hitting and verbally abusing the peers not allowed, wore neat uniform every day, respect the teachers and so on but we were never taught any of these. I think the hidden curriculum in my school was stronger than the curriculum which was in use that time. Then I moved to a college for my higher education. I can say from my college experience that many higher education instructors still do not realize that students vary in the way that they process and understand information or attempt to respond to those differences in their pedagogical efforts. Effective teaching cannot be limited to the delivery of information; instead it needs to be based on a model of minds at work. Effective instructors are those who understand the importance of involving all of their students in learning how to learn. Effective learners are created when instructors affirm the presence and validity of diverse learning. At the college level the cognitive development occurs at the same pace but the learners experience different kind of problems or issues due to many changes. One of them is ‘culture shock. Newcomers have usually left behind family members, friends, teachers, and pets. They are no longer surrounded by a familiar language and culture. Children often do not have the full support of their parents because the parents are experiencing culture shock, too. (Haynes, 2007, p. 2) I agree with Hayens because the greater the difference between the students new culture and the students primary culture, the greater the shock. During this stage, I as a newcomer was excited about the new lives. Everything was wonderful and we were having great time learning about the environment. For me the differences between the new culture and the old one become more apparent. I rejected my new surroundings because there was so much that I did not understand. At times I felt sleepy, irritable, uninterested, or depressed; there were few more students who felt the same as I did. In my college the English language learners were frustrated because they could not communicate and are bombarded with unfamiliar surroundings, unreadable social signals, and an unrelenting barrage of new sounds. I was homesick and missed my family, friends, and familiar sights and sounds but, our instructors failed to realise this and started their duty stuffing our brain with Physics, Chemistry and Biolo gy. I was compelled to listen and follow what they instructed but, I did not know how much I learnt at that stage. In fact, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the lectures though we were forced to learn what we were supposed to, because the instructors knew so much about the subject taught. At times I asked myself, how did the instructors prepare themselves so well in order to answer all types of questions asked by the students? I saw them as good role models from the way they socialized with others, and delivered the content of the subjects during lectures. Listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge but, most of the time I felt that the instructors could have included videos to their instructions, involved us in presentations or group discussions as I loved these types of activities. ACTIVITY 2: Why are theories of learning important? Write down some initial thoughts about your own priorities at this stage of your development as a (head) teacher. To what extent do your own current priorities coincide with the priorities mentioned above? There are many different theories of how people learn. What important and useful is to consider their application to how our students learn and we teach our educational programs. It is interesting to think about our own particular way of learning and to recognize that everyone does not learn the way we do. In my opinion one of the main points is a teacher should know that each student does not learn in the same way others do. This means if the teacher chooses just one style of teaching such as direct instruction or collaborative learning or inquiry learning the students will not be maximizing their learning potential. For sure a teacher cannot reach every student on the same level during one lesson, but implementing a variety of learning styles throughout the course allows all the students to experience the chance to learn in at least a way that matches their learning style. Most of the materials used to educate students beyond primary school are largely text and lecture based, which have significant limitations. Those students are not involved in group work or discussion activities. Reading is a very important learning mode but, not all students learn effectively from reading. There are students who do not like reading a lot but, respond better to visual and audio stimuli of lecture but often get lost in the material or lose interest in the presentation. In this type of a learning environment, students have limited opportunity to ask questions or may be uncomfortable asking a question in front of the class. So the learning theories we have should cater the individual needs of the children. I believe student learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the help of the teacher along the way. Therefore the learners should be involved in activity based learning and given the freedom to use the classroom resources around them. Another im portant point is that the best way to learn is by having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. For an example, for giving them the concept of Addition they should be given counters or an abacus to find the sum of two numbers rather than explaining this on the chalk board. For the language development they should be given activities for listening and writing which will be an interesting activity too. Science and Geography can be taught through pictures, video clips, lab work with a lot of experiments and the use of internet. At times I did not get the clear concepts of the subject taught when I attended the lecture type classes but I had an opportunity to understand better when I was asked to teach the same concept to someone else on my own. An experienced teacher should always use cognitive terminology such as classify, analyze, predict, and create when assigning tasks to the students, this helps the students to explore and research to find lot of information about the subject. We should encourage student critical thinking and inquiry by asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and encourage them to ask questions to each other. Further, we should provide enough time for students to construct their own meaning when learning something new. We should acknowledge that, students understanding and prior experiences about a concept before teaching them, which is as vital as breathing. Group discussions that we organize should encourage communication between the teacher and the students and also between the students. All learning and some elements of non-learning begin with situations where there is a disjuncture between a learners biography (past experiences) and their construction of present experience. (Jarvis, Holford Griffin, 2003, p. 70) As Jarvis, Holford Griffin explain educators should pay importance to the childs prior learning experience in order to give them the proper foundation on learning. In the school where I work the children speak English as a second language therefore I had to construct my learning theories according to their past experience with the language of English. One of the word level objectives of English for first graders is ‘to represent in writing the three phonemes in CVC words, spelling them first in rhyming sets, then in non-rhyming sets. This is a very simple objective but difficult for a first grader in my school as their prior knowledge in English is zero due to use of no English at home. In that case if I as a teacher insist them to learn this objective then I will be committing a crime for not having any knowledge on their biography. So it is vital for me to spend correcting prior knowledge before new learning can occur, in fact we in our school where I work now spend at least 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the first term to learn the biography of the children. Teachers must be fair in distributing their praise and all students should receive praise. They should look for positive things to say about a students work even when pointing out problems or mistakes during lesson. Some might receive praise for bigger achievements than others but, even the lower performer needs a regular pat on the back. Teacher should also give praise or verbal rewards to the class as a whole to encourage the class and build team unity. True, the learning theories help support planning and teaching, help to critically evaluate classroom practice and help in the diagnosis of classroom problems but in my opinion the important person who constructs the learning theories in the classroom is the teacher who is not given enough opportunities to implement these in her classroom to experience the consequences. I hear teachers of other schools say that excess amount of paper work and work load do not provide enough time to engage the children on learning. In the school where I work our teachers are not given extra duties such as after school duty, snack duty etc in order to make sure that they spend more time in the classroom and prepare for students learning. We have special subject teachers for ICT, Physical Education and second languages so the class teachers can concentrate only on the core subjects like Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Geography. One may ask, why do our teachers are kept away from teaching ICT? In my opi nion ICT should be integrated in learning however, in some cases, teachers feel ICT increases their workload, with some tasks taking longer time to complete. This can often be traced to one or more of: a lack confidence or lack of ICT skills, ineffective networks or a lack of appropriate training or technical support. To reduce teacher workloads in our schools in future, ICT strategies will be included specific workload aims although this should not be at the impression of continuing to find ways in which ICT can raise quality and pupil performance. (We are planning to improve ICT strategic planning through strategic aims, hardware, software, connectivity, technical support and staff training and development in future and involve the teachers in integrating ICT to learning). Staff meeting or Curriculum meeting is conducted only once a week, which helps the teachers to spend more time with their work in the classroom and during their non contact periods they are supposed to prepare additional activities for the lesson they have planned. Progress Report for the pupils are being sent only thrice a year rather than every month, the teachers in our school have to spend less time dealing with behavioural issues because we have well constructed standardized policies for discipline, behaviour, uniform, food and bus and the Social worker is highly involved in implementing the policies. In our school calendar there are few days allocated as ‘Staff in Students out for professional development which is very important for the educators to upgrade their skills. I have seen few schools in this country utilize the student time I mean have shortened day in order to organise PD for the staff. In some schools teachers spend most of their time on disciplining the children and dealing with behavioural issues because of the weak hidden curriculum in place and no proper plan or policies to manage these types of issues there. Some educators want to expose themselves as good teachers or professional and show that they can manage the children very well, so they spend more time on putting up class displays, classroom management and less time on teaching the children. I have seen educators who work only for survival, their aim is to spend the days in the school and get monthly wage on time. The overall goal of the teachers should be to help and support students develop into self motivating learners. Students who are encouraged to become motivated lifelong learners will be more successful in and out of the classroom. When I worked as a teacher in other schools I had to teach all the subjects including IT and Physical Education, send monthly progress report home, prepare student portfolio for each child in my class, do after school duties and attend meetings with the Principal for four days in a week. I must say at that time I was frustrated for not having enough time to concentrate on the learning of my students and I was able to realise that they were not gaining anything according to their learning style. So, when I became as a head of a school I made sure that the teachers are given more time to spend for the children not with paper work and so on. The Social Worker and I are directly involved in solving behavioural issues in the school so the teachers will not have to spend time on this issue. The school policies and curriculum should be child centred and focus only on their learning. Educators should spend more time on pupils learning for which the strong hidden curriculum of the school should be helpful so that the teachers can construct proper planning for their teaching rather than wasting their time on other issues like behaviour and discipline. What I am trying to explain is that the learning theories we construct should focus on the childs academic and intellectual development. ACTIVITY 3: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation List eight ways in which you motivate pupils in your classroom and school. Explain which motivational forms are intrinsic and which extrinsic. We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it. Peter Drucker I have read a lot about ‘Motivation in books and on websites. I think Drucker is concerned about the nature of understanding the term ‘Motivation. I know what motivation is but, I do not think that I have made a closer inspection to it ever in my career. I have motivated the learners to read a lot, work smarter, behave well and be a good role model through rewards and appreciation as the way the factory workers are encouraged by ‘end of year bonus so that production improves and absenteeism falls. No one can know the future at least in any detail. In preparing the future, students should be able to develop viable occupational skills. Learning a discipline and doing it well provides the foundation for a sense of purpose, security and confidence in adulthood. In addition to this the students should prepare for change. As we see, change is best handled and even welcomed, when individuals possess a well developed mental skills associated with original creative and independent thinking. Further, according to Martin V. Cavington, the greatest legacy of education is to encourage in our students a will to learn and to continue learning as personal circumstances-change in short to promote a capacity for self renewal. Today many students drop out of school without a single achievement for which they can feel uniquely responsible for it. More ever the majority of the students fail achieve their potential due to lack of motivation in schools and home. How to always be motivated? Keeping our motivation high is the key factor to achieve our goals. We all face setbacks in life but, the ability to turn it into a lesson and move through a positive direction should be our aim for which motivation is highly required. If we are not motivated, we will experience difficulties in turning our great ideas into great results, wake up in the morning without any desire, ask people around us for support, give up our tasks before finishing them, postpone important decisions and wish that we will have a set of helping tips to overcome our setbacks. If we as adults will have to face a great deal of inconveniences due to lack of motivation, what will happen to those who just started their life in schools as children? What will be the consequences for being not motivated by important factors? How motivation takes place in classrooms and schools? A primary concern for educators is how to balance the use of extrinsic incentives as needed to promote student task engagement while establishing a climate that also fosters intrinsic motivation. (Alderman, 1999, p. 213) The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task he does or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on it. As Alderman explains, we should equally balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in order to promote engaging students on task. According to what I understood intrinsic motivation means motivation which comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money, trophies or grades. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money, trophies or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide. Is intrinsic motivation the solution for increasing student engagement? One perspective is that intrinsic motivation to learn is a necessary, but insufficient, component for academic achievement in classrooms; that is, one can enjoy learning or have an interest in a subject, but lack the strategies necessary for continuing motivation (Alderman, 1999, p. 218) According to Aldermans argument, an extrinsically motivated student will work on a task even when he has little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction he will get from some rewards. The rewards can be something as minor as a smiley face to something major like a trophy or free computer game. For example, an extrinsically motivated child who dislikes maths may work hard on maths problems because he wants the reward for completing it right. For me it is very difficult to agree with Aldermans point of views on ‘motivating extrinsically will result positively as I have teaching experience with children of some (sorry to say) arrogant parents, rich parents who are proud of their wealth and children who enjoy the most lavish life in this country which is completely different where I come from. I have implemented many strategies for motivating children in my class; I never had an opportunity to discriminate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation until I come across some readings on these topics by Jerome S. Bruner and Alderman. All I knew were about motivating children to be engaged on task. Two years back I had few children in my class, whose parents especially the mothers were not supportive at all; their children most of the time turned in completed homework, they had poor reading skills and had unacceptable behaviour in the classroom. In order to motivate them towards task, I used to tell them if they complete work on time or behave well they will get a smiley sticker or a badge but, I always had reply from these kids ‘I dont need I can buy them when I go out with my driver or ‘who cares of those cheap stickers or ‘I have got plenty of them at home. In such a place where I am in, most of the children are not attracted by those extrinsic motivations rather they would like to get motivated by intrinsic factors. I have spent a lot of time trying to think of ways to motivate my more reluctant students. I have tried fear†If you are late again, I will call home†. I have tried rewards â€Å"If you follow the classroom code of conduct you will earn points that you can redeem for a free homework pass or computer game. As a motivational support fear and rewards do work, for a while but, I did not want to threaten my students, and I did not want to bribe them. I want them to develop a will to come to class and learn. I wanted their motivation to be intrinsic. The question then was how I get my students to become more intrinsically motivated so that the classroom experience is more enjoyable for everyone. When Iencouraged mystudents self motivation by structuringmy class and my teaching I met their needs which are love, respect, emotional support and to move about the classroom freely. I followed many ways to motivate the children but now, I can differentiate them according to intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. Intrinsic motivation takes place when there is a positive relationship between the learners and the educators. As Jerome Bruner (1966), explains that extrinsic reinforcement may lead to a desirable kind of activity and cause its repetition but will not ultimately encourage sound learning. His belief was that intrinsic rewards are more important than extrinsic rewards in the long term. Intrinsic motivational factors I implemented in my classroom and school were, 1- When I asked my students to volunteer to be my assistant and assigned jobs for them more learning went on than if I did all the teaching myself. 2- When I had those students who could not sit still for very long and lose focus easily did their maths questions on the board, they were more likely to stay focused and learn which develop the interest of involvement. 3- When I greeted my students at the classroomdoor early morning with a smile and allocate games and puzzles for them to d Theories and Approaches to Learning Theories and Approaches to Learning Write about helpful and unhelpful approaches to learning during your own education. What was positive about those approaches? Did they reflect or express any particular theories of learning? Life is a learning experience. When I was a young girl I was so confident and positive about what I wanted. Maths and Science were my favourite subjects but I was not given freedom to learn as I wanted to learn these subjects. I realized this after I gained a very good experience in teaching primary school children. Student motivation is rooted in students subjective experiences, especially those connected to their willingness to engage in lessons and learning activities and their reasons for doing so. (Brophy, 2004, p. 4) According to Brophy, I must say learning is, interesting fun and exciting when the curriculum is well matched to students interests and abilities and the teacher emphasizes hands-on activities in order to keep the students busy and engaged. When the teacher teaches the right things the right way, motivation takes place by itself. If students are not enjoying learning, something is wrong with the curriculum and teachers instruction. At times I felt my school life was boring and frustrating because I hated all subjects except Maths and Science. I had to sit and listen to longtime instructions and copy the notes from the chalk board. I managed myself for learning because I had to show the Progress Report with good grades to my dad. Ê »Science is like everything, I guess and I think everything has a science to it. [When] baking cookies you have to add the right amount of eggs and milk and stuff like that (Kaufman, Moss, Osborn, 2003, p. 48) As I agree with Kaufman, Moss Osborns point of view, these two subjects add lot of fun to learning as they contain lot of practical activities which are conducted in the school laboratory. I loved to learn through doing and touching, it is because I had trouble sitting still and learning. My worst day during Science period was when my teacher said no when I offered him my help to fix the Bunsen burner to the gas cylinder. He said ‘you are still young so must stay away. Now I understand that I was a kinaesthetic learner that time, my teacher could have engaged me in his work because I could be better able to understand information by doing hands-on activities. I am not going to blame my teacher for this because at the time of my learning teacher centred education was given importance by educators. If teachers are able to understand childrens learning needs, it will reduce lot of frustration like homework incompletion, failures in assessments and sports and speaking in public. A s long as I know sometimes kids are just doing what works for them but, the curriculum in practice when I was in school did not cater the childs individual needs and the educators did not consider the childs learning style. I know that cognitive focuses on the inner mental activities such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving so, I think at cognitive stage the children should be catered carefully according to their learning needs. I gained lot of experience in teaching, today I am an experienced teacher, I wish I was my teacher when I was in school because when I was a child I did not get what I give to the pupils in my classroom now. As a teacher, I work in my classroom according to my childrens expectations. I believe in group work, differentiated planning, reading a lot for fun, guided reading, shared reading, classroom policies, and ongoing assessments which help me know the level of progress frequently. The few hyperactive boys in my classroom are always my helpers; they are always engaged in classroom jobs. In a typical classroom, some children process information best by hearing the teacher explain it, some learn by seeing whats on the chalkboard, and others learn through hands-on exercises. Nowadays colleges have increasingly begun teaching new students about learning styles so they can develop effective study habits. Three basic learning styles are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual. Auditory learners prefer listening to explanations over reading them and like to study by reciting information aloud. These types of learners may want to have background music while studying, or they may be distracted by noises and need a quiet space to study. Kinaesthetic learners learn by doing and touching. They may have trouble sitting still while studying, and they are better able to understand information by writing it down or doing hands on activities. Visual learners process new information by reading, looking at pictures, or watching a demonstration but, they may grow impatient listening to an explanation. I still remember the learning style and classroom setting when I was small which is mostly similar to what shown on the video clip of ‘The four UK teachers experience in a Kenyan school. At least for ten years my classroom strength was 35-40 children, our tables and chairs were laid in rows, teachers table and the chalk board was at the front of the class. The classroom layout was so congested, though we learnt how to move around without any incidents, our teachers never approached each table in order to assist the individual needs. Teacher instruction was mostly lecture based and activities contained more board work. We were never treated according to our learning styles which are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual instead the whole class was given the same type of activities only the able children understood them and completed on time and the rest were neglected. Regret to say that our teachers failed to realise that all of us are designed to absorb information differently; each learning style results in people with various interests, desires and talents and learning is more fun and effective when the teachers look into multiple learning styles. Children learn more efficiently on their own way and can reach their potential by working smarter. Once a teacher identifies the childs learning style, she can give that child the freedom to learn which will support his work at home, at school, and in life. Once my English language teacher asked us to write a simple paragraph on ‘Good Schools, since I like role play activities, I wrote the paragraph and drew pictures of girls and wrote two dialogues in the speech bubbles as they speak the positive things in the school. My teacher saw my work and crossed out the picture and said ‘this is not required here. That time I took this as my teachers valid point of view but later when I became a te acher I thought my teacher should have appreciated my speech bubbles and corrected the sentences or showed me what rules I should follow when I write statements in the speech bubbles. In this way the teacher put a full stop to my desire in learning or trying new concepts. The educators should be able to understand the learning styles of the learners and should provide opportunities accordingly. A kinaesthetic learner should be given more activity based work, for an example- in maths lesson for addition; this type of a learner can be given counters rather than asking him to work out the sums mentally. Kinaesthetic learners should be able to experience and explore the learning aids/ models which are available in the classroom or lab. Learners with strength for visual learning tend to process information by visualizing and seeing it. During a PD training which I attended recently I learnt that about 65% of the population prefers to learn visually. Visual learners in schools can be given opportunities to use colors to organize, receive written instructions and lists, look at graphics like film, flow charts, or diagrams, use visualization when memorizing information, take detailed notes and draw graphics as they learn by looking. People with strength for a uditory learning tend to remember information they hear and discuss. According to what I learnt, about 30% of the population prefers learning with an auditory style. Auditory learners in the classroom can be given recordings of materials like video clips of rhymes or documentaries to be learned; can participate in discussions or discussion groups, have questions read out loud, receive verbal instructions and read written information out loud. It is very sad to say at the time of my learning in the schools I did not see teachers had any knowledge of the types of learners and teach them according to their needs but learning was on going in the classroom. If this is the case how did I learn? This is a very difficult question for me to answer. The learning theories of the school where I studied were forced me to learn in the way I did not want to, the classroom instruction in my school life was mostly suitable for visual learners as there were activities like reading text with pictures, key points of the lesson given on the chalk board and copying texts from the chalk board to the note books. There were hardly any resources around the classrooms; the teaching aids were the text books, chalk board and the chalks. I liked to spend more time in the Science lab its because of the laboratory equipment which our Science/Maths teacher used during practical lessons. I enjoyed these subjects though there were limited resources available in the school lab; the teachers conducted the lessons as for the whole class without realizing the individual needs of the children. I did not study the English language as the way I studied Maths/Science. English was taught through visualizing things, long instructions and reading paragraphs in tex ts. If teachers use a lecture style for instruction, the English language learner will not receive as much comprehensible input. (Haynes, 2007, p. 6) Haynes argument is right. I became impatient listening for long periods during English. Once my English teacher caught me reading my favourite story book in the class and said ‘you must spend time with your text books, you should never read story books it is a waste of time. I followed her instructions and never read story books ever since she told me. Why did not this teacher realize that reading open doors for many worlds? Had I read a lot or be encouraged to read that time I would have had a rich vocabulary when I entered the High school. Another day a story teller visited our school to read stories to each year group and involved the students in making story props and acting out the stories. This was the most enjoyable moment during my English lesson; I had an opportunity to learn new vocabularies too. Everyone had fun during this lesson because the story teller involved each and every student in a kind of activity. Another issue was no school policies were read to us on the first day of school as there were no many policies constructed for the school at that time. We knew how to go in a line to the library, hitting and verbally abusing the peers not allowed, wore neat uniform every day, respect the teachers and so on but we were never taught any of these. I think the hidden curriculum in my school was stronger than the curriculum which was in use that time. Then I moved to a college for my higher education. I can say from my college experience that many higher education instructors still do not realize that students vary in the way that they process and understand information or attempt to respond to those differences in their pedagogical efforts. Effective teaching cannot be limited to the delivery of information; instead it needs to be based on a model of minds at work. Effective instructors are those who understand the importance of involving all of their students in learning how to learn. Effective learners are created when instructors affirm the presence and validity of diverse learning. At the college level the cognitive development occurs at the same pace but the learners experience different kind of problems or issues due to many changes. One of them is ‘culture shock. Newcomers have usually left behind family members, friends, teachers, and pets. They are no longer surrounded by a familiar language and culture. Children often do not have the full support of their parents because the parents are experiencing culture shock, too. (Haynes, 2007, p. 2) I agree with Hayens because the greater the difference between the students new culture and the students primary culture, the greater the shock. During this stage, I as a newcomer was excited about the new lives. Everything was wonderful and we were having great time learning about the environment. For me the differences between the new culture and the old one become more apparent. I rejected my new surroundings because there was so much that I did not understand. At times I felt sleepy, irritable, uninterested, or depressed; there were few more students who felt the same as I did. In my college the English language learners were frustrated because they could not communicate and are bombarded with unfamiliar surroundings, unreadable social signals, and an unrelenting barrage of new sounds. I was homesick and missed my family, friends, and familiar sights and sounds but, our instructors failed to realise this and started their duty stuffing our brain with Physics, Chemistry and Biolo gy. I was compelled to listen and follow what they instructed but, I did not know how much I learnt at that stage. In fact, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the lectures though we were forced to learn what we were supposed to, because the instructors knew so much about the subject taught. At times I asked myself, how did the instructors prepare themselves so well in order to answer all types of questions asked by the students? I saw them as good role models from the way they socialized with others, and delivered the content of the subjects during lectures. Listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge but, most of the time I felt that the instructors could have included videos to their instructions, involved us in presentations or group discussions as I loved these types of activities. ACTIVITY 2: Why are theories of learning important? Write down some initial thoughts about your own priorities at this stage of your development as a (head) teacher. To what extent do your own current priorities coincide with the priorities mentioned above? There are many different theories of how people learn. What important and useful is to consider their application to how our students learn and we teach our educational programs. It is interesting to think about our own particular way of learning and to recognize that everyone does not learn the way we do. In my opinion one of the main points is a teacher should know that each student does not learn in the same way others do. This means if the teacher chooses just one style of teaching such as direct instruction or collaborative learning or inquiry learning the students will not be maximizing their learning potential. For sure a teacher cannot reach every student on the same level during one lesson, but implementing a variety of learning styles throughout the course allows all the students to experience the chance to learn in at least a way that matches their learning style. Most of the materials used to educate students beyond primary school are largely text and lecture based, which have significant limitations. Those students are not involved in group work or discussion activities. Reading is a very important learning mode but, not all students learn effectively from reading. There are students who do not like reading a lot but, respond better to visual and audio stimuli of lecture but often get lost in the material or lose interest in the presentation. In this type of a learning environment, students have limited opportunity to ask questions or may be uncomfortable asking a question in front of the class. So the learning theories we have should cater the individual needs of the children. I believe student learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the help of the teacher along the way. Therefore the learners should be involved in activity based learning and given the freedom to use the classroom resources around them. Another im portant point is that the best way to learn is by having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. For an example, for giving them the concept of Addition they should be given counters or an abacus to find the sum of two numbers rather than explaining this on the chalk board. For the language development they should be given activities for listening and writing which will be an interesting activity too. Science and Geography can be taught through pictures, video clips, lab work with a lot of experiments and the use of internet. At times I did not get the clear concepts of the subject taught when I attended the lecture type classes but I had an opportunity to understand better when I was asked to teach the same concept to someone else on my own. An experienced teacher should always use cognitive terminology such as classify, analyze, predict, and create when assigning tasks to the students, this helps the students to explore and research to find lot of information about the subject. We should encourage student critical thinking and inquiry by asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and encourage them to ask questions to each other. Further, we should provide enough time for students to construct their own meaning when learning something new. We should acknowledge that, students understanding and prior experiences about a concept before teaching them, which is as vital as breathing. Group discussions that we organize should encourage communication between the teacher and the students and also between the students. All learning and some elements of non-learning begin with situations where there is a disjuncture between a learners biography (past experiences) and their construction of present experience. (Jarvis, Holford Griffin, 2003, p. 70) As Jarvis, Holford Griffin explain educators should pay importance to the childs prior learning experience in order to give them the proper foundation on learning. In the school where I work the children speak English as a second language therefore I had to construct my learning theories according to their past experience with the language of English. One of the word level objectives of English for first graders is ‘to represent in writing the three phonemes in CVC words, spelling them first in rhyming sets, then in non-rhyming sets. This is a very simple objective but difficult for a first grader in my school as their prior knowledge in English is zero due to use of no English at home. In that case if I as a teacher insist them to learn this objective then I will be committing a crime for not having any knowledge on their biography. So it is vital for me to spend correcting prior knowledge before new learning can occur, in fact we in our school where I work now spend at least 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the first term to learn the biography of the children. Teachers must be fair in distributing their praise and all students should receive praise. They should look for positive things to say about a students work even when pointing out problems or mistakes during lesson. Some might receive praise for bigger achievements than others but, even the lower performer needs a regular pat on the back. Teacher should also give praise or verbal rewards to the class as a whole to encourage the class and build team unity. True, the learning theories help support planning and teaching, help to critically evaluate classroom practice and help in the diagnosis of classroom problems but in my opinion the important person who constructs the learning theories in the classroom is the teacher who is not given enough opportunities to implement these in her classroom to experience the consequences. I hear teachers of other schools say that excess amount of paper work and work load do not provide enough time to engage the children on learning. In the school where I work our teachers are not given extra duties such as after school duty, snack duty etc in order to make sure that they spend more time in the classroom and prepare for students learning. We have special subject teachers for ICT, Physical Education and second languages so the class teachers can concentrate only on the core subjects like Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Geography. One may ask, why do our teachers are kept away from teaching ICT? In my opi nion ICT should be integrated in learning however, in some cases, teachers feel ICT increases their workload, with some tasks taking longer time to complete. This can often be traced to one or more of: a lack confidence or lack of ICT skills, ineffective networks or a lack of appropriate training or technical support. To reduce teacher workloads in our schools in future, ICT strategies will be included specific workload aims although this should not be at the impression of continuing to find ways in which ICT can raise quality and pupil performance. (We are planning to improve ICT strategic planning through strategic aims, hardware, software, connectivity, technical support and staff training and development in future and involve the teachers in integrating ICT to learning). Staff meeting or Curriculum meeting is conducted only once a week, which helps the teachers to spend more time with their work in the classroom and during their non contact periods they are supposed to prepare additional activities for the lesson they have planned. Progress Report for the pupils are being sent only thrice a year rather than every month, the teachers in our school have to spend less time dealing with behavioural issues because we have well constructed standardized policies for discipline, behaviour, uniform, food and bus and the Social worker is highly involved in implementing the policies. In our school calendar there are few days allocated as ‘Staff in Students out for professional development which is very important for the educators to upgrade their skills. I have seen few schools in this country utilize the student time I mean have shortened day in order to organise PD for the staff. In some schools teachers spend most of their time on disciplining the children and dealing with behavioural issues because of the weak hidden curriculum in place and no proper plan or policies to manage these types of issues there. Some educators want to expose themselves as good teachers or professional and show that they can manage the children very well, so they spend more time on putting up class displays, classroom management and less time on teaching the children. I have seen educators who work only for survival, their aim is to spend the days in the school and get monthly wage on time. The overall goal of the teachers should be to help and support students develop into self motivating learners. Students who are encouraged to become motivated lifelong learners will be more successful in and out of the classroom. When I worked as a teacher in other schools I had to teach all the subjects including IT and Physical Education, send monthly progress report home, prepare student portfolio for each child in my class, do after school duties and attend meetings with the Principal for four days in a week. I must say at that time I was frustrated for not having enough time to concentrate on the learning of my students and I was able to realise that they were not gaining anything according to their learning style. So, when I became as a head of a school I made sure that the teachers are given more time to spend for the children not with paper work and so on. The Social Worker and I are directly involved in solving behavioural issues in the school so the teachers will not have to spend time on this issue. The school policies and curriculum should be child centred and focus only on their learning. Educators should spend more time on pupils learning for which the strong hidden curriculum of the school should be helpful so that the teachers can construct proper planning for their teaching rather than wasting their time on other issues like behaviour and discipline. What I am trying to explain is that the learning theories we construct should focus on the childs academic and intellectual development. ACTIVITY 3: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation List eight ways in which you motivate pupils in your classroom and school. Explain which motivational forms are intrinsic and which extrinsic. We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it. Peter Drucker I have read a lot about ‘Motivation in books and on websites. I think Drucker is concerned about the nature of understanding the term ‘Motivation. I know what motivation is but, I do not think that I have made a closer inspection to it ever in my career. I have motivated the learners to read a lot, work smarter, behave well and be a good role model through rewards and appreciation as the way the factory workers are encouraged by ‘end of year bonus so that production improves and absenteeism falls. No one can know the future at least in any detail. In preparing the future, students should be able to develop viable occupational skills. Learning a discipline and doing it well provides the foundation for a sense of purpose, security and confidence in adulthood. In addition to this the students should prepare for change. As we see, change is best handled and even welcomed, when individuals possess a well developed mental skills associated with original creative and independent thinking. Further, according to Martin V. Cavington, the greatest legacy of education is to encourage in our students a will to learn and to continue learning as personal circumstances-change in short to promote a capacity for self renewal. Today many students drop out of school without a single achievement for which they can feel uniquely responsible for it. More ever the majority of the students fail achieve their potential due to lack of motivation in schools and home. How to always be motivated? Keeping our motivation high is the key factor to achieve our goals. We all face setbacks in life but, the ability to turn it into a lesson and move through a positive direction should be our aim for which motivation is highly required. If we are not motivated, we will experience difficulties in turning our great ideas into great results, wake up in the morning without any desire, ask people around us for support, give up our tasks before finishing them, postpone important decisions and wish that we will have a set of helping tips to overcome our setbacks. If we as adults will have to face a great deal of inconveniences due to lack of motivation, what will happen to those who just started their life in schools as children? What will be the consequences for being not motivated by important factors? How motivation takes place in classrooms and schools? A primary concern for educators is how to balance the use of extrinsic incentives as needed to promote student task engagement while establishing a climate that also fosters intrinsic motivation. (Alderman, 1999, p. 213) The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task he does or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on it. As Alderman explains, we should equally balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in order to promote engaging students on task. According to what I understood intrinsic motivation means motivation which comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money, trophies or grades. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money, trophies or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide. Is intrinsic motivation the solution for increasing student engagement? One perspective is that intrinsic motivation to learn is a necessary, but insufficient, component for academic achievement in classrooms; that is, one can enjoy learning or have an interest in a subject, but lack the strategies necessary for continuing motivation (Alderman, 1999, p. 218) According to Aldermans argument, an extrinsically motivated student will work on a task even when he has little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction he will get from some rewards. The rewards can be something as minor as a smiley face to something major like a trophy or free computer game. For example, an extrinsically motivated child who dislikes maths may work hard on maths problems because he wants the reward for completing it right. For me it is very difficult to agree with Aldermans point of views on ‘motivating extrinsically will result positively as I have teaching experience with children of some (sorry to say) arrogant parents, rich parents who are proud of their wealth and children who enjoy the most lavish life in this country which is completely different where I come from. I have implemented many strategies for motivating children in my class; I never had an opportunity to discriminate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation until I come across some readings on these topics by Jerome S. Bruner and Alderman. All I knew were about motivating children to be engaged on task. Two years back I had few children in my class, whose parents especially the mothers were not supportive at all; their children most of the time turned in completed homework, they had poor reading skills and had unacceptable behaviour in the classroom. In order to motivate them towards task, I used to tell them if they complete work on time or behave well they will get a smiley sticker or a badge but, I always had reply from these kids ‘I dont need I can buy them when I go out with my driver or ‘who cares of those cheap stickers or ‘I have got plenty of them at home. In such a place where I am in, most of the children are not attracted by those extrinsic motivations rather they would like to get motivated by intrinsic factors. I have spent a lot of time trying to think of ways to motivate my more reluctant students. I have tried fear†If you are late again, I will call home†. I have tried rewards â€Å"If you follow the classroom code of conduct you will earn points that you can redeem for a free homework pass or computer game. As a motivational support fear and rewards do work, for a while but, I did not want to threaten my students, and I did not want to bribe them. I want them to develop a will to come to class and learn. I wanted their motivation to be intrinsic. The question then was how I get my students to become more intrinsically motivated so that the classroom experience is more enjoyable for everyone. When Iencouraged mystudents self motivation by structuringmy class and my teaching I met their needs which are love, respect, emotional support and to move about the classroom freely. I followed many ways to motivate the children but now, I can differentiate them according to intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. Intrinsic motivation takes place when there is a positive relationship between the learners and the educators. As Jerome Bruner (1966), explains that extrinsic reinforcement may lead to a desirable kind of activity and cause its repetition but will not ultimately encourage sound learning. His belief was that intrinsic rewards are more important than extrinsic rewards in the long term. Intrinsic motivational factors I implemented in my classroom and school were, 1- When I asked my students to volunteer to be my assistant and assigned jobs for them more learning went on than if I did all the teaching myself. 2- When I had those students who could not sit still for very long and lose focus easily did their maths questions on the board, they were more likely to stay focused and learn which develop the interest of involvement. 3- When I greeted my students at the classroomdoor early morning with a smile and allocate games and puzzles for them to d
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Analysis of Gail Godwins A Sorrowful Woman :: Godwin Sorrowful Woman
Analysis of Gail Godwin's A Sorrowful Woman Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" revolves around a wife and mother who becomes overwhelmed with her husband and child and withdraws from them, gradually shutting them completely out of her life. Unsatisfied with her role as dutiful mother and wife, she tries on other roles, but finds that none of them satisfy her either. She is accustomed to a specific role, and has a difficult time coping when a more extensive array of choices is presented to her. This is made clear in this section of the story. As a housewife and a mother, Godwin's protagonist leads a fairly structured life. Her activities are mostly confined to caring for her husband and child and caring for their home. Though she is obviously unsatisfied with this, as shown by her attempts to discard this role, she is not comfortable without such a structure. Even when she has moved into the white room, she develops a routine of brushing her hair in the sun each day. When she decides to write a poem, she shies away from the project once she realizes how many options are open to her; the idea of so much freedom seems to distress her. Even when she thinks that "her poem could be six, eight, ten, thirteen lines, it could be any number of lines, and it did not even have to rhyme," the words themselves are rushed, the pacing of the sentence communicating her nervousness and discomfort. Her dissatisfaction with her role in life also leads Godwin's protagonist to try on other roles. Though she tries on many, none of these seem to satisfy her either; she "tried these personalities on like costumes, then discarded them." Her inability to find any role that actually satisfies her probably contributes to her general sense of helplessness and continued withdrawal from her family and, indeed, the rest of the world. Since she cannot find any particular role that suits her, she attempts not to have any role at all; the coldness and isolation of the undecorated white room make it seem that she is trying to empty herself of her previous life. Her withdrawal from the world is also presented in this passage. She chooses to move into the white room, now no longer decorated by the previous inhabitant. White can be a very cold, sterile color, and it serves to illustrate her lack of attachment to the room or to her own home.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
‘Of Mice and Men’ By John Steinbeck Essay
Its like my weekends never change, it’s like a daily routine being alone and cold with no one to talk to. Books, all I have is books, I read so much my head hurts sometimes. Line after line, headache after headache, in a way imp already used to it. It’s a Saturday night and all the men have gone to the whore house in town or should I say Suzy’s place. I wonder sometimes why I can’t go but it’s always the same because I’m black. Why would anyone want to dance with a black man? Why would anyone want to sleep with a black a man? Why would anyone want to drink with a black man? I’m just so alone. I actually got a bit of company today from a guy called Lennie. Lennie is a huge man, shapeless face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. He came in while I was rubbing ointment on my back. At first I felt angry and that my rights were being invaded. I told him that he wasn’t allowed in but me being a black man and him being white it was like he had power over me so I let him in. A big guy like him and a crooked man like me I could have never stopped him. The only people that have entered my room are the boss and slim and when they have entered I have been powerless to stop them. Well, Lennie came in and I started to question him on his relationship that he had with George which realty intrigues me. I was jus talking and he was just laughing at me because he didn’t understand what I was talking about. I asked him what he would do if George never came back, what if George dies what would he do, but Lennie was adamant that George would be safe and that he was careful. He started to approach me and I felt so scared and small that I leaned back into my corner, I told Lennie that George would be alright and that he was safe. I didn’t expect Lennie’s response to be so aggressive. It jus shows how close Lennie and George are. I didn’t really want to upset him but I did, I just wanted him to feel how lonely my life is. I have no one to confide in and I only have my judgment to rely on. I explained to him that I jus kept all my feelings and my worries inside and that I start to feel sick because I have no one to express my emotions to. Lennie is so dumb to understand it felt like I was talking to myself for at least 10 minutes. I told him about my child hood with the company of my brother when we used to live on a farm and that my father didn’t like us paying with white children and that we had each other so we should play together. I didn’t think about what friends I had when I was younger but now I realize why my father told us not to play with them. I was telling him this because I wanted him to know what life was like for a black man but obviously it was like I was talking to myself again. After I had told him all of this I felt like I had made a friend and that all the stress I had kept in had gone out of my system. I didn’t feel so lonely after all but I had a gut feeling that by the time Lennie had gone I would be back to my old ways again. Lonely, depressed and in need of a friend. At that particular moment I felt really good about myself. About 10 minutes later Candy came in looking for Lennie. He looked really uncomfortable about coming into my room. I know that me and candy have been on the ranch for a long time but he has never come into my room. When he came in him and Lennie were talking about getting their own piece of land which Lennie had been talking about before. While candy was talking I was starring a him thinking about how isolated I am compared to everyone else who have lived in one room but with the company of each other. I joined in with their conversation about getting their own land, they were very convinced that they would get it but I thought different, I told them about all the other ranchers that have wanted the same thing but have never as far as a step to getting their own land. Even when they heard the stories of other ranchers they were still adamant that they would get it. I still disagreed with them, but when Candy told me how close and hard they have worked to get this land I gave up and asked if I could join them. I didn’t really have much future on the ranch so the thought of being free was very tempting. We were all very excited and then Curley’s wife came in as usual looking for her husband Curley. We all looked at her scornfully and didn’t take any notice of her when she spoke. She asked again if we had seen Curley and Candy told her to get out because she wasn’t wanted and that her husband wasn’t here. I kept myself quiet because she didn’t listen to Candy and she surely wasn’t going to listen to me. For a while it felt like we had united together to stop her from coming in, but she was still at the door peering in. Then I attempted to get her to go away but she came back with a vengeance saying that I should keep my mouth shut and that she could get me strung on a tree so easily. It was like she tore through my defence. Candy tried to defend me but there was no stopping her. We had to face it that we were powerless to stop her. Candy then told her that all the men were back from town and then she went in a flash. I felt so small that I crawled back into my corner again because I knew that what Curley’s wife was saying was true. There was no point in fighting back, that’s one thing I dislike about Curley’s wife is that she is always putting people down. By the time she had left George came back. I was staring scornfully at Candy and Lennie even though Candy had tried to defend me I had lost every bit of friendliness towards them. George looked at me like he could tell something had gone on. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence they were leaving, while they were going a told them I didn’t want to join them on their farm and George looked confused then they left. I went back to rubbing ointment on my back. I changed my mind about the farm because it just seemed odd for three white men to share a house with one black man. They could turn on me jus like Curley’s wife did and I didn’t want to take any chances, suppose they chucked my out where would I go I couldn’t get a job anywhere else because there is so much unemployment in California. There isn’t a lot of banks and I would be left without money for food, clothes and rent like the millions of other people in California. I had heard of farmers losing their land and the banks dispossessed their families and were left homeless. If a get left on the street I would be picked up and taken away and beaten or taken to a refugee camp. I would hate to be taken to a refugee camp because I don’t want to end up lining up in a big queue waiting for food. I like the ranch because I have my own room, I have lots of possessions and my room is neat and tidy, although it is next to the manure heap. I don’t like the ranch because I get left out and can’t join in with all the other games the ranchers play. I don’t have any regrets in life because before I got kicked in the back by the horse I tried to live my like to the fullest and the best way I could. Now they have all gone, I have time to reflect on what has happened tonight and my life. I have time to think about what I’m going to do tomorrow. I can read a few books if I please without being disturbed. If I had the power, I would make everyone have equal rights, all the white and black people not to fight and make them get along together. I would want everyone to have their own piece of land and that they could work under their own rules. Everyone to be happy and live life to the fullest, I would like there to be a rule that any black man could go into a whore house and have a drink any time he wants and not worry about getting criticized because of the colour of their skin and last of all I will make violence an offence and that anyone that engages in violence will be sent to prison.
Friday, November 8, 2019
Comparison of the Terms in Debates
Comparison of the Terms in Debates There are many concepts that are frequently used and misused by people in debates or conversations. Among them one can single out such terms as facts, information, data, knowledge, and understanding. Some of them such as facts and information are often viewed as interchangeable notions, even though they can have significant differences.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Comparison of the Terms in Debates specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This essay will compare their meaning of these notions and explain how they differ from one another and what kind of similarities they have. This discussion can highlight some of the major misconceptions of about these notions and show how they need to be applied in conversation or written speech. First of all, such term as fact can be understood as a verifiable truth that has been proven in a logical or empirical way. Overall, it is an observation that has been tested and substantiated by objective methods. For instance, the statement that World War I began in 1914 can be called a fact. This notion should not be confused with such word as data. This concept means a series of measurements and observations that can be either true or untrue. This is the main distinction between facts and data. However, these terms do have some similarity. They are not very meaningful if they are not systematized or ordered in a certain way. The thing is that they are not always put in any specific context. Thus, one can come to the third important notion, namely information. It can be defined as the sequence of facts or data that have some meaning because they have been ordered or organized. In other words, they can be understood as a message by a person. In turn, such concepts as knowledge and understanding are also very similar but not interchangeable. The term knowledge means the state of awareness about something. For instance, a person can know certain information or separate f acts. More importantly, he or she can even apply this knowledge. For instance, people can know and apply mathematical formulas or algorithms, however, they cannot always tell why these formulas work. This is why such notion as understanding is more complex. It means that a person does not only know certain information, but is able to evaluate it and determine whether it is true or untrue. For example, some people not only know mathematical formulas but they can also tell why they are valid. The term understanding also implies the ability to see causal relationship between facts or events. Thus, this notion has a wider meaning and people should be able to distinguish between knowing and understanding, especially when they debate about something.Advertising Looking for essay on rhetoric? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This discussion of these concepts is important because it shows that they cannot always be used inter changeable even despite their similarities. For instance, when people speak about data, they should not assume that these data are always true. Similarly, separate facts cannot be viewed as information because they are often meaningless. Furthermore, people should remember that knowledge is not synonymous to understanding because understanding means that an individual can interpret specific facts and explain why they are true. The problem is that these terms are often used in political, economic, or social debates. Moreover, some people can manipulate these terms in order to affect the audience. A person, who can see the distinction between them, can better resist such manipulation and identify flawed arguments.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
The Great Gatsby Essay Example
The Great Gatsby Essay Example The Great Gatsby Essay The Great Gatsby Essay Essay Topic: The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby Is the story of Jay Gatsby narrated by Nick Caraway, the neighbor. The story shows deferent themes throughout the movie Like greed, power betrayal and Justice. It also shows a vivid peek of the American life In the sass. The lives of the characters revolve around the mysterious Gatsby which give the story an unexpected outcome. The only thing known at the beginner of the film about the mysterious Gatsby was that he had an extraordinary gift for hope. The hope being related to love, Just like a lot of other films it was intriguing to see how it involved the rest of the characters. Gatsby believed that if he was able to obtain what he wanted so badly, he would live happily ever after. Having the power would help him achieve such thing, with the surprisingly help of guy named Nick Caraway. He happened to be Gatsby neighbor and just like many people in the city of New York he was curious to see the great and famous Gatsby. Nick had moved to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, reserve and willing to listen to whoever needed It. Having his house next to the enormous mansion of Gatsby made him wonder, what he was like, what he did and why so much extravagant parties. Surprisingly he received an Invitation to a Gatsby party where their friendship started and he happened to be the best helper to keep that gift of hope in order to reach his goal. The goal had a name Daisy Buchanan who was Nicks cousin. The work contains innumerous references to the fast-paced immoral lifestyles that the population were leading during the period the novel was set, the roaring 20s. The book also shows us a view on the American Society of the time. It shows us the failure of the American dream. The idea that American political idealisms strove to allow equality between everyone is crushed, the truth was actually a lot different. Social and ethnic discrimination was widespread and divisions between the classes were evident. Fitzgerald comments on the morality of the period in the characters within the story. He shows us characters from both sides of the social divide. In Myrtle, he portrays a woman, trapped in the valley of the ashes (Pg 29), which is socially nowhere. Although she is married to George, a hard-working man who desperately wants to be closer to his wife, she completely forgets her moral obligation to her him and enters into an affair with Tom Buchanan, in an attempt to break free from her social class. In this futile attempt to better herself socially, she only ends up becoming vulgar and corrupt, inheriting the immoral traits of Tom. As a result, she starts to shun members of her own society and belittles them, in doing so she loses all sense of self-respect. This is evident at the party in chapter two. The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the garden of Versailles. (Pg 35) Here we are shown that although Myrtles apartment is clearly small her choice of furniture to occupy it is opulent and clearly over done. At the party Myrtle changes her attire, and as a result her character changes, with the influence of the dress, her personality had also undergone a change. (Pg 36) When Mrs. McKee compliments her on the dress, her response is disdainful and belittling. She says Its just a crazy old thing (Pg 37), I just slip it on when I dont care what I look like (Pg 37),. Here we can see how Myrtle is offhanded with Mrs. McKee. Myrtle also makes clear her greed when she announces a fanciful shopping list, she is apparently incapable of having real feelings of her own, so she relies on things to express emotion. It is clear that Myrtles attempts to climb the social ladder and become a member of the Buchanans class will never be accepted, they will evidently will never let her in, but she is too blinkered by her ambitions to live a glamorous glitzy lifestyle to realise. Another reflection on the immoralities of the period is how Gatsby makes his money. We discover that, through his dealings with Dan Cody, he has made his fortune by illegal sale of alcohol. As Gatsbys wealth grew he moved to New York. His house is located in West Egg. The house is described as a rather artificial place, it was a factual imitation of some Hotel De Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool Pg 11. Here we see how wealth is used to provide an artificial fai ade to Gatsbys life.
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