Evaluation on Mathematics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evaluation on Mathematics - Term Paper Example Since the 1960s, the mathematic abilities of American Students has been deteriorating compared to those students from other nations. A recent study illustrated that mathematic performance depends more on education and attitude rather than inborn genetic talent (Kimball & Smith, 2013). As such, this particular analysis will focus on the ways in which mathematics is an essential component of the current society and how it is essential that students be effectively trained in math and taught not to simply â€Å"give up† if the first attempt (or attempts) were less than satisfactory. Math is objective, so students who do poorly on exams will tend to compare themselves to those who did well; not realizing that those students were well prepared. The dilemma occurs as the under-performing students identify themselves with the phrase, "Im just not good at math". From this point, it may seem the student will use this as a excuse that could decrease their motivation to prepare for math exams. This self-fulfilling prophecy can cause people to avoid approaching math with "perseverance, tenacity, and fearlessness," which is the attitude needed for people to succeed (Schwartz, 2006). Yet, as has been noted previously, the reality of this approach is that it creates generations of students that simply give up on math; rather than coming to appreciate the fact that it is a difficult subject that requires a certain degree of dedication and mastery to successfully understand and apply. In order to encourage the increased levels of dedication that should be reflected within st udents, educators would do well to remind them how fundamental math is and some of the reasons why is will come to be of ever increasing importance if these students would like to attain a well paying job after graduation (Goel & Reid, 2012). One of the first and

Negotiation Post 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negotiation Post 1 - Essay Example This meant that these applications had to be keenly scrutinized so as to ensure that credit facilities were only offered to those individuals with the capability of repaying the loan offered to them. During the course of my duties as a bank sales executive, I quickly learnt that the majority of our customers borrowed long term loans due to the prevailing financial downturn. Therefore, given the bigger size of long term loans compared to short term loans, I had to be extra careful as to which customers to extend the credit and who no to. This entailed observing the credit worthiness of the customers against their information in the credit bureaus as well as ensuring that they had the ability to repay the loans, given their current state of finances. The most difficult part of it all was to negotiate the terms of the loans with the customers and also attaching an asset that would act as security over the duration of the loan. Due to the economic meltdown, most financial institutions ha d increased the lending interest rates due to the increased demand for credit in the market. Consequently, with the increase in the total cost of borrowing, borrowers found the interest rates to be too high such that most negotiations conducted stalled. In order to not lose business for the bank, I had to find innovative ways of negotiating with the customers in such a way that the bank did not lose on interest but at the same time the customers felt that they had agreed on a good deal. Therefore, during negotiations I often offered customers longer periods of paying back the loans but on the other hand maintaining the interest levels as much as possible. During the economic meltdown period, banks were being faced with huge default rate levels since most borrowers were unable to pay back their loans. Therefore it was made essential to me that all the customers seeking credit had to be vetted and adequate security obtained on the loans they borrowed. I issued credit to only those cus tomers who had assets that were correctly valued to mirror the value of their loans. Although a daunting task at first since customers found ways of putting up undervalued assets, I later found it imperative to ensure that all assets had to be valued by a professional valuer at first before credit was extended to the customer. By so doing, the customers came to me only with certified copies of the valuer’s report showing the correct value of the asset vis-a-vis the loaned amount. This experience of negotiating with bank customers came to my mind while reading Stuart Diamond’s Getting More in relation to what he terms as â€Å"getting to know what you are getting into†. Negotiation Post 2 Stuart Diamond reiterates the importance of valuing the other party as well as developing trust in Getting More. This got me thinking of an incidence that happened over five years ago when I was volunteering in an orphanage in my hometown. This orphanage gave orphaned, abandoned and other underprivileged children a place to call home. It had touched my heart since I first set foot and had vowed that I will do my best to contribute to its endeavors in any little way that I could. At the orphanage, there was a young man called Andrew who always came during the weekends to volunteer. I later came to know that he was once in the orphanage when he was 5 years old when his single mother could not afford his upkeep and gave him away to the orphanage. After a few

Rationale For Performance Based Assessment Essay

Rationale For Performance Based Assessment - Essay Example I believe that the role a teacher plays can shape the students’ lives. Hence, a teacher’s role is of foremost importance. To advance teaching skills, teachers must continually keep track of the recent researches and pedagogies and should use them in helping the English language learners improve on their English skills. It is also very important that the assessments taken by ELLS are fair by all means. A fair assessment is a necessary step in the progress of ELLs. I am responsible for teaching basic level English listening / speaking skills to my students who mainly speak Arab. A proper performance based assessment should be preceded by a proper imparting of learning to the ELLs. Hence, firstly, I would be highlighting the appropriate strategies that are used across the world for teaching the English language learner population. The advancement in technology has proved to be a great help in imparting learning to the ELL population since it has led to an increase in the m odes of teaching. Some effective strategies to impart effective learning to the ELL students are described below (Richard J. Stiggins, 2004): †¢Ã‚  Use of non-lingual representation†¢Ã‚  The students should be helped in recognizing the varied patterns†¢Ã‚  Different activities should be organized wherein the English language learners are given a chance to express compound ideas. †¢Ã‚  Another approach is to relate the learning to the students’ culture in some way. Arab music and pictures can be used as digital media for imparting learning to students.

Investigating Problems with Minorities and Community Policing Essay

Investigating Problems with Minorities and Community Policing - Essay Example How can we investigate problems between minorities and police services? Importantly, what is the nature and extent of the problems between the police and minority communities? How widespread are the problems and for whom are these issues problematic? Aiming to be both descriptive and prescriptive, the following will explore what has been done regarding this problem, and whether or not the innovations were effective? Finally, what are the possible solutions to the present problems between police and minority communities? Seeking to address these questions as they pertain to the issue of minorities within the United States and their relationship to the police services, the following will provide a thorough analysis of a complex phenomenon (Skogan, 2003). The United States of America boasts the highest incarceration rates on the planet, even higher than places such as China, Iran or Russia. According to a report released by the Pew Center for Research on the United States, nearly one in 100 persons in the United States is incarcerated (2008). Accordingly, the state of California alone spends $8.8 billion annually on incarceration costs and while the statistics above are, remarkable, so too are the racial disparities within the American penal system. Accordingly, while African-Americans account for just 13% of the total population, their incarceration rates are much higher than for all other ethnic groups. With nearly 50% of the total prison population in the United States, African-Americans account for a disproportionate number of inmates in this country. Importantly, it is estimated that African-Americans have a 16% risk of going to prison in their lifetime, compared to a 2% risk for whites. According to scholar Scot Wortley, â€Å"blacks are still 2 times more likely to experience a stop by police and four times more likely to experience both.

Descriptive Profile of Milford Sound Fjord Essay

Descriptive Profile of Milford Sound Fjord - Essay Example They stand tall on either side of the narrow curving inlet and rise towards the sky protruding from the stretch of water. While some hills are coated a dark green hue with trees and appear all soft and bushy, others have streaks of lighter green canopy adorning them. Yet some others appear a bit grayish and rocky, whereas the peaks of the mountain are snow-capped with bits of a green impression on them like the ones done to blend two different colors in a painting. The white mist that seems to hang only on the mountain peaks are actually the vast spread clouds. There can also be seen clouds in the form of white fluffy puffballs that encircle the peaks giving the idea of a pointed birthday hat with a sphere on top. At some parts of the mountains, the eye catches white moving streaks falling towards the ground, which are the temporary waterfalls created after the heavy rains. However, the Milford Sound proudly shows off its two cascading beauties, the Stirling Falls, and the Lady Bowen Falls. The Bowen River trickles along the hill before it falls off the cliff and splashes into the inlet. The clear deep blue inlet is almost always dotted with ships that bring in tourists from all around the world. The blasts made by the whistles of the ship bounce of the cliffs and fade into the distance. Another sight to watch is when the powerful winds blow, the temporary waterfalls get pushed back vertically and they tend to move upwards, as the current of the water is changed by the wind. If one is lost in a hypnotic trance from the scenic beauty, they will be brought back to senses by the calls of dolphins, seals and also the penguins, just like I was. A rare creature present here is the Whio (blue duck), the males of which â€Å"whistle† and the females make â€Å"guttural rattle-like† calls (Milford Track 5). The climate at the sound is very pleasant as there is rainfall mostly and it proved to be much better than any man-made equipment that adjusts room temperature.

Suggest a Performance Management Systems for a small government Essay

Suggest a Performance Management Systems for a small government department. Explain how can the Balanced Scorecard complement the Performance Management System - Essay Example The performance management system outlined in this paper come from the personal experience of CEOs of big and small companies, business analysts, consultants and major players in the business world as well as management experts in non profit organisations. While these individuals may differ on how the performance management system should be constructed, they are all united on the point that such systems and the performance review process itself is an essential part of employee growth which in turn leads to the growth and development of the organisation. In fact, Jack Welch served as the CEO of General Electric for more than two decades and links performance management to the overall mission of the company. He says that â€Å"Every decision or initiative was linked to the mission. We publicly rewarded people who drove the mission and let go of people who couldn’t deal with it for whatever reason (Welch, 2005, Pg. 16).† This idea connects directly with the idea of the balanced scorecard given by Kaplan and Norton (1992) primarily due to the fact that it connects employee performance management with the idea of promoting the objectives and mission of the organisations rather than any other factor. GE’s own mission, when Welch was running the company, was to be the most competitive company in the world which fits with the approach of rewarding and doing the utmost to keep the best talent within the organisation and letting go of those who do not perform to a certain level. Such tactics could only be employed when an effective performance management system is place and GE’s system for performance reviews has been lauded by critics as well as copied by the competition simply because it is one of the best. In the modern concept of governance, government departments certainly note the importance of human resource management. However, the process of applying the concepts of human resource management which are created in a

A pair of blue eyes Essay Example for Free

A pair of blue eyes Essay With reference to the first seven chapters, show how Hardy uses the novels setting to develop character It has been said by many critics, that the main focus of Hardys pre-19th century novel The Return of the Native, is none of the characters, but the almost animate heath land upon which it is set. Hardys methods of describing the heath, allows us to view it as several different things to several different characters, for example, Eustacia Vye, to whom the heath is a prison, or Clym Yeobright, husband of Eustacia, who views Egdon Heath as an area housing the commonest man, a group of people who have been transformed into simplicity by the heath, who he can educate. One possible reason of this is because the heath is written to seem almost ancient, thus has had time to adapt to the way nature shapes the landscape at its will, at present, a place perfectly accordant with mans nature . With features such as barrows, Hardy has created a religious, almost pagan feel to the heath land, with on which the main characters congregate in the first few scenes, to hold a bonfire, giving the night air upon the land an eerie feeling throughout the rest of the book. The weather upon the heath through the early chapters is somewhat harsh, the storm was its love, the wind was its friend yet still the characters persist to roam the heath at night, Eustacia especially, searching endlessly for an escape. One good example is where Eustacia awaits Wildeve upon a barrow, but she utters a sigh as she waits, pondering whether he will arrive, thrown out with the winds, it became twined in with them. It is events like these which Hardy gives us insight to, that we can see the development of the characters, for example, this is just another step of Eustacia becoming even more heavily buried within the land. Hardy also uses inanimate objects other than the heath, to create an atmosphere, such as the fire which burns between Wildeve and Eustacia as they speak, The revived embers of passion glowed clearly in Wildeve now. However, Eustacia does not light a communal bonfire for the sake of community, nor for the sake of sanity, similar to the locals who feel that communication through bonfire separates them from the heath, perhaps as many as thirty bonfires could be counted within the whole bounds of the district. She lights her fire, and attempts to communicate with something which will set her free from the realm a man, to either take her from Egdon to America, such as Wildeve promises, or back to Paris, the location from which her husband has come. Another interesting feature of Hardy using objects, rather than words or actions to describe how a character feels, is Eustacia constantly viewing the heath from her telescope, as if she is hoping for some kind of miracle, a knight in shining armour to come and whisk her from her feet. Another good example of a similar event is her checking her hourglass while waiting upon the heath. These two items, the telescope in particular being from distant places (of which she wishes she could travel to), differ significantly from peasant tools or items, from which she is eager to disassociate herself from. However Hardy is again referring to the vastness of the heath, by implementing a telescope, and the immense age of the heath, by an hourglass, however, for Eustacia, the hourglass diminishes the vastness of the heath, almost providing her with something shes wished for. The heath folk seem to exist in a more than comfortable relationship with the heath, and the heath in a comfortable relationship with civilisation, as it becomes overgrown; the humans cut the furze and faggots, and put them for good use fire. The folk seem to be driving off the darkness, upon November 5th, Guy Forks night, upon a barrow used for burials in the past, the ashes of the original pyre which blazed from that summit lay fresh and undisturbed in the barrow beneath their tread. The locals dont even appear to be celebrating this fact, more so finding comfort in the spotting of other fires lighted in the district. The people here are highly superstitious, and due to the size of the community, and involvement with other communities (very little), the heath only fuels their ideas, as is shown in the third chapter, when the heath folk are talking about Christian a man who no man would marry, for the reason of the date he was born upon having no moon,No moon : hey neighbours, thats bad for him? This early superstition in the novel serves many purposes, the main ones being reader interest, and plot evolution for it is a form of superstition, voodoo, which a heath folk uses against Eustacia as she finally tries to negate the heath, causing her death. Another pastime which suitably provides the heath inhabitants when they are not creating fire is gossip. The heath only fuels the peoples desire to talk about others business, because the community is very small, so hence everybody is aware of the news of everybody else, for instance, the news of Clyms success as a scholar travels for miles before he has even reached the age of three. Personally, I do not subscribe to the belief that the heath is a character within its own right, even though Hardy inspires such thoughts with phrases such as The storm was its lover, the wind was its friend. I believe that Hardys immense concentration upon the heath is merely a sign of two its importance to the play, and as a method which he can use to develop the rest of the characters, such as Eustacia, helping her to constantly arrive at a state of enlightenment which feels that nothing is worthwhile..