Experience being given a gold award in class for academic excellence Essay

Experience being given a gold award in class for academic excellence - Essay Example It was the day before our last day in school and I was so excited because that was the day when our teacher will announce the three top students in our grade level. I knew I was one of the candidates but I was not sure whether I could make it to the top three. I woke up early that day, not having slept the whole night because of excitement. When I arrived in school, teacher was just about ready to announce the top three students. She started by announcing the bronze medalist. My hands were as cold as ice. I was hoping that my name will be called but I felt sad when the name of the bronze medalist was not mine. She then announced the silver medalist. By that time, I was already as pale as a ghost because of anxiety. Still, I was not the silver medalist. At this point, my last and only hope was that I would be the gold awardee. I prayed fervently as if it was my last prayer. I was already having butterflies in my stomach. Then, the announcement came, â€Å"The gold awardee for this ye ar is †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Yes! I was the gold medalist, the top student in class! I felt I was floating in air. I jumped for joy as if I had ants in my pants. The cheers of my classmates were deafening. My efforts at studying hard every day were not futile. My efforts paid-off. Now, I have an ace up in my sleeve. And as my dad put it, â€Å"Now son, you have another feather in your cap!† The following day was the awarding ceremony. My face was as bright as the sun this time.

Learning about Pets through the Arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Learning about Pets through the Arts - Essay Example This went on the following day when I noticed Rob drawing a dog on a leash and a bird on a cage. When I asked about his picture, Rob answered, â€Å"I just looove animals!† In the playground, Gina, Michelle and Jason were on their fours, trying to catch each other. I later learned that they were pretending to be a pack of dogs. When the parents came for their children that afternoon, I asked if they had pets at home. Rob’s mother said he had a canary bird. Gina’s and Jason’s mothers said they had dogs at home, and Jason’s mother said he was given a turtle by his aunt for his birthday. I recognized that tapping this interest in pets when planning their learning experiences in the arts would be a good move on my part. Young children enjoy the arts. It is an experience where they can express themselves. During their free play, the arts may play an active role in the curriculum because it holds is essentially interesting and fun for them, so this may be the best time that teachers can observe them to gather information on what they enjoy doing and learning from. Since early childhood education should be based on the child’s interests and abilities, the arts can serve as the gateway that allows educators to enter and know about their world from their own perspective. As McArdle says (2008), â€Å"the arts can enable children to make their thinking visible, and provide teachers and researchers with rich data and information about young children† (p. 372). Since they delight music, dance, visual arts and drama as observed from their behaviours in these areas, engaging them in such experiences will guide the teacher to plan others which they may also enjoy while honing their skills. Wright (1997) asserts that because the arts involve non-verbal, symbolic ways of knowing, thinking and communicating, it becomes a powerful means of promoting learning for young children especially since their language skills have not yet bee n mastered (Wright, 2012). Aside from taking the children’s interests in consideration, the early childhood curriculum should also adhere to Te Whariki’s principles of empowerment, holistic development, family and community and relationships as well as the strands and goals that fall under each (Ministry of Education, 1996). Outcomes of Nga Toi or The Arts include the development of abilities in identifying their own emotional responses and those of others and representing these in their art (Mana Atua); understanding links between their early childhood settings and the real world as well as they discover unfamiliar people, images, objects, languages, sounds, smells and tastes which are far different from the ones they know (Mana Whenua); developing abilities and interests in a wide variety of domains that build their skills and strengths (Mana Tangata); experiencing stories and symbols of their own culture and discovering and developing different ways to be creative/ expressive (Mana Reo); building confidence and a repertoire for symbolic, pretend or dramatic play; coming up with strategies for exploring their worlds with their bodies, tools and materials in order to extend their skills; building confidence in movement activities; and representing these discoveries with creative and expressive media and technology (Mana Aoturoa) (Ministry of Educ

Problems Caused by Illegal Immigration in the US

Problems Caused by Illegal Immigration in the US Andrew Pasterczyk Immigration has been a crux on which the United States has been built, from the very origins of the nation to massive waves of Immigration in the late 19th and early 20th century. More recently however, The United States of America has experienced a spike in illegal immigration. Mainly stemming from Latin America, illegal immigrants have been pouring across the border in what has become a central political issue. The purpose of this paper is to asses this current, illegal immigration wave, identify the problems with the immigration, and offer solutions to the root problems of todays illegal immigration. For starters, it is important to define what exactly an illegal immigrant is. An illegal immigrant should be considered an individual or a group of individuals that either crosses the border of a foreign nation or resides in the foreign nation, in a manner that violates the immigration laws of the country they illegally pass into or reside in. Under this definition, even drug dealers who temporarily cross the border for even just a few hours are still classified as illegal immigrants. The intent of addressing the term illegal immigration in this manner is to help solve any future problems by closing potential future loopholes to get around being defined as an illegal immigrant. First and foremost, we need to identify the real purpose and desire behind illegal immigration to help better understand the causes to the problems it creates. On the side of the immigrants themselves, its not hard to see where the desire for illegal immigration stems from. In many cases, and particularly that of the United States, illegal immigrants travel to the country looking for a better lifestyle, more opportunity, or things as simple as work. These desires can often stem from poor living conditions in their mother country. In the case of the country subject to the illegal immigration however, the motives and desire for illegal immigration are much more hazy, especially in the case of the United States. While the government doesnt support illegal immigration, and it may be societally frowned upon, many people in the United States, particularly small business owners dont seem to have much of a problem with this illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants come undocumented to the united states, and as a result, are not subject to the benefits that a citizen or immigrant would normally receive. Small business owners dont have to pay medical benefits, or any sort of benefits for that matter, and can pay the illegal immigrants lower than minimum wage to do many jobs that American citizens wouldnt bring themselves to do. At the root of this problem is a combination of several factors, ranging from American arrogance to pandering politicians and parties vying to use immigration as a wedge to draw Latino and Hispanic votes. The main problem that needs to be addressed when attempting to solve the problems illegal immigration creates is the small business owners and congress. Any attempt to outri ght halt or slow immigration could seriously alienate small business owners, and a policy that is theoretically sound may never get through congress due to the severe partisan nature of the congress today. Bearing all that in mind, we need to ask ourselves what the problem with illegal immigration today actually is. One of the common ideas about illegal immigration today is that the illegal immigrants have a largely negative impact on the US economy. By draining welfare money, decreasing standard wages, and taking up American jobs, illegal immigrants supposedly are incredibly detrimental to the US economy. Despite this popular conception however, illegal immigration doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the economy of the United States. For starters, illegal immigrants actually improve the living standards and wages of American citizens. One of the popular misconceptions is that illegal immigrants actively compete with Americans for American jobs, but recent studies suggest that illegal immigrants actually work in cohesion with Americans, to the delight of small business. The increase in availability for cheap labor allows for business to expand, and makes immigrant intensive ser vices like cleaning cheaper, and recent data suggests that immigrants can boost the average American’s salary by .1 to .6 percent. The increase in salary isn’t actually that much. In fact, its barely nothing, but the wage increase is a far cry from the supposed wage decreases that American workers experience as a result of illegal immigration. One of the other common arguments to suggest a problem with current illegal immigration is that immigrants are a drain on the welfare state. There are a few misconceptions with this idea however. First of all, welfare in the nation, such as social security and Medicare are focused on the old, not the poor. Secondly, most illegal immigrants actually pay taxes, rent, and bills. In fact, almost 10% of the current Social Security fund today comes from illegal immigrants. To make it even more obvious, Arizona passed bill SB 1070 that made it illegal to be an undocumented worker, and as a result, the state economy lost almost $141 million due to economic revenue loss, and the bill had been severely hampered by the state supreme court, suggesting that had the original bill gone through, Arizona could’ve lost something in the ballpark of $48.8 billion. The overall point here is that on a large scale, there is no serious economic problem with illegal immigration. That being said, there are two major problems caused by illegal immigration that need to be solved. The first of these is the concentration of illegal immigrants in specific areas of the United States. While illegal immigrants may not be a drain on the federal government or the overall economy of the United States, they can prove harmful to local governments if in concentrated doses. Unfortunately, this is a truth in much of the US, as immigrant populations are heavily concentrated in cities just across the borders of the US. From a local perspective, illegal immigrants can be incredibly damaging, as they take advantage of things like free education without ever actually contributing money to help fund them. Additionally, in low income neighborhoods, a concentrated dose of illegal immigrants can put low skilled citizens out of work. When looking at it from a local perspective, illegal immigration can actually cause some economic problems. That being said, this is an incredibly convol uted problem, one that cannot be solved within the confines of this paper given the times and views today. If we wanted to stop the damage concentrated groups of illegal immigrants do to local governments in the US, the most logistical solution would be to legalize them, forcing them to help pay for the welfare that they use. This solution is flawed however, because it would alienate the low skilled workers of America and small business, and would never pass through congress. Another potential solution could be to just give the strained local governments more money, but this in itself is a poor solution. We would first have to determine what parts of the country would qualify to receive the aid, which would be incredibly hard seeing as it would require the federal government to find where illegal immigrants are specifically located. Something that the immigrants themselves wont be compliant in. Not only that, but throwing money at communities affected by illegal immigration wont sol ve anything, it will only delay the inevitable need for a solution. Lastly, it would be incredibly hard to ensure that the money was actually used where it was intended to be used. Overall, the problem of concentrated illegal immigration populations at local levels isnt unsolvable, but such a solution would have to tackle longstanding American prejudices and the workings of congress, which is something that we cannot do within the confines of this paper. The other problem with illegal immigration, and the one that this paper will dedicate itself to solving is the problem with security created by illegal immigration. In their analysis of whether or not illegal immigrants are beneficial to the economy, many people forget the underlying fact that these immigrants got to the United States by breaking the law. Not only that, but it occurs with a frightening regularity and is accepted as a reality in the United States. Many attempts to fix the supposed economic problem have actually made the security dilemma even worse, driving immigrants underground and fostering a culture of illegality. Thus there is a serious problem created by illegal immigration. While most illegal immigrants simply come here to find work or opportunity, they make the borders dangerously unstable, opening up pathways that can be followed by drug cartels and crime, and potentially terrorists. There are stats that only reinforce this opinion as well, suggesting that in a three year span from 2008 to 2011, the number of cities feeling a cartel presence increased from around 230 to almost 1700. This suggests that the massive security breach created by illegal immigration is having a very bad impact on the US, and needs to be solved. To be able to effectively solve this problem however, we first need to take a look at what is causing this problem with security at our borders. Small Business Demands/Desires As we can see in the synthesized chart above, there are really two root causes to the security problem caused by immigration. Terrible laws dictating US border policy, and the desires of small business America are at the root of the problem with illegal immigration in America. This becomes a tricky situation to solve, because both of these root problems oftentimes contradict one another. If priority is placed small businesses, then good laws will never really be drafted, because they may interfere with a steady supply of cheap labor that small businesses desire. On the other hand, if a solid immigration policy is set in place to secure the borders of America and restore security to the borders, you will most likely alienate small business, and end up driving up prices or creating a shortage in the low skilled work force as laborers are displaced from their jobs. The problem with these two roots to the problem is that an idealistic solution, although well thought out, may not appease everyone, and as a result get stuck in congress and never have an effect on anything. The obvious solution to securing the border, while allowing for local small businesses to enjoy the fruits of cheap labor is a guest worker system. Such a system would have to be carefully designed however, and pragmatic to make it through congress. Idealistically, this foreign worker system designed as a solution to close off the border would have to have several separate provisions. For starters, there would have to be incentives for both immigrants and companies to make the solution work. One of the trickiest parts of the solution is also probably one of the hardest to pull off. One of the main problems with the security of the border is that illegal immigrants are almost forced to come over illegally. This happens for a number of reasons. Firstly, its incredibly hard to get across the border the legal way, especially for poor Hispanic illegal immigrants who are simply looking for work. More often than not they will be denied, or have to wait incredibly long times just to hear whether or not they get to even get a temporary residence. Knowing this bleak reality, many illegal immigrants cross illegally knowing there isnt another option. The second problem with the legal option that makes being an illegal immigrant more appeali ng is that even if one were to get a temporary work permit, the permits have incredibly rigid expiration dates. This poses a problem in itself, seeing as the work visas are less desirable than illegal entry, seeing as one would only be able to stay in the country for a set amount of time before leaving again. Because of all this, one of the provisions of the plan to secure borders would have to be smaller, more easily renewed work permits. A renewable short term permit would be far more appealing to those who want to come to the country for work or opportunity. In order to get such a short term permit renewed, it should be pretty important that the migrant worker have some sort of business or company sponsorship, to signify that they actually did work while in the United States. This provision to ensure that immigrants who come to the United States actually find work to participate in, rather than just sit around and take advantage of welfare offered by local governments and the fed eral government. On the other side of the coin, US companies and other small businesses would also need incentives to hire these workers. One of the main reason that illegal immigrants are desired as low skilled laborers is because of the fact that, as immigrants, they are not necessarily subject to the same regulations as US citizens. Unlike a citizen, illegal immigrants arent protected under minimum wage laws or health care benefits. It is this quality that makes them desirable for small businesses to hire, and for communities to turn a blind eye to. That being said, if immigrants are being allowed into the nation to work as low costing laborers, there need to be a number of restrictions placed upon them so that the solution has an actual realistic chance of passing through congress. Of these restrictions, there should be a few that even out the playing field when it comes to hiring workers. Regulations or business practices that make it near impossible to hire migrant workers, and laws and practic es that make it easier and more beneficial to hire migrant workers should also be scrapped and made illegal. The idea here is to allow migrant workers to enter the country and find work, while trying to level the playing field for those that complain about migrant workers coming in a stealing jobs from them. Finally, both workers and employers who choose not to comply with the new law should be punished. If there is no consequence for not obeying the regulations, nobody will follow them anyway. There needs to be some sort of punishment for not complying with the new law and regulation. If a migrant worker violates their agreement, they should be deported and not be allowed to re-apply for access into the company. How a migrant worker could theoretically violate their agreement is pretty simple. Any migrant worker staying past the expiration of their permit without getting the permit removed is considered within the boundaries of breaking their contract. Another possibility is if the worker has brought anyone with him not protected by the working permit, like family members or relatives. Should the worker fail to comply with the permits instructions word for word, they will be deported, without an option for renewal.

The Beneficiality of Computer :: Essays Papers

The Beneficiality of Computer The Computer The Most Beneficial Invention Over the Last 200 Years From the beginning of our country over 200 years ago until the present time I feel that the most beneficial invention to mankind has been the computer. The computer is beneficial in many different aspects of life such as: education, business, health, and communications. Computers are very beneficial to education in our world today. Computer classes are taught in every school in the United States. They help children get ready for the fast paced world of technology. If you don’t know how to use a computer these days there is a good chance that you will not be able to find a job. The Internet is a great way to access information for research or for general enlightenment. There are also programs such as cd-rom encyclopedias, dictionaries, and novels. There are also programs to help students with math, English, science, or any other school subject you can think of. These days you can even get a master’s degree from an accredited university online. Those are some ways computers are beneficial to education. In this day in age computers are very beneficial in the business world. Without computers many businesses would not be able to function. Businesses rely on computers to keep records, store data, make complex mathematical calculations, and run sophisticated machinery. Computers also provide new business and employment possibilities. They are good for the economy and create many jobs. Through the Internet computers allow companies to do business overseas without having to go by ship or airplane. Those are just some of the many ways computers are beneficial to the business world. In our modern world computers are also very useful to the healthcare industry. Computers help in the research, and manufacture of new drugs and treatments. They run the machines that analyze chemical compounds used in the development of new medicines. Computers are also used in healthcare in hands on applications. They run machines that keep people alive such as heart monitors, respirators, dialysis machines, and prenatal care units. Without computers in the healthcare industry a lot less people would survive their illnesses or accidents. Communication is also an area in which computers have made a profound influence. Computers, with the use of the Internet, can reach people all over the globe free of cost in just a matter of seconds with the use of e-mail.

A Technology of Life

The rising rate of technological development brings significant contribution to today’s ongoing fast pace of life. It has significantly impacted people’s lives that their ways of doing things as well as their means of doing things have already changed to conform to technological trends.Its powerful effect on almost every person’s life is remarkably manifested in the people’s enthusiastic acceptance and immersion to change brought about by technology. Indeed, technology influences people’s mode of thinking, behaving, and doing things. It has also directly and indirectly shapes certain behavior patterns and values among people especially the young generation. It has even become a guide for social interaction and thus, has already become part of everybody’s every day life.The rapid technological change brings both desirable and undesirable changes in our culture. Technology development can only be viewed as a cultural progression if its desirabl e impact to the culture and society is capitalized.Further, technology is considered a cultural progression if changes brought about redound to the highest interest of an organization and to the society as a whole. It should not only create convenience but should facilitate optimum outcome and productivity of anything where technology is used or applied. Some of the considerable beneficial effect of technology is it works to decrease business cost in the industry sector while, technology, particularly communication bridges the distance between individuals. Also, it must be noted that technology now promoted and encouraged continuous invention and innovation.However, one should always be reminded of the fact that too much of anything is dangerous, thus too much dependence to technology might also demean natural creativity and intelligence of people and foster a technology-dependent society.Technology has undeniably successfully change people’s values, beliefs, and ways of beha ving which are aspects that reflect the culture of the new society.The unstoppable development in technology and its affordability has triggered a domino effect that has changed how people and society behaves. It has created a cultural change as people in today’s environment has no option to keep abreast with the modern world but to embrace technology and its resulting change, and learn to use and live with it.Technology provides people with the tool to deal and live with the demands of the changing environment especially the industrial world. It creates competitive advantage that in the corporate world â€Å"technology now is power† (Coon).It is a fact that this rapid technological change creates convenience among people even in industrial organizations.   According to Hannagan (1998), â€Å"the introduction of technology has speeded up global communication and made possible for information to be transmitted immediately†   (p. 602) facilitating immediate tr ansaction.These developments have served to facilitate global business developments as well as individual relationship. In fact one of the most concrete examples of the beneficial use of technology to communication is well articulated in the statements of Davis and Meyer (1999) that â€Å"the development of mobile technologies have made connection available to anyone, anytime, and any place† (p. 9). Technology serves to speed up business and personal transactions maximizing productivity and usability of time.The communication revolution has a profound effect on the lives of people. This effect makes the new communication technology essential to people lives. To concretize this is to relate my experience with that of my mother when communication technology was not yet developed. During their time, distance can really create so much challenge as immediate communication was not available.However, in my time now, owning mobile phone is not a luxury but already a necessity. It hel ps one to receive important information immediately, facilitate immediate deals and decision making, communicate and â€Å"stay close† with the family and significant people, and socialize with friends. Its added attributes like calculator, calendar, camera and others can also help the owner or user in various ways making life easier and less complicated. Indeed, technology has really provided practicality and convenience to its user and to the modern society.Reference ListCoon, D. Technology’s positive effect on culture, class, and gender. Retrieved March 14, 2007from http://www.leon.leon.k12.fl.us/lion/dept/science/coon/Vita/techclass.htmlDavis, S. & Meyer, C. (1999). Blur: The speed of change in the connected economy. USA:Perseus Publishing.Hannagan, T. (1998). Management: Concepts and practices (2nd ed). Great Britain: PearsonEducation Limited.  

A Quality Leader Essay

Dr. Karoru Ishikawa is one of the world’s idolized leaders in quality control. His famous quote† Through total quality control with the participation of all employees, including the president, any company can create better products (or service) at a lower cost, increase sales, improve profit and make the company into a better organization† ( Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa) . Ishikawa joined the Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers, a quality research group back in 1949. The Japanese was concerned about their industry sector since it was known that American manufacturing was producing cheap toys and defective cameras. This group took on the responsibility of Japan’s quality-improvement; that was when Ishikawa took the initiative to build on Feigenbaum’s concept of total quality and promoted greater involvement by all employees, from the top management to the front-line staff, by reducing reliance on quality professionals and quality departments. He advocated collecting and analyzing factual data using simple visual tools, statistical techniques, and teamwork as the foundations for implementing total quality. Like others, Ishikawa believed that quality begins with the customer and therefore, understanding customers’ needs is the basis for improvement, and that complaints should be actively sought. (Evans, 2010 pg 110) Background Kaoru Ishikawa was born in 1915 in Tokyo. He graduated from Tokyo University in 1939 with a degree in Applied Chemistry. In his brief tour in the military as a Naval Technical Officer In charge of 600 workers to construct a factory he quoted â€Å"This experience he says was invaluable to Quality Control activities later on. †, (Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa) He worked for Nissan Liquid Fuel Company from 1941-1947 before he was appointed associate Professor of the University of Tokyo. In 1949 He joined the Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers because he wanted to change the way people thought about work and help management improve the quality of their product. In 1970 Dr. Ishikawa started conducting quality control training seminars. Around 1978 Dr. Ishikawa became the President of Musashi Institute of Technology. Upon Ishikawa’s 1989 death, Dr. Juran delivered this message: â€Å"There is so much to be learned by studying how Dr. Ishikawa managed to accomplish so much during a single lifetime. In my observation, he did so by applying his natural gifts in an exemplary way. He was dedicated to serving society rather than serving himself. His manner was modest, and this elicited the cooperation of others. † (Dr. Joseph M. Juran) Primary work and significant accomplishments Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa accomplishments have include helping thousands of companies, like IBM, Bridgestone, and Komatsu, to turn out higher quality products at considerable lower costs. His book,†What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way†, Prentice Hall, Inc. was a best seller in business books. He has been awarded the Deming Prize and the Nihon Keizai Press Prize, the Industrial Standardization Prize for his writings on Quality Control, and the Grant Award in 1971 from the American Society for Quality Control for his education programmer on Quality Control. Process Improvement Japan, 2012). His creation of the fishbone diagram, the user can see all possible root causes of process imperfections. There are many other accomplishments that Dr. Ishikawa has made, which you can find in books and online. These were deserving awards due to his unselfish work ethics and have truly made him a quality genius. Conclusion Through total quality control a company of any type can stay in business, make products at lower cost, and endure great productivity from its workers. Dr Ishikawa wanted to change the way workers and management do business. Quality should start with the customer and it can be done using his writings, fishbone diagram, and other tools like control charts, run charts, histogram, scatter diagram, Pareto charts, and flowcharts. His knowledge was needed in a time when people wanted a product that will last and was supported by the company who makes it. His many accomplishments and strong work ethics influenced many companies to change and many of those companies are still in business today. Dr. Ishikawa is truly a leader in quality control.