Teaching - Reflections, Questions, Desicions Essay -- Education, Quali

Introduction What is teaching? What do we mean by quality education? What is the best way to motivate a child to reach their full potential? These are some of the questions that the effective teacher may ask themselves. In fact, much of the role of the modern teacher can be defined in the statement; Teaching – reflections, questions, decisions. These aspects are interwoven and iterative. Teachers need to reflect upon various policies, concepts and strategies. They need to ask the right questions and make the right decisions. The cycle continues. This assignment examines the role of the teacher with reference to professionalism and ethics, the teaching role and teaching strategies, classroom management and motivation. Professionalism and Ethics The foundations for becoming an effective teacher perhaps lie within professionalism and ethics. After all, this influences every single decision a teacher makes. Professionalism can be divided into six distinct categories; these are academic, legal, ethical, professional, personal and cultural professionalism. (Whitton et al., 2010) This is possibly a good starting point because teachers need to reflect upon what professionalism means for them and how it will affect their teaching practices. For example, legal professionalism encompasses a whole range of aspects including duty of care, child protection, freedom of information, discipline, restraint, bullying and harassment, sexual assault and physical contact, discrimination and defamation. (Whitton et al., 2010) The list is vast and so are the implications. The effective teacher will need to keep their policy knowledge up to date. They will also have to make decisions based on these policies. Perhaps this is w... ...n, there are many facets to the effective teacher. Professionalism and ethics are of upmost importance and underpin the ethos of the teaching role. Moreover, the teacher must exhibit certain characteristics and focus on building quality relationships with the students. A range of teaching strategies should be utilised, in particular teachers need to be proficient in the use of questions. Planning is important in creating a safe and positive learning environment that incites a sense of belonging and managing misbehaviour efficiently is vital. Motivation needs to be examined and understood with reference to the students in the class. Teachers need to reflect upon and question their own teaching practices and understanding of the policies and strategies available to them in order to make the best decisions for the children in their classroom under their care.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser Essay

Being the world’s busiest and most successful nation, America and the people of America need to be kept constantly fueled. Now the country can run on electricity and petroleum but the people need to be kept fed with food and of course with a busy schedule, food needs to be readily available, be efficiently cheap, delightfully tasteful and be hunger-relieving. The fast food industry manages to accomplish the task quite successfully until and unless it’s long term side effects on the body and the effects of it’s â€Å"helping† industries are taken under consideration. Eric Schlosser gives an in-depth view of this rapidly growing industry in his book â€Å"Fast Food Nation† revealing unimaginable facts that could definitely make someone have second opinions before purchasing a burger from McDonalds. The fast food industry first emerged in the 1940’s after World War Two when people started reusing their cars, now more than ever as traveling by road was cut down during wartime to save on fuel. A new chain of restaurants opened up in southern California at this period of time known as the â€Å"drive-ins†. Drive-ins become a popular hangout spot for the young youth with the combination of girls, cars, and late-night food. It was at this time that the McDonald’s came to prominence; it was known for its faster service for the customer and a cheaper production rate for themselves. The meat-producing industries were not matching the demand of meat which was accelerated due to the new fast-food industry. And thus this industry sector was also revolutionized (in the least proper manner) which now packaged cows in small areas where they were fed corn instead of fresh grass to speed up their growth and would then be shipped to slaughterhouses. This industry is still intact alongside the fast-food industry. The most common allusion is that meat products available at fast-food places are unhealthy yet the story doesn’t end there. According to Schlosser, the meat that is normally available at these joints is processed at huge industrial plants in which thousands of cows are packed in small shed where they barely have space to walk (in contrast to the picture we imagine where cows would be grazing in open fields). The working conditions at such places are even worse, for instance on page 165, he states â€Å"we have three odors†¦burning hair and blood, greasy, and the odor of rotten egg†¦It rises from the slaughterhouse waste water lagoons causing respiratory problems and headaches, and†¦damage to nervous system. † Deadly bacteria are just another serving that comes along with this industry. For example (as stated on page 199-200) E. coli O157:H7 that is found at such plants releases a powerful toxin that can soon lead â€Å"hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which leads to kidney failure, anemia, internal bleeding, and destruction of vital organs. About 5 percent of children who develop HSU are killed by it. † Obesity, another common allusion associated with fast-food restaurants, is on the rise. As Schlosser states on page 240 â€Å"More than half of all American adults and about one-quarter of all American children are now obese or overweight†¦The rate of obesity among children is twice as high as it was in the late 1970s. † Globalization also has made an impact in spreading the fast-food industry. Not that it was enough that these unhealthy cultures were already â€Å"helping† the western hemisphere, fast-food restaurants that emerged in the United States such as McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken went global to Asian countries such as China, India and Japan where for thousands of years, the people consumed a proper healthy diet most of the time. As Schlosser reports â€Å"A decade ago, McDonald’s had about three thousand restaurants outside the United States: today (that number has changed to) about seventeen thousand restaurants in more than 120 foreign countries. (Page 229) The expansion of this cancer also made its way into school campuses in hallways and other areas to attract students towards local franchise. For example, in District 11 during 1993, it began placing ads as a result of the revenue shortfalls. Within a year the district had tripled its revenues. (Page 51) Children are obvious targets as the food tastes better than school lunches and because on occasion, is cheaper to purchase than at school. Opposition has always remained against the idea of eliminating fast food as there are people who are always on the road and would like somewhere where they could grab a quick and cheap meal but it should be noted that health comes first and health is priority whereas the fast-food industry and its food are like cancer. The effects of the fast-food nation include serious environmental as well as personal damages. For now, fast-food joints should compromise their food and upgrade their menu with a decent amount of healthier options.

Character Analysis The Joy Luck Club - 1005 Words

Every person in the world encounters some type of physical conflict ranging from hitting your head on a door frame to a tornado hitting someones home town. For those of you who do not really understand what physical conflict is, it is a type of external conflict that occurs in a story when individual characters struggle against other external forces; a character may struggle against other characters, animals or even natural forces. In the fictional book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, one of the Chinese women part of the Joy Luck Club known as Lindo-Jong suffers an ongoing physical conflict between her and her future husbands family the Huangs; from the age of twelve to the age of sixteen years old when her parents leave her behind and†¦show more content†¦Not only did her parents leave her at the age of twelve, young Lindo-Jong was â€Å"trained† to be a good wife for her future husband; in other words she was treated as a servant in the house until she got married to the Huangs son Tyan-yu.Lindo-Jong states,†No big celebration was held when I arrived...Tyan-yu was not there to greet me. Instead, Huang Taitai hurried me upstairs to the second floor and into the kitchen, which was a place where family children didnt usually go. This was a place for cooks and servants. So I knew my standing(pg 55.)†Over the next few years Huang Taitai ordered servants to teach Lindo-Jong how to cook food that made her husband satisfied,and how to sew sharp corners on pillows and embroider her future family name, how to clean a chamber pot spotless,and do laundry exceptionally good. During that time Lindo-Jong had to be an obedient wife and do what she was told. As time passed the Huangs tried to force their thinking onto Lindo-Jong that Tyan-yu’s opinion was more important than her life, and nothing was better than pleasing her future mother Huang-Taitai; but through it all she had to stay there with that family and not to voice her opinion about anything, she had to stay silent so she did not appear as a terrible wife and disgrace her familys name. Even though Lindo-JongShow MoreRelatedJoy Luck Club Character Analysis1045 Words   |  5 PagesThe Joy Luck Club Theme Analysis The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is an entertaining book that focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families. They face problems in their hometown which causes them to move to the United States. They end up moving to San Francisco and face many different problems with their cultural background. The theme of The Joy Luck Club is the relationship between both the mothers and their daughters. A variety of different events occur throughout the book that explainsRead MoreJoy Luck Club Character Analysis1032 Words   |  5 PagesIn The Joy Luck Club, the daughters of the Chinese immigrant mothers consistently struggle with communication and understanding, partially because of the language barrier between them, and partially because of the different circumstances they have been raised in. 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TheRead MoreReading report: Two Kinds by Amy Tan1347 Words   |  6 PagesReading report: Two Kinds by Amy Tan A summary of the passage Two kinds, one of the short stories in The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, first published in 1989, vividly displays a bittersweet relationship between Jing-mei, the narrator and protagonist, and her mother Mrs. Woo, and explores conflicts between a Chinese mother and her disobedient Americanized daughter. The story happened in the Chinatown in San Francisco throughout the 1950s and maybe the early 1960s. It begins with Jing-mei and her