How to Make Glowing Jell-O

How to Make Glowing Jell-O Its incredibly easy to make Jell-Oâ„ ¢ or other gelatin glow under a black light. Heres how to make it happen: Glowing Jell-O Materials package of Jell-O or other gelatintonic waterblack light Make the Jell-O Follow the directions on the package, except use tonic water instead of water.For a small package, the usual directions would be to heat 1 cup of tonic water to boiling.Mix the boiling tonic water and Jell-O until the powder is completely dissolved.Stir in another cup of tonic water.Pour the liquid into a pan or bowl.Refrigerate the Jell-O until is has set.You can use cookie cutters to make shapes out of the gelatin if desired.Shine a black light on the Jell-O to make it glow. No matter what flavor/color of Jell-O you use, it will glow bright blue under the black light. This is the fluorescence of the quinine in the tonic water. Quinine also gives tonic water a distinctive bitter flavor which you will also taste in the gelatin. If you dont like the taste, you can lessen it by using half tonic water and half tap water in the recipe. Either sugar-free or regular tonic water works fine for this recipe. Some recipes call for using a low percentage of tonic water (5-10%). The glow from this gelatin will be extremely faint, especially if the dessert is colored. You need a decent amount of quinine to get a bright glow.

Turn Your Teacher Weaknesses Into Assets to Get the Job

Turn Your Teacher Weaknesses Into Assets to Get the Job One interview question that can stump even seasoned job-seeking educators is What is your greatest weakness as a teacher? This question may come at you disguised as What would you most like to change/improve about yourself? or What frustrations did you encounter in your last position? This weakness question really tags as an opportunity to Describe your strengths. Your response can tip the interview in your favor or send your resume to the bottom of the pile. Forget Conventional Wisdom In the past conventional wisdom recommended putting a spin on this question by describing an actual strength camouflaged  as a weakness. For example, you might have tried to be clever and offered perfectionism as your weakness, explaining that you refuse to quit until the job gets done right. But in responding to your weaknesses, you should should stay away from any personal qualities. Save your personal qualities such as perfectionism, enthusiasm, creativity, or patience for describing strengths. In responding to a question about a weakness, you should offer more professional traits. For example, you may recall how you noticed your attention to detail, organization, or problem-solving may have needed improvement. Once you have provided the trait, you should provide details on how you purposefully worked to address this weakness. Include any of the steps you have taken or are currently taking to mitigate this weakness. Here are two examples of how you might respond to a question about your greatest weakness. Corrected Weakness: Organization For example, you can state that you have been less excited about the amount of paperwork that comes along with a classroom of students. You may admit that in the past you tended to procrastinate on assessing classwork or homework. You can also admit to having found yourself on more than one occasion scrambling to catch up right before the grading period ended. You might feel like your honesty leaves you vulnerable. But, if you go on to explain that in order to combat this tendency, you set a schedule for yourself this past school year that dedicated time every day to paperwork, you will be viewed as a problem solver. You might include other strategies you used such as self-grading assignments whenever practical, which allowed students to assess their own work as you discussed the answers together in class. As a result, you can acknowledge that you learned to stay on top of your grading and needed a short time at the end of each period to compile the information. For new teachers, examples like this could come from student teaching experiences. Now an interviewer will see you as self-aware and reflective, both highly desirable attributes in a teacher. Corrected Weakness: Seeking advice Teachers are independent, but that can lead to isolation in problem solving, and some problems may necessitate advice from others.This is particularly true in dealing with confrontational situations such as dealing with an irate parent or a teachers aide who arrives late to your class every day. You might admit that you may have tried to solve some problems on your own, but upon reflection, felt it was necessary to seek the advice of others. You can explain how you found the teacher next door to you or an administrator was important in helping you address different kinds of uncomfortable confrontations. If you are an educator looking for first job, you may not have classroom experiences to use as examples. But dealing with confrontations is a life skill and not limited to the school building. In this case, you can provide examples of problem-solving confrontations you may have had at college or at another job. Seeking the advice of others shows that you can identify people or groups that can be resources instead of trying to tackle confrontational problems on your own. Self analysis Employers know job candidates have weaknesses, says Kent McAnally, director of career services at Washburn University. They want to know that we are doing the self-analysis to identify what ours are, he writes for the American Association for Employment in Education. Showing that you are taking steps to improve is essential to making a positive impression, but more importantly, it is essential for developing your personal and professional goals and development plans. And THAT is the real reason for the question. Tips to Master the Interview Be truthful.Do not try to guess what the interviewer wants to hear. Answer questions candidly and present your authentic self.Prepare for the question but do not let your answers sound coached.Remain positive as you explain how your weakness could be seen as a positive in the job.Avoid using negative words like â€Å"weak† and â€Å"failure.†Smile!

Movie Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Movie Assignment - Essay Example ’s son, Michael, is critically ill of heart disease and he has already been taken to hospital (Crisis of Hope Memorial Hospital) by his parents; Michael needed heart transplantation. Unfortunately, Michael’s parents are unable to raise the required money, and they have already exhausted all the possible means to raise the $750, 000 required for Michael’s name to be included in the list of patient’s waiting operation. John Q had to decide on whether to transfer Michael to another hospital (County Hospital) or to use any other possible mean to have his son operated. Michael would most likely die if his parents transferred him to a County Hospital because the County Hospitals would not have been able to operate him. Desperate to see his son treated, John Q decided to use violence so that his son could be treated; John held hostage the stuff and the patients in the Emergency Room hostage so that his son could be treated. Eventually, John’s plan succeede d and his son was operated. In this movie, John had also attempted to commit suicide so that he could donate his heart to his son. Having analysed the situation in which John Q found himself, it is clear that John Q did not act with integrity. This is because integrity demands that one should act in the right way and a manner consistent with the prevailing rules and laws. Although John Q was desperate to have his son treated, and, although his plan of resorting to violence finally worked, John’s action of resort to violence, however, were not in line with the rules and the laws of the hospital. For this reason, therefore, John Q did not act with integrity. John also did not act with integrity by attempting to commit suicide so as to donate his heart to his son. This is because, rather than attempting to commit suicide, John could have let the hospital look for the heart for the transplantation. John’s wife, Denise, also did not act with integrity in the movie. This is because Denise collaborated with John

Information Systems Outsourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information Systems Outsourcing - Essay Example Outsourcing may be defined as the transfer of operational responsibility of either business processes or information system and other infrastructure management of an organization to an external service provider to achieve strategic goals, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and provide other efficiency and effectiveness improvements. This field has been in constant focus in last few years due to various social and financial issues involved with it. A number of organizations have sub-contracted all or part of their information systems / information technology function to specialist consultancies / contractors. According to Forbes Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies have outsourced at least one major business function. Encouraged by the projections of phenomenal cost savings, many Fortune 500 firms are jumping on to the "outsourcing bandwagon" (Lacity and Hirschheim 1993b). A survey of U.S. CEOs shows that 42% of communication firms, 40% of computer manufacturers, and 37% of semiconductor companies rely on outsourcing from foreign firms. These same CEOs expect the figures on outsourcing to exceed 50% before the mid-1990s (Bettis et al. 1992). Though the process of outsourcing is often considered as a non core business process it may range from low grade high volume and repetitive mechanical processes to a more sophisticated and high-tech development outsourcing. Outsourcing, in general, can be categorized as business processing outsourcing, platform IT outsourcing, application outsourcing and systems and network infrastructure outsourcing Information System outsourcing and processing services spending were approximately $200 billion in 2004, representing an 8.8% compounded annual growth rate (IDC). Information system outsourcing has been fueled by rapid technological change throughout all industries which results in more expense to upgrade systems, more time to install and increase complexity. For smaller companies which have information system and information technology department for just business support, maintaining and managing a good IT/IS department is not viable option, it is practically impossible to have a best team which can take on the market competition but IT/IS is major factor today that decide the success and failure of an organization. This lead to the outsourcing of major IT/IS outsourcings. Entire IT department or some IT/IS services are outsourced. The emerging pervasive nature of the Internet has effectively helped the communication between different parties involved in outsourcing process and has been the major facilitator of outsourcing in recent years. Easy and immediate access to information enables various parties involved in outsourcing to estimate the success of effort and control the entire process flow. Insufficient labor availability in developed countries, especially for those with IT expertise, has also led many companies in developed countries to outsource their business process and functional needs to the countries where cheap and high skilled human resource is available. Outsourcing decisions, in past, were primarily based on anticipated cost savings without the consideration of technology and security, but in

Price Elasticity or Demand & Marginal Utility Essay Example for Free

Price Elasticity or Demand Marginal Utility Essay Part A   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Based on its definition, the major determinants of price elasticity of demand would be the percentage change of quantity demanded and prices of the goods and services. We can say that a certain good is an elastic or inelastic good based on the above identified determinants of price elasticity of demand (Moffatt 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like for instance, let us consider the case of bottled water in the market. Since there are a lot of companies that produces bottled water, this product can only be considered as elastic good because even if the prices of bottled water decrease in the market the demand would change significantly since bottled waters are goods that can be classified as normal goods. Moreover, there are a lot of substitutes for bottled water in the market which makes the demand react instantly on slight changes in the current prices of this kind of goods. On the other hand, the price elasticity of toothpaste is also elastic because the percentage change of demand is significant for a percentage unit change on its prices due to the existence of substitute toothpaste in the market. As for the case of Crest it has inelastic demand elasticity since during the 1950’s it is the only toothpaste that has fluoride and there is an absence of substitute product for this kind of toothpaste at that time. Meaning, the demand for Crest toothpaste remains high especially for those people who are health conscious regardless of the price level of the said product. Next product would be Ketchup which also has the same demand elasticity as bottled water and toothpaste- elastic demand. The last but not the least product would be Microsoft Windows operating system. Since majority of computers nowadays uses Windows operating system, the demand for this product is really high and consumers are very much willing to pay even high prices just to have this product. In other words, the percentage change of Windows operating system will not greatly affect the percentage change of demand for this product. Part B No. of Pizza Slices Consumed Total Utility Marginal Utility 1 20 n.a. 2 28 8 3 40 12 4 47 7 5 52 5   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Based on the table above, during the consumption of the first slice of pizza, my friend derived a total utility of 20 units. On the second slice of pizza, he derived 28 units of utility and 40 units during the third slice of pizza. On the fourth slice of pizza he looks as if he is not that much eager to get a slice of pizza and derived only 47 units of utility and 52 on the fifth slice of pizza. Based from this data we can now compute for the marginal utility that my friend was able to derive out of consuming 5 out of 8 slices of pizza. We can see clearly that my friend had an increasing marginal utility on consuming slices of pizza up to the 3rd slice. The fourth slice was not able to satisfy my friend as he approached saturation on consuming slices of pizza. My friend said to me that he experienced the same feeling, feeling of saturation after consuming a number of a single product, when consuming soft drinks and burgers. The more he eats burgers or drink soft drinks, he starts to value less the succeeding pieces of burger or bottle of soft drinks after some point in time. Works Cited Moffatt, Mike â€Å"Price Elasticity of Demand.† 2007. About.com.   24 February 2008 http://economics.about.com/cs/micfrohelp/a/priceelasticity.htm.

Cold War Essay -- essays research papers

The Cold War, 1949-1963 25.1 American Commitment to Cold War: National Security Council Document 68 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How NSC-68 influenced America’s response to Communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in June 1950 and to Communist expansion in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. The NSC-68 called for military assistance programs that would meet the requirements of our allies. Since South Korea was an ally, we assisted them in repelling the invasion of another communist nation. This help for South Korea meant that a communist nation would be weakened and therefore possibly cripple a potential ally for the Soviet Union. Also, South Korea would then respond to a call for aid if the Soviet Union ever attacked America. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of NSC-68 for military spending by the United States and its allies. The NSC-68 stated that â€Å"budgetary considerations will need to be subordinated to the stark fact that our very independence as a nation may be at stake.† This meant that no matter how much it cost to build up our military, it would be done in order to protect our nation. Also, the rebuilding of European economies and defenses in order to try and contain Russian expansion without armed conflict, lead to the help of European powers having to return the favor of having their economies rebuilt with helping the United States in the Cold War. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The implications of the call for â€Å"covert actions† in NSC-68. Covert actions in the NSC-68 implies that the United States was not ready for another war so soon after World War II. Also, the Soviet Union had developed atomic weapons, which meant that the Soviet Union could cause mass destruction in the United States. However, America was unwilling to allow the communist nation of the Soviet Union to expand and gain enough power to crush the United States. So the government decided to use covert operations which would hurt their economy and cause unrest in the Soviet Union. 25.2 American Public Opinion and the Korean War, 1950-1952 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What these responses reveal about attitudes toward American involvement in the Korean War. At the beginning, American opinion supported the war in Korea. However, as time went on, the American opinion changed because we no longer had a clear chance of winning the war. People then c... ...tution given rights were ignored as well. The Red Scare was therefore similar to McCarthyism in the 1950s because it was a movement against communism that many people had. The Smith Act was passed which prevented the teaching of overthrowing the government and forced all foreign residents over the age of 14 to register their occupation and political beliefs. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How successful were United States responses to the Soviet Union in the 1950s? Were there alternatives to these responses? Eisenhower did a brilliant job in his responses to the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He kept the Soviet Union from expanding by rebuilding the economies of the war struck countries in Europe. Had technology developed that would allow the United States to spy on other countries armaments and military actions without exposing ourselves to any risk. Entered nine treaties that would make attacking the United States bring down a multitude of other countries attacks. Eisenhower also developed a large amount of nuclear devices that would allow the United States to respond to any attack with powerful force. Eisenhower could not have developed a better strategy to hold back the Russians.

Pushing Paper Can Be Fun Essay

1.Organizational and Personal Outcomes – What performance problems is the captain trying to address? Behavior- Officers not doing paperwork, or when done, is incomplete. Result – Cases being lost, due to poor reporting. The officers lack motivation and perceive filling out reports as boring. 2.Goal Statement – What would be a desirable outcome? A desirable outcome would be that officers perceive their jobs to include paperwork, and that they understand the value and importance of filling reports adequately and correctly in an assigned time frame. 3.What has the Captain already tried doing to solve the problem? To help motivate the officers, team competitions were established. These were based on the excellence of the reports. The competition provided no reward. An idea suggested to the Captain is to include financial rewards as incentives, based on the number of conviction records. These are also related to motivational factors. 4.Using the MARS Model to diagnose the possible causes of the unacceptable behavior and to explain what the Captain should do to resolve the situation. The MARS Model outlines the four major factors in determining individual behavior and results. The four major factors consist of Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions and Situation Factors. Motivational: The police officers are lacking motivation when it comes to doing paperwork. Their paper work is frequently put off or completed inadequately. They are aware that promotion is not based on how well they complete paperwork; rather it is based by simply staying on the force for a certain number of years. Ability: I would assume that officers do not receive adequate training on proper report making while attending the police academy. Also some officers may have more of an aptitude than others when it comes to writing. Role Perceptions: The officers perceive their job as peace, law and order. They think of paperwork as boring and routine. A possible issue is that they don’t understand the value attached to providing an adequate and correct report. This perception may have been established due to improper training, the rookies are being taught by other officers, who themselves have never been formally trained. The personalities of the officers as well as their personal values play a role in how they perceive their job to be. Situational Factors: The case did not mention any situational factors; however there is one possible factor. There isn’t enough funding for rewards, so little, that layoffs are being considered. This poses a problem in that, if officers are laid off then there is less of them to perform the task, thus making the issue worse, not improving it. Suggestions: First off in order for things to improve, it needs to start with the Captain. He himself claims the work to be routine and boring; this attitude passes down to his fellow officers. Something as simple as changing his perception, would help motivate the officers. Secondly, all officers including the Captain should be retrained. This will insure consistency throughout. Fewer cases will be lost, and establishing future incentive plans will be must easier. Thirdly, The Captain could decrease the hours officers spend out on the streets, and allocate more time for the officers to complete their paper work. Motivation by Punishment: If a case were to lose due to a faulty report, then the officer responsible for filling the form would have to attend a training session. To avoid the officers from falling back into the same habit, he could also punish them with a week of traffic duty. (I believe most cops prefer to be fighting crime, not issuing traffic tickets). Motivation by Incentive: As the case study mentioned, the police station is experiencing a budget crunch. An affordable method could be to provide officers with free perks, for completing their paper work adequately, correctly and on time. Such things as: first pick of the squat car, which area/street they prefer to patrol and being able to choose cases that interest them most.

Organisation and Behaviour Essay

Case Study 1: Dimensions of Organisational Structure Changing the Rules at Bosco Plastics When Jill Thompson took over as chief executive officer at Bosco Plastics, the company was in trouble. Bosco had started out as an innovative company, known for creating a new product just as the popularity of one of the industry’s old standbys was fading, i.e., replacing yo-yo’s with water guns. In two decades, it had become an established maker of plastics for the toy industry. Bosco had grown from a dozen employees to four hundred, and its rules had grown haphazardly with it. Thompson’s predecessor, Wilhelm K. Blatz, had found the company’s procedures chaotic and had instituted a uniform set of rules for all employees. Since then, both research output and manufacturing productivity had steadily declined. When the company’s board of directors hired Thompson, they emphasized the need to evaluate and revise the company’s formal procedures in an attempt to reverse the trends. First, Thompson studied the rules Blatz had implemented. She was impressed to find that the entire procedures manual was only twenty pages long. It began with the reasonable sentence â€Å"All employees of Bosco Plastics shall be governed by the following . . .† Thompson had expected to find evidence that Blatz had been a tyrant who ran the company with an iron fist. But as she read through the manual, she found nothing to indicate this. In fact, some of the rules were rather flexible. Employees could punch in anytime between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. and leave nine hours later, between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. Managers were expected to keep monthly notes on the people working for them and make yearly recommendations to the human resources committee about raises, bonuses, promotions, and firings. Except for their one-hour lunch break, which they could take at any time, employees were expected to be in the building at all times. Puzzled, Thompson went down to the lounge where the research and development people gathered. She was surprised to find a time clock on the wall. Curious, she fed a time card into it and was even more flabbergasted when the machine chattered noisily, then spit it out without registering the time. Apparently R&D was none too pleased with the time clock and had found a way to rig it. When Thompson looked up in astonishment, only two of the twelve employees who had been in the room were still there. They said the others had â€Å"punched back in† when they saw the boss coming. Thompson asked the remaining pair to tell her what was wrong with company rules, and she got an earful. The researchers, mostly chemists and engineers with advanced graduate degrees, resented punching a time clock and having their work evaluated once a month, when they could not reasonably be expected to come up with something new and worth writing about more than twice a year. Before the implementation of the new rules, they had often gotten inspiration from going down to the local dime store and picking up five dollars worth of cheap toys, but now they felt they could make such trips only on their own time. And when a researcher came up with an innovative idea, it often took months for the proposal to work its way up the company hierarchy to the attention of someone who could put it into production. In short, all these sharp minds felt shackled. Concluding that maybe she had overlooked the rigidity of the rules, Thompson walked over to the manufacturing building to talk to the production supervisors. They responded to her questions with one word: anarchy. With employees drifting in between 8:00 and 10:00 and then starting to drift out again by 11:00 for lunch, the supervisors never knew if they had enough people to run a particular operation. Employee turnover was high, but not high enough in some cases; supervisors believed the rules prevented them from firing all but the most incompetent workers before the end of the yearly evaluation period. The rules were so â€Å"humane† that discipline was impossible to enforce. By the time Jill Thompson got back to her office, she had a plan. The following week, she called in all the department managers and asked them to draft formal rules and procedures for their individual areas. She told them she did not intend to lose control of the company, but she wanted to see if they could improve productivity and morale by creating formal procedures for their individual departments. Case Questions (AO 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3): †¢ Do you think Jill Thompson’s proposal to decentralise the rules and procedures of Bosco Plastics will work? If so, why and how? Give reasons. What, in your opinion, are the requirements to make decentralisation effective? †¢ What kinds of rules and procedures do you think the department managers will come up with? Which departments will be more formalised? Why? †¢ What risks will the company face if it establishes different procedures for different areas? Explain your reasons by analysing the merits and demerits of ‘organic’ and ‘mechanistic’ structures with regard to changes proposed by Jill Thompson. Case Study 2: Organizational Structure and Culture Surviving Greenscape’s Hard Times In ten years, Greenscape had grown from a one-person venture into the largest nursery and landscaping business in its area. Its founder, Lita Ong, combined a lifelong interest in plants with a botany degree to provide a unique customer service. Ong had managed the company’s growth so that even with twenty full-time employees working in six to eight crews, the organization culture was still as open, friendly, and personal as it had been when her only â€Å"employees† were friends who would volunteer to help her move a heavy tree. To maintain that atmosphere, Ong involved herself increasingly with people and less with plants as the company grew. With hundreds of customers and scores of jobs at any one time, she could no longer say without hesitation whether she had a dozen arborvitae bushes in stock or when Mrs. McCormack’s estate would need a new load of bark mulch. But she knew when Martina had been up all night with her baby, when Adrian was likely to be late because he had driven to see his sick father over the weekend, and how to deal with Emily when she was depressed because of her boyfriend’s behaviour. She kept track of the birthdays of every employee and even those of their children. She was up every morning by five-thirty arranging schedules so that Johnson could get his son out of daycare at four o’clock and Doris could be back in town for her afternoon high school equivalency classes. Paying all this attention to employees may have led Ong to make a single bad business decision that almost destroyed the company. She provided extensive landscaping to a new mall on credit, and when the mall never opened and its owners went bankrupt, Greenscape found itself in deep trouble. The company had virtually no cash and had to pay off the bills for the mall plants, most of which were not even salvageable. One Friday, Ong called a meeting with her employees and levelled with them: either they would not get paid for a month or Greenscape would fold. The news hit the employees hard. Many counted on the Friday paycheck to buy groceries for the week. The local unemployment rate was low, however, and they knew they could find other jobs. But as they looked around, they wondered whether they could ever find this kind of job. Sure, the pay was not the greatest, but the tears in the eyes of some workers were not over pay or personal hardship; they were for Ong, her dream, and her difficulties. They never thought of her as the boss or called her anything but â€Å"Lita.† And leaving the group would not be just a matter of saying good-bye to fellow employees. If Bernice left, the company softball team would lose its best pitcher, and the Sunday game was the height of everyone’s week. Where else would they find people who spent much of the weekend working on the best puns with which to assail one another on Monday morning? At how many offices would everyone show up twenty minutes before starting time just to catch up with friends on other crews? What other boss would really understand when you simply said, â€Å"I don’t have a doctor’s appointment, I just need the afternoon off†? Ong gave her employees the weekend to think over their decision: whether to take their pay and look for another job or to dig into their savings and go on working. Knowing it would be hard for them to quit, she told them they did not have to face her on Monday; if they did not show up, she would send them their checks. But when she arrived at seven-forty Monday morning, she found the entire group already there, ready to work even harder to pull the company through. They were even trying to top one another with puns about being â€Å"mall-contents.† Case Questions (AO 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3): †¢ How would you describe the organization culture at Greenscape? Under the different types of culture, what type of culture, do you think, operating in Greenscape? Justify your views with evidence. †¢ How large can such a company get before it needs to change its culture and structure? And why it is important to change culture and structure? Discuss briefly the benefits and difficulties that Greenscape have to cope with changing its culture and structure as the company gears for its growth. Case Study 3: Leadership Models and Concepts Right Boss, Wrong Company Brenda Hogan was continuously on top of things. In school, she had always been at the top of her class. When she went to work for her uncle’s shoe business, Fancy Footwear, she had been singled out as the most productive employee and the one with the best attendance. The company was so impressed with her that it sent her to get an M.B.A. to groom her for a top management position. In school again, and with three years of practical experience to draw on, Hogan had gobbled up every idea put in front of her, relating many of them to her work at Fancy Footwear. When Hogan graduated at the top of her class, she returned to Fancy Footwear. To no one’s surprise, when the head of the company’s largest division took advantage of the firm’s early retirement plan, Hogan was given his position. Hogan knew the pitfalls of being suddenly catapulted to a leadership position, and she was determined to avoid them. In business school, she had read cases about family businesses that fell apart when a young family member took over with an iron fist, barking out orders, cutting personnel, and destroying morale. Hogan knew a lot about participative management, and she was not going to be labelled an arrogant know-it-all. Hogan’s predecessor, Max Worthy, had run the division from an office at the top of the building, far above the factory floor. Two or three times a day, Worthy would summon a messenger or a secretary from the offices on the second floor and send a memo out to one or another group of workers. But as Hogan saw it, Worthy was mostly an absentee autocrat, making all the decisions from above and spending most of his time at extended lunches with his friends from the Rotary Club. Hogan’s first move was to change all that. She set up her office on the second floor. From her always-open doorway she could see down onto the factory floor, and as she sat behind her desk she could spot anyone walking by in the hall. She never ate lunch herself but spent the time from 11 to 2 down on the floor, walking around, talking, and organizing groups. The workers, many of whom had twenty years of seniority at the plant, seemed surprised by this new policy and reluctant to volunteer for any groups. But in fairly short order, Hogan established a worker productivity group, a â€Å"Suggestion of the Week† committee, an environmental group, a worker award group, and a management relations group. Each group held two meetings a week, one without and one with Hogan. She encouraged each group to set up goals in its particular focus area and develop plans for reaching those goals. She promised any support that was within her power to give. The group work was agonizingly slow at first. But Hogan had been well trained as a facilitator, and she soon took on that role in their meetings, writing down ideas on a big board, organizing them, and later communicating them in notices to other employees. She got everyone to call her â€Å"Betty† and set herself the task of learning all their names. By the end of the first month, Fancy Footwear was stirred up. But as it turned out, that was the last thing most employees wanted. The truth finally hit Hogan when the entire management relations committee resigned at the start of their fourth meeting. â€Å"I’m sorry, Ms. Hogan,† one of them said. â€Å"We’re good at making shoes, but not at this management stuff. A lot of us are heading toward retirement. We don’t want to be supervisors.† Astonished, Hogan went to talk to the workers with whom she believed she had built good relations. Yes, they reluctantly told her, all these changes did make them uneasy. They liked her, and they didn’t want to complain. But given the choice, they would rather go back to the way Mr. Worthy had run things. They never saw Mr. Worthy much, but he never got in their hair. He did his work, whatever that was, and they did theirs. â€Å"After you’ve been in a place doing one thing for so long,† one worker concluded, â€Å"the last thing you want to do is learn a new way of doing it.† Case Questions (AO 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3): †¢ What factors should have alerted Hogan to the problems that eventually came up at Fancy Footwear? †¢ Could Hogan have instituted her changes without eliciting a negative reaction from the workers? If so, how? Case Study 4: Need-Based Perspectives on Motivation More Than a Pay Cheque Samuel Gibson was a trainer for Britannia Home Manufacturers, a large builder of prefabricated homes. Britannia Home had hired Gibson fresh from graduate school with a master’s degree in English. At first, the company put him to work writing and revising company brochures and helping with the most important correspondence at the senior level. But soon, both Gibson and senior management officials began to notice how well he worked with executives on their writing, how he made them feel more confident about it, and how, after working with an executive on a report, the executive often was much more eager to take on the next writing task. So Britannia Home moved Gibson into its prestigious training department. The company’s trainers worked with thousands of supervisors, managers, and executives, helping them learn everything from new computer languages to time management skills to how to get the most out of the workers on the plant floor, many of whom were unmotivated high school dropouts. Soon Gibson was spending all his time giving short seminars on executive writing as well as coaching his students to perfect their memos and letters. Gibson’s move into training meant a big increase in salary, and when he started working exclusively with the company’s top brass, it seemed as though he got a bonus every month. Gibson’s supervisor, Mirella Carta, knew he was making more than many executives who had been with the company three times as long, and probably twice as much as any of his graduate school classmates who concentrated in English. Yet in her biweekly meetings with him, she could tell that Gibson wasn’t happy. When Carta asked him about it, Gibson replied that he was in a bit of a rut. He had to keep saying the same things over and over in his seminars, and business memos weren’t as interesting as the literature he had been trained on. But then, after trailing off for a moment, he blurted out, â€Å"They don’t need me!† Since the memos filtering down through the company were now flawlessly polished, and the annual report was 20 percent shorter but said everything it needed to, Gibson’s desire to be needed was not fulfilled. The next week, Gibson came to Carta with a proposal: What if he started holding classes for some of the floor workers, many of whom had no future within or outside the company because many could write nothing but their own names? Carta took the idea to her superiors. They told her that they wouldn’t oppose it, but Gibson couldn’t possibly keep drawing such a high salary if he worked with people whose contribution to the company was compensated at minimum wage. Gibson agreed to a reduced salary and began offering English classes on the factory floor, which were billed by management (who hoped to avoid a wage hike that year) as an added benefit of the job. At first only two or three workers showed up—and they, Gibson believed, only wanted an excuse to get away from the nailing guns for a while. But gradually word got around that Gibson was serious about what he was doing and didn’t treat the workers like kids in a remedial class. At the end of the year, Gibson got a bonus from a new source: the vice president in charge of production. Although Gibson’s course took workers off the job for a couple of hours a week, productivity had actually improved since his course began, employee turnover had dropped, and for the first time in over a year, some of the floor workers had begun to apply for supervisory positions. Gibson was pleased with the bonus, but when Carta saw him grinning as he walked around the building, she knew he wasn’t thinking about his bank account.

My evaluation for Grease Essays

My evaluation for Grease Essays My evaluation for Grease Essay My evaluation for Grease Essay My film that I choose was Grease because it contains music, dancing and humor. It is a cross between comedy and teen movies. It is a tribute to the Broadway show of the 1950s. It was directed by Randal Klieser and was released on July 7th 1978. The music and dance scenes are what attracted me to Grease. My favorite characters are John Travolta and Jeff Conaway who play Danny and Kenickie. I like these two because they are your typical high school popular boys who are always looking out for each other, looking good and they are always trying to get the beautiful girls but at the same time acting cool like it doesnt bother them. I had high expectations of Grease and I lived up to each and every single one of them. I learnt about this film through television and newspapers. We used three simple words from everyday media. Firstly narrative is from the Latin word narra, meaning the way a story is told. Many theories have been applied to the creation of stories. Tzvetan Torodovs 5stages of narrative. He said that all plots had 5 major components. These 5 components are equilibrium, disruption, complications, climax and resolutions (also called new equilibrium. The story begins with a situation of normality although not necessarily a positive one. An event changes the story, which involves the struggle of the characters to restore the equilibrium or reach their goal. The story reaches a point where the equilibrium or goal hangs in the balance. Normally the equilibrium is restored or a new equilibrium is established. Grease used this theory because the equilibrium is Rydell high the normal high school, the disruption is when Sandy comes and knows Danny, the complications is that Danny cannot be with Sandy because she is too pure for him and he is the most po pular guy in school, the resolution is that Sandy turns into a bad girl and the climax is when Sandy and Danny end up together. Secondly genre is the French word meaning type. Genres may be approached by way of various critical avenues. In the Aristotelian strain we recognize genres as kinds within a system of classification. These categories beg further definition, so there is a history of, on the one hand, the refinement of divisions and subdivisions, and on the other a Platonic search for the essential qualities of tragedy, comedy, epic poetry, and so forth. By the recognition of genres we begin to find our way in the universe of verbal artifacts with their feigned discourses, and to train our expectations upon the experience that lies in wait for us. Greases genre is a hybrid genre because it is a cross between a comedy, a teen movie and romantic. Lastly representation is the act of representing or the state of being represented. Also it is something that represents an image, an account or statement, an expostulation or a presentation or production. For example the representation of the characters in Grease varies. Sandy is portrayed as a pure and innocent girl but on the other hand Rizzo is portrayed as a bad girl who is always getting into trouble and wont take anything from no one. Also Rizzo is sometimes mean to Sandy but when its to her face she is sweet and kind. This tells me that she is two faced. Also because Sandy is pure and innocent she is not aloud to join the pink ladies (this connotes girly, frilly, happy, lively and/or average girl). Also Danny is portrayed in two different ways. When Danny is with his friends he is a mean typical boy who only cares about himself. But on the other hand Danny completely transforms when he is around Sandy. He becomes a sweet and caring person who Sandy falls in love with. Grease creates suspense because it has so many different storylines and each have a particular ending. For example the will they wont they with Danny and Sandy will end with them getting together. Is Rizo pregnant? Obviously she is not. Also who will win the car race is obvious because they wouldnt create a film that where they lose. So really we expect certain endings in a teen movie. This works because in the time left from the main storyline, it is filled in with other small but prominent storylines which creates many different types of suspense. The bit that are stereotypical are that we know it is going to end like a fairy tale because it will all work out and everyone will live happily ever after. The mis-en-scenes are standard, the shot size varies from a standard to a birds-eye view to an extreme close up etc. the compositions are straight on and the lenses are standard. All of these help to tell the story because it gives it a normal typical high school day and adds effect because if it had abnormal technical analysis then it wouldnt match the genre, because it is a conventional American film. There was nothing really unique about the narrative because it followed all the codes and the technical analysis, so it didnt reinvent certain generic conventions or new narratives. The type of ending closes the film off and also the ending was effective because it was at a funfair, which connotes the idea of fun and happiness and it also denotes a typical end of school party in America. The characters are realistic and are normal people and they are also authentic and believable characters. The mis-en-scenes have al been constructed in a way that tells me that it is an average high school where there are normal students who go through and do everything normal teenagers go through e.g. dates. The locations are an American diner, a drive in, the driving race and the high school, which signifies that these are all the cool spots where the T-birds and The Pink Ladies hang out. There are not a lot of special effects except for when they are in the car chase and the car lifts off the ground and into a puddle when Danny is about to win the race. The women are represented in different ways especially the popular girls aka The Pink Ladies are shown as different people. For example Rizo is shown as a girl who will sleep with anyone; she puts it as getting her kicks while Im still young. Frenchy is a wanabe beauty stylist and ends up dropping out of high school to go to a beauty school, but after failing all her classes she enrolls back into high school, she is opposite to Rizo because she will not sleep with the first boy she sees. There are not a lot of ethnic minorities in Grease, so some could say its a racist film because it only has white people in it and although it is typical of this era there are few people from other countries in it, but they havent got main parts. There were no narratives that were ineffective because its a comedy the hilarity would overwrite any narrative you put with it. The audience would see through it and still think it was funny. The costumes of the characters match the film because back in the 70s they wore big long skirts and people could wear what they wanted without being judged. The men wore leather trousers and the women wore tight tops and big frilly skirts that whilst you were dancing and spinning the skirt would become a circle. The make up has same effect on the characters because not a lot of high school students would wear a lot of make up so they would put make up on but it would look natural. Different characters were shown in different ways. The popular guys and girls were shown always picking on those who were annoying or unpopular but it wasnt shown that much because they were too busy concentrating on themselves, how they looked and how they would solve there problems so it is an average that they didnt care about anyone but themselves and they were effective and had bourgeois (middle class values; they are very normal). The message that these narratives are trying to publicize is that Grease is a film that everyone can enjoy, but like every film it has its problems and also the purpose of the narrative is to make it seem that the film is funny and musical, but it shows teenagers facing problems that all students and people in general face in everyday life. So theres a contrast between the hilarity and the problems that teenagers go through. The genre and narrative connect together in a way that the narrative connotes a mainstream day and the genre connotes the comedy and romance, and this put together makes the film a funny normal film that anyone could enjoy if they wanted to. The soundtrack gave Grease the musical feel that it needed to become the smash hit was. The synchronization of the visual and the sound of Grease are connected in a way that if there were no visual Grease wouldnt be the great film it turned out to be and visa versa, this is a promotional strategy. In conclusion the target audience would have to be everyone because anyone can watch Grease because they will enjoy the storylines and the optimism. The most effective part about Grease is that there are not really any negative bits that cannot be resolved easily, because all round Grease the different storylines have made practically no mistakes in it. The four typicals are settings, tag names, genre, and narrative. The typical settings are the high school and the diners. The typical tag names is a blonde, an exchange student, the grunger, the rebel, the geek, the beautiful girl, the ugly girl, the stupid parents, the teacher and the popular guy. The typical genre is comedy, romance and a teen movie. Finally the typical narrative is Tzvetan Torodovs 5stages of narrative. The main things that I found out bout Grease was that the narrative and the settings were surprisingly good and the best bit of the film is that it is a mix of genre so it suits everybodys needs and the worse thing would have to be settings because all teen movies are always set in America and I personally think that they should set a Grease like film over in England.

Breaking Down the Role of the School Superintendent

Breaking Down the Role of the School Superintendent The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a school district is the school superintendent. The superintendent is essentially the face of the district. They are most responsible for the successes of a district and most assuredly responsible when there are failures. The role of a school superintendent is broad. It can be rewarding, but the decisions they make can also be especially difficult and taxing. It takes an exceptional person with a unique skill set to be an effective school superintendent. Much of what a superintendent does involves working directly with others.  School superintendents must be effective leaders who work well with other people and understand the value of building relationships.  A superintendent must be adept at establishing working relationships with many interest groups inside the school and within the community itself to maximize their effectiveness. Building a strong rapport with the constituents in the district makes fulfilling the required roles of a school superintendent a little easier. Board of Education Liaison One of the primary duties of the board of education is to hire a superintendent for the district. Once the superintendent is in place, then the board of education and the superintendent should become partners. While the superintendent is the CEO of the district, the board of education provides oversight for the superintendent. The best school districts have boards of education and superintendents who work well together. The superintendent is responsible for keeping the board informed of events and happenings in the district and also making recommendations about daily operations for the district. The board of education may ask for more information, but in most cases, a good board will accept the superintendent’s recommendations. The board of education is also directly responsible for evaluating the superintendent and thus, can terminate the superintendent should they believe they are not doing their job. The superintendent is also responsible for preparing the agenda for board meetings. The superintendent does sit in on all board meetings to make recommendations but is not allowed to vote on any of the issues. If the board votes to approve a mandate, then it is the duty of the superintendent to carry out that mandate. District Leader Assistant Superintendents – Large districts have the luxury of hiring assistant superintendents who specialize in one or two specific areas such as transportation or curriculum. These assistant superintendents meet regularly with the superintendent and receive their direct instruction from them, but manage the daily operations of their area. Small districts typically do not have assistants, so all the responsibility would fall on the superintendent.Principals/Assistant Principals – The superintendent is responsible for evaluating and making recommendations to hire/maintain/terminate principals/assistant principals. The superintendent has regular meetings with principals about specifics of the daily operations of their buildings. The superintendent must have principals/assistant principals that they trust fully to do their jobs because having an ineffective principal in a school can be disastrous.Teachers/Coaches – The amount of interaction between a superintenden t and the teachers/coaches in the district typically depend upon the superintendent themselves. This is a duty that primarily falls on the principal/assistant principal, but some superintendents, especially in smaller districts, like to have one on one interaction with their teachers/coaches. The superintendent will be the one who makes a recommendation to hire, maintain, or terminate to the board of education, but most superintendents take the direct recommendation from the building principal in this matter. Support Personnel – The superintendent is almost always directly responsible for hiring, maintaining, terminating support personnel. This is a primary role a superintendent. A strong superintendent will surround themselves with good, trustworthy people. While the superintendent is the head of the district, the support personnel are the backbone of the district. The administrative professionals, custodians, maintenance, security, kitchen staff, etc. play such a large role in the daily operations that it is essential to have people in those positions that are there to do their job right and work well with others. This falls on the superintendent of the district. Manages Finance The primary role of any superintendent is to develop and maintain a healthy school budget. If you are not good with money, then you will likely fail as a school superintendent. School finance is not an exact science. It is a complicated formula that changes from year to year especially in the realm of public education. The economy almost always dictates how much money is going to be available for the school district. Some years are better than others, but a superintendent must always figure out how and where to spend their money. The toughest decisions a school superintendent will face are in those years of deficit. Cutting teachers and/or programs is never an easy decision. Superintendents ultimately have to make those tough decisions to keep their doors open. The truth is that it isn’t easy and making cuts of any kind will have an impact on the quality of education the district provides. If cuts must be made, the superintendent must examine all options thoroughly and ultimately make cuts in the areas where they believe the impact will be the least. Manages Daily Operations Building Improvements/Bond Issues – Over the years the buildings in a district go through normal wear and tear. Also during this time, the overall needs of the district will change. The superintendent must evaluate the needs of the district and make recommendations as to whether to try to build new structures through a bond issue and/or make repairs on existing structures. There is a balance between the two. If the superintendent feels like passing a bond is a necessity, they must first convince the board and then convince the community to back it.District Curriculum – The superintendent is responsible for ensuring that the approved curriculum meets district, state, and national standards. This process typically begins at the individual building site, but the superintendent will have the final say as to whether the district should adopt and use the curriculum.District Improvement – One of the main duties of a superintendent is to be a constant evaluator. Superint endents should always be looking for methods, both large and small, to improve their district. A superintendent who does not have a vision for continuous improvement is not doing their job and does not have the best interest of the district in mind. District Policies – The superintendent is responsible for writing new district policies and revising and/or reviewing old ones. This should be a yearly endeavor. New issues constantly arise, and policies should be developed detailing how these issues will be handled.District Reports – States require superintendents to submit various reports concerning teacher and student data throughout the school year. This can be a particularly tedious part of the job, but it is necessary if you want to keep your doors open. Being proactive throughout the year and keeping up with this data as you move along will make completing these reports easier in the long run.Student Transfers – A superintendent makes the decision whether to accept or deny a transfer to potentially incoming and outgoing students. In order for a student to receive a transfer, both superintendents must agree to the transfer. If the receiving superintendent agrees to the transfer, but the outgoing superintend ent does not, then the transfer is denied. Transportation – Transportation can be an enormous role for a superintendent. The superintendent is responsible for purchasing enough buses, keeping them maintained, hiring bus drivers, and creating routes that maximize efficiency. In addition, they must develop bicycle routes, walking routes, and snow routes. Lobbies for the District Builds Community Relations – A superintendent must build relationships with all members of the community. This includes parents of students, the business community, and those who live in the community without any direct ties to the school such as senior citizen groups. Creating strong ties with these groups will be invaluable when it comes time to try to pass a bond issue.Works with the Media – The superintendent is the face of the district in good times and in times of crisis. Superintendents in large markets will be in the news consistently and must advocate for their district and their students. An outstanding superintendent will seek out opportunities to partner with the media.Builds Relationships with Other Districts – Building relationships with other districts and their superintendents can be valuable. These relationships allow for an exchange of ideas and best practices. They also can be extremely beneficial in difficult times of crisis or tragedy.Builds Relationships with Politicians – A superintendent must lobby on their districts behalf on key political issues that will positively or negatively affect the district. Education has increasingly become more political, and those who neglect this aspect aren’t maximizing their effectiveness.

Hobbes's key Philosophical contributions to social and political Research Paper

Hobbes's key Philosophical contributions to social and political Philisophy - Research Paper Example This, in its turn, logically resulted in the second provision which is attributed to the philosopher in question: the concept of war of all against all (Bobbio 41). Finally, there is another contribution which should be marked in particular: Hobbes suggested that religion should play a lesser role in explaining the state of social affairs which led to decrease of role of religion in science in general. As for the political dimension of his legacy, one should point out that this philosopher advocated the idea of a social contract that all the people concluded in order to stop the chaos around them. In addition to that, this idea is closely connected to the considerations about the positive role of an absolute monarch which embodied the power which the other people were not able to resist (Lloyd 289). In other words, the institute of monarchy that is condemned by the modern democratic society is what Hobbes valued rather