Essay --

It has been my constant endeavor to improve all the skills I have gained in 22 years of my life. Right from gaining good academic scores to participating in extra-curricular activities, I have given my 100% to everything I do. My new found passion in technology coupled with this tremendous endeavor has been a source of inspiration for applying to the Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. I have always been fascinated by Big Data and its implications in today's world, the IT strategies that different companies follow to optimize their operations and the way information access is changing the way we live and work. At this point in the development of IT operations, companies worldwide face a deluge of information, information that needs to be harnessed and deployed in a meaningful manner. It is this need and opportunity that I hope to address by pursuing a renowned techno-management course like Information Systems at a prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon. During my undergraduate course at SASTRA University, I had an opportunity to be exposed to various interesting subjects like Database management systems, Operating System concepts, networking etc. These subjects rekindled my passion for technology and IT. I also had an opportunity to take electives like Software Project Management, Organization behavior and Supply Chain Management. Exploring areas like Software Project Management and e-commerce made me realize how they can make or break a software company. My experience with these core subjects would help me in taking up the rigor of the curriculum in Info systems. I have got excellent grades all through my under grad life and also have been part of prominent clubs like GLOSS (Open Source community at my colle... ...o churn out better minds (Students) for uplifting the society. Carnegie Mellon is known to be the best in doing this and it would be great if I am admitted to this prestigious institution. I think with its wonderful faculty and facilities, CMU is a notch ahead of many other schools and universities. These things put together, make CMU my number one option for pursuing my higher studies and improve my technical and analytical skills. If admitted, I promise to be really up to all the challenges and would strive to achieve my goal through hard work and dedication. One quote that always lingers in my mind even today was the one Kevin Turner (COO of Microsoft) told us when we were in the US: â€Å"Hard work does not guarantee success but lack of hard work guarantees failure.† This will be the driving force if admitted to Carnegie Mellon and I really look forward to it. Essay -- It has been my constant endeavor to improve all the skills I have gained in 22 years of my life. Right from gaining good academic scores to participating in extra-curricular activities, I have given my 100% to everything I do. My new found passion in technology coupled with this tremendous endeavor has been a source of inspiration for applying to the Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. I have always been fascinated by Big Data and its implications in today's world, the IT strategies that different companies follow to optimize their operations and the way information access is changing the way we live and work. At this point in the development of IT operations, companies worldwide face a deluge of information, information that needs to be harnessed and deployed in a meaningful manner. It is this need and opportunity that I hope to address by pursuing a renowned techno-management course like Information Systems at a prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon. During my undergraduate course at SASTRA University, I had an opportunity to be exposed to various interesting subjects like Database management systems, Operating System concepts, networking etc. These subjects rekindled my passion for technology and IT. I also had an opportunity to take electives like Software Project Management, Organization behavior and Supply Chain Management. Exploring areas like Software Project Management and e-commerce made me realize how they can make or break a software company. My experience with these core subjects would help me in taking up the rigor of the curriculum in Info systems. I have got excellent grades all through my under grad life and also have been part of prominent clubs like GLOSS (Open Source community at my colle... ...o churn out better minds (Students) for uplifting the society. Carnegie Mellon is known to be the best in doing this and it would be great if I am admitted to this prestigious institution. I think with its wonderful faculty and facilities, CMU is a notch ahead of many other schools and universities. These things put together, make CMU my number one option for pursuing my higher studies and improve my technical and analytical skills. If admitted, I promise to be really up to all the challenges and would strive to achieve my goal through hard work and dedication. One quote that always lingers in my mind even today was the one Kevin Turner (COO of Microsoft) told us when we were in the US: â€Å"Hard work does not guarantee success but lack of hard work guarantees failure.† This will be the driving force if admitted to Carnegie Mellon and I really look forward to it.

Thinking About Stupidity In Our Scholars :: essays research papers

The stupidity in our scholars, like stupidity and arrogance everywhere, follows a model. The model presented here was developed by Anticommerical University Professor William Mason. It applies in general to stupidity at any level of intensity. It has 5 stages.1. Mimetic ArroganceOne party identifies themselves as an authority on a subject and other parties imitate that arrogance. Examples of things scholars and professors are arrogant about: science, literature, art, sociology, psychology, philosophy. Whatever the culture tells us is a difficult subject, that's what scholars decide is worth being arrogant about.2. Mimetic Use of the Word MimeticNow the parties begin competing for the object of arrogance: jargon. Whatever big, fancy words emerge, others copy them. Since they all use the same words in different ways, any hope of finding concrete definitions of them vanishes. To win, you only need to get more exclusivity of words such as 'exclusivity.' If the word becomes ubiquitous, then you make up even more complex words that have simple meanings, such as 'ubiquitous.' If this doesn't work, then you must resort to using neojargon or pseudojargon or neopseudojargon or neopseudoneojargon. Examples of these forms of jargon are the prefixes 'neo' and 'pseudo.'3. GraikosGraikos is a Greek word that means "Greek." It's the root of much stupidity found in scholarly discursions. In the rivalry for respect, if one side finds an inferior usage of jargon, they are caught in the temptation of Graikos and feel compelled to retaliate by literally speaking a whole new language. Thus begins a "jargon" war, fought on the battlefield of the dictionary. Graikos is what makes it so hard to read their professional journals, so hard to feel like you have any grasp whatsoever on vocabulary. It's so easy to feel intellectually inferior to such unjustified usage of language. The gap between scholar and layman escalates.4. IntimidationEventually one side crosses some arbitrary threshold of concern where the supervising authorities feel compelled to intervene. It's essentially random which side is considered the "supervising authority" since they both consider the other as worthless scum, but often it's the faction with more college degrees, which uses more venomous attacks to maintain parity. Whichever side is considered the "supervising authority" becomes the intimidator of the layman and the others who kept their ego below threshold are victims, doomed to low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness.5. Authorized, Sanctioned and Sacred StupidityTo appease the scholars, the authorities determine guilt and visit sanctions and punishment on the intimidated.

Linguistics and Interjections Essay

In Western philosophy and linguistic theory, interjections—that is, words like oof, ouch, and bleah—have traditionally been understood to indicate emotional states. This article offers an account of interjections in Q’eqchi’ Maya that illuminates their social and discursive functions. In particular, it discusses the grammatical form of interjections, both in Q’eqchi’ and across languages, and characterizes the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections in Q’eqchi’ in terms of a semiotic framework that may be generalized for other languages. With these grammatical forms, indexical objects, and pragmatic functions in hand, it details the various social and discursive ends that interjections serve in one Q’eqchi’ community, thereby shedding light on local values, norms, ontological classes, and social relations. In short, this article argues against interpretations of interjections that focus on internal emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. p a u l k o c k e l m a n is McKennan Post-Doctoral Fellow in Linguistic Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H. 03755, U.S.A. [paul.kockelman@dartmouth.edu]). Born in 1970, he was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., 1992) and the University of Chicago (M.S., 1994; Ph.D., 2002). His publications include â€Å"The Collection of Copal among the Q’eqchi’-Maya† (Research in Economic Anthropology 20:163–94), â€Å"Factive and Counterfactive Clitics in Q’eqchi’-Maya: Stance, Status, and Subjectivity,† in Papers from the Thirty-eighth Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (Chicago: Linguistics Society, in press), and â€Å"The Interclausal Relations Hierarchy in Q’eqchi’ Maya† (International Journal of American Linguistics 69:25–48). The present paper was submitted 1 vi 01 and accepted 27 xii 02. 1. A longer version of this article was presented at the workshop â€Å"Semiotics: Culture in Context† at the University of Chicago in January 2001. Chris Ball, Anya Bernstein, John Lucy, and Michael Silverstein all provided very helpful commentary. This article also greatly beneï ¬ ted from suggestions made by Benjamin S. Orlove and several anonymous referees. Western philosophy and linguistic theory have traditionally considered interjections at the periphery of language and primordially related to emotion. For example, the Latin grammarian Priscian deï ¬ ned interjections as â€Å"a part of speech signifying an emotion by means of an unformed word† (Padley 1976:266). Muller (1862)  ¨ thought that interjections were at the limit of what might be called language. Sapir (1921:6–7) said that they were â€Å"the nearest of all language sounds to instinctive utterance.† Bloomï ¬ eld (1984[1933]:177) said that they â€Å"occur under a violent stimulus,† and Jakobson (1960: 354) considered them exemplars of the â€Å"purely emotive stratum of language.† While interjections are no longer considered peripheral to linguistics and are now carefully deï ¬ ned with respect to their grammatical form, their meanings remain vague and elusive. In particular, although interjections are no longer characterized pure ly in terms of emotion, they are still characterized in terms of â€Å"mental states.† For example, Wierzbicka (1992:164) characterizes interjections as â€Å"[referring] to the speaker’s current mental state or mental act.† Ameka (1992a:107) says that â€Å"from a pragmatic point of view, interjections may be deï ¬ ned as a subset of items that encode speaker attitudes and communicative intentions and are contextbound,† and Montes (1999:1289) notes that many interjections â€Å"[focus] on the internal reaction of affectedness of the speaker with respect to the referent.† Philosophers have offered similar interpretations. For example, Herder thought that interjections were the human equivalent of animal sounds, being both a â€Å"language of feeling† and a â€Å"law of nature† (1966:88), and Rousseau, pursuing the origins of language, theorized that protolanguage was â€Å"entirely interjectional† (1990:71). Indeed, such philosophers have posited a historical transition from interjections to language in which the latter allows us not only to index pain and express passion but also to denote values and exercise reason (D’Atri 1995).2 Thus interjections have been understood as a semiotic artifact of our natural origins and the most transparent index of our emotions. Such an understanding of interjections is deeply rooted in Western thought. Aristotle (1984), for example, posited a contrastive relationship between voice, proper only to humans as instantiated in language, and sound, shared by humans and animals as instantiated in cries. This contrastive relation was then compared with other analogous contrastive relations, in particular, value and pleasure/pain, polis and household, and bios (the good life, or political life proper to humans) and zoe (pure life, shared by all living things). Such a contrast is so pervasive that modern philosophers such as Agamben (1995) have devoted much of their scholarly work to the thinking out of this tradition and others built on it such as id versus ego in the Freudian paradigm. In short, the folk distinction made between interjections and language 2. D’Atri (1995:124) argues that, for Rousseau, â€Å"interjections . . . are sounds and not voices: they are passive registerings and as such do not presuppose the intervention of will, which is what characterizes human acts of speech.† Proper maps onto a larger set of distinctions in Western thought: emotion and cognition, animality and humanity, nature and culture, female and male, passion and reason, bare life and the good life, pain and value, private and public, and so on (see, e.g., Lutz 1988, Strathern 1988). In this article I avoid such abstracting and dichotomizing traps by going straight to the heart of interjections: their everyday usage in actual discourse when seen in the context of local culture and grounded in a semiotic framework. I begin by characterizing the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I carried out my research and go on to relate interjections to other linguistic forms, showing how they are both similar to and distinct from other classes of words in natural languages. Next I provide and exemplify a semiotic framework, generalizable across languages, in terms of which the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections can best be characterized. Then I detail the local usage of the 12 most commonly used interjections in Q’eqchi’ and show the way in which they are tied into all things cultural: values, norms, ontological classes, social relations, and so on. I conclude by discussing the relative frequency with which the various forms and functions of interjections are used. In short, I argue against interpretations of interjections that focus on emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. Linguistic and Ethnographic Context While I am attempting to provide as wide a theoretical account of interjections as I can, thereby providing a metalanguage for speaking about similar sign phenomena in other languages, I am also trying to capture the grammatical niceties of Q’eqchi’ Maya and the discursive and social particularities of one Q’eqchi’-speaking village in particular. Before I begin my analysis, then, I want to sketch the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I worked. Q’eqchi’ is a language in the Kichean branch of the Mayan family, spoken by some 360,000 speakers in Guatemala (in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Izabel, and Peten) and Belize (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). 3 Lin ´ guistically, Q’eqchi’ is relatively well described: scholars such as Berinstein (1985), Sedat (1955), Stewart (1980), Stoll (1896), and Chen Cao et al. (1997) have discussed its syntax, morphology, phonology, and lexicon, and I have detailed various morphosyntactic forms (encoding grammatical categories such as mood, status, evidentiality, taxis, and inalienable possession) as they intersect with sociocultural values and contextual features and as they illuminate local modes of personhood (Kockelman 3. Typologically, Q’eqchi’ is a morphologically ergative, head-marking language. In Q’eqchi’, vowel length (signaled by doubling letters) is phonemic; /k/ and /q/ are velar and uvular plosives, respectively, and /x/ and /j/ are palato-alveolar and velar fricatives, respectively. All other phonemes have their standard IPA values. 2002, 2003a, b). This article is therefore part of a larger project in which I examine how intentional and evaluative stances are encoded in natural languages and the relations that such stances bear to local modes of subjectivity. Alta Verapaz, the original center of the Q’eqchi’-speaking people who still make up the majority of its population, has had a unusual history even by Guatemalan standards. In 1537, after the Spanish crown had failed to conquer the indigenous peoples living there, the Dominican Friar Bartolome de Las Casas was permitted to  ´ pacify the area through religious methods. Having succeeded, he changed the name of the area from Tezulutlan (Land of War) to Verapaz (True Peace), and the Dominicans were granted full control over the area—the state banning secular immigration, removing all military colonies, and nullifying previous land grants. In this way, for almost 300 years the area remained an isolated enclave, relatively protected by the paternalism of the church in comparison with other parts of Guatemala (King 1974, Sapper 1985). This ended abruptly in the late 1800s, however, with the advent of coffee growing, liberal reforms, and the inï ¬â€šux of Europeans (Cambranes 1985, Wagner 1996). Divested of their land and forced to work on coffee plantations, the Q’eqchi’ began migrating north into the unpopulated lowland forests of the Peten  ´ and Belize (Adams 1965, Carter 1969, Howard 1975, Kockelman 1999, Pedroni 1991, Saa Vidal 1979, Schwartz 1990, Wilk 1991). In the past 40 years this migration has been fueled by a civil war that has ravaged the Guatemalan countryside, with the Q’eqchi’ ï ¬â€šeeing not just scarce resources and labor quotas but also their own nation’s soldiers—often forcibly conscripted speakers of other Mayan languages (Carmack 1988, IWGIA 1978, Wilson 1995). As a consequence, the past century has seen the Q’eqchi’ population spread from Alta Verapaz to the Peten and ï ¬ nally to Belize, Mexico, and even the  ´ United States. Indeed, although only the fourth largest of some 24 Mayan languages, Q’eqchi’ is thought to have the largest percentage of monolinguals, and the ethnic group is Guatemala’s fastest-growing and most geographically extensive (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). The two key ethnographies of Q’eqchi’-speakers have been written by Wilk (1991) and Wilson (1995), the former treating household ecology in Belize and the latter upheavals in village life and identity at the height of the civil war in highland Guatemala during the 1980s. In addition to these monographs, there are also a number of dissertations and articles on the history (King 1974, Sapper 1985, Wagner 1996), ecology (Carter 1969, Secaira 1992, Wilson 1972), and migration (Adams 1965, Howard 1975, Pedroni 1991) of Q’eqchi’-speaking people. The data for this article are based on almost two years of ethnographic and linguistic ï ¬ eldwork among speakers of Q’eqchi’, most of it in Ch’inahab, a village of some 80 families (around 650 people) in the municipality of San Juan Chamelco, in the department of Alta Verapaz. At an altitude of approximately 2,400 m, Ch’inahab is one of the highest villages in this area, with an annual precipitation of more than 2,000 mm. It is also one of the most remote, access to the closest road requiring a three-hour hike down a steep and muddy single-track trail. Its relatively high altitude and remote location provide the perfect setting for cloud forest, and such a cloud forest provides the perfect setting for the resplendent quetzal, being home to what is thought to be the highest density of such birds in the world. Because of the existence of the quetzal and the cloud forest in which it makes its home, Ch’inahab has been the site of a successful eco-tourism project the conditions and consequences of which are detailed in my dissertation (Kockelman 2002). While the majority of villagers in Ch’inahab are monolingual speakers of Q’eqchi’, some men who have served time in the army or worked as itinerant traders speak some Spanish. All the villagers are Catholic. Ch’inahab is divided by a mountain peak with dwellings on both of its sides and in the surrounding valleys. It takes about 45 minutes to hike across the village. At one end there is a biological station kept by the eco-tourism project and used sporadically by European ecologists, and at the other there is a Catholic church and a cemetery. In the center there is a small store, a school for primary and secondary grades, and a soccer ï ¬ eld. The surrounding landscape is cloud forest giving way to scattered house sites, agricultural parcels, pasture, and ï ¬ elds now fallow. All villagers engage in corn-based, or milpa, agriculture, but very few have enough land to fulï ¬ ll all of their subsistence needs.4 For this reason, many women in the village are dedicated to chicken husbandry, most men in the village engage in seasonal labor on plantations (up to ï ¬ ve months a year in some cases), and many families engage in itinerant trade (women weaving baskets and textiles for the men to sell) and eco-tourism (the women hosting tourists and the men guiding them). Dwelling sites often contain a scattering of houses in which reside an older couple and their married sons, all of whom share a water source and a pasture. The individual families themselves often have two houses, a relatively traditional thatched-roof house in which the family cooks and sleeps and a relatively new house with a tin roof in which they host festivals and in which older children and ecotourists may sleep. Because of eco-tourism and the inï ¬â€šux of money and strangers that it brings, there has been an increase in the construction of such tin-roofed houses, and, as will be seen, many of my examples of interjections come from such construction contexts. My data on the use of interjections among villagers in Ch’inahab comes from 14 months of ï ¬ eldwork carried out between 1998 and 2001. The data collection con4. Before 1968, what is now Ch’inahab was owned by the owner of a plantation. Q’eqchi’-speakers who lived in the village of Popobaj (located to the south of and lower than Ch’inahab) were permitted to make their milpa in this area in exchange for two weeks of labor per month on the ï ¬ nca (Secaira 1992:20). Only in 1968, when a group of villagers got together to form a land acquisition committee, were some 15 caballerÄ ±as (678 ha) of land purchased from the owner  ´ for 4,200 quetzals (US$4,200). This land, while legally owned by the entire community, was divided among the original 33 villagers as a function of their original contributions.

Discuss Twain’s use of comparison-contrast in “Two Ways of Seeing a River” Essay

In, Two Ways of Seeing A River, the author, Mark Twain, described his idea of the Mississippi river from two angles or two perspectives and used comparison and contrast to illustrate his points. He first began by using a metaphor in his opening words. He compared to Mississippi river to a language which he had already mastered. However, he said that upon his mastery of the river, he lost something which is his admiration for it when he saw it the last time. Twain described how majestic and how wonderful it was when he first saw the river on a steamboat. He vividly illustrated in the story tiny details like the color of the river during the sunset and the ripples in the water, among others. But when he returned a second time, everything marveled about the river was gone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Basically, Twain’s comments on the river on the third paragraph were almost the opposite of his comments on the second. It can be then deduced that the author used a block pattern of comparison in his story because he first described his beautiful experiences upon seeing the river the first time before describing his less lively experience on the second time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Moreover, Twain’s differing comments on the river basically says that things such as experiences become less exciting or even less fulfilling the second time around. In other words, a man who has already experienced something simply passes by it the next time. In the case of the author in the story, he simply read and observed the Mississippi river rather than marvel at it because he has already seen it before.

The Ethics of Human Resources

Ethics in business may involved everything including hiring decisions, pricing decisions, strategic decisions, and so on. The need for a process for making ethical decisions in business is great. There are a large number of instances where ethical decisions are necessary in business operations, and corporations find that they can get themselves into trouble even when they are trying to be ethical if they do not have a strong and effective procedural structure to guide employees in making such decisions. The Human Resources department must operate with ethical standards that are clear and that address the kinds of issues this department will face. The HR professional handles more than hiring and firing of employees, also being responsible in some degree for orientation, training, union negotiations, decisions regarding compensation, special programs for addressing workplace problems, and so on. All of these tasks must be infused with an ethical structure that helps HR professionals make good decisions. Hallier and Leopold (1996) note the nature of defining the problem of characterizing the personnel function by pointing out that the terminology is â€Å"ambiguous, contradictory and controversial† (p. 46) and yet as a discipline on which a good deal is placed: At its most ambitious, however, HRM has been seen and promoted as a set of beliefs and practices which are radically different from those of traditional personnel management. Most significantly, the management of the workforce is seen as central, if not the key, to competitive advantage (Hallier & Leopold, 1996, p. 46). To a degree, the distinction made between personnel and HRM is only a matter of terminology, yet more respect is accorded HRM than the personnel function in the literature. Human Resource Managers will have to respond to a number of demographic changes in coming years, each requiring some special consideration, including older workers, minority groups, and single and childless couples. Managers will have some guidance in these areas from legislation passed to cope with the changes and to both protect workers and define the rights of business to make certain decisions. The breadth of issues facing HR professionals is indicated by Lachnit (2002) when she writes, How does your company treat employees when they bring management bad news or unpopular opinions? Are your organization's core values real, or are they just pretty words to be inscribed on corporate trinkets (para. 5). There is no doubt that the relationship between the worker and the average company has been changing for some time, with less job security and more flexibility for the company. This has created particular problems in the public eye, notably a perception that older workers are not being treated fairly (as one analyst notes, â€Å"Age discrimination is the most frequent type of discrimination complaint; it is not only unlawful, it is bad business† [Age discrimination in the workplace, 2005]) or that minorities may not be given sufficient opportunity if affirmative action programs are outlawed in the future. Managers may have to develop more creative ways to achieve diversity and to incorporate demographic changes into their thinking, but they first have to recognize the scope of the problem and the need for creative solutions. Human resource development (HRD) has three important components–training, education, and development. When the three are properly coordinated, HRD has a positive effect on worker productivity and so on the productivity of the company. Training improves the performance of workers and so increases their motivation, and as they work harder and produce more, the company profits. HRD is also dedicated to seeing to it that skills do not become obsolescent. Employees may have their skills upgraded through added training and education, and this benefits them in terms of promotion. Workplace diversity is another issue that will remain important. A recent survey among members of the International Association of Business Communicators found that diversity was one of the most critical challenges faced by these communicators (Geddie, 1999, pp. 27-30). These professionals found that cultural and language diversity can pose significant barriers to effective communication, but there are other factors which can be equally daunting. In addition to cultural and language diversity, the American workplace is increasingly made up of individuals with varying degrees of technical competence as well as educational backgrounds. Mergers can bring together employees from different corporate cultures as well, and overcoming differences in corporate cultures can sometimes be as difficult as overcoming differences in national origin. Translators can address the differences between languages and culture, but cannot help a company when it merges with another organization and needs to synthesize a new corporate culture. In these situations, the best approach is to develop a corporate communication strategy which should be in accordance with the company's overall strategic goals and objectives (Geddie, 1999, p. 38). Diversity training also needs to take into account the various levels of the organization. It is common, for example, for companies to provide diversity training at the low and mid? levels of an organization, but to ignore the executive level. Despite the gains which have been made by minorities and women, the executive level in many companies remains largely white male, and there is sometimes the belief that diversity training and effective interpersonal communication training is not needed at these levels (Flynn, 1999, p. 52). Leadership is required throughout organizations, but it is necessary in the HR department as these changes are implemented in order to assure that the changeover is smooth, that needs are met, that laws and regulations are fulfilled, that workers are satisfied and motivated, and that the needs of both workers and employers are met to the degree possible. The HR professional has a role in this process. The Human Resources professional has to understand human behavior and is also involved in shaping that behavior, and this is why Human Resources can be called a behavioral science. The HR professional has to be capable in several areas of human behavior, including communication and motivation Warnick (1993) discusses the importance of communication for the Human Resources professional, which he says is the single most difficult profession in the business world today. In part, he says this because of the communication requirements placed on the professional. He states that employees expect the professional to take up their cause and resolve issues in their favor; line executives expect him or her to take care of â€Å"people problems† no matter what the cause; and top management expects him or her to keep the company out of legal problems and to maintain high employee morale. The HR professional must advise management on a variety of issues but especially in areas that concern laws or guidelines involving employee rights. The need to keep the company out of legal problems begins with the HR professional's job of advising and counseling employees to ensure that they do not feel the need to appeal to any of the many government agencies that now exist to provide redress. In these two roles, however, there is a potential for disaster because they are conflicting roles. The model for civil law in the U. S. is adversarial, and this is true in labor law as well. Warnick asks how it is possible for the HR professional to advise management and still maintain confidence in management's possible legal position while at the same time advising employees about what's in their best interest? The professional who gives too much weight to either side will lose the confidence of the other. The HR professional is a communication facilitator who is management's spokesperson and the employees' advocate. He or she is expected to play a peacemaker role. Communication between management and employees is the responsibility of human resources. When management decides that a change is needed, Human Resources announces, explains, and justifies the change. Human resources also takes the concerns of employees and employee issues to management for consideration, review, and possible redress. Employees expect human resources to serve as their advocate and to plead their cause to management.

A Proposed Faculty Performance Evaluation System for University of the Visayas-Dalaguete

Problem StatementThe Faculty Performance Evaluation System will seek to answer what enhancement and design the school can adopt for a more effective and efficient automated System. Our project will provide the benefits and help the school to collect the feedback from the students and provide security and privacy respectively.Specifically, it endeavors to answer the following questions:1. Why is there a need to replace the manual system with an automated one?2. What will be the benefits of having the automated faculty performance evaluation system in the University of the Visayas – Dalaguete?3. How can automated faculty performance evaluation system help the school?4. How can we provide security to our system?ED: What are the first steps that SIG schools and districts should take when re-thinking their teacher evaluation systems? CD: First, there needs to be an intense dialogue with faculty members about what constitutes good teaching. They need to develop a shared understandin g of what is good practice. They can do a book study that defines good teaching in a coherent way, what it looks like, and what counts as evidence of good teaching. I've worked on a framework for effective teaching. The big idea that underlines this framework is that students learn from high levels of student intellectual engagement.There’s a ton of research on that, but it’s hard to do because in general, students aren’t taught that way. The challenge is to get people to understand how to engage students in learning. Second, there needs to be an effort to create a culture in the school around continued learning and professional inquiry. You’re not done learning when you start teaching. Teaching is enormously complex work that people work to master over their entire careers. No one should act like it’s easy because it’s not. Then, teachers can move to on the ground work with students.They can analyze student work for levels of student engage ment. If they have money to spend, they can get equipment to videotape themselves teaching to use for self-reflection. It’s a powerful technology because teachers can watch their own lesson, observe other teachers, share their practice, and engage in dialogue. ED: Are there specific challenges in implementing a thoughtful evaluation system in low-performing schools? CD: Not really. It’s the same challenge, just harder. One of the problems in low-performing schools is that teacher turnaround is higher, which means they could have more novice teachers.Beginning teachers, because they are inexperienced, need more intensive supervision and coaching than do their more experienced colleagues. It's essential that both the teacher and the district ascertain whether they are a good match. On the flip side, of course, new teachers frequently come with a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the work, and that can make a real contribution to a school. But the higher level of supervisi on by a principal takes time, and that's one of the issues with any evaluation system – finding the time to do it well.I don't think it's helpful or harmful. It's just the nature of it. There’s also the school culture element. Let’s say you’re my principal and a typical observation is one where you come in, observe my lesson, write it down, and tell me what I did wrong or right. I, as a teacher, have done nothing. If the school culture is one of inspection, then all I would want to do is to â€Å"get through† the evaluation. I’m not going to try anything interesting in my class while you’re there. That typical process of where my role as a teacher is passive. There’s no learning for me as a teacher.Creating a different type of culture is a leadership challenge. For the new teachers not to be performing at the same level as experienced teachers – that’s natural. The culture should be one where professional growth a nd learning are understood to be part of everyone’s job forever, and learning is not a sign of deficiency. To have an effective teacher evaluation system, you need good, trained evaluators and more time from teachers and administrators to discuss performance and improve teaching and learning. ED: What about the problem of resources, especially in times of budget cuts?How do schools and districts keep their commitment to this type of a teacher evaluation system? CD: I don’t think it’s a resource problem. It’s a prioritization problem and also a training issue for evaluators. When a teacher or union activist says that principals don’t know what they are doing when they’re evaluating teachers, they are usually right! One of the things I’m working on is an actual evaluator certification program. The need for credentialing evaluators has been written into state law in a few places including Illinois and New York.

Food Is More Than What We Eat Essay

The food we consume everyday has more to it than a source of fuel and part of our human essentials. Though we may not realise, food plays a part of many people’s culture, religion and even employment, where food plays a significant role in their everyday lives. Today, food serves a fairly major role in our society. Due to globalisation and other global factors, there has now been a mix and harmonious diversity in cultures around the world and food is one of the main evidence of that. This can just be seen by walking to your local stores where there are at least two or more food stores/ restaurants from different cultures. This is particularly evident in Australia, as immigrants from across the globe bring with them to Australia their cultures, beliefs and lifestyles to their new homes- with food being one of them. Many of these different cultures are now welcomed, accepted and shared, which provides employment for many people. This is not only evident in the Western continents, but many other Asian countries, where you would see many restaurants, snacks stores and street stores. Food is also used to distinguish the ‘classes of certain groups and/or areas. For example, in the city where there are more higher classed people, majority of the restaurants and cuisines tend to be a lot more expensive than those in the outer suburban areas. The functions of food in cultures vary between cultures, but majority of the time plays a significant role. There are different beliefs and morals, religious and food rules/ etiquettes that are associated with food of different cultures. An example of a food belief/moral would be in China noodles represent longevity, therefore it should not to be broken off or bitten off but put all into your mouth to chew to swallow. Food has not only been applied in beliefs and morals, but also religion. This can be seen in the Buddhism, where vegetarian dietary is preferred for serious believers. Sometimes food etiquette is incorporated into the religious side of food. For example in China it is considered extremely rude and impolite to stick your chopsticks upright in your rice as it is how it appears in funerals and is disrespectful to the elderly. The use of food in traditions and celebrations is another way to show how food has a deeper meaning that being sustenance. Traditions vary between cultures, but even families and individuals. Everyone has their own ‘style’ that they live with and pass on to their family who if they decide to continue the tradition passes on to future generations. Some of these traditions in terms of culture can be having rice has your main staple for most Asian cultures, while in Australia they have many different staples ranging from bread to grain foods. Food is also a big role player in celebrations. Many cultures have special foods that are only eaten or mostly eaten on certain days or events. For example in China on Chinese New Year, moon cakes are eaten, while in Australia, citizens have BBQs on Australia Day and eat ANZAC biscuits on ANZAC day. Food has also been a reason for unity of people. People like to eat whether it is at home or in restaurants in groups, where they not only enjoy the food together but can also start up conversations. For some families during dinner time may be the only time where they sit together and talk about their day. On a larger scale, food and global factors has allowed people of different backgrounds and cultures to accept and understand each other’s cultures. As previously mentioned, where we can now have food that are not from your culture. Because of food being eaten by many cultures, there are modifications to some foods so that more people can eat them. For example, there are now many vegetarian foods such as vegetarian pies and noodles for people with vegetarian diets.