Wednesday, January 29, 2020

PTLLS Assignment. The teaching and training cycle Essay Example for Free

PTLLS Assignment. The teaching and training cycle Essay |Using the teaching and training cycle |Identifying needs and planning | |as a model, discuss one responsibility|One role/ responsibility of a teacher is to initially assess the students in order to identify their current skills; their preferred learning styles and any barriers or| |which would come under each part of |challenges to learning. This will enable the teacher to plan lessons according to the needs of the learners and in accordance with organisational policies and | |the cycle. |procedures. | | | | | |Designing | | | One role/ responsibility of a teacher is to prepare teaching and learning resources and activities. This will usually involve designing a scheme of work, session plans | | |and appropriate materials and resources suitable to the level and needs of the learners. | | | | | |Facilitating | | |One role/ responsibility of a teacher is to use a variety of teaching and learning materials and approaches to motivate, engage and encourage learning in an appropriate| | |and professional manner. | | | | | |Assessing | | |It is the role / responsibility of a teacher to assess learners’ progress in accordance with the requirements of the awarding organisation. The teacher does this by | |Â  |preparing realistic assessment materials (both formative and summative) and by giving feedback to the learners on what has been done correctly and what needs to be | | |improved on. | | | | | |Evaluating | | |It is the role/ responsibility of the teacher to reflect on the teaching and learning process. This involves reflecting on the weaknesses and strengths of the lesson | | |plans, the resources and the actual delivery with the aim of improving the teaching and learning process. The reflection is usually done by the teacher after each | | |lesson and sometimes by students/other teachers. | |Discuss 2 professional boundaries you |I would need to remain in control, be fair and ethical with all my students and not demonstrate any favouritism towards particular students. For example, I should not | |would need to maintain. |give one student more support than I give to the others. | | | | | | I would need to remain professional when in contact with other co-workers within the organisation and not to overstep the boundary of my role as a teacher. For example,| | |if something goes wrong with the electrical system while I am teaching, I should not try to fix this myself but rather I should call the electrical crew. | |Give 2 examples of when you might need|Two examples of when I might need to refer a learner for him/her to get needed support are: | |to refer a learner in order for them |The learner is being abused in any form. | |to get needed support. |The learner has depression issue that is affecting his/her learning process. | |List 2 responsibilities you have in |Two responsibilities I have in respect to other professionals I work with are: | |respect to other professionals you |I should ensure that all my administrative work such as class register; students’ assessment records are up to date. | |will work with. |I should ensure that I complete my lessons within the scheduled time so that the next teacher can start his/her lesson on time. |

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Purim the Jewish Holiday Essay -- essays research papers

Response Paper Purim Purim is the Jewish holiday commemorating how the Jews of Persia escaped total annihilation thanks to the bravery of Queen Ester. Purim occurs on the 14th of Adar, (or in certain walled cities like Jerusalem, the 15th of Adar.) which this year falls on the 21st of March. The story of Purim is recounted in the Book of Esther, found in the Hebrew Bible. Set in Persia roughly 2,300 years ago, the story tells of how a series of events came together to save the Jewish people from genocide. The Persian empire is taken over by King Achashverosh and to mark the three year anniversary of his reign, Achashverosh throws a huge six-month party. Achashverosh brags that Queen Vashti is the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom, and on the last day of the celebration he summons her to dance for the crowd. Vashti refuses the king's request and the King has her killed. Now Achashverosh needed a new queen and wanted a woman even more beautiful than Vashti, so all throughout Persia officials are appointed to select beautiful candidates to succeed Vashti as queen. In the capital city of Persia, Shushan, a Jewish Orphan by the name of Hadassah lived with her uncle Mordechai. Mordechai was the leader of the Jews, and when Hadassah was selected by the kings officials, Mordechai told her "Don't be afraid. Go with them. Do not tell them you are a Jewess. Tell them your Persian name -- Esther. God will watch over you!? Upon her meeting with the King Ester is appointed Queen and every day Mor dechai stood outside the palace gates, waiting for word from Ester. One day outside the palace, Mordechai over heard two men plotting to kill the king. He warned Esther, who told the King, and the two men were caught and hung. Although it was re... ...seeds. The most popular explanation of why Jews eat this three cornered pastry on Purim is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat and eating an image of Haman?s hat is a way to symbolically destroy his memory. There are four main points to the Purim celebration. First, to read the story of Purim in the evening and the next day, and whenever Haman is mentioned to make as much noise as possible to block out his name and memory. Second, is to send gifts of food to at least one friend or relative, because Purim is a time of love and friendship between Jews. Third, giving gifts of money to the poor because Purim is a time or sharing and helping people. Fourth is the special holiday meal eaten on Purim afternoon, and a little extra point is the dressing up, to celebrate how everything can turn upside-down and into something else, and nothing is exactly what it seems to be.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Luxury Good and Gucci Essay

Gucci‘s overall strategy was to vertically integrate to strengthen its overall brand image. After vertically integrating they acquired other luxury retailers to continue to grow horizontally and to increase economies of scope. The economics of the luxury goods industry changed forcing Gucci to modify its strategy. Consumers demand shifted from classic style buyers to style conscious buyers. Gucci not only had to change due to the economics of the industry but they also had several problems with their existing structure. Hence Gucci made the following moves to reposition it to compete in the new economics of the luxury goods industry. Gucci The partnership between DeSole and Ford addresses the company’s inability to have streamlined decision making and consistent branding throughout the company. By partnering product design and strategy, Gucci can now make product and business decisions that deliver a consistent message externally. All products and communications will support the brand image of a luxury goods retailer that Gucci wants to deliver to the marketplace. The cost cutting and targeted layoffs address Gucci’s poor cost structure. While profit margins were healthy, the extravagant spending by the former CEO was reducing profitability. The company had excess headcount in some areas and less in others. The layoffs improved Gucci’s cost structure and streamline the organization. Secondly, Gucci lacked the management talent to run a high end luxury company. By laying off underperforming managers and hiring experienced business executives, Gucci significantly improved the quality of its management team. The cash investment by PPR protects Gucci from hostile takeovers by competitors. The improvement in Gucci’s capital structure enables Gucci to move from an acquisition target to a potential acquirer of substitutes and new entrants. This is critical because in the fashion industry, new brands are always emerging in the market. The $3 billion dollar cash investment enables Gucci to protect its core market better. Additionally, the acquisition of YSL through the merger diversifies Gucci’s product portfolio and creates high barriers to entry. Buyers Due to changing consumer demands, Gucci started to focus on fashion in particular the â€Å"glamorous edge. † Since switching cost for consumers are low and consumers are now demanding new fashions every season focusing on seasonal trends competitively positioned Gucci against its rivals and impeded consumers from finding substitutes. Gucci changed its target consumer from an older more conservative buyer to a modern, youthful, fashion conscious one. Since all of Gucci’s competitors had the same target (30-50 year affluent women) going after a modern, youthful spirited consumer allows Gucci to focus on a different segment of the luxury market, capturing a different slice of the pie. To create loyalty, give consumers options, and to prevent consumers from switching and buying a substitute product Gucci decided to revolutionize their product assortments to correspond with the seasonal trends. In addition they increased the quality of their products comparable to Hermes and offered these products at a value to meet the consumer’s needs. Furthermore, Gucci tailored their product assortment in each DOS to local customers to attract more consumers in the local markets. To better forecast product demand for seasonal goods and to keep inventory costs down Gucci added customer intelligence to the decision making process to better understanding consumers buying behavior. In order to obtain higher profit margins and offer a comprehensive line of products it was necessary for Gucci to diversify its portfolio. Hence Gucci introduced items from scarves to fur coats. To remain focused and maintain its â€Å"luxury status†, Gucci did not introduce diffusion product lines. Gucci had initially set its prices too high hence reducing their retail prices by 30% was necessary to attract and maintain customer loyalty. In order to generate demand for the product Gucci doubled their advertising and turned Tom Ford into a celebrity hoping to attract media and attention from around the world. To restore Gucci’s image as a high end luxury goods retailer they renovated all of their stores to support this new image. In addition all internal and external communications had the same look and feel to convey a consistent brand identity. Furthermore, they reduced distribution through retail stores that didn’t support the new brand image regardless of sales. Gucci launched an official web site to create awareness and exhibit new product lines and to position themselves against their competitors. Suppliers Suppliers are a key driver of profitability—a key competitive force. Suppliers are responsible for delivering a premium product that satisfies the company’s standards in quality and that reflects Tom Ford’s creative vision. Without fast turnover to meet fashion forward trend demands and a quality product, the repositioning of the Gucci brand could not have taken place. To fulfill this vision Gucci created an incentive program to keep suppliers loyal to ensure a quality product was manufactured, on time delivery, and it would prevent the suppliers from forging relationships with Gucci’s competitors. In addition, Gucci made suppliers more efficient through technology and logistics investments, provided training for suppliers and built an EDI network allowing Gucci to efficiently communicate with partner suppliers through the production process. As more fashion products will be produced every season along with the classic products, delivery and meeting demand could become an issue if production processes are not efficient. Investing in suppliers ensures that supplier threat, which is high, is controlled and suppliers have incentives to stay with Gucci. Supplier threat is high because of there is an absence of substitutes suppliers. Switching costs are high for Gucci – other suppliers may be producing for their rivals. Other suppliers may not deliver the quality and craftsmanship Gucci is expecting. In addition, other suppliers do not have experience in producing Gucci products (current suppliers have been with Gucci for long time). Hence they will have a longer learning curve slowing down the production process. There are few suppliers in specific regions: Gucci suppliers had production capacity to meet Gucci’s growth (20-30% a year). However, finding new suppliers would be going into Prada’s territory. With more growth, suppliers gained bargaining power with sub-suppliers and with Gucci. Initially, Gucci had power because suppliers worried that Gucci would go overseas for suppliers. Complementors Complementors are a not a high threat to Gucci because there only a few of them, media and advertising. Competition There are many firms in this industry because profit margins are high. However with the number and volume of M&A activity on the rise, consolidation is imminent with a few big players left in the market. Consolidation among competition has given competitors lower cost structure resulting in a competitive advantage such as ad purchasing discounts and supplier negotiating power. The competitors have a diversified product portfolio to target multiple segments of the market. They dominate in particular segments, for example Hermes and leather bags. Since there is slow industry growth precipitating fights for market share is certain to occur. This may result in a high threat from competitors such as LVMH and Prada. Threat of Entry The threat of entry is low because brand identity and product differentiation has been well established in this industry. In addition, access to distribution channels is limited and the new entrant would be competing with already established channels of distribution for Gucci and others firms. Gucci and other competitors have substantial resources to fight back because they of their monetary resources and could obstruct the new entrant or buy them out.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Domestication History of Chickens (Gallus domesticus)

The history of chickens (Gallus domesticus) is still a bit of a puzzle. Scholars agree that they were first domesticated from a wild form called red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), a bird that still runs wild in most of southeast Asia, most likely hybridized with the gray junglefowl (G. sonneratii). That occurred probably about 8,000 years ago. Recent research suggests, however, there may have been multiple other domestication events in distinct areas of South and Southeast Asia, southern China, Thailand, Burma, and India. Since the wild progenitor of chickens is still living, several studies have been able to examine the behaviors of wild and domestic animals. Domesticated chickens are less active, have fewer social interactions with other chickens, are less aggressive to would-be predators, are less susceptible to stress, and are less likely to go looking for foreign food sources than their wild counterparts. Domestic chickens have increased adult body weight and simplified plumage; domestic chicken egg production starts earlier, is more frequent, and produces larger eggs. Chicken Dispersals Chickens, Chang Mai, Thailand. David Wilmot The earliest possible domestic chicken remains are from the Cishan site (~5400 BCE) in northern China, but whether they are domesticated is controversial. Firm evidence of domesticated chickens isnt found in China until 3600 BCE. Domesticated chickens appear at Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley by about 2000 BCE and from there the chicken spread into Europe and Africa. Chickens arrived in the Middle East starting with Iran at 3900 BCE, followed by Turkey and Syria (2400–2000 BCE) and into Jordan by 1200 BCE. The earliest firm evidence for chickens in east Africa are illustrations from several sites in New Kingdom Egypt (1550–1069). Chickens were introduced into western Africa multiple times, arriving at Iron Age sites such as Jenne-Jeno in Mali, Kirikongo in Burkina Faso and Daboya in Ghana by the mid-first millennium CE. Chickens arrived in the southern Levant about 2500 BCE and in Iberia about 2000 BCE. Chickens were brought to the Polynesian islands from Southeast Asia by Pacific Ocean sailors during the Lapita expansion, about 3,300 years ago. While it was long assumed that chickens had been brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors, presumably pre-Columbian chickens have been identified at several sites throughout the Americas, most notably at the site of El Arenal-1 in Chile, ca 1350 CE. Chicken Origins: China? Two long-standing debates in chicken history still remain at least partially unresolved. The first is the possible early presence of domesticated chickens in China, prior to dates from southeast Asia; the second is whether or not there are pre-Columbian chickens in the Americas. Genetic studies in the early 21st century first hinted at multiple origins of domestication. The earliest archaeological evidence to date is from China about 5400 BCE, in geographically widespread sites such as  Cishan  (Hebei province, ca 5300 BCE), Beixin  (Shandong province, ca 5000 BCE), and Xian (Shaanxi province, ca 4300 BCE). In 2014, a few studies were published supporting the identification of early chicken domestication in northern and central China (Xiang et al.). However, their results remain controversial. A 2016 study by Chinese bioanthropologist Masaki Eda  and colleagues of 280 bird bones reported as chicken from Neolithic and Bronze age sites in northern and central China found that only a handful could securely be identified as chicken. German archaeologist Joris Peters and colleagues (2016) looked at environmental proxies in addition to other research and concluded that the habitats conducive to jungle fowl were simply not present early enough in China to allow for the domestication practice to have taken place. These researchers suggest that chickens were a rare occurrence in northern and Central China, and thus probably an import from southern China or Southeast Asia where evidence of domestication is stronger.   Based on those findings, and despite the fact that southeast Asian progenitor sites have not as yet been identified, a northern Chinese domestication event separate from that of southern China and Southeast Asia does not at present seem likely. Pre-Columbian Chickens in America In 2007, American archaeologist Alice Storey and colleagues identified chicken bones at the site of El-Arenal 1 on Chiles coast, in a context dated well before the 16th-century medieval Spanish colonization, ca. 1321–1407 cal CE. The discovery is considered evidence of pre-Columbian contact of South America by Polynesian sailors, but that is still a somewhat controversial notion in American archaeology. However, DNA studies have provided genetic support, in that chicken bones from el-Arenal contain a haplogroup which has been identified at Easter Island, which was founded by Polynesians around 1200 CE. The founding mitochondrial DNA cluster identified as Polynesian chickens includes A, B, E, and D. Tracing sub-haplogroups, Portuguese geneticist Agusto Luzuriaga-Neira and colleagues identified sub-haplotype E1a(b) which is found in both Easter Island and el-Arenal chickens, a key piece of genetic evidence supporting the pre-Columbian presence of Polynesian chickens on the coast of South America. Additional evidence suggesting pre-Columbian contact between South Americans and Polynesians has also been identified, in the form of ancient and modern DNA of human skeletons in both locations. Currently, it seems likely that the chickens at el-Arenal were likely brought there by Polynesian sailors. Sources Dodson, John, and Guanghui Dong. What Do We Know About Domestication in Eastern Asia? Quaternary International 426 (2016): 2-9. Print.Eda, Masaki, et al. Reevaluation of Early Holocene Chicken Domestication in Northern China. Journal of Archaeological Science 67 (2016): 25-31. Print.Fallahsharoudi, Amir, et al. Genetic and Targeted Eqtl Mapping Reveals Strong Candidate Genes Modulating the Stress Response During Chicken Domestication. G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics 7.2 (2017): 497-504. Print.Là ¸tvedt, Pia, et al. Chicken Domestication Changes Expression of Stress-Related Genes in Brain, Pituitary . Neurobiology of Stress 7.Supplement C (2017): 113-21. Print.and AdrenalsLuzuriaga-Neira, A., et al. On the Origins and Genetic Diversity of South American Chickens: One Step Closer. Animal Genetics 48.3 (2017): 353-57. Print.Peters, Joris, et al. Holocene Cultural History of Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus Gallus) and Its Domestic Descendant in East Asia. Quaternary Science Reviews 142 (2016): 102-1 9. Print.Pitt, Jacqueline, et al. New Perspectives on the Ecology of Early Domestic Fowl: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Journal of Archaeological Science 74 (2016): 1-10. Print.Zhang, Long, et al. Genetic Evidence from Mitochondrial DNA Corroborates the Origin of Tibetan Chickens. PLOS ONE 12.2 (2017): e0172945. Print.