Summary 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary 7 - Essay Example This can validate the identities of culturally diverse children as well as be the role models for these children. Teachers who can understand and appreciate culturally different strengths and cultural resources of children are found to be much more effective teachers are more likely to provide enriching environments that celebrate everyone’s differences. However, since the teachers themselves are exposed to mainstream education where cultural diversity is not as celebrated as it is today, it is quite a challenge to adapt. To address this need to adapt to the culturally-heavy classes, there are professional seminars and trainings that have been offered to them. One of these is the Family Literacy Nights with Latino families and their children since the Latino population comprise the biggest chunk of the culturally diverse population. With Family Literacy Nights, the teachers have interacted with the parents and the kids themselves. This project helped quashed misconceptions about the culturally-diverse families. With family literacy nights, the teachers have firsthand information about the immigrant families. They empathized with the frustration that the parents have over language learning and their affinity to use their old language. They understood that these people can never think like the native speakers. They also learned that the parents want to help their children excel in their English-based classes but cannot help since they do not know the language. They also knew reasons why some families cannot come to school activities: location and time matter. It is not that they do not support their children’s education, it’s because they do not have the means of transportation and the time to go to events (they have to work, and they are too poor to have a car). They also knew not to prevent the children from speaking their native language as this fosters sophisticated linguistic abilities (they had English-only policies

Wicca Vs. Paganism Essays -- essays research papers

Wicca versus Paganism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wicca and Pagan are two religions, which have many similarities as well as many differences within each area. Wicca is a sect of Pagan in which each has their own variations on the religion. A good way to put it; all Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan. Witch is a term used for any practitioner of Wicca. The Webster's II Dictionary defines witch as 1. A woman who practices sorcery or is believed to have dealings with the devil, 2. An ugly, vicious old woman; hag. Wicca is described by the American Heritage Dictionary as the cult of witchcraft. Pagan is the religion under which many different religions are practiced. Webster's II Dictionary defines pagan as one who does not acknowledge the god of Christianity, Islam, or Judaism; heathen. Most parts of these definitions are wrong. Wicca is a sect of Paganism, in which different practices are learned, worshipped, and taught. One form of Wicca is Solitary Practitioners the other is Coven Practitioners. The forms of Wicca that are practiced vary in most uses. Solitary Practitioners usually 'pray';, read, meditate, and cast magik and spells alone. Whereas Covenants practice these familiar things amongst a group of anywhere from two people up to thirteen people. In Pagan practices, these things are practiced normally within a group setting of anywhere from two people to hundreds of people. Both practices use a magik circle which is either drawn imaginary or with the use of a broom or sea salt. This is to keep out any negative energy from entering the circle while any type of practice is being done. This keeps the practitioner(s) from any harm or wrongdoing. Both of these religions are nature-based and usually have one of three belief systems in common: polytheism, pantheism, and animism. Both of these religions use many objects in their practices or studies. Both Wiccans and Pagans will use what is called Magikal tools. These are known to include, incense, candles, athames; usually known as a black handled knife, the broom; used to 'sweep'; away negative energies, the cup or chalice; used to hold such things as blessed water, wine and other fluids, the cauldron; used as an instrument in which to cook and for brew making, also used for scrying, and most importantly, the pentacle. The pentacle is usually a flat piece of brass, gold, silver, wood, wax... ...ifferent. Many Pagans prefer to worship within a coven or group. Each person would take on a different aspect within the group. Each person plays a different part within the circle. There is a group of teachers, called the High Priestess and High Priest. The High Priestess and Priest would control any and all worship sessions, much like the Christian churches. Each person thereafter might control a corner, or element, and the less powerful of them all would worship and watch the ceremonies take place. Pagans do not have a Book of Shadows, in which to worship. This religion is an oral based religion, passed down from mouth to mouth. Pagans may rely upon any natural force, such as a body of water, or a natural rock formation. They use these to help them focus energy upon their gods or goddesses. Both, Pagans and Wiccans, have varying religious practices; however, many of them are also similar. Pagans focus more on the group aspect of tradition and the 'old times';, whereas, Wicca is based primarily upon the needs and wants of the witch. This could even include practicing Christianity on the side. Both religions do; however, have in common many uses of tools, spells, and 'prayers';.

Leadership in the Team

Capability to manage a team effectively is one of the main qualities which any employee seeking success needs to possess. However, the position of a leader requires many outstanding skills, and it may be very challenging at times. According to Sun Tzu, Chinese General who lived in the 5th century B.C., â€Å"when one has all 5 virtues together: intelligence, trustworthiness, humanness, courage, sternness, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a leader†. The combination of these qualities can very rarely be seen in people’s characters, therefore not everybody can be a good leader. Leadership means the ability to influence other people and guide them to the success. During many centuries it has been believed that the key to success in a team lies in the skills of the manager. No company can remain on top unless it has an outstanding manager who guides it into the right direction. The task of leading 3 members of the team in a philanthropic organization with 1 million dollars capital is very challenging, and it requires the leader to have deep understanding of the tasks which are set before the team. In order to manage the team efficiently, first of all I need to get a full idea of the characters of employees in the team. It’s very important to understand the group members from the very beginning, and become a part of their group. All the members of the team have similar working skills because they all have worked in the consulting field for a long time. Since A.T. Kearney consulting company has very high requirements for its employees, there is no need for me as a leader to worry about the employees’ knowledge and capability to perform. They are all very knowledgeable in the consulting field. They all have lots of experience in consulting companies and government. Besides, all the employees have very good communication skills, outstanding problem-solving skills, creativity and capability to learn new things fast which are all required in consulting. However, the task of the leader is to manage the team in such a way that all the skills which the members of the team possess turn out applied at their maximum. This task is very complicated because â€Å"building the winning team requires more than just hiring a bunch of talented people. It means hiring people who will work well together. It means developing a shared vision and commitment. It means physically bringing people together in formal group meetings for open discussion of broad-based issues. It means encouraging positive, informal interactions between group members. It means instilling a â€Å"winning† attitude throughout the organization. It means watching for and quickly trying to reverse team-building problems such as jealousy, cynicism, and defensive behavior.† /www.businesstown.com/ My task of building a winning team is not easy to achieve because I need to show to members of the team first my capability of being a leader. The team needs to know that they are managed by a strong leader who is able to guide them to the success. The members of the team need to perceive me as a leader, even though some of them may be even more experienced than me in the field of consulting. However, through showing my undoubtedly good leadership skills, brilliance, good knowledge of consulting, deep insight, setting correct and realistic goals for the members, choosing right forms of motivation for them, I can become a leader against whom they will not rebel but will want to cooperate with. The most important issue in managing the team is choosing the right form of motivation for them. Since all people are different, all the employees in the team need different forms of motivation. For some employees, only money works, and they don’t get motivated by any other benefits. For others, there is nothing more important than social recognition of their efforts. Other employees will care about the possibilities of future promotion in case of their successful performance. Therefore, in order to manage the team effectively, the first task to do is to define where the needs of employees fall in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. After some communication with the members of the team it was easy to discover that out of three employees two are very ambitious. They have a very high need of esteem. They need to be praised for the work they do, get recognition from senior-level management, be aware about the possibilities of their future promotion, and fulfill tasks which require lots of responsibility, like consulting the largest and the most important clients of the company. These employees are very experienced in the consulting field, they have already made large contributions into the company’s success, and therefore they can be motivated only through getting more and more complicated tasks to fulfill. The third member of the team is not as success-oriented, and he is not as experienced. He is rather knowledgeable in consulting but he doesn’t seek promotion because he is quite happy with his present work. Therefore, he can be motivated by money awards and praise for his work because his needs fall into the category of belonginess and love. The next step of successful management of the team is defining relationships between employees, and making a sociogram which identifies the types of interactions within the social network. Without the knowledge of interactions between the employees, there is no way to manage the team effectively. In order to manage the members of the team, it’s useful at times to apply the approach of influencing some members of the team through other members. It’s necessary to identify the member of the team who has the strongest influence on other members because teams are usually aligned to such employees. The last step of managing the team is choosing the leadership style. In order to manage the team effectively, the leader can apply the following styles when managing the team: supporting, directive, coercive, â€Å"transformational leadership† styles. Each of them has special recommendations for usage in different situations. For example, supporting and â€Å"transformation leadership† styles are very efficient in situations when a new leader comes into the organization, and seeks to establish warm relations with all the members of the team. Directive and coercive styles can work only in the teams which welcome this style and are ready to fulfill all the management’s assignments. However, nowadays such employees are quite rare, therefore, in my work, it’s necessary to combine the styles. I should be supportive in many situations but I should also be directive in certain issues when I know that I’m providing the most efficient policy. It’s very difficult to make the team function effectively, but this task can be achieved through the right choices of employees’ motivation and leadership style. The field of consulting requires a leader with good communication skills, able to provide success-oriented policy, capable of solving all the possible problems which may arise in the team. Due to my strong leadership skills, good analytical skills, capability to achieve all of the goals I set for myself, I can guarantee success to the team I’m managing.                                 

Feminism Is An Interdisciplinary Idea - 881 Words

Feminism is an interdisciplinary idea. In sociology, feminism broadens our ideas on gender and transforms it into a major field of study. George Ritzer, in Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots, breaks feminist theory down into four major varieties, gender differences, gender inequality, gender oppression, and structural oppression. He then explains the different forms of feminism seen in each variety. The first variety, gender difference, describes, explains, and traces the implications of how men and women are or are not the same in behavior and experience. â€Å"Women’s location in, and experience of, most situations is different from those of men in the situation.† (Ritzer, 201) Cultural feminism is one of two theories Ritzer discusses under gender differences. This theory explores and celebrates the social value of women’s distinctive ways of being. The core idea of theory is that a woman’s way of being may be better for society; better than those of the androcentric culture. Cooperation, pacifism, and nonviolence in the settling of disputes, these virtues of women can be argued better for governing a society. Another form of feminist theory Ritzer places under the variety gender difference is feminist interactionist theory. In this theory ethnomethodology claims that â€Å"institutional order, culture, and stratification are maintained by the ongo ing activities of individuals in interaction.† (Ritzer, 204)When this concept is applied to gender it creates theShow MoreRelatedFeminism : A Feminist Perspective1168 Words   |  5 Pagesinfluenced my intellectual journal through feminist theory. Feminism is a contentious topic with matters that pertain to contemporary feminism, including the following: reproductive rights; equal access to education and employment; marriage equality; violence against women; and the sex trade. 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She wrote, Our argument for re-naming the FGS program Gender and Sexuality is based on 3 claims: 1. that it will be enticing for prospective and current students and faculty, because it names their personal and intellectualRead MoreMy Interview With The Homelessness Essay1722 Words   |  7 Pages The vision is to have communities end homelessness in their communities by actively contributing to the social justice work that libraries do. Since Julie is still co-creating the organization, its programs are not finalized. However, their first idea is holding panels at public libraries about homelessness and how to address it, including and uplifting the voices and perspectives of those who have or do currently experience homelessness, which could break down stereotypes and build community awarenessRead MoreDomain Of Knowledge And Skill Mastered By Men3135 Words   |  13 Pagessocial order, the male appears as non-marked in comparison to the female which is openly criticized. 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