Evaluate the continuing professional development opportunities I have Essay

Evaluate the continuing professional development opportunities I have engaged in which have influenced my generic teaching skills - Essay Example Secondly, I wrote lesson plans which guided me not to change the duration of my activities, or foregoing them altogether; as well as schemes of work, which guided me on what to do in the course of the semester. Thirdly, I took part in an in-house training that gave me an opportunity to develop teaching skills, and emphasized the need to understand the principles of education. Lastly, theories of reflection made me build knowledge on bridging the gap between theory and practical world. Though development opportunities are a great way to grow professionally, evaluating development programs is crucial too. Collins (2000), states that evaluation can help in choosing the right program, adopting it to your local text and to fine-tune the program once in use. He continues to say that evaluation ensures that one avoids the popular innovations that are more opinion-based and promoted by people who are more concerned of what sells than what works. In view of the above discussion, though development is important, the process can be pricey because it requires sophisticated methods of evaluation to ensure quality

Primary Prevention of Childhood Obesity Lab Report - 1

Primary Prevention of Childhood Obesity - Lab Report Example g is a factor for a child’s potential body weight in the near future, the article that I have chosen supports its claims through testing of certain samples of mothers who breastfeed and those who do not and the effects of such on their children’s eating patterns at the time they become one-year olds. Conducted by several medical practitioners, the article is entitled straightforwardly the â€Å"Association of Breastfeeding with Maternal Control of Infant Feeding at Age 1 Year.† The objective of course was not just to prove that there is an existing relation between breastfeeding and obesity but to examine whether due to breastfeeding in the first six months of a baby’s life, the mother become less restrictive and less controlling of their children’s food intake, and they become more attuned with the children’s needs, if the child is hungry or not. Since there is no restriction or controls around, this gives the children the opportunity to regulate their own needs of energy intake and less chance of becoming obese (Taveras, et al, 2004). Specifically, the article proves this theory by studying the association between the occurrences of breastfeeding in the babies’ first six months, the extent of such breastfeeding and the mothers’ actions with regard to these children’s access to food after one year. To discuss the details, the researchers provided modified Child Feeding Questionnaires at 1 year postpartum for the sample mothers to measure whether the mothers at this time are restricting their children’s food intake or pressuring their children to consume more food. By restricting, it means that the mothers are actually conscious of the amount of food they are feeding to their children, making sure that it is not too much. The logic of this testing is to see whether the children’s eating patterns were being controlled by the time they reach one year of age, and this is correlated with the occurrence or non-occurrence of breastfeeding in the

Effect of Earnings Decline on Crime Levels

Effect of Earnings Decline on Crime Levels Module: Contemporary Issues in the UK Economy Use an appropriate supply and demand framework to explain how a decline in earnings from legitimate work would be expected to affect the level of crime. To what extent does evidence from the UK support this theoretical prediction? The idea that low earnings affect crime is not a new idea; Aristotle (350 B.C.) himself said â€Å"poverty is the parent of revolution and crime† (pg. 32). Since then, there has been much research in the field since policymakers require this information to create effective crime-reducing policies. In recent years, falling real wages has been a significant issue since the UK is in the longest period of pay stagnation since 1855 (The Economist, 25th Oct 2014). I will discuss the impact of falling wages on the crime rate by using an economic supply and demand framework and comparing my findings to real evidence from UK data. Both Becker (1968) and Freeman’s (1999) work make the assumption that criminals are rational economic agents and hence criminal activity can be modelled using a supply and demand framework in the same way one could a goods or services market. Economic theory states that the supply of crime depends on four components: potential earnings from committing a successful crime (Wc), probability of being caught (p), level of punishment (S) and wages earned from legitimate work (W). This can be shown in the following inequality: (1-p)U(Wc)-pU(S)>U(W) The left hand side represents the potential net benefit gained from committing the crime and the right hand side shows the utility of legitimate earnings. So the individual will commit a crime if the net benefits of committing the crime exceed the benefits of legitimate work. These factors which influence whether an individual decides to commit a crime or not can be aggregated to create the following function for Criminal Participation (CP): CP=f (Wc, P, S, W). The demand function of crime describes how the level of crime in society falls as individuals take increasing preventative measures (Cook, 1986) and therefore, the demand curve is downward sloping. However, the level of demand for committing crimes varies depending on the type of criminal activity undertaken. Freeman (1999) differentiates between â€Å"victimless† and â€Å"victims† crime suggesting that â€Å"victimless† crime carries obvious economic gain, e.g. dealing drugs, whereas â€Å"victims† crime has no obvious economic benefit e.g. violent crime. However, the downward sloping demand curve for â€Å"victims† crime is less intuitive so most work focusses on â€Å"victimless† crime. It is worth noting that one of the limitations of this supply and demand model in analysing crime rates is that it does not take into account non-economic incentives i.e. the feeling of doing wrong versus earning an honest living. Having discussed how to model crime using supply and demand analysis, I will now use these economic tools to illustrate a situation where wages are falling. If wages from legitimate work (W) fall, the supply curve will shift outwards since the opportunity cost of crime has fallen. Using the inequality previously discussed ((1-p) U(Wc)-pU(S)>U(W)), if legitimate earnings (W) fall, assuming ceteris paribus, the benefits of committing the crime are relatively higher. Hence more people will be willing to commit crimes. This is shown in Figure 1 as the shift from CP1 to CP2. Cantor and Land (1985) call this the motivation effect. As shown here, the outward shift of â€Å"supply† of crime (CP1 to CP2) results in an increase in the amount of crime committed (Q1 to Q2). However, there is also a fall in potential earnings from crime (Wc1 to Wc2); if wages fall, the value of consumer goods being bought is likely to fall so there are fewer valuable goods available to steal. This is the Opportunity Effect (Cantor and Land, 1985). So the fall in wages could actually reduce the crime level. It is difficult to gauge which effect, Opportunity or Motivation, is stronger. One factor which could affect this is whether low or high wages are falling. Machin and Meghir (2004) make this distinction by analysing the 25th wage percentile to capture lower skilled workers whose opportunity cost of committing is lower (Freeman, 1999). Machin and Meghir use data from England and Wales (1975-1996) and focus on vehicle and property crime as these are more likely to be driven by economic incentives than e.g. violent crimes. Figure 2 shows the relationship between the level of wage growth in an economy and the level of crime. The close proximity of the points on the graph to the regression line (calculated using a weighted least squares regression) shows a relatively strong negative correlation between the variables and the slope of the regression line gave a value of -1.580; hence, as the 25th percentile wage rises by 1%, the property crime rate is expected to fall by 1.580%. Machin and Meghir’s work supports the theoretical analysis that falling wages leads to higher crime rates for low paid workers. Therefore if low wages fall, the Motivation effect exceeds the Opportunity effect. We can also look at more recent wage and crime data from the UK to see if it supports the conclusion, that falling wages leads to higher crime rates, drawn from supply and demand analysis. As shown in Figure 3, there has been a downward trend in the real wage rate in the UK since the financial crash in 2007, real wage growth was around 10% but this has fallen to -9% by 2014. Using economic theory, it is evident that if real wages fall, then tax revenue earned by the government is likely to decrease through e.g. lower income tax revenue. Moreover, if people have lower earnings, government’s spending in transfer payments e.g. benefits is likely to rise. The situation of falling tax revenue and higher demand for public services has led to a worsening budget balance so the Coalition government adopted austerity measures. This has affected many areas of public sector spending, including the police force where there have been  £2.5bn in budget cuts since 2011, and an estimated 70% of these cuts have been in officer cuts (BBC News, 22nd July 2014). This leads to a fall in the probability of being caught (P) and severity of punishment (S), since severe punishments are typically more expensive. The effects on P and S are â€Å"second round† effects derived from falling wages. Using the CP function, one would expect that if P and S fall there is a rise in crime. However, national crime statistics demonstrate a reduction in the level of crime in the UK (figure 4): So it is evident that crime has been falling since around 1995 as shown by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data estimate. Since the financial crash, crime has fallen from around 10.5 million in 2008/2009 to 8.5 million in 2012/2013. This contradicts the conclusion made using supply/demand analysis that falling wages leads to higher crime rates. However, David Cameron argues that remaining policemen have been asked â€Å"to do more with less resources [and they] have performed magnificently (Gill, 2013). However, critics argue that there are other factors which have reduced crime statistics. Gill (2013) points towards technological advancements as a significant reason for a falling crime rates. Firstly, car manufacturers are able to include central locking systems which makes it more difficult for criminals to break in. Secondly, car break-ins are typically a â€Å"starter crime† leading onto more serious crimes such as drug dealing; if fewer people are getting involved in crime at this lower level then there will be less crime overall. Thirdly, Gill (2013) highlights the way crime is reported as being a problem since there has been growth in online and high tech crime, for example, online credit card fraud, which is not taken into account in the CSEW crime statistics. Therefore, the â€Å"second round† effects, that falling wages/tax revenue force governments to cut police funding results in more crime, may not be felt since technological advancements have resulted in less (reported) crime. That said, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) made a statement (2010) explaining how it planned to stabilise the number of prisoners until 2014/2015 and after this it would look at reducing the number by 3000 fewer than the figure as of 19th November 2010 (85,393). So while austerity measures have been implemented by the government, the severity of punishments has yet to fall significantly; this may be another reason why the crime rate did not increase whilst wages have been falling. It will be interesting to see whether going forward now crime rates increase since the MoJ is aiming to reduce the number of prisoners. In conclusion, it is evident that a supply and demand framework to model the effect of falling wages on crime cannot fully explain the situation we are currently in. In all fairness, Machin and Meghir’s work did support these findings, however more recent wage and crime data has contradicted the expected outcome. Therefore, although using a supply and demand framework can explain the impact of falling wages on crime to an extent, other factors, such as technological developments, may also influence the crime rate and policymakers who are trying to tackle crime need to ensure these other factors are also taken into account. Bibliography Aristotle (350 B.C.E.) Politics. Translated by B. Jowett. 1999. Kitchener: Batoche Books. Becker, G. (1968) Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy, 76 (2): 169-217. Becker, G. (1992) The Economic Way of Looking at Life. Nobel Prize [transcript], Wednesday 9th December, Available from: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1992/becker-lecture.pdf [Accessed 18th November 2014]. Blunt, C. (2010) Imprisonment for Public Protection. House of Commons Debate [transcript], Tuesday 23rd November, Available from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101123/debtext/101123-0001.htm [Accessed on 20th November 2010]. Cantor, D. and Land, K. C. (1985) Unemployment and crime rates in the post-World War 2 United States: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. American Sociological Review, 50 (3): 317–332. Cook, P. J. (1986) The Demand and Supply of Criminal Opportunities. Crime and Justice, 7: 1-27. Crime in England and Wales: Quarterly Bulletin. The Office of National Statistics [online], 19th July 2012. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_273169.pdf [Accessed 16th November 2014]. Dolphin, T. (2014) Bleak figures show a relentless slide towards a low-pay Britain. The Observer [online], Sunday 19th October. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/18/economy-bleak-british-workers-technology [Accessed 18th November 2014]. Ehrlich, I. (1996) Crime, Punishment and Market for Offenses. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10 (1): 43-67. Freeman, R. (1999) â€Å"The Economics of Crime.† In Ashenfelter, O. and Card, D. (ed.) Handbook of Labour Economics, 3. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North Holland Publishers. pp. 3530-3571. Gill, M. (2013) David Cameron is wrong: falling crime rates are not because of the magnificent police. New Statesman [online], Thursday 18th July. Available from: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/07/no-david-cameron-falling-crime-rates-are-not-because-magnificent-police [Accessed on: 17th November 2014]. Machin, S. and Meghir, C. (2004) Crime and Economic Incentives. The Journal of Human Resources, 49 (4): 958-979. Police forces in England and Wales ’rise to the cuts challenge’. BBC News [online], 22nd July 2014. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28415123 [Accessed 18th November 2014]. Real Wages: What Recovery?. The Economist [online], 25th Oct 2014. Available from: http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21627665-workers-continue-feel-pinch-what-recovery [Accessed 18th November 2014].

Choosing a Career Path Essay -- building management

Never once was there a doubt in my mind that I wasn’t going to college. But the question as to what career path do I want to pursue was always the hard part. When declaring my major, I had no idea that Michigan State had so many different options. My original major was pre-law, and then it was general management, now I’m leaning towards construction management. I watched â€Å"A Family That Preys† by Tyler Perry, and one of the characters was a construction manager. Like a child, watching this movie persuaded my decision to go into this field. I didn’t declare this as my first major because I was uneducated on the field, so I went with a major that I knew about. I am only in my second semester of college and I have changed my major twice. My uncle has been very successful and he has greatly inspired my choice of continuing my education. He was a successful insurance agent at state farm, and then went on to owning his own insurance company. Even though he i s in the insurance field, he is going back to school for trucking and looking into construction as well. One night we sat at my grandmother’s dinning room table and discussed my future career plans. I told him that I was interested in construction management but I was uneducated in the field so I didn’t change my major yet. I need to educate myself about being in the construction field by reading books, interviews, magazines, etc. The name construction management in itself sounds like a hand full, there’s no question that pursuing this major will be a lot of hard work and dedication. When I looked up the course requirements, the requirements reinforced my preconceived notations about this field. Calculus, microeconomics, and accounting, sounds scary and they are only 3 of the 120 cr... ...MSU RO:Academic Programs: Construction Management." MSU RO:Academic Programs: Construction Management. Michigan State University, 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Perry, Marjorie A. "Marjorie A. Perry - About." Marjorie A. Perry - About. Marjorie Perry, 02 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. . "Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. . "Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program | SBA.gov." Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program | SBA.gov. The U.S. Small Business Administration, 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. .

Can You Write My Dissertation for Me

Can you Write My Dissertation for Me Absolutely, but let us share some ideas that will help you get started. Writing a dissertation is a daunting challenge. Many talented and knowledgeable students lack the deftness to write a dissertation. This has more to do with the actual task of writing. Academic expertise, research and time constraints are common issues but committed students will overcome these hurdles. Dissertations get rejected for a myriad of reasons. One of the most common reasons is the quality of writing. A dissertation has to be heavy on facts. There is little room for opinions and absolutely no scope for opinions without substantiating evidence. Since a dissertation is more technical in nature, most students are overwhelmed with the facts of the case and hence tend to lose sight of the quality of writing. This is the primary reason why you should hire an expert to write your dissertation for you.Can you Write My Dissertation for Me?Jumpstart the ProcessOne of the first advantages of hiring an expert to write my dissertation for me is jumpstarting the whole process. Many stude nts, including doctoral and postdoctoral fellows, have enough information at their disposal. There is no dearth of research, albeit there can be some incoherence in the vision. The gamut of information is often overwhelming. The ambit of purpose, problem, research questions, methodology or methods and eventual conclusion or inference can be enormous and it can unsettle even the smartest student pursuing a specific degree in a chosen discipline. These develop as the initial roadblocks. Many students simply don’t manage to get around to starting the process of writing their dissertation. All such scenarios that fuel procrastination can be easily dealt with by hiring an expert writer. The writer is getting paid for writing my dissertation for me. The writer does not have to deal with the various distractions that I as a student would have. Also, the writer is already familiar with the various methods that can be used to compile available information for a chosen topic and write the dissertation according to the provided instructions.Fast Turnaround TimeMany students take weeks to write their dissertation. Some students take months. Hiring an expert to write my dissertation for me will reduce this turnaround time to days. Most experts will be able to deliver the dissertation within a week. Some may be able to do it in two days. Of course the actual turnaround time will depend on the nature and scope of the dissertation, also the expertise of the writer and the type of instructions provided. 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Professional writers have a consciously proactive approach to avoid the errors that students may not be aware of. There are writers who have penned hundreds of dissertations and hence they know precisely what is sought by examiners. They are also aware of the kinds of dissertations that are already accepted and perhaps published so their own assessment becomes a preliminary plagiarism checker.Write My Dissertation for MeStudents who excel in academics and have a natural penchant for writing can always write their own dissertations. They may do an excellent job. Despite the odds in their favor, such students too will benefit by hiring a professional writer. Their dissertations may be tra nsformed from good to better or from acceptable to excellent. A dissertation has to satiate the purpose and it must also impress. Most examiners are looking to get dazzled by the pupils. A dissertation that does not stand out or shine in some way will definitely fail to impress.

Healthy Life Style Essay

Everyone wants a nice healthy lifestyle, and everyone wants to be fit. Being fit and healthy is very important. Being healthy is the key to lead a happy life. People who are fit, stay fit even when they get old. Living a healthy lifestyle is not too hard, and it pays off. A healthy life style keeps you in shape physically, mentally, and spiritually. Healthy living has many benefits. A healthy lifestyle keeps you physically strong, reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, reduces risk of many diseases, and enhances your appearance. Many studies show that a healthy lifestyle prevents against many diseases, and that leads to a longer life. Having a healthy lifestyle makes you feel good, energetic, fresh, and confident. If someone wants to be happy, he has to have a healthy lifestyle. It is not hard to live a healthy life. A healthy lifestyle just takes a little diet control and some exercise. The first step is to be enthusiastic and keep yourself motivated, and join a fitness club/gym because it is really hard working out at your residence. At his residence a person feels lazy. Join a gym that is close to your residence, so don’t feel lazy going to it. Have a friend workout with you to keep you entertained, so you don’t get bored. Go to the gym at least three times a week and workout for forty five minutes to one hour, and make a schedule for workout. Do some cardio vascular exercise twice a week for forty minutes. Healthy eating is very important. Eat a protein and fiber full meal every three hours. Eating every three hours keeps your metabolism running fast, and that keeps your body from storing fat. Don’t eat heavy carbohydrate meals right before bed time, and try to eat them in the morning and afternoon. Stay away from sugary and fatty things like doughnuts, cream cookies, cream cakes, sugary deserts, and sugary juices. Once you have a balanced diet, and you have a decent amount of workout, you will feel the difference. Watch as your body losses fat, gains muscle, and gains stamina. You will feel fit, relaxed, younger, and you will also have fewer headaches, less stress, and will find life easy.