Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Essay Example If one were to seek a comprehensive account of Franklin’s perspective most people look to the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. This essay examines this text in terms of the means that Franklin presents his story as an illustration of self-improvement. One of the prominent ways that Benjamin Franklin explores themes of self-improvement is through his articulation of his own education. As is common knowledge Franklin was largely a self-taught individual. In the first part of his text, Franklin indicates that, â€Å"From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books† (Franklin, p. 14). Franklin also indicates specific books he read. While not entirely presented as a path towards self-education, it’s clear that Franklin at least indirectly intends the reader to recognize that reading and intellectual pursuit were important aspects to his development. Franklin leaves it for the reader to then extract from these examples for their own self-improvement. A notable concern in these regards is that Franklin is not extremely over-handed in his presentation of life examples. For instance, at different instances he points out individuals he thought more intelligent or successful than himself. This mix of frank self-reflection with a touch of self-promotion is very successful as an instrument of self-improvement for others. Another prominent concern in examining the text as one of self-improvement is the means that Franklin traces his professional development. Similar to Franklin’s education this development process is not presented in an entirely over-handed or moralizing way, but instead is indicative of a true to form narrative account. In these regards, Franklin details how his interest in books led to his becoming involved in a printing press and the subsequent professional and personal developments he gained through this business. When Franklin does make proscriptive moral persp ectives on life he does so in the context of his story. Consider Franklin when he notes, â€Å"I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life† (Franklin, p. 58). This statement emerges when Franklin is talking about the influence his parents and religion had on his life. In these regards, Franklin’s autobiography does not sound preachy or overly self-aggrandizing, but the work of a benevolent man that has attained wisdom through hard-work and life experience. As Franklin’s text progresses it slightly veers from this narrative presentation to one more self-consciously concerned with presenting a map of self-improvement. A prominent example of this occurs in the second part when Franklin lists a letter he received encouraging him to continue writing his autobiography as it could be used as a means of self-improvement. Franklin extends this as he explores his pursuit of mora l perfection, outlining twelve points of character that he attempted to improve. While the first part of Franklin’s autobiography was highly reliant on the narrative progression of events that led to his personal and professional development, Franklin’s pursuit of moral perfection and his elaborate charts and diagrams demonstrating how he did so begins to squarely cast him as the first American version of Dr. Phil. Rather than his pursuit of mo

Designing a database for a supermarket Essay Example for Free

Designing a database for a supermarket Essay 1,1 The problem and how I discovered it- I discovered the problem when I was buying in this standard supermarket and I saw that some of the products where expired and were stale. I also noticed that some of the buyers or consumers were taking this product without knowing the consequences of them on their body. This is a picture of the supermarket. 1,2 The Business- This business is of a supermarket which is located in Alejandra del Castillo in San Fernando in the south of the Island of Gran Canaria. I was doing a survey on the supermarkets as a consumer when I discovered that some of the products were stale. I told the manager about the problem they asked me for help. 1,3 The real User- The manager is the in charge of dealing with these type of problems. Although in this case Mr.Angel, the manager is not able to find the solution to this problem. In this case I have decided to help him and to provide a better service to the customer. 1,4 The current problem and inefficient- The current main problem is that the manager or the employees arent getting to know when the food is going stale or is running out of date. Im being asked to create or to find some kind of solution to solve this major problem. There are many problems with the method that the employees are using now which is to go around checking each and every product for there date of expiry. They have been facing many problems with their method. For example: *There arent as many employees as needed for this method. *It might result a bit boring *Can produce headaches and blurry eyesight. *Different products have their expiry date stamped on a different place. This can be difficult to find. *Maybe some of the products arent visible to the employees and do not look for their expiry dates. 1,5 The manual and PC way- Manual way-This problem can be solved by making six different sections and assigning six different people to look for the expiry date. Also I would like to include that it would also make the in-charges life more easier if the products were placed in a more visible and easier accessible place so that none of the products are missed out. PC way- This method would be a lot more easier because it wouldnt include as many people as the manual way. This method consists of creating a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. While learning I discovered a all new way of using excel. I mean that if the company creates as spreadsheet and inputs the amount of the product, the expiry date and include a photo and a brief description of the product and where it is located exactly. This would only involve one persons effort and would be a lot more efficient and would provide better services to the customers. 1,6 Objectives- *Create a Spreadsheet to solve the problem. *Create a chart showing before and after. *Create a Spreadsheet with the bar-codes and date of expiry. The date of expiry must be warned a couple of days in advance. * Use professional language. * Auto-fit values. * Dont make any errors * Check formulas TWICE * Use less staff. ANALYSE 2,1 Hardware- In my solution I will be using a LCD(Liquid Cristal Display) as an output device and a scanner or a 12,0 megapixel digital camera as an Input device, this is because I will need high resolution pictures or Photos to provide the company with the solution, i will also use a baar-code scanner to introduce the products bar-code. 2,2 Software- I am going to use Windows XP professional because its easier to use that the Windows vista and more complex than the Windows 2000 Operating System. I will be using OO(Open Office) Package so that I can provide or accomplish my solution correctly, I chose this becuse it has the same functions and options as the Microsoft Office but its free and can be downloaded easily An Anti-Virus will be required in case of any viruses are introduced into the computer Via Internet, I will choose the Kaspesky Anti-Virus because its more advanced and quicker, 2,3 Data Input- Data Type Collection Input Validation Bar-code Information Product Bar-code reader Not negative Photographs Image Internet Digital camera Not negative Graph Information Spreadsheet ToolbarTools Not negative Excel formulas Formulas User Keyboard Not negative 2,4 Data processing- 2,6 back up and security- As the Document we are doing is very important we must always remember to save it, this could save us a lot of typing because if there is a power cut documents wont get erased. We should remember to save our document every 5-10 minutes ,also we need to save it when we change or insert something manually. You should save it on your PCs desktop or in My Documents also it would be intelligent to save documents on two other or externel hard disks or send it to your own e-mail. The size of the file depends on the type, for example if it is done in excel, word or powerpoint , it would also effect the size of the document if there is facy coloured writing, outstanding writing or lots of pictures. Normally a word document of 10 -12 pages with three to four coloured pictures would weigh 294 KB (302.026 bytes), this means you would be able to save three thousand more files like this on a one gigabyte pendrive. Yes, I will set up passwords to my document incase a hacker or spammer brakes in and steals my data, this way I will be sure to have a unique solution to the problem. I can set passwords to documents by going on ToolsOptionsSecurity and set up the password. The Data Protection Act means the right to protect your own data, this is a part of legislation. We might use this because we need to consider the rights we have to protect our own typed data. IMPLEMENTATION 4,1 3 to 5 printouts with errors- -Error 1- The first error committed was that some of the pictures of the products are missing. This could lead to confusion and would seem difficult to identify the product. -Error 2- The second error was that some of the dates arent in the correct format. The Dash to separate the day from the month and year are missing. -Error 3- The last error made was that the currency wasnt in a correct format, some of the values were in euros and others were in pesetas. 4,2 Screenshots I will be creating 2 graphs, one to represent the number of products expired and the number of products close to expiry. It will look like this It will be a pie chart on the top left corner with a 3D look and the key on the left. This graph will tell the user the number of products close to expiry, this will warn the staff to put the product close to expiry in the front in order to sell it soon and it wont expire. The second graph in the spreadsheet will present the number of products expired. The bars will be in pyramid shape and with a 3D look, it will be on the left hand corner. The key will be on the right and the pyramids will be dark blue. It will be from A1 to D25.They will be dark blue. This is a new and a very effective method as it shows that lots of products are expiring and it warns the user to take a step forward in order to prevent the cheese expiring. The spreadsheet will have a main, the first one is to link to sheet two and the other one to sheet three. I have added the company logo. It will have a title in bold and underlined and an attractive backgound. I have included images to identify the product correctly. This could help the staff to find the product which is close to its expiry. I have added a button to change colour to red. This is a macro. 4,3 Test Results I have checked all spellings so that no mistakes or errors are made. Also it makes the spreadsheet look more professional and gives a good impression. It gives a high influence on reader and gives a professional feeling, I have included images of the product and i have also compared them to the original product in the supermarket so that the products look and are the same and this way if the name is typed incorrectly at least the employee can look for it and correct its name. I will be including the bar-code because it will de easier lo identify the product and also a mobile phone or a cordless bar-code reader can read it easily. This would make work a lot faster because more employees can scan the products at once. The number of products has been counted and double checked. Also there is a column showing how many articles there are and the days left for their expiry. An IF formula has been created to warn the incharge if there is a product with less than 2 days left for 4,4 Objectives I have created a spreadsheet to deal with the problem I have created a chart showing the before and after. I have included dates of expiry. EVALUATION 5,1 Objectives accomplished- à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Use fewer employees à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create a graph showing the number of products expired before and after the method. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create a spreadsheet à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create at least to graphs with examples showing products expired on the spreadsheet. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Use spell-check to check spellings. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Create a main menu to graphs on the spreadsheet. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Include product images à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Include dates of expiry and days left. I did use fewer employees because this method used to deal with the problem only needs employee to type in the data and possible two others to re-check dates of expiry. I did not create a graph showing the number of products expired before and after the method used to deal with the problem but instead I created a table showing this data because it is easier to find information. I confirm that I have created a spreadsheet to deal with this problem. I have created two graphs, one showing the number of products expired and the days left for expiry and the second one showing the name of the product and the number of them expired. I have used spell-check in my solution my gathering all data and pressing F7. This function uses the dictionary on the computer and corrects any errors. My spreadsheet has a main menu linking to graphs on other sheets. I did this by the hyperlink option under the insert option. I have included product images but they have been collected from the internet and arent accurate and therefore not reliable. 5,2 Test- 1. Do you think the objective number 1 has been accomplished properly? vv 2.Is the solution correct? 3.Is the layout or format correct? 4.Do you think the objectives could be improved? Or if others could be added and which? 5. Is the idea of the images correct? 6.Would it be a good idea to highlight formulas? 7.Which of the objectives do you think are invalid? 8. Which of the methods used to accomplish objectives could be improved? 9.Do you accept that it would be a better idea to create a graph rather than a table showing the products expired? 10. Do you think that the images should be taken of the actual product and not the internet? 5,3 I could improve I think that if I took the actual photo of the product it would be more reliable as it is taken of the actual article and maybe the internet gives the incorrect picture which could lead to confusion and problems. It would also be better if I check the spelling using a dictionary rather that the computers dictionary as word feed into it might be incorrect and mean something else.

Manatees :: essays research papers

In 1493, when Columbus sailed to the Americas for his second journey, he and his sailors were the first Europeans to spot the present-day manatees. Because of their amazingly humanlike appearance these ancient sailors went home telling stories of mermaids.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the Spanish came over they hunted and ate these massive beasts. Since the early 1900's the manatee population has dwindled severely. Finally countries and smaller organizations began taking interest in saving the manatees. Laws and regulations were set so that manatees might be saved from extinction. This has been successful to a point, but still only very few manatees live and they must be nurtured in order to flourish.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Manatees are also known as sea cows because they graze on pastures of sea grass. They are air breathing creatures and most kinds can grow up to thirteen feet long during the average life span of sixty years. Manatees can weigh up to 3500 pounds. An average adult weighs between 1000 and 2000 pounds. They range from gray to brown in color and are primarily a plant-eating mammal. Sometimes they may eat small crabs, snails, or any other small animal that clings to the water grass. Manatees usually keep to themselves but when migration season arrives, they migrate in groups to warmer waters full of rich vegetation. During mating season they will also travel in groups.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mating season is not held at any particular time of the year. However when the females are ready to breed (about seven years old) they will rub certain parts of their bodies up against rocks or other things in the water where a matured male (three to four years old) will follow her. The female will then wait for her suitor or suitors to arrive. If there are more than one she will run from the group until she is ready to mate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are four different types of manatees. The most common type of manatee is the West Indian Manatee. They swim freely in fresh or salt water and use their tail to propel themselves and their flippers to steer. At the end of each flipper are three or four nails.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another type of manatee, the West African Manatee, has a similar appearance. There is not much known about this species of manatees but their population seems to be declining.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Amazonian Manatee is found in the Amazon River and swims only in fresh water. Manatees :: essays research papers In 1493, when Columbus sailed to the Americas for his second journey, he and his sailors were the first Europeans to spot the present-day manatees. Because of their amazingly humanlike appearance these ancient sailors went home telling stories of mermaids.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the Spanish came over they hunted and ate these massive beasts. Since the early 1900's the manatee population has dwindled severely. Finally countries and smaller organizations began taking interest in saving the manatees. Laws and regulations were set so that manatees might be saved from extinction. This has been successful to a point, but still only very few manatees live and they must be nurtured in order to flourish.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Manatees are also known as sea cows because they graze on pastures of sea grass. They are air breathing creatures and most kinds can grow up to thirteen feet long during the average life span of sixty years. Manatees can weigh up to 3500 pounds. An average adult weighs between 1000 and 2000 pounds. They range from gray to brown in color and are primarily a plant-eating mammal. Sometimes they may eat small crabs, snails, or any other small animal that clings to the water grass. Manatees usually keep to themselves but when migration season arrives, they migrate in groups to warmer waters full of rich vegetation. During mating season they will also travel in groups.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mating season is not held at any particular time of the year. However when the females are ready to breed (about seven years old) they will rub certain parts of their bodies up against rocks or other things in the water where a matured male (three to four years old) will follow her. The female will then wait for her suitor or suitors to arrive. If there are more than one she will run from the group until she is ready to mate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are four different types of manatees. The most common type of manatee is the West Indian Manatee. They swim freely in fresh or salt water and use their tail to propel themselves and their flippers to steer. At the end of each flipper are three or four nails.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another type of manatee, the West African Manatee, has a similar appearance. There is not much known about this species of manatees but their population seems to be declining.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Amazonian Manatee is found in the Amazon River and swims only in fresh water.

A life of ones own

If you wanted to discover how to find your own happiness, start examining yourselves and take a glance on this book entitled A Life of One's Own by Joanna Field.This is a book that merely touches every reader's mind and heart. There are 10 remarkable facts about this book. First is that it was written by Marion Milner, she uses the pseudonym Joanna Field in writing this book She was 34 years old then when she wrote the book. It is about a diary of a young woman who is candidly questioning herself and what she is doing with her life.(The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 2001,p.609-611). The basis of this writing is her own personal intimate diary that she kept over many years and was finally published in this book in 1934. (amazon.com)The book cited different events in the author's life and done in a matter like she was writing in a Diary which is exposed to all people.Emotion is one great key in an individual's happiness because according to her which was also cited in the boo k, â€Å"I want to draw and study a few things closely by feeling, not thinking.† A lot of her entries started with â€Å"I want.†(Field 1934).In this book she tries to summarize her discoveries in terms of psychic bisexuality in all of us realizing that: she ‘had not understood at all that a feminine attitude to the universe was really just as legitimate, intellectually and biologically, as a masculine one' – and just as necessary for both women and men (amazon.com).Marion Milner is an English psychologist who was born in London in 1900 and in her book she cited the wide-focus mode of paying attention.(MacDonald'spp.96-97) Here the term that best describes her point of view is the term focus wherein we should always try to center our best to what we truly aim in our life and strive hard to reach the goal.According to Milner herself, her aim for doing the book is to find out what are the experiences that really made her happy. She tries to pick out those m oments in her daily life which had been particularly happy and tries to record them in words. She goes over these records in order to see where happiness occurred. (Tacher/Putnam 1981,preface)Being mindful of our own actions is one key point that should be taken out by the readers. There's one remarkable thought cited in the book â€Å"I came to the conclusion then that â€Å"continual mindfulness†. . . must mean, not a sergeant major-like drilling of thoughts, but a continual readiness to accept whatever came.† (Field 1934, 8June).If you are going to ask me why there is a need for you to read this book is because of three precious reasons: First, it makes you discover your true self and be mindful of all your actions. Next is for you to find out what can really make you happy, your likes and dislikes.   and lastly if you have questions like what to do and how to live the way you really wanted to be happy, start reading and reflecting on this book.ReferencesField, Jo anna. (1934) A Life of One's Own. 8JuneMacdonald, Copthorne. Comments about Open Focus,   Toward Wisdom pp. 96-97 Tacher, Jeremy P. (1981) from the author's 1934 Prefacehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Ones-Own-Joanna-Field/dp/0860688216/ref=pd_rhf_p_1 http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/discipline.htm

Summary of Instructional Problem

In the state of Kentucky Social Studies education focuses on five big ideas that all topics can fall under. These topics are government and civics, cultures and societies, economics, geography, and historical perspective. (Kidwell, 2012) Geography is one of the big five ideas and is extremely important. One of the foundations of geography is the use of map skills. Map skills can include simply reading a map, using visual literacy to decode information represented on a map, tracing a route from point A to point B, and using the information on a map to problem solve and make inferences.At Conway Middle School students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades have problems with map skills. Specifically, students do not know how to correctly read a map, identify the different types of maps, locate information on a map, and when given a starting point and directions could not correctly trace/navigate to a disclosed or undisclosed end location. For example, when given the starting point for the explora tion of the Louisiana Territory by Lewis and Clark on a map and basic directions students could not correctly follow the path using geographic tools such as maps, atlas, globes, and photos.These are skills that students will need as they progress through their academic pursuits and in life. Based on data collected and a needs analysis there is a need for interventions to help resolve this instructional problem. Goal Statement Students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade at Conway Middle school after successfully completing the instructional unit will be able to apply the map skills that have been learned in the real world. Conway Middle School is an inner city, title 1 school. A reality of this is that many students rely on riding public transportation to get to and from school.One of the real world goals for instruction is that students will be able to look at a road map and navigate from Point A to Point B without the need for electronic devices to assist with mapping. The students wil l be able to correctly give someone directions to get from their present location to another location. The students will examine a map of the bus routes in the city of Louisville and be able to correctly pick the buses they would need to get on to get home from any location serviced by the Transit Authority of the River City.Students will use their learned map skills to problem solve using maps, graphs, and charts in other subject areas such as math and science. In addition to these real world applications students will be able to perform at a level greater or equal to 80% correct on a summative assessment given by the teacher that encompasses all the topics from the unit of instruction. The summative assessment will include topics from the desired conditions of this needs analysis. While map skills are a social studies topic they have many applications in other core content areas and within the real world.Many people use them on a daily basis and do not even realize their importanc e. While the goal of middle school social studies education should be to provide students with the skills to become good citizens and prepare them with the content knowledge and skills necessary to lay a foundation for college and career readiness that will lead to successful high school academic endeavors. The reality is that we must also meet state standards and often loose site of the most important part of the social studies content. The part of social studies content that I am referring to is the preparation of students to become good citizens.Learner Analysis Before beginning the learner analysis needs, the researcher feels it important to take moment to introduce the instructional setting of the group. For this learner analysis the instructional setting is Conway Middle School in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Conway Middle School is an inner city, title 1 school. The school is located in the Pleasure Ridge Park community of Louisville, Kentucky. Pleasure Ridge Park is located o n the south side of Louisville. Like many other major metropolitan areas the south side of town is not the most sought after area to live in or be from.Some students are bused into the area from other sections of town. Conway Middle School is home to almost 1000 students of various genders and ethnicities. The instructional unit will be taught in a 6th grade social studies classroom. The average amount of students in the classroom on a daily basis is 120. The 6th grade is made up of three teams of teachers. Each team has a social studies, math, language arts, and science teacher. Throughout the course of a normal school day a group of 130 students will rotate into each content area for seventy minutes.Now that the setting has been discussed let’s talk about the learners. Requisite Knowledge and Skills In the state of Kentucky middle school social studies has no prerequisite social studies skills or knowledge needed to be successful. However, there are certain requisite skills and knowledge that will help all students succeed. First, students need to have reading comprehension skills. The students must be able to read and write within one or two levels of the current grade. Second, the students need math comprehension skills.Math skills might sound funny as a requisite knowledge for social studies but it is true. Without math skills students would be ill prepared to understand the numbers on a map, the dates of events, cost of wars, and even the reasons behind the migrations of millions of people to new areas seeking better jobs, economic success, and untold fortunes. The reading skills are essential because what we know about social studies is made up from artifacts. Many of those artifacts are journals, diaries, declarations, newspapers, books, and interviews that in order to understand them a person would need reading skills.If a student has the requisite skills listed above the teacher can design an instructional unit that builds knowledge from the g round up. Now that the requisite skills have been discussed let’s take a look at the prior knowledge and skills of the learner group. Prior Knowledge and Skills The learner group has been assessed for prior knowledge and skills. A part of the assessment took place when the researcher administered a test/pre-test for the needs analysis in task 1. The teacher has also been assessing the students as the school year progressed.It was found that despite the best efforts of the learner group’s previous teachers many of the students lack basic knowledge of map skills. The students were taught map skills in the 5th grade, but very little was retained. During other assessments the teacher found out that many students could remember some of the words related to map skill but were unable to define them or their importance. The data from the previous assessments showed that there was a foundation to build upon but essentially the teacher was starting from the ground up when design ing the instructional unit.Most students knew their directions but very little otherwise. When given an atlas to assist with the pre-test the students’ average score overall was 52%. The data gathered from the needs analysis and other assessments of prior knowledge and skills will drive the design and focus of the instructional unit on map skills. Now that prior knowledge and skills have been discussed let’s move on to the demographic information of the learner group. Demographic Information The demographic makeup of the learner group is diverse. There are a total of 130 students in the group.62 of the students are male and 68 are female in gender. The ethnic makeup of the males is as follows: 49% African American, 40% white, 10% Latino, and 1% Asian. The ethnic makeup of the females is as follows: 53% African American, 41% white, 5% Latino, and 1% Asian. The females outnumber the males by almost 10%. 55% of the students come from single parent households. The ages ran ge from 10 years old to 12 years old and are of varied maturity levels. With over half of the students coming from single parent households, parental support is sometimes at low level.Having a majority of the students being female and/or African American influences the way in which the teacher must design the instructional unit. The demographics can sometimes make it difficult to design instruction in a way that is both relevant and interesting for all students. Along with taking into account the demographics of the learner group the teacher must account for the learner group’s attitudes towards the topic when designing instruction. Learner Group Attitudes Attitude is everything. When designing a unit of instruction a teacher must take into account the learner group’s attitudes toward the topic, education, and teachers.That might sound like an easy task but it is not. Students bring past experiences and attitudes toward teachers and education into the classroom every d ay. This has a profound influence on the learning environment. For example, almost half of the students that this teacher sees on daily basis say social studies is their least favorite subject at school. Some of those same students attribute this to previous teachers and the experience that they have had. Other students like social studies but hate map skills calling it boring and useless. These students are the ones that make designing instruction a little more time consuming. To combat thenegativity towards social studies the teacher must go out of his/her way to build the relationships with students to foster a mutual respect and hopefully instill a lifelong love of learning. While building the relationships the teacher is able to design instruction in a way that is relevant to each student and interesting. Despite best efforts there will always be one or two students with a negative attitude towards the topic. One way that I have found to make learning fun and interesting is thr ough the use of whole brain teaching. Whole brain teaching accounts for all learning styles and at the same time manages behaviors in the classroom.Speaking of learning styles, let’s take a look at the unique characteristics of the students in the learner group. Unique Characteristics Within the teacher’s class there is a diverse group of learners. They are made up of various ethnicities from many different backgrounds. First, let’s take a look at the learning styles of the group. About halfway through the school year the teacher was introduced to a new to him style of teaching. That style was called Whole Brain Teaching. The teacher is bringing this up because of the variety of learning styles in his classroom.Those learning styles are kinesthetic, visual, and auditory. When the program was implemented in this teacher’s classroom he surveyed the class to ask about their learning style. It was very informative. Over half of the class said that they learne d best in more than one way. At first the teacher was worried. He thought to himself how am I going to teach to all of these learning styles? I will spend all my free time designing instruction. It really wasn’t that bad. The whole brain teaching method allowed the teacher to reach the students that were kinesthetic learners by incorporating movement in the classroom.The visual learners learned by watching the teacher teach, other students teach, reading, and by watching short video clips incorporated into the lessons. The auditory learners heard the teacher teaching, listening to other students during the turn and teach portion of the lesson, by listening to the oral reading of exerts, and by listening to the video clips incorporated into the lessons. The unique characteristics of the learners means that the teacher must design lessons that incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pieces into the instruction.At times it can be very difficult to design a lesson that reac hes all learning styles. This only takes into account the unique characteristics of a little over three quarters of the class. Almost 15% of the class were/are ECE or Special Education Students. The special education students have a variety of diagnoses that range from Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Other Health Impairment, Learning Disorder, Behavior Disorder, to Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Those are a wide range of diagnoses and they must be taken into account as well.In addition to those diagnoses one student suffers from seizures that can be triggered by flashing lights. What does all of this mean? It means that a great attention to detail must be used by the teacher when designing the instructional unit and the learning environment. The teacher has a binder with all of the Individual Education Plans and a spreadsheet to make instructional design easier. When designing the instructional unit and assessment the teacher must take into acco unt the accommodations that these IEP’s allow.Accommodations As stated above 15% of the class is made up of ECE or Special Education students. These students all have IEP’s that allow for accommodations. The accommodations are as follows: extended time, paraphrasing, the use of a reader, the use of a scribe, prompts and cues, redirection, preferential seating choice, and a special behavior plan. When designing the instruction the teacher accounts for extended time by creating fill in the blank note sheets for all students. This way the students aren’t singled out by others.Paraphrasing is allowed for when the teacher is reading the text or lecturing. Usually it is qualified for the students with a statement that starts out with â€Å"in other words it means this. † The reader is allowed for during the lessons and during assessments. During assessments the teacher reads each question out to the class. When that is not possible a qualified special education profession will take the students that require reader to another location to administer the test. The one student that is allowed a scribe has a special electronic device that he carries with him each day.The lessons are scanned into a document for him to complete on the device. Assessments are handled in the same fashion. The students that are allowed prompts and cues receive them throughout the lesson. Sometimes it is just a matter of walking by and pointing something out to the student. At other times it requires a verbal cue or redirection. Two students have IEPs that allow for preferential seating because they have very poor eyesight. At the beginning of the school year I asked the two students in private which seat they would prefer in the front row.Those two students pointed out their seats and have been in them ever since. When the lesson or classroom is moved around these students get preferential seating. One student has a special behavior plan. He is a very smart student . This student only has an IEP because his disruptive behavior sometimes requires removal from the stimulus of the class. All students that are allowed accommodations based on their IEPs receive them. Performance Context The performance context in which the students are expected to use the new skills and knowledge has several locations.Based on the real world instructional goal the students will go be able to go out into the city and do certain tasks but for the class the students will practice these in a safe and controlled environment. For example, one of the goals discusses being able to read a map and give directions to from Point A to Point B. Before this will be applied in the real world students will apply it in the classroom. Am I saying that all the students are going to go give someone directions or ride the bus home? No, what I am saying is that at the completion of the instructional unit the student will be prepared to do these tasks if needed.The teacher has an instruct ional lesson that involves the students using only a map and or atlas to route a family vacation to another state. Through demonstration of using the atlas to correctly route a family vacation the students will have simulated part of the real world goals in a controlled environment. In light of the fact that many students use public transportation to get to and from school the teacher has designed a lesson that again allows the students to practice this real world activity in a safe and controlled environment.For that lesson all the students will have a copy of the Transit Authority of the River City, the city bus company, TARC for short’s routes. The assignment requires the students to examine the bus routes and correctly list the buses that they will need to ride to get from Conway Middle School to their house. When the students complete this assignment they will also have to account for the bus schedule and determine what time to leave, how long they will be at each bus st op, and the amount of time it will take them to get from school to home.One of the performance contexts is in the current classroom and future classrooms. What I mean by this is that after the successful completion of the unit the students will have better map skills that can be applied in this social studies classroom and in other classrooms both in the present and the future. Through a thorough learner analysis the teacher is better prepared to design the unit of instruction to meet the needs of all of his students and prepare them to be successful.