Why I Selected a Career Path as a Special Education Teacher Essay Example for Free

Why I Selected a Career Path as a Special Education Teacher Essay With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 and revisions of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools have implemented the pre-referral process encouraging individual based level of education for a particular student. Historically, before recent updates to state and federal special education guidelines, students typically received special attention to their specific needs through parent conferences, generic observations, a few general intervention techniques, psychological evaluation, or simply a review of report cards, social records. Since the implementation of IDEA, students are now receiving proactive approaches to match his or her level of need. Two such approaches of evaluating individual students are Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and Response to Intervention (RTI). Both PBS and RTI are structured on a different model, but both have the same goals. Each intervention approach takes into account components and accounts for critical universal factors that target a specific individual, group, or level. These two models offer a range of interventions that are scientifically applied to a student, based on the student’s level of needs through previous monitoring in the classroom. Response to Intervention (RTI) is defined as â€Å"the practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and applying child response data to important educational decisions† (Batsche et al. , 2006). RTI has emerged as the more popular of the two intervention model’s and has been accepted by most schools in the United States, as the new way of thinking about early intervention and identifying a child’s educational disability. The RTI approach considers the application of an individual student’s difficulties in schools by evaluating student’s environment and then provides intervention as soon as the student shows signs difficulty, lack of focus, or academic problems. The goal of RTI is to ensure all students receive the highest quality of education and instruction and reduce any possible false referrals to unnecessary classes, or programs. RTI has a three tier model for also eliminating unqualified teachers as a reason for a student’s lack of performance, or grades. For example in, tier I of the three modeled tier, teachers are required to implement different teaching techniques in order to gauge a student’s performance and focus toward learning. This form of teaching is a method only most qualified teachers can provide in the RTI process. Tier one is described as a universal assessment using formal and informal instructional techniques. Tier two targets students that have not made progress in a given amount of time and are monitored frequently. These students are considered as having some academic weakness. Tier three is more of an intensive intervention and for students that do not respond to instruction form tier two. Tier three students may be eligible for special education classes and programs. When a student is evaluated and qualifies for tier three, the students will be specially monitored and eventually reviewed for receiving an individual educational program (IEP). Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS), is based more on a model of how to solve inappropriate behavior and prevent that behavior through teaching and reinforcing appropriate behaviors. â€Å"Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) is a process for creating school environments that are more predictable and effective for achieving academic and social goals. For some schools, PBIS will enhance their current systems and practices, for others it will radically change the culture for the better† (www. cms. k12. nc. us). Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a systemic approach to proactive, school-wide behavior based on a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. â€Å"The concept of PBIS has been researched in education for approximately 15 years† (www. cms. k12. nc. us) and has been implemented successfully in thousands of schools in over 40 states. PBIS applies evidence-based programs, practices and strategies for all students to increase academic performance, improve safety, decrease problem behavior, and establish a positive school culture. Schools implementing PBIS build on existing strengths, complementing and organizing current programming and strategies. The PBIS model had resulted in dramatic reductions in disciplinary interventions and increases in academic achievement. Data-based decision making is a hallmark of PBIS and is a scientific approach to the pre-referral process to special education. There are many ways to define, or explain the concepts of PBIS and RTI, but each provides a specific three tiered pre-referral process to special education that will enhance the quality of life for students participating in these interventions. Whichever intervention a student is placed, he, or she should receive a higher quality education and instruction. Elements common in these models indicate a system of intervention based on a student’s performance that will indicated whether there is a legitimate learning disability, not just the need for additional instruction for no reason. References RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION. (2006). In Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from: http:library. gcu. edu:2048/login? qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. cred oreference.com/entry/ wileyse/response_to_intervention CPI Educate. Empower. Enrich. (2012). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from: http://www. crisisprevention. com/Resources/Knowledge-Base/Positive-Behavior-Support SEDL Advancing research, improving education (2012). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from : http://www. sedl. org/pubs/sedl-letter/v19n02/rti. html CMS Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. (2011). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from: http://www. cms. k12. nc. us/cmsdepartments/PBIS/Pages/default. aspx Response to Intervention (2012). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from: http://www. nasponline. org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/rtiprimer. pdf.

California Gold Rush Essay -- American History

The California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush was not all about Americans being happy and rich because of the discovery of gold. Indians, Hispanics, African Americans and Chinese all went through some sort of struggle or problem during the Gold Rush period. Not only did men go through rough times but so did some women. The California Gold Rush was a whole different world within California. Gold turned everyone into people they were not. In 1847, an Indian scout brought Mr. James Marshall to Maidu. Maidu was a village of Koloma. There, the first nugget was discovered where James Marshall built a sawmill. The sawmill was located along the American River. Some people say the first Gold Nugget was found by Indian Jim, whom worked for James Marshall to dig a channel to power the sawmill. However, James Marshall received the credit. Indians were famous for their invention in 1849 of the "Long Tom," also known as a box which caught gold. Although the Indians worked very hard for John Sutter whom was James Marshall's boss, Indians suffered tremendously. Gold Fever was a common disease which Indians died from in Northern California. Indians also died from violence and starvation. When Indians found gold nuggets, they would trade the nuggets for clothes, blankets or food for their families. It wasn't the money they wanted. It was the supplies they needed. For a while the Indians were doing well until the year of 1850 which California was now their jail. Because of the changes the whites were making, there was so much poverty for Indians around this time. Families were so poor Indian women decided to prostitute themselves. I think this is one of the most horrible things anyone can do to degrade themselv... ...erior and controlling about. A lot of people died from trying to survive in a free country because of the way they looked or the color of their skin. Lives were always in danger either way you looked at it. Now days people do have to go through some discrimination, racial problems or struggles such as being poor. We do not fight over land, we fight for each other or for money. Money is probably the only thing everyone will always cherish because money can help you do anything now. References Minorities During the Gold Rush. (2000). Retrieved October 18, 2005 From http://www.LearnCalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=1933@pagetype=content The Story of California From the Earliest Days to the Present. Henry K. Norton. 7th ed. Chicago, A.C. McClure & Co., 1924. Chapter XXIV, pp. 283-296 James J. Rawls, and Walton Bean. California. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002

Emotional Memory Essay

Emotional memory pertains to an individual’s recollection of incidents that have occurred in the past. The mechanism behind such strong retention is mainly based on the emotions that are associated with that particular event, resulting in a increased level of attention that facilitates encoding of the event in the memory of an individual. Emotional memory is also involved in ruminations of the occurrence, regardless of the length of time that has already passed away since the actual event. This kind of memory can be distinguished from other neurobiological concepts of memory because its retention is very strong due to the influence of emotions, which technically magnifies details of the incident. Research has shown that emotional memory is imprinted in the cortical region of the brain. This description is supported by observations that several neural activities occur in the cortex, thus facilitating memory retention. Several studies have indicated that emotional memory involves two major processes, namely encoding and post-encoding. The first process of encoding involves the heightened level of attention of an individual during the actual event, while post-encoding pertains to the consolidation of the details of the event after the actual incident, coupled with enhancement that is triggered by the emotions that were set off at that time. One prime example of an emotional memory is the vivid recall of an accident that is associated with physical injury and blood. Regardless of the length of time that the incident has occurred, the individual who was involved in the accident is still capable of remembering the accident even after several years. One complication of emotional memory is that an individual finds it difficult to dissociate his emotions with regards to a particular incident. It is thus extremely hard for an individual to go back to the site of an accident if this person almost died at that time. It has been suggested that evolution also plays a role in emotional memory, wherein the brain of human beings has acquired the capacity to retain details of an event in order to survive that particular incident. It may thus be possible that through fear, early primates and other higher mammals may have learned to stay away from predators and other harmful environmental components in order to survive in the wild. These species may have adapted such modes of memory by being subjected to extreme discomfort or pain that is related to incidents such as toxin exposure or predation and thus their perception for harmful conditions may have been imprinted in their brains and possibly passed on to their offspring. The exact mechanism behind the retrieval of memories associated with a particular incident based on emotional settings still remains elusive up to this date. The unique feature of storage for a prolonged period of time further complicates the pathway and several analysts have attempted to address this question. Neurobiologists have suggested that emotional memory may be act as a complete process unless an individual is able to retrieve the information associated with a specific incident in the past. Storage of information, or encoding, is simply one component of the entire emotional memory pathway yet the retrieval of specific information is essential in determining that the entire process has been completed. It has also been suggested that emotional memory is easier to access over the neutral events, and this is also partly due to the role of amygdala, which influences how the hippocampus functions at such events. In addition to the emotional influence, sleep also sways the brain to remember specific incidents, wherein the amount of sleep can result in a positive or negative condition for memory. According to Sterpenic et al. (2007), memory is influenced by sleep through the imposition of neural correlates. Through the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a comparison of neural connections was examined among subjects who were able to sleep for a sufficient amount of time and those who were deprived of sleep. The investigation was designed towards a stage wherein the subjects were allowed to undergo post-encoding, which is one of the two stages of emotional memory. The investigation showed that subjects who received enough hours of sleep had the ability to remember the positive events that occurred. On the other hand, an interesting observation came from those subjects who were subjected to a particular negative event. They observed that regardless of sufficiency or lack of sleep, the subject participant was able to retain the details of the negative event, most probably through the characteristic emotion that was generated from the negative stimuli. Another observation gathered by neurobiologists regarding emotional memory was that several regions of the brain were responsible in retaining such details and emotions. The two major brains areas involved in emotional memory were the hippocampus and the cortex. Specific regions of the cortex that were responsible for emotional memory included the prefrontal cortex, which is also involved in criminality. It seems that negative emotions, such as that involved in emotional memory, are largely stored in this region of the brain. Moreover, fMRI scanning showed a functional connection between these two regions of the brain and the combinatorial effect of these regions was magnified when the incident is featured with negative stimuli or emotions. It is interesting to know that sleep may also have a selective effect on the memory of an individual. The amygdala was observed to only stimulate the hippocampus for encoding when a negative event has occurred and this happens with or without sleep. On the other hand, a happy incident will only be stored in the hippocampus if an individual receives enough sleep. Such selective storage of details may be largely influenced by emotions during that particular event, and not simply by the amount of time that an individual was able to sleep. Such kinds of research investigations are thus important in the providing a better understanding of how emotions influence an individual’s memory and ultimately, one’s mental condition. It has also been shown that emotions play a major role in the storage of details in the brain. In an investigation that involved manipulation of the context of emotion of subject participants, the activity of the neural networks in the brain was examined. A specific memory tested also allowed the comparison of retrieval capacities of the brain and the research conducted by Smith et al. (2005) showed that the presence of emotions increased the likelihood that an individual will retain the details of the incident. The emotional memory tested in this study showed that the actual area of brain involved in this mechanism is the left side of the amygdala, as well as the left side of the frontotemporal region of the cortex. The study also showed that the right side of the amydala and the frontotemporal cortex was not capable enough of storing details of a specific incident, regardless of its coupling to emotions. It is thus possible that when an individual has damaged the left side of his brain, then it is impossible for him to recall any other details of his past. It should also be understood that cognition is mainly based on memory as well as emotion, yet for several yesterday there were not attempts performed into looking into the finer details of the pathway. In addition, there were also only a few reported regarding the interaction of the amygdala and the cortex and on how these two regions responded to each other’s messages. The advent of high definition imaging technologies such as the magnetic resonance imaging allowed the visualization of internal regions of the brain that were perceived to be unreachable by an other analytical means. References Smith, A. P. , Henson, R. N. , Rugg, M. D. and Dolan, R. J. (2005). Modulation of retrieval processing reflects accuracy of emotional source memory. Learning and Memory, 12, 472–479. Sterpenich, V. , Albouy, G. , Boly, M. , Vandewalle, G. , Darsaud, A. , Balteau, E. , Dang-Vu, T. T. , Desseilles. M. , D’Argembeau, A. , Gais, S. , Rauchs, G. , Schabus, M. , Degueldre, C. , Luxen, A. , Collette, F. , Maquet, P. (2007). Sleep-related hippocampo-cortical interplay during emotional memory recollection. PloS Bi

Fundamental Analysis and Stock Essay - 1589 Words

Chapter 9 The Valuation of Stock TRUE/FALSE T 1. The expected return depends on future dividends and future price appreciation. T 2. The dividend-growth valuation model depends on dividends and the required rate of return. F 3. The dividend‑growth model includes both the current and past years dividends. T 4. If the anticipated return exceeds the required rate of return, the investor should buy the stock. F 5. The dividend‑growth model requires that dividends grow annually at the same rate. F 6. A higher beta decreases the required rate of return. T 7. The required rate of return includes the risk‑free rate and a risk premium. T 8. An increase in the risk‑free rate will tend to decrease†¦show more content†¦weak form of the efficient market hypothesis b. semi‑strong form of the efficient market hypothesis c. strong form of the efficient market hypothesis d. all forms of the efficient market hypothesis d 11. A low price to sales ratio suggests a. the firm is generating cash b. the firm has no earnings c. the stock valuation is too high d. the stock may be undervalued b 12. The price to sales ratio may be a preferred analytical tool if a. the firm is not generating cash b. the firm is not generating earnings c. the P/E ratio is too high d. the dividend-growth model suggests the stock is undervalued c 13. Investors may use P/E ratios and price/sales ratios to value stocks. If this analysis is used, which of the following is desirable? a. a high P/E and a low price/sales ratio b. a high P/E and a high price/sales ratio c. a low P/E and a low price/sales ratio d. a low P/E and a high price/sales ratio c 14. If the ratio of price to book exceeds 1.0, a. the stock is overvalued b. the firms assets are understated c. the price of the stock is greater than the accounting value of the firm d. the accounting value of the firm is greater than the market value of the firm PROBLEMS 1. 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