Differentiation in Special Education Classrooms

Differentiation in Special Education Classrooms Differentiation is the way a teacher prepares instruction to meet the needs of all the children in an inclusive classroom, from the most challenged to the most gifted. Differentiating instruction is not only going to help your special education students fully participate, it will also enrich and improve the experience of the general education students. Everybody wins. A well designed differentiated lesson will include some of the following: A strong visual component, collaborative activities, peer coaching, a multi-sensory approach to presenting information and differentiated assessment based on strengths. A Strong Visual Component Arent digital cameras and online image searches wonderful resources? Children with reading problems have a great deal less difficulty dealing with pictures than symbols. You might even have teams of children work together to gather pictures for instruction, or you might ask Mom to email you  some favorite vacation pictures. Autistic students can benefit from the use of cards to learn sight vocabulary, attributes, safety signs and to evaluate new vocabulary. Collaborative Activities Collaboration will be the mark of a successful leader and employee in the future, so this is a skill all students will need. We also know that children learn best from peers. One of the strongest reasons for inclusion is the fact that working across ability groups pulls up the lower functioning group. You need to take time to teach collaboration, using a fishbowl approach. Have a group of students model the process of collaboration, and then evaluate their performance as a group. As you are teaching a lesson using collaborative teams, spend time evaluating them as a group: Did everyone get a chance to talk? Did everyone participate? If you observe that groups are not functioning well, you may need to move in, stop, and do some coaching. Peer Coaching Its a good idea to create several partners for every child in the class. One method involves 4 pairings in each class a clock face to illustrate: a 12 oclock partner, with a student most like each student in ability (assigned by the teacher,) a 6 oclock partner, who is the opposite level of ability, and 3 and 9 oclock partners of their choosing. Spend time early in the year training your students to work in partnerships. You might try trust walks with your partners, having each child take turns walking their blindfolded partner around the classroom with only spoken directions. Be sure to debrief with your class, and talk about the importance of listening to each other and understanding each others strengths and weaknesses. Be sure you model the kind of positive interpersonal interactions you want to see from kids. Peer coaches can help each other with flashcards, with written assignments, and with collaborative activities. A Multi-Sensory Approach We are way too dependent on print as a way to introduce new information. Some of the children with IEPs may have strengths in unexpected areas: they may be great illustrators, creative builders, and very capable at gathering information visually on the internet. The more sensory avenues you engage as you are introducing new material, the more likely all your students will retain it. Do some tasting with a social studies lesson: How about coconut for a unit on the Pacific, or trying some salsa when you are learning about Mexico? How about movement? You can use a molecule game to teach children what happened when you heat elements. When you turned up the heat (orally, and raising my hand to raise the temperature) they would rush around the room as far apart as possible. When you drop the temperature (and my hand) the students would gather together and move just a little bit, slowly. You can bet every one of those kids remembered what happened when you heat a liquid or gas! Assessment that Builds on Strengths ​ There are lots of ways to assess mastery other than a multiple choice test. Rubrics are one great way to create clear ways for students to show they have mastered the materials. A portfolio may be another way. Rather than asking a student to write, you may ask a student to sort or group pictures according to criteria you have learned, name pictures, or have the students answer questions that help them display knowledge of new materials.

Capital City of Tenochtitlan

Capital City of Tenochtitlan Tenochtitln, located in the heart of what is now Mexico City, was the largest city and capital of the Aztec Empire. Today, Mexico City is still one of the largest cities in the world, despite its unusual setting. It sits on a swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in the Basin of Mexico, a strange place for any  capital, ancient or modern.  Mexico City is ringed by volcanic mountains, including the still-active volcano Popocatà ©petl, and prone to earthquakes, severe flooding, and some of the worst smog on the planet. The story of how the Aztecs selected the location of their capital in such a miserable place is one part legend and another part history.   Although the conquistador Hernn Cortà ©s did his best to dismantle the city, three 16th century maps of Tenochtitlan survive showing us what the city was like. The earliest map is the Nuremberg or Cortes map of 1524, drawn for the conquistador Cortà ©s, possibly by a local resident. The Uppsala Map was drawn about 1550 by an indigenous person or persons; and the Maguey Plan was made about 1558, although scholars are divided about whether the city depicted is Tenochtitlan or another Aztec city. The Uppsala Map is signed by cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz [~1500-1567] who presented the map (with the city spelled as Tenuxititan) to his employer, the Spanish Emperor Carlos V, but scholars do not believe he made the map himself, and it may have been by his students at the Colegio de Santa Cruz at Tenochtitlans sister city Tlatelolco. Legends and Omens Tenochtitln was the home of the immigrant Mexica, which is just one of the names for the Aztec people who founded the city in AD 1325. According to legend, the Mexica were one of seven Chichimeca tribes who came to Tenochtitlan from their fabled city of origin, Aztlan (Place of the Herons). They came because of an omen: the Chichimec god Huitzilopochtli, who took the form of an eagle, was seen perched on a cactus eating a snake. The leaders of the Mexica interpreted this as a sign to move their population to an unpleasant, miry, buggy, island in the middle of a lake; and eventually their military prowess and political abilities turned that island into the central agency for conquest, the Mexica snake swallowing most of Mesoamerica. Aztec Culture and Conquest Tenochtitlan of the 14th and 15th centuries A.D. was excellently suited as a place for the Aztec culture to begin the  conquest of Mesoamerica. Even then, the basin of Mexico was densely occupied, and the island city afforded the Mexica a commanding lead over trade in the basin. In addition, they engaged in a series of alliances both with and against their neighbors; the most successful was the Triple Alliance, who as the Aztec Empire overran major portions of what are now the states of Oaxaca, Morelos, Veracruz, and Puebla. By the time of the Spanish conquest in 1519, Tenochtitln contained around 200,000 people and covered an area of twelve square kilometers (five square miles). The city was crisscrossed by canals, and the edges of the island city were covered with chinampas, floating gardens that enabled local production of food. A huge marketplace served nearly 60,000 people daily, and in the Sacred Precinct of the city were palaces and temples the like of which Hernn Cortà ©s had never seen. Cortà ©s was awed, but it didnt stop him from destroying almost all of the citys buildings during his conquest. A Lavish City Several letters from Cortà ©s to his king Charles V described the city as an island city in the center of a lake. Tenochtitlan was laid out in concentric circles, with a central plaza serving as the ritual precinct and the heart of the Aztec empire. The buildings and pavements of the city all barely rose above the level of the lakes and were grouped into clusters by canals and connected by bridges. A densely forested area- the precursor to Chapultepec park- was an important feature of the island, as was water control. Seventeen major floods have struck the city since 1519, one lasting an astounding five years. During Aztec times, a series of aqueducts led from the surrounding lakes into the city, and numerous  causeways connected Tenochtitlan to the other important city-states in the basin. Motecuhzoma II (also known as  Montezuma) was the final ruler at Tenochtitlan, and his lavish main courtyard covered an area measuring 200x200 meters (about 650x650 feet). The palace included a suite of rooms and an open courtyard; around the main palace complex could be found armories and sweat baths, kitchens, guest rooms, music rooms, horticultural gardens, and game preserves. The remnants of some of these are found in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, although most of the buildings are from later times. Remnants of the Aztec Culture Tenochtitlan fell to Cortes, but only after the bitter and bloody siege of 1520, when the Mexica killed hundreds of conquistadors. Only parts of Tenochtitlan are extant in the city of Mexico; you can get into the ruins of the Templo Mayor, excavated beginning in the 1970s by Matos Moctezuma; and there are ample artifacts at the National Museum of Anthropology (INAH). But if you look hard enough, many other visible aspects of the old Aztec capital are still in place. Street names and place names echo the ancient Nahua city. The Plaza del Volador, for example, was an important location for the Aztec ceremony of the new fire. After 1519, it was transformed first into a place for the Actos de Fe of the Inquisition, then into an arena for bull-fighting, then a market, and finally into the current site of the Supreme Court. Sources Aà ±Ãƒ ³n V. 2012. â€Å"En el lugar de las tunas empedernidas†: Tenochtitlan en las crà ³nicas mestizas. Anales de Literatura Hispanoamericana 41:81-97.Berdan FF. 2014. Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Hill Boone E. 2011. This new world now revealed: Hernn Cortà ©s and the presentation of Mexico to Europe. Word Image 27(1):31-46.Là ³pez JF. 2013. The hydrographic city: Mapping Mexico Citys urban form in relation to its aquatic condition, 1521-1700. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Mundy BE. 2014. Place-Names in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Ethnohistory 61(2):329-355.Pennock CD. 2011. ‘A Remarkably Patterned Life’: Domestic and Public in the Aztec Household City. Gender History 23(3):528-546.Terraciano K. 2010. Three Texts in One: Book XII of the Florentine Codex. Ethnohistory 57(1):51-72.

Choosing first topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Choosing first topic - Essay Example 295). Forest lands, adjacent to small scale farming fields, fall victim to deforestation, during the course of expansion of agriculture. As such, deforestation has principally been the outcome of small scale agricultural activity that had been undertaken along the edges of the forest. Moreover, infrastructure development, such as the construction of roads, has resulted in the widespread felling of trees, in the areas abutting forest land . At present, a few of the smaller countries of Southeast Asia, like Malaysia, have been left with negligible forest area. This dismal state of affairs is on account of the unabated deforestation conducted in these countries (Carr, 2004, p. 296). In addition to the expansion of small scale agriculture, infrastructure development, like the construction of roads and other activities, leads to deforestation. The 1990s were witness to the unprecedented clearing of forests in Asia. This was occasioned by enhanced demand for timber and the continual migrat ion of rice farmers, into what had previously been remote regions. These regions became accessible, due to the increased felling of trees .Latin America, with its abundance of closed tropical forests, has been host to most of the research that has been conducted on tropical deforestation. ... Furthermore, deforestation is also the outcome of economic considerations, like low domestic costs, increase in the price of products and the influence on ecology by industrial and urban centers in remote locations. The latter has been seen to be the cause behind deforestation, in a third of the cases (Geist & Lambin, 2002, p. 146). Hence, Market forces have a tangible effect on furthering deforestation. Moreover, deforestation is the outcome of a necessity to generate foreign exchange earnings at the national level, and this has been seen to be prevalent in 25% of the cases. On the whole, there is scant variation in the elements that pertain to economic development in a burgeoning cash economy. As a consequence, these features promote deforestation, in a very powerful manner (Geist & Lambin, 2002, p. 146). As such, economic reasons also contribute to deforestation in tropical regions. Consequently, expansion of agriculture has been deemed to be the most important cause of deforestat ion, and this has been estimated at 96% of the instances. Some of the facets of such expansion are the conversion of forests, on a permanent basis, to land on which cattle graze, shifting cultivation is practiced and agriculture is colonized. In addition, the tropical rainforests of Asia are subjected to considerable commercial wood extraction (Geist & Lambin, 2002, p. 145). In Asia, commercial wood extraction has also been identified as a major element, in bringing about deforestation. The World Bank’s 1989 World Development Report disclosed that deforestation was rampant in fourteen developing countries of South America, Africa, and South-East Asia. This report also revealed that more than 250,000 hectares of tropical forests were being destroyed annually, in these

Sports Science - Journal Article Critique Essay

Sports Science - Journal Article Critique - Essay Example lete or soccer player, very few studies have thoroughly investigated the important correlation between a players maximal strength and his or her potential sprint or vertical jumping performance. A correlational quantitative research approach was employed in the study. Based on their findings, the authors observed that maximal strength in squat positions was a critical determinant of both the sprint performance and vertical jumping height in high level athletes and soccer players. They further noted that high squat strength did not affect the maximal oxygen consumption of the players (Wisloff et al. 2004, p.288). The conclusion was that Elite athletes and soccer players should always focus to improving their maximal strength during training with particular emphasis on maximal movement mobilization in order to enhance their sprint and vertical jump performance. This journal article critique seeks to identify and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the article based on my personal judgment of the general aspects of the article, accuracy of the findings as well as its relevance to my field of practice. Written by the authors Wisloff, U., Castagna, C., Helgerud, J., Jones, R. and Jan Hoff, the article â€Å"Strong correlation of squat strength with vertical jump height and sprint performance among elite soccer players† sought to investigate the likely relationship between an athlete’s maximum strength and his potential sprint or jumping performance. The article is fairly well written in terms of the general aspects of their article including the appropriateness of the title, abstract, statement of the problem, data collection and analyses as well as the dissemination of the results. For example, the title of the article is not only appropriate and relevant to the concept under study but also contains the key words related to the study topic. The abstract is also fairly well written both in terms of its succinct overview of the main aspects of the

Distance Education Essay Example for Free

Distance Education Essay We normally take our studies in a structured establishment called classroom located a place called school. Every day, we wake up early, leave our homes, pay for transportation fees and finally reach to our second home, the classroom. As we welcome ourselves in Mindanao State University, we are lucky to meet different kinds of people from different kinds of places. People from Glan, Tacurong, Marbel and all over Mindanao are your schoolmates and classmates. You share experiences with them, telling stories about their place that makes you as if you were once there. But, what if there are some people who want to study but for some reasons, they cannot go to school, will they be able to study despite their situations they face? Our world is constantly changing and getting more complicated, that is why human beings formulated new innovations and techniques regarding their educational careers. Distance Learning or Distant education is a mode of delivering education and instruction, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional setting such as a classroom. It is not a face to face interaction just like we do in schools. There is a quite large distance and time between the learner and the teacher. Typical students who enroll at Distant Education courses are people who are too busy in their careers that they have no time to spend in school. Celebrities like Anne Curtis are a student of Distant Education. Or you can be a student with physical disabilities that you find it hard to go to school. Or maybe the courses offered are available only in far places. There are many possible students of this kind of education. There are many modes of communication in distant learning. It can through the telephone, letter or the most common type, the internet where you can see each other and contact directly to one another. There are many instructional materials can be used. It can be an audio tool, video, a print, or a softcopy data. There are some advantages of this type of education. First, it’s potential. The opportunities for distance education have exploded along with increased use of the Internet. The original distance education programs used print materials, but the majority of current programs use online software and programs to replicate a classroom setting. Many degrees are available through distance programs, including high school, college and post-graduate diplomas. There are now distance education options for nearly every career choice, from nursing to accounting. It is also flexible. Distance education provides opportunities for people who may have trouble attending a traditional institution such as stay-at-home moms, people working full time or members of the military. Many online educational programs allow you to work at your own pace, so you can fit your education into your schedule. Also, the cost of distant education is cheaper. In many cases distance education can be considerably cheaper than attending a traditional college. Not only are the classes cheaper, but you can learn from the comfort of your own home and not have to pay for room and board or transportation. On the other hand, Distant Learning losses interaction with the other students is one of the advantages of it. Distant education is commonly one student in one teacher so only 2 of you are interacting with one another, or sometimes, communication is only one way where only the teacher is active in communicating. It is not easy to motivate if you are the only one or the only peer in the learning ground. It is also self-paced so it is less motivating. It is quite amazing that humans are able to deliberate this mode of learning. It sounded like cool to me in a sense that it involves or let’s say it is dependent of technology which is an asset when it comes to employment. It gives us an idea that education is truly for all for those who are willing to learn busy schedule or disabled, still allot their time and effort for studying. In part of the teachers, it will open new ways of learning and of course, employment and income will increase. This education will be in- demand especially to foreigners who want to speak in English and many more. When my professor once introduced distant education in the class, I was quite convinced to study in that way. If I learn the mechanics of Distant learning, I someday may become a teacher of distant education. I want to help students who are especially handicapped or something. It is a proof that education will be non-discriminating, and I hope this type of learning will continue to grow as they produce competent students.

Zapatistas :: Essays Papers

Zapatistas For the past several years, there has been an on going movement to liberate the large population of farmers in Mexico. These farmers are fighting to win back their pro-claimed rights to their farm land. The farmers operate within an organization known as the Zapatistas. In present time the Zapatistas, with the help of the media especially the filmmaker Nettie Wild, have gained global attention towards their struggle for human rights. Many efforts have been made by outside authorities like the US, to assist the human rights movement in Mexico. The movement so far has resulted in many political killings of the Zapatistas members. Mexico’s government has been trying to rid themselves of the â€Å"chaos† the Zapatistas have stirred up within the country. The Mexican government has forced over 17,000 people into refuge because they have not allowed them back onto their farm land. Efforts continue on behalf of the Zapatistas and many outside authorities to bring peace to this area of Chiapas. I believe that the Zapatistas have made their fight a global issue. The art of Erica Chappuis displays a culture of people who are in hiding and trying to survive with the little resources they have. The art displays Zapatistas with coffee plants in which they are selling, wearing their trademark bandana covering their faces. This picture makes a strong argument for what they are fighting for. If Mexico allowed them back onto their land they would still be cultivating coffee, but would not have to cover their faces. The covering of the Zapatistas faces exploits the human rights struggle that they are currently fighting. The Zapatistas movement is a â€Å"post modern revolution†. In the world today the emphasis on human rights is strong, thus this is why the Zapatistas have gained so much attention. I believe that the Zapatistas are slowly succeeding in their revolution because of the mass attention they are receiving. As more and more people become aware of the horrible human rights struggle these people are undergoing, I believe their mission will become more and more successful. The more people who know about the struggle will then in turn put more pressure on the Mexican government to liberate these people. I believe that the Zapatista movement is worthy of support. No people in the world should be forced off their land and into hiding.

King’s major course of action Essay

King’s major course of action throughout all of his work was nonviolence, and he was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize for his work. The war itself was a betrayal of America’s moral obligation, heightened by media portrayals of what is just for our nation. King expressed that our spirit continues to diminish as we diminish humanity across the world. His motive was for our populace to stop thinking in terms of our nations as a singular body, but to think of our nation as a model â€Å"that embraces the brotherhood of man† (King, 1967). He required Americans to see the Vietnamese as our brothers and sisters and gave insight on the experience of the Vietnamese as people not enemies. King spoke of our complete funding handed to the French so they may advance in control of these people. â€Å"He proclaimed that America is a victim of Western arrogance for rejecting the revolutionary government seeking self determination in Vietnam† (Spence, 2009). King told us their story of devastation. He described our destruction of their resources. War efforts contributed to the loss of crops, tainted water supplies, and the demoralized the Vietnamese people in their efforts for survival during a time of great suffering (Spence, 2009). King made it clear that the destruction of the Vietnamese culture was intertwined with the destruction of our own culture. He proclaimed that our troops were sent on a false precedence that only furthered agendas of our nations wealthy. Their agenda led our oppressed solders to death as they killed those oppressed in Vietnam. The propaganda in acquiring a watch dog status in the eyes of other nations mocked our pursuit. Our leaders could not articulate our purpose for being in Vietnam. A Great Buddhist leader commented that America was no longer revolutionary and democratic but the image of violence and militarism (Spence, 2009). For over 5,000 years we have built empires and maintained a rich get richer mentality. We have seen those with wealth as models to obtain our own successes. We have left those who have needed aid the most behind to further our own successes. We have only risen to occasion of hope when we reap the highest benefits. The United States is trapped in an Imperial  Consciousness: those not for our agenda are against our agenda. This way of thinking is dangerous and leads to Moral Autism. †Imperial Consciousness may have the social intelligence to recognize it is easiest to steal from those who trust you, but lack the moral capacity to recognize that to do so constitutes a wrong in itself and destroys the fabric of trust essential to healthy social relationships† (Korten, 2006). Beyond Vietnam lays the ground work for this school of thought not in a way that we should adopt it, but the urgency to abandon it. King’s speech captures the momentum needed for our nation to mature. King sought for our nation’s people to be true examples of revolutionaries. He demanded we abolish thoughts that privilege is earned and realize it is inherent. He asked we believe in people most disadvantaged and stop tucking them under our nation’s blanket of shame. The inherent shame is our own complacency in these matters and our brain washed minds that comply with the thinking that we do not matter or have the capacity to understand the complexity of decisions made by our own power structures. It can be said that King’s message was to end the war, and it was. He projected ending the war was essential and gave a list on how.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"End to all bombing in Vietnam; unilateral cease fire; prevention of battle grounds in Southeast Asia; recognition of the National Liberation Front; a set date from removal of all foreign forces from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Convention; granting of asylum to Vietnamese suffering persecution; and the payment of reparations for harm done† (Spence, 2006). He also described what could be done at home, stating we should continue to protest and stay active within our churches. While his message was to end the war, it was a stepping stone in the right direction for our nation’s obligation, honor and integrity. Layer by layer embedded in his speech King ask Americans to make a worthy change. As our nation evolves and advances in wealth, industry, technology, the market and free trade with other nations we remain stagnant  in social and cultural advances. We have lost sight in the power of our people and all people. We have without question remained faithful children of our empirical society only to watch our brothers and sisters fall, and when they fall we march to the guise that it is somehow their fault and their fault alone. We continually fault each in our race to the top. King’s message is not a memo to the individual but a mass informant. We must change our institutions and how they support us. We must stop looking at our nonprofit organizations as less worthy because they are stated as not making a profit in our capitalist society. We must stop losing sight of our causes to obtain grant monies that slightly sway our causes. We must advance people in areas of expertise that are directly connected to the people in which they service. We must put check marks on markets and free trade. We must care about the woman in the third world nation that makes our clothes or computer parts. We must demand that people are our highest commodity and put above a precedent of all things material. We must look at all people as our people. Beyond Vietnam is a speech that should be resurfaced again and again. Martin Luther King’s words take you to the past and reflect the present in a way that sends chills through your soul, and if you’re a person of any feeling and some intellect, it will heighten your very being. Be prepared for a journey before you engage, for such insight can cause anger, regret, and shame. Do not cling to these emotions. MLK has given each and everyone exposed to his message, a gift. He presents us with precision hidden by our meticulously wrapped ideology. One would think as a nation we would share his plea for humanity, instead we rewrap adding layer upon layer. We bury his endowment only to become systematic. Together we are robotic, uniformed servants of the power elite.

Andrew Lang

The world revolves around currency, in reality we all use money in our everyday life we are making it, spending it or saving it. Andrew Lang wrote â€Å"Ballade of Wordly Wealth,† through repetition in this poem we learn about the people in the 1800s and 1900s and what they thought about money. What money can buy a person is the idea of the first six lines of each stanza. But the thought of what money cannot buy is always revisited. At the end of each stanza a refrain is made â€Å"Youth, and health, and Paradise† The theme of this poem is money, so of course the word money is on repeat.The tone is didactic, â€Å"Money moves the merchants all† and â€Å"Money maketh Evil show† saying money is the start is a parallel construction. Pattern of sound is found also because there are a lot of words that end with the â€Å"th† sound examples of these words: taketh, maketh, truth, youth, health and gaineth. â€Å"Money taketh town and wall, Fort and ramp without a blow† says that with a little trickery a war could be won. â€Å"Money moves the merchants all, While the tides shall ebb and flow† because airplanes were not invented at this time the only way of travel for people was by boats.This line is saying that money will convince merchants to explore the sea because there is more money out there. â€Å"Money maketh Evil show Like the good, and truth like lies† this line is saying that to be wealthy people do evil things but think they are good. In reality people are just being greedy. â€Å"These alone can ne'er bestow Youth, and health, and paradise† this line is saying that money doesn’t last forever and won’t help you always: example: when you go to heaven. Money maketh festival, Wine she buys, and beds can strow† this line is saying that â€Å"she† (money) can buy important things or not so important things. â€Å"Marches Soldiers to and fro† refer to the military sa ying how love can be bought with money.â€Å"Gaineth ladies with sweet eyes: These alone can ne’er bestow† this line is stating that any man with money can get any woman he wanted if he had money that there love could be bought. †Money wins the priest his stall, Money mitres buys, I trow† this line is saying that with money any man can buy power. Red hats for the Cardinal, Abbeys for the novice low† this line is saying that without experience you can have the title for anything you want with money. â€Å"Money maketh sin as snow, Place of penitence supplies† this line is saying that even churches use money for the wrong things. Andrew Lang’s poem is a ballad a three stanza, eight line poem. Full of descriptive words to create tone, mood and feeling about how money has taken over and could be evil, instead of good.

Vantage Point Essays - English-language Films, Vantage Point

Vantage Point Essays - English-language Films, Vantage Point Vantage Point Vantage Point General introduction of this movie (director background etc) Pete Travis is an English television and film director. His work includes The Jury, Cold Feet and Omagh for television and Vantage Point, Endgame and Dredd. The president of the U. S. Declares is in Salamanca, Italy, to give his oversight within the community. We see a plain-clothes cop, his sweetheart with another man, a mother and child, a U. S. vacationer with a digital camera, and medical personnel who recently came back from medical leave. Moments following a photo shoot, the president falls; a few moments later, we listen to a remote blast, then a blast goes off in the rectangle. Those moments are retold, several times, focusing different characters' activities. Progressively, we discover who's behind the story. Summary of the movie (plot) Colombia Pictures' action-packed thriller Vantage Point presents eight unknown people with eight different opinions try to discover the truth behind a killing attempt on the chief executive of the United States. Johnson Barnes and London Taylor are two Secret Service agents allocated to protect President Ashley at a milestone peak on the international war on terror. When President Ashley is shot minutes after his appearance in Italy, disorder arises and different lives conflict in the search for the killer. In the audience is Howard Lewis, an America vacationer who believes he has taken the shooting on his video camera while recording the occasion for his family. Reviews The governmental thriller Vantage Point is flat-out one of the more interesting and unique gut-busters that the show biz industry has created. It is all action, but it is never senseless and it is completely outstanding with excitement phases all the way. Its assumption has the United States President (William Hurt) showing at a milestone anti-terrorism peak conference in Salamanca, Italy, that becomes a catastrophe when he is gunned down by a sniper from an old city block in the town's primary plaza. In a captivating starting series worth David Frankenheimer at his protagonist, this killing and two blast explosions that further convert the field into disorder is seen from the viewpoint of the movie director (Sigourney Weaver) of a TV information group protecting the conference. After completion, the film rewinds 15 minutes and then repeats the same activities from the viewpoint of an anxious Key Support broker (Dennis Quaid) who may or may not have glimpsed the killer just minutes before the capturing. Then the film rewinds again and reveals the series from the viewpoint of a Language cop (Edgar Ramirez) who steps onto the presidential stage after the killing, is pursued by the Quaid personality and may or may not be engaged in the fringe movement. The film rewinds yet again and reveals the 15 relevant minutes from the viewpoint of the President and then yet again from the viewpoint of an U. S. states vacationer (Forest Whitaker) who unintentionally records key details involved in the killing. With each of the viewpoints, the movie is efficiently and enticingly improved, and then the film segues into an impressive and incredibly complicated pursuit series that reduces between all the members and choices a few new ones in the process as it pushes to an intense summary. Conclusion As seen in this article, the movie Vantage Point was created through mastery of the film world by well known directors and acted by renowned actors. With no individual larger-than-life being the main theme, Vantage Point keeps its audience captivated by the motion pictures, being a tale packed with a few too many surpasses (including a subplot with acting professional Matthew Fox that's needless and a little preposterous).

Multivariate Econometrics Problems and Excel

Multivariate Econometrics Problems and Excel Most economics departments require second or third year undergraduate students to complete an econometrics project and write a paper on their findings. Years later I remember how stressful my project was, so Ive decided to write the guide to econometrics term papers that I wish I had when I was a student. I hope that this will prevent you from spending many long nights in front of a computer. For this econometrics project, Im going to calculate the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) in the United States. (If youre more interested in doing a simpler, univariate econometrics project, please see How to Do a Painless Econometrics Project) The marginal propensity to consume is defined as how much an agent spends when given an extra dollar from an additional dollars personal disposable income. My theory is that consumers keep a set amount of money aside for investment and emergency, and spend the rest of their disposable income on consumption goods. Therefore my null hypothesis is that MPC 1. Im also interested in seeing how changes in the prime rate influence consumption habits. Many believe that when the interest rate rises, people save more and spend less. If this is true, we should expect that there is a negative relationship between interest rates such as the prime rate, and consumption. My theory, however, is that there is no link between the two, so all else being equal, we should see no change in the level of the propensity to consume as the prime rate changes. In order to test my hypotheses, I need to create an econometric model. First well define our variables: Yt is the nominal personal consumption expenditure (PCE) in the United States.X2t is the nominal disposable after-tax income in the United States. X3t is the prime rate in the U.S. Our model is then: Yt b1 b2X2t b3X3t Where b 1, b 2, and b 3 are the parameters we will be estimating via linear regression. These parameters represent the following: b1 is the amount the level of PCE when nominal disposable after-tax income (X2t) and the prime rate (X3t) are both zero. We do not have a theory about what the true value of this parameter should be, as it holds little interest to us.b2 represents the amount PCE rises when the nominal disposable after-tax income in the United States rises by a dollar. Note that this is the definition of the marginal propensity to consume (MPC), so b2 is simply the MPC. Our theory is that MPC 1, so our null hypothesis for this parameter is b2 1.b3 represents the amount PCE rises when the prime rate increases by a full percent (say from 4% to 5% or from 8% to 9%). Our theory is that changes in the prime rate do not influence consumption habits, so our null hypothesis for this parameter is b2 0. So we will be comparing the results of our model: Yt b1 b2X2t b3X3t to the hypothesized relationship: Yt b1 1*X2t 0*X3t where b 1 is a value that does not particularly interest us. To be able to estimate our parameters, well need data. The excel spreadsheet Personal Consumption Expenditure contains quarterly American Data from the 1st quarter of 1959 to the 3rd quarter of 2003. Â  All data comes from FRED II - The St. Louis Federal Reserve. Its the first place you should go for U.S. economic data. After youve downloaded the data, open up Excel, and load the file called aboutpce (full name aboutpce.xls) in whatever directory you saved it in. Then continue to the next page. Be Sure to Continue to Page 2 of How to Do a Painless Multivariate Econometrics Project Weve got the data file open we can start to look for what we need. First we need to locate our Y variable. Recall that Yt is the nominal personal consumption expenditure (PCE). Quickly scanning our data we see that our PCE data is in Column C, labeled PCE (Y). By looking at columns A and B, we see that our PCE data runs from the 1st quarter of 1959 to the final quarter of 2003 in cells C24-C180. You should write these facts down as youll need them later. Now we need to find our X variables. In our model we only have two X variables, which are X2t, disposable personal income (DPI) and X3t, the prime rate. We see that DPI is in the column marked DPI (X2) which is in Column D, in cells D2-D180 and the prime rate is in the column marked Prime Rate (X3) which is in column E, in cells E2-E180. Weve identified the data we need. We can now compute the regression coefficients using Excel. If you are not restricted to using a particular program for your regression analysis, Id recommend using Excel. Excel is missing a lot of the features a lot of the more sophisticated econometrics packages use, but for doing a simple linear regression it is a useful tool. Youre much more likely to use Excel when you enter the real world than you are to use an econometrics package, so being proficient in Excel is a useful skill to have. Our Yt data is in cells E2-E180 and our Xt data (X2t and X3t collectively) is in cells D2-E180. When doing a linear regression we need every Yt to have exactly one associated X2t and one associated X3t and so on. In this case we have the same number of Yt, X2t, and X3t entries, so were good to go. Now that we have located the data we need, we can calculate our regression coefficients (our b1, b2, and b3). Before continuing you should save your work under a different filename (I chose myproj.xls) so if we need to start over we have our original data. Now that youve downloaded the data and opened Excel, we can go onto the next section. In the next section we calculate our regression coefficients. Be Sure to Continue to Page 3 of How to Do a Painless Multivariate Econometrics Project Now onto the data analysis. Go to the Tools menu on the top of the screen. Then find Data Analysis in the Tools menu. If Data Analysis is not there, then youll have to install it. To install the Data Analysis Toolpack see these instructions. You cannot do regression analysis without the data analysis toolpack installed. Once youve selected Data Analysis from the Tools menu youll see a menu of choices such as Covariance and F-Test Two-Sample for Variances. On that menu select Regression. The items are in alphabetical order, so they shouldnt be too hard to find. Once there, youll see a form that looks like this. Now we need to fill this form in. (The data in the background of this screenshot will differ from your data) The first field well need to fill in is the Input Y Range. This is our PCE in cells C2-C180. You can choose these cells by typing $C$2:$C$180 into the little white box next to Input Y Range or by clicking on the icon next to that white box then selecting those cells with your mouse. The second field well need to fill in is the Input X Range. Here we will be inputting both of our X variables, DPI and the Prime Rate. Our DPI data is in cells D2-D180 and our prime rate data is in cells E2-E180, so we need the data from the rectangle of cells D2-E180. You can choose these cells by typing $D$2:$E$180 into the little white box next to Input X Range or by clicking on the icon next to that white box then selecting those cells with your mouse. Lastly well have to name the page our regression results will go on. Make sure you have New Worksheet Ply selected, and in the white field beside it type in a name like Regression. When thats completed, click on OK. You should now see a tab on the bottom of your screen called Regression (or whatever you named it) and some regression results. Now youve got all the results you need for analysis, including R Square, coefficients, standard errors, etc. We were looking to estimate our intercept coefficient b1 and our X coefficients b2, b3. Our intercept coefficient b1 is located in the row named Intercept and in the column named Coefficients. Make sure you jot these figures down, including the number of observations, (or print them out) as you will need them for analysis. Our intercept coefficient b1 is located in the row named Intercept and in the column named Coefficients. Our first slope coefficient b2 is located in the row named X Variable 1 and in the column named Coefficients. Our second slope coefficient b3 is located in the row named X Variable 2 and in the column named Coefficients The final table generated by your regression should be similar to the one given at the bottom of this article. Now youve got the regression results you need, youll need to analyze them for your term paper. We will see how to do that in next weeks article. If you have a question youd like answered please use the feedback form. Regression Results Observations Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Intercept X Variable 1 X Variable 2 -13.71941.4186-9.67080.0000-16.5192-10.9197

The main differences between conventional bank and Islamic bank Essay

The main differences between conventional bank and Islamic bank - Essay Example Even this is unchanged in the asset category. All assets including fixed assets and other assets are summed accordingly after that. The total assets are written below. Doha Bank had an additional investment in an associate company which Qatar Islamic Bank did not have. In the liabilities section, again there are a lot of similarities. Net liabilities at the end of 2010 for Doha Bank stand at 39, 319, 885 Qattari Riyals while those of Qatar Islamic Bank stand at 20, 979, 710 Qatari Riyals. Qatar bank had liabilities due from Sukook financing activities which are nowhere to be seen in the Doha Bank balance sheet statement. Total shareholder’s equity of Qatar Islamic Bank stood at 9,124, 004 while that of Doha Bank stood at 6,043, 493 (All amount in Qatarri Riyals) . There is hedge reserve in Doha Bank while Qatar Bank did not have any hedge reserve. Income statement: Net income for Qatar Islamic Bank as of year ending December 2010 is specified as 1,833,139 while that of Doha Ba nk is 1,054,245 (all figures stated in QR). The way in which income is calculated is very different for both banks. In Doha Bank net operating income is calculated as the sum of net income from insurance activities, net Islamic financing and investing income, net fees and net commission income. In Qatar Islamic bank the above categories are not used.