Answer the followng questons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Answer the followng questons - Essay Example itudes, and different, sometimes even clashing, conceptualizations (2).† To analyze real life data, I would initially seek to identify the points that contrast with my own ideas and opinions of the subject. Once I had identified the main points of the real life data, I would write out, in depth, the differences between those main points and my own original beliefs. 2. If 1st language acquisition is so straightforward, why is learning a 2nd language so difficult? What are the main barriers of second language learners? (In Cyprus what are the barriers for the Greek/Cypriot in learning the Turkish language and for the Turkish/Cypriot in learning the Greek language? (500 words) Bilingualism has come to be understood as being fluent at the native level of two languages. When learning about the acquisition of a second language, we may read, â€Å"Most SLA researchers see bilingualism as being the end result of learning a language, not the process itself, and see the term as referring to native-like fluency, which second language learners rarely achieve (â€Å"Wikipedia†).† The matter of learning a second language, not to mention a third or a fourth, is exceedingly difficult for several reasons. Among these are that with our native language, we are surrounded daily by examples of that which we are learning. Also, as we age, it becomes more and more difficult for us to hear the differences in languages that makes them more understandable. As stated in Science Daily, â€Å"It is an accepted fact that the younger the child, the easier it is for them to learn a second language (â€Å"Science News†).† In learning our primary language, we are surrounded by examples and experiences which reinforce our understanding of that language. We hear the words spoken every day, read signs in our traveling, and develop automatic cognitive recognition when we see an object. For example, when we see an eight-sided red sign with four white letters on it, we learn to recognize

Rocky movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rocky - Movie Review Example He collects loans for a certain shark and also fights in the towns shady clubs where he is lowly paid. His success begins when a heavyweight champion Creed, selects him to be his opponent in a fight where Balboa gets a chance to prove that he is not worthless (Didinger, Glen & Gene 14-16). This is because he gets mocked a lot when he fights at the clubs. He loses the match but this does not deter him from trying more. Thus, he is not successful in job searching, which makes him decide to stick to boxing. While training under Mickey he improves his skills to a better boxer. Meanwhile, his opponent at the first match Creed is criticised by his fans. He is pressured to overcome his fight with Balboa which makes him taunt Rocky publicly. During their fifteenth round, Balboa knocks Creed and this makes him get declared heavyweight champion for the first time (Didinger, Glen & Gene 16). This makes Rocky famous and he appears in a number of television advertisements as well as programs. After the fight what follows is a stream of wins making him more famous than his earlier opponent. While preparing to retire from boxing, he is publicly challenged by the number one contender James â€Å"Clubber† Lang. This time round Rocky is not fit to fight as his trainer dies of heart attack during their second round where he loses to Lang. Surprisingly, Rocky’s old rival Creed becomes his trainer and during the third round, he knocks Lang out. Another contender Ivan Drago from USSR challenges him to an exhibition match which does not take place. Instead, they fight on Christmas day where rocky knocks him out some seconds to final round. After this fight, Balboa gets diagnosed with brain damage which makes him retire from fights. To add on this, he is bankrupt due to poor accounting of his fortune. This forces his family to return to their earlier neighbourhood. His son follows his footsteps in the ring

Procter Gambles Innovation And Information Technology Practices Marketing Essay

Procter Gambles Innovation And Information Technology Practices Marketing Essay The PESTEL analysis found out that government taxes/ corporate tax and global economic downturn become the issues of the PG changes its business to merging market. And the SWOT analysis evaluate that PG have the strong financial position and strong branding makes it success in this new markets trend. The efficiency and effective of supply chain also is the strong point for PG innovation. The report also evaluates and concludes  that would be an ideal to meet the challenge which presented by the market and could satisfy the consumer demand since it uses open innovation- Connect and Develop program outsourcing the raw- materials and technologies and through acquisition of domestic and foreign competitors. But it also has the barriers on this program and acquisition. Since carriage out the Obamas foreign tax proposals, foreign rivals pay less in taxes in their home countries, foreign-based competitors would be able to reinvest more, expand faster and sell their products at lower prices than U.S. companies and this affect PG. The tax changes put PG at a cost disadvantage, PG gain a 15% to 20% cost disadvantage compared with other rivals. This will make PG unable to effectively compete against foreign corporations in the future (www.msnbc.msn.com). The heavily of IRS (Internal Revenue Service) fees is a burden of PG. This will reduce the profit of PG. For the example, PG valued artwork donated Cincinnati Art Museum in 2003 at $8.5 million but the IRS allowed PG subtract $6.4 million of the income taxes because the company states that in the lawsuit that PG is uses third-party appraisers to value its donations, so the company not allow PG subtract the full amount of the donation. And, PG had paid more than $6 billion of federal income taxes over the six years that were audited (www.usatoday.com). The national income and GDP growing will increase buying power. It will course PG raised its consumers especially in developing markets such as China and India. According to the report, GDP growing helps the Procter Gamble gain the premarket; it was gained from 2.2 percent to $58.51 after it reported results (www.reuters.com). Today, according to The New York Times (2009) reported that the sales from developing countries are doubling every four years. The sales from developing markets represent 32 percent of P Gs $78 billion in annual revenue, up from 23 percent four years ago. Global economic downturn- merging markets In the worlds four most populous nations, three are state in emerging markets; there are China, India and Indonesia. According to the Capital Groups estimation, it found that 70% of the worlds economic growth under the next 10 years will move towards from emerging market countries (Delfeld Carl T, 2009). Delfeld Carl T (2009) defines that Emerging markets now account for half of global economic growth, 33% of world GDP, and nearly 20% of world stock market value. After global economic downturn, PG trend to focus its growth strategy on emerging markets, it has opening about 20 new manufacturing facilities outside its established markets (www.wikinvest.com). It makes PG raising its capita sales in India and China more than 1 billion residents each and added $40 billion a year in Mexico (social.forecastfocus.com). And Delfeld Carl T (2009) also defines that PG now gains 32% of total sales from these merging markets and this is doubling every four years. PG have a large scale of operations and strong financial position in the domestic and foreign markets. PG serve 4 billion customers around the world and it has operations in over 80 countries (Procter Gamble, 2010). In the year 2008, PG was the 8th largest corporation in the world by market capitalisation and 14th largest US Company by profit. Now, it is 6th in Worlds Most Admired Companies in year 2009 (Americas Most Admired Companies 2009). In the Fortune 500, the company was the 20th in annual ranking of Americas largest corporations in the year of 2009 (CNN Fortune ranking). This strength helps PG gain opportunities in merging markets with the successful result. PG brings many new innovations to the market around the world. This is one of the strengths that PG success its business in the world. PG products innovation are very popular around the world, it gain a lot of awards, example, SymphonyIRI Group recognizes PG in its annual Pacesetters list and with the Outstanding Achievement in Innovation award (Procter Gamble, 2010). According to Business week, it reported PG is ranked 12 among the Worlds Most Innovative Companies (Procter Gamble, 2010). This is the marketing strategic that PG used to present around the world. PG provides well- known, trusted brands touch the lives of consumers in over 180 countries allows PG to efficiently and effectively to serve more consumers at more price points and gain the switch off markets advantages, for example Tide is the clear leader in the U.S. laundry detergent market with approximately 38% value share. Ariel is the leading detergent in Western Europe with about 16% value shares (2009 Annual Report). According to the IRI New Product Pacesetter Report, it ranks that PG products are the best-selling new products in the U.S. every year. Over the past 14 years, PG has had 114 top 25 Pacesetters. In the last year alone, PG had five of the top 10 new product launches in the U.S. and 10 of the top 25. (www.marketingweek.co.uk) Gillette acquisition, Ambi Pur acquisition After Gillette acquisition, PG believe that will create a group with annual sales of GBP 32bn, pushing its rival Unilever turn into second position in the UK toiletries market (Business Services Industry 05, 2010 CBS Interactive Inc). The PGs Gilette brand expend its market enters a new era in male personal care. That is a great opportunities to PG to expend it markets to male markets and gain more market share. There have many advantages to PG acquire Ambi Pur. Ambi Pur brand was rich history in innovation, if PG acquire with Ambi Pur success, it can enjoy millions of consumers which come from air care market. Beside that, Ambi Pur brings new technologies and high-performance products to PG current Air Care portfolio (Procter Gamble, 2010). This will increase the markets share of PG and brings PG go future. 2. Innovation and IT means to PG Innovation and IT become most and most importance in markets to every company. According to the Bob McDonalds speech which presented at the Innovation Institutes of India Global Conference (2008, p.4), claim that the innovation means at PG is the conversion of a new idea into consumer delight and, ultimately, into revenues and profits. In PG, the innovation very roughly, they innovate at every point of brands and innovate in every part of business. Its cover in terms of product or packaging innovation, and to innovate include design, media, communications, business models, cost structures and organizational structures (Bob McDonald, 2008). Open Innovation has significantly increased PGs innovation speed. Bob McDonald define that open innovation not as a form of out-sourcing but, rather, as a way to in source the creativity of the world. Nowadays, over half of the ideas and technologies innovations that PG bring to market are come from foreign countries (CASE III-5 by DeHayes, 2009). For examples, PGs Swiffer brand works together with Unicharm, Royal/Dirt Devil, and IDEO for the innovation of product, commercial and design. PGs Febreze partnerships with KJK, Givaudan, and GK Design for the package design, technology and perfume development. A Pringles potato chip is a successful example of the PGs open innovation effort (www.business-strategy-innovation.com). In this case, PG taking the innovation in, at the same time its also taking innovation out, for example: PG licensing PGs food technologies and packaging capabilities to ConAgra Foods (www.pg.com), in order to gain the licensing fee (CASE I-4 by Lyn Denend and Burg elman). Procter Gamble try to maintain its competitive advantages by focusing on product innovation, its always look for innovation ideas by its total portfolio of businesses and technologies. Its use its internal capability with an external network of innovation partners through Connect and Develop program. Theres a global network provide potential innovation partners for PG with about researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs doing work in areas relevant to PG businesses (www.pg.com). Through its Connect + Develop initiative, PG bring in new product ideas from outside, allows others developers to obtain their concepts and designs into PGs product pipeline. For example, they helped PG launch Olay Regenerist Eye Derma-Pods, and become its top-selling skin-care item in the year 2008 (www.fastcompany.com, 2008). According to the wiki analysis, it found that PG will launch a flurry of new products globally, using innovation to boost sales in fiscal 2010 coming out of the global recession (www. wikinvest.com, 2010). Acquisition of domestic and foreign competitors PG management had adopted another innovative play-to-win strategy by acquisition of domestic and foreign competitors. PG acquired other companies that helped in innovation its products, diversified its product line and increased its profits (knol.google.com knol.google.com). For example, the cases of Gillette acquisition, and Ambi Pur acquisition. After Gillette acquisition, PG gain the innovation in male personal care products, for example the Gillette Fusion ProGlideà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ razors and ProSeriesà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ male skin care products, there are innovation products which combine Gillette technologies (Procter Gamble, 2010). After acquisition of Gillette, PG increase its position in faster growing, higher margin, and more asset efficient businesses. The PG gain 22 brands with sales of $1 billion or more and 14 brands with sales between $500 million or $1 billion (Rick Ciccone, 2006). Besides, Ambi Pur brings new technologies and high-performance products to PG current Air Car e portfolio, (Procter Gamble, 2010). This will increase the product innovation, expands PGs market and gain more market share. (CASE II-17 by Burgelman and Meza). JIT inventory control Just-in-Time inventory control, can save costs, save time, reduce waste and move products and services to customers on time. In this case, PG is using this method and partnership with Wal- Mart. Wal-Mart linked with PGs inventory management system, provides information sharing and opened its consumer information to PG. After received the sales data directly from the checkout of Wal- Mart, PG used JIT inventory control on time deliveries to Wal-Mart and deliver the stock to the stores to meet the contracted customer service level. The just-in-time process works well for Wal-Mart and helps PG reduce the waste and more efficiency; PGs sales have increased significantly to Wal-Mart and directly to the consumer (Handfield and Nichols, 1999; Simchi-Levi, et al, 2000). TQM the process Total Quality Management (TQM)s principle provides many guidelines for PG to support its management approaches. Each principle will create their procedure to help PG in continually improving with training, practice and education (hubpages.com). The Five components of PGs TQM programs that primary to the improvements are: 1) Plant and division waste assessments to track discharges by site and set goals for improvement 2) Process assessments 3) Lifecycle assessments 4) Research on product impacts 5) Benchmarking. For example, the case at the Lima Ohio facility had success reduced 77% of air, water, and solid energy over four years using the TQM method. The other success example that is paper plant in Mehoopany, PG has created an innovation reduced 75% of the solid waste going to the landfill (www.future500.org). 3. The ways to improve and change The several ways that innovation and IT aspects of the organization/ supply chain of PG might be improved; there are supply chain reinventions, eStore website, products innovation and logistics. 3.1 Setting Up the Web Store Early in this year, PG ran e- commerce in USA, e Store provide a wide range of potential consumer to PG. EStore allow PG to monitor sales volume. World Wide Web allows PG to sell products directly to the consumer and it also allows PG get the relationships with customer. PG can get the comment and suggestion or advices directly to the consumer and take the action to change and improve faster. In addition, PG can overcome geographic barriers to reach a global markets and customer- base. In this case, PG can continue use e- commerce to expand its Web Store to another country, such as Western Europe, Asian countries, because online shopping is not new news to the world, people can accept this marketing method. The PG also can set up its eStore in the lower cost places or overseas, for overseas PG can set up the web store office at merging market such as India or Taiwan because, India is IT developed country can provide good IT with low prices. And in Taiwan, the online shopping market is mature and popular, there have a mature market to PG expands its market to South Asian and China. Beside that, consumer on the Internet do not care where are the web store built. If PG built in the low- cost places, it can gain more profit and reduce the cost. This method that have used by CASE II-4 by DeHayes (2009), they move their offices from high- cost New Jersey to lower- cost Indiana. Supply chain reinvention- supply network In the PGs existing supply chains, it was limit its ability to reduce material use in PGs packages. The existing supply chain in PG is: Supplier manufacturer retailer consumers. After reinventing to the supply networks the PGs supply chain method will be change to Supplier manufacturer consumers. The supply chain has shorter the journal and also giving many benefits. The supply network is more focus on external market and consumer, using supply chain will help PG in expand its market to merging markets. So using the supply networks, PG can more focus on the consumer- driven especially external consumer, it also help PG run its business more fast and flexible. The table 3.1 below has shown that the effective when PG after using the supply networks in PG (Rick Ciccone, 2006). From To Chain Network Long and slow Fast and flexible Forecast-based Demand-based Manufacturer-driven Consumer-driven Internal focus External focus Designed from product forward Designed from shelf back Cost-reduction Value and growth creation Table 3.1, source by : Ciccone, R. (2006) AMR Supply Chain Conference, Reinventing the Supply Chain and Manufacturings Role Improve product innovation- health medicines combine with Chinese herbal According to the research of University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), (2009) reported that Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care. In Germany, about 600 700 plant-based medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German physicians. In the last 20 years in the United States, public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in herbal medicine use. Nowadays, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicines (TCHMs) have been modified into solutions, soluble granules and tablets by extracting the plants natural ingredients. Due to the fact that TCHMs are natural and with very little side effects, its usage has been increasing significantly throughout the world. Research has shown that, similar medicinal plants are being used for the same purposes around the world (Chen, 2009). In this case, PG can change the health- care products ingredients to Traditional Chinese Herbal such as facial products, shampoo products. This is a good idea for the products innovation that can bring PG into another business level and markets. 3.3 Partnership with foreign countries company Today, the merging markets are developing so fast, many businesses tries to invest in this market to gain the competitive advantages. In order to survival in the market, PG can choose partnership entry mode to entry foreign countries to avoid distribution system and high cost of inputs problems. This can help PG invest to overseas save more cost, share risk with others and easy to entry the market. Partnership Company will provide the supply chain information to PG, help PG run the business smoothly. For example, PG partnership with Darlie which is a toothpaste brand of the Taiwan of Hawley Hazel company. This product is very popular in Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the China (www.darlie.com). If PG partnership with this company, it will increase the market share significant. At the same time, PG also can gain the innovation and IT technology. But the Hawley Hazel company may less international business experience. This makes collaboration has a littl e difficult to manage because of their inexperience in the global business arena (CASE III-3, Christensen and Anthony). 4. Overcome the barriers It might be very difficult to overcome the barrier indicated above, unless the organization appropriate financial resources and human resources in: Building global network in different language Although the online marketing has given PG a lot of advantages but the cost and logistics of delivering goods to consumers have been the biggest barriers to PG, this barrier is around this supply chain and cost-effective thing. The cost of logistics and packaging fees are costly, it will affect the profit of PG. Another problem is the delivery problem; some of the rural places there have no convenient transportation for transport. So PG have to create the solutions to reduce the cost of packaging fees and logistics fees. The language and cultural differences also are the barriers of supply network in PG. PG want to expand its business in the merging markets, its has to change the its website page language to multi- languages specially Chinese language because Chinese language popular in Asian including China, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia. Those are big developing markets to PG, PG have to improve this services in order to gain the competitive advantages (CASE III-8 by DeHayes, 2009) The program for building a global network of professionals requires a lot of time and resources. PG had taken many years to identify and build its network of technology entrepreneurs, suppliers and scientists (www.business-strategy-innovation.com). Another barrier in building global network that may face is online advertising. Using search engine advertising also is a costly media innovation, because the GoTo search engine charge for the list position. In order to solve these problems, there have two ways that let PG Web store may appear on search engine results, which are sponsored links and relevancy ranked listings (CASEII- 4 by DeHayes, 2009, p 329). Beside that, in order to remove the barriers in Chinese markets, PG has to spend the money and human resources to create a Chinese language website or software (CASE III- 8 by DeHayes, 2009). Using 3PL to remove logistics barriers For the case which improve product innovation to low- income market, normally the facility such as transportation in low- income countries not that develop and convenient especially in the rural places. The problem of delivery to the rural places problem might be very difficult to overcome, besides the organization appropriate financial resources to solve the problems, the another way is using 3PL to remove the logistics barriers, because 3PL helps company to save costs, reduce waste, reduce financial risks. Relationships with Asian retailer In Europe, PG partnerships with Wal- Mart retailer to serve the consumer needs and market. The PG also can use the same method to entry Asian market, it can relationship with Watson, Tesco, The Store, Guardian, Giant etc. Those are famous retailer in South Asian, partnership with them PG can gain more competitive advantages and market share. It also help PG invest to Asian easier. The Asian retailer can give the feedback from the Asian consumer comment and suggestion; this will help PG to improve and benchmark with others company and continue improve itself, same with CASE III-3 by Christen and Anthony (2009) relationship with outside, take the knowledge from others. Stay focused on its customers need, Kanban continue improvement strategy In order to overcome the barriers from competitor, PG should stay focused on its customers needs, continue improve in technologies and also product, using the Kanban continue improvement strategy to maintain its business strategy and competitive advantages. At the same have to benchmark itself and competitor. Benchmarking helps PG opens organizations to new methods, gives ideas and tools to improve their effectiveness. PF can get more innovation from this management method, and this management has been used by many companies, such as Toyota, Nissan etc. Continue the Open innovation activities Innovation is PG business strategy, it cannot survival without innovation, PG come out many ideas to remove the barrier. And the open innovation is the way that PG use to remove the lack of innovation period in its business and this activities run (CASE III-3 by Christensen and Anthony, 2009). The open innovation activities need a lot of money and human resources such as scientist, chemistry, engineering, materials science, biological sciences, designer to develop the technology or innovation products and also packaging design. To overcome the barrier indicated above, PG has appropriate financial resources in place and the appropriate human resources to operate the equipment. For example, the Summer Camp program, that is a way to search for the best or brightest innovation group (Procter and Gamble, 2010). Company has to appropriate financial resources to organize this program to keep the open innovation run. That is hard to find a talented and creative scientist, chemistry and engin eering, and also costly to hire (CASE IV- 2 by Matthew C. Verlinden). Mass advertise According to the research of University of Maryland Medical Center (2009) there are still some Europe countries which do not widely accept the usage of Chinese Herbs medicines, they classified the Chinese Herbs as drug that are not fully regulated. In order to overcome the problem, the company should mass advertise Chinese Herbal products to the public, by introducing its health benefits and the little side effect it has on people. To do that a company has to invest a large sum of money in promoting and advertising these products to gain consumers trust which then leads to an increase in its market share. Training system Human resource is one of the main resources that need most. Training system uses to provide company human resources such as expert skills and knowledge. PG training system provide a set of session to train all its leadership team and subject matter experts including cultural, language, and religious differences with the organization. People can use the knowledge which they learn in the training system to manage the implementation of innovation and change (www.business-strategy-innovation.com). In order to run this system successful, the financial resources have been providing by PG (CASE II- 1 by DeHayes, 2009). 5. Conclusions The findings indicate that PG is now looking for more innovation and IT that can move the supply chain more efficient and effectiveness. Recently PG has used the outsourcing method, there is open innovation and through the acquisitions other company to increase the innovation and IT. JIT and TQM to confirm the supply chain run smoothly, and meet the consumer demands on time. Open online web store helps PG expand its business without geography barriers, increase its market share. Change to supply network is to reinventing its Supply Chain and Manufacturings Role. However, there have a lot of barriers, such as lack of innovation problems, Websites language problems, logistics problem and the quality control barriers of the innovation and IT in the supply chain become the burden of PG to improve and reduce its benefit. In order to overcome the barriers, it can be concluded that the organization must appropriate financial resources and human resources in open innovation program, training system to overcome the lack of innovation barriers. Focus on merging market to gain the competitive advantages and overcome the competition barriers and using the 3PL to remove logistics barriers in low- income market.

An Essay on Chan -- essays research papers

An Essay Answering Questions From the Assigned Text by Faure   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This essay will attempt to answer questions coming from the Bernard Faure text assigned in class. The questions are as follows: How does Hu Shih’s approach to Chan differ from D.T. Suzuki’s? Why was the scholarship of the Japanese on Zen not objective? What does Faure mean by the teleological fallacy? What does he mean by the two alternative approaches he suggests: structural analysis and hermeneutics?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How does Hu Shih’s approach to Chan differ form D.T. Suzuki’s? To answer this we must first recognize that Hu Shih emphasizes the historicism of Chan, meaning he places great importance on the historical aspect, while Suzuki aligns himself with the metaphysics aspect. Suzuki states that there are two kinds of people who can talk about Zen: The first(Suzuki), which is one who has a firm grasp on the concepts and greatly understands Zen, the other(Hu Shih), someone who is utterly unable to grab the concepts. Suzuki states that Hu Shih may know Zen historically, but that he does not actually know Zen. Suzuki says about Hu Shih that â€Å"it is not a historians business not talk about Zen.† Hu argues that ‘a historic approach to Zen cannot be reduced to the circumstances of its emergence and how it â€Å"transmits its situation of departure into a means to understand itself and others.’† Since Hu Shih is from the academic world , his approach to Zen is more factual, while ...

High School and Dance Essay

Ever since I was little all I can remember is how I always wanted to be a dancer. And when I was in second grade my dream came true and my mom put me in Just For Kix. And my love for the sport has grown stronger ever since. I have always loved the quote â€Å"dance like no one is watching† because when you dance you do not see the audience or the judges all you see is your teammates and all you hear is the music. Dance is something I love and always will, it is something that has and will be part of my life. Dance is my passion. When I went to my first day of dance practice I knew I had found the sport I was meant to be in. My coach made practice enjoyable and I always looked forward to going. In second grade I remember learning all the fundamentals of dance and how I would practice for hours on end at home. Dance is about flowing from one movement to the next. In the beginning of dance you just learn how important it is to have a pointed to because flexed feet are very ugly, you also learn that you have to be very sharp with you movements so people can tell what you are doing. Some other fundamentals we worked on where posture you have a straight back it just looks better and we learned on moves like turns and kicks. I learned how to just lose myself in the music and just let my body take over. In dance you do not have to think as much as you have to just go with the flow of the music. The more you let yourself just go with the music the better you will look out on the dance floor and the more you will dance as a team instead of individually. JFK just taught me that dance is a place you can be yourself and not worry about school or any other drama. And I made friends that became some of my closest friends throughout elementary school and high school. Then after JFK came middle school dance team. I remember that the first day of practice scared me. We were doing things I never had even heard of before and the coaches were amazing dancers themselves and the really intimidated me. But the one thing I could rely on was that I loved dance and I knew that I was learning something new every day that would just make me a better dancer in the end. We would practice two hours a day, five days a week and I never realized how much they were preparing me for the varsity dance team. They taught us skills we would need to try out for the varsity squad. Things like Russians where you jump and do the splits in the air or an eclipso where you turn twice and then kick one leg out around you like a fan and then the other follows behind bent at the knee behind your body. But dance once again was my favorite part of everyday; all my best friends were there. And I remember how excited we were when we were all in the front row together. We made practice fun and hung out on the weekends to practice and to just have a good time. I remember the first time we performed a routine at a high school basketball game. At that time it was the best thing that I had ever experienced. But after middle school dance was over then came trying out for the Moorhead Highlights dance team. Try outs were a week long and were most defiantly the most nerve wracking experience of my dance career. I mean the captains of the team were teaching us a routine that was the most difficult routine I had ever danced in my life. Finally came Friday, the day we found out if we had made the team or not. But the positive is that all of us got to try out together. I messes up, but I can say that it was fun and I had a smile on my face the whole time. And in dance having a smile on your face the whole time is one of the most important things you can do because it makes it look like your enjoying what you’re doing. And the good thing was all five us made the team one of my friends was so excited she cried. I would have to say that making the team was one of the highlights to my high school career. The highlights became my second family after being with everyone for four years. The Moorhead highlights were my life during high school. I could go to school and have the worst day but when I went to practice I know I would have a good practice. Everyone says dance is not a sport but I can guarantee you would think dance was a sport after spending a day with us and seeing everything we have to go through in order to be ready for competition on the weekends. And besides just being athletic in dance you have to have a great since of beat so you do your moves on the correct counts and an excellent memory to learn all of our routines in a week. Dance is defiantly harder then what it looks like. I can say we all dreaded practice but at the same time we absolutely loved it. We would start practice of by running two miles, doing a stair work out or running jog sprints. Then we would stretch which was a great time for team bonding. Stretching is an important part of dance. Stretching helps you kick high and leap gracefully and properly and it is also important because it keeps you from getting injured like pulling a muscle. Then was everyone’s most dreaded part of practice. Center floor kicks an across the floor kicks. We would kick constantly for thirty minutes some days. It may not seem that hard bet let me tell you it is very difficult to continually kick as high as you can with a perfectly pointed toe and a straight back and sometimes having a coach yelling in your ear to do it better or faster. After all the hard stuff came the best part of practice. Practicing our competitive routines. I mean some days our coaches would threaten us and say that we looked so bad that they did not even want to put us out on the floor but that only made us work harder to prove them wrong. We would run them over and over until we were sick of them. But it was my favorite part because I knew it was getting us ready for competition on the weekends. And then after everything we go through together we become one big messed up but happy family that I couldn’t help but love. We laughed together and we cried together. The competition floor. We walk out of our room and into the shoot. We get in a circle put our left foot in the center and our coaches give us a speech that get us ready to dance our hearts out then it is our captain’s turn to give their speeches. Then we cheer, we cheer to get our adrenaline pumping and just get our blood pumping. Then you hear the crowd cheering for the team that was performing before you and we line up in our first formation and all of a sudden you just get a rush of butterflies. And then the announcer says on deck is the Moorhead Highlights. We walk out onto the floor straight backs and our arms clean at our sides. We get to the center of the floor line up and someone says 5, 6, 7, 8 and you know to prepare for the music to start. And then comes the time to show what you have been working so hard on. The music starts and all of a sudden you lose yourself in the music all you can see is your teammates and their smiles. You just have fun together and move as one to create an art form for the audience to see. You keep a huge smile on your face and it’s not a fake one because you are having the best time of your life. And when the hard parts of the routine come our coaches would stand up and scream for us to do it right and if we did our one coach would start crying and we know we did our job perfect. And when the music stops you cannot help but smile because you know you did what you had leave it all on the floor for everyone to say. I would have to say there is no feeling like the one of dancing on the competition floor. Dance is an art form and a sport all in one. You have to have passion to do what you have to do, you have to be dedicated to your team in order to dance like a school of fish. Dance was the high light of my younger years. It was always something to look forward to no matter what was going on in my life. My dance family was always there for me. I would relive those years just for dance.

Leadership Essay

Vice Principal Mr. Leonard Curry entered the main staffing office of the Academy and ordered a young teacher to get out into her class. Her quiet gentle response was, ‘I do not have a class now, sir.† â€Å"What!’ was his rebuttal insisting that the schedule had been changed and it was her period to be teaching a 10th grader’s Biology class. She replied by asking if it were ethical for her to be informed in such a manner pointing out that   a memo is the acceptable mode of transmitting such changes. This was followed by a gentle explanation she wanted to perform her duties without conflict. Further he said that it was her responsibility to check out changes on the teacher’s assignment notice board from time to time. She reiterated that that was an unconstitutional approach since it was not stated like that in the bylaws of the school. They continued to argue with the principal threatening her with suspension for insubordination had she not complied. A disciplinary report was eventually filed for insubordination and disobeying the rule of law. Impact on credibility—Principal-Mr.Cury displayed a tendency towards an autocratic leadership style. Once how to address the issue was lawful inscribed in the bylaws stipulating a particular way to inform about staffing changes it had to be adhered to. It would appear that the young teacher reminding him of it antagonized the situation. This is a challenge to his credibility. Communication-It is clear that there was a change of command in terms of communication. The principal seemed to have erred. His reaction is to blame the young teacher for his mistake by imposing a penalty on her for his mistake. This is often a management strategic adopted in a autocratic culture. Power of influence—in this situation the power of influence lay in the position or status of principal. The principal used it to make himself look respectable while casting blame onto unsuspecting immature teacher.