Project Management Life Cycle-.com

Question: How the cascade model and lithe model relate with Project Life Cycle? Answer: There are numerous models or approaches of leading the undertaking the executives, are known as venture the board systems. Among numerous accessible models, two models are extremely renowned Waterfall and Agile. The methodology of doing extend the executives of these two models is a lot of various in nature, yet the comparability between them is both the methodologies utilize a similar procedure of span and cost estimation and at last the objective of utilizing the standards of Agile model and the procedures of cascade model is a similar that is to finished the venture at the most brief time frame with less dangers of cost or calendar overrun(Aston, 2017). Undertaking life cycle has chiefly four phases viz. Inception, Plan, Execute Monitoring and Close. There are different exercises inside the stages like creation business cases, get ready sanction of undertaking for the approval of venture chief; course of action of task assemble goes under the Initiation stage. By then the status of different plans falls under the time of Plan, etc in Figure: Project Management Life Cycle Source: (Mpmm, 2017) diverse stages(Mpmm, 2017). Likewise, all of the stages are bury related with one another, even they in like way spread and the exercises or work bundles inside each stages are in addition really sequenced to pass on an especially portrayed grow plan. The Waterfall and Agile frameworks can be more than likely be utilized to build up these undertaking life cycle. List of sources Aston, B. (2017, March 2). 9 Project Management Methodologies Made Simple: The Complete Guide For Project Managers. Recovered August 10, 2017, from thedigitalprojectmanager.com: https://www.thedigitalprojectmanager.com/venture the executives strategies made-basic/ Mpmm. (2017). Venture Management Life Cycle. Recovered August 10, 2017, from mpmm.com: https://www.mpmm.com/venture the board methodology.php

Moon over Manifest the Ideology of Home free essay sample

Who might set out figure the pariah and relinquished can locate a home? Who could dream that one can cherish without being squashed under its heaviness? A marvel fix to mend the wiped out? Pah. What makes us think any about this could be valid? But we all, we take an interest in this legend, we make, sustain it (Vanderpool 304). Miss Sadie discusses the quest for a home to Abilene Tucker, the 12-year-old hero in the 2011 Newbery Medal champ, Moon over Manifest (Vanderpool 207). Abilene doesn’t have a home and never has. Motherless, she is sent by her dad, Gideon, to live with his old companion in Manifest, Kansas. Abilene has spent her youth venturing to every part of the nation with her dad, searching for work during the Great Depression in America. Show holds the guarantee of a sort of home, as it is where a large portion of Gideon’s stories occur. We will compose a custom paper test on Moon over Manifest: the Ideology of Home or on the other hand any comparable point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page In any case, Gideon is missing in the tales she hears in Manifest. Abilene and her dad are the outsider and the relinquished. The guarantee of Manifest is a legend, horrid and exhausted, all things considered, dissimilar to the energizing spot in Gideon’s stories. But, as Miss Sadie says, everybody trusts that this legendary home will by one way or another be genuine. It is obvious that the fantasy of home is the thing that recognizes children’s writing from grown-up books (Wolf 18). Nodelman and Reimer compose that while â€Å"the home/away/home example is the most well-known story line in children’s writing, grown-up fiction that manages youngsters who venture out from home typically finishes with the kid deciding to remain away† (197). An example watched, called a postmodern metaplot, begins with the kid being relinquished, instead of venturing out from home. At last, the child’s venture closes with an advanced perfect of the kid driving the grown-ups to a confident completion, a home. I will investigate the changing jobs of youth and adulthood in children’s writing, while at the same time concentrating on Moon Over Manifest. The fantasy of home in children’s writing along these lines reflects grown-up developments of adolescence. The accentuation on a bombed home was a sudden, yet sensible, result of the investigation of the novel. In the wake of talking about the philosophy of youth it’s clear that there’s a move from home as a spot to come back to home as absent or fizzled was given. For this situation Moon over Manifest is a model of the move to a postmodern adolescence in children’s writing. Bates takes a gander at two diverse average plots found in fantasies and great children’s writing (89). The plot of the fantasy is the kid hero isolated or surrendered by the â€Å"evil† parent. The youngster at that point must clear their path through a hazardous world, confronting a wide range of risk, so as to get back. Back home the kid hero compensates the great parent and rebuffs the insidious parent. A case of this excursion can be found in Hansel and Gretel. The kids are relinquished in the woodland by their hoodwinked father at the command of their insidious stepmother. They fight the merciless witch, at last executing her and taking her cash. They get back to compensate their dad, the great parent, by offering their riches to him. In certain renditions, the insidious parent has just been rebuffed with death by starvation. The other average plot, the one of exemplary children’s writing, includes kids venturing out from home all alone or by enchantment. Like the youngsters in fantasies, these kids likewise should confront threat on their way home. When home there is no prize or discipline for the guardians as the division was not the parents’ deficiency. One case of this plot can be found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll 64). Alice ventures out from home â€Å"as her very own roundabout aftereffect action† (Bates 49). In Wonderland Alice has experiences and escapes peril. She â€Å"goes home† by awakening. Home isn't just the setting of most children’s writing yet in addition the topic. The notorious â€Å"happy ending† is when home is accomplished. Perusers and nonreaders of children’s writing anticipate this closure. It bodes well. As Miss Sadie stated, â€Å"And yet we all, we take an interest in this fantasy, we make, sustain it. † Miss Sadie closes her story remarking on the fantasy of home, â€Å"But what is worseâ€we trust it. What's more, at long last, we are squashed by it† (304). She is addressing Abilene and the expected kid peruser as she would address a grown-up. Kids shouldn't be conscious of the mystery of the human condition that you can’t return home once more. Maybe she is offering the peruser a mirror or a closet to experience yet on the opposite side isn’t Wonderland or Narnia however unmistakable reality. Children’s writings mirror a specific philosophy, an arrangement of convictions about youth that is partaken in a culture and permits individuals inside that culture to comprehend adolescence (McCallum and Stephens 384). The customary or current metaplot of home/away/home envelops an innovator philosophy, one in which desires for kids and adolescence are normalized (Coats 21). The postmodern metaplot, which is featured in Moon over Manifest, duplicates a unique sort of adolescence, a mind boggling one, in which home is a spot the youngster must develop. Moon over Manifest is a convenient and away from of the postmodern metaplot. Abilene has no home to leave. While Gideon’s love gives a sort of wellbeing, he sends her alone on a train to Manifest to live among outsiders straightforwardly after she recuperates from a genuine disease, flagging that he can no longer give the sanctuary of adoration. Abilene is given no guarantees of help either. The way that Gideon sends Abilene with a compass that doesn’t work; implies it is as though he is advising her through this blessing she is currently to make her own particular manner throughout everyday life. Abilene shows up in Manifest with no thought of when he will seek her. Once there, Abilene must, through her mind and continuance, find who her dad was and is. With the assistance of story she develops her own history. This history permits her to make a home for herself, one which she welcomes her dad to join. Eventually, Abilene gives the home. She should make her own security and give her dad back his home. Abilene’s adolescence is not exactly perfect and not an object of grown-up wistfulness. When gotten some information about her missing guardians she says that her mom has â€Å"gone to that sweet by and by† on the grounds that in her brain, her mom â€Å"decided being a spouse and mother wasn’t all it was laughed out loud to be† thus joined a move troupe in New Orleans (27). Knowing the desire that the main time a mother leaves her child is through death; Abilene comprehends her takeoff in a discerning way by indicating a comprehension of the decisions her mom made. Left with her dad, Abilene positions herself as his equivalent by reliably alluding to him by his first name, Gideon. â€Å"It resembled Gideon had gotten an injury in him as well. Just he didn’t come out of it. What's more, it was agonizing enough to cause him to send me away† (75). Abilene acknowledges her parent’s disappointments to furnish her with a home. A postmodern metaplot gives an alternate perspective on writing and adolescence.

Violence in the Media and how it Affects Society Essay Example for Free

Brutality in the Media and how it Affects Society Essay The impact of media is significant and extensive. Everywhere throughout the world, the media impacts our qualities and interferes with our profound situated philosophies and convictions. In fact the media has been an incredible power in affecting people’s recognitions, and all the more critically, their conduct also. Business, government officials, and showbiz characters pay enormous wholes of cash to media firms all together make a picture or change a current one. Governmental issues specifically, has been utilizing the media to create open help for their battles and backing for specific strategies and enactments. For sure, the intensity of the media to influence our conduct has for quite some time been demonstrated. Among the most problems that are begging to be addressed about media these days is the way the expansion of media brutality can influence society. Individuals have since quite a while ago accepted that steady and interminable introduction to viciousness through different types of broad communications can dissolve the estimations of an individual, particularly if the individual doesn't have a solid arrangement of good help. (Croteau Hoynes 23) However while it is anything but difficult to state that viciousness in media has an unfavorable impact in the public arena, there are researchers who contend that it isn't media in essence that causes the negative impacts, rather it is a perplexing transaction of numerous components in the public eye, and media is nevertheless one component in the issue. (Freedman 54) Media viciousness and its impact on society can't be isolated from these different variables and in this way, media alone can't be considered answerable for savagery in the public eye. Thusly, this paper means to comprehend media savagery and its impacts on society by understanding the issues that underlie the contention. Vicious conduct has for some time been a wellspring of disarray among sociologists, therapists and society by and large. While there have been numerous broad examines that have endeavored to consider, comprehend, and clarify criminal acts, none so far has been found to sufficiently clarify all the mind boggling forms and the transaction of components that pushes a person to carry out viciousness. Among these hypotheses, the most broadly acknowledged is the constitutive criminology. As per this hypothesis, fierce conduct is the consequence of the intricate interchange among man and the social structures that he collaborates with all the time. (Sanders Ferrell 146) As such, culprits of viciousness can't be dissected independently from the social procedures that they associate with. Following this hypothesis, it is straightforward why media has frequently been ensnared in the expansion of forceful or vicious conduct. Media has been developing all the more remarkable and omniscient continuously. Specifically the Internet, has intensified the intensity of the media to impact change and impact society’s conduct. The impacts of these innovative advances have been talked about by Croteau and Hoynes, â€Å"The increment in media alternatives as of late has even prompted an expansion in ‘multi-tasking’-utilizing more than each type of media in turn. † (5) With the omnipresent media encompassing us in all parts of our lives, it is anything but difficult to understand that the media is a major and essential piece of contemporary life. To be sure the media has become the most prevailing and incredible power in our advanced world, uprooting strict and instructive foundations as the essential disintegrate of our individual and aggregate belief systems. (Croteau and Hoynes 6) And if media can be utilized to impact purchasing, casting a ballot, and different types of conduct, it follows that is additionally influences brutality and forcefulness among individuals. How media impacts individuals might be clarified by Bandura’s social learning hypothesis. As indicated by Bandura (1977), the should be acknowledged and comply with society is the principle main thrust for an individual’s activities. In the event that media, at that point makes the picture of what is adequate and mainstream, at that point it is just intelligent that society demonstrations in agreement to this media-made picture. The accompanying figures are taken from the official site of the National Institute on Media and the Family (2006): ? In light of normal survey time, an individual would have seen about 200,000 demonstrations of brutality remembering 40,000 killings for TV when the person in question is eighteen years of age (Huston, et al qtd. from the National Institute on Media and the Family). ? Kids between the ages of 8 and 18 invest more energy presented to different types of media (TV, PC, game consoles, music, and so forth) than some other action in the course of their life. (Kaiser Family Foundation qtd. from the National Institute on Media and the Family). ? Of over a thousand investigations that have been done on the impacts of viciousness in TV and films, dominant part of them presume that people, particularly kids who invest critical energy watching brutality on TV and motion pictures are bound to show forceful or savage conduct, mentalities and qualities. (Senate Committee; Congressional Public Health Summit qtd. from the National Institute on Media and the Family) According to these figures, the more youthful the age of the individual, the more powerless they become to the antagonistic impacts of introduction to media savagery. (Pattern 93) The forcefulness are frequently idle and presents further down the road which is worsens estimating the genuine impacts of media savagery. (Freedman 137) Ladies who spend extended periods of time sitting in front of the TV savagery are bound to react brutally towards their life partners. There is an expansion in rawness among ladies with higher media savagery introduction. (Partenheimer) In a similar vein, men who observed more media savagery show expanded physical viciousness and forceful conduct towards others too. The two people who watch brutality on the Internet, motion pictures, and TV are multiple times bound to submit criminal traffic offenses and different wrongdoings and lawful offenses. Despite any hypothesis, there is no denying the way that any fierce activities or forceful conduct is a result of a profoundly unpredictable procedure, the mechanics of which may always escape social researchers. Be that as it may, while savagery may in fact be only the final result of a progression of collaborations between the culprit and his general surroundings, the inquiry despite everything remains why a few people who grow up viewing similar degrees of media viciousness grow up to be ordinary individuals while others become social degenerates. As the individual settles on the decision to submit an animosity, what amount of this is a direct result of media impact and other social and physical components, and what amount of this is simply the individual’s decision? For social researchers the test is to make speculations that will help forestall savagery as opposed to examine the forceful sometime later, after the damage has been finished. As recently referenced, learning doesn't occur in a vacuum; it does as such inside a social setting. Little youngsters are entirely receptive, and they need consistent management and express course from their folks. Kids ought to be made to acknowledge what practices are worthy and those that are most certainly not. Guardians should deplete all endeavors to screen what their youngsters see and hear and give appropriate and reliable direction Indeed the media is extremely incredible and profoundly compelling. Be that as it may, it is an unbiased instrument and can be utilized for both great and terrible. By ethicalness of its foundation of conveyance, movies and TV are profoundly open and can contact a gigantic crowd inside a limited capacity to focus time. The components of convincing story, engaging characters, clear symbolism, and innovative accomplishments, make an incredible mix that can mix profound feelings and leave enduring impressions in the mind of the people who are viewing. Shows and music that convey positive subjects of equity, equity, and respect are successful in molding popular feeling, and by augmentation, positive conduct too. A very much made film or TV show can stir a general public vigorously and start positive change. Media should temper savagery by highlighting shows that advance qualities too. Works Cited Bandura, Albert. Social Learning Theory. Prentice-Hall. 1977 Croteau, David. Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 2003. Freedman, Jonathan. Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence. College of Toronto Press. 2002. Partenheimer, David. Open Affairs Office. Youth Exposure To Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behavior, According To A New 15-Year Study. 2003. Recovered on March 7, 2008 from http://www. apa. organization/discharges/media_violence. html

Social Work Interviewing Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Work Interviewing Skills - Essay Example The job that social laborers play in improving the lives of socially tested individuals can't be subverted. Their duties incorporate working with explicitly distinguished individuals from all ages who need support because of a wide scope of difficulties and guide them expertly to deal with their own lives. All together for social specialists to decide the extension and underlying driver of a client’s issue, they probably obtained the vital abilities to meet and request fitting reactions to empower them to apply particularly planned intercessions. For this specific undertaking, a 15-minute meeting with a grown-up customer analyzed to be dependent on cocaine was created to set objectives for the mediation with the customer and helping the customer to build up his abilities in critical thinking. In such manner, this exposition is composed to talk about reactions to the accompanying inquiries: (1) how did data from the writing/look into on objective setting and interceding illuminate the substance regarding your meeting? (2) How did the reason and calling of social work illuminate your training in this meeting (bolster your conversation with proof from the writing and models from the video)? Also, (3) how were your qualities and region for improvement as a social laborer appeared in the meeting (give models). The life of activity requires more than explanatory insight. It isn't sufficient to have a thought and have the option to assess its value. Social laborers are entrusted with the obligations regarding the accomplishment of objectives, the achievement of results, and the arrangement of issues. It is in this way a basic advance to comprehend hypothetical ideas basic objective setting to fill the accompanying needs: help social laborers and customers in guaranteeing that they concede to the recognized issues and â€Å"the changes that must happen to create a reasonable outcome†, to approve and enable the customer through proper

Confusion, by the Numbers

Confusion, by the Numbers (Credit: Drone footage by Matt Carney, taken from Henry DaCostas 2016 Senior Video.) Five months ago, I bid farewell to my high school, Ward Melville. In my three years there, I changed intellectually and emotionally in ways I couldnt have predicted. I spent this past summer reflecting on these changes. How did I change, and what changed me? How and why did I persist when things seemed impossibly hard?  Was high school even really as difficult as it felt? I found a deep appreciation for how my many failures served as catalysts for personal growth. In the wake of setbacks and mistakes, I gained resilience and principle. My freshman year at MIT has brought its own set of failures. Its hard not to get hung up on my mistakes, but if high school taught me anything, it is that these failures are gifts that will lead to successes down the road. comic by Reza Farazmand Throughout high school I was often lost in confusion. I like to think about confusion as a feeling that comes in many different flavors. Some are sweet and others are bitter. I liked being confused by interesting projects and the process of making new friends. I hated being confused over tedious busywork and dysfunctional relationships. Confusion was motivation to understand the world. To un-confuse myself I had to push myself out of my comfort zone. Navigating unknown territory â€" be it a school project, a tough debate round, or interactions with an overly-sarcastic friend â€" made me think  differently. Being lost in confusion was a good thing. In my senior year, I used a  Google Doc  as an agenda to keep track of my assignments. I used a Google Chrome extension called  Draftback  to extract a log of my editing history on my agenda. The log contains every instance that my confusion grew (when I would add an assignment) or lessened (when I removed the assignment). I analyzed the log and made six figures to summarize my senior year. Some of the figures present real data,  collected from my agenda, and others have “fake” data, collected from my memories, to describe my time at Ward Melville. To analyze the data, I wrote some code in  Python  in a  Jupyter Notebook  (via  Anaconda). My data and code can be viewed  here. Figure 1: Daily Activity I made a box-plot to visualize the distribution of my revisions over each week. Unsurprisingly, I spent more time editing my agenda during the week and less time on weekends. Figure 2: Types of Revisions What kind of revisions was I making? Draftback didn’t have this data. Moreover, its not clear what Draftback counts as 1 revision, so I dont know exactly what Wednesdays median of 50 revisions means. I know I spent  some  time using the agenda for its most basic purpose: adding and removing assignments. However, I probably spent most of my time doing unnecessary (but very fun) formatting and maintenance on the text. My agenda created plenty of opportunities for me to play with categorization, text alignment, fonts, and colors. Figure 3: Activity for One Year The beginning of my senior year was much more intense than the end. How did my editing history change over the course of the entire year? I plotted a bar graph with the total number of revisions per day for my entire senior year (beginning in November when I started using the agenda). Each Sunday is marked with a gray vertical line. I stopped worrying about my agenda (and school) during my college application cram and science olympiad trips. Other times, like during AP week, I made hundreds of revisions a day. Even though I felt that the second half of senior year was easier than the first, my activity was much higher in the spring than in the fall. click to enlarge To make this plot, I used a Pandas tool called date reindexing  to add missing dates (days when I didn’t edit the doc at all) into the log (with a value of zero for the number of revisions). Date reindexing made it possible to visualize a weekly pattern in my activity. If some weeks had missing days, it would destroy the spatial structure of a week on the graph,  making this pattern less apparent. Figure 4: Hourly Activity How did I spend each day? I took a sum across days to find my total number of revisions by hour. I was surprised at how high some bars were in the early morning (2AM-5AM). Figure 5: Confusion Levels by Class During school hours, my editing activity related to how I felt in class. If I was bored, I would mess around with colors and highlighting and ignore the lecture. If I was scrambling to take notes, I less likely to make revisions. Some of my classes were more confusing than others, either because of difficult content or a lecture style I couldnt process. As I said before, confusion comes in different flavors. The magnitude of the bars for periods 7 and 8 may be similar, but during period 7 (differential equations) my confusion stimulated my curiosity, while during period 8 (French) my confusion made me frustrated. Figure 6: Hourly Activity by Day How did my hourly activity change over the course of a week? I plotted instances of revisions by time and day of week.  Some aspects of my weekly schedule instantly popped out at me: Weekdays 7:00-14:00 had an abundance of edits during the school day Weekdays 9:00-10:00 had a lack of edits during orchestra, when I was not on my laptop Friday 19:00-23:00 had a lack of edits while I went to art and music lessons Monday 1:00-2:00 had an abundance of edits when my weekend procrastination caught up to me Weekdays 17:00-19:00 had a slight lack of edits for nap time To make this plot, I had to “jitter” the dots a bit over the x-axis. The jittering (or scattering) increases visual clarity by separating points which would otherwise be stacked on top of each other. Was it all worth it?    My data shows me that I was up at nearly all hours, taking on assignment after assignment. The data tells me nothing about  what  I really got out of all of the confusion. High school is what you make of it. I chose to make high school quite difficult for myself. I took on more than I could handle, year after year. I learned that with enough time and effort, anything is possible. At times I pushed myself too hard, and I learned how painful it is to be sleep deprived for weeks on end; how sad it is to stay indoors nearly all the time; how lonely it is to barely see my friends outside of class. I should have searched for a healthier balance between school and everything else. Finding this balance has become my priority, and Im much happier now. MIT is confusing in many more ways than high school was. There are more chances to make mistakes and fewer support systems to help me up when I fall down. My newfound independence is a gift and a responsibility that I havent quite found a way to navigate. I know in a month, or a year, or three years, Ill look back on this post and have more answers. In the meantime, Ill keep asking questions, making mistakes, and savoring all the different flavors of confusion. Post Tagged #High School

Personal Development Plan Final Reflection Essay

Personal Development Plan Final Reflection Essay In my previous personal development plan, I had made several initiatives through which I hoped to achieve certain goals both in academics and in social life. In the previous personal development plan, I had embarked more on the process that I believe would help me to think about my own learning, performance and achievements as well as to plan my personal, educational, social and career development. Since I made the plan within the PDP, there are certain changes that I have witnessed happening in my career, social and learning areas. For example, I have noted that for the last one semester, I have improved in a number of areas that I had pointed in my last PDP. In academics, I have achieved a lot, as my average grades have improved from the previous B+ to an A. This is primarily because I was able to develop clear SWOT analysis, in which I recognized my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats not only in academics, but also in my social life, extra-curricular activities and any other activity I took. With this plan, I worked hard to perfect my strengths, correct the weaknesses and make them my strong points, utilize the opportunities placed within my abilities and finally recognize and avoid any negative effect that was posed by the threats in the SWOT analysis (Bolton 2010). From these considerations, I recognized that some of my strengths were the ability to work under strict deadlines, carry out extensive research, attend classes, and do personal studies and to submit all the papers and assignments at the right time. However, I also recognized that I actually had some weaknesses that caused my performance to dwindle in certain areas. For example, I realized that I had a problem relating with other students, tutors and friends. I did not attend discussion and group work, and seemed to ignore the strength of teamwork. I realized that I did not consult my tutors in academics; rather I attempted to do my own research. In co-curricular activities, I realized that I had done little in games and clubs within the university, despite having a number of athletic teams, training personnel as well as other facilities. I was not able to attend any of the activities before I made the last PDP, and even spent much time playing games on my personal computer rather tha n being involved in real athletics. In this plan, I set strict schedules to allow me attend my favorite games soccer and American football. Within this reflection, I had also recognized a number of opportunities that I should have utilized to perfect my skills in education and social life. For example, the university has a number of games, societies and clubs, all of which are equipped and staffed to help the students achieve their goals in academics and other activities important in social and personal life. In addition, the university encourages teamwork, from which students realize their weaknesses and strengths, and work to perfect their strengths and to improve their weak areas. These were opportunities that I ought to have utilized before, but which had been the priority in the previous personal reflection plan. I further realized that there were certain threats that challenged my performance. For example, I was running a risk of being lonely due to my weak approach to teamwo rk. In addition, it was possible that I would face academic failures in future because I was becoming possessed with video and computer games rather than being involved in real physical exercises. Several significant changes have resulted from the previous personal reflection plan. For example, apart from the increase in the academic grades, I have developed a good habit of relating with others in the university, and especially in my department. In addition, I have been involved in a number of discussion groups and even contributed to the development of general classroom discussion groups, in which students present their findings to the class during discussion time, while others try as much as possible to challenge the presenter. This has increased my confidence in academics, and I am more able to express myself than I would have done some few months ago before I embarked on self-reflection plan. Moreover, I am perfect in both soccer and football because I have dedicated enough time for these activities, and in fact, I have joined the university teams in both of these games. Moreover, I have joined the rangers association, a university society that is involved in environmental issues. I have realized that I am good in keeping and maintaining a good environment within our localities. During the last semester, we have taken part in national environmental programs, workshops and seminars, in which we have been taught the importance of maintaining good environment. In addition, we have organized a number of workshops for the community, where we teach elementary and high school students about the benefits of a good environment. In this way, I have realized that I have perfected my teaching, social and organizational management skills. From the personal development plan I created last semester, I have pointed out three main key learning areas that need much attention, and which have been very pivotal as far as the incline in my grades is concerned. First, I have realized that education is not all about understanding of what has been taught in class, and thereafter reproducing it in the examinations. It is a fact that education is not all about passing exams, rather it is a matter of understanding the courses, and how the classroom gained knowledge can be applied in the real life (Bolton 2010). Therefore, I have learned that one needs to do a lot of research and experiments to practice the classroom gained knowledge in the related fields, and to imply the information gained in books to the actual world. Secondly, I have learned that time management is the most critical tool towards achieving personal goals not only in education, but also in the other aspects of life. From the reflection, I have realized that the inc rease in my overall academic grades, as well as in extracurricular activities, is a result of proper time management, and the ability to work with strict time schedules. Lastly, I have learned that education required coordination of activities between personal efforts and the teamwork. I have observed that students perform better when they participate in class activities, work in groups and challenge each other (Jasper 2007). Moreover, it makes one obtain courage to conduct a research on vital topics, and have the pride to present it in front of the others. This is important for future researchers and scholars like me because at least, I am able to express ideas and ideologies to a number of people, and to meet the challenges they pose (Jasper 2007). Analysis of the Current Situation Currently, there is a number of issues that have to bbe improved as far as academics and other activities are concerned. I have achieved a lot in education, sports and social activities in general. Moreover, I have improved my communicative skills. However, I still have to target my main goal, which is to obtain straight A’s in all the courses I take each semester, and at the same time, achieve other goals in other activities apart from education. Currently, there are certain internal factors that are affecting me in a number of ways, both positively and negatively. For example, when I develop a personal SWOT analysis, I realize that I have internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to my education as well as other activities. Currently, my strengths in education are defined by my abilities to correct my past mistakes and improve weaknesses. I never ignore my weak points, though it is very common for a number of students in my faculty. In addition, I am able to learn from daily life experiences, especially from other people’s mistakes. Apart from these strengths, I have also realized that I am able to identify opportunities within my learning environment, and utilize them to increase my knowledge and skills in education and career. However, I have some weak points, which are currently affecting my performance. For instance, I do not possess even basic skills to lead other people in the class, groups and t he teams, which means that I may not become a good organizational leader unless I perfect my leading skills. I also do not have the courage to communicate with my tutors more. I have one more weak point I tend to believe that I can perfect my skills either on my own, or with the help of small groups of students. This is not quite good for my educational development, as I require help from my tutors in order to achieve best results. The main reason of my weak points is that I started using personal development and reflection plans only two semesters ago. Earlier, I did not consider such plans to be of great importance. But now, as I see a great progress in my personal development, and taking into account that the university provides a lot of resources for each student to master all the necessary skills, I will continue planning my self development. There are also some external factors that affect me in one way or the other, and which can be regarded as threats and opportunities. For instance, a number of opportunities are evident in my current situation. Other students in my class and the faculty have intensified their need to have personal reflection programs, and are in fact comparing their performances with the others in the class. This implies that we, as a class, have a chance to develop our skills together, as we have common goals in learning (Jasper 2007). Earlier, the students were allowed to participate only in 2 of the university clubs at once. Now we have the ability to participate in four of them, which will help me to gain much more experience. I will need to manage all my plans wisely, as apart from the extra-curricular activities, I need to perform well in the classroom too. Personal development plan I hope to come up with new ideas for my personal development, which will ensure success in both academic and social life. In regards of education, I want to try to approach my tutors for help in difficult situations, and to acquire skills needed for my future job. In addition, I must embark on increasing my grades from B+ to an A. Another desired outcome is to be a full time member of at least three clubs or societies, and to participate in all the events planned by these groups. I hope to achieve these goals within the next four months, which is till the end of this semester. References Bolton, G, 2010, â€Å"Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development†, SAGE Publications Ltd, Hoboken, NY. Jasper, M, 2007, â€Å"Professional development, reflection and decision-making†, Wiley-Blackwell, New York.

Imitation - Definition and Examples in Rhetoric