The Invisible Population

A few pictures of families who have come to the Dorothy Day House
The office/play room downstairs. This space allows the family to search for jobs online while letting their little ones play.

I do not know if I could ever look someone in the eye who has nowhere else to go and tell them I cannot help them. This is what Sister Maureen does on a daily basis; the day before my visit she turned down 5 families. Sister Maureen is the heart and soul of The Dorothy Day House. As I sat and listened to Sister Maureen discuss all that the organization does for the city of Memphis, I was filled with awe, compassion, sadness, and was on the verge of tears multiple times. Listening to her recount how many families she has to turn away made my heart sink and my eyes well with tears. Sister Maureen shared with me how homeless families are the invisible population. You rarely, if ever, will see a homeless family out at night, because they are trying to remain unseen. If they are seen and confirm they are homeless, their children will be taken away.  Sister Maureen says on any given night there are between 100 and 200 homeless families, in Memphis. Some of these families are without a home because of a traumatic event, such as sudden loss of work or a house fire; others are in these circumstances because of generational poverty. Either way, these families are under much stress and want desperately to provide for their spouse or children, but do not have the means.

The large kitchen that the families share in the house

The large kitchen that the families share in the house

I am glad to know that the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality exists and is committed to keeping family units together. There are over 150 Dorothy Day Houses of Hospitality; each are independently run and funded. These houses receive no government or state funding, and are solely sustained on donations. The Dorothy Day House of Hospitality provides temporary housing and support services for homeless families throughout Memphis. With the help of local agencies, staff, and volunteers, the Dorothy Day House provides families with a safe environment, and the means to re-establish their independence. Throughout the family’s stay, they receive assistance with education guidance, parenting skills, employment counseling, transportation, child care referrals, budgeting advice, and access to sources of permanent housing. The Dorothy Day House of Hospitality works with each family to set personal goals and make sure that each family is continually working toward those goals. The staff also stay in close contact with the families after they leave the Dorothy Day House in order to assure they are able to maintain their independence. I will end with a quote from Dorothy Day that truly expresses how my heart feels after my time spent at the Dorothy Day House:

Thank you for reading! I’m searching for a job as an educator to children and adults with special needs. If you know of a great fit, please send it our way: Mail to or

Week 12, Day 7: Michael Garcia at Dorothy Day House of Hospitality

Michael Garcia at the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality.

My final assignment for my Volunteer Odyssey was to visit the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality, a shelter for homeless families located on Poplar Ave. At the house, I met Sister Maureen, the executive director of the Dorothy Day House, along with some members of the families currently residing there. We had coffee and delicious lemon cake while Sister Maureen told me all about the shelter.

When families become homeless they often get split up, with different members going to different shelters. Some shelters will only take adult men while others take only women, adults and children. Boys who are not yet adults are often left with nowhere to go. The Dorothy Day House was founded with the purpose of keeping homeless families intact while they get back on their feet.

The shelter is named for Dorothy Day, who during the Great Depression, founded the Catholic Worker Movement, a volunteer organization which served the poor and homeless. There are many Dorothy Day Houses in the US and abroad, but they are unaffiliated and independent of each other, each serving its own community as best it can. The Dorothy Day House of Hospitality here in Memphis acquired its house in 2004, and after extensive renovation opened in 2006. They have plans of expanding and opening more houses here in Memphis.

The shelter does not receive any funding from the City or any religious organization. They depend entirely on private donations. Sister Maureen explained to me that this allows them to be free from any externally imposed restrictions about who they can give shelter to and how long they are allowed to stay.

The Dorothy Day House has the capacity to house three families at a time. Every family goes through a screening process to determine if they can be best helped by the Dorothy Day House and if they would get along well with the other families living there. If they are accepted, the staff of the Dorothy Day House work with the families to set goals to get them back into their own home. The families stay as long as they need to as long as they are working to meet their goals.

While visiting there I met Taylor, the father of one of the families. He recently found a job working at an upscale restaurant here in Memphis. His son, Justice, is a big fan of Spider-Man. I also met Caitlin, a teenager whom Sister Maureen described as a great influence on the other children living in the house. She always starts her homework immediately after arriving back from school, whereupon the other children gather around her at a table and do their homework.

After the coffee and cake, Sister Maureen gave me a tour of the ground floor. There is a large kitchen, a dining room, living room, and a playroom that doubles as a computer room, where the adults can go online and apply for jobs. On the tour, I was particularly interested in a picture of Dorothy Day that hangs above the fireplace in the dining room. It is done in the style of a medieval illuminated manuscript, which is why it caught my attention. The picture was donated to the shelter by someone who actually knew Dorothy Day, had opened several Dorothy Day shelters around the world, and had come to Memphis to help train the staff at the shelter here.

Michael Garcia at the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality.

Michael Garcia at the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality.

All the furniture in the Dorothy Day House was donated, and they have storage units full of more donated furniture and household goods. When families are able to move out of the Dorothy Day House and into their own home, they often receive furniture from the Dorothy Day House so that they won’t be moving into a bare house or apartment. The staff at the shelter continue their relationships with those families once they move out, to do all they can to ensure their success.

Donating furniture is only one way people can help out the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality. In addition to accepting financial contributions, the shelter is always looking for volunteers to help out with things like house maintenance and yard work, cooking meals, childcare, and assisting with fundraisers. They are also very flexible regarding volunteers’ ability to contribute. I let Sister Maureen know that I am interested in helping tutor residents.

Driving home from the shelter, I realized that my Volunteer Odyssey week was now over. Of course that doesn’t mean my volunteering is over. I definitely intend to return to the places I’ve been blogging about this past week.

Thank you for reading! I’m searching for a job as an historical consultant, researcher or educator. If you know of a great fit, please send it our way:

My profile pages:

Want the insider story and more pictures? Connect with us on Twitter!

Week 10, Day 7: Rae-Anne Pitts at Dorothy Day House

On the final day of my volunteer week I went to the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality. The Dorothy Day House provides temporary housing for homeless families. On any given night there are over 200 homeless families in Memphis. Typically, when a family becomes homeless, the men in the family have to go to shelter or seek help downtown, at either a soup kitchen or through Hospitality Hub. An assistance shelter such as the Salvation Army can take in the mother and smaller children. Older children are often put in the foster care system until the family is able to provide a home again. This system pulls the family members in different directions, and keeps them from staying together as a family unit. This flaw in the system is what the Dorothy Day House seeks to address.  The Dorothy Day House enables entire families to stay together. The facility opened in 2006 and has since seen thirty families pass through the doors. Unless you knew what lies behind its doors, you would think it is just another house in midtown Memphis.

From the outside, The Dorothy Day House is unassuming; I had passed by the house probably a hundred times. There is no sign out front but what happens at the Dorothy Day House is truly remarkable. On this night of volunteering, my husband came with me. When we pulled up to the house we were not sure if we were in the right place. We walked up to the front door, with our dessert in tow, and rang the doorbell. The director at the house is Sister Maureen, who answered the door. She showed us around, and then sat us down to tell us about the history of Dorothy Day and the Dorothy Day House.

Dorothy Day lived from 1897-1980, in New York. She helped to establish the Catholic Workers Movement, in which she advocated for non-violence, and the belief that the needy should be take care of by churches, not the government. She felt, it is the responsibility of individuals to take care of those in need. Sister Maureen told us that she and others had studied Dorothy Day years before, and because of her teachings, began to pray for the needs in Memphis.  Sister Maureen says that the Dorothy Day House began out of prayer.

Sister Maureen works with all of the families that come to the Dorothy Day House, to see what it will take to turn their lives around. All of the families set goals and monitor progress during their stay. As long as they are working towards their goals, families are allowed to stay.  Mostly, individual contributions fund the Dorothy Day House. It receives some donations from churches but no money from the government. Volunteers help with needs of the families there, and the maintenance of the house. The absence of government funding makes the Dorothy Day House distinctly different from other housing organizations such as the Salvation Army. With government funding comes restraints on how long families are able to stay, whereas at the Dorothy Day House families can stay as long as they need as long as they are working towards their family goals.

Every Sunday night a few volunteers and the families meet downstairs, for prayer and dessert. I volunteered to bring dessert on this night. We all recited prayer, and passages of scripture with one of the volunteers leading us. Everyone was given the chance to say what they are thankful for, and ask God for blessings such as patience. After the prayer, we all had dessert and visited with one another.

I loved that they have family photos on the wall of families that have come through the Dorothy Day House.

The image of the homeless that is often not seen or thought of is that of homeless families. If you picture homeless the image that most often springs to mind is that of a homeless man, who lives alone, and begs for money. Homeless mother and fathers, with children living in their cars or cramming in an apartment with many family members is also a reality.  These families do anything they can to keep from being separated, and to keep their children rather than have them taken away, and to be put in the system. The Dorothy Day House is a unique and special place that fills a serious and often overlooked need in Memphis. These families do not have anywhere else to turn, and no other way to stay together. My husband and I enjoyed learning about the Dorothy Day House and visiting with the families. We both signed up to keep volunteering there.

Thank you for reading! I’m searching for a job in public policy, non-profit administration, or social science research. If you know of a great fit, please send it our way: or

Week 5, Day 7: Samantha Hicks at The Dorthy Day House of Hospitality

I woke up on day 7 feeling kind of weird knowing it was my last day with the program. I IMAG1433know that this does not have to mean it will be my last time volunteering or anything but Sarah and Volunteer Odyssey made it so easy for me to volunteer. I can only hope I am able to gather enough self-discipline to keep a few hours of volunteering in my weekly routine. The feeling that comes with helping others is wonderful and definitely something I would like to continue. My goal is that when you hear from me again I am able to report that I have continued in what I believe is my duty as a resident of Memphis and am still helping others in the community.

Okay, on to day 7. On this day I spent my evening at the Dorthy Day House of Hospitality. My husband, daughter, and I spent a couple of hours simply visiting with the residents of the house. We stayed for prayer and dessert hour and pretty much talked while the kids played. It honestly felt like we were visiting a friend’s home on a Sunday evening. If you don’t already know, the Dorthy Day House is the only shelter in Memphis that is willing to take in homeless family. All of the other shelters force families to separate. Can you IMAG1437imagine being a single mother of a thirteen year old boy and being forced to separate from him in order to have a place to stay at night? This happens all of the time in our city (as well as other cities). Most shelters simply will not agree to take both males and females in the same facility. The Dorthy Day House is an exception to this rule. This shelter which resides in a beautiful home built in the early 1900’s is equipped to house three families. The home is beautiful and feels exactly as it should, like a home. If you have ever visited a shelter you are aware that although the facility might try to and make the residents stay feel “homey”, it just doesn’t usually happen. After all, how can it feel like home when you have to shower at a scheduled time after waiting in a long line and eat with 100 other people cafeteria style. I have hear many people who have stayed in shelters in other states describe staying in a shelter as being in prison. The residents at the DDH have one large room per family, a large dining room, a great room, a play/computer room, and an amazing kitchen where families are free to cook their family’s favorite meals. The DDH is 100% funded by donations from private donors and is run almost entirely by volunteers. This means that they do not receive finding from and local or state programs and are currently not funded by any grants. It is amazing to think that there are citizens in Memphis that have been gracious enough to provide this programIMAG1436 with so much.

Want to know more about Samantha? Check out her bio:

Week 5, Day 7: Atina Rizk at the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality

You are a hardworking person with a family to support. You have a job, a home, a car and a truck, and are living a good clean life. The stock market crashes. Your small business fails. You live off of savings while you look for a job. Your car breaks down. You lose your house. You spend all your money to move to a new place where you have been promised steady work. The person you relied on disappears. Your truck gets stolen. You are stranded. But you still have that family to support. How are you going to keep them together?

The charming facade of the Dorothy Day House is just a hint of the architectural features within.

For a precious few, the answer is the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality, a shelter for homeless families. Sister Maureen, a Catholic nun for 48 years, works to provide a stable and supportive environment for families while they get back on their feet. It’s in a large and beautiful house on Poplar Avenue close to downtown. At the moment two families live here, a mother (we’ll call her “K”) with two of her children and a married couple (let’s call them “Mr. and Mrs. G”) with one of their children. All of the things in the first paragraph happened to Mr. and Mrs. G.

Mr. and Mrs. G are victims of the recession. They are both clean cut, smart, and capable. Mr. G worked construction and demolition. He used to bid on small jobs and earned the majority of his profit by carefully recycling hardware, metal, and whatever he found in the buildings he was breaking down. Mrs. G had her own cleaning business. So many calamities have hit them that they haven’t been able to keep up. I cannot blame them.

The dining table at the Dorothy Day House is often set for many people, as members of the community often visit for dinner. The walls are lined with pictures of the families that have stayed there.

I know that I would be able to fall back on my family to support me if all of this happened to me, but if your relatives are struggling just like you, how can you expect them to support you too? That is what the Dorothy Day House is to these people. It’s a place to go until you get back on your feet, a place to be encouraged for a little while; it’s what your family would provide if they could.

Mr. and Mrs. G both have job interviews next week, I honestly pray that they succeed, and I have a feeling that they will. They have never been homeless before, and it’s only been a few weeks. They seem so responsible, and are such good parents! I have never met more polite kids, which brings me to K and her children.

K's daughter's precious drawings on the driveway. The House provides stability for her while her mom gets things back in order.

K has had a hard life. Her first child died of sudden infant death syndrome. She was a victim of domestic abuse. Despite her sadness, she had a steady job for many years, but she was laid off along with twenty other people during a company merger. She lost her car and then her home. I can tell it’s hard for her to tell me her story. Her children are both so bright and talented. K’s employment prospects are limited by where the bus can reliably take her on time. It’s a truly difficult situation, but she works to find a job every day. With luck, she’ll get one soon.

Homeless families are an “invisible problem,” according to Sister Maureen. They do not like to call attention to themselves, because they are terrified that their children will be taken away from them. This means they do not feel safe at the soup kitchens. No other shelter in Memphis allows for teenage boys to stay. Most of the shelters require couples to live apart. Sister Maureen has to turn as many as 100 families away a year. Thinking about that makes me want to weep, but it also inspires me give all the help I can. I hope you are inspired too.

Sister Maureen

Silly faces for the camera!

IMG_0060 IMG_0061

Week 2, Day 7: Rivers Powers at Dorothy Day House of Hospitality

Everyone knows that homelessness is a problem in America, but what most people don’t know is how the system works to combat the problem. Homeless shelters exist and are supported by governments, faith-based organizations, and non-governmental organizations. However, many shelters have very specific requirements for who they allow to reside in them. Some are gender specific, substance-free, number restricting (per family unit), time limited, or religiously affiliated, but very few allow families to remain intact or allow male children over the age of about 6. This is where the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality comes in: to fill this void and prevent families from being separated just because they are homeless.

Dorothy Day House of Hospitality is a great place for families, who can’t get into a typical shelter, to stay while they are getting back on their feet. Some families who have come through the Dorothy Day House are homeless due to traumatic life events, financial circumstances, or rebuilding their lives after incarceration, but the common thread they all share is a willingness to be self-sufficient and needing some assistance figuring out how to do that. Dorothy Day House has social, instructional, technological, and occupational resources available for the families to help them with school and the life, job, and financial skills they will need for independent living. Because these resources are available to women with children of both genders, regardless of age, the Dorothy Day House is filling a vacancy left by the system.

The Dorothy Day House offers several social opportunities each week for its residents. On Sundays, there is dessert and spiritual social during which time a volunteer brings desserts and scriptures and prayers are read by the group. This is a fun way to get to know new people who may not get to socialize often or may feel disconnected from the world around them. I totally failed to take photos when I was there, but I really enjoyed the Rice Krispy treats and fruit with my conversation on Sunday.

Week 1, Day 7: John Cook at Dorothy Day House of Hospitality Soup Supper

Wouldn’t you know it–yesterday was snowy and cold while I worked outside, and today is sunny and perfect and I’m working inside. Sarah is really testing me….

Today I am helping set up for a soup supper to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers and donors who help Dorothy Day’s House of Hospitality maintain her mission. For those of you who don’t know, the Dorothy Day House is a homeless shelter that strives to keep families together. I have seen plenty of homeless men out and about town. Occasionally I’ll come across a homeless woman, but I have never before seen a homeless family. But they DO exist. Homeless families aren’t seen very often because they are usually hiding. They don’t want to risk getting caught and having their kids taken away. The Dorothy Day House is the only homeless shelter in Memphis that keeps families together. When homeless families are able to stay together, they tend to have an easier time getting back on their feet, so to speak. The shelter is able to run with the help of donors and volunteers who help with services like education resources, child care, transportation, food and clothing donations, and legal and financial advice, to name a few.

Soup Supper at I.C.

I arrive at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in midtown and find my way to the basement, where I am supposed to keep my eyes peeled for Sister Maureen. I’ve never met Sister Maureen, so naturally I’m looking for the quintessential nun, dressed in a black and white habit, possibly with a ruler in hand, in case I misbehave. I was a little confused when I did meet Sister Maureen. She was dressed in normal clothes. Was this allowed? The answer: Yes. Apparently Hollywood has definitely had an impact on how I pictured nuns. (Don’t act like you wouldn’t have made the same mistake.) She introduced herself, then ordered me to spit out my gum and get to work. (totally kidding!)

NOT Sister Maureen

I get assigned a few different tasks to help set up of the supper: set tables, fold programs, and make a huge vat of tea.

Brewed it like a BOSS

Before the supper starts, I get a chance to meet a few others who are involved in helping at the shelter. I met a young woman named Jaimi Cornelsen who is relatively new to Memphis. She explains that she has always been involved in volunteer work and jumped at the chance to help at the Dorothy Day House once she heard about it. I can hear the alacrity (look it up) in Jaimi’s voice when she talks about her time spent helping the people there.

The room starts to fill with people and Sister Maureen acknowledges all the hard work of everyone invited to the supper. She also shows a short documentary that explains exactly WHO Dorothy Day was. I’m not going to go into it, but that Dorothy Day is quite the fascinating woman. Talk about someone who did the right thing regardless of people standing in her way. I’m intrigued by people like her, who have ideas and actually put them in motion without letting anyone else stop them. And from what I gathered while at the soup supper, with her “can do” spirit, Sister Maureen, who is the director of the shelter, is quite a bit like Dorothy Day herself.

Setting up for the Soup Supper


Metrino PRT

This is an interpretation of how the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) concept from Metrino Global Projects could take shape. The PRT is a public transportation system for cities. Small driverless pods travel independently suspended under an overhead network of light guide ways, 5 to 10m above street level. This project was a small design study consisting of brainstorming sessions, concept generation and digital visualisations.


From Host Integrity Monitoring Using Osiris and Samhain

Threats to hosts are everywhere. They include software such as remote exploits, viruses, and poorly written software applications. A threat can also be a malignant administrator, a malicious user, or even uncontrolled physical access. This chapter focuses on the threats that host integrity monitoring looks for, specifically insider threats and rootkits. We also look at some successful worms and their effect on the hosts they infected. Finally, we look at threats to host integrity monitoring (HIM) tools and discuss ways to mitigate them.

Before you can establish a plan for monitoring the integrity of your hosts, you must understand their environment and the threats to that environment. This process includes defining what the threat is and its potential impact on the environment. Once you understand the impact, you can define symptoms that will indicate if a threat has been realized. Those symptoms are used to establish a plan for monitoring the environment.

An example of this is the training required to become a doctor. Even though most doctors eventually specialize, their medical training still requires them to understand basic anatomy. This background proves helpful when detecting things that are out of the ordinary. In addition, doctors study the nature and effects of diseases to learn how they behave and to be able to detect them. Like all analogies, this one eventually breaks down, but effective host integrity monitoring requires an understanding of the host environment, how it can be attacked, and how those attacks can be detected.

Malicious Software

Products & Services
Anti-malware Software
Security Software
Scheduling Software
Network Security Services
Additive Manufacturing Software
Additive Manufacturing Software is software used in the process of additive manufacturing. The software may directly control an additive manufacturing machine or be used in the processing of a design. An example would be slicer software which converts the 3d design into multiple layers (slices) and then generates the code the additive manufacturing machine uses to create the part.

Topics of Interest

Introduction One of the most important steps in deploying a host integrity monitoring system (HIMS) is to plan ahead. Every deployment scenario is different; however, all are driven by the demands...

Introduction Samhain is one of the most successful open source host integrity monitoring systems available today. This chapter examines all of the steps involved in a successful deployment of...

Incident Investigation When an instance of a threat occurs, it is referred to as being an incident. Incidents are unexpected or unwanted events that can threaten security, and have the ability to...

Introduction At this point, you have successfully deployed either Osiris or Samhain and are now generating log data and alerts that detail changes to your host environments. The next step is...

Introduction to Host Integrity Right now, you are settling down to read this book, and I am reading your e-mail. Not really, but how can you know for sure? If you are like most people, you have taken...


July’s Healthy Lifestyle Habit

Here’s a great habit that has nothing to do with food or eating. So, what’s it got to do with living a healthier lifestyle? EVERYTHING!

This month’s habit is to remember to BREATHE. Yes, I know you are breathing now or you wouldn’t be reading this. The breaths I am referring to are those long, slow, intentional breaths that you control. These take some practice and I will give you some tips on how and when to incorporate them into your day.evening-sun-694425_640

As many of you have figured out, it is pretty easy to do something for 5 minutes. The practice of deep breathing for even 5 minutes may be a great addition to your morning or bedtime ritual. Some refer to this as meditation. Or, you could simply incorporate deep breaths into your day when you catch yourself feeling anxious or uneasy about something.

practice-615644_640One method of conscious deep breathing is to sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Take a slow, deep breath—really deep, into your belly. Hold it for a few seconds,then slowly exhale as much of the air as you can. Repeat. I like to count to four as I inhale; hold to a count of four; exhale to the count of eight. You don’t have to count at all; the counting helps me focus on my breath when I begin.

This is a great exercise to try when you are feeling agitated about something, like being stuck in traffic when you are already late for work; or dealing with a challenging situation and you are on the verge of exploding. When we get nervous or excited, our breaths typically become very shallow and rapid. By taking a moment to focus on our breathing, we allow ourselves to emotionally step back from a volatile or uneasy situation.

Any time you are thinking into the future and feeling nervous, this breathing exercise will ground you firmly into the present moment and empower you to take the next action step with confidence and conviction. (There may be times when it is not a good idea to close your eyes or even sit down. You can still practice deep breathing on the move.)

So, relax and take a deep breath. Now take another, and another. Excellent! You’ve got this!

“One way to break up any kind of tension is good deep breathing.” ~Byron Nelson

As a health coach, I work with women who have lost themselves and neglected their health in order to raise their families. I help them find their inner compass and live healthier, more balanced lives.

Is this you? If so, I would love to hear from you.  Send me an email today!

This entry was posted in Health, Personal Development. Bookmark the permalink.


Researchers create first self-assembled superconductor

Researchers create first self-assembled superconductor

New York: Researchers at Cornell University have blazed a new trail by creating a self-assembled, three-dimensional superconductor.

It is the first time a superconductor, in this case niobium nitride (NbN), has self-assembled into a porous, 3-D gyroidal structure, said lead researcher Ulrich Wiesner, a materials science and engineering professor.

The gyroid is a complex cubic structure based on a surface that divides space into two separate volumes that are inter-penetrating and contain various spirals.

The findings appeared in the journal Science Advances.

Currently, superconductivity for practical uses such as in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and fusion reactors is only possible at near about -273 degrees Celsius, although recent experimentation has yielded superconducting at a comparatively balmy -70 degrees Celsius.

“There is this effort in research to get superconducting at higher temperatures, so that you do not have to cool anymore,” Wiesner said.

“That would revolutionise everything. There is a huge impetus to get that,” Wiesner explained.

In the first attempt to achieve superconductivity, the niobium oxide was heated to a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius.

After cooling the material to room temperature, it was determined that superconductivity had not been achieved. The same material was then heated to 850 degrees, cooled and tested, and superconductivity had been achieved.

“We tried going directly to 850, and that did not work,” Wiesner said.

“So we had to heat it to 700, cool it and then heat it to 850 and then it worked,” Wiesner noted.


Posts Tagged ‘Schools’

GCSE Students of England – Focus!!

Simon Burgess

The next few weeks might be a horrible time of year if you are 15 or 16. There are some big decisions coming up. One the one hand: the final exams for the GCSE courses, completing two years of work leading up to this moment.  There is a lot of studying still to do, notes to be read, exercises to be worked through, understanding to be really nailed down. Final revision.

But on the other hand: the World Cup. In Brazil. England qualified, and while no-one thinks of England as favourites … who knows? Who would want to miss watching Gerrard and the team confounding the pundits and cruising into the semis?

What to do? This is a classic question of time preference: jam today (watching the game) versus jam tomorrow (getting the grades and higher lifetime income). What is the trade-off between grades and goals?

Our research < > can help. We have studied < > the decisions of about 3.5m students facing this dilemma in previous summers. We compared the GCSE performance of as-good-as-identical students in years with World Cups (or the European Championship) and years with no exam-time distractions.

On average, grades were slightly lower in World Cup years. We interpreted this as some students taking some time out from studying to keep an eye on the tournament. While there are other possible explanations, our statistical techniques rule out more or less everything else.

That’s on average. Some groups of students saw sizeable declines in their grades. Again, the interpretation of this has to be that they prioritised the tournament and seriously cut down on study time.

How much does this matter? It depends on how close to the key borderline the student’s performance is likely to be.  Achieving at least 5 good passes (C grade and above) including English and maths is widely regarded as a necessary minimum for further education or getting a good job. For students who are near this borderline, a grade or so either way matters a lot.

Missing out on 5 good GCSE grades can be very costly. Estimates suggest an average total lifetime cost of around £30,000. This seems a very hefty price to pay for watching some football.

The moral of all this research and numbers: if you are likely to be close to the 5 Cs borderline, stick with the studies, let others suffer the pain of watching England, and get the grades. In the future, you will have earned the money – and the right – to sit back and fully enjoy World Cups.

Banning Junk Food Near Schools

April 29, 2014 Leave a comment

Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder

Should the government ban junk food near schools?

Education spending, pupil attainment and causality

April 29, 2013 1 comment

Author: Simon Burgess

Education spending, pupil attainment and causality

In these hard times, spending government money effectively is more important than ever. Last week Fraser Nelson challenged the effectiveness of spending in schools, one of the areas relatively protected from Coalition cuts. He said: “The biggest surprise, though, was the money: no matter how you split the figures, the amount spent didn’t seem to make the blindest bit of difference”, his reading of a report by Deloitte commissioned by the Department for Education.

What is the evidence? In fact, it is surprisingly difficult to establish the impact of spending more money on student achievement. This is partly shortage of data (researchers always want more data), but there is a more fundamental reason too.

Perhaps inadvertently, Fraser Nelson illustrated the difficulty in his first paragraph. He noted the variation in per-pupil expenditure “ranging from £4,500 in Lyme Regis to £10,000 in Salford.” This is absolutely right – there are very significant variations in revenue per pupil. But the key point is that these are not random: extra resources are explicitly and systematically directed towards schools in poorer neighbourhoods. The mechanism, accreting the new schemes of each successive government, may be incomprehensibly complex, but the intent is surely right.

Getting back to our question, on the one hand we have this systematic distribution of resources towards poorer neighbourhoods. On the other hand we know that pupil attainment is typically lower in schools in such neighbourhoods; not for every pupil, not in every school, but on average. So if money has no impact on attainment, and we line up pupil attainment and school expenditure, we will tend to see a negative relationship. This derives solely from the way that money is distributed to schools. The fundamental problem is that there are two things going on with opposite effects: low attainment is associated with more money (via the schools funding system) and more money may be associated with high attainment (via the education process). With no other information, there is simply no way of disentangling these two opposing effects, and by itself these numbers can tell us nothing about the causal impact of school expenditure on pupil attainment.

So the view that “the amount spent didn’t seem to make the blindest bit of difference” cannot be supported by this evidence.

What of the wider research evidence, based on studies with a plausibly causal research design? One of the most prominent economists in the field of education, Rick Hanushek from Stanford, is famously sceptical of the value of greater resources for schools. There certainly are studies that show money can matter, but it is probably fair to say that the majority view among economists is that simply providing more resources for schools is not the best option.

The really interesting question is this: why doesn’t more money raise attainment? More money usually helps most things. Either there simply is nothing that schools can buy that raises attainment. This seems unlikely, and would certainly be a surprise to parents paying many thousands of pounds to send their children to private schools. Or there are features of the system which lead schools to spending extra resources on the ‘wrong’ things – things that have little impact on attainment. This might be the manner in which the money is distributed by government (typically short-term, making long-term expenditure decisions risky); or the regulations and agreements governing its spending by schools; or other factors. We have speculated a little about this here

Coincidentally, the Department for Education has just opened a consultation  on school efficiency – they await your views.

Should we have profit-making schools?

March 7, 2013 4 comments

Author: Simon Burgess

Should we have profit-making schools?

Profit-making schools have returned to the education debate in England. This is an emotive issue for many, but an economic analysis is useful in defining the real issues.

There are some simple claims that can be quickly dealt with.

  • “Education is far too important to be left to the mercy of profit-making companies.” Education is undoubtedly very important, for long-run growth, for social mobility, and for personal well-being. But think about possibly the most elemental of human needs, the production and distribution of food. While this is regulated by government, we are happy to leave all the decisions to profit-making companies. No-one seriously advocates the nationalisation of food.
  • “It just won’t work.” It clearly does at a general level. Countries around the world, including those with well-regarded education systems such as Sweden, allow profit-making schools.
  • “No-one should make money out of education.” Obviously they do at the moment: schools buy things from profit-making companies. This obviously has to be the case unless schools are going to start making their own books, desks and computers. So the real issues are (1) what kind of deal can schools get to minimise profiteering, and (2) what services are best bought in from outside as opposed to provided by the school itself

The appeal of allowing profit is the view that it makes decisions matter more. It provides strong rewards to organisations to innovate, to raise quality, and to do things more efficiently. Crudely, on a per-unit basis, organisations are pushed to improve quality and therefore revenue, or to reduce cost.

What would be the effects of this in the current education system in England? To answer this, we need to think about the parameters of the market.

Start with revenue. Schools get revenue for having students on the books. It is more or less a per-capita fee, albeit with some extras and some adjustment by the LA (for community schools). But to adopt the language of business, this money is for processing the students. The revenue that the school receives for each student depends not at all on the progress that the student makes.

This is central to the issue. Given the current system, there is nothing that profit maximising schools could do to raise their revenue per student by raising quality. Immediately, a great deal of the appeal of profit-making is removed.

The only way that schools could make profits is by driving down costs. This may be fine; it may be that this doesn’t really affect the quality of education if done in a smart way. If not done in a smart way, the quality of education would suffer and attainment would fall. It is clear that even the optimistic scenario does not improve education systemically in any way, either statically or dynamically through encouraging entry. The quality of education is the same, and the overall cost to the taxpayer is necessarily the same.

The counter-argument is that the pressure for profit might reduce slack enough so that the fall in costs allowed for profits and an increase in money spent wisely so that attainment increased. For this to work, it has to be that school budgets are spent very unwisely, and that an outside organisation could identify and cut ‘bad’ spending, take some profit and raise ‘good’ spending. It is certainly true that there is a huge amount of idiosyncratic variation in school financial decisions, variation that is unlikely to all be the result of optimal decision-making. Schools either know how to better deploy their budgets but are not sufficiently incentivised to do so, or they do not know. If they do not know, it is unlikely that outsiders will do (other schools may know; but that is another issue, only very clumsily mimicked by profit-making). Profit-making may answer the first point, but so do two other approaches, discussed below.

So profit-making is pointless at best: under the current market set-up, improvements in attainment would not make money (so would not happen) with profit-making schools, and cutting costs would make money but would either reduce attainment or leave it unchanged.

There are alternative strategies that might get some of the benefits of the innovative drive that profits might unleash, but in a more productive way: paying for attainment and incentivising cost reductions through resources for the school.

Paying for attainment. A positive step that keeps the current non-profit system intact but provides some of the same incentive is tying schools’ revenue to their pupils’ attainment. This would be straightforward to administer in principle, but there are some critical issues to resolve before it could be implemented. Chief among these is: should we pay for the simple ‘output’ of the school (GCSE points) or for pupil progress? There are good arguments both ways, to be visited in another post.  Of course, schools do much more than produce attainment, but this is the focus of policy.

Incentivising greater efficiency in other ways.   What if any surplus generated by this process had to be re-invested in the schools? Perhaps schools need some strong incentive to reduce costs. This might well be true, but this is not profit-making: profit-making by definition means the taking of monetary reward out of the school. An alternative scheme would be essentially equivalent to a team (school)-based incentive scheme in which the incentive is not money for the teachers, but resources for the school – resources saved are kept in the school. This is again potentially a good idea, worth looking at and some way short of profit-making.

Profit making in schools would either solve all schools’ problems nor signal the end of civilisation; the issue provokes strong feelings, but largely misses what should be the central policy concerns. Big gains in levels of attainment depend on raising average teacher effectiveness and big gains in equity depend on weakening the importance of proximity as an admissions rule and on changing the allocation of effective teachers across schools.  None of these would be strongly or directly affected by for-profit schools. However, there are certainly merits in piloting policies that link school’s revenue per student to the progress of that student, and incentivising cost reductions through keeping the surplus in the school.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: ,

Reforming teacher training

May 3, 2012 3 comments

Rebecca Allen and Simon Burgess

This week the House of Commons Education Select Committee published its report on the teaching profession. This post gives the main points of our evidence to the Committee.

We think of Initial Teaching Training (ITT) as encompassing both the initial training and the probationary year. How should this be set up to produce the most effective teachers who will have the greatest impact on pupil progress? ITT plays two roles for the profession – training and selection with the emphasis typically placed on the former. Both are important and neither should be neglected, but we argue that the evidence suggests that if anything, selection is the more important, and this is our focus here. An important role for selection is completely standard for any professional accreditation system in either public or private sectors.

The key argument is this: the sharpest selection should be made at the point when the evidence on ability is strongest. The final decision on who can become a teacher should be made when we have accumulated enough evidence on the candidate’s teaching effectiveness. Where is this point in teaching? The two central relevant facts are that variations in teacher effects on pupil progress are very substantial, and that the future effectiveness of a potential teacher is hard to judge from their own academic record.

We believe that the current operation of selection in ITT (tight at the beginning, negligible thereafter) is the wrong way round. Instead, we should let a broader group try out to be teachers, but enforce a much stricter probation policy based around measures of teacher effectiveness in facilitating pupil progress. Full certification and an open-ended first job would only be granted once performance data showed a teacher to be effective. The expectation would be that only the most effective teachers would make it through to full certification.

Selection into ITT is about gaining a place on a course. The difficulty faced in identifying people likely to be good teachers is very relevant here. It is very hard to tell who will be a good teacher and therefore a high degree of agnosticism would be appropriate when faced with applicants. This is certainly true for selection based on objective criteria from the applicants’ own academic records. We know that these are unrelated to teaching ability, and so should be irrelevant in selection into ITT. Beyond that, even if selectors are highly skilled at spotting potential, and it is not clear that they are, it is impractical to ask each applicant to teach a practice lesson. Therefore, selection into ITT should be very broad, with a relatively low academic entry requirement.  This of course is not the situation now, nor the direction of travel of current policy. The tightening of academic entry requirements into teaching is not helpful: it will restrict the quantity of recruits and have no impact at all on average teaching effectiveness.

Graduation from ITT should also be tough. Given that much of an ITT course is now school-based, time spent in the classroom will form an important part of the assessment. Arguably the classroom experience is the key part of the course. However, in such a short space of time it will not generate sufficient data for a robust and objective view of the trainee’s effectiveness. It will nevertheless allow the trainee to discover whether teaching is for them.

Once in a job in a school, the progression to being a qualified teacher should be very different to the typical experience now. The key decision on final certification should be made after a probation period of say three years and ideally, the probation should involve classes of varying ability and year group. The period probably cannot be less, though the appropriate length of the probation would need to be analysed properly, depending on the statistical reliability of any pre-hire indicators, school-based performance data, and the cost of being wrong. This is the point when enough data is available to make a reliable judgement on the effectiveness of the teacher. There should be an expectation that not all will make it through to final certification, and indeed only the most effective should be retained. The key judgement should be a minimum threshold of progress that the probationer’s pupils make. Obviously, the measurement of that progress and the parameters of the threshold require a great deal of careful work. Like any statistical data, estimates of teacher effectiveness will never be perfect, and a good deal of evidence over a number of years will be necessary to reach a decision, but this is clearly necessary to raise the average effectiveness of the teaching profession in England.

Another innovative route into teaching is through Teach First. In some ways this is a positive development, as it allows a lot of people to try out teaching and also gives the schools which employ them an ‘out’ at the end of the two years. On the other hand, it restricts entrants based on their academic background.

It is important to see the teacher labour market as a whole, and to see how the different stages of a teacher career fit together. It seems to be very hard to fire ineffective teachers. While the regulations on this have recently changed, generating a culture that encourages headteachers to take a more proactive stance seems harder. While this may change, it may be that the best way to reduce the problem of low-performing teachers is to make it very difficult for ineffective teachers to get into the profession in the first place.

These changes would make starting out on a teaching career much more risky financially. In order to maintain the same average lifetime expected income from the profession, the pay rate of those making it through to final full certification will need to be higher. And the lower is the chance of making it through, the higher is the full professional pay.

In summary, we think that the evidence shows that the selection aspect of ITT is completely the wrong way round. Selection is tight to get into ITT in the first place, but once in, progression to full certification is normal and expected. The process needs to be more appropriately agnostic about likely teaching ability in the first place. It should also allow a broader group of people to try out teaching, but have a much tougher probation regime before trainees be given final certification. It makes much more sense to make final decisions later once more evidence on effectiveness has accrued.

Who fails wins? The impact of failing an Ofsted Inspection

March 27, 2012 2 comments

Rebecca Allen and Simon Burgess

“Make Bradford British”: the parallel lives of the younger generation

Ellen Greaves  (IFS)

The high level of residential segregation for people from different backgrounds was highlighted as a factor contributing to the tension between people from different ethnic groups in the Cantle Report (2001) in response to the race riots in the same city in 2001. The Cantle Report identified that many people living in the same city led “parallel lives”; with little interaction with, or understanding of, people from different backgrounds.

Last night a Channel 4 programme explored the relationships between 8 residents of Bradford, brought together to interact with people from different backgrounds for the first time. The programme addressed the difficulties and benefits of over-coming entrenched prejudices, underlying (perhaps unacknowledged) racism in the city, and the similarities and differences between people from different cultures. The majority of participants in “Make Bradford British” found it a positive experience. Future improvements in relationships between different communities are likely to come through increased daily interaction, however, as well as the moving personal experiences witnessed on screen, and integration in schools can be a starting point.

Segregation in schools commonly results from residential segregation (as admission to schools is usually determined by proximity), but parents’ preferences can also play a role. Research by CMPO shows that pupils from most ethnic groups are more segregated in school than where they live, suggesting that there are factors, either parents’ preferences or other constraints, that restrict integration in England’s schools.

Pupils’ current level of integration in each area in England can be viewed on a website created by CMPO, funded by the ESRC and using national administrative data provided by the Department for Education. The figures for Bradford are startling: in 2009 around 80% of Pakistani pupils of primary school age attended a primary school that was primarily non-white, while just under 70% of white pupils attended a school that was primarily white. This suggests that these two groups of pupils are highly segregated in their primary schools, and the figures suggest that they remain so in secondary schools. Bradford is not alone in this high level of segregation (Oldham has similarly high levels), but the figures are higher than in other areas of the country with similar demographics; in Manchester under 60% of Pakistani pupils attended a school that was primarily non-white in 2009 and around only around 30% of white pupils attended a school that was primarily white.

Other indicators of segregation can also be compared: the dissimilarity index is a summary measure designed to capture the degree of “unevenness” between two groups of pupils (that is, the extent to which the school population reflects the wider population in the local area). Its value (between 0 and 1) represents the proportion of the group population that would have to change schools to achieve the same distribution of that of the local area, where, in general, a dissimilarity index of less than 0.3 is considered low, between 0.3 and 0.6 as moderate and above 0.6 as high (Massey and Denton, 1988).

Bradford has a decisively high level of segregation according to the dissimilarity index; in 2009 the figures show that around 70% of white and Pakistani primary pupils would have had to change schools in order for the distribution to reflect the wider population of the area, and the figure is similarly high for secondary schools.

There are encouraging signs, however; segregation according to the dissimilarity index has decreased marginally in primary schools since 2002, suggesting that the younger generation at least is becoming slightly more integrated, although levels remain higher than almost anywhere else in England.

The high level of segregation in Bradford’s schools suggest that integration and understanding between people from different backgrounds are unlikely to be fostered from direct experience in the education system, although there are some signs that the situation is marginally improving. What can make “Bradford British” and united remains unclear, but further integration of the city’s young people is not likely to harm the city’s prospects.

Notes on the author:

Ellen Greaves is a Research Economist in the education, employment and evaluation research sector at the IFS.


Another band I like

Another new hard rock band I like is De La Cruz.  Most of the members are from Australia and they formed a little over a year ago.  The originator of the group was a guy named Casey Jones who you can find on YouTube doing guitar instructional videos.  He plays guitar like you would hear in old 80’s glam rock bands such as Poison, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Dokken, Ratt, etc.  His bandmates shared similar tastes in music so when they got together they sounded like a more modern version of those bands.  They put out a free ep of six songs to download a few months after they formed the band which I got and loved immediately.  Now, this past March they have released their first major label CD titled “Street Level”.  I FREAKING LOVE IT!  Unfortunately though, I found out through their Facebook page that Casey was getting tired of the band and decided to quit and focus on more guitar teaching and some other music projects.  The rest of the band decided to stick together and wished him well.  You would think this might put an end to the group but the 2nd guitarist in the band (they were a two – guitar band to start with) is pretty capable and maybe they’ll find a replacement for Casey or just keep going as a four piece outfit.  Anyways, if you like any 80’s heavy rock such as Motley Crue, Dokken, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Poison, or Ratt you would probably love this group.

And then there was

Well hello to anyone who reads my blogs.  Haven’t posted in awhile because nothing has really motivated or inspired me lately.  Spring Break has started for some schools around my area so it will give me some time to relax from work.  I’ll try and come up with a more interesting post soon.  Till then, take  care.

My Favorite Television Programs

The Shooting Today

I found out about the shooting of the elementary children and teachers in Connecticut when I came in from work today.  I am a high school teacher and it just hurts me so much that something like this happens and seems to be getting more and more frequent.  Here is a video from one of my favorite bands in the 80’s White Lion with their popular song “When the Children Cry” because words just won’t do!

Trouble is a heavy rock band (doom or stoner metal) that I did like in the 80s but did not own anything by them.  I recently started listening to them again and purchased their self-titled CD on Google Play.  Trouble probably would have been more popular during another time period but they were competing against the hair metal bands like Bon Jovi, Poison, Winger, Warrant, Motley Crue, etc and the thrash bands like Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth and their music did not not fit either of those styles of music.  They were more old school metal like Black Sabbath or old Judas Priest.  Anyway, one of my favorite tracks on that self-titled CD is “Psychotic Reaction”.  Here is a YouTube clip of them playing that song at a reunion show in Stockholm a few years ago.

Favorite new music

There isn’t much new music that catches my attention.  I usually am listening to the music referred to in my previous post by the CDs I own, mp3 files on my computer, streaming them through Spotify, or watching videos or concert footage on TV channels such as VH1 Classic or Palladia or even on video sites such as YouTube on the Internet.  Two new bands have stood out to me lately and they are vastly different.

The first one is Foster the People.  Heck their song Pumped Up Kicks is beyond catchy.  I watched a few live performances by them on various media and they sound even better to me live than the music they recorded.  Plus, you can tell they are not lip-synching and really playing their instruments – a really big deal to me.  They do not sound like anyone else.

The second band I really like is The Sword.  Much heavier band than Foster the People.  They just released a new CD in October titled Apocryphon which is really heavy, has many fist-pumping, headbanging riffs, and catchy as well.  I have also watched several of their live performances and videos on YouTube and they sound just as good there.  The singer is not the best but he is also playing guitar most of the time while trying to sing and I know that is very hard to do.front54

Creative Outlet

I love music.  I can listen to just about all genres and find something interesting in them.  Unfortunately or fortunately, harder-edged rock always captured my most attention.  You probably already knew this from my previous post by listing Led Zeppelin as my all time favorite rock band.  Other bands that I love include Queen, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Bad Company, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Megadeth, and so on.

But listening to music isn’t the be all and end all for me.  I also long to be able to create my own music.  I have delved into songwriting and learning how to play guitar as well as other instruments for awhile now.  I know some people are fulfilled by just learning how to play songs from artists they themselves love.  I am not like that, I want to make music I can call my own.  I am definitely not a super guitar player, keyboard player, songwriter, or singer by any means.  Also, I have never been in a band, but me and my best friend would get together and play music and sometimes even write some music.  It was very fun and definitely a creative outlet I needed.

Looking Forward To

I do not go out to watch movies in theaters very often.  In fact, the last time I went to a theater to watch a movie was when Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King was released.  I have always loved J.R. Tolkien’s books, especially The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ring series, therefore I am excited about The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey being released as a movie starting this month.  More than likely, this will be one movie I actually go to the theater to see!


Loading presentation...

Present Remotely

Send the link below via email or IM

Present to your audience

Start remote presentation

  • Invited audience members will follow you as you navigate and present
  • People invited to a presentation do not need a Prezi account
  • This link expires 10 minutes after you close the presentation
  • A maximum of 30 users can follow your presentation
  • Learn more about this feature in our knowledge base article

Do you really want to delete this prezi?

No description

Gelli Ilagan

on 27 November 2014

Comments (0)

Please log in to add your comment.

Report abuse

Transcript of ANCIENT EGYPT

The Egyptians loved life and lived it to the fullest. Party scenes on the tomb walls, songs in papyri, and musical instruments showed how much music meant to them. They had festivals and people were entertained with dances and music.

The ancient Egyptians dressed in comfort; most of their clothing were made of linen. They wore amulets as they believed they were good luck charms and could keep away evil spirits and prevent injury. Men and women dyed their hair using henna and others wore wigs to protect themselves from the heat. Each and every ancient Egyptian wore makeup. Besides helping Egyptians look beautiful, Kohl helped fight eye infections and reduce the glare of the bright Egyptian sun.

Historical Significant
One of the most remarkable features of the pyramids its durability. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still in existence. Although it is still standing, it no longer has the same meaning as it did back then; the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids for their queens and pharaohs but now it is a major tourist attraction that largely contributes to Egypt's economy.

The pyramids were ancient Egypt's greatest legacy and the earliest large-scale cut stone construction. They built the pyramids as tombs for their pharaohs. They believed that it was important to be buried properly so that they'll live again in the afterlife. The construction of the pyramids affected many people's lives as they were the ones who built them. Slaves weren't used to build the pyramids but rather average citizens who worked in farming. The pyramid-building era lasted for around a millennium; through the Old and Middle Kingdoms. The pyramids help us understand not only Egypt's history about the afterlife, but also how it influenced the beliefs of future civilizations about the afterlife. It also sheds light on parts of western civilization traditions. Modern western civilization was influenced by the Greeks and the Greeks were influenced by the Egyptians.
Fun Facts
The ancient Egyptians all relied on math because they needed to learn their numbers in order to know how many livestock they had and they needed to use accurate measurements to build buildings and the pyramids. Math was one of their important subjects along with reading, writing, and sports. Most ancient Egyptians went to school to become scribes because it was an essential to be able to read and write in order to get a career. The reason why girls did not go to school was because instead, they were taught how to cook, weave, etc. by their mothers. Not all of the ancient Egyptians were educated because some couldn't afford it; only wealthy people got the privilege to go to school.

The earliest form of writing in Egypt was declined by the 4th century AD because Egypt had went through a Christian conversion and adopted the Greek alphabet. Hieroglyphic writing is pictorial meaning that pictures and symbols were used to express ideas, objects, and so on. The ancient Egyptians called their language "medu-netjer" because it meant that it was the words of the gods. However, the Greeks called the Egyptian's language "hieroglyphics" meaning "sacred carvings" because the Egyptians commonly carved the words on stone, walls of tombs, and temples.
The afterlife is a continuation of life on earth after death. All the ancient Egyptians believed in this and they believed that there was a process in getting into the afterlife. They thought that the dead person would first get judged based on their life (if they made good choices, if they were a good person, etc) by the underworld god. After that, rituals were performed by priests to ensure that the dead person had passed the test. A ritual called "opening of the mouth" was performed to allow the dead person to be able to eat and drink in their afterlife.

It was important that the ancient Egyptians embalmed their corpses; mummification was the method they used. They would first cut the left side of the body and remove all the internal organs except for the heart. They left the heart inside the body so that it can be weighed in the afterlife. After that, they cover the body with natron which keeps the body from decaying. Once that's done, wrapping and burial of the body occurs. There are different costs for each methods; at first, mummification was only available to pharaohs but eventually became available to everyone. Many ancient Egyptians died at a young age - about 1/3 were newborns and infants. Some women died giving birth. Diseases, hunger, accidents, physical violence, and hard work were the reasons for their deaths.

One of the most important Egyptian deities was Horus; the pharaohs believed themselves to be incarnations of him. The ancient Egyptians worshiped over 2000 deities and their gods were represented by animals.

Ancient Egypt
Egypt was the wealthiest country of the ancient world until they operated with a non-monetary economy. This means that the work that were available to them such as house hold labor, care giving, and civic activity didn't have a monetary value. Wages and taxes were paid in produce. When trading, two parties were making deals until they were satisfied. The ancient Egyptians usually preserved goods for future transactions; Egypt's large gold reserves were often used for exchange purposes.

Both women and men could earn money, own property, and can ask or fight for a divorce. A divorced woman could keep her children and property and could marry again.
-Egypt's time was cyclical and linear. In fact, the calendar we use today is derived from one developed by the ancient Egyptians.

-They divided the year into 3 seasons: inundation, growing, and harvest.

-Egyptian women had a wide range of rights and freedoms.
Government / Political Organization
Throughout Egyptian history, the general way of governing was consistent. Things only changed when parts of Egypt were invaded or when someone chose to overthrow the government.

The government revolved heavily around a single figure; the pharaoh. People believed that the pharaoh was a living god therefore their type of government was a theocracy. Their government structure involved viziers, army commanders, chief treasurers, the minister of public works, and tax collectors; all of whom directly answer to the pharaoh. To pay for tax, citizens were drafted into the military or forced labor. Many of their laws involved punishments to fit crime. Suspects were beaten, branded, got their property taken away, got their limbs amputated or in extreme cases, the pharaoh would sentence them to death.
Image retrieved from http://schools.yrdsb.ca/markville.ss/projects/classof2007/16chong/rasanathan/piture5.jpg
Fun Facts about the Pyramids
-The people put so much work into the pyramids because it was for their king’s tomb. The Egyptians believed that a deceased king continued to care for them from heaven. They believed that as long as the body was preserved as a mummy, the king would continue to visit Earth and keep them safe and secure.
-The men who worked on the pyramids were paid not with money but with beer, oil, and linen.
-The word pyramid comes from the Greek word ‘pyramis’ which means wheat cake. The egyptian buildings reminded the Greeks of pointy-topped wheat cakes. The ancient Egyptian word for pyramids was Mr pronounced as Mer, which means ‘tomb.’
Egyptian Calendar
Beer, oil, linen, and other food
Works Cited
Alford, Alan F. "Egypt - Giza Theory." Egypt - Giza Theory. Eridu Books, 2004. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Andrews, Evan. "11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Burial Practices, Afterlife, & Mummies." Burial Practices, Afterlife, & Mummies. Rosicrucian Order,Amorc, 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Calvert, Amy. "Explore Smarthistory." Smarthistory: A Multimedia Web-book about Art and Art History. Creative Common Attribution, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Dollinger, André. "Slavery." Ancient Egypt: , Its Causes and Practice. N.p., 2000. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Egyptian Education." Development in the Ancient World -. Tangient, 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Hamilton, R. Ancient Egypt. Bath, UK: Paragon Pub., 2007. Print.
Hart, George. Ancient Egypt. New York: DK Pub., 2008. Print.
"Mummification." Ancient Egypt. The British Museum, 1999. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"The Origin of the Word "Pyramid" - EgyptSearch Forums." The Origin of the Word "Pyramid" - EgyptSearch Forums. Infopop, 2003. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Poole, Sara. "Education & Learning." Ancient Egypt Daily Life. Wordpress, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Samuels, Charlie. Technology in Ancient Egypt. New York, NY: Gareth Stevens, 2014. Print.
"Ten Facts about Ancient Egypt!" National Geographic Kids. National Geographic Society, 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Toutant, Arnold, and Susan Doyle. Ancient Worlds. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
Egyptian school
Egyptians performing
Pyramids of Giza
The richest ancient civilization
Mary Joy, Teresa, Gelli
Egyptian Social Pyramid
-Egyptian pharaohs were often overweight.
-Cleopatra, the last active queen, was not Egyptian.
-The Ancient Egyptians invented lots of things we still use today, such as paper, pens, locks and keys and toothpaste.
-The pyramids were not built by slaves.
Full transcript


Loading presentation...

Present Remotely

Send the link below via email or IM

Present to your audience

Start remote presentation

  • Invited audience members will follow you as you navigate and present
  • People invited to a presentation do not need a Prezi account
  • This link expires 10 minutes after you close the presentation
  • A maximum of 30 users can follow your presentation
  • Learn more about this feature in our knowledge base article

Do you really want to delete this prezi?

Copy of 91505 PE 3.8

No description

Ana Perelini

on 13 February 2017

Comments (0)

Please log in to add your comment.

Report abuse

Transcript of Copy of 91505 PE 3.8

Research contemporary leadership principles, apply principles to physical activities, and then produce a
prezi presentation
that draws conclusions about their relevance and suitability for physical activity contexts.

You will be assessed on how you: critically examine contemporary leadership principles, how you question and challenge assumptions about contemporary leadership principles, and how these are applied, to draw coherent and insightful conclusions.

Application & reflection
Take part in PA where you use leadership strategies
Video as evidence
Reflect through a blog
Prezi presentation based on your ideas & experiences

Prezi Presentation
Sign up & create an account
Class notes PRI to share

Create a NEW prezi called - 'Full Name' PE 3.8 Leadership 2017'
Share with PRI
Take part in class PA
Coaching of junior students
91505 PE 3.8 - Leadership
Examine contemporary leadership principles applied in physical activity contexts.

Achievement with Merit
Examine, in depth, contemporary leadership principles applied in physical activity contexts.

Achievement with Excellence
Critically examine contemporary leadership principles applied in physical activity contexts.

Think about a leader that has inspired you.
They could have been someone you have worked directly or indirectly with.

Write down:
What made them a great leader?
What inspired you about them?

What is leadership?
Is all leadership the same?
List all the types of leaders you have come across this year?
Write one word that defines them as a leaders e.g coach - motivator
Examples of leaders in your life.
Research find definitions of the following common leaderships styles:
Authoritarian, Democratic & Laissez-Faire.

Now find a character or person that fits this description. They may be fictional or real, they may be from present day or the past. Write down why you think they demonstrate this leadership style
Design a new school gym
Summary of your leadership
Copy questions & answers
Were you involved with the planning of your gymnasium?
What ideas did you offer your group?
What involvement did you have with final decisions?
What was the leadership like within your group?
Did one person take control? Did all members have a say? Did any members sit back and let others make the decisions?

Complete the Leadership Foundation
Stones Worksheet

Work with a partner to create the ultimate egg catcher.

Must only use the items given to you by the teacher to make the egg catcher.

Take an egg and drop it from a height in to your egg catcher.

The egg that survives the drop wins the chocolate!
Egg Catcher
PE 3.8 Leadership Principles
Individual voice & empowerment

Collaborative Leadership
Collaborative leadership is a process or method to guide a diverse group of people to find solutions to problems that affect them all and to encourage change.

It embraces a process in which people with differing views and perspectives come together, put aside their narrow self-interests, and discuss issues openly and supportively in an attempt to solve a larger problem or achieve a broader goal.

Notes & class activities
Please have a book/refill to record notes
Definitions & large chunks of writing will be shared
Leadership is about:
Extending people
Helping with the what & why
Encouraging others to push themselves
Enabling; not telling
Walking alongside

Why practice collaborative leadership?
Read through the sheet 'traditional leaders vs Collaborative leaders' then discuss the reasons why collaborative leadership is effective. Write down 5 ideas.

Write a paragraph about a situation this year where collaborative leadership would have been a more
effective leadership style than what was used by the leader.
Why practice collaborative leadership?
Encourages ownership of the idea/task
More involvement in implementation by all
Trust building
Access to more and better information and ideas
Community or group empowerment

When is it the right time to use collaborative
When is collaborative leadership appropriate?
When the
timing & situation
is right
When problems are
serious and complex
When there are a number of
diverse group members
, or members with
varied interests
other attempts
at solutions haven't worked
When an issue
affects a whole group

inclusiveness and empowerment are goals
of the process from the beginning

What would be any difficulties with using this style of leadership
Some of the major difficulties with collaborative leadership?
It demands the ability to face conflict directly
It may mean trying to overcome resistance to the whole idea of
collaborative leadership (some people like to be told)
It can lead to groups taking what seems to you to be the wrong path
It demands that leaders put their egos to the side

Fill out your 'Leadership Principles' definition sheet with the pro's and con's of this leadership sytle. (in your PE300 folder in GDrive)
Distributed Leaders

Distributed leadership is primarily where people within a team and organization share leadership. Differs from Collaborative Leadership in that ‘followers’ are viewed as leaders in their own right.

A distributed model of leadership is one premised upon the interactions between many leaders rather than the actions of an individual leader.
Phil Jackson - NBA Coach
11 NBA Championships as a coach
6 with MJ at Bulls 5 with Kobe at Lakers
Coach of the year Awards & NBA Hall of Famer
What made Phil Jackson so effective?
What was Phil Jackson’s coaching philosophy?
What made his coaching style so effective?
How did he view his players?
What did he do when new ‘Star’ players joined his teams? (Rodman)
What did he make his team do before the play off game?
How did this affect the team?

Follow this link and make notes on the 6 principles of distributed leadership - http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/distributedleadership/?q=node/149
Working with Juniors
In groups of 3 complete 4 lessons plans for 1025
Choose a Large ball sport
Then identify at least 2 skills within that sport that you will teach
Each lesson should build on the previous
2 x short 2x long
When filling in your sheet - think about the type of leadership strategies you will try
Thurs 21 Fri 22 May
In your group of 3 you will responsible for planning & running an activity for the class
You will now randomly choose your location:
Botanic Gardens
Lyall Bay Beach
Town Belt
Oriental Parade
Wgtn CBD
Planning your activity
You are now responsible for researching your location
Decide on the goal of your activity
You activity should last ....
Investigate any costs associated with your activity
In the past groups have run: fitness sessions, quiz nights, team building activities, scavenger hunts etc.
You will run your activity NOT take part
All group members MUST play a role in the planning & delivery of your activity.
Give examples of when Distributed
Leadership would work/ would not work
Would work (advantages)
Wouldn't work (disadvantages)
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders...are those who
stimulate and inspire

followers to both
achieve extraordinary outcomes
help followers grow
and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by
Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2008).

Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is based on the ability of the leader to offer a role model that inspires their followers to take greater ownership for their work.
A transformational leader understands the strengths and weaknesses of each follower and assigns tasks that enhance each individual’s performance.
There are four elements of transformational leadership: Individualized Consideration, Intellectual Stimulation, Inspirational Motivation and Idealized

Go to the following website and make notes on each of the 4 elements of transformational leadership.
Transformational Leadership clip
Watch the clip and make notes on the following:
Vision, Authenticity, Growth mindset, Creativity
Watch this clip for more information
Transactional Leadership
This theory bases leadership on a system of rewards and punishments.

Now go to this site and summarise the differences between Transformational and Transactional Leadership.
Basic Assumptions of Transactional Leadership
Situational Leadership
There is no “one size fits all” approach to leadership.

Depending on the situation, varying levels of leadership and
management are necessary.

Leaders must apply the most appropriate leadership style to fit the given situation.

Step 1. Prioritize tasks
Step 2. Are followers ready?
Step 3. Decide om the right leadership style

The four different types of situational leadership are:

Directing, Coaching, Supporting, Delegating

Which clip demonstrated;
List down the reasons why you came up with the answers you did e.g this clip demonstrated directive leadership because the character was....

Provision of Individual Empowerment
The Three Commandments
Give people space to work on their own
Give people time to think things through for themselves
Trust people to do it their way

How to empower
Boosting your Team (get to know them, quality time)
Encourage risking taking
Facilitate learning
Give direction (map, compass, rope, binoculars)
Leaders inspire, motivate

You have free reign to design your ideal school gym.

Work in groups of 4-5.
You have 30 mins to discus and draws the plans for your gym.
You can include whatever you want (be realistic) but must be able to justify why it is there.

You will present your plans to another group and they will give you a score out of 10.
Score on - originality, use of space, practicality, functionality.

Reflect on this activity using the same questions as the design your gym.

What was different about working in pairs as opposed to a large group.
There are 6 principles of collaborative leadership

-Assessing the environment for collaboration-understanding the context for change before you act. Knowing what you want to do as a group before you begin.
-Developing clarity through visioning and mobilising-defining the shared values of the group and engaging people in positive action.
-Developing trust and creating safety-creating safe places for developing shared purpose and action.
-Sharing power and influence-having input from all involved to accomplish more.
-Developing people through mentoring and coaching-being committed to the development of the group to maximize their learning experience.
-Self-reflection-understanding own leadership attributes and having ongoing reflection to improve, engaging others.
Dimensions of Distributed Leadership
Go to the site below and make notes of the 4 dimensions of distributed leadership.
-Trust, autonomy, change & collaborative leadership.

When would this leadership be appropriate? Give examples.
Fill out your pro's and con's sheet.
Full transcript


Health Impact

The Health Impact of Bluelight & How this Epidemic is Affecting Humans of all Ages

Bluelight can impact your health in many ways.

The PupilBox team works hard to :
• Fine the most relevant, up-to-date research; and
• Convert the academic text into language we can all understand.
Explore this section to understand how your eyes work and how Bluelight impacts your health!

The eye is one the most complex organs in the human body..and perhaps the coolest in our opinion. This anatomy brief doesn’t do justice to the intricacies of the visual system, rather highlights the important aspects of how light enters our eye; providing a foundation of knowledge that will help you understand how light and your visual lifestyle can impact your health if not protected.

  • Light hits the CORNEA. The cornea is clear layer on the front of the eye responsible for bending the light rays (starts the focus process) before entering the eye.

  • Then the IRIS, that pretty colored part of your eye, controls the amount of light entering be changing the diameter of the PUPIL. Our pupils expand in dark environments to allow more light through and contract in bright environment. (*This is an important concept when lighting your work environment; check out our Top Tips for more information.) As we grow older, the pupil becomes smaller. In other words, children have larger pupils which allow more Blue Light into the eye.

  • The LENS is directly behind the pupil. Also referred to as the crystalline lens, this part of the eye does something called ‘accommodation’ which changes the shape of the lens to focus on objects at different distances. (*Don’t let your lens stay in one shape all day in the office, make sure to practice the 20/20/20 rule). When discussing Blue Light, it’s important to understand that our lens naturally changes color over time. As we grow older, the lens changes to a more yellow color, preventing shorter, damaging wavelengths of light from entering the eye. In other words, children’s lens lack the natural coloring to protect certain harmful light. (*starting to see the trend? Children are at higher risk, see more here)

  • The focused light travels through the gel substance area called the VITREOUS BODY to reach the RETINA. The retina is a light-sensitive layer of tissue where the light is converted to electronic signals. The very center of the retina is called the MACULA. Conquencidently it is this center part of the retina that is responsible for our central, pinpoint vision. Our peripheral vision comes from the area of the retina surrounding the macula. (*We get into the macula in more detail here)

  • Finally the OPTIC NERVE sends the electronic signals from the retina to the visual cortex of the brain, producing an image.

Digital Eye Strain is also known as Computer Vision Syndrome or CVS.

Chances are that you’ve experienced Digital Eye Strain, whether or not you’ve called it that. In fact, you may be experiencing some of the symptoms as you read these very words. According to the Mayo Clinic, the symptoms of DES are these all too common feelings: sore, tired, burning, itchy, watery, or dry eyes; blurred or double vision; headaches; sore neck, shoulders, or back; an increased sensitivity to light; difficulty concentrating; and/or the feeling that you can’t keep your eyes open.

Because blue light exists naturally in abundance from the sun, our biology is primed to interpret blue light as daytime– time to be awake! This mechanism works through, you guessed it, our eyes. The melanopsin receptor in our eyes send a signal to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which in turn activates or deactivates the pineal gland, which produces melatonin.


Latest Browser

Auctiva is optimized for the latest versions of

Firefox Firefox
Chrome Chrome
IE Internet Explorer

Frequently Asked Question:

How can I organize my listings into folders?

First, create the desired listing folders by hovering your cursor over the "Listings" tab and selecting the "Folders" option. On the page you'll be directed to, click the "Create Folder" button to get started creating your folders.

Once you have created listing folders, you can move desired listings into your folders on your Active Listings, Closed Listings, or Saved Listings pages by checking the boxes next to them, selecting the destination folder from the "Move selected item(s)" drop-down menu and then clicking the "Move" button.

Also, on the pages mentioned above, you can choose to display only listings in a single folder by selecting the folder from the "Folder" drop-down menu and clicking the "Go" button.


Product detail page

Roman fresco Flora

--show/write review 12aDetails
13dropdowns productvarianten For an extensive description click here
15USP button list (product questions)
prijs, levertijd etc.
€125,00 €112,50 Sale
- +
10(product tekst/content)
This hand-painted Roman fresco is a replica based on a 1st century original excavated in Pompeii. Since the 1st century AD onwards, beautiful frescoes with scenes from daily life have been produced all over the Roman empire. They are often a reflection of the things that Romans thought to be important in their society.

The garden, or atrium, was an important space in the Roman house. Herbs and plants grew there, but it was also a place of rest where Romans could sit on a bench and enjoy the green and the fountains.

Women has a relatively subservient role in Roman society. But we know from frescoes that women could write and presumably signed contracts. The lady depicted on this fresco is richly dressed, indicating her aristocratic background. But she is also barefoot, in a way of idealizing the country. The woman picks flowers to place in her lararium (house altar). In her hair she wears a garland. Venus and Flora were the goddesses of the garden. This fresco presumably depicts the goddess Flora.

This artwork is completely handmade. It measures 25 x 20 cm and is made on a 5 cm thick tablet. It can easily be displayed or hung to the wall. The warmer temperatues of the Mediterranean countries have preserved many Roman frescoes.

Product details:
Size: 25 x 20 x 5 cm;
Mounting: wall mount;
Material: gypsum alabaster;
Suitable for outside use: No;
Suitable for painting: No;
Weight: 1750g;
Based on a historic original: Yes;
Transport weight: 3000 *

22a + 22(Extended reviews)
0 stars based on 0 reviews
8(producten op basis profiel)
9recent bekeken producten (slider)

Recently viewed


Sedang Disiapkan

Move Existing Websites To BlueHost

We need someone to move 10 websites from Bravehost Hosting to Bluehost Hosting.

This project is as simple as it reads.

Only serious, experienced bidders please.

This involves moving existing websites, creating databases, and reinstalling scripts.

Thank you for bidding!

Please be available to start immediately.

Kemahiran: Linux, PHP, Memasang Skrip, Reka Bentuk Laman Web, Destop Windows

Lihat lebih lanjut: it websites, existing websites, move, existing, creating websites, reads, move project, serious start immediately, existing scripts, hosting websites, websites hosting, pricelessinsc, script bravehost, websites simple, php existing script, experienced serious, websites project php, php websites project, php databases script, move websites, hosting scripts, existing databases, simple project databases, start existing php, websites php

Tentang Majikan:
( 4 ulasan ) Columbia, United States

ID Projek: #384589