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After reading Mencius essay “Mans Nature is Good” and Hsun Tzu’s essay “Mans Nature is Evil” It made me realize that men are shaped by experience. People are born with a blank mind with a desire of some knowledge. Much of what we learn affects our behavior. Throughout our life, experiences have been shaping what we are. Both Mencius and Tzu believe the complete opposite, arguing that men are born with a nature of being good or evil.
By reading these articles I’ve come to assume that people are born neither good nor evil; instead both of these are obtained through the filling of our mind with experiences and all this together has influenced what we become. Hsun Tzu’s theory about how human nature is inherently evil and Mencius about how we are good caught my attention, because it made me realize that man can go either way. Even though I don’t agree with either of them entirely, they opened my mind about how nature can turn one way or another. People are not born inherently good because if that’s the case then every society would have to be good and would not bother with problems like violence and other chaotic scenarios.
To go into a good pathway, people must be straightened by mentors. Like Tzu uses on his essay “A warp piece of wood must wait until it has been laid against the straightening board, steamed, and forced into shape before it can become straight; a piece of blunt metal must wait until it has been whetted on a grindstone before it can become sharp” (101). Family, schools, and religion are a fair way to obtain this goodness. For example these three sources have taught us since childhood to be respectful.
This is the kind of experiences one has to follow in order to be good. Family has taught us to have good manners; therefore they work as our mentors. It is just your choice whether to implement these experiences of being good into your life or to go by the experience you been having with the wrong people. People aren’t born evil either. Instead people learn this through experience as well. For example traumatic experience and experiencing poor family conditions can make a child into a delinquent.
Mencius said that “If you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in the same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same- it’s because of the inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given to them by farmers. And so, all members belonging to a given species of thing are the same” (97). In this metaphor Mencius is trying to say that if you are placed in a different habitat where you learn from the outsiders, you are grown by the influence of them, which in his opinion is evil.
I found this to be true but also I want to add that it is not always evil, it can be for the good of somebodies development. Being with the family can be good however sometimes we experience inconsistent parenting or poor parenting where it affects our development. Sometimes people can’t avoid these kinds of experiences but others like being with friends and acting up to their level of immaturity can be avoided. It is up to the experiences you’ve had that will form into what you become. After going through both essays my mind is set into these ideas.
People are born with a blank mind but also we can change after what become of us, either it is for the good or for the evil. Peers have much to do with a person’s behavior. As friends you might have the feeling of just fitting in, having to change your manners to feel part of the group. It depends much on our surroundings; this is what triggers our brain to learn from others and development starts operating. Society is an important factor to our development because it is that, what forms our way of living and thinking. People might not like society because they don’t agree with something cultural or religious but whatever the circumstances are they still are triggered by it.
At last, my beliefs are now more explained and understood after going through the readings. These articles influenced me to the point that I now believe human nature starts as a blank mind which means we are born without any knowledge and habits. This is when experience comes in. Through our experience with everything around us we become what we are.
Our experience since childhood has a great impact in what we are; in other words most of our nature comes from family. Nevertheless, I don’t mean that everyone is shaped from their parents, what I mean is that there are other sources from experience out there that shapes our development (nature). It is your choice to either keep following those experiences, whether the good or the evil, but any how nurture is what will define what you become. Works Cited Austin, Michael, ed. Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. New York: Norton. 2010. Print. Mencius “Man’s Nature is Good”. Austin 94-98 Tzu, Hsun “Man’s Nature is Evil”.

United States territories are considered to be one type of political division of United States. They are administered by U. S government. These territories are not included in the U. S state. These territories are two types i. e. , organized and an incorporated government. If the territories are part of the United States proper, they are known as incorporated and if the territories are made according to the organic act passed by U. S. congress, then such kind of territories are said to have an organized government. The organized incorporated territories existed from 1789 to 1959.
Until 1898, U. S had no unincorporated territories. At present, U. S. is maintaining some of them. Unincorporated organized territories include Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands and Guam. Unincorporated unorganized territories include American Samoa, Baker Island, Jarvis Land, Kingman Reef, Midway islands, Navassa Island etc. , Whenever we think of United States of America, we only think of the fifty official states , but there is much more to think than these fifty states. There are many possessions, territories and commonwealths of United States of America.
The possession of these territories includes some specific reason and all the territories acquired by the United States are of great importance to the country and its economy. The territory of Northern Mariana Islands was acquired in 1900 by the United States which became a commonwealth in 1902 for the purpose of military significance. The purpose of acquisition of Midway Atolls in 1876, Wake Islands in 1898 and Guantanamo Bay in 1898 is for the military significance. The purpose of acquisition of Howland, Baker, Jarvis Islands in 1857, Navassa Island in 1857 and Johnston Island in 1858 is for the guano production.
In this way, United States acquired the possession of the territories and used them for its own needs and purposes. The economy of the United States is being developed by some of the territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, United States Virgin Islands etc. , Puerto Rico is a United States possession since 1898. It acquired the status of common wealth in the year 1952. The constitution of Puerto Rico established republic form of government. On income received from island sources, the people of Puerto Rico do not pay federal taxes but they pay customs taxes which are returned to the common wealth.
The relation between United States and Puerto Rico are defined in Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act. This act covers matters which include defense, external relations, currency, Interstate commerce and communications are considered to be with in the jurisdiction of the Federal government. Local government is run by elected mayor and council. But San Juan has city-management rule. U. S dollar is used as currency in Puerto Rico. Since 1917, the people of Puerto Rico have been given the position of U. S citizens. The economy of Puerto Rico has been more dynamic in the Caribbean region.
Business has surpassed cultivation as the primary source of income and economic activity. Puerto Rico was encouraged by U. S government by lifting up the tax incentives and duty-free access to U. S. U. S firms have invested for new industries such as electronics, textiles, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics and processed foods through which all the goods were manufactured in the territory and they were exported to United States for sales. By this United States economy benefited a lot. Tourism has also been an important source of income to the island .
The other territory Guam became part of the United States as a part of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. The main towns are Hagata, tamuning and Apra. Guam consists mostly of lime stone plateau. Guam uses the American dollar as its currency. There are large U. S military, US army, naval bases present in Guam. The foundation of the economy of Guam is the expenditure by the US government on these facilities. The pentagon announced to relocate the third main division to Guam in 2005. This move increases the Island’s tax revenue and building up of U.
S forces are going to attract professionals such as doctors, lawyers, construction workers etc. , The important products of Guam’s economy include tourism, sales, petroleum products and fish and construction materials. It also includes cultivation of coconuts, vegetables, tropical fruits, textile manufacture especially sweet potatoes. The main trading partners of Guam are Japan and United states. The world’s largest K-Mart store is located in Guam and Guam is considered its home. The growth of the retail industry depends on two factors i. e. , sales to military families and sales to foreign tourists.
U. S products are cheaper on Guam since it allows tourists to buy goods without tax. So, the economy of Guam expanded steadily. The United States Virgin Islands also plays an important role in the U. S economy. United States Virgin Islands is a group of Islands which are situated in the insular area of the United States . It consists of some main islands which include Saint John, Saint Croix and Saint Thomas. American citizenship was not granted to the people of Virgin Islands and slowly frustrations arose and the people thought that they were deceived.
Until the organic Act in 1936 came into force, the interior departments and the military managed the territory and now this territory is run by the elected governor. This territory is under the jurisdiction of the United States of America and the citizens are considered as U. S. citizens. The virgin Island employs a major percentage of population about 41,800 people. These people in Virgin Islands are from all over the Caribbean. Tourism is the main source of economy. In 1900’s, tourism began to flourish and the restaurants, hotels and shops were opened in the main towns and in the beach front properties.
There are number of seasonal jobs which are depended upon tourism. With the development of tourism, economy and the business, the people from neighborhood islands migrated to the Virgin Islands to work. The retail sector and the oil refineries also contribute to the economy of the territory. These Islands are known for their naval ports, because of this reason the United States purchased these islands from Denmark during the occurrence of World War I . The main trading partners of these islands are the United States and the Puerto Rico.
These islands are serviced by the major American airlines as it is a good tourism spot. America needs to maintain all the territories which are rich in terms of money and raw materials and which are famous for their tourism. America, to become a super power in the nation, the U. S territories also helped it in many ways. The Republic of the Marshall Islands which was conquered by the United States in 1947 was used for nuclear weapons testing. The economy of America is benefited by these territories and in turn the territories are also benefited. In this way, the U.S. territories play an important role in developing United States.
REFERENCES:
1. Political divisions of the United States, April 29, 2009. http://www. economicexpert. com/a/Political:divisions:of:the:United:States. htm 2. Puerto Rico. http://www. umsl. edu/services/govdocs/wofact98/202. htm 3. Island group table, 2009. http://www. freebase. com/view/geography/island_group 4. Bernard C. Pattie, Legal System in United States Virgin Islands, The VI Bar Herald, April 27th, 2009. http://www. onepaper. com/vibarherald/? v=d&i=&s=Bar+Info:Law+Review+%26+Articles&p=48799

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the assigned chapters in Introduction to education: Choosing to teach by Krogh. Chapter 4 gives insights into student differences and diversity and Chapter 8 presents student responsibilities and rights including school funding and school choice. In addition, reading Inclusion—Not segregation or integration is where a student with special needs belongs discusses integration and inclusion of special needs children. Reviewing A common-core challenge: Learners with special needs will give you insights into lesson plans for students with special needs. Also, Not all riders on the education express debark at the inclusion station examines inclusion controversies. Finally, there are three articles on Common Core standards to inform the impact of student learning.
In your paper,
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of inclusion.
Identify the challenges faced by learners with special needs.
Summarize the requirement for improved performance of students with disabilities under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Examine how Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are impacting the learning of students with special needs.
Write a two- to three-page paper (not including title and reference pages) describing the concept of inclusion as discussed in Chapter 4 of your text and in your own words. Cite a minimum of one scholarly source in addition to your textbook, and format using the Introduction to APA (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center. Your paper must contain the following:
Introductory Paragraph:
Begin with an attention-getter—a powerful statement, an intriguing question, or a general overview of the challenges faced by learners with special needs and the teachers who support them. Develop your ideas and end your introductory paragraph with a strong thesis. Use the Writing A Thesis (Links to an eld then be supported in the body of your paper.
Body Paragraphs:
(Use the Body Paragraphs (Links to an external site.) resource found in the Ashford Writing Center to ensure that each paragraph is well-developed)
Inclusion Defined:
In this paragraph, define inclusion and be sure to cite your source. Describe a minimum of three advantages and three disadvantages to this approach. In addition to the text, include a minimum of one additional scholarly source.
Impact of Legislation:
Summarize the requirement for improved performance of students with disabilities under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Use the
Special Education Fact Sheet (Links to an external site.)
developed by the U.S. Department of Education to learn about how this population of students is impacted. Speak about how the legislation supports special needs learners and cite this resource in your discussion.
Impact of Common Core:
Examine how Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are impacting the learning of students with special needs. What are some strategies that are being used to help students with special needs achieve these standards?  Use and cite at least one of the articles below to support your discussion:
Common Core State Standards: The Promise and the Peril for Students With Disabilities (Links to an external site.)
Access to the Common Core for All: Six Principles for Principals to Consider in Implementing CCSS for Students With Disabilities (Links to an external site.)
Conclusion Paragraph:
Return to the most important points from your paper (i.e. you might readdress the controversy) and how they have combined to form your belief about the effectiveness of the inclusion approach. Emphasize your thesis statement again and bring your paper to a powerful close by leaving the reader with more to ponder or consider. Do not simply restate your Introductory Paragraph here. The conclusion should reframe your thoughts in a different way.
For more guidance on writing powerful Introductions and Conclusions (Links to an external site.), please visit your Ashford Writing Center. For help in planning and organizing your assignment, please use this link: Week 3 Assignment Template
.

Case Study: Informatics in Healthcare
Assignment Overview
This assignment is intended to demonstrate your comprehension of the primary applications of health informatics in healthcare organizations as well as the ethical and legal issues in the healthcare informatics field.
For this assignment, you will read a case study that examines how the study of informatics can be improved to better equip individuals entering professional healthcare settings. Based on the scenario described in the case study, you will create a training and information presentation.
Assignment Details:
Perform the following tasks:
Complete the reading assignment and the interactive lesson before attempting this assignment.
To complete this assignment:
Review the case study.
Download the provided PowerPoint template to create a presentation that includes:
An overview process map on how staff training is linked to any update in healthcare technology for Best Hospital staff
Examples of computerized teaching tools used within staff training, including:
How you determine which tools to use (rationale)
How such tools are used within the training process
Support of continuous learning by staff (3 slides)
Existing support mechanisms and processes
How continuous learning is linked to professional development
Examples of how learning is offered for diverse learning styles of staff
Ensure that your presentation is free of spelling and grammar errors.
Submit the Week 12 Assignment via Blackboard by clicking on the “Week 12 Assignment” link. Include the proper file naming convention:

Introduction Interpretative reading can be defined as the analysis of literary texts and subsequent enunciation of those texts. It is also sometimes called dramatic reading and relies on the reader’s voice to convey the emotion, drama and imagery of a narrative without actually acting it out. A good interpretative reader must possess a number of vocal skills such as the ability to control vocal tone, volume, pace and inflection to accurately communicate meaning and build drama.
In addition to clear articulation and correct pronunciation, which are paramount to the audience’s understanding, the reader must have an in depth understanding of the text in order to produce a meaningful interpretation of it. In other words the narrator needs to be able to know the characters, imagine their backgrounds and feel their emotions to be believable. Good interpretive reading is a difficult skill even for native speakers to master and takes preparation and plenty of practice; however, for a student in the Thai education system faces a number of distinct disadvantages in becoming a proficient interpretative reader.
To begin with the languages of Thai and English are very different. We have different stress patterns on words and there are sounds in English which don’t exist in Thai, both of which make clear pronunciation challenging for students and although many Thai schools now employ native speaking English teachers who are able to model correct pronunciation and natural rhythm, lots of Thai students lack confidence and have little opportunity to practice English outside of their classroom.
In addition, English uses intonation to convey different meanings and emotions whereas Thai uses a fixed tone for each word so it is often hard for a Thai student to express emotions like sarcasm or disbelief through inflection even when they recognize the need to do so. Another barrier for many Thai students, aside from the enunciation, is actually understanding the text well enough to interpret it. This depends upon, not only the student’s knowledge of English language and ability to follow the plot but also on previous personal, educational and cultural experience that influence the way the narrative is interpreted.
A student lacking exposure to western culture and a deeper understanding of the social norms, stereotypes and cultural issues surrounding a text might struggle with a credible portrayal of characters and personation. These factors coupled with a general lack of focus on key reading skills leave Thai students at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to dramatic reading abilities. So, how do we assess the state of Thai interpretive reading? Do we take into account the many disadvantages that Thai students face in learning to read expressively and if so what criteria is it fair to judge them on?
After some research into the rubric schools overseas use to evaluate students’ interpretive reading skills we decided to base our assessment on the following criteria:- Pace. The speed at which a reader speaks, increasing speed creates drama and intensity. Pause. The lingering of the voice on, before or after a word for dramatic effect. Volume. Adds emphasis or fullness of tone. It can be used with other forms of emphasis to exaggerate emphasis. Melody. The wave-like change in voice pitch depends on the reader recognizing the relative importance of words in the text. Inflection.
The bending of the voice from the main pitch up or down. Personation. The reader’s interpretation of the character. Pitch. The degree of highness or lowness to a tone adds more subtle emphasis. Confidence. How comfortable is the speaker with reading aloud the text. The readers pace, volume and use of pause are techniques that can be used to emphasize mood or add drama but in the case of a non native speaker an overly loud or quiet reading could be due to nervousness and a pause or change in pace could be due to not understanding a word or not knowing how to pronounce it.
These things, in turn, can affect the other factors we will be evaluating. With this in mind we will be focusing on the deviations from normal patterns in each of these categories and trying to find any correlations. Conducting the research and investigation To better understand how well a Thai may use the techniques associated with interpretative reading we needed to hear some examples. We selected a number of Thai students to read a set part of a chapter from a book and recorded them to analyse their interpretative reading skills.
The material chosen was chapter one from ‘The Monkey King’ a stage one young reader by Rosie Dickins. The chapter was broken into 5 separate parts for the students to read. The level one reader was chosen to accommodate all students and focus on their reading skills rather than their comprehension of the text. The students’ ages and levels of English ranged from, six to eighteen years old, and Beginner to Advanced. By having such a wide range of readers we will be able to see if there are any reoccurring problems across all levels and ages or if there are any surprising results.
Before the students were recorded they were each given different parts of the chapter to familiarise themselves with what they were going to read. This is to again focus on their interpretation of the text and to let them question any pronunciation of any unfamiliar words. In addition to that when the text was handed to the students, it was explained to them that they have to read it as if they were telling a story to someone, and they do not want this person to fall asleep.
Also, an example of interpretative reading of a text, other than their own, was then given to the students to make sure that they fully understood what they had to do. To do good interpretative reading, the text has to be fully understood, it is the key for good reading, so all the parts that they did not understand was read to them and explained again before they did the task. Some of the younger students did not really understand how to read the text like they were telling a story, so some parts of the text was read to them showing the change in voice pitch and intonation, as one would do for interpretive reading.
They then caught on to what was needed. The most difficult part was that many of the younger ones were nervous and shy, which is normal for some children who have to read text which is not in their native language. They were mostly nervous because of being placed in front of a laptop computer, and about their pronunciation. It was made clear to them that pronunciation was not the point of the research and that it was not a big deal if they did make some mistakes, but that the most important thing was the way they interpret the text, and that it has to be understood.
It was noticed that they did understand it since they all wrote some Thai notes on the text which seemed to be translations. Then, finally it was for them to forget their nerves and read the text. The students were then recorded reading their parts which were later analysed, considering the younger students reading level, they did quite well. Analysing the results Once we had the recordings of the brave students that took part in our research, the analysis could be carried out. We went through the recordings with a fine toothcomb, and complied the results into a chart.
In this chart, as can be seen in fig. 1. 2, the students were rated on their performance. They were judged on numerous criteria which include melody, speed, volume, pauses, inflection, personation, pitch and confidence. These eight criteria were marked as poor, fair, good, very good or excellent. We took into account their age group and reading skill level when judging them. Once the chart was completed, the graphs were made to clearly show which of the students’ skills were strong and which skills were weak (fig. 2. 1 – 2. 8).
On the whole they performed better than expected, although there were obvious inflections, changes of pitch in odd places that Thais often make mistakes with when interpretive reading. We had spoken about this before the experiment had even begun, so it was to be expected. The results of the experiment showed that most of the students had a very good grasp of the pace that the text should be read at (see fig. 2. 2). In addition, most of them read the text at a decent volume; and all of the students were audible (see fig. 2. 3).
It was obvious which students have had a lot of practice reading because of their melody, and the way it flowed throughout their reading (see fig. 2. 1). These students are also the ones that were given good marks in inflection; pitch and confidence (see fig. 2. 5, 2. 7, and 2. 8). One of the areas in which most of the students did not do very well was the pauses, as it seemed as if they were in the wrong places and there did not seem to be enough of them (see fig. 2. 4). Finally, the worst area by far was the personation or interpretation of the characters in the story.
Most of the students did not even change the pitch or melody of their voice when reading the direct speech and those that did change the pitch of their voice did not put on any kind of exciting voice (see fig. 2. 6). From the results, we have seen that generally the standard of interpretative reading is at a fair level, usually respective of the student’s level of English. However, there were certain issues and certain elements of their reading which are necessary to try and eliminate to help improve their interpretative reading.
The highest level of reading was from a student who could be considered the student with the highest level of general English. This was mainly due to his immediate in-depth understanding of the text. He was able to employ pauses in appropriate places such as full stops, commas, but also using them for dramatic effect as in adjective lists or after adverbs. He also had a strong use of melody in how he read. The best skill he used which set his reading above the rest was his use of personation on the characters voices.
Some other students were able to produce a similarly high standard of reading and once again these students can be identified as the ones with the best overall English language skills. Some of these good examples were from the M3 level. Despite them being at a high level of general English some of the elements they employed in their reading was something that could be said was found in all readings at this level but not as frequent. One of these is the students’ use of force on unstressed syllables. This was more common at the end of words which contained specific sounds.
This was seen in words such as monKEY and heavenLY, adding extra force to the /i? / sound, and gardeNER, giving force to the /? /. There is also another issue that was common at the end of words. This was the dropping of sounds or in some case whole syllables. This was most evident in plural nouns and ed sounds at the end of verbs. For example, peachES, leavES, soldierS, pronounced as /? z/, /z/, and /s/ which were generally dropped from the words all together especially the /? z/ sound. Further to this the /? d/, /d/, and /t/ sounds in words such as, boastED, stormED, and snappED, were particularly a problem.
As we looked down the levels of general English skills we saw problems more identified with that level rather than an overall picture of Thai speakers and these problems ultimately determined how well of a reader we believed them to be. One such problem was melody. English being a very musical language requires the reader to know the importance of stressed and unstressed words within the sentence. The result was mainly a flat sentence giving equal stress to prepositions and articles, to nouns and verbs. This disrupted the usual flow of the English language. The pause was another problem but was a more obvious one.
There are certain positions within a reading where a pause must be used, such as full stops and commas and without these pauses the reading can sounds unnatural. This wasn’t throughout the text but only in some places is enough to give a breathless effect. The above mentioned issues were the most common throughout all the readers but there were some individual mistakes present as well. For example, the rising inflection or falling inflection mid-sentence, giving a different meaning to the sentence as a whole. We believe that vocabulary knowledge is of great importance in the way we set up the experiment.
Although the material used for the reading is said to be a level one reader this does not mean that all the students are able to fully understand all the words in the text and their subsequent effect on the way the text should be read. From the six steps of analysis it is stated that a reader should be able to read the text line by line fully understanding the text, to understand the theme, and importantly take the text away and practice. With the limited time available with the students it was not possible to allow them to take the text home, study it, and perhaps translate the words to understand their meaning.
Therefore, the students with the greatest range of vocabulary were the students with the better examples of interpretative reading. In regards to the common use of what we considered to be their wrongful employment of interpretative reading skills, we tried to identify a possible reason for each case. Firstly, the use of force at the end of words containing /i? / and /? / we believe to be a problem that is associated with the Thai language. Generally, these sounds at the end of words are stressed in the Thai language while unstressed in English, and so they are mixing up the two languages.
In contrast to this is the students’ lack of plural and ed sounds at the end of words. Due to the fact that they are not pronounced at the end of words in the Thai language, the students’ would transfer this over to the English language and drop them from the English words. The students’ lack of melody could be also to do with being Thai language native speakers. The musical rhythm of the English language requires the use of melody by stressing words in certain ways within a sentence. The Thai language, however, does not have melody in a sentence as a whole and so the reading was flat as oppose to rising and falling, strong and weak.
The lack of pauses in some instances has more to do with the individual reader and with practice could easily be eliminated. Conclusion In conclusion, Thai teachers need to provide more speaking time for the students so that they can learn the rhythm of the English language. This can be achieved by giving the students more access to a native speaker’s spoken word. Some suggestions for this would be to have the students do more role-play exercises in the classroom impersonating different characters from a book.
Also trying to imitate character’s voices from a movie or from television programmes would be a great way to master their personation technique. A game could be made out of this where the students have to guess who another student is trying to imitate. Another way to help Thai students might be to get them to listen to other well known interpretive readers while they are reading along to the story themselves to get an understanding of how it is done well. Interpretive Reading for Thai Students By Drew Eaglesham Timothy Parker Sarah Pratley Victor Deville-Blumberg EN202 Interpretative Reading.

Provide at least two websites or other resources you are using to search for the subject you will be interviewing.
Briefly explain why you chose those resources (one paragraph total is sufficient).
If you havee helpful to your classmates as they complete their interviewee searches.