Keflavik paper company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Keflavik paper company - Case Study Example phasize only on one or two criteria; instead, it should take holistic viewpoint to achieve overall synergy with the available resources and ability to create new capabilities while embarking on a new project. (Seeber 2011) Organizations do best on their core competencies and identifying the core competencies is an essential task. Core competencies could be in new process innovations or marketing expertise to have an edge on competitors. Mere cash flow analysis or favorable NPV cannot make the project a grand success. Aims at finding the benefit derived versus the cost of the project and the risk involved. The risk involved should not be such that it can put the company into negative territory from where it cannot recover. Financial analysis is a part of this evaluation criterion. While selecting any project, it is important to delve into exploring the future market growth prospects. It is like exploring the threats and opportunities with a project in consideration in the given market place. A niche with high market growth prospects is always preferred over lower growth areas. (Seeber 2011) Poor project screening methods have a direct bearing on firms capacity to manage its project effectively. A firm is deployed with finite resources on finance, and manpower. When they are not put to use judiciously to achieve synergy among its operations, it is certain to affect the project immensely. Positive cash flows are worked out on paper and it takes considerable skill to achieve those in reality. Selection of a project is thus, a strategic decision for an organization and that should be done screening through several criteria. Project prioritization is a necessity and has been a new learning for the decision makers in the case of Keflavik. Selecting a most favorable project in the beginning that passes through all laid down criteria reduces the firefighting work later on considerably. (Seeber

Chinese Beer Market Essay Example for Free

Chinese Beer Market Essay China’s beer industry has enjoyed impressive growth over the past three decades—ranking first in the world in terms of output in 2010. But despite its achievements, the industry now faces serious challenges, including slowing growth rates and slim profit margins. To break the bottleneck, the industry must look to new growth sources. Promising strategies could include introducing high-end products in China’s urban markets and launching low-cost but still high-quality products in rural areas. To make these strategies work, Chinese beer companies will need to strengthen their operations on three fronts: brand positioning, distribution and cost control. 2 | Accenture Institute for High Performance | Copyright  © 2012 Accenture. All rights reserved. China’s Beer Industry: Breaking the Growth Bottleneck Despite its achievements, the industry has encountered several obstacles. For one thing, spectacular growth rates from earlier decades have recently lost steam. From 26 percent during 1980-1990, production CAGR shrank to 12 percent in 19902000 and 7 percent during 2000-2009. And while per-capita consumption has increased in China, it pales in comparison to numerous other countries—suggesting considerable room for growth. The industry also has meager profit margins, in part because low-end products account for 85 percent of the domestic market. Fluctuations in prices for critical raw materials such as barley and hops; soaring promotion costs aimed at launching higher-end offerings; and relentless price wars have whittled margins to 6. 4 percent—3. 9 percentage points lower than the industry average. Figure 1: Beer production in China, 1980-2011 (million tons) Industry production has enjoyed an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 15%. CAGR 14. 7% 4899 69 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989. 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Since 1980, the Chinese beer industry has seen steady escalations in production as well as consumption. (See Figures 1 and 2. ) The top four players—Tsingtao Brewery, China Resources Breweries, Yanjing Beer and Anheuser-Busch InBev— accounted for 58 percent of the nation’s beer sales in 2011. Still, there is no â€Å"national† beer brand; indeed, the industry has decidedly different characteristics across China. The big beer makers are concentrated in China’s eastern, central and northeast regions. In these saturated markets, companies compete to serve urban consumers through well-established sales channels including supermarkets, restaurants and clubs. In China’s rural regions, characterized by relatively few sales outlets and high transportation costs, beer drinkers can find a slim variety of offerings mostly at small stores. Source: China Industrial Economic Statistical Yearbook, data of 2010 from China National Sugar and Alcoholic Commodities Fair, EPS. Figure 2: Beer consumption in China, 2003-2011 (liters) Per-capita beer consumption surged from 19. 6 liters in 2003 to 36. 36 liters in 2011. 36. 36.

Smartphone Operating Systems: Evaluation Enhancements

Smartphone Operating Systems: Evaluation Enhancements Muneer Ahmad Dar Javed Parvez Abstract—The increasing number of mobile operating systems that operates the small hand held devices called the Smartphone, has become integral part of our lives. The openness of these new environments has lead to new domain of apps and markets and has enabled greater integration with existing online services like e-banking etc. Smartphone makers are competing in turns to trump each other for storage, processor speed, platform compatibility and camera megapixels but it’s the largely software the mobile OS that makes the biggest difference to the popularity and market share of Smartphone. This paper evaluates the popular Smartphone Operating Systems with the purpose of understanding the user friendliness, popularity, user privacy and security and accessibility with the wide range of apps. Our research focused on the advantages and limitations of the Smartphone operating systems with the intension to find out if one of them has an edge on the other and finally we propos e the enhancements so as to make them more user friendly and secure. Keywords: mobile Operating Systems; Smartphone; Apps; Processor speed; Megapixels; Security; Accessibility. Introduction Smartphone have become indispensible part of our life and everyone who uses it is getting addicted. Smartphone provides a wide variety of apps ranging from social networking to GPS based location searching that are useful for everyone in their day today tasks. In a study of 1,600 people including managers and professionals [1], Leslie Perlow, found that: 70% people said they check their Smartphone within an hour of getting up. 56% check their phone within an hour of going to sleep. 48% check over the weekend, including on Friday and Saturday nights. 51% check continuously during vacation. 44% said they would experience a great deal of anxiety if they lost their phone and couldnt replace it for a week. With these many professionals becoming dependent on Smartphone, which has necessary components of the computing platform: an operating system, applications and hardware. The main component of a Smartphone on which its functionality depends is the operating system ASmartphone,tablet or any other digitalmobile device is operated by the Operating system called the mobile OS. Modern mobile operating systems includes all the features of apersonal computeroperating system and in addition to that includes the features like atouch screen,cellular,Bluetooth,Wi-Fi,speech recognition,voice recorder, GPS mobile navigation,camera,video camera,music player etc. The Smartphone operating system (OS) development has grown to include competitors such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Symbian, and Palm with each of them trying to make it more user friendly and secure. Although these operating system platforms are trying their best and have come achieved a lot since their inception, none of these Smartphone companies provide a mobile OS that is ideal and satisfies all the users in terms of user friendliness and privacy. They claim that their platforms perform the best in all situations and will certainly not advertise any weakness with their Operating systems. This makes it difficult for end users particularly to a novice user to know which platform is best suited for their need. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive analysis of each mobile operating system in order to identify the strengths of one Operating System over other operating system. Section II gives the overview of various Smartphone operating systems. In section III we identify the limitations of mobile operating systems. In section IV we propose the enhancements which could be implemented in the Smartphone Operating Systems and finally we draw our conclusions in section V. Smartphone Operating Systems ANDROID Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, commented â€Å"There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can’t access on their cell phone.† [1]. with this vision the popularity of smart phones having Google’s Android Operating System is continuously on the rise in the 21st century. .Android is a comprehensive operating environment based on Linux kernel, it is also a layered system; the architecture of Android system is shown as in picture [3]. Applications layer is the site of all Android applications including an email client, SMS program, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language. Application framework layer defined the Android application framework. All Android applications are based on the application framework. The Android application framework including: A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application with beautiful user interface, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web browser. A set of Content Providers that enable applications to access data from other applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data. A Resource Manager that provides access to non code resources such as localized strings, graphics, and layout files A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display custom alerts in the status bar. An Activity Manager that manages the lifecycle of applications and provides a common navigation back stack.[1]. Figure 1: Android System Architecture [3] Some of the advantages of Android over other Smartphone operating systems is listed as under. The ability to run tens of thousands of apps just like the iPhone but with choice of phone models that you can choose from. The choice of with or without physical keyboard, shape, color, phone size, screen size, manufacturer, features, and phone carrier. No more monopoly by one company on one carrier. Android allow developers/programmers to develop apps (applications) in what is known as application without borders. Android is beginner friendly and supremely customizable the more you use Googles services, the more Android will shine Android has the majority of the market and the user experience is improving quickly. Google’s Android Now checks your location and calendar to automatically show you relevant info e.g. traffic to work, cafes, and flight details and lets you search with natural voice commands and replies with natural speech. Android is an open source service. This means that it’s free and anyone can use it. Anyone can modify and improve the software making it more effective and personalized. Applications are freely made and designed for Android by numerous app developers all over the world and these apps are offered for free on the Android market place. This feature of open source has also attracted mobile phone producers to manufacture phones using Android OS Android is not just an operating system designed for individuals but it also fulfills your business needs at the same time. Android market place offers numerous apps that are specially designed to manage your business. Now you can have a closer look at your business processes on the go with the help of these apps. IPHONE OS iOS is the mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. It is the second most commonly used operating system behind Google’s Android. Unlike Android it can be installed only on Apple’s hardware. The iPhone OS has seen a rapid rise in popularity and garnered a large and dedicated user base. The iPhone OS has risen so far and so fast primarily due to the innovations on user interface and availability of 3rd party applications [11]. Unlike the Android security architecture, iOS security model provides different philosophy for achieving mobile device security and user’s protection. The iOS application platform empowers developers to create new applications and to contribute to the application store. However, each application submitted by a third party developer is sent to the revision process. During the revision process the application code is analyzed by professional developers who make sure that the application is safe before it is released the application store. However, such an application, when installed, gets all the permissions on a mobile device. Application might access local camera, 3G/4G, Wi-Fi or GPS module without users knowledge. While Android lets each user handle its own security on their own responsibility, the iOS platform makes developers to write safe code using iOS secure APIs and prevents malicious applications from getting into the app store. The iOS security APIs are located in the Core Services layer of the operating system and are based on services in the Core OS (kernel) layer of the operating system [14]. Application that needs to execute a network task, may use secure networking functions through the API called CFNetwork , located in the Core Services layer. The iOS security implementation includes a daemon called the Security Server that implements several security protocols. The Security Server has no API with public access. Instead, applications use the Keychain Services API, the Certificate, Key, and Trust services API, which in turn gets access with the Security Server. SYMBIAN The Symbian OS was designed specifically for mobile devices with its small memory footprint and consumes low power. It is an open OS, enabling third party developers to write and install applications independently from the device manufacturers. An extensive C++ API is provided which allows access to services such as telephony and messaging, in addition to basic OS functionality. The Symbian OS was designed so applications could run for years without losing the user data. Also the OS has the capability of being platform independent and can run on more than one hardware platform [6, 7, 8, 9]. WINDOWS MOBILE This platform is based on Windows CE (WinCE). WinCe is a compact OS specifically designed for pervasive devices. It is focused on providing a consistent interface for applications on various hardware platforms which emphasizes portability by providing the user with the Win32 API. The hardware platforms include Packet PCs, Smartphone, Portable Media Centers, and even onboard computers in automobiles. The Windows Mobile platform was designed for flexibility and with the developer in mind. For that reason it was designed to support lots of preemptive multitasking. It supports a whopping 256 priority levels for threads and up to 32 processes. It supports all of the standard mutual exclusion and synchronization methods you would expect from a desktop PC. This functionality makes it ideal for a Smartphone because the users typically demand multitasking and want to be as productive as possible [4, 7, 8, 9 ]. PALM OS Palm OS is a proprietary operating system originally developed by Palm Inc. In the early versions (preà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Garnet), the Palm OS was primarily utilized in Palmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ developed Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) mobile hardware units. At one point, Palm PDAs with the Palm OS held 85% of the market share in the mobile device market [12]. However, in recent years, Palms market share has been in decline, mostly due to the stagnant nature of the OS development and has yielded the leading position to Symbian [6, 7, 8, 12]. Limitations of Mobile Os As discussed in the previous sections, the mobile operating systems are competing for the major market share and are claiming to be the best for the users, yet they have number of limitations in their platforms which for obvious reasons they are not disclosing to their users. The malicious apps aimed at mobile devices have risen from about 14,000 to 40,000 in less than a year. This rise in the malicious apps requires the strong OS. The limitations of the Mobile operating systems are listed as under: All or No Permission: A user cannot grant single permissions, while rejecting others in order to install the app. Among the list of permissions an app might request a suspicious permission among the other legitimate permissions, will still be able to confirm the installation. Mobile devices may download malware which the mobile OS is not able to trace. The novice users may download apps that contain malware unknowingly because it can be disguised as a well known game, security patch by OS, utility, or other useful application. It is difficult for users to tell the difference between a legitimate app and one containing malware. Often, the users of the app cannot judge the appropriateness and legitimacy of permissions for the app in question. In some cases it may be well understood, for example when a chess game app requests the privilege to reboot the Smartphone or to send SMS messages. In many cases, however, users will simply not be able to understand the appropriateness of the permission. Functionality, which is supposed to be possible only given the appropriate permissions, can still be achieved with less number of permissions or even with none at all. In case of the iOS , the user is not at all informed about any of the permissions. The app can access any of the resources without the permission of the user. Resistance of Android and iOS against various attacks. Proposed OS Enhancements In order to enhance the security of the mobile operating systems we propose the following Enhancements: Need Based Permission System (NBS): The Need-Based Security (NBS) system designed to enhance the privacy of the user at run time. The main advantage of the proposed NBS system is that the user is informed about the authorized and unauthorized access of the resources at run time. The NBS system can be implemented in the operating system to provide the permissions at run time. Currently the Os is either including all the permissions without the information of the user as in case of iOS or it forces the user to accept all the permissions at install time as in case of the worlds popular OS Android. The most important file AndroidManifest.xml which lists the permissions of the app can be modified at run time by providing the need based permission system whenever the app is asking for the permission the user may be informed at that moment. For example, let us examine the Dial Kashmir app available on Google Play which gives all the details of Tourist places in Kashmir and contact details o f important places like universities, government offices etc. The main permission this app may require is the INTERNET. If it includes MANAGE_ACCOUNTS which is the permission that allows the app to retrieve the user account information from the phone, our operating system will get the permission from the user at run time to access the resource and if user allows then only the permission will be granted. The main advantage of our NBS system is that it gives freedom to the users and the programmers to write a code which does not result in usability issues. Need based permission system and getting permission approvals at run time is a relatively new but promising approach as it gives lot of freedom to the novice users. Security API: In order to deal with the malicious apps downloaded by the user, we propose a security API which can be integrated with the existing security framework of mobile operating system. The objective is to provide security against the Apps which are installed by the end user and is given all the permissions at the time of installation. This enhanced security has the desirable property of not disturbing a regular user in any noticeable way. In fact, the user need not even be aware that the Security API has been applied. We have to prevent the modification and access of data from mobile phones by other external malicious applications unknowingly. We propose an API which will enhance the security of existing Android Framework. The first step in our proposed security API is implemented by adapting an encryption technique utilizing Advanced Encryption Algorithm (AES) and applying it to all the personal files in the Smartphone. File operations offered by the proposed Security API should aid in the detection of potentially malicious Apps whose behavior matches that of Malware. Malware recognition is usually achieved by signature matching, heuristic analysis, or comparing hash-values Fig 4: Sequence Diagram of the System Conclusion The increasing trend of Smartphone usage by individuals of all ages has brought forward stiff competition between different Smartphone OS’s and Google’s Android OS. However, recent researches and reports revealed that the novice users are not secure on these platforms because of the limitations of these OS. We found different types of limitations in various mobile Os and particularly in Android and iOS which are the leading mobile Operating Systems. We found that there is a major need of modification in the permission based model of security system and we strongly recommended the implementation of Need based security system in the mobile operating systems so that the novice user can be informed at run time about the access to its various resources. References Perlow, L.A.: Sleeping with your smartphone:how to break the 24-7 habbit and change the way you work, Harvard Business review press, 2012. Kataria, A.; Anjali, T.; Venkat, R., Quantifying smartphone vulnerabilities,Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN), 2014 International Conference on, vol., no., pp.645,649, 20-21 Feb. 2014doi: 10.1109/SPIN.2014. Bornstein, Dan. 2008. â€Å"Dalvik VM Internals†. http://sites.google.com/site/io/dalvikà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ vmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ internals> Delac, G.; Silic, M.; Krolo, J., Emerging security threats for mobile platforms,MIPRO, 2011 Proceedings of the 34th International Convention, vol., no., pp.1468,1473, 23-27 May 2011 Muneer Ahmad Dar and Javed Parvez.: â€Å"A Novel Strategy to Enhance the Android Security Framework†.International Journal of Computer Applications91(8):37-41, April 2014. Published by Foundation of Computer Science, New York, USA. Cleron, Mike. â€Å"Androidology à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Part 2 of 3 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Architecture Overview. 11 November, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6gSd4ugSI> Cleron, Mike. â€Å"Androidology à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Part 3 of 3 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Architecture Overview. 11 November, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPukbH6Dà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ lY> . [8] DeviceForge.com. 2006. â€Å"Sun blesses Java phone†. http://www.deviceforge.com/news/NS6109398413.html> (accessed 14 April 2009). Dilger, Daniel E. iPhone 2.0 SDK: The No Multitasking Myth. 13 March 2008. Roughly Drafted Magazine. http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/13/iphoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ 20 sdkà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ theà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ noà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ multitaskingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ myth/> (accessed 8 February 2009). Dilger, Daniel E. â€Å"iPhone OS X Architecture: the Mach Kernel and RAM.† 13 July 2007. Roughly Drafted Magazine. http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/07/13/iphoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ osà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ xà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ architectureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ theà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ machà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ kernelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ andram/> Faas, Ryan and David Haskin. â€Å"Review: Which smart phone OS works best?†. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicarticleId=9117021 [14]. Apple inc., iOS Reference Library, Security Overview, http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Security/Conceptual/Security_Overview/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000976-CH201-TPXREF101

We Need Gun Control Laws to Ensure Public Safety Essay -- Argumentativ

We Need Additional Gun Control Laws to Ensure Public Safety On April19, 1999, 7-year-old Nafis Jefferson was shot and killed with a .44-caliber revolver, a Rossi Model 720, while playing with friends along a street in his South Philadelphia neighborhood. Children found the gun stashed under an abandoned car parked along the street. One of the children, also a 7-year old boy, picked up the gun and fired it, hitting Nafis in the head. Nafis died six hours later at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  Ã‚   This is an excerpt from a press release on 4/17/2001 (www.gunlawsuits.org).   Ã‚   Our world today has altered immensely since the days of Adam. It is a perfect example of the maxim "survival of the fittest.'' Due to the captivating media, the revolutionary Internet and the cutthroat competition for winning the rat race, human contact is diminishing rapidly. The center to prevent handgun Violence filed a suit on 18/4/2001 against Amadeo Rossi manufacturers and others who were involved with the sale and distribution of the weapon. The lawsuit contends that the weapon possessed inadequate safety measures and that the gun was illegally distributed. The question arises will this measure bring Nafis back to life? Will this alleviate Tennille Jefferson's pain of her son's untimely death? Laws are structured and implemented to benefit the masses. Unfortunately this objective is  Ã‚   not always achieved. The constitution of the states is considered the best work of law yet it is unable to save the life of a child. Clearly the problem of violence is turning more into a socio-cultural and psychological problem than a legal one. However laws still need to be implemented justly in order to preserve the freedom and rights of me... ...cts) * Since 1992, the number of criminals sentenced for state and federal offences has increased from 20,681 to 25,186 over 25% increase. * The number of higher-level offenders has gone up from 1049 to 1345. * The number of inmates in Federal prisons on firearm or arson charges has increased by 51% The statistics and the stated facts are evidence that more gun control measures are required for the safety and peace of the society.   Law abiding citizens do not need arms.   For them the rule of law and justice is enough. Works Cited Retrieved from the World Wide Web (April 28, 2001) www.gunlawsuits.org Retrieved from the World Wide Web (April 28, 2001) www.handguncontrol.org/facts Retrieved from the World Wide Web (April 28, 2001) www.handguncontrol.org/press Retrieved from the World Wide Web (April 28, 2001) www.nraila.org/grassroots

Looking for Alibrandi Short Story

A Letter of Hope. As John sat in the bustling coffee shop and gazed at the blank paper in front of him, beads of sweat broke across his forehead and trickled slowly down his face. How was he meant to write down what he was feeling when he couldn’t explain it? He knew his emotions were in there somewhere but he just couldn’t reach them. They were locked tight, stuffed somewhere deep down. He was comfortably numb and that was something that terrified him. It was as if the numbness was pulling him into a black hole. He was trapped, unable to get out. His thoughts were jumbled and out of sync. He couldn’t tell if what he was feeling was real.Was he capable of feeling emotions anymore? It was as if John was a ghost. Doing what he had to do to get through the day. Doing what he could to make his father proud. That wasn’t living in his opinion. It was merely existing. His hands started to tremble. Looking up at Josie he studied her. She had a look of pure concent ration on her face as she wrote everything down. He couldn’t help but envy her. Sure her life wasn’t perfect but it was a hell of a lot better than his. She could choose her own career without being screamed at for hours on end. She could get one bad grade without being told she was a failure.She didn’t have to be perfect, and she was beginning to slowly understand that. That was something John would kill for. Even his best wasn’t enough. John had tried his best to please his father; he studied harder than anyone else he knew. He’d sacrificed so much to try and make his father proud, but nothing was ever good enough. John closed his eyes and leaned his head back thinking of all the times he was put down by his father. Pain welled up from deep inside him. He thought of the times he was told he was hated or not good enough just because he’d been beaten in a math competition.He thought of the times he had come home to his father opening his mai l then calling him worthless when the results weren’t up to his standard. The times his father wouldn’t speak to him because he hadn’t got the perfect mark. Maybe his father not talking to him would have been a relief if it lasted more than an hour. John was starting to get more and more tired every day. Tired of the constant pressure, tired of not meeting expectations and of not being able to live his life the way he wanted. But most of all he was tired of the constant nagging voice in his head. The voice that wouldn’t leave him alone.The voice that was the cause of so many nightmares. If John could be who his father wanted him to be then he would. But he just wasn’t capable of that anymore. He was sure of it; there was no way that he could reach his father’s larger than life expectations. It just wasn’t possible. His father always wanted that little bit more. He finally decided that it was time to share how he was feeling with someo ne else and that person would be Josie. He bounced his legs absentmindedly, took a deep breath and with his heart pounding in his chest he started to write down the words that had plagued his mind for the last few months.He wrote the words he hadn’t had the courage to say to himself. Can you see what I see? No I don’t think you can I see images of nothing and I attempt to make that nothingness mean something as hard as I try there is still nothing and that nothing is meaningless I am somewhere else now, outside I am surrounded by people and the blueness of the sky but still nothing has changed everything remains the same I am still alone. As John finished writing he let out a breath. He raked his hands through his hair nervously. He thought it over one last time. Was he really ready to bare his soul to Josie?Taking another deep breath to help calm his nerves, John folded the letter and sealed it with some sticky tape. With his hands trembling he handed over his most pr ivate thoughts to Josie. After they had exchanged letters they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Once John got outside he looked up to the hazy sky and let out a shaky laugh full of relief. Maybe just maybe Josie would be the one to save him before it was too late. He hoped that she would open the letter before graduation and help him put back together the shattered pieces of his life. Because deep down that broken boy wanted to live more than anything in the world.

Reflexion on Class Observation

The class I observed was a third grade and the topic was body parts. This was my first time observing this class. What immediately noticed and called my attention was the excellent classroom management that the teacher has. In spite of students are not in silence the whole lesson, of course; they are children, she is able to catch their attention when explaining, giving instructions and so on.At the beginning of the lesson, she caught students’ attention through a song that is related to the topic of the class. Also, she asks students to dance, which I think is excellent, because students were coming from the break with lot of energy and when they sang the song and move their bodies, they used that energy but at the same time they were focusing their attention on what the lesson was going to be about. Then, the teacher introduced keywords through flashcards.When she did it she asked students about what they saw in them and what I liked about it, is that she considers not just answers in English, but also in Spanish, but when they did it in Spanish she immediately said the word in English and asked student to repeat after her. When she was presenting the keywords she was putting them on the board and writing the names of every part of the body next to each flashcard and they were the whole lesson there, on the board, so when students had doubts they could resort to it.What I like about it was that it gave to students like a kind of confidence, because if they are shy and feel afraid of asking questions, they have the resources to answer the questions they could have by their own. Moreover, it can also provide independence to students when they are working on the tasks they have to do and in that way they can develop autonomy and do not depend all the time on the teacher. An aspect that I could notice and I consider extremely important in a Language class, is students’ participation.The teacher is always encouraging students to do so. During the les son she asked students to play a game. The class was divided in groups, each row was a group. The game consisted of changing the order of the flashcards and students have to rearrange them putting the flashcards in the correct place (where the word of the part of the body was) the teacher asks students to say a number and at random (according to the number) a child had to go to the board to match one of the flashcards. If it was good, they row gained a point.This activity worked out very well, students were very motivated to participate and they could internalize the keywords. In the post activity, the teacher includes numbers, a topic that students had learnt previously. I consider it as something interesting because students put into practice not just the contents that they have learnt during that lesson, but also their previous knowledge. What they had to do was draw a monster. It monster was very meaningful for students because the teacher and them decided how it was going to be .The teacher asked students to say numbers, she wrote them next to each flashcard and according to that they had draw their monster. For example if next to the flashcard of the head was a four, the monster had to have four heads. Students work very well on this activity but the teacher did not check it in the class and did not close the lesson either. The lesson ended and the students did not have time to think what they had learnt. In general I consider that the class was very good, but there are certain aspects that I would improve.On one hand, the teacher do not speak the whole class in English, I know it is complicated to speak the whole class in English, when the students does not manage the language, and that sometimes when we are in front of the class and students are not understanding we tend to speak in Spanish, for them to understand and also because of classroom management; if students are not understanding they lose their attention and start doing another things such as speaking, drawing, etc. ut I believe it is important to try and believe in students; the can understands. Maybe, what English teachers could do is acting and be very explicit with their body language in order to make students understand or try to guess what is being explained. On the other hand, I could realize that the teacher did not pay attention to the children with special needs in the classroom. She just ignores their necessities and acts as if all the children were able to understand at the same time and in the same way.There is no special attention on them, I know it is very difficult to focus your attention on one or two children with disabilities if you have forty more in the classroom, but I believe it is possible to integrate them, maybe adapting the materials or when you are monitoring students work you can go to the position of that student more frequent that the other ones, because with the ones that does not have special needs, you can check easily on the board, in g roups, orally in front of the class, etc.