Online Rerservation System Essay Example for Free

Online Rerservation System Essay Online hotel or resort reservations are becoming a very popular method for booking hotel or resort rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels. 1 Hotel or resort reservations systems, commonly known as Online Reservation System (ORS) is a computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities. It is an assistant for hoteliers to manage all of their online marketing and sales, where they can upload their rates and availabilities to be seen by all sales channels that are using an ORS. Sales channels may include conventional travel agencies as well as online travel agencies. A hotelier using an online reservation system easens his or her tasks for online distribution, because an ORS does everything to distribute hotel information to the sales channels instead of the hoteliers.2 Here in the Philippines, the biggest hotels and resorts are using the same technology. But, in some far flung provinces, some hotels and resorts are still using manual reservation system. They use signages and some print advertisements for their marketing; and log books and some paperworks to record customers’ data. One of these establishments is the Double Mother’s Mayon Spring Resort which is located in Barangay Buyuan, Legazpi City. It was established by Lilian Pareja, a native of Albay Province, on March 8, 2008. She built the resort to fulfill her dreams of having one. Double Mother’s Mayon Sprong Resort has full amenities like: 15 rooms with toilet and bathrooms, all are airconditioned; 21 cottages; a convention hall for special occassions, and can accommodate up to250 persons;2 swimming pools; slides; restaurant with videoke; and a rent-a-car. The resort is one of the most affordable resorts in the province yet has a quaility of a five star place. The room price range from P 750.00 to P 5,000.00 per 24 hours of stay. The cottages are priced P 300.00 a day. And, the package program of their convention hall is P 25,000.00, with all the amenities included. The resort has varied of customers: from locals to foreigners. The main attractions of the resort are the full view of Mayon Volcano and the spring water coming from it. Tourists came in the province all year round. For 2 years that the resort was created, all transactions were made manually by the front desk personnel. After the reseachers meeting with the manager and talked about this study and its benefits to the resort, they immediately agreed as thevenue for the study. The resort understands â€Å"the role of information systems and technologies in company’s management and daily operations has been widely acknowledge and assessed as positive†.3 Research has shown the importance and unprecedented growth potential of e-commerce and its role as a new electronic distribution channel.4 It has been also well agreed in the literature that establishing an online presence and adopting e-commerce business models increases company’s competetiveness, profitability, and efficiency. Statement of the Problem The Double Mother’s Mayon Spring Resort has no online presence and computerized system for their establishment. All their marketing and transactions are made manually, and because of this, it costs them time, money, and lack of customers. The researchers will find ways to answer the following questions: 1. How to attract tourists from other provinces and countries? 2. How to launch a marketing campaign that is low in cost? 3. How to provide aswers to the questions of would-be-customers without lifting a phone or having a face-to-face contact? 4. How and where to keep files accurately and effeciently with confidentiality? 5. How to retreive files and print reports easily?  6. Will it be possible to easily monitor the sales on daily, weekly, or monthly basis? 7. How to compute the bill of the customers accurately? Objectives of the Study This study aims to solve the current problems of Double Mother’s Mayon Spring Resort when it comes to Marketing/Advertisement and Management system. The researchers aim to achieve objectives, such as: 1. To attract tourists from other provinces and countries by developing and launching a program or website for information and online presence. 2. To launch a low cost marketing and advertisement campaigns that reaches a wide audience by having an online information and connected with other websites and government agencies connected with hospitality industry. 3. To provide answers to would-be-touristsby having a detailed Frequently Asked Questions coulumn on the resort’s website. 4. To keep files secured, accurate, and efficient by developing a database with passwords that only the administration and owners knows. 5. To retreive files and reports easily and automatically. 6. To save money and time for efficient and accurate transactions. Scope and Delimitation The study will provide answers to the problems of Double Mother’s Mayon Spring Resort when it comes to marketing and effectively managing the business. This will limit the study on the online presence and reservation system. Significance of the Study This study is important to all stakeholders, to the business and to the hospitality industry. 1. The study will make the business of resort thrive for installation of new system and technologies for doing marketing and management. 2. It will be a great help for the employees of Double Mother’s Mayon Spring Resort because it will make their work easier and efficient. 3. There will be less paperwork and their will be less time consumed. 4. The management can manned their manpower to do other things rather than do the time consuming procedures of traditional marketing and reservation system. 5. Assessing the customer’s record will also be easier, faster, more precise and accurate. 6. It will also make the establishment more efficient in terms of providing faster and more efficient quality service. 7. The tourists will have an option of reserving a room or package with the resort’s online presence. 8. The would-be-customers can save time, energy, and money in looking for the right resort or service. 9. This will benefit students and future researchers to serve as reference in conducting researches of similar nature and topic. 10. This will also help the researchers to widen their knowledge and provide them personal experience as they make and work on this study.

Development Of A Web Based Payroll System Computer Science Essay

Development Of A Web Based Payroll System Computer Science Essay Saving time considered to be a leading topic in this modern world where people try to get their work done in a least amount of time. Therefore time spent on simple things in day to day life made easier as web-online has conquered that place. With that intension this payroll system has been developed to organizations where small branches involved. Developing such web based payroll system may facilitate the process of attendance to paying wages for employees. Not only those employees will be able to print their payslips online with no hassle but also they will be able to view their attendance details in their payslip which would be an added feature compared to other systems. To develop the above said web application a research took place in finding which tools has to be used, how the system work, how many users should be involved, how it benefits the company and employees and how the taxations work. Therefore for the payroll web application php, mysql and apache has been used correspondingly in programming, database and web server which comes in a package as wamp for windows. In supporting the above chosen wamp server umlet, dreamweaver, css styles, java script used correspond to drawing uml diagrams, php codings, interface designs and codings. Further in calculating taxes, current tax code and percentages of taxes been used according to current rate of HMRC revenue. Hence, the current system of payroll in organizations has also been observed in concluding the whole process of payroll with the taxations. Payroll system is generally available and could be accessed multiply. An iterative and incremental approach applied throughout developing the payroll system where a piece of coding is tested as it went along with the development. This was useful in finding particular errors affected towards the system and not only that it helped to correct them but also it helped to step forward and trying new functions towards the goal. As php codes takes a major role in this payroll system, validations of functionalities based on it has been quite tricky and useful towards improving knowledge of php and the system. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction 4 Chapter 2. Aims Objectives 4 Chapter 3. Prior research 5 Chapter 4. Literature Review 8 Chapter 5. Software Requirements 10 Chapter 6. WAMP server 11 Chapter 7. Design of the payroll system 13 16 Chapter 8. System architecture 17 Chapter 9. Development of Payroll System 19 23 Problem Log 26 List of figures 27 References 28 Appendices 30 Introduction Payroll system is a web application based on client server and electronic payment technology, which is aimed at developing a system that manages the payment of monthly wages of employees in an organization. It is supported by a database consisting of its employees details and their attendance details. According to that end of each month the salary is paid to the corresponding bank account of the employee. It also considers employees income tax regulations and NI contributions. Hence it shall deduct the appropriate amount of deductions at their salary if they earn more than  £647 per month. Further a payslip could be generated taking the above in to account. The following technologies have been used in developing the above said application. WAMP server CSS Macromedia Dreamweaver Umlet Aims Objectives The proposed system would allow the user to do their work in prototype. Hence, it has many gains compared to a manual system. In manual systems a main problem seems to be is maintaining the number of records and finding a particular record. Further calculating the final pay after income tax and other deductions would consume a lot of time. But the proposed system is capable of calculating the deductions automatically. Some of the features of the proposed system are given below: Maintaining the Database for Admin, Employee, attendance etc.. Attendance report. Generate payslips. Prior research Fact gathering techniques were used for the following reasons, To identify the problem in a payroll system. To avoid repetition. To complete these tasks following techniques has been used, 1. Interviews a basic source of quality information. Allows gathering information from an existing system where an administrator or manager could be the user. It facilitates to discover areas of misunderstandings, indication of resistance to the proposed system. An interview could be a structured or an unstructured in this state. In a structured interview questions are standardized and in an unstructured interview questions are worded to suit the respondent that provide the information about the areas overlooked or not thought to be important. Comparison of the structured and unstructured interviewing are detailed as below. Advantages: Structured: Ensures uniform wording of questions to all respondents. Easy to administer and evaluate. Less interview training required. Result in shorter time. Unstructured: Questions can be worded to suit the respondent. May produce the information about the areas overlooked or not thought to be important. Disadvantages: Structured: Cost of preparation is high. Such high level of structure may not always be suitable. Some respondent may resist to such structure. Unstructured: Inefficient use of interviewer and respondent time. Results take a longer time. Extra time required for the collection of essential facts. The success of the interview depends on the skill of the interviewer and his/her preparation for the interview. Analysts must also be aware of the kinds of difficulties at some interview, and must know how to deal with the potential problems. Conducting interviews determines qualitative information such as, Activities involved in process of taking the attendance. Activities involved in the process of Payslip generation. Limitation of existing system. Problems faced by the user in the existing system. 2. Record Inspection Analysing facts from documents, examining information which has recorded about the system and users. Examining forms, files about an existing system. Such records may include, Written policy manuals. Rules and regulations. Standard operating procedures used in the Payroll and Attendance System Forms and documents. A good documentation system provides relationships and interaction between them. Further would give an idea of the structure activities, procedures and flow of data. But it would not show how each task performed or where the decision making power lies. To gather details about the payroll system several kinds of records and reports has been reviewed such as, Standard operating procedure Reports generated by an existing system. Document flow (input/output) of the Payroll and Attendance System. Process of Preparing the Payslip. Process of deducting the salary for tax and NI contributions. Types and format of database registers. 3. Observation could bring missed facts, duplicate work done unintentionally. Its not the quantity of time observed is important but the unusual angles of observation of the work content and methods would be more useful. Observation may focus on, Operational inefficiencies. Alternate routes and procedures. Interruptions in the normal flow of work. The usage of files and documents. Informal communication channels, etc. On site observation provides a close view of the working real system, objects, documents and occurrences of events. Literature Review Considering the research took place towards developing a new payroll system the limits of the current system seems to be affecting in many ways not only the admin staff, manager or company but also to the employees concerning their wages and payslips. Check-in attendance to paying wages the whole process seems to be dragging and time consuming of admin, manager and employees. The attendance check-in system which is currently in operation has to be a double work where firstly the attendance is checked by paper in a prepared sheet for it and then will be entered to the system later with times when the employees started work and ended work. Therefore the each of employee has to look for his/her name in the registry which is in a paper and sign in/out with time ahead his/her name on it and then the admin staff who enters them in the system has also got to find the names on page in the system to clock him/her in/out. This system seems to be a hassle for the admin where it could be done in one go. So the new system would take away that headache from admin where he/she could do it one click per staff. When an employee logs in just a click in front of his name would clock him in and the time of work started will be recorded automatically. Like wise the when the employee finishes work clocked out time will be recorded and the attendance counts towards his pay. In the above case another popular scenario could be when an employee begins work at a late time, admin has to deduct the pay hours or pay corresponding to that. But because the times of clock-in will be entered to the system automatically there wont be any need of altering the timings of employees. Therefore again it facilitates the work of admin staff. Moving on with the attendance to the wages of employees, some of the companies account departments are outsourced simultaneously some others got their own accountants. So in transferring wages to employee bank accounts and for tax deductions account departments are involved and the attendance checked by admin staff will be forwarded to the appropriate account department. Account department uses the national rate of taxes for employee earnings according to HM Revenue Customs and the relevant amount of taxes will be deducted depending on employees earning. Even in this scenario it is another point where human resources could be saved a s software applications could be used which would process the attendance to final pay after calculating taxes. Therefore it is another advantage to be seen in the new payroll system. Not only that, chances of making mistakes in entering the attendances or pay to the system could be avoided in the new payroll system. Hence, the new payroll system shall lead towards paying wages to the employees. After making payments to employees keeping records of paid amounts and record of due amounts also seem to be an additional point when comparing against the previous systems where paid records kept at account departments. Therefore possibilities of misconception have been avoided between employees and management by having these records as proof. Looking at the employee payslips in the previous system it had to be sent by a separate department to the employees by post. But in the new payroll system, payslips made available online to employees where there wont be any need to wait for payslips to arrive. Retail giant Tesco reveals in The one (june) as below, Driven by security and environmental issues, the move to online notification of pay is set to take place this summer, saving postage and paper on up to 4.7million payslips a year. Further rather than just being a payslip provided in the new payroll system it also has the feature of displaying the attendance according to which the salary is paid. And also it is available to print in addition to viewing. Plus an employee will be able to view and print the salary sheets of the previous months too which has been another outstanding step in the new system. Even though it could be a large page of salary sheet due to displaying all the attendances, it is concerned as fact of giving the accurate information stored to the employees and this would build up confidence and trust towards the company. Software Requirements Functional Requirements Admin: In this module admin is provided with many services such as Add new employee, Update employee details, Mark in/out attendance, Update salary Details, view/print salary slips, payment to employees. Employee: In this module employee is provided with the services such as View earnings, View deductions, View and print salary slip. Non-Functional Requirements System can endure even though many number of users requested the desired service. By incorporating a robust and proven database, reliable performance and integrity of data is ensured. There must be a power backup for server system. Ensure sensitive data is protected from unwanted access by users and implementing appropriate technology to strict user- access criteria. WAMP server WAMP is an open source collaborated web development kit which contains all the ingredients such as Apache, PHP and the MySQL database you need to develop and create web applications It also comes with an inbuilt phpMyAdmin page which allows you to easily manage your databases. Further it is a solution kit that will allow you to reproduce your production server. One important aspect of the WAMP server is that once it is installed and is in play, the manager has the freedom to install as many latest releases of Apache, MySql or PHP. Functionalities of the WAMP Functions are very easy and less complicated; they are straightforward and can be viewed by just a click which will enable you to : Manage Apache and MySQL services Switch online/offline (give access to everyone or only localhost) Install and switch Apache, MySQL and PHP releases Manage server settings Access logs Access settings files Create alias Why an open source has been used They are free Totally free and available to the general public. Software developers and programmers can use them in improving their existing software or create new programs. Doesnt require a license or sales fee. They are cross-platform and technology-neutral. Programs are usable virtually by everyone as ensured by the open source community. Open source programs are not dependant on any individual technology or style and they are technology-neutral. It shall meet the criteria as long as it runs on more than one operating system. They must not restrict other software gives software developers the maximum control and flexibility. They embrace diversity open source programs cannot discriminate against any person or group of persons. Looking more into features of the above used, Apache 2.2.6 As its main job it parses files requested by a browser and display results according to the code. It is powerful and could achieve any virtual task that required. Authentication/authorization make simpler certain authentication configurations. Caching considering production quality. Configurations made simpler and modularised. Proxying load balancing provided. Large file support support files larger than 2GB. PHP 5.2.5 Stands for Hypertext Pre-processor and is a server-side scripting language which allows a website to be keep alive. Controls memory consumption between requests. Improved speed of arrays. MySQL 5.0.45 MySQL is a structured query language server which has been designed to process complex queries and for heavy loads. It enables PHP and Apache to work together to access and display data in a browser. For maximum efficiency and speed it allows many tables to join together as a relational database. Cursors server-side cursors supported. Triggers triggers supported. Views updatable, named views supported. Design of the payroll system Payroll system is designed for a small organization/branch/department where there would be less employees compared to a large number of employees payroll system. Admin and employee are the two main users of the system. Considering the system as a whole, the following steps have been taken in process of functionality. Add new employee personal details of the new employee would be added with a pay rate per hour. Edit employee details capacity of updating employee details Delete employee delete an employee when an employee is no more with the organisation Clock in/out marking the attendance according to which an attendance report would be printed and be paid to the employee. Attendance report to view/print attendance report. Salary sheet 1st of every month employees will get paid according to the hours worked and the salary sheet would include worked hours, hourly pay, NI contributions, income tax and net salary. The salary sheet could be printed/viewed. Payment payment is made according to the net salary of the employee. A record would be kept on payment details date, time, employee id and amount. Class diagram below shows the structure of the system with its classes, attributes and the relationships between the classes. CLASS DIAGRAM glass Relate to the design of the system as said above there are two users who get access to the payroll such as admin and employee. Use case diagram below presents a graphical overview of the functionalities of the payroll system in terms of actors, goals and their dependencies between use cases. It shall show what system functions are performed by admin and employee. USE CASE DIAGRAM System architecture Payroll system is a web based application created using three tier architecture and an iterative, incremental approach to design used in the process of development. Figure 1. three blocks which represents the client-server architecture Client block a client side application which runs on an operating systems graphical user interface. Passes the challenges to the middleware block and it handles the non-local services. Client also runs a component of the distributed system management which could be a simple negotiator to an entire front end application on a managed station. Server block a server side application which runs on top of a shrink-wrapped server software package. Server side depends on the operating system to interface with the middleware block which brings the requests. Server also runs a distributed system management which could be a simple negotiator on a managed PC to an entire back end application. Middleware block runs both on the client and the server side of an application. Likewise the above middleware also has a distributed system management component. As Orfali et al(1999)states in contrast to using other form of distributed software client server architecture inherits the following characteristics, Service client is a consumer of service and the server is a provider of service. Therefore, client-server provides a clean division of function based service. Shared resources server could provide service to many clients same time and regulate access to shared resources. Asymmetrical protocols clients always initiate with a request for service and servers wait for requests from clients. Transparency of location Mix and match client/server is independent of hardware or operating system software platforms. Able to mix and match between platforms. Message based exchanges message is the delivery mechanism for service requests and replies. Clients and servers interact through message passing mechanism. Encapsulation of services without affecting the clients server can be upgraded as long as the published interface is not changed. Scalability client/server systems could be scaled horizontally or vertically. In horizontal scaling with a slight performance impact client workstations could be added or removed. In vertical scaling, across multiple servers processing loads are distributed or larger and faster machines are migrated. Integrity server code and server data are centrally managed which outcomes in cheaper maintenance and protecting data integrity. Same time clients stay independent and personal. Development of Payroll System As mentioned above admin and employee are the two users of the payroll system. Many users could be added in the database as admin users. Therefore added all admin users shall be privileged to perform admin tasks in fulfilling their needs. A login process for any user involves few components such as, Form of submitting the login information A validation to confirm the information has been submitted. A database query which compares the submitted information against the stored information. After successful login as an admin staff view of the homepage would look like below, Admin homepage Figure 2. home page of admin staff with quick access icon. As shown above using icons of the homepage or using the tabs on top, corresponding page could be accessed. Further in addition to the tabs an admin could change his/her password using the icon on the homepage which would also update the database according to it. Doing so would give a conformation saying that the update has been successfully completed. Employee page allows admin to add a new employee with employee personal details and also allows updating details of employee. The details of employee would be saved in the database and further an employee attendance details, payments made, payment balance could be viewed. If an employee doesnt exist anymore his/her details will be deleted and this will remove his/her details from the database too.   Figure 3. a page which opens to update details of an employee from employee page. Update employee information An employee who is entered to the system in the database will automatically be inserted in attendance check-in in the attendance page. Therefore when admin staff does the attendance check employee name will be selected from the arrow-down list and it will display below to view which employees has arrived to work. Simultaneously database will be updated in the check-out table with the check-in information of the employee who has been clocked-in. By the time when the corresponding employee finishes his/her work shift, admin would check-out from the drop-down list again. Doing so would remove the check-in information of the employee from the check-out table in database and the attendance information will be entered to the attendance report and the payslip adding to his/her worked hours towards the final pay. Attendance check-in/check-out Figure 4. attendance check-in and out for employees by admin. Therefore admin staffs are able to view an attendance report of an employee in the employee page where it is referred to an employee. Not only that, the details of attendance will also be displayed in the payslips where could printed from the salary sheet page. In the salary page an admin staff can select the employee name which ever she/he wants to print the payslip of. Further after selecting the employees name, again admin is capable of selecting which months payslip she/he wants to print.   Doing so would open a page and enables to print it according to which was selected by admin.   Considering the deductions of taxes which are income tax and NI contributions, when the pay is calculated end of each month automatically the above taxes would be deducted in a rate 15% for income tax and 9% for NI contributions. Therefore the final net pay would be calculated automatically as the salary for each employee. An important factor here involved in deductions is, inclusion of a tax code to the pay.   At a national rate of 647 which reveals that up to a pay of  £647 per month the above said tax would not be deducted and who ever earns above the rate of  £647 will have to pay the above mentioned taxes. Therefore the above said taxes will automatically be deducted when an employee earns above the tax code.   Regarding salary payments to the employees, net pay for each month will be paid end of that month to the employee. In the payments page this could be done and who ever needs to be paid can be selected from the drop down list. When a payment is made to an employee a record will be kept in the database in the payments and also the recent paid payments records will also be displayed below in the payments page. Further if theres a balance due to pay it will record and could be viewed in the employee details. Therefore any remaining payments could be checked straight away and can get rid of under paying, shortages and keeping balance payments to employees. And also because the employee gets payments according to his worked hours there is no fraud involved or alterations cannot be made. In such way this payment could be considered as secure method of paying salaries.   Payslip of an employee Figure 5. Payslip of an employee which records not only the NI contributions and income taxes but also the attendance of an employee. Apart from functions of  payment and attendance an admin also can change his/ her password from the homepage using change password icon for a given admin username.   Finally taking admin privileges as whole, admin takes the responsibility of adding new employee, updating employee details, deleting employee, the attendance system which is checkin-in and out of employees in order to record their attendance towards their wages and the payment system which includes paying wages and keeping records of them.   Payments page where salary paid Figure 6. Paying wages for employees by an admin staff. In the event of employee user functions each and every employee will have their own passwords assigned by the admin when each employee registers with the payroll system. Doing so will create separate users for employees to access their attendance report and in printing their payslips. Passwords for employee login could only be changed by an admin user in edit employee details. Matching login details with the payroll database would allow the user to access his/her profile which contents the attendance report and the salary sheet of employee. Figure 7. Homepage of an employee user. Not only the tabs displayed would allow accessing the corresponding page but also the shortcut icons in the homepage would allow doing so. In the attendance page an employee could view his/her attendance so far and will also be able to print it. Likewise in the salary sheet page by selecting the necessary month of salary sheet allows to view and print the corresponding salary sheet. Figure 8. months of the salary sheets given to choose from. Figure 9. salary sheet for a chosen month of an employee. Problem Log Error Date Explanation Solution 1.fatal error: function name must be a string 03-05-10 appropriate brackets not used Change the brackets style 2.notice undefined index php 03-05-10 Post method not defined properly $fname = $_POST[fname]; 3.parser error: 25-05-10 Retrieving method not defined properly per row while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) 4. Notice: Use of undefined constant id assumed id 27-05-10 Undefined id with brackets Define id with brackets 5. Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end 01-07-10 No ending, missing brackets Include appropriate brackets 6. logging out to a blank page 02-07-10 Should revert to log-in page Include a header 7. Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_constant_encapsed_string 02-07-10 Using invalid symbol Use inverted comas appropriately 8. parser error 03-07-10 Unexpected ending Php headers and appropriate brackets List of figures Figure 1. three blocks which represents the client-server architecture 17 Figure 2. home page of admin staff with quick access icon. 19 Figure 3. a page which opens to update details of an employee from employee page. 20 Figure 4. attendance check-in and out for employees by admin. 21 Figure 5. Payslip of an employee which records not only the NI contributions and income taxes but also the attendance of an employee. 22 Figure 6. Paying wages for employees by an admin staff. 23 Figure 7. Homepage of an employee user. 23 Figure 8. months of the salary sheets given to choose from. 24 Figure 9. salary sheet for a chosen month of an employee. 25 Figure 10. Employee table in the payroll database 29

Hatsue and Ishmaels Incompatibility in Snow Falling On Cedars :: Snow Falling Cedars Essays

Hatsue and Ishmael's Incompatibility in Snow Falling On Cedars    Dear Ishmael,      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ...I don't love you, Ishmael.   I can think of no more honest way to say it.   From the very beginning, when we were little children, it seemed to me something was wrong.   Whenever we were together I knew it.   I felt it inside of me.   I loved you and I didn't love you at the very same moment, and I felt troubled and confused.   Now, everything is obvious to me and I feel I have to tell you the truth... I am not yours any more.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I wish you the very best, Ishmael.   Your heart is large and you are gentle and kind, and I know you will do great things in this world, but now I must say good-bye to you.   I am going to move on with my life as best I can, and I hope that you will too.    Sincerely,    Hatsue Imada         Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson, is an emotional story in which we see the life of a man who could not move on and a woman   that did.   The man, Ishmael, is hopelessly in love with the woman, Hatsue.   His love for her can not be dissuaded by anything; not her words, her wishes, or her marriage. He holds on to Hatsue because of his feelings for her, even after he gains the knowledge that it is extremely improbable that he could ever be with her. Hatsue is much more logical and rational with her feelings.   She saw her love with Ishmael for what it was.   She realized she did not really love him and that she was still learning what love really is.   She moved on with her life, whereas Ishmael could not.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ishmael's view of love did not change throughout the novel.   He met Hatsue as a child, and formed the idea that he loved her through his limited knowledge and through his adolescent view of relationships.   His love was simplistic, yet real.   He had concrete reasons for his love.   He enjoyed being with her.   He looked forward to meeting her in the hollow cedar tree.   He went out of his way to see her, even if she did not see him.

An Early Start to Foreign Language Learning Essay -- Language

Today there are between six and seven thousand languages being spoken around the world. Millions of children all over the world are learning a second or even third language beginning before they reach high school. For instance, China has more than two hundred million students studying English in elementary school, while the United States has a mere twenty-four thousand learning Chinese (Glod 1). The lack of bilingualism has become an ever-increasing problem in the United States’ ability to compete globally with other economically powerful countries. Satellite programming, increased international travel, and the use of the Internet in different parts of the world have created a global community. No single country can produce all the goods and services that are needed to exist autonomously. Because of this, children have the opportunity to become powerful political and business leaders of the future. Therefore, the need for a second language has become progressively more impera tive. Through many studies and reports, experts have determined that the best time to learn a foreign language is during elementary school. However, according to the U.S Department of Education, in the United States only 24% of public elementary schools report teaching a foreign language during this time. This being said, a problem exists. Only 44% of high school students are currently enrolled in foreign language classes. While Spanish comprises 69% and French makes up additional 18% of their enrollment (Department of Education). Less than 1% combined of these students study languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. During George W. Bush’s presidency, Bush addressed the issue and determined that the United States needs more ... ...hildren have the opportunity to broaden their horizons personally and professionally. Works Cited Cognitive Benefits of Learning Language. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, Fall 2007. Web. 1 June 2012. Glod, Maria. â€Å"Schools Try Elementary Approach To Teaching Foreign Languages.† Washington Post 8 Aug. 2006. Print. Marcos, Kathleen. Why, How, and When Should My Child Learn a Second Language? Kids Source, 26 July 2000. Web. 2 June 2012. Raab, Nina. â€Å"The Cognitive Benefits of Learning a Second Language.† Fusion Huntington Beach. N.p., 27 Nov. 2011. Web. 1 June 2012. Snuggs, Carla, ed. Foreign Language in Preschool: The Benefits of Teaching Multiple Languages in Daycare or Preschool. Suite 101, 28 Jan. 2008. Web. 30 May 2012. Why We Need to Learn a Foreign Language Young! Cracking the Learning Code, n.d. Web. 30 May 2012.

Reincarnation :: essays research papers fc

Reincarnation Synopsis Reincarnation is the embodiment in flesh or human form of the soul of a person now dead. Reincarnation is the belief that the soul survives after death and is reborn in the body of another person of some other living thing. This concept is called Transmigration of the Soul. Different religions from different countries have different beliefs of reincarnation. According to the Law of Karma, after death the soul is capable of passing to another body. The new body in which the soul is said to be reincarnated may be human, animal, plant or inanimate. According to the Hindu’s a good man may be reborn into a higher caste or perhaps even a god, were a lesser man becomes an insect or a worm. Cases One of the best documented cases is that of a young Indian girl named Shanti Devi living in Delhi (born 1926) who at the age of three began to recall details of a former life in the town of Mutta eighty miles away. She said she had married a cloth merchant, given birth to a son and died ten years later. Her claims continued and when she was nine years old her family wrote to her claimed husband who visited her home unannounced and was immediately recognized by Shanti Devi. A committee was set up to witness her visit to Mutta and testified the fact that she did recognize other relatives, knew the way to her former house, which she recognized and in fact revealed that money had been hidden in the house. The hiding place was found and her former husband admitted he had removed the money. The Pollock family is another well recognized case is that of the two little girls of the Pollock family who were killed by a run- away car in the town of Hexham in Northumberland. Twin girls born two years later to the same parents claimed dolls of the former children as their own. One said â€Å"That’s my Mary.’† The other girl said, â€Å"That’s my dolly that we had a long time ago†! Investigations Dr Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia has spent thirty years investigation of reincarnation. His strongest cases are based on children with pre-natural memories that can be verified often in considerable detail and in circumstances that made it highly unlikely that the children would have searched the information. Other evidence that match marks on previous suspected incarnations particularly where they might relate to the death of the former individual, for example where the reincarnation of a gunshot victim has birthmarks which match the entry holes of the bullets in the victim.

Advertising and its classifications: jib fowles appeals in pandora’s jewelry ad. Essay

Advertising and Its Classification â€Å"Advertising Fifteen Basic Appeals† by Jib Fowles. Jib talks in his essay about how advertising enticesus us through imagery approaches,The power of imagery in marketing is substantal. We can becalled walking advertisements,from the jewelry we wear to the shoe’s on our feet we are promoteing brands and logos everyday. The ad for PANDORA Jewelry found in the December 2011, issue of Real Simple magazine,Pandora has a classy beutiful woman, wearing dark color clothing, looking in her husbends eyes longly. She has her left hand on her chin with a georgus set of rings, and some not as obvious pandora bracelets on her rist. The Pandora ad reads † UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS† in the bottom righthand corner. This ad successfully illustrates three of Fowles’s appeals: the need for prominence, the need for attention, and the need to achieve. The first appeal we see at work in the ad is the need for prominence. Jib Fowles defines this need † To injoy prestige and high social status.† discribes it as â€Å"unambiguously classy†. we see the beutiful woman in the ad she is flawless not one frizzy har out of place her makeup is natural, and every thing is blurry in the background. That illustrates the jewelry is classy enouf to sell it’s self. Another way we see the need for prominence is, In the top left hand corner you see the set of rings seperated, it has three Eternity Ring’s priced at a woping $135.00 a peace, the heart and peral ring’s are $285.00 a peice. wearing such expencive peace’s are a way to say I am worth a lot and you should look up to me. The bottom left corner has a picture of an â€Å"O† in a box with a crown on top, this is a tradmark of Pandora. This tells us if we wear pandora jewelry we can also apear classy and injoy a high social status. Markters are targeting men in this ad, he clearly just gave his significant other the ring and she is gazing in his eyes sensualy. Promoters are enticing men with a promotional sale † Buy $150.00 dollers of pandora jewelry get a pandora ring valued up to $50.00 dollers free.† Men have an hunting gathering mentalidy, thay always want the best of things. It also seems to suggest that, if he gave his significant other this jewelry he will have an † Unforgettable moment† as well. The second appeal we see at work is the need for attention. Fowles defines this appeal as † The desire to exhibit ourselves in such a way to make others look at us is a primitive, insuppressible instinct.† He also discribes it as † wemon who want eyes upon them know what they should do.† The woman in this ad is wearing a suggestive lacy blouse, witch tells us she wants to be noticed. Every thing behind her is blury so all you see is her. As we see the need for attention still there are several other ways to sell jewelry, the ad out of Real Simple magazine for pandora, is similar to most other ad’s in differing magazines. The woman is receving a gift from a significant other, a peice of jewelry to make other women look twice at her. markters of this appeal are targeting wemon in this ad because we look to other wemon for trend setting peice’s. The advertiser chose this appeal wisley, all jewelry screams look at me. Consmers will want to purchase this ring because you can wear it in so many different ways, or one peice alone, eather way the peice stands doninant to what she is wearing. The final appeal in this ad acording to â€Å"Fowels Fifteen basic appels† is the need to achieve. Fowels defines this appeal as â€Å"The drive that energizes people, causing them to strive in their lives.† He also discribes it as a â€Å"need to attain a higher standard.† we see this appeal at work because the woman in the ad is not doing any thing but siting infront of her significant other with the look of achivement. She has the best significant other in her life, this is what her look tells us. Marketers are successfully useing this appeal. Men want to buy their woman this brand of jewelry because, Pandora’s collection is inspiring, hand-finished, it’s signature style, and it is a customizable jewelry line. The consumsr of this product wants a timeless orignal peace of jewelry. In this appeal, the need to achieve pulled from the December 2011, Real Simple Magazine Pandora ad, the target is a man because all you see in the ad is her wearing the ring set and some braclets. At the bottom of the ad you see a gift rap bow telling us he bought her the best gift a man can get a woman a ring symbolizing his love and comentment. This add successfully illstrated three of Fowles appeals, the need for prominence, the need for attention and the need to achieve. Fowles has taught us to be more conscious of the soliciting taking place every day. We  must train our brain’s to filter out the things we want from the things we need. Most imporantly to sheld our childern from the potentally self sabotaging labeling going on in the world today. We want our children to make up thier own minds on whats cool, not what promoters think is cool. Lets teach our kids to be unique all on thier own.

Comprehensive Proposal for the Development of an Early Childhood Education Program Essay

Do you realize how important the first few years of your child’s life are? We at Lighthouse Learning Academy understand how important these years are. The early years are when the foundation for your child’s life is being implemented. That is why at Lighthouse Learning Academy we provide programs from ages 6 weeks through 12 years old. Our Early Care program services infants from 6 weeks through 24 months. This program is designed to make sure that each child’s physical and developmental needs are met. Daily schedules are adjusted to meet each child’s sleeping and eating patterns. At the appropriate time, toddlers are introduced to different concepts and skills that will help them as they prepare to move to the next program. Our Preschool program serves children from the age of 2 through 5 years of age. Each age group will be divided into classrooms. Once the child is 4 years of age (by September 1st), he/she will enter our stated funded Pre-K program. Each class will use a theme based curriculum designed to introduce concepts and skills based on each child’s age and development. Daily schedules will be designed with a balance of teacher-directed and child-directed activities. Lighthouse Learning Academy understands that we serve a community that works various and long hours. We gladly provide before and after school care for families that require assistance. During the after school program we provide various activities and projects to enhance life skills as well as, an established time for children to do homework and tutoring is also available if your child needs help. Transportation services are available to and from local elementary schools. Lighthouse Learning Academy hopes to make getting to and from work less strenuous for working parents by providing the operating hours of 5:30 am to 6:30 pm. Being that we set out to service our community, the vision of Lighthouse Learning Academy is to make it possible for all children, youth, and families to reach their potential in a safe, nurturing, and affordable environment. Our mission at Lighthouse Learning Academy is to afford children with the premier quality early care and education, to serve as an accommodating system and source for families, strengthening the communities that we serve, and to work interchangeable with other networks and services to make certain that high quality preschool education remains safe and affordable for all families. We believe that from infancy, and through the school years, we are helping to chart a successful outcome for our children. We work with parents from pregnancy to make sure that their children are placed in a compassionate, encouraging, and nurturing environment. We offer a curriculum that focuses on all of the developmental domains, and an age specific method that helps children move forward from one milestone to the next in a way that has been confirmed to establish a strong basis for lifelong learning. We believe that there is a vital link between these values and the ongoing commitment of our staff. Therefore, our staff is encouraged and supported as they further their educational understanding of early childhood education. Lighthouse Learning Academy staff members serve as coaches and mentors to each other; enabling them to share ideas, experiences, and up to the minute knowledge of new research, policies and best practices. In addition, we provide on going skill set training for staff through meetings, newsletters, and state specified trainings. We do our best to provide parents with resources pertaining to high quality health and dental care, as well as nutrition, cognitively stimulating home environments, access to services, strong social connections, and safety precautions for children. New parents, or parents that are new to our neighborhoods, can rely on us for information and support during life’s transitions. Lighthouse Learning Academy is one of the strongest advocates for children and families in the area that we serve. We are aware of the responsibilities that we have to our families and children to be a voice for affordable, high quality preschool services. We take pride in working with local support agencies, legislatures, and school systems to provide safe, strong, and constant services for children from birth through the school years. We take pride in our parents, our staff, and the valuable chance that we have to be a part of your child’s development. The influence that we can have as partners for children is beyond measure. At Lighthouse Learning Academy we think that all children have a right to respect, in spite of their skill levels. We provide an environment that is safe yet thought-provoking, and a curriculum that challenges them through creativity and learning through play. Consequently, our program supports the following philosophy about children and their growth: 1. Each child has a unique learning style, learns at a different pace, by different methods and at different ages of maturation. 2. A positive attitude develops in children, who can fulfill their goals, complete tasks on their own, and work with others and receive positive feelings from others. 3. Children learn self-discipline through understanding, commitment, and reinforcement. 4. Children gain their independence by being allowed to do things for themselves as they are capable of, but keeping in mind new skills. In a safe, caring, respectful environment, children have the greatest chance to grow and develop. Such a setting should be the basis of all childcare programs. We, as educators, should do our best to create an environment that is rewarding, inspiring and supporting of all possible learning and growing opportunities. An encouraging learning environment is provided through a well design physical environment, the instructional materials, equipment, relationships established between everyone, and daily routines. It is in this environment that each child’s growth takes place. The basis for creating learning environments that promotes growth comes from the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC’s) philosophy of child development and learning that contains developmentally appropriate practice. A developmentally appropriate learning environment: (1) Provides learning centers that encourage mixing of multiple content areas, the library should contain a variety of books such as big books, picture books, books with words for teacher to read, books covering a wide range of topics, headsets with audiotapes; in blocks there will be large unit blocks, hollow blocks, different types of vehicles, pencil, paper and books related to construction. (2) Provides both active and quiet activities, the library should be an area for children wanting to read alone or quietly listen to a book read by the teacher or enjoy music through head sets; while the block area promotes lots of movement to complete projects. (3) Provides materials that encourage awareness and knowledge of diversity through books about different cultures, as well as dolls of different races, and musical instruments from a variety of cultures. (4) Ensures that children have easy access to materials. (5) Makes sure that there are plenty of materials available. (6) Offers children the chances for isolated and group play in view of an adult. (7) Makes sure that there is adequate space for individual, small- and large-group experiences, both inside and outside. (8) Displays classroom materials and children’s art at children’s eye level. (9) Promotes literacy in the environment through a variety of sources for print and audio. The infant room through the 4 year old room will be comprised of teachers that are highly qualified. This program employs qualified persons who are 18 years of age or older, who have been taught in Early Childhood Education, and who show the personal characteristics for working with children†¦. Employees working with school-age children have been trained in early childhood, child development, or a related field. The amount of schooling will vary depending on the level of responsibility of the position. Employees of a large group of children should have at least a CDA or an associate degree in Early Childhood Education. The Pre-K classrooms will have a Lead Teacher and an Assistant Teacher. The Lead Teacher will be required to possess a two- or four-year degree in the early childhood field. All assistant teachers must possess at least a CDA. Teaching is full of many responsibilities, roles, and challenges. As an early childhood educator, you will be required to wear many hats. As a teacher, you should be prepared to be flexible. It is important to remember that your job description may change if you are needed in other areas to fill in. Early childhood teachers assist learning by providing activities and materials that children find appealing. By supplying a developmentally appropriate environment, interesting materials, and time to explore, and play, children find learning easy and fun! Teachers have to communicate with many people throughout the day, ranging from parents to administrators, as well as the children. Early childhood teachers must be ready to communicate with all of these people. You should feel at ease opening up, asking questions, and sharing your experiences. Paperwork, lesson planning, preparing materials and the environment, require teachers to have strong management skills. Managing a classroom requires organizational skills, and commitment. There are many balloons floating in the air and it is your task to keep them up! Discipline is the guidance, encouragement, and support that adults use to influence children. Appropriate discipline helps children learn how to interact and develop self-control. The staff at Lighthouse Learning Academy understands these concepts and uses the following discipline strategies: First and most importantly, the staff creates a positive and safe environment in which all competencies can be fostered and where there is little opportunity for misbehavior. Secondly, teachers always model appropriate behavior, both verbal and non-verbal, including body language. Teachers set limits, which reflect realistic expectations for the age and development of each child. When there is conflict between children, teachers will utilize Dan Gartrell’s Five Finger Formula. The five finger formula involves five steps. The first step is to cool everyone down. No one can negotiate when they are upset. The second step involves having everyone involved to agree what the conflict is about. Thirdly, you would want to involve everyone in coming up with possible solutions to the problem. Fourth, you would want every to agree on the solution. And finally, you must try out the solution that everyone agreed upon. This technique teaches children how to solve problems on their own. If these strategies are not successful, a child may be removed from the group and guided to a quite area with an independent activity. If your child continues to have problems, we will contact you. We will do our best to work with you to correct the behavior issues. If there is still no change in the behavior, a short suspension may be used at the judgment of the director. If a child is not adapting or benefiting from our program, we reserve the right to disenroll the child from the program, also at the discretion of the programs director. Communication between the parent and the caregiver is important to having a successful child care arrangement. After an adjustment period, your child should be able to make the move from home to child care fairly easily. The staff will be providing support to you by discussing your child’s progress and will recognize the parent as the primary caregiver. A tour of the center is a vital part of the orientation process. It is at this time when you will meet the staff members that will be responsible for educating your child as well as view the classroom environment. We suggest that you bring your child along so that, he/she can become familiar with the teacher and the classroom. A tour can be arranged at anytime, just call to set up a scheduled time or just drop in. Our staff welcomes you with open arms. Lighthouse Learning Academy will distribute monthly newsletters so that you will be aware of what is happening with our program. The newsletter will inform you of the themes that will be introduced to your child each month. It will also detail ways in which you can assist the program, as well as upcoming events. Teachers may opt to send home either weekly or a monthly newsletter, keeping you aware of the happenings in the classroom. Through newsletters we are able to keep you updated of the programs effort to make sure that your child’s light shines. Assessment is the method of collecting data about children in order to determine where they are developmentally and to make decisions about their education. Teachers obtain useful data about children’s skills, and progress by observing, documenting, and reviewing children’s work over time. Ongoing assessment that happens in the context of classroom activities can provide an accurate and fair picture of the children’s abilities and progress. The purposes for assessment in programs for young children are: instructional planning and communicating with parents. This helps to determine, what are the child’s strengths, needs, and learning processes, as well as how is this child doing, and how will this child’s instruction and guidance be planned? Another purpose is identification of children with special needs. This allows for assessing whether the child’s needs can be met in the program and if not, how does this program need to be adapted, or what program is required? The third purpose is program evaluation and accountability. This assessment allows for assessing whether the program, as now implemented, is meeting its goals and objectives? One of the assessment techniques that we use is the student portfolio. The portfolio is a system for the collection of the child’s work. Work samples are products of children’s work that mirrors situations in the learning environment, rather than manufactured instructional situations. The collection of work samples along with the recorded observations of children’s interactions and comments shows the child’s progress over time and in a variety of settings. The key to the use of information collected through this approach is the teacher’s knowledge of child development and skill as an observer. Parent conferences will provide you with the opportunity to discuss and learn about your child’s portfolio and how it is used in assessing your child’s development. Observations will also be used as an assessment tool. Observations can be an assessment tool used while a child is playing usually in his/her natural environment. The observer is able to see the interactions between the children as well as noting speech and language, and motor skills. Lighthouse Learning Academy wants to make sure that your child will receive the individualized attention that they deserve, so we have established groupings of children for care which comply with the following staff ratios for every age group. For infants to one and a half year olds, the teacher-child ratio will be 3 to 6 infants for 1 teacher. There is a maximum of twelve infants in one room. If there are more than six infants, another teacher will be placed in the classroom. For one year olds that are walking, the ratio will be 1 teacher to 8 children, with a limit not to exceed sixteen children. For two year olds, the ratio will be 1 teacher to every ten toddlers, with no more than twenty in the classroom. For the three year old classroom, the ratio will be 1 teacher for every 15 children, with no more than thirty. And in the four year old room as well as the pre-k program, the ratio is 1 teacher to eighteen children. In the pre-k program there are always two teachers. Children may be mixed in age groups only during early morning arrivals and late afternoon times of departure. When mixing age groups, you must go by the staff: child ratio and group size based upon the age of the youngest child in the group. During rest time the staff: child ratio may be doubled the number of children as long as there is one staff member in the classroom. Lighthouse Learning Academy prides itself on providing a safe learning environment for your child. But we know that accidents and injuries will occur. If an accident occurs at our center, we will follow the following guidelines depending on the severity of the injury. First and foremost, our staff and teachers are trained to apply first aid to minor injuries such as cuts, scrapes, and bruises. The director will report to you at the end of the day or during the day based on the nature of the injury. If your child is seriously injured and it requires medical attention, you will be notified immediately and emergency personnel will be contacted. In cases where you child has to be taken to the emergency room, we require you to sign an authorization form so that we may act during your absence. This form is provided in your enrollment package. References Decker, C. A. , Decker, J. R. , Freeman, N. K. , & Knopf, H. T. (2009). Planning and administering early childhood programs (9th ed. ). Columbus: Pearson. Gartrell, Dan. Guidance Matters. March 2006, retrieved on October 16, 2010 from http://www. naeyc. org/files/yc/file/200603/GuidanceBTJ. pdf.