The North Cascades :: essays research papers fc

The North Cascades   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The North Cascades became a national park on October 2, 1968. It is located in the north central area of Washington. Since it’s inception the park’s mission statement has evolved to include concerns of the entire ecosystem. (www.seattleinsider.com) When you go to the North Cascades in Washington, you can visit and do a variety of things. Some major tourist attractions are the beautiful ice sculpted, jagged mountains, which rise above deep-forested valleys-terrain carved by moving ice. The Park Complex contains more glaciers than any other national park in the United States outside Alaska. These glaciers are an important source of water for salmon, other wildlife, plants, and people in the Puget Sound region. The cascading waters, which provide a large and expanding nearby population with a wide variety of recreational opportunities, from boating and camping to climbing and backpacking. The vast wildlife also is a major attraction because it is the co re of one of the largest protected wild areas in the United States and is a substantial portion of it is designated wilderness. Humans here are visitors, who come to enjoy nature on nature's terms. The park provides a habitat for one of the greatest diversities of plant life in North America including rare and sensitive species. Some wildlife that live here are a variety of fish, deer, moose, geese, all kinds of birds, horses, bald eagles, wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, mountain goats and black bears. Ancient forest holds millions of living organisms and thousands of diverse life forms. The history of the park in general is also a tourist attraction for the park its was after all home to at least 4 tribes whose descendants now live nearby and includes, within its boundaries, three contemporary communities. (www.northcascades.net)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The park and its breathtaking features attract 400, 000 visitors per year. The highest visitation time is usually in August and the lowest is in January. When visitors are here they can do the following: go backcountry camping, hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, horseback riding, wildlife and bird watching, scenery viewing, boating. Facilities include hiking trails, horse rentals nearby, small boat rentals, and professional guide, climbing, pack train services.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It has been stated that there have been no known fires or floods that have occurred in this area. The wildlife and vegetation is basically the same as it is now. (www.nps.gov)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some educational programs offered at the North Cascades National Park are: field seminars, retreats, graduate programs, teacher workshops, volunteer service learning, skagit watershed education project, and the Northwest Mountain School which is a school for mountaineering, rock climbing, backpacking and more.

Motivation for pursuing a graduate degree Essay

Instructional perspective The philosophy of education that I ascribe to has been the primary tool motivating my pursuit of a graduate degree in special education. My instructional philosophy has tended to focus mainly on hands on instruction where participants get involved directly in and take responsibility for their own learning. Much like the constructivist theorists and thinkers I believe that this active participation in learning is what makes learning more meaningful and that would produce the greatest successes in the classroom. As a general education teacher I have therefore tended to adopt instructional strategies and learning activities that are reflective of this outlook and have attempted as far as possible to ensure that the learners in my classroom are given the relevant life experiences with which they can interact and which they can utilize in constructing their own meanings and understanding of the things around them. I firmly believe that proper planning is the key to success in the classroom. Planning does not only involve preparing a lesson plan, but psychologically preparing for the learners and their needs in the classroom, understanding each learner and being willing to accommodate all, as far as possible, in the learning process. It is through such detailed planning that the correct activities will be designed for an interactive, constructive and cooperative classroom. Reflection on practice Considerable work has been done in the field of cognitive psychology by numerous theorists and researchers. Much of the research has been focused on trying to understand the characteristics of learners, the optimal age and conditions for particular types of learning, the most appropriate teaching and learning strategies and generally and understanding of how learning takes place. Several theorists have attempted to describe the characteristics of learners. Among them Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Albert Bandura and Jerome Bruner and some of the most noted forefathers of thought in this areas. Having worked as a teacher for the some years now, the theorist that has been the most influential on my practice is Jerome Bruner. Bruner’s philosophy emphasizes the concept of discovery learning and simulation. He posits that learning is most effective and meaningful when the learners actively explores issues as opposed to reading from textbooks or lectured to by the teacher (Good & Brophy, 1995). Simulation activities, Bruner suggests, are useful tools for promoting forms of discovery learning. I have found that the use of role-play and skits as simulation activities, have helped me deliver learning targets better than traditional lecture-type methods. Given the nature of the classroom and the variety of abilities and learning styles, I have found that the use of role-play and similar cooperative activities have helped me ensure that all learners are actively involved in the learning process. However, throughout my teaching character I have noticed some deficiencies in my teaching methodology, particularly as it relates to meeting the needs of all the learners in the classroom. I have noticed that while I am able to adequately motivate a portion of the class in each year, I have often been unable to fully motivate the entire class of learners or to introduce activities and strategies that are attractive to all the learners in the classroom. I believe in reflective practice so I often review my teaching methodology, with the help of relevant research and theoretical foundations. I have made whatever adjustments possible as I notice my deficiencies and have consistently been involved in improving my teaching strategies. However, despite my best efforts I have continued to face considerable obstacles in reaching out to some students in my classroom. Often these students were those who could be classified as at risk. They were sometimes from single-parent homes, students with tendencies towards delinquent behaviors and other similar students. There have also been students with noted cognitive or other physical difficulties, for whom the general education classroom, as is, was not adequate. More and more it became evident to me that within the general education classroom there is a diverse mix of students of different socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Furthermore they had a range of abilities and performed to varying degrees of competence. I have acknowledged that, to some extent, I have contributed to the inability of some students to perform as well as others, as a result of my failure to effectively orient lessons to meet the needs of all learners. Another occurrence that has compounded this issue is the new move towards inclusion in the general education classroom. Increasingly more students with learning disabilities are being incorporated into the general education classroom. These changes in the educational framework has meant that needs have to modify their strategies to ensure that the needs of these diverse sets of learners are adequately met within their classroom and that students from all ability levels, achieve prescribed standards. Evolution With the coming on stream of the NCLB act, more attention is being placed on ensuring that classrooms are inclusive and that each learner is allowed to achieve his/her full potential based on individual abilities. The NCLB is a formidable demonstration of the particular interest that the federal government places on education. This issue presents several challenges for teachers in both the general education and the special education classrooms. Special education students are now being incorporated into the general education classroom and even where they remain in special education classrooms students are still required to demonstrate progress similar to that being achieved by the peers who do not have these special needs. Therefore teachers are required to ensure that every learner, despite their abilities or disabilities aspire to the same broad reaching goals and objectives as general education students. It is evident that the act, though it may present several benefits for special education, will also have its limitations. Educators are, however, still required to aim for the target of leaving no child behind. I firmly support the overall spirit of the NCLB act. The overriding principle of the NCLB is that each child registered within the school system must be given all opportunities to develop and to achieve and I agree with this position. To ensure the success of every child and to guarantee that no child is left behind, the act holds educators directly accountable for ensuring that each child aims for and achieves the prescribed standards. Having a particular interest in the development of students I was inspired by the newly emphasized principles of the NCLB act to obtain adequate training in special education so that I am equipped to deal with not only special education students, but the range of abilities that will come into the classroom. These broad reaching goals are of relevance to all involved in the education of children. Motivations to change I wish to develop the know-how and the skills that would help me become a dynamic teacher that is able to hone knowledge, skills and attitudes within learners from different socioeconomic backgrounds, with different cognitive capabilities, with varying physical and cognitive challenges or any multiple needs that may arise in the classroom. Teaching today is becoming more and more challenging. The influences of the teacher and what is taught in the classroom are being eroded by the mass media. The teacher has to compete with newly emerging communication technologies and the internet. The skills that were developed yesterday to tackle learner’s needs in the classroom soon become obsolete. I therefore wish to ensure that I remain on top of the game and continue to be a teaching who attempts to meet the needs of all learners. References Good, T.L.& Brophy, J.E. (1995). Contemporary Educational Psychology. (5th ed.). New York: Longman Publishers.

The Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered - 1135 Words

In today’s society, underage drinking is seen all around us. It is in TV shows, movies, schools, and even in our own communities. Although it may be understood as something we are not supposed to do, many of these shows do not depict the real issues that can come from drinking under age. While only 11% of the alcohol sold in America is consumed by those under the age of twenty-one, it is still a horrific, nationwide problem. Alcohol is a drug that can make you do things you would never consider doing when you are sober and is very dangerous on top of that. These things can potentially hurt you and hurt those around you. The legal age for the consumption of alcohol should not be lowered because alcohol can affect the health of young people in many detrimental ways, it causes thousands of alcohol related vehicle accidents every year, not even including those that are underage, and it is one of the leading causes of sexual assault. The drinking age should not be lowered because it can catastrophically affect the health of young people who consume it. The teenage body is still growing. Physically, alcohol can stunt growth, causing shorter limbs, shorter height, and frail bone density which can lead to broken bones during normal, everyday activities. Alcohol can also affect important organs from growing, especially those in the reproductive tract causing women and men to not be able to bear children (NIH). Those under the age of twenty-one areShow MoreRelatedShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered?995 Words   |  4 Pages Should the legal drinking age be lowered to age 18? Recently people have been debating whether If the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Some people think 18 is a better age but others think it’s outrageous to lower the drinking age to 18. After much reading and observing, I myself think the drinking age should be kept at 21 years old,because young adults who drink while they re underage make poor decisions and majority of the yo ung adults are in college lacking in classes. The legal drinkingRead MoreShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered?853 Words   |  4 Pagesactivities around their friends to feel like they are a part of the team. Many people often wonder if the court of law stepped in and changed the age of drinking would this help the case of underage drinking. This proposed law would lower the drinking age to make the teenagers less rebellious and allow them to feel more like adults. If the drinking age were to be lowered then teenagers would feel as if they didn’t have to drink every day because they wouldn’t have to wonder when this opportunity will happenRead MoreShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered?875 Words   |  4 Pages Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered? Should the legal drinking age be lowered to age 18? Recently people have been debating whether If the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Some people think 18 is a better age but others think it’s outrageous to lower the drinking age to 18. After much reading and observing, I myself think the drinking age should be kept at 21 years old,because young adults who drink while they re underage make poor decisions and majority of the young adults are in collegeRead MoreThe Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered1705 Words   |  7 Pagespassed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which enforces the legal drinking age and purchasing of alcohol in the United States to be twenty-one. Since then, the debated idea of whether or not the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen has been an ongoing topic for decades. Alcoholism affects many people in the United States but promoting it at such young age would not be such a great idea for the youths in today’s society.The drinking age should not be lowered due to the fact that itRead MoreShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered? Essay2027 Words   |  9 PagesShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered? One of the major problems today in United States society is the amount of people in college who are drinking while underage. Every day on college campuses we see rebellious young adults disobey the law and drink alcohol under the age of 21. How would things be different if the drinking age was lowered? Would college students abuse it or is it a good idea? Many people believe the drinking age should be kept where it is now based on statistics. I feel the drinkingRead MoreShould The Drinking Age Be Lowered?994 Words   |  4 PagesShould the Drinking Age Be Lowered? Approximately 2 out of every 3 high school students have drank to the point of getting intoxicated (binge drink), in more than one occasion (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention [CDC], n.d.). Binge drinking has become increasingly common for youth under the minimum legal drinking age, making it increasingly dangerous because of the lack of supervision that young adults have that can consequently, lead to death because of fear of the law (Bonnie O’ConnellRead MoreThe Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered1639 Words   |  7 PagesMost people would concur that alcohol should not be given to teenagers. Despite the fact that we concede to this essential truth, underage drinking is still a noteworthy issue in our nation. Since adolescents need development and information with regards to liquor, they put themselves, as well as others in incredible danger when they decide to consume. Regardless of the risk, there are individuals out there who believe that the drinking age should be lowered. However, their argument is weak, andRead MoreThe Drinking Age Should Be Lowered2353 Words   |  10 PagesDrinking Age Over the years the drinking age or the drinking laws have been questioned and changed many times. For a few years now more recently question being, should the drinking age be lowered to eighteen? Or why shouldn’t it? In the United States, binge drinking has been a big problem. Its one of the top causes for traffic tragedies as well as other health issues that come along with it, especially among college students. However since the drinking age has changed from being 18 to 21 thereRead MoreThe Drinking Age Should Be Lowered1599 Words   |  7 Pagesmany years is whether the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen years old, as opposed to where it is now, at twenty one. Some argue that at age eighteen, a person is legally an adult and able to go to war, vote, and partake in other adult activities. If they are an adult at this age, why are they unable to legally drink alcohol? There are numerous reasons why drinking is unsafe for those under twenty one. The drinking age is s et at age twenty one for a reason, and should stay that way. Some statesRead MoreDrinking Age Should Be Lowered1039 Words   |  5 Pages2017 Drinking age is already dangerous as is In recent discussions of the drinking age limit, people have always said that the drinking age limit should be lowered. Some may argue that alcohol is not bad and that it can actually be beneficially. Many people would want the drinking age limit to be lowered so that it is legal for young adults to drink. If the drinking age limit were to be lowered there would be a drastic difference in society. In my perspective I will argue that the drinking age limit