Transcendentalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Transcendentalism - Essay Example The thesis is that the Transcendentalist tenet of the individual being the center of the cosmos is validated in Waldens Thoreau (Thoreau; Morin; Reuben; Simpson). At the center of Thoreaus philosophy is the assertion that a kind of salvation and bliss could be found only if men followed their own genius and went their own way, in a shout out to individuality and the power that resides in the individual to determine his own happiness, outside of the conventions of society and of a religious organization. Indeed, in Thoreau it seems clear that within the individual resides a faculty to make his own way. He makes this clear in the way he likens an inner inspiration to an inner drumbeat, that some people more than others are better able to hear and to follow, against the tide of human society. Thoreau says of this thus, that if an individual does not go with what the rest of society is doing, pursuing an enterprise of seeming urgent importance, why should society then pressure that man to comform? That mans inner disposition is to be respected, because he may be following an inner music or following the prodding of an internal beat: â€Å"Why sh ould we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer† (Thoreau 245). This passage demonstrates the tenet of the individual as the spiritual center of the cosmos. Here Thoreau hints at a reality that is accessible to every individual, that is sometimes at odds with the reality of convention and the demands of society. In this passage Thoreau is saying that reality is not something that is the same for all, and that sometimes society may be clueless and running blind even in pursuit of this project or that, when inspiration for a truer work lies within. In this way Thoreaus work makes explicit reference and

Topic of expanding slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Topic of expanding slavery - Essay Example William Lloyd Garrison, a respected proponent for ending slavery in the 19th century, spoke out on behalf of slaves by utilizing Gods will as a means to sway voters against the practice. In his work entitled Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Garrison states, "every American citizen, who detains a human being in involuntary bondage as his property, is, according to Scripture, a man-stealer" (wwnorton.com, 2007). What this suggests is that Garrison is attempting to use religious doctrine as a means to coerce plantation owners (or any other slave owner) to remember that God did not condone nor would he reward individuals who kept other men as their own property. With such a strong Christian-based faith system in 19th century America, individuals with the courage similar to that of Garrison were attempting to suggest that God would cast judgment on slave owners in negative fashion. When fear of God is instilled on faithful followers, the end result is typica lly a shift in values. Further, this appeared to be a time of reasoning, where intellectual prowess and improvements in the social condition of the nation were primary objectives for enlightened people (or at least those who believed they were sophisticated). When slaves were being kept in bondage, without access to books and higher education at that time, they were not becoming enlightened individuals (wwnorton.com). With such a large emphasis on intellectualism, Northerners began to realize, offering a rather subjective analysis, that unless these slaves received a proper moral and intellectual education, they would not become active and productive members of society. Imposing the belief in higher thinking, then, was another rationale that caused the shift toward freeing slaves, or at least preventing the expansion of slavery into the Western regions of the

The People of the State of New York Essay Example for Free

The People of the State of New York Essay Nature of the Case: Appeal upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of assault on a police officer and criminal use of a firearm in the 2nd degree. Concise Rule of Law:Mental Hygiene Law  § 9.41 which permits persons who appear to be mentally ill and acting in a manner that threatens safety of self or others to be taken into custody. The Penal Law  § 120.08 imposes strict liability with respect to the serious injury aspect of a crime. Facts of the Case:In August 2008, McCray alerted Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Office (SDDO) and Franklin County Emergency Services he was armed and had intended on commit suicide. McCray was eventually found in a canoe to the Raquette River by a variety of police agencies including State Troopers and officers from Department of Environmental Conservation(DEC). This resulted in a standoff for many hours during which McCray maintained aim of the loaded shotgun at himself. A trooper seized an opportunity to grab the gun, along with a DEC officer. A struggle ensued and the gun went off causing massive injuries to a Troopers hand. After being arrested, McCray was charged by indictment with assault on a police officer and criminal use of a firearm in the 2nd degree. Following a trial, McCray was convicted as charged and sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 5 years of post-release supervision, defendant appeals. Issues of the Case: Was McCray’s mental health status such that he qualified for consideration under Mental Hygiene Law  § 9.41 or Penal Law  § 120.08 which addresses the element of the intent? Did McCray’s attorney represent him effectively? Was his punishment considered harsh or excessive? Holding of the Case: Mental Hygiene  § 9.41 does not impermissibly criminalizes defendant’s mental illness. Penal Law  § 120.08 does not negate the requirement to prove intent. McCray was not impermissibly criminalized. McCray’s attorney had represented him properly. No, it was not excessive or harsh Rationale of the Case: As it is relevant here, Mental Hygiene Law  § 9.41permits a State Trooper to â€Å"take into custody any person who appears to be mentally ill and is conducting himself or herself in a manner which is likely to result in serious harm to the person or others† to detentions made pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law  § 9.41, and Penal Law  § 120.08 does not necessarily criminalize a defendants mental illness, contrary to defendants contention. The claim of ineffective assistance of counsel should have been made as an CPL Article 440 motion to the trial court, but, â€Å"viewed in totality and as of the time of representation,† we find the â€Å"evidence† the law, and the circumstances of [this] particular case†¦the attorney provided meaningful representation.† It is possible for an individual charged with assault on a police officer to present evidence at trial that he or she was mentally ill at the time of the incident, and thus, did not possess the requisite intent to commit the crime. Considering the defendant’s history, which dates back to 1987 and includes several prior firearm-related convictions, and the circumstances of this case does not support that the County Court abused its discretion in sentencing the defendant to the maximum available sentence, nor does it establish extraordinary circumstances exist that warrant a reduction of the sentence in the justice of the interest. The law and the circumstances of this particular case have revealed that the attorney provided meaningful representation. The decision that was imposed on McCrary by the County Court was not harsh or excessive. Disposition of the Case: On June 14, 2012 the judgment was affirmed.

Sports and International Relations

Sports and International Relations In the past, international relations (IR) mainly focused on the high political issues such as military and economic issues. However, the nature of international politics has changed dramatically recently. Interaction between states is not limited to the high political area but also low political area such as social cultural areas. It is hard to determine which one is more prevalent in this time, but one thing very obvious is the role of low politics is getting broader. In the post Cold War era, there are many cases that low politics have healed in inter-states conflicts which had developed into high politics. Among these, because of its popularity across the globe, sports plays a significant role in international relations. Modern sports, which was limited to the local, regional or national level in the past, now spread to international level and have access to social and political area. Considering that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has 202 members states, even more than the number the number of UN member states which totals 192, it is obvious that international sport is now an arena of international politics and diplomacy. Worldwide sports events also have great impact to international relations and politics. With the development of media, related technology and services, people all over the world can sit in front of television, and watch major international sports events at the same time. Thus international sports games are a good opportunity to display a states ethnic features or a states believed national superiority to their counterparts. In history, many national leaders abused sports games because of such purpose, and sports events were often used as a tool of political and ideological propaganda in international relations. However, at the same time, sports also possesses the aspect of promoting peace and raising mutual understanding in international relations. Many countries took advantage of this aspect of sports to build a positive image of them. In terms of sports diplomacy, the United States has employed sports as a diplomatic channel throughout the history. However, the way sports has been used was different from time to time due to different international political circumstances which influenced the United States foreign policy. (This paper attempts to analyze how international conflicts were reflected in the Unites States foreign policy and what the strategy of the United States sports diplomacy was. During the Cold War era, the Soviet Union and the United States were the two pillars of the international system. The ideological rivalry between Soviet Union and the United States could represent the international relations in this period. Therefore, the United States practiced sports diplomacy to deteriorate the influence of the Soviet Union to show the superiority of the United States ideology. However, after the collapse of Soviet Union, the United States became the only superpower, resulting in the rapid growth of the i nfluence of the United States in the world. The political aspects of sports Sports themselves do not have political value, but when it is practiced as a medium between different countries, it has political contents. First, sports can be a tool for diplomacy between states, being the first step of engagement between states in a hostile relationship. Exchanging sports between states can imply that both states recognize each other as a nation-state. The United States president Richard Nixons use of table tennis to initiate diplomatic relations with China in Cold War era, known as Ping pong diplomacy, cited as a prototypical example. The other way around, boycotts of sports game or denial of visa to athletes are seen as ways to break off the relations between states. Second, sports may serve as an advertisement for spreading ideology. States often use sporting games to show their superiority of ideology. Especially, during the Cold War era, this tendency is often observed in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. In this period, many of the United Sates legislators worried about the Soviet athletes continuous success in international sports games. They saw it in the context of national prestige in the face of communist challenges. They acknowledged that people in the United States would see the sporting defeat by the Soviet Union not as a matter of sports or the athlete, but the matter of national pride. Soviets victory in sports games could be interpreted as a victory for the Soviet culture, system and decay of capitalistic way to a certain extent. Third, sport raises mutual understanding and promotes peace in international relations. Sport exchanges have been served as a way to identify other states and their people, and furthermore, to overcome prejudice against each other. As a result, sports exchange between states often have used as a tool of public diplomacy, considering that the aim of public diplomacy is also to see to foster mutual understanding. Fourth, it is a safe way of expressing displeasure with other country and its policies because it is a peripheral issue to the international political system. To show discontentment or raise objections about a political issue, using sports is a circumambulate way of expression. The most common means of expressing discontent through sports events is to boycott the sports game. It is regarded as a strategic and low cost alternative to any other political action which states can take. It possibly gives huge influence or pushes on other states without using traditional sense of state power. Fifth, sports often spark the conflicts that might become the warfare later on. It often initiates or aggravates political conflict in international relations. Since an athlete or a team represents his or their nation, hatred of the counterpart could become an antipathy of the nation. This ill feeling could draw actual war, like the one between Honduras and El Salvador, most famously known as the Football War, during the World Cup tournament game in 1969. There had been preexisting conflicts between Honduras and Salvadorans, including immigration from El Salvador to Honduras, but the tensions between the two states exploded by the football competition. This match actually triggered the war between Honduras and El Salvador. Sports as an efficient tool for diplomacy The United States recently implemented sports diplomacy as a part of its public diplomacy. The United States dispatched famous sports figures as sports diplomacy envoys to increase understanding of the American people and its culture. It is because sports has been highlighted recent times as a newly rising tactic to implement international relations for some reasons. First, the influence of sports is growing bigger. Sports is now global because of the revolution in the transportation and telecommunication/media industries. Every broadcasting corporation has sports channels and even in the headline coverage they deliver the sports news. Originally, this is initiated due to peoples interest of sports but it reversely started to draw the attention of people who had not been interested in sports. Also, this revolution has created a global sport labor market and global migration, and thus peoples interests in sports extend to international sports. People are cheering for athletes who are their fellow countryman who are playing a game outside of their own country. People often watch sports games not because they are interested in those sports but to see specific national athletes. The sport team owners know this well, and thus they trade foreign athletes to increase its attention and popularity internationally. The international political environment has also changed. Different from the past when most serious concern for states was national survival through military strength, now there is a covert consensus of non-use of military force in international relations, and thus likelihood of was is decreasing. The level of interdependence among states is heightened and became more complex. According to Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, the world has moved into an era of complex interdependence, characterized by multiple channels between societies, including both state and non-state channels, such that military security does not consistently dominate the agenda. Yet, this does not mean that the rate of inter-state conflict is declining. Rather, because of enlarging scope of engagement among nations, there is more possibility of emerging conflicts. The factors of national threat or concern have become more diverse and complex. Therefore, in this changing world, the definition of power in international relations is not same as the Hobbesian explanation. Military force cannot be the best way to solve the conflict or influence other states. These old tools of diplomacy are no longer appropriate in the contemporary world and something more moderate, indirect but efficient and influential way of diplomacy needs to be practiced. In this context, sports is a good medium, by playing mediating and pivotal role in inter-state relations. Attaching sports to the scope of international relations would be a helpful to boost the size of diplomacy.

Shakespeares Othello Essay - Honest Iago :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Othello

Othello - Honest Iago The most interesting and round character in the tragic play Othello, by William Shakespeare, is "honest" Iago. Through carefully though-out words and actions, Iago manipulates others to do things in which he benefits. Iago is the main driving force in "Othello," pushing several characters towards their tragic end. Iago is not a traditional villain for he plays a unique and complex role. Unlike most villains in tragic plays, evidence of Iago's deception is not clearly visible. Iago is smart and an excellent judge of people and their characters. He uses this keen sense of knowledge to his advantage. For example, Iago knows that Roderigo has feelings for Desdemona and assumes he would do anything to have her as his own. Iago attempts to manipulate Roderigo by saying: It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor- put money in thy purse- nor he his to her: It is a violent commencement, and thou shalt see and answerable sequestration; put but money in thy purse. [Act I, Scene III]. By playing on Roderigo's hopes, Iago swindles money and jewels from Roderigo, making himself a substantial profit. Iago also says, "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse" [Act I, Scene III] once Roderigo has left. "Honest" Iago cleverly disguises his own goals as Roderigo blindly follows him. Iago continually operates with alterier motives in "Othello." Iago takes advantage of his friendships with Cassio as well as Roderigo. Cassio blindly follows Iago, thinking the entire time that Iago is trying to help him. During this whole time, Iago plans the demise of Cassio, his supposed friend. In order to obtain Cassio's position as lieutenant, Iago convinces Cassio to take another drink, knowing very well that it will make him drunk and disgrace him. Iago obviously tries to tarnish Cassio's   character when he says, "What, man! 'Tis a night of revels: the gallants desire it" [Act II, Scene III]. Iago is able to make Cassio defy his own reasoning and reluctantly take another drink. As a result of his devious scheming, Iago's achieves his goal and Othello terminates Cassio as his lieutenant. Iago successfully manipulates the people around him by building a trust, a trust in which all of Iago's victims believe to be an honest trust. The friendship and honesty Iago falsely imposes upon Othello makes it easy for Othello to never imagine the possibility that Iago has evil motives. Othello holds Iago as his close friend and advisor. He believes Iago to be a person, "of exceeding honesty, [who] knows all qualities,

Anti-semitism Essay -- essays research papers fc

For more than two thousand years anti-Semitism has plagued the Jews, however, the term has only been around for about thirty years (Strack 594). Due to the hateful accusations and of those who did not understand their religion, Jews, as a scorned people, gradually became more exclusive and intolerant of other religions. Because of Judaism’s strict adherence to their own beliefs and unwillingness to consider any alternatives, Muslims and Christians have scorned and persecuted Jews.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, the Muslim’s basis for anti-Judaism rests primarily on religious beliefs. Islam teaches that Allah, the Muslim god, requires that a good Muslim pray a ritual prayer five times per day, give a token of their income to charity, and if possible a pilgrimage to Mecca, their Holy City (â€Å"The Rise and Spread of Islam†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). â€Å"Muhammad himself was hostile to the Jews† (Rivkin 25) because he believed Allah to be the one true God and saw the Jewish Doctrine of the Trinity to be polytheistic. The Jews, however, rejected all divine worship except their own. Also, Jews had certain laws and customs concerning food and circumcision which further segregated them from the Muslims. All these differences gave rise to mutual rejection between these two groups. As part of his rejection of the Jews, Muhammad abandoned certain Jewish customs, for example, Saturday as the Muslim holy day and Jerusalem as the Muslim holy city (Davies 329). The conve rsion of a Muslim to any other religion was strictly forbidden and punishable by death. The Jews were given the dhimmi status â€Å"meaning that they were not deserving of slaughter and could retain their religious practices in a limited form† (â€Å"The Spread of Islam to India†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Just as slaves, the Jews did not possess full legal rights (â€Å"The Rise and Spread of Islam†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). These dhimmis were merely tolerated and forced to pay special taxes and wear yellow badges as a means of public identification (Davies 329). Evidence presented by a Jew in court against a Muslim would not be accepted. Dhimmis had to obtain permission before building new places of worship or repairing old ones, and they could never construct worship cites that overshadowed Muslim places of worship. Jews were also prohibited from carrying arms, riding horses or camels, or inheriting from a Muslim (â€Å"The Rise and Spread of Islam†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). In addition, Jews killed ani mals only a... ... labor by the Christians of the tenth century.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally, Muslims and Christians detested the Jews for being different than them. Anti-Semitism still exists today in many countries. For example, in Syria the government denies Jews the right to vote and restricts their emigration (Levanon 559). As Christians, it is our duty to refrain from slander and false accusations of Jews. Should we only show love to those who share our religious beliefs? Even the pagans love those who love them. (Luke 6:32) Are we not called to be different than the world and show the love of God to all? Bibliography Davies, Alan. â€Å"Anti-Semitism.† The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1995. Levanon, Yosef. â€Å"Anti-Semitism.† The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1993. â€Å"The Rise and Spread of Islam, 570-1258.† http://galenet.gale.com Rivkin, Ellis. â€Å"Jews.† Encyclopedia International. Vol. 10. Philippines: Lexicon Publications, 1980. â€Å"The Spread of Islam to India and Southeast Asia, 711-1400.† http://galenet.gale.com Strack, Hermann L. â€Å"Anti-Semitism.† Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, [n.d.]

Creating a Positive Classroom Environment

Creating a Positive Classroom Environment A classroom should be one of inquiry and open-mindedness. In order to foster a classroom of students who feel comfortable asking questions and are open to other students’ ideas it is imperative to create a positive, safe environment and learning community. I believe that students should feel like their classroom has high expectations, in how everyone treated each other, and in how learning took place. Creating a classroom environment where all students feel emotionally and physically safe enough to take risks is a real challenge and one that is worthy of the time it requires. The key to an inquiry-based curriculum is a safe, positive learning environment, therefore, it is foundational that the teacher work to provide, establish, and maintain that throughout the year. In the classroom, the teacher should be working on ways to develop a positive learning community by finding out more about my students. For example, each student should fill out a Who Am I questionnaire so that the teacher can get to know their student's personalities, hobbies, likes and dislikes and therefore include them in lectures, discussions and explanations through out the year. The teacher should also engage in differentiated instruction in my classroom so that he/she can tailor specific lessons to fit different viewpoints, and abilities of students. This is also a demonstration of care and respect for students as they see their teacher notice certain aspects about their learning or personalities and tailors their instruction to meet their needs. One of the ways I would engage in differentiated instruction is by walking around the room and constantly being available to assist students. By offering them one-on-one assistance I can better gauge where their personal understanding and misconceptions are and tailor my teaching to them differently than I would to the class as a whole. In order to maintain a positive classroom environment, a teacher must use the ability to make quick decisions and to be flexible in the classroom. The teacher needs to make decisions and adjustments to enhance the student motivation, engagement, and productive work. One way I would make adjustments when there are issues in the classroom hindering the productive learning community is to create a new seating chart. I find that this act is often used enough to nip any potential social problems in the bud and sends a message to students that if they want to sit with their friends, they need to earn the privilege. You would be surprised with how a new seating chart for the class can increase productivity and engagement in core subject content instead of social life information. In a science classroom, experiments and lab work are an important way for students to engage in the content. All students in the class should work on labs at the same time with minimal supervision. The teacher must also be cognizant of how the resources of time, space, activities and attention are allocated to students throughout the short hour that they are in class. However, there are more traditional strategy for lab work. The difference comes in how many materials you have for certain labs, how much time it takes for each group of students to complete the experiment, and how tricky the directions are. Deciding which method to employ for a given lab and analyzing the classroom environment to decide which will work best in a given situation. In the Collier County School District it is acceptable to have up to 30 students in each classroom. It is difficult in this type of environment for students to feel that they are an important member of the learning community. I found that it was easy for certain students to disengage from activities and it was hard for the teacher to pick up on their lack of involvement because of the sheer number of other students in the room. Therefore, I thought up of an activity that would give the teacher time to walk around to individual students and check their understanding of the material. This lesson was an ACT preparation lesson where the students would be working on writing organized essays by finding a thesis statement, supporting it and including evidence from newspaper articles. I found that students would initially be hesitant to show their work to the teacher, but when they saw that the teacher would be going around to everyone at their table they became less nervous and more open to share their problems with understanding. When observing a classroom, one student even remarked as the teacher came to her, â€Å"I don’t know what I’m doing. She was a student that has never raised her hand to ask for help, but with the teachers inevitable arrival she was open to telling her teacher she did not understand. This showed me that if the teacher had not gone around to individual students she would not have told her teacher she did not understand. In order for a classroom to become a learning community it is important that it is organized, and meets clear standards of conduct. An environment in which students are assuming responsibility, participating in ecision-making, working collaboratively and independently, and engaging in purposeful learning activities that use higher order thinking skills and are all pieces of smoothly functioning learning communities. The first lesson that I would present to the class in the fall would be attempting to engage students in a purposeful learning activity that asked them to think deeply about the issues of a the subject that they are in class for. The students would first work together as a class and then the students work individually to show understanding. They were active members of the activity so they had a hand in the decision-making and therefore could assume some ownership and responsibility for the success of the activity. A strategy for engaging students in purposeful activities that promote higher order thinking that is often used in classrooms is asking students to work in pairs to create a concept map from a list of content words. By working in pairs students are collaboratively building understanding and taking responsibility for their own learning plus their partner’s. As mentioned above, in order to have a smoothly functioning learning environment, clear standards of conduct must be established and enforced within the classroom. In order for students to feel safe enough to ask questions, engage in inquiry activities and take risks in their learning. They must feel secure and know that their teacher has clear standards of conduct that will be enforced. The first day of school is a very important day for establishing the standards of conduct that all students are expected to follow. It is also important that student behavior is monitored in a preventative way. One way is by asking a student who is very high-energy and can become disruptive to do small tasks during the hour to keep him engaged, such as feeding the class fish, or putting up the class grade sheet. This particular student can be disruptive and cause problems with other classmates, but with the teacher keeping him engaged when she sees him getting off-task, she is signaling to him that she notices him and has her eyes on his actions. This has been a successful strategy in keeping him out of trouble. However, all issues in a classroom cannot be prevented. Things do sometimes happen despite the best efforts of the teacher to create a safe learning environment. For example, say that you, the teacher had an incident in your classroom where two female students got very angry with each other and yelled loudly and violently at each other and refused to stop. This behavior is very upsetting to the teacher and to the class. And to be successful in resolving the situation, you just have to remove the two students from the class and separate them. In this situation it was important to thoroughly pick up the pieces after the incident was over. This is a very helpful way for a teachers peace of mind and further ability to create a safe learning environment. The teacher should also have individual talks with the students that created the problem. One student in particular would most likely have a very changed attitude about the class after the incident. In order to bring her back to being her enthusiastic self, the teacher should have a one-on-one talk with her, which greatly improved her attitude towards the class. One of the things that would help you to act appropriately when the incident happened in the classroom was the established standards of conduct and consequences that occur if students do not follow the standards. One way to foster students’ ability to engage in dialogue and argumentation and develop the language of thinking is to participate in Socratic seminars in class. Socratic seminars offer a tangible, engaging way for students to develop both ethics and critical thinking, actively and cooperatively. A discussion technique that I would use in my classroom would be an ethical discussion based on the merits and problems with new genetic testing that is available. Students engaged in small groups, then in the large session to discuss their opinions about genetic testing, based on a text they had all read. In order to help the discussion remain civil and productive, I used an ethical discussion framework that was very helpful. In a large classroom of 30 students it is often difficult to make time to meet with students individually to discuss their progress, but it is an important part of teaching that time must be allocated for. Therefore, a lesson plan that can allow the teacher to talk with students individually about an essay they had written. Lets just say that while students were in the Library Center working on ACT preparation tests the teacher then would be able to make time to talk with students individually about the strengths and weaknesses of their essays and what specific things to keep in mind when writing their next essay. This lesson shows a good allocation of time and attention so that students could take away concrete information from the lesson about what they need to work on with their writing and they also saw that their teacher cared about their progress enough to plan a special meeting with them. This one-on-one discussion time between teacher and student is something I do not see a lot of in school and I feel it is very important to include meaningful time talking with each student. In a science classroom it is very important that resources be used appropriately to help promote in-depth, inquiry-based understandings of content. I include it here to demonstrate how helpful it is for teachers to keep up-to-date on literature that is being written on the topics they are teaching. Through reading academic literature they can gain new ideas and insights on how to use technology effectively in their classroom in order to enhance learning and the classroom environment. Creating a positive classroom environment is a very important aspect of effective teaching. In a teachers student teaching placement it has been a priority for to establish and maintain a safe and positive environment where all students can grow, inquire, and learn. I feel strongly that a classroom should always be a safe one for students physically. At times there are going to be things said between students that cannot make it emotionally safe, but you, the teacher can always deal with the issues to send a strong message that your classroom is not a place to come down on peers. I do feel I have more to learn about enacting a true inquiry-based classroom, however. And I know that there are going to be times and lessons where I believe students should be actively involved in inquiry-based projects and if so, I would be very proud of them for their efforts. However, I would like to increase the times that this occurs and make my classroom into a place where students know they are going to question, explore and learn, and not just another stop on their school day schedule.