City-States in Lower Mesopotamia :: Ancient Egypt Egyptian History

City-states in Lower Mesopotamia Factors that contributed to the emergence of city-states in Lower Mesopotamia and the influence the landscape played in the formation of the civilization which emerged. For this essay I considered the question of what factors contributed to the emergence of city-states in Lower Mesopotamia and the influence the landscape played in the formation of the civilization which emerged. Through my research on this topic I found that there is much evidence to support the claim that landscape was a very large influence on the emergence of civilization and that most of the contributing factors were, in some way, linked to geography. In order to fully understand the topic, I first explored what the definition of civilization is. The first criterion for civilization, that I could think of, is domestication and an agricultural economy capable of producing a stored surplus. From this, I felt the need to examine the origins of Mesopotamian agriculture. With the glacial retreat after the last ice-age (roughly 10000 BC) the Mesopotamian climate improved and many modern plants and animals began to become concentrated in specific areas. Around 9000 BC the vast majority of Mesopotamian peoples were hunter-gatherers. With the concentrations of plants and animals being in specific areas these hunter-gatherers soon began to domesticate those plants and animals and a sedentary village farming pattern arose. This became the predominant way of life around 6000 BC. This change from food collecting to food producing was one of the major transformations in human history. Early peoples no longer had to live the nomadic life of hunter-gatherers but could settle down in permanent housing and produce their own food. It also began an economic change that altered social and political institutions, religion, etc. Domestication is the process of altering plants and animals so that they are no longer bound to the natural habitats of their wild ancestors. In essence they become more productive and useful to people. This process sometimes even includes changes in the genetics of the domesticated plant or animal. In Mesopotamia the major domesticated species of plants were wheat, barley, chickpeas, peas, grapes, olives, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, apricots, dates, and figs. The major domesticated species of animals were cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. Some of the genetic changes brought about through domestication and the careful breeding of plants and animals include plants that were bred to have more and bigger useful parts and animals that were initially bred to be smaller and less aggressive, and only later to have more of their useful parts.

Jacob Kounin Essay

Who Is Jacob Kounin? * Jacob Kounin is a classroom behaviorist theorist. He first started as a psychologist at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. * He is best known for two studies he did in 1970 that was based on classroom management. * He began his studies in 1970 by writing Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms. He wrote the book to discuss the effective and ineffective behaviors in the classroom. The process began by observing teachers in an everyday classroom setting to see how they handled misbehaving. He found that no matter how the teacher’s handled the given situation, the outcome was always the same. His conclusion was basically to prevent misbehavior before it even happens. This brought on his idea of having main points to follow to have successful classroom management. Ripple Effect * The ripple effect came about while Kounin was teaching during Mental Hygiene class. A student of his was in the back reading a newspaper. The paper was completely open and covering the student’s face. Kounin asked the student to put the paper away and follow along. This brought on other students to follow the same directions. Therefore, if you â€Å"call out† one student in front of the class, it will cause other students to get refocused. â€Å"Withitness† * Withitness is not a teachable concept. This is basically a natural instinct in education. Being â€Å"with it† involves many concepts. Teachers have to constantly knowing what is going on in their classroom at all times. There are many ways to maintain â€Å"withitness† is being alert, circulating the classroom, asking numerous questions, redirecting students and knowing students on a personal level. Overlapping * Overlapping is basically a teacher’s way of multi-tasking. Teachers should constantly keep their students focused and engaged in the learning taking place. This key point ties back to having â€Å"Withitness†. Momentum * A teacher that has a manageable classroom must have momentum. In the classroom, there are unexpected changes that may occur that were not planned for. A teacher has to be able to maintain control of his or her classroom during these unplanned events and just â€Å"Roll with the punches†. Momentum occurs when students are involved and interested in the learning that is taking place. Momentum is also a learning tool for teachers. After completing a lesson and the students are just not getting it, the teacher can reevaluate how he or she wrote it. Smoothness * Smoothness basically boils down to having daily routines and procedures. If you explain to students what you expect out of them at the beginning of the year, your classroom will run a lot smoother. Smoothness can occur in a classroom starting with morning routines, to transitioning lessons to even how students ask to get out of their seat by using signals with their hands. If a teacher has a structured classroom, it can also run smoother throughout the day. Group Alerting * This is a way to keep all students’ attention and behavior on task. There are several strategies teachers can go about using group alerting. Some examples of group alerts may be completed with the help of students by using songs, the clap system and sayings, while others can be used solely by the teacher. For example, calling on students at random by asking a question only after scanning the room to make sure students are paying attention. Advantages –vs. – Disadvantages of Kounin’s Theory * Advantages * Promotes learning in not only regular education students, but also with special education students * Effective ways to manage a classroom * Shows respect for all students * Helps prevent discipline problems * Disadvantages * Does not address behavior problems * Teachers wanted effective strategies to stopping misbehavior quickly and they did not find it in Kounin’s work. Work Cited Charles, C.M. Building Classroom Discipline. 10th. N.A.: Pearson, 2011. 66-68. Print. â€Å"Discipline Theorist.† n. page. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. http://www.elearnportal.com/courses/education/classroom-management-and-discipline/classroom-management-and-discipline-discipline-theorists. Evertson, C.M, and E.T. Emmer. Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers. 8th. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2009. 108-112. Print. Gulliver, L. â€Å"Jacob Kounin.† 01/2011. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. http://lynneg.edu.glogster.com/lynne-gullivers-jacob-kounin-glog/

Five Key Steps to Working with Editors

Five Key Steps to Working with Editors For those writing a series, you’ll need to describe where the book fits into the series.  There are different ways to create lists; however Excel works well for me when preparing a timeline. I head the first three columns Character, Purpose, and Relationship to Protagonist. The fourth is labeled Chapter One, subheaded with the time and date. Below Character, I list primary and secondary characters as they appear in the book, then note something about their purpose under the chapter they appear in. The great thing about Excel is that it’s user friendly. You can easily manipulate rows and columns to insert or delete material.  You writers out there are probably groaning

The Puritan Story Essays

The Puritan Story Essays The Puritan Story Paper The Puritan Story Paper The puritan story was a story of many things; from the landing of the first group of puritans in New England, to the formation and trouble of the bay colony bible commonwealth, to the puritans versus Indians, ending with the New England family. This story wouldn’t be anything without the help of the one and only King Henry VIII. It was King’s, tie breaking with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530’s that launch the reformation of the protestant church. The reformation of the church led to a group people to seek the purification of the English church, theses people were known as the â€Å"puritans†. The puritans later broke down into two groups when the reformation of the church wasn’t making any progress. One of these groups was the separatist also known as pilgrims; a tiny group of puritan who vowed to break entirely away from the England church. Losing their English identity, these separatist departed for Holland in 1608 to flee royal wrath back in England. While in Holland, the separatist endured hard work and poverty for 12 years but it was the â€Å"dutchification† of their children that made them leave Holland and sail to New England to live and die as English men and women and as purified protestant. Securing rights with the Virginia Company to settle under its jurisdiction, the pilgrims sailed to America but missed their destination and finally chose to land at Plymouth bay in 1620 without the legal permission of the Virginia Company to land or establish government. Before disembarking the pilgrims leaders created and signed the brief mayflower compact; a simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority under the regulations agreed upon. This pact was a promising step towards genuine self-government. The start of life in Plymouth rock wasn’t a bed rose for the pilgrims, especially during their first winter at the rock were they had it hard and only 44 out of 102 survived. Even though the winter was harsh not a single one of the pilgrims left when the mayflower was heading back to England in the spring. The pilgrims stayed around longer and being fortune with having men like William Bradford to help lead, the pilgrims saw a bountiful harvest by time the next autumn hit in 1621 creating the first thanksgiving in New England. This small settlement of pilgrims were still charter less and even though they were big morally and spiritually they did not succeed to become big economically and numerically until it merged with its neighbor; The Massachusetts Colony. This colony was home to the second group of puritans who came to America; the â€Å"non-separatist†. The non-separatist, were the puritans who didn’t leave England but stayed to try and purify the protestant church. The purification of the church still made no progress and in 1629 the non-separatist left England fearing for their faith and England’s future. The separatist secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay colony; they used the charter for many years as a constitution until they decided one day that they wanted to separate themselves from the England church only from its impurities. The non-separatist established a sizable settlement in the infertile Massachusetts area and was bless with a well-equipped expedition of 1630. It was also during the 1630’s when about 70,000 refugees left England for America creating what’s known today as â€Å"the great migration†, only a few of theses refugees made it to the bay colony while the rest settled in the West Indies especially in the Barbados. Many fairly well-to-do educated immigrates immigrated to the bay colony, including john Winthrop the bays first governor who served 19 years. The bay colony prospered as fur trading, fishing and shipbuilding industries with the resources and skills of talented people like Winthrop, he also help the colonist build a holy society that would be model for humankind. The bay franchise was extended to all freeman; adult males who belonged to the puritan congregation which in time came to be called the congregational church. Although the government was liberal by the standards of the time it was not a democracy, Governor Winthrop feared and distrusted the â€Å"commons† and thought that democracy was the meanest and worst of all forms of government. Winthrop felt that if the people were governors then who shall be governed he thought that only puritans, the visible saints who alone were eligible for church membership could be freemen. As time went on the bay colony continued to grow and enjoyed a high a degree of social harmony stemming from common beliefs but running into dissension. It was few a people that did not agreed with the bay’s â€Å"bible commonwealth†, people such as Anne Hutchinson; a woman who was banish from the puritan church when she claimed that a holy life was no sure sign of salvation and that the truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either god or man. Along with Hutchison was a young man name roger Williams who also challenged the English church. Williams was condemned for expropriating the land from the Indians without fair compensation he also went on to deny the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior. This was seditious blow at the puritan’s idea of government’s very purpose. With the few troubles they had with those who disagreed with the idea of government the puritans faced another problem; they face troubles with Indians. Back when the first set of pilgrim settlers arrived, local Wampanoag Indians at first befriended the settlers. The Wampanoag chieftains massasoit signed a treaty with the Plymouth pilgrims in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first thanksgiving after the autumn harvest that year but things changed after that. In 1637, hostilities exploded between the English settlers and a powerful Indian tribe known as the Pequot tribe. The English militiamen and their Narragansett Indian allies annihilated the Pequot tribe and in 1675 massoits son, metacom (nicknamed king Phillip by the English) launched a series of attacks and raids against the colonist towns. The war ended in 1676. In 1643 four colonies banded together to form the New England confederation. The primary purpose of the confederation was defense against foes or potential foes like the Indians, the French and the Dutch. The confederation was essentially an exclusive puritan club, and although it was weak the confederation was the first notable milestone on the long and rocky road toward colonial unity. As New England grew over the period of time they social scale were great planters, small planters, landless whites and black slaves. New Englanders tended to migrate in families as opposed to single individuals and family always came first to the new Englanders. Along with families in southern colonies because men died frequently the widows were allowed to inherit the property and married women were allowed to retain separate title to their property but because the puritan worried that recognizing women’s separate property rights would undercut the unity of married persons they decided that the when a man died the church inherit the property not the wife. New England towns were legally chartered by the colonial authorities and the distribution of land was entrusted to proprietors every family received several parcels of land. Towns of more than 50 families had to have an elementary school and just after 8 years of the formation of the bay colony in 1636, the Harvard College was established. The puritans ran their own churches and democracy in congregational church government led logically to democracy in political overnment. As life in the new England towns continued to prosper the church started to decline losing many of its members because of its strict policies. In 1662 troubled ministers announced a new formula for church memberships known as the â€Å"half-way covenant†. The new arrangement modified the covenant between the church and its adherents, to admit to baptism but not â€Å"full communion†. This new formula helped boost the churches membership and help the church gain money. In 1692 a group girls in Salem, Massachusetts were claimed to bewitched and put on trialed, by 1693 the governor of Massachusetts ended the witchcraft hysteria and prohibited any further trials and pardoned those already convicted. As the years continued on the New England way of life steadily grew making New England a place for energy, purposefulness, sternness, stubbornness, self-reliance and resourcefulness ending â€Å"the puritan story† and starting the America we know today as home. .

What Do Artists Do Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What Do Artists Do - Essay Example This essay discusses that the nation was bitterly divided that the returning veterans got almost no recognition for their efforts. In this environment of an ongoing debate, the role of Lin was to build a memorial, honoring the human sacrifice of the war while at the same time neither praising nor criticizing the war itself.Ass the report stresses at the center of the memorial is a long, tightening, V-shaped wall of black granite, engraved with the names of the missing, the captured as well as the dead-totaling to 58,000 names. This memorial suggests a modern entrance to an old burial mound even though it lacks entrance. Thus, the extremely polished surface serves as a mirror providing a reflection of the nearby trees, Washington Memorial as well as the visitors passing by.  As they enter along the walkway from either side, visitors are not aware at first of the low wall at their feet. The monument starts, unnoticed just as the war itself did; a few support troops sent to a distant and small country, a few deaths in the nightly news. As visitors descend along the downward-sloping path, the wall becomes taller and taller, towering overhead, and so do the names increase. People oftenly reach out and touch the letters, touching their own reflections. A corner turns at the lowest point of the walkway, with the wall at its highest. The path climbs upwards, and the wall falls away. Drawn from both the Washington Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, visitors leave the war behind.

Team Evaluation Tool Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Team Evaluation Tool - Assignment Example Various tools can be used to help in achieving quality based team performance. One of the tools that prove to be more useful is brainstorming. Every team has both strengths and weaknesses, which highly influence the direction of the organization. Brainstorming in the team will help identify strengths and areas that need improvement (Glasman, 1986). Brainstorming helps to come up with proper suggestions on better ways for improving team performance. In connection to the above, brainstorming improves leadership performance, as a leader will identify the areas that need more concentration. When the deficiencies have been identified, then the team and the manager will proceed in implementing them hence quality and strong leadership and team performance (Parry, 1997). Performance appraisal is another useful tool that can be utilized to help in evaluating the team as well as the leadership performance. The performance evaluation allows both the management and the individual team players identify their strengths and weaknesses. The method gives space for better and quality team performance and leadership performance (Narayan-Parker, 1993). Barksdale, S., Lund, T., & American Society for Training and Development. (2001). Rapid evaluation: Tools, worksheets, and job aids to help you: develop an evaluation strategy, use the right evaluation approach, understand, and analyze evaluation data. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training &

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 28

Economics - Essay Example Thatcher follows a policy of monetarism and this is the difference with the other administration. Thatcher strongly believed in an open and privatized economy. Therefore her government worked fiercely towards privatizing some of the major government organizations. This era advocated policies of free markets and nationalizations of banks and financial institutions. The soul of this era was the Big Bang of financial deregulation that prevailed in the market in the year 1986. The economy was left free to open trade by reduction of tariffs and trade duties. Thatcher government was in favor of market optimization by inviting competition. To fight with the inflation Thatcher, after coming to power increased the taxes and reduced government spending. It was reported that the first year of her tenure in the office, was marked by a reduction of 1 billion pounds in the government spendings. Policies were adopted to reduce the powers of the labor unions. Ordinary people were encouraged to own h ouses and the companies they work for. Large number of council houses was sold off to the tenants. Her government brought about reforms in government expenditure snd thus made the economy of Britain more effectual. This paper centers on the economic principles employed during the Thatcher era and justify the use of these different approaches under the current economic scenario of our country. (Pearce, n.d.) Under this section we cover the major economic policies adopted during the Thatcher era. We further analyze the effectiveness of these policies in our country, especially in the current scenario when the economic conditions are almost the same as the one in United Kingdom before Margaret Thatcher took over as the president of United Kingdom. â€Å"When Mrs. Thatcher won the election in 1979, economic growth stood at just over 2% but this apparently respectable figure hid many problems. Unemployment had been rising from