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Lessons Learnt In Class
Lessons Learnt In Class
At the beginning of the lectures to this unit, the lecturer was adamant that everyone would learn something. This did capture the attention of many individuals in my class, but it was not a surprise to me. This is because of the new things that I had been learning ever since my admission to the school. However, the revelations of the lecture shocked me. It did change my perception of corporations and my government. Prior to the movie, my understanding was that corporations had the intention of making profit, but by first ensuring the wellbeing of the stakeholders. According to the lectures, and the movies I watched this was not true and the core concern of corporations was to increase their profit. On the other hand, instead of the government protecting its citizens, they conspire with the large corporations to defraud unsuspecting consumers.
The Food Inc movie was of particular interest to me. The movie begins with a panoramic view of the beautiful lands where there are crops grown and later on it takes the view to the supermarkets. The tomatoes that end up in the supermarkets are not the tomatoes that famers produce, but replicas. Corporations buy the unripe tomatoes from the farmers and use gases to accelerate their ripening. It is also saddening to learn the circumstances under which the meats in our supermarkets end up in the shelves. Large corporations produce them in an assembly line where they produce them in conditions that are a danger to the health of consumers. On the other hand, there is no care of the animals and their extreme cruelty to animals and the employees in these corporations. The foods available in the supermarkets according to the movie are replicas and do not come directly from the farmer, but huge assembly line organizations.
It is a common trend for large corporations in the United States to file for bankruptcy. However, the country was not prepared for the failure of the seventh largest corporation in the county, Enron. Studies into the scandal did reveal serious and demeaning facts and activities within the organization. The executives of the firm knew of the impending downfall and in accordance, paid themselves before the failure. In addition, the movie reveals that Enron did engage itself in accounting fraud. It was even more surprising to learn that the largest auditing firms did take part in the inflation of returns in order to attract unsuspecting customers. Enron engaged in a myriad of activities that eventually lead to its failure and the suffering of its stakeholders. This indicates that corporations do not intend to ensure the wellbeing of its stakeholders, but rather the concern is increasing its profits.
Maybe the most surprising of all the events is the involvement of the government is such cases. During the enquiry into the Enron Scandal, there were revelations that the government was involved in the scandal. Powerful individuals persuaded the government from exposing the truth. In addition, FDA has the responsibility of ensuring that the foods Americans consume are of the required standards, and its production is through the desired means. However, given the existence of power individuals within the corporations, FDA is unwilling to protect the citizens of America from harmful foods. In accordance, corporations and the government are not as they portray themselves in the public. This was an important lesson and I will make efforts of ensuring that I buy food directly from farmers.
Lessons for Timothy Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek
Lessons for Timothy Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek
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Timothy Ferriss is one of the most notable authors and is regarded as one of the most innovative individuals in the business world. Ferriss is not only an author but as well as an advisor. In his best-selling book, “4-Hour Workweek,” he not only teaches and advises people how to run their lives more efficiently. In most cases, people do not know what to do when they are tasked with challenging opportunities. Management is one of the best practices that we need to adhere to in life since, in the business world, poor management may lead to the collapse of an organization. Deriving lessons from experienced people results in higher productivity and profits for the organization. Based on the “4-Hour Workweek” book, there are various lessons that can be deduced and to which can be greatly significant in turning the face of an organization.
One of the important lessons I learned from the book is to avoid information overload. Data from various sources can be easily accessed through improved technology sources such as the internet in the current world. The availability of this excess information may cause one to forget the important events surrounding them and instead focus on many irrelevant issues. However, the author, through the book, teaches the importance of cutting off the connection to the internet, televisions and e-mails. On the other hand, he encourages prioritizing our time for the most important things in our lives, such as family and friends. Also, I have learnt that it is important to give time to activities that help in relaxing our minds, such as engaging in favorite exercises.
More so, the book has taught me to find ways of making automatic income. The author greatly encourages the creation of private time to relax and free from normal activities throughout the book. Therefore, he advocates for a system of business management where the work can run with little involvement from the owner. The less involvement ensures that business flows as usual and generates revenue through means such as online marketing and selling of products. In such strategies, the owner will only need to set-up his products for sale through the internet rather than carry out personal selling. Similarly, delivery procedures can be planned and carried out automatically on an autopilot basis. Consequently, income can be generated automatically with less involvement in the physical work, which in turn ensures more time spent on relaxing activities.
I have also learnt to enjoy the current life that I can afford rather than saving up for the unknown future. According to the author, most people waste the bigger part of their active life busy working for some other people to earn a salary. Also, they save part of the salary to enjoy in the future when they retire from their jobs. However, most of them end up not fulfilling their dreams since anything may happen to hinder them from the anticipated future. Thus, the author suggests that people should make a habit of rewarding themselves with the little income they currently possess. Besides, one should take some time away to enjoy life when they have a chance to because growing old is inevitable, and anything may happen.
Timothy Ferriss advises people that they should focus on rewarding themselves with an experience of life that they want once in a while. Tim, for example, advises people to take a vacation to one of their dream destinations using their income from low maintenance business, which they have initiated. Moreover, an individual can make a decision to go and live abroad for some time while at the same time working on their regular job through the internet. By taking some time off and living an ideal life, it helps the individuals in increasing the quality of life, and this allows a person to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Furthermore, living an ideal life is more relaxing and also highly motivating.
Another significant lesson that I learned from the book is that individuals need to boost their effectiveness by outsourcing menial tasks in their schedule. One of the major goals of many professionals is to enhance their effectiveness in conducting their daily activities continually. According to Timothy, a professional can increase their effectiveness trough delegation of small responsibilities in their lives to other people, especially junior officers. Through delegation, an individual will have an opportunity to focus their energy on activities that are considered more important in an organization. Based on this, outsourcing most of these activities through delegation helps the individuals to strategically apply their focus on specific areas in which they are deemed to make maximum impact.
Modern technology has greatly aided in achieving outsourcing in some of the office activities to virtual assistance that is globally located. Through this kind of outsourcing, the professional may stand a better chance of having their jobs delegated to professionals in that particular field, and this increases the effectiveness in task delivery. Furthermore, the author indicates that individuals should get used to allowing small mistakes to occur, as this is for the greater good. For example, if an individual is asked to choose between making it to an investor’s presentation for their organization or returning a movie they had rented to avoid being penalized, it more likely that they would choose to go for the presentation and forego returning the movie. In this case, the person has to prioritize depending on the significance. Going for a company presentation means that the person has increased the chances for investments, and therefore the little fine incurred for failure to return the movie on time can be covered by the profits obtained from the investments. Therefore, foregoing returning the moving results to a greater good for the company. Prioritization based on significance is one of the lessons that the 4 Hour Workweek presents.
Another major lesson from the book is that a person should focus on living a proactive lifestyle rather than a reactive one. In the current society, many individuals normally sit at their desks all day long with their e-mail boxes open. When a new e-mail arrives, they sit up immediately and start preparing for a response. If the e-mail requires that some tasks be conducted, then most of the people will abandon what they were doing to start working on the new task. Through this, the correspondence coming through the e-mail can be said to be literally controlling the individuals’ actions on a daily basis. With the current technological advancement, there are numerous sources of information that can act as a distraction to what a person is doing, which include social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which are slowly replacing the e-mail as new sources of information.
According to Timothy, most individuals feel guilty and stressed when they are unable to reply to such messages either on e-mail or on social media platforms. Not only do people feel guilty for lack of a response, but also the failure to do as the message states can result in guilt and stress. In this case, most individuals become reactive rather than purposing to act on what they desire. Timothy, in his book, “4 Hours Workweek,” encourages such individuals to take control of their activities by limiting their time on social media or any other source of distracting information such as the e-mail box. According to Timothy, after a successful response to all the important e-mails, it is important to sign out of the various sources of information and then continue with the daily routine. Completing tasks based on a daily routine helps in boosting the organization’s productivity and thus provides individuals with a sense of control over their lives.
Another major lesson that I learned from Timothy’s book is to focus on the 20 percent. Pareto’s 80/20 rule happens to be one of the biggest lessons in the book. Pareto’s rule tends to apply to everything in life. For example, 80 percent of the negativity that faces most organizations comes from 20 percent of the people. From another perspective, 80 percent of the organization’s revenues come from 20 percent of the company’s clients, and the cycle continues. According to the advice given by Timothy in his book, automating the non-essentials and focusing on the most profitable clients is one way of utilizing the 80/20 rule. If a person applies it to their company to the core 20 percent, they will regain time without perceiving a decrease in business performance.
In conclusion, Timothy Ferriss does great in trying to inspire people on how to go about their businesses. Most of the topics carry significant information that is worth investing in an organization. Since Timothy is a well-known business person and adviser, it would be unfortunate for a person not to follow his advice as they not only emphasize on managing organizations but also insists on personal well-being through enjoying personal space and life. It is important to take some time off away from the business to help an individual live an ideal life at present, and not focus on retirement plans.
References
Ferriss, T. (2009). 4-Hour Workweek: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content. Harmony.
Lesson Planning
Lesson Planning
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Lesson plan refers to an educator’s road map or guide. It stipulates what the students need to learn. It also stipulates how this learning will be delivered effectively and efficiently during class time. This formal plan will likely change as the class proceeds. It is prepared well in advance and is written according to the needs of a specific group of learners. According to Milkova, a lesson is “an organized segment of instruction that has a certain content, length and unit of time”. This definition assumes that lesson must be planned out in advance. In reality, lessons are often ad-hoc conversations or series of activities thrown together to address an immediate need or situation. There are guiding principles behind lesson planning but this activity does not lend itself well to be oversimplified into formulas or steps.
Lesson planning is a process. The process involves looking for better ways to present the material, planning learning activities and assessment steps. The process is not linear or sequential in any sense. There are no rigid steps to follow. It is best understood as a well thought out process where you think through the learning objectives and activities in advance while also allowing students and yourself the flexibility to adapt this plan as the day unfolds. It is important to know your students as well as yourself when it comes to lesson planning. The classroom teacher has an intrinsic knowledge of their students that will come in handy when making adjustments during the lesson plan in response to immediate needs or questions being asked by students during the lessons.
Lesson planning incorporates major parts or components. These components are student learning objectives, learning or teaching activities, and the strategies or tools to check student understanding (Milkova, 2012). Other components of a successful lesson plan include: topics to study, conceptual framework, goals and objectives, assessment strategy. It is also important to consider learner-centered goals during the planning process as these will dictate how learners learn best. The content component includes what will be presented in class and how it is presented. Drills are one component that help students master material more quickly by exercising more often than performing once only. Other components include visuals such as graphs, text charts and diagrams that support the information being taught by presenting data in a way that makes sense without reading too much into it (Damayanti, 2020).
The content to be delivered in the lesson covers what students will learn and the main points that will be emphasized in the lessons. The learners to be involved should also be considered when planning lessons because no lesson is created equally for all learners of different levels, learning styles and preferences and educational needs, among others. Education stakeholders or educational leaders must also take into account students with disabilities as they plan instruction.
Defining the objectives for student learning in lesson planning is vital. Using both short-term and long-term objectives will help meet the needs of both teachers and students. This is the starting point of planning a lesson. It is important to clarify what the goal is – why you are doing the lesson, so that there is consistency in instruction. This goes back to ‘planning’ not just teaching. The objectives of a class should be clear, it should be known what is being taught and for what reason.
Teaching or learning activities involves planning and execution. It includes the Skills: Set of competencies students demonstrate after learning an outcome. Materials and ides for instruction: This includes anything you might need to teach, such as projector, whiteboard or computer, markers or pencils, etc. It also includes any learning instructions or resources you might want to use. Activities: The activity itself that needs to be taught or learned – what exactly the student is doing during their time with you. Timings and process for activities
Procedures for setting up a class environment (in order) How much time should be spent in each step? Etc.
Checking the students’ understanding is another key component of lesson planning that involves assessments. Sometimes the assessments can be in-class, but at times they might be taken by students outside of class. In order for the teacher to check the students’ understanding of a certain topic, there are some questions that can be used as assessments. Some questions need to ask them how much they know about certain topics, while other questions will require them to provide a specific answer or amount of detail. Something else that teachers may like is having their students fill out an information sheet where each student answers common misconceptions and facts about subjects.
The process of creating an effective lesson plan is not an easy task, however, it is necessary in order to meet the needs of both teacher and students. This process is made up of six major steps. The first step in preparing an effective lesson plan is outlining learning objectives. This step stipulates what students are willing and able to learn at the end of a particular class. The next step is developing the introduction, which involves preparing specific activities to get students to understand and apply what they have learnt. This step is followed by the main body of the lesson, that is planning the specific learning activities. Here, the educator ought to design various mechanisms of explaining the material to the students. These ways include using visuals, analogies, using real-life examples and so on. At this point, the instructor should be keen to ensure that they engage the students with disabilities and ensure that they are not left behind (Sabetra & Aziz, 2021). This step is followed by checking for understanding. The educator needs to have different mechanisms of assessing each and every student’s understanding. Here, the instructor ought to be keen to ensure that students living with disabilities are well assessed. Developing a conclusion and preview is the next step that involves summarizing the main points. Creating a realistic timeline is the last step in the lesson planning process.
Reference
Damayanti, S. (2020). RELEVANCY THE COMPONENTS OF THE ENGLISH LESSON PLAN. English Journal, 12(2), 68-78.
Milkova, S. (2012). Strategies for effective lesson planning. Center for Research on learning and Teaching, 1(1), 1-29.
Sabetra, F., & Aziz, I. (2021). The Component Of Lesson Plan On Classroom Management. International Journal Of Humanities Education and Social Sciences (IJHESS), 1(3).