Learning Team Reflection Essay Example for Free

Learning Team Reflection Essay Learning Team D discussed the learning objectives provided for Week Three. Each Team Member posted a response to three informational questions posted by the Team Leader. During week three The Team Members felt comfortable with different topics. Sherly, Andrea and Katrina all felt the most comfortable with the topics dealing with Technology, R D, and Efficiency which were covered in chapter 11W. Sherly found the topic of invention the most fascinating because it allows people to just think up of an idea, experiment with it and develop it before finally developing it with the intent of putting it out on the market and earning some profits. An example of invention at work is a TV show on ABC called Shark Tank where inventors present their invention to members of the panel who are entrepreneurs/potential investors with the intention of selling a percentage of their business or product. Andrea felt that the chapter was an easy read and was more of a review on how businesses stay profitable and viable. From this chapter Andrea was able to learn that creating a fresh product at the optimal price is the key to success. Katrina was most interested in Technological Advance and Efficiency section covered in the chapter. The fact that improving ones technology can also contribute to economic efficiency was something that Katrina found interesting. Mark was comfortable with all the topics covered in week three and especially enjoyed learning more about the differences in operating in a monopoly, monopolistic competition, and an oligopoly. Danielle felt most comfortable with the process of supply and demand and how it plays an important role in the economy. Danielle feels that understanding how the supply and demand process works is beneficial and can be used to analyze decisions about prices and quantity. For Danielle having Learning Team D struggled with different topics that were covered during week three. Sherly struggled with Exploiting University and Government Scientific Research. Sherly thought that any product or potential product created by an individual or members of an organization could be patented. Andrea found it hard to understand visual presentations of the data by the example graphs. Andrea considered herself to be a visual learner but cannot seem to understand the graphs given. Katrina, like Andrea, found it hard to follow the examples given within each chapter but the reason behind her confusion dealt with actually being able to match the example to the reading. Katina felt that having to flip back and forth while reading to match the example that was given within the reading caused her to not fully understand what the example was trying to get across. Nonprice barriers to entry was the topic that Mark felt the most unsure about this week. Mark found it challenging to look beyond the numbers when analyzing something. Danielle struggled with pricing decisions, price elasticity, inelasticity, and elasticity of demand. The differences in monopolies and oligopolies was a bit of a struggle for Danielle but the examples that were provided within the reading helped her to grasp the information better. Each Team Member was able relate topics of the week to their organization’s field of business. Sherly works as an underwriter for an insurance company which provides health, life and disability insurance products and services. Reduced cost via process innovation was the topic that Sherly felt related to Underwriting. Sherly and her team are always looking for ways to change/update processes, reduce turnaround times between the receipt of an application for life/disability insurance coverage request to making the final determination whether to approve, postpone or decline a file. As an example, the introduction of a new system where applicants could go online to apply and depending on the information entered and the amount being requested, a determination can be done right there. This new system saved the company both time and money. We do not have to go through the omission process with this system since every question must be answered for the online application to be processed. When, we have to send applicants omission letters, the entire process takes longer since we have to wait to receive the missing information back from the applicant before the application can be processed. Andrea works in the finance industry for an airport. Andrea was able to apply the topic of mergers the most to my daily business field. At the airport, the airlines and rental car agencies combined resources on a regular basis. Department of Justice generally gets involved with these types of mergers to prevent monopoly behavior. For example, American and US Airways are currently under review and comment period for their merger. In addition to combining ticket counter space, it is anticipated that gates will be combined as well. The airport will lose money on the merger but customers will benefit from lower fares. The more customers that fly will make up for the shortfall in revenue for space rent lost by the airport. Katrina works in the field of Worker’s Compensation as a Claims Assistant. The topic of invention related the most to the type of work Katrina does at her job. Each day new claims are called into her office on a day to day bases and the way in which those calls are entered into the system must be efficient. Katrina and her team at her office created a new system for entering a new claim that is called into the office. Mark relates the topic of most of cost control and using developing technologies to lower cost to his field. That is an area we are constantly trying to improve upon whether the ideas come from our staff or from outside our organization and we work out a plan to implement them to help our business. Our franchise location does not develop technology but we have the opportunity to seek technology to increase the efficiency of our workers and also help save costs. Danielle works as a project manager for an energy efficiency consulting agency. As a project manager Danielle’s role is very significant in budgeting for a project for he/she is the one who determines the project costs and project budgets in line with the stakeholder’s specifications and resources. Budget allocation, collaborates with the project stakeholders and project financial coordinators to build a sensible budget plan that will sustain the whole project in all of its phases. Using cost control measures to insure they are staying within budget, as we understand the importance of increasing revenue and staying within budget. Revenue management is integral to a companys long-term strategy; without adequate income administration, the company may not be around long enough to implement its operating tactics. Each member of the Learning Team experienced a learning curve for Week Three. Sherly learning curve increased a little bit during this week. The additional information on monopoly provided Sherly with more information that helped her better understand what was taught in week two. The fact that certain opics such as monopoly, oligopoly, short run and long run, are being covered more in depth has also helped to increase her learning curve. Andrea’s still struggles with the graphs presented representing the demand curves. The economy of scale section has also been a struggle for her this week but Andrea has gone over the text in these sections multiple times for a better understanding. To increase her learning curve she finds that the lectures provided by our instructor breakdowns the topics in a mor e day to day format for easier comprehension. This week Katrina’s learning curve increased because she started to feel more comfortable with the terms and having a chapter that was easy to read through and understand made her feel more at ease with learning new Economic information. Mark’s learning curve for this week was changing his focus to look at big picture items using more theoretical concepts rather than concrete numbers. Mark enjoys the challenge that is presented by applying a different approach to analyzing what will impact a business from a market structure standpoint which will continue to increase his learning curve. Danielle feels that she’s beginning to understand the importance of Economics and how it relates to more than just money. Danielle hopes to continue to improve her understanding of the mathematical equations and graphs representing demand curves as the week’s progress. As the weeks go by the team still struggles with a few concepts but as the team moves forward they are developing and getting a better hold on the topics that are covered on a week to week bases.

A Comparison of My Two Speeches -- Apeech Evaluation Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Comparing my self-introduction speech (my first speech), to my persuasive speech (my last speech) was interesting. They were completely different topics but with a slight improvement in speaking ability. I increased my ability to maintain eye contact while I reduced the amount of nervous body language. I saw improvements in my speech preparation and structure, as well as in the delivery of the speech.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First I am going to talk about the difference in eye contact and nervous body language between the first speech and the last speech. In my first speech my face was flushed a cherry red, I was shaking, and every time I would try to make eye contact I would lose all train of thought. In my last speech I was not nearly as nervous, you could tell by the color of my face. I was not ...

Should the Sat Be Required?

First introduced in the year 1926, for many years now – the SAT, or Scholastic Assessment Test, has been a major part of our high schooler’s education. It is a requirement in order to graduate – and is a chief determining factor in whether or not a student will be accepted into certain colleges. In fact, a student could have straight D’s and C’s, yet if they were to receive a perfect or near perfect score on this particular test – they would be able to apply and be accepted into the most prestigious of schools. I think this is absolutely ludicrous.The SAT test is one tailored to be one of the trickiest you’ve ever taken, one that is actually designed to fool you into misunderstanding every question. Not to mention the stress that overcomes most students as they’re taking this timed test, second guessing every answer and worrying about every little thing until finally the time is up – and they feel like a failure. Itâ€⠄¢s silly to put a student in this atmosphere – where most are not at their best – test them on random subjects, and then allow this score to come before every other score they’ve ever received in their life.Indeed a quote from Einstein comes to mind as I think about it, â€Å"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a  fish  by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid†. The SAT has been under scrutiny for years now, often accused of being biased in the upper class’ favor. In fact, studies have shown that students from families with an income less than $20,000 a year received an average score of 1,310, while students from families with incomes over $200,000 averaged in at about 1,715 – a difference of 405 points.There was also a large controversy over the ‘oarsman-regatta analogy question’. The purpose of the question poised was â€Å"to find the pair of terms that have the relatio nship most similar to the relationship between â€Å"runner† and â€Å"marathon†. The correct answer was â€Å"oarsman† and â€Å"regatta†. The choice of the correct answer presupposed students' familiarity with crew, a sport popular with the wealthy, and so upon their knowledge of its structure and terminology.Fifty-three percent of white students correctly answered the question, while only 22% of black students also scored correctly. However, according to Murray and Herrnstein, the black-white gap is smaller in culture-loaded questions like this one than in questions that appear to be culturally neutral. Analogy questions have since been replaced by short reading passages†. In response to the controversy, a growing number of colleges have chosen to join the ‘SAT optional movement’, a movement made popular in the late 1980s.Said colleges do not require the SAT for admission. In a 2001 speech to the  American Council on Education,   Richard C. Atkinson, the president of the  University of California, urged dropping the SAT Reasoning Test as a college admissions requirement, â€Å"Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priorities and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self-esteem and aspirations of young students.There is widespread agreement that overemphasis on the SAT harms American education†. I very much agree with his argument, and many are starting to see his point as well. I am very hopeful that in the growing infamy of the test, it will vanish as a requirement all together, and that the next generation will never have to deal with the problems such a test presents.

Interview At The Valley Inn - 1889 Words

On March 3, 2017 I had the pleasure of conducting a face to face interview at The Valley Inn in Timonium , Maryland with my former manager, Kaitlyn Kivi. Kaitlyn is a Senior HR Generalist at Continental Realty Corporation, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Kaitlyn graduated from McDaniel College with a Bachelor Degree in English and Communications. Upon graduating from McDaniel, she started her career as a licensed insurance producer at Aflac. During her time with Aflac she moved on to earn a Masters from Towson University in Human Resource Development, and shortly after earned a PHR and SHRM-CP certification. After graduating from Towson, Kaitlyn landed a job at CRC as an HR Coordinator and was promoted to HR Generalist six months later.†¦show more content†¦Another issue that Kaitlyn experienced, is performance issues were not being addressed fast enough by management. Performance issues should be addressed as they occur, at CR the HR teams believes this, but with their old system in place some of the managers lacked with addressing issues until the employee’s annual performance review. Managers would wait until the annual performance review to address issues because that was the only required and scheduled time to discuss, or they thought that it would be most appropriate to bring the issue up during the performance review so they would wait. This resulted in poor performers assuming they were fine and not making efforts to improve. The new system that CR just implemented requires each individual employee to create two smart goals. This may diminish some of the consequences of the late feedback from managers to employees, because the employee is now setting, working toward, and keeping track of their goals. The new system also requires managers to meet with employees four times a year; February, May, August, and October. The increase of meeting time will greatly reduce the overlap between when a performance issue occurs and when it is addressed . This will give managers more opportunities to address the issue more frequently since there will only be three months in between every meeting. The rating system that CR had in place prior to the new Compass performanceShow MoreRelatedAn Argument Against Auteur Theory.2750 Words   |  11 PagesFord carefully weaving beautiful images of monument valley, to fulfill his artistic allegories, or demanding the most effective of performances from a cast who manage to convey the emotions which stir inside this most American of auteurs. Just as Corman seems to put a great deal of philosophical thought into crafting what many consider to be simple films, Ford seems to suggest that his cinematic choices are often over-analyzed. 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