Case Study: Goal Orientated Counselling Treatment

Case Study: Goal Orientated Counselling Treatment Case Study Scenario #1 Angela Townsend Scenario Mario is an illegal alien from Mexico. He has lived in the U.S. for five years and worked various construction jobs in the South. Mario’s family stayed behind in Mexico so he struggles with loneliness and has a poor social network except for an outreach ministry at a local Catholic Church. Mario was pulled over and charged with a DUI. He was sent to your agency for mandatory counseling in addition to attending a drug treatment support group like Alcoholics Anonymous. Personal Information In counseling, the first session is very important. As a counselor, it is important to collect as much information from the client as possible. The initial intake with Mario will take about an hour to gather as much about his background and personal information. Also, I would like to get family history, his educational background, any work skills, as well as his current living conditions in order to begin forming his taxonomy needs. The case clearly reveals that Mario now lives in United States away from family for the past five years and worked at various construction jobs. According to Mario, his family stayed in Mexico and he is struggling with loneliness not being with his family. I want to learn as much about Mario as possible to give him the best possible solution to his situation. Utilizing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a premise for disclosure, I can construct needs evaluation that arranges needs as far as characteristic, extraneous, and significance (Maslow, 1943). By evaluating Mario’s needs against Maslow’s hierarchy, I can start finding what is inadequate in Mario’s life which has made the issues he is encountering. Case in point, being isolated from his family is belonging need. Everyone has a need of belonging and this is a physical interconnected need. A need to get affection and recognition as well as being wanted as a person (Maslow, 1943). Based on the information, it seems that this need is not being met, it is showing in his conduct and actions. Personal Biases and Limitations In Mario case study, I would need to consider my own predispositions and restrictions carefully. It is very crucial for a counselor to be as honest as possible about their limitations. As a Christian, I understand the importance of taking care of our bodies according to the Word of God (I Corinthians 6:19-20, NKJV). Our bodies are the temple of God and doing harm to the body either psychically or profoundly could be harming to the soul. One of the real inclinations that I have is with the alcohol and drug addiction treatment. The major problem I have in regards to the addition treatment that people believe that the 12-Step Model does not work. It does if you work it properly. Will power alone cannot do it. This program is based on Christian concepts, even though there is a failure rate in this program, but I do believe it will work for Mario if he allows it to. One thing I do not like is that alcohol and drug addiction is called a disease in which it is not. It is a choice that peopl e make. In this world, we are given choices to make every day. We have the choice to do right or we have the choice to do wrong but the ultimate decision is ours. This is an addiction not a disease. A disease is inward in which sometimes you did not have a choice such as breast cancer. A person did not make a choice to have breast cancer. Drinking alcohol is outward; it is a choice a person makes. It takes faith to be delivered from alcohol and drugs. I tend to believe that people with alcohol or drug problem are more responsible for their condition. No one can want recovery for them. The person must want it and be willing to do what is necessary to heal. When counseling clients, it is important for me to inform my clients of my personal core values and beliefs about my faith in God giving the client the information to make an informed decision to continue counseling sessions Goals Goals should be attainable in Mario’s case. Mario reports of loneliness because not being with his family. He also has poor social skills. He is not a citizen of the United States and have worked various construction jobs. There are several goals that can be implemented for him to achieve. The first thing for him is to do is attend an AA meeting group, which is required by the court for alcohol and drug treatment. I believe signing up for the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program will not only help him develop other relationships but also help him to make better decisions in life. This program will help Mario take control back in his life. The main purpose of him attending these meetings is to see that he is not alone. Loneliness is a human response to being alone because God created humans with a need for relationship. Feelings of loneliness can be helped. Lonely people can attend church (Hebrew 10:25), be a friend to someone else (Proverbs 18:24), listen to Christian music, and pray for God to wok in and through them to take away the lonely feelings. It is very important for Mario to learn how to deal with stressors. Everyone has a need of belonging. In Mario’s case, she will be encouraged to find an activity that will force her to associate with other people. The goal is to get into a situation where other people will get to know him. Since Mario is part of his local church outreach ministry, I will encourage him to get more involved and be committed to it for no less than three months if he is open to incorporating the Word of God in his life more deeply. Too many people leave friends, jobs, or organization because of being offended. I am not sure if this is the case with Mario for the reason to work at various constructions jobs. The important thing is to have a goal in mind to keep him employed. Theoretical Approach The psychodynamic approach I believe will be the most effective in Mario’s case. Mario has a few fundamental issues that are occurring which should be analyzed. Being separated from his family and disengagement from his community is one of the biggest issues. The approach of dealing with these issues Mario is facing would be to utilize journaling as a method for convey mindfulness and control to Mario’s conduct and contemplations (Howes, 2011). At the beginning of each session with me, I will have Mario record anything of significance and importance to him, positive or negative occasions or sentiments that have happened between sessions. It is imperative that Mario and I meet weekly until he accomplished his goals. I would also urge Mario to search out other support group resources because this would give him the required support he needs. Therapeutic Progress and Success The objective is for Mario to achieve his goals. When Mario get involved in a support group and get into healthy activities this should satisfy his need of belonging. All people need to feel like they belong According to Ephesians 1:4-6,which states explicitly that we are chosen for belonging with God, â€Å"just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be hold and without blame before Him to love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.† The measure of this achievement is fairly subjective on the grounds that it will be based on his journaling and the assessments of his present way of life. An example, if Mario developed healthy relationships this will reflect his conduct and possibly diminish his drinking. Conclusion The issues that Mario was facing was a great negative impact on his life. Advising Mario with goal oriented counseling approach will keep him on track. Mario must make a decision to stay on track to improve his life. By doing so, he will diminish the drinking problem especially when he gets involved actively in support groups as well as his church ministry. Through regular counseling sessions with Mario, I will be in a position to develop an intervention plan that will lead him to a solid and satisfying life. References ACA Code of Ethics (2015): American Counseling Association, Alexandria, Virginia Corey, G. (2010). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. (8th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Howes, R. (2011, January 26). Journaling in Therapy Supersized therapy? Write on! . Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/201101/journaling-in-therapy Khantzian, E. J. (1986). A contemporary psychodynamic approach to drug abuse treatment. The  American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 12(3), 213-222. LeBeauf, I., Smaby, M., Maddux, C. (2009). Adapting Counseling Skills for Multicultural and Diverse Clients. Compelling Counseling Interventions: VISTAS , 33-42. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Retrieved June 17, 2015, from York University, Toronto, Ontario : http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm Schmidt, C. D. (2014). Integrating Continuous Client Feedback into Counselor Education. The Journal for Counselor Preparation and Supervision , 6 (2), 2-12. Wilson, W. (2001). Alcoholics anonymous. New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. Police Stop and Search Powers: Effects on Public Trust Police Stop and Search Powers: Effects on Public Trust Introduction The increased powers of stop and search afforded to the police by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) have seriously contributed to a lack of trust and confidence in the police service, particularly among ethnic minorities. This essay will focus particularly on how the new powers have been used more extensively on ethnic minorities, which undermines trust and confidence in the police particularly among these communities but also perpetuates ideas of corruption and racism. Stop and search powers have further contributed to the notion of over policing not simply because they lead to greater police intervention in individuals lives, but because it leads to a greater influx into the process of the criminal justice system as a whole, known as attrition, especially among ethnic minorities (Home Office 1998). Stop and Search powers: historical backdrop The history of stop and search powers has provided the context for increasing mistrust of police felt by ethnic minorities and the notion of over policing. PACE was enacted to deal with problems that had resulted from a perception on the part of the public that the previous powers granted to the police to stop and search potential offenders were far too broad. These rules were known as the Judges Rules (Ormerod Hooper 2009). These rules allowed police to stop, search, and then arrest a suspicious person without and need to have obtained a prior search warrant. It is empirically difficult to say whether it was due to actual over-use, or merely a perceived increased resort to this power when police were among the black community. As a result of the powers, there were race riots throughout various parts of the United Kingdom in the early 1980s which resulted in the Judges rules being repealed. Pursuant to PACE, the law states that a police officer must have reasonable suspicion before he has the legal grounds to stop a person and search them. These practices, which confer very broad and intrusive powers, are often seen as the most glaring example of abuse of police powers. Although now under PACE 1984 a stop and search power can be carried out only when there is reasonable suspicion that stolen property or prohibited articles are being carried, the grounds for reasonable suspicion as defined in PACE are not of a very high threshold (Sprack 2008). This has been reinforced repeatedly in the case law regarding police stop and search powers under anti terrorism. Parker v Hampshire Constabulary (1999) note the suspicion must be based on reasonable grounds. Lord Devlins words, a state of conjecture or surmise. He goes on the further add In my judgment this state of mind, suspicious but uncertain, was based on reasonable grounds. The relationship between mistrust and a lack of confidence in the police and the stop and search of ethnic minorities is most keenly felt. Police data for 1999/2000 found that there was a five-fold increase stop and search used on blacks than on white including the same pattern for stops under early Prevention of Terrorism legislation. In 1997, 7% of these stops were black which is a clear example of discrimination and further creates an idea of police racism, over policing and decreases confidence in the criminal justice system overall. Even when deploying these powers outside the Terrorism Act, police intrusion and formal action remains significantly greater where the suspect is not white. More stops, more searches and more intrusive searches lead to increased suspicion. (Hayman Newburn 2001). However there are problems concerning the methodology of this research. The methodology of calculating stop and search is questionable as it can be based on outdated census figures. It is submitted that rates should be calculated on available rather than resident populations then findings for black people and ethnic minorities were mixed, both under and over represented for different localities this research emphasises the need for caution in assessing disproportionality in stop and search. For example, ethnic minorities may be subject to direct discrimination in schools and therefore be excluded, becoming unemployed and therefore more being available to be stopped and searched by the police. Clothing and hoodies and even a certain car type that can be associated with ethnicity. These all contribute to the process of criminalization which increases stop and search, which further increases distrust in the police system and over policing of deprived areas based on what is at least as sumed to be police prejudice. However the 2000 British Crime Survey (BCS) found ethnic origin only a predicator for car stops not foot stops. Clements (2006) found in London, reasonable suspicion was often absent in use of stop and search often used not for detection but for intelligence gathering used by supervisors of the metropolitan police to measure performance in that the more stop and searches conducted, the more successful arrests that will be made and a police officer will gain credit within the police as being successful. What is required is official acknowledgement that stop and search powers must be regulated to safeguard the individuals right to privacy due to the danger extent of discretion and limitations of legal regulation coupled with vague notions of reasonable suspicion. This is further exacerbated by the fact that most stop and searches occur outside the supervision of the police station. The relationship between Stop and Search, Arrest and Over policing The role of stop and search has only one role in explaining the over-representation of black people in arrest and imprisonment statistics due to the fact that only a small minority of stop and search in ethnic minorities lead to arrest. This statistic can further represent the lack of trust and over policing due to the fact that these searches are deemed as, and witnessed to be unnecessary. Undoubtedly, the police use of stop and search powers makes at least a modest contribution to over-representation of blacks in arrest population, and a significant contribution to the increased arrest statistics which further leads to a notion of over policing among black areas. This perceived abuse of stop and search and poor response to racist victimization has lead to wide ranging loss of confidence in policing and undoubtedly public perception, particularly among ethnic minorities has been harmed by these negative interactions. Arrest PACE 1984 requires that reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed exists before an arrest is made. There was a four times greater rate of expected arrest of blacks in 1999/2000 considering their numbers in general population (particularly for robbery 28%) and arrests for asians also higher than it was for whites (again in fraud and forgery). The fact that once having been arrested and in custody, ethnic minorities tend to exercise the right to silence, opt for legal advice and deny guilt. This can cumulatively disadvantage them in the criminal process, as least punitive outcome of an arrest, a caution, can only be given if guilt is admitted. This leads to higher rates of imprisonment and an even greater perception of over policing as these people become filtered in to the Criminal justice system (Phillips and Brown 1997). Black offenders are therefore both more likely to be arrested and more likely to be held in remand. Moreover being held in remand can mean that the magistrates court is more likely to refer their case to the crown court, which instantly makes their prospective sentence more likely to be serious. This clearly shows that whatever the subjective intent of officers, there is attrition process which results in incorporating more offenders into the net of the criminal justice. Most studies on the actual sentencing of ethnic minorities suggest there is little or no difference in practice but they do not take account of the aforementioned complex process of incorporating black suspects into the system. Hoods ground-breaking study in 1992 using a different 16-point methodology showed that 503 blacks were sentenced to custody when only 479 should have been making an overall increase of 5%, which, if employed in every Crown court in the country would make for serious racist discrimination. Hoods findings have, however, been criticised by Hakevy as having a 0.7% probability that the result was random as opposed to the normally accepted figure of 0.5% which indicates that results are above the level of random coincidence. The attrition process provides further evidence of discrimination against ethnic minorities with them being filtered in to the Criminal Justice System (CJS): ethnic minorities therefore comprise only 7.3% of those arrested but make up 12.3% of those imprisoned (Hood 1992). The cyclical nature of the CJS with reoffenders, who have been in custody before receiving harsher punishments further exacerbates the racist discrimination, leading to a cumulative disadvantage on the part of minorities (Phillips and Bowling 2002). Prosecutorial Decision -Making and Sentencing The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) potentially has the ability to divert individuals from further action after a police officer has officially charged a suspect. The CPS must consider whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether the case should proceed on public interest grounds. These grounds include the seriousness of offence and the involvement of defendant. Case Termination: A break on Criminalization? Only 2 research studies have examined whether these differ depending on ethnic origin. Phillips Brown (1997) 12% cases whites terminated compared to 20% blacks terminated and 27% against asians ethnic origin predicated an increased chance of case termination. This again reinforces that ethnic areas are being over policed, due to ingrained social ideas of racial criminality and institutional racism. It is submitted that this break should be taken note of and provides a real opportunity to change the publics view of over policing if it is used as an opportunity to decrease police stop and searches in ethnic areas. These studies raise serious questions about the use of stop and search powers in our criminal justice system as there is implied discrimination and presumption of guilt selectively applied by police. CPS break on criminalizing ethnic minorities can be explained because at this point in CJS discretion and subjectivity at minimum guided by stringent code for Crown Prosecutors. Pre-sentence processes: decision to remand or bail Remand prisoners are more likely to receive custodial sentences if found guilty cannot be presented in a positive light by smart dress or newly gained employment and unfortunately ethnic minorities are much less likely to be given bail (Hood 1992). This could merely be because ethnic minorities have an increased risk of being of no fixed abode this is apparently a neutral factor but it can still lead to the perception of over policing. The higher acquittal rates for blacks and asians, which are consistent with the case termination by CPS discussed above. This again raises questions about previous actions of police and leads to an even more entrenched mistrust of police action and allegations of over policing. Moreover pre-sentence reports where 16% written on black offenders and 11% on asians reinforced stereotypical attitudes to race. There have been documented higher rates of committal to Crown Court for ethnic minorities even before sentencing decisions are made, blacks face a m ore severe punishment than their white counterparts (Hood 1992). Sentencing Most studies suggest little or no difference exists between those from over policed areas (which tend to be areas dominated by ethnic minorities). However, these studies have a limited methodologically: it is almost empirically impossible to consider the wider range of legitimate legal factors which influence sentencing decisions, including subjective intention on the part of the judge. Hoods (1992) pioneering used 16 variables, which best predicted possibility of a sentence. 503 blacks sentenced when there should only have been 479, which was 5% greater probability of blacks being sentence: if practised in every court would show serious racial discrimination. The results of a study like this originate with over use of stop and search powers. Hoods findings provide clear evidence of discrimination which reinforces negative public opinion and mistrust of police and racially motivated over policing policies. Conclusion Over policing as in the proactive policing of areas populated by ethnic minorities does not go unnoticed and the greater use of stop and search powers creates bitterness and mistrust among these populations, which eventually undermines any positive work the police are trying to accomplish. The perception of over policing undoubtedly starts with the PACE 1984 stop and search powers, but as the offender progresses through the criminal justice system, and these powers are shown to have led to unnecessary arrests, the bitterness created by their use increases. It is difficult to think of a precise solution as the notion of reasonable suspicion, although an objective one in legal terms, is necessarily employed by the police based on their subjective judgment, which as a result of social factors and institutional racism, appears to be geared towards searching ethnic minorities. Mistrust is a two-way street and perhaps even contributes to increased criminality.

Baby Boomers Effect on Health Care Essay

As the baby boomer generation begins to reach retirement age, there has been much speculation as to what affect they will have on the health care industry. The baby boomer generation is the group of people born between 1946 and 1964. At one point, there were more than 76 million of them, of which 4 million died before 2000. With all this in mind, I will discuss what specific effects they will have now they are getting to that â€Å"elderly† stage. One word used by many people when they describe how the baby boomers will affect health care is apocalyptic. We all know that elderly people have to see the doctor quite frequently as their bodies start to deteriorate and begin to not work as well as it did when they were younger. It is believed that with this many people needing that much attention from the health care providers that the younger generations could face permanent inflation or high taxes and very possibly it could be both. Others believe that it will put such a strain on the insurance providers that the amount of coverage for everyone is going to be dropped as well. Another group of people think that with the cost of Medicare (government run insurance for those 65 and older) skyrocketing, the national debt will reach a point of no return. Why will all of this happen, you wonder? As mentioned before, elderly people have to see the doctor a lot more frequently than younger people. When the average generation holds about 60-65 million people, adding nearly 20 million more to that all at once is quite a large amount. Let’s put it this way. A computer can only hold so much memory. When it begins to store so much information on it, then it begins to slow down and not run as efficiently and needs more ram put in it. If too much is put on to it at once, then it could fry the system and become broken. The health care industry is the same way. The amount of organizations and providers can only hold so much. When there are less people using it, the more efficiently it works. The more and more that are crammed on it, the slower things work and the less effective and expensive it can become. In the baby boomers case, there are a lot of people that are going to be cramming the system. The costs are going to skyrocket as a result. There are a couple particular challenges that we will arise with the baby boomers. The first will be the cost of prescription medication. According to Dr. Woody Eisenberg, M. D. , vice president and chief medical officer for Medicare for Medco Health Care solutions in Franklin Lakes, NJ, baby boomers were the first generation to use medications as a preventative measure. Therefore they are used to taking medication and their bodies are accustomed to doing so. They have also had the privilege of all of the medical advances that have come about in the last 50 years that other generations haven’t. According to the Edlin, M. (2013) website, by 2015, the baby boomers will add nearly 19% to the population that falls into the 50-60 year old age groups. That is a staggering number. Another challenge that faces the health care industry is the long term health care program. The English, M. (2013) website says that by the year 2020, 12 million people will need long term care. With the baby boomers coming along, that number will surely increase. Providers will need to hire more long term care nurses as well as more doctors. The more people they have to hire, the higher the cost of the service because they have to make up the extra expense one way or another. Another issue facing this generation would have to be the incidents of chronic disease. While the average life expectancy was 48 years old in the early 1900’s, the now life expectancy is up to 78, nearly double. With that in mind, there are also more people with chronic disease. Many of these diseases, though, are preventable, but due to some poor lifestyle choices made during their life span, it is inevitable that that number will increase. The effects of smoking and drinking are a major part of that. Part of this is the decrease in the number of primary care physicians and pension plans that are disappearing due to the economy. That means there is a smaller number of doctors and smaller amounts of funds to take care of these. If there will be an evolution in this, there must be new models of management of these illnesses as well. This includes the delivery of innovative services through Medicare and private sector plans. â€Å"Transformative changes are particularly critical for the baby boomer generation, of which nearly two-thirds (35 million people) have at least one chronic health condition,† (Blumenthal, S. 2013). Another thing about this particular generation is that they are technology savvy. While things like the internet were not around when they were little, the older they got, the more technology as a whole grew. The internet came along as well as television. They have become starving for information. Therefore, when it comes to marketing, the best place to do this is on the internet and also on television advertisements. They do also enjoy reading the newspaper, so taking out portions of those would be beneficial. Making sure that there is as much information as possible about a particular service or product available is vital. If there is something that they see or want, they will do their research on it first, before taking it. There seems to be a lot of negative surrounding this generation and the health care industry. However, there are things that can be done to help with all of this, on the part of the individual, community, and society as a whole. As far as the individual patients goes, it starts with taking good care of themselves. While they are getting older, it is never too late to begin proper health habits. If they smoke, they should stop. Their lungs will begin to heal themselves. Doing daily exercises can go a long way to promoting good health. They should have a proper diet and try not to rely on supplements unless directed so by their doctor. As far as the community goes, there should be more tolerance for elderly people. It is frustrating to a lot of people that they don’t move as fast and even ridicule them. Being more accepting of them when they walk or drive by. Encourage them to go out and do things. In terms of society as a whole, the same could be said there as well. However, another thing that could be done is that there can be more programs made for people age 50 and up to encourage them to get out and get involved. If people don’t become â€Å"home bodies† and stay active, then they are more likely to stay healthy. I work at Walgreens, which is known more for its health related stuff and it has changed its motto to â€Å"Helping people get, stay, and live well. † I have seen an increasing number of older people coming in living well in to their 80’s and 90’s and still living healthy lives. The people that I have spoken with have attributed their good health to staying active. They admit they don’t move as fast as they used to, but they still manage a way to do it. They stay mentally strong which is a big plus when it comes to keeping their health condition high. The baby boomer generation is a large generation of people, likely one of the biggest in the nation’s history. They are getting older, now, and will start to require more medical attention. It is going to put a major strain on the health care field, which is why it is best if we start preparing for it now. Living a healthier lifestyle is a key to all of this.

Personal Learning and Capacity Essay

Reading through the following pages you are able to see my weekly entries of the text I read. My interpretations and questions that occurred towards reading, my initial reactions or developments after reading and some conclusions about text and literacy. As a person I never really enjoy literature. I am not the kind of person who enjoy reading big books or long articles because is difficult for me just to know that I had to read a very long article and remember it. When I saw a big one-coloured cover book I connecting it with small letters, no space between the lines that is hard to read it and remembers me an encyclopaedia. I was always prefer reading numbers due to that I like very much maths and science. There is no long theory to remember. So as you can see on the following journal, my reading collection is very limited on books and long text except whenever is needed. Regarding the way, where and how I read, depends on what I am reading. (see Appendix 4, p.17). When the reading had to do with study I have to be very concentrate and I prefer to sit straight on a chair and open all the books and papers on a big desk. This helping me to underline or write down useful key words. On the other hand reading as a hobby, I prefer to read when is dark, lying in my bed and holding my book. In addition I find it excellent trick to listen to the music when I am reading in both ways. I like to put smooth, chill out music, because it eliminates all the rest noises and distractions and help me to get clear mind from other things I might thinking. According to first’s week directed task I had to write everything that I read for a week. The following are reflections of the most important kinds of texts I read, and those that made me reconsidered the way I looked them before. A list of other kinds of texts I gathered and a short reflection, are available in Appendix 1, p.14. As well, on the following pages you can find, my reflections towards next weeks directed activities. Entry: Even though that cooking instructions are in written form are also available to read in the form of small representing pictures. Doing this activity I notice that when I am looking for the cooking instructions my eyes always focus on that tiny pictures and can’t see the written form of the instructions. Is the first think I looked for and I realized that my eyes used to focus there first. Then I had to explore those pictures in my mind to understand the preparation for cooking the product. â€Å" Image can be used to reinforce the meaning of what is said, what is written and so on† (Jewitt, 2005 p.316). In addition I notice that after seen the pictures I look for the written form too, to make sure that I read and understand the pictures right. Entry: It just came into my mind a funny situation I had with cooking instructions, when I first came to England. Now I am not really sure if it is good idea to put it in the log but is shows the difference of reading a text, expectations, and differences between cultures, ideologies and perspectives. You can see the above funny incident by reading Appendix 2 p.15. Entry: Text messages and e-mails, that I send to my friends back to Cyprus contained a lot of information in just few sentences. I have so many to say and is a bit expensive to send messages. Due to that I limited my words by putting symbols, write only the first letter or just the half word. (instead â€Å"and† I use the symbol +). After I read again those messages I send, I realized that if someone else was reading them couldn’t be able to understand them. This is because of the â€Å"code† of the written form and the long background and ideologies that are connecting me and my friends. For example in my first message I wrote â€Å"how is c.† , but only she is able to understand the name of the person I asked about. I also recognized that in just five sentences -that represent a whole message- I wrote so many things, that if I was writing them to a paper and to someone else it would take me probably 10 sentence to write them all. Though I prefer e-mails more than the messages, because is free, and I can  write as many sentence I want in just one e-mail and send it when I feel like. â€Å"With e-mail you just write your message and send it.. Even during the early hours of the morning† (Lyle, 2005).E-mail offers fast receipt and enables the recipient to reply immediately. In addition I can write it more easier and quicker using the keyboard and looking through a bigger and more clear screen. Furthermore I can add emotions in the style of J and use from a large list of font style and size and even colour. Even though I use more Msn to communicate with my friends due to the fact that it has the same advantages as e-mailing and in addition I can send those things I write and take reply back at the same time. Is like speaking by the phone but in written form. Also I can send and take files and connect a web camera to see each other. Entry: Considering second week’s directed activity on session 2, I choose â€Å"Vampires Breath† (Greek Version) of â€Å"Goosebumps† collection to cope with the activity for identifying the ideological assumptions within its text. (see Appendix 3 p.16 for a short summary) â€Å"Vampires breath† put me in the action part from the first pages and all the action happened in only one day (in the story). Stine is very illustrative within the story because is putting many descriptions to the story’s persons and places that it seems like you can imagine them as real, as you can see them now, in reality. The motivation theory proposed by Glenberg and Langston (1992) also suggest that â€Å"illustrations may make a book more appealing and engage the reader better† (Cited in Andrews, Scharff and Moses, 2002). There is a lot of conversation and I had the feeling that I was taking part in the story and this make me curious to read more and see what happens after to the main characters. Also the double identity of the â€Å"bad† characters, who could transformed their appearance from human into buds and the tricks they were doing to trapped the 2 heroes, just made me to want to finish it. The main characters are small children that get trapped from their curiosity and naivety of searching places and things that not supposed to do. The â€Å"happy ending† though is show up at the very last pages and I like it because it gives hope that things are going to be happy again  but also leaves a hind that things are going to repeat again from the same mistake. A weird and peculiar ending that allocates a twist in the tail. Even that it was a kind of low level to me, reading the book it make me wondered, what can be happened again to those two kids. Children that the book refers to (9-12) by reading it can find themselves into the heroes situations and bad positions that might have. Reading this book I remembered mine childhood phobias and related with those in the story, and this what makes the story more interesting. Children can encountered within the story’s heroes and happenings because they can feel the same in their life as the heroes and have the simila r phobias. Moreover I notice that the good and nice language and vocabulary is approaching with the children’s age ability to read and also can reflect positive to improve their language and reading skills. With the use of big letters and large space between the lines it helps me to read it more easily and quick. For children will be very appealing and smooth to read. The soft cover, full of bright colours, is the first thing I notice to choose to read the certain book, its cover’s appearance is something that make you wonder what is the story about. Genette (1997) comes to agree by saying that â€Å"a book’s cover is a threshold that a reader is invited to interpret and step across if induced to read on† (Cited in Harris and McKenzie, 2005 p.32) Additionally I enjoyed read this book because I like scary horror books like this collection, and also I can get very afraid sometimes and at the same time so excited. Entry: In view of directed activities of session 3 you can refer to Appendix 4, p.17-24 which include detailed answers, information and reflections regarding both online texts and my personal appreciations on ways of reading, my fears, and my imagination journey. The following are short reflections from the activities as whole, based on the following two main questions: What are the essential differences between reading on line and the more traditional way How these books (texts) tell us about the nature of childhood The Secret Garden as well as The Journey to the Centre of the Earth were easy to cope with by reading online. The vocabulary and language were easy to read and comprehend, apart from 3-4 words I didn’t know (and I had to look for their meaning in a dictionary). I find harder to understand The Secret Garden because of the conversation that was held between the interact persons of the story. It was very complicated to understand them due to there were missing some letters. I had to read all the dialogues again and again for 5-6 times until I understand what actually was written on the lines. I realize then that this was the dialect of the story’s heroes. Although reading onscreen those text was much easier for me because I am a big fun of technology and especially of computers. I find it more relax and quick due to the fact that just by pressing one button you can transfer from the top of the page and through the lines until the bottom of the page and also to turn on to the next page. Letters and generally the whole view was more clear to read and easily could copy and paste the unknown words in my pc’s dictionary. Even if technology is developing more each day to help us, I can outline some disadvantages towards the traditional way of reading a text, ex from books. Through my online reading there were missing colourful covers of the books, and as I mentioned in a previous entry book’s covers are very important as a first impression of the text. And this is because covers are the first thing you see and considered when you are going to buy or read a book. The illustrations of pictures which help you to empathize better the story’s happening didn’t included on screen. Although Jewitt (2005, p329) argues about online book’s illustrations by saying that â€Å"The multimode character of the screen does not indicate a single entry point, beginning or end. This offers the reader new potentials for reading a text. Reading a written text on pages is usually a linear event in which the author and illustrator guide the eye in particular direction connected to the reading of the text† Another thing is that the lines are too long and sometimes, people that don’t used to it can get bored and tired only by looking them. In addition another disadvantage is that you can’t save this texts to your library collection except if you keep your pc’s library with books and text from internet. Although is much nicer to collect the original  books in your house library and have them for a life. The Secret Garden and The Journey to the Centre of the Earth are showing the writers’ thoughts and appreciations about the world and the aspect of child, considering the matter of friendship and cultural perspectives on children behaviours. In my opinion, the matter of friendship appeared more clear in the Secret Garden, than in the Journey in the Centre of the Earth. In the first text, the Heroine is a young children that was neglected during her life. Although Mary finds someone to socialised with, in Dickon’s personality, even if he is from lower social class. The matter of friendship also reflect on me and make me bring in mind my own appreciations of friendship. Is showing that it doesn’t matter how rich you are in money or goods, but how rich you are in sole. Also that children supposed to be free from ideologies and believes of their environment and social background. As a children, Mary is more free and innocent than adults to do things and she is not afraid to be friend with â€Å"a common moor boy†. (See Appendix 4, p.19-20). I find secret garden revealing my perceptions because I believe that friends are very important, especially in childhood but in adolescence too. Making friends we have someone to socialize talk, laugh and do things together. Furthermore is showing the author’s perspective towards the child, to be free, good innocent, and free from taboos and in one word to be perfect as Dickon. Although Dickon’s description make me feel that he is not a real person maybe because no one can be perfect in everything. Mary in the other hand appears to be more natural person in contrast with the â€Å"magical† description of Dickon. Mary feels free inside the garden which becomes her new home. The secret garden is a place of adventure and everything inside it is perfect and this is one of the reason that Mary shares her secret with the magic, and good child, Dickon. All this also showing what readers expect to see about the child. How readers interpret and expect childhood years to be and that children supposed to be good and innocent . Although reading the second text make me engage with it more because as a children I had almost the same feelings and phobias as Alex (See Appendix 4, p.22-23).â€Å"Readers interstitial backgrounds provide resources for engaging with text, even  amongst young children† (Crawford and Hade, 2000, Cited in Harris and McKenzie, 2005, p. 32) Another thing that can be reveal from the texts is adults’ role in children lives even that is more evident in the second text. Adults are the persons who are expected to be responsible and take decisions about children’s future. In the Secret Garden Mary forced to go and live in another house because she didn’t have the power not to. That’s why Mary keeps the garden as a secret place. The author wants to express that when adults are in a situation they like to control and force things and that’s why the magic perfect secret garden is only for innocent, good children. This is more obvious in â€Å"The journey in the Centre of the Earth† when the hero, Alex, who is a young children and nephew of an eccentric scientist feel very terrify and scared about, both him and his uncle lives, during their experimental purposed journey. In front of the exhaustion, thirst and hunger Alex is fainted and his uncle giving him the last drops of water, to bring him back. The Professor do not considered his thirsty because, as an adult had to take care Alex first. After Alex is terrified and express by crying his fears about the uncertain and unknown remained of the journey, his uncle take the control and the responsibility for Alex and decide to send him back to earth with the servant‘s help, to be safe. The professor still insist to stay and continue his journey, because as a scientist was so curious and determined and nothing could stop him not even the fear of death. After all, Alex do not agree with his uncle and choose to travel along with him because he didn’t want to give up or letting down his uncle. This appeared as a conflict with the first text when Mary couldn’t choose the place to move, although Alex took his decision because he might was afraid to leave without his uncle. Here, Alex is having the change to do what he wants but he refused it. and he choose to stay knowing that his uncle will do anything to protect him. Entry: First time listen to the song â€Å"I aint mad at cha† by Tupac Shakur, I have to admit that I didn’t understand a lot of what Tupac was saying apart from the chorus. Although I don’t really listen to rap music I find it very nice and  different from other songs. It sound like a smooth, sweet melody into my ears, considering the background melody of a piano. I couldn’t believe the combination of rap music with piano, although it was something that attract me. Before seeing the video clip of the song I thought that 2puc was talking to a friend that lay him down and Tupac wanted him know that he has no harm feeling for him. First time I watch the song’s video clip I was very amazing. Surprising, the clip was a expressing a very different believes of what I first encountered. The video shows Tupac being punctured with bullets on his way, coming out of a restaurant with a friend. He is dying in the ambulance vehicle and he is attend into heaven who meets some people , probably some famous legends or relatives. The film was something like Tupac knew that he was going to be killed and seeing his life in Heaven. It seems a kind of prefigured his death. Watching the film make me feel sad and miserable about his tragic end. It was very pessimistic film for someone to make and for others to see, especially after his actual death, hence he is appearing laughing, smoking, and be in Heaven in the clip. Also I saw his thoughts about how he considered the life after death and the image of Heaven and make me somehow confident about my thoughts and appreciations of the life after death in Heaven. Somehow my thoughts were revealing in the film illustrations. Despite the brutal language and street words Tupac is expressing, through the song lyrics an optimistic and hopeful massage towards his friends and relatives and then to the rest audience. ABT indicates some of the music video characteristics by claim that: â€Å"They must gain and hold the viewer’s attention †¦ help establish, visualize, or maintain the artist’s image†¦ and perhaps, carry one or several direct or indirect messages . . .† (Cited in Rybacki and Rybacki) Through the lyrics, Tupac conveys that the change of getting out from the ghetto life, is not something bad or to be ashamed of. He has no harm feelings, he is not mad with friends that been a lot of time to talk, friends that change and get out of the streets, friends that get married, find a religion and get matured. Tupac is not mad with them for not doing the â€Å"bad† things and habits they used to do together, because they change.  He has nothing but love for them. Analysing the song I realize that a large amount of life’s values and ethical ideals were encountered in it, by just few words. The matter of religion, friendship, love, the role of the mother, and the value of God. Also the lyrics are expressing the stereotype of rap music containing offensive language between the â€Å"brothers†, a nice contribution of conflict words between the bad and good, the male and female, material world and God. An optimistic ending that he is praying for the good fortune of all. The very last sentence showing that in Tupac’s efforts to display a meaning to his family, friends and enemies that he is not mad with them and don’t want them to be sad for his lost, the song meanings refers also, to those that lost their loved ones! The song script is available in Appendix 6 p.27 Entry: I was watching an episode from The Coffee shop series and it really make me reconsidered it from a whole different aspect during this activity.  The â€Å"Coffee Shop† (or â€Å"Kafeneio†* see Appendix 5, p.25 and p.25-26 for a summary of the film) is one of the most known comic series in Cyprus. All episodes are take place in the Kafeneio and showing in a funny way, some special aspects of Cypriot people’s characters. When I am in Cyprus I never watching it because there are some other new series which catch my interest. Although this day I was very miserable and sad, with nothing to do so I decide to watch Kafeneio through internet from the satellite channel of Cyprus. The episode title was â€Å"The Fiancà ©Ã¢â‚¬ . Andreas who always trying to find cheating ways to earn money decide to married his just few days girlfriend who was a rich old women reaching death. Saying that he is truly in love with her. Although they never rich marriage because the old women dies after the party. At the end Andreas ends up with no money and owns the funeral’s costs. Watching Kafeneio made me crying from laugh because of the story’s reversed happenings and the good ability of the actresses to play with in the hilarious situation. Even though laugh its all you can expect from this type of series, I also felt like home watching it. The traditional coffee, the language, the very strong Cypriot dialect, the place of Kafeneio, and the whole scene make me feel for a moment that I was back in Cyprus. Although Kafeneio is considered only for entertainment for those who  watching it, I realised that many cultural, ethical and moral issues can express from it. Good friends are always there to help you in difficult times and also the traditions of wearing black clothes for grieving death. Another thing is that money you never work hard for, can easily lost as quick as you earned them. You have to earn your money by working hard and not trying to earn them by deceitful and cheating innocent people. Entry†¦ During the module’s assessment of online presentation, as a group we choose to based our research on Cinderella story. And this, because, all group members could related with the text as it was present in our childhoods even though my group was representing 3 different cultures, countries and age groups. Doing the actual online presentation things became very complicate considering the way to present it. We wanted to make it very attractive to the audience and easy to reflect in and understand. At the beginning the presentation was going to held in Power point accompanied with animations, pictures and music. As I said in previous entry, pictures are helping the reader to comprehend better the written part, and show better some key-issues. This was going to help audience to concentrate on the themes we wanted to express more. The animations will make it more attractive to the audience and the music was going to drift and drawn them into the story itself smoothly and easier. Although we realized that doing it in power point it might produced a probability of confusion towards the audience and make a mess during their efforts to follow it. So we change our mind and decided to do it in movie maker as a video. With the movie film we wanted to make it easier to follow by the reader, without being confused or distracted from the importance of the written text, by clicking buttons. We also considered that it was going to be even more easier and relaxed for the reader to enhanced more, accompanied with music. (Much alike as watching a short video or movie, by sitting back and enjoy it.) In addition we thought that if we were using a Cinderella’s song from only one version of the Cinderella story (Disney’s song) it would be so unfair  and narrow-minded because the four versions that we analysed in the presentation are all of the same importance with their own special characteristics. So we choose a chill out instrumental music without speaking words for avoiding the readers’ thoughts to concentrate on music words and do not follow what we expressing throughout the presentation. Although it was hard to find that special song because we wanted one that its effects to go along with the page transactions and pictures and also focused on the most important information we include within the text. Another thing that was with vary importance was the time we supposed to give to our audience to read the written part of the presentation. We wanted to make sure that it was enough time to read them before the next slide show up. So we double-check the time providing for each written text by using a third slow-reader person, whose English is his second language. With this we make sure that the providing time was enough for all of our audience potentials to read. Bibliography Andrews, J., Scharff, L., & Moses, L., (2002), â€Å"The influence of illustrations in Children’s Storybooks†, AERA, Reading Psychology, Vol. 23(4), pp. 323-339.[Last viewed December 2005] Burnett, H.F., â€Å"The Secret Garden-Dickon† [www]http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett/The_Secret_Garden/Dickon_p1.html [Last viewed October 2005] Harris, P. & McKenzie, B., (2005), â€Å"Networking around the Waterhole and other tales: the importance of relationships among texts for reading and related instruction†, UKLA, Literacy.[Last viewed December 2005] Jewitt, C., (2005), â€Å"Multimodality ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’ for the 21st Century†, University of London, UK, Vol26, No. 3, pp. 315-331.[Last viewed December 2005] Lyle D., â€Å"E-mail Versus the telephone†, Last update 2005. Available from: URL: http://writing.colostate.edu/references/documents/email/pop5d.cfm [Last viewed December 2005] Lyrics and songs, â€Å"Tupac- I’ aint mad at cha† (Remix) [www]http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/135052.html Rybacki,C. K., and Rybacki, J. D., (1999),â€Å"Cultural approaches to the rhetorical analysis of selected music videos† Northern Michigan UniversityAvailable from:URL:http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans4/rybacki.htm[Last viewed November 2005] Stine, R.L., (1996), â€Å"Goosebumps: Vampire Breath†, Parachute Press Inc, New York USA Greek version: copyright by Kerdos 1998 SySat, RIK Chanel, (2005), CoffeShop: The Fiance [www]http://www.tv4all.com/portal.htm?http://www.tv4all.com/television/index.html?http://www.tv4all.com/television/55.htm[Last viewed November 2005] Verne, J., â€Å"Journey to the Centre of the Earth- The wrong road† [www]http://jv.qilead.org.il/vt/c_earth/18.html[Last viewed October 2005]

Décorer - to Decorate - French Verb Conjugations

The  French verb  dà ©corer means to decorate. Find the conjugations of this regular -er verb in the tables below. Conjugations of Dà ©corer Present Future Imperfect Present participle je dcore dcorerai dcorais dcorant tu dcores dcoreras dcorais il dcore dcorera dcorait nous dcorons dcorerons dcorions vous dcorez dcorerez dcoriez ils dcorent dcoreront dcoraient Pass compos Auxiliary verb avoir Past participle dcor Subjunctive Conditional Pass simple Imperfect subjunctive je dcore dcorerais dcorai dcorasse tu dcores dcorerais dcoras dcorasses il dcore dcorerait dcora dcort nous dcorions dcorerions dcormes dcorassions vous dcoriez dcoreriez dcortes dcorassiez ils dcorent dcoreraient dcorrent dcorassent Imperative (tu) dcore (nous) dcorons (vous) dcorez Verb conjugation pattern Dà ©corer is a regular -ER verb