Tuesday, January 28, 2020

A Degree for Meter Readers Essay Example for Free

A Degree for Meter Readers Essay South Illinois Electric Company is a Member-Owned, Non-Profit Service Organization whose mission is to provide our member-owners with competitively priced, reliable electricity, superior customer service and innovative solutions to enhance the quality of life in our communities. Organized in 1938 for the purpose of making electricity available to rural areas, South Eastern Illinois Electric Cooperative has grown steadily and now serves over 23,000 accounts through some 3,500 miles of power line. (South Eastern Illinois Electric Cooperative, Inc. ) Meter Readers A meter reader is a utility employee who reads consumption meters for the purpose of billing. He or she may read gas, electric, and water meters, in addition to inspecting meters and utility boxes to confirm that they are in good condition, and checking for signs of tampering or fraud. There are no educational requirements for members of this profession, although most meter readers hold a high school diploma. The need for this profession is also on the decline, as many utilities have turned to automated systems which read meters remotely or read large numbers of meters via handheld units which communicate wirelessly, reducing the need for employees. Every meter reader has a route that he or she follows. Many often complete large portions of their route on foot, driving to a central point and fanning out from their vehicles, so they need to be in good physical condition. They must also be willing to tolerate inclement weather, as meter readings are not canceled for things like rain. See more:  The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay Each one carries a handheld device which is used to record meter data or to interface directly with meters to collect data. At each household on the meter readers route, he or she notes down the customer identification and the reading on the customers meter. People in this position often face challenges like locked gates, hostile dogs, or inaccessible meters along their routes, although many utilities issue meter reading dates to their customers and ask them to plan ahead for their reading. If a meter cannot be read, the meter reader leaves an appointment card, asking to reschedule a date to read the meter. Once the meter readers route is finished, he or she returns to the office to submit the data to the billing department, and bills are issued. Because most utilities cover a large area, there are usually enough routes to keep readers busy every day. Many grow very familiar with their routes and they are able to complete them  quickly. Working as a meter reader requires a high degree of self-discipline, because people in this position work alone in the field, without supervision. They may have varying degrees of interaction with the public, depending on when they set out on their routes and the communities they work in. Experienced meter readers may also periodically be asked to accompany trainees as they learn the process of meter reading and following a route.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Aspects of a Sonnet Essay -- Sonnets Literature Essays

Aspects of a Sonnet Explore aspects of the sonnet tradition through reference to a range of material you have studied? A sonnet is a 14-line poem with each line having 10 syllables. It originated in the 13th century and was introduced into England in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet characteristically consists of an eight-line octave, rhyming abbaabba, that states a problem, asks a question, or expresses an emotional tension, followed by a six-line sestet, of varying rhyme schemes, that resolves the problem, answers the question, or resolves the tension. The rhyme scheme for the sestet is cdecde. For instance, Wilfred Owen uses the first eight-lines to describe how deaths at war are laid to rest and the sestet to describe how the same thing is done back home (Anthem for Doomed Youth). The rhyme scheme for the sestet is cdecde. This is how the famous poet Francesco Petrarca, thus why it is named the "Petrarchan Sonnet" chose to write his sonnets. However William Shakespeare, a famous English poet, used another sonnet-rhyming scheme his is as follows: The first twelve lines are made up of three quatrains (blocks of four lines linked by rhyme). The last two lines form a rhyming couplet, e.g. a rhyming pair: abab, cdcd, efef, gg William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer of English literature that ever lived. By 1594 he was a rising playwright in London and an actor in a leading theatre company, who performed at the Globe Theatre from 1599. His 154 sonnets were originally published in 1609 but it is argued that they were mostly written in the 1590s, often expressed strong feeling within an exquisitely controlled form. His son... ...question. "What candles may be held to speed them all?" (Anthem for Doomed Youth, line 9) To conclude, the six poets I have written about all had their different views upon their own chosen subjects. And how sonnet have been passed down through the generations and what a sonnet has become today in the modern world. Shakespeare wrote about how love was timeless whereas Keats had found love too late. Browning wrote of how dedicated she was to her husband whereas Rossetti wrote of how she wanted to be remembered when she was gone. Wordsworth saw things that other people could not see and thus achieved his romantic poetic title. And finally Owen portrayed his anguish and hatred of war in his sonnets with an equisetic use of language and vocabulary. All the poets who wrote sonnets, young and old have entranced millions of readers throughout the world.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Goffman and Music Education Essay

For my career, I intend to teach music privately. I will own my own business in my home and teach students of all ages. As a part of my business I will serve students also in small group classes and other special events that I will design in my business. A ‘typical performance’ would include being in front of any students. For example, a student arrives for a lesson, and I am waiting for him/her. I greet him, and he comes in and begins to prepare his instrument and materials. I may glance over his materials, checking anything he was assigned to practice or work on in the previous week. I may also chat with him about how his week has been. Then, the lesson will proceed, and we will work on performing on his instrument. He will play and I will critique his performance and have him try things different ways until he improves. I may make use of metronomes, tuning devices, or my own demonstration to help him learn. At the end of the lesson, I will assign him new materials to work on or practice, and see him out the door. This performance related to Goffman’s idea of â€Å"rituals† that occur in the social situation. Regardless of my mood or desires, I will ask the student how he is doing and listen to his answers. The lesson will proceed in roughly the same fashion every week. The student will come to expect when I will interrupt his performance to give criticism, because he will come to know what I consider unacceptable. The lesson becomes a series of rituals that are performed week after week, lesson after lesson. The members of my team will consist of all of my students, as well as their parents, many of whom may sit in on lessons always or from time to time. I could not be a teacher if I did not have students, so they are a necessary part of my team. It is the direct interaction between myself and them that sets the â€Å"stage,† as Goffman puts it in his dramaturgical explanation of social behavior. The parents factor in because they change the dynamics of the lesson situation when they are present. In these cases, I may choose to address parents in addition to or instead of the students in certain situations, and I will certainly be aware of their presence as I am working with the student. With some of the younger students, or students who have problems behaving, the parents may play a strong role in the lesson situation, guiding the student’s behavior and attempting to keep him on task. Outside of the lesson situation, it is possible that my mentors could also be considered supporting players, as I may turn to them for help with difficult students or situations to solve, and they may lend me moral support in making decisions about teaching or lessons. All of the people who play into what happens in the lesson situation could be considered team members in some sense, even if they never meet one another. Discrepant roles are likely limited in this situation, since for the most part, there is no audience. However, the teacher himself (i. e. me) might be a discrepant role, since the teacher is leading everyone’s reactions and ideas, and guiding the â€Å"audience’s† perception of the situation. Parents may function in a discrepant role, and well, since as both observers and participants in the situation, they may guide how they want their children to react, and how I choose to react because of their presence. Beyond this, there are probably not other discrepant roles. Should I be teaching a larger group, one student could serve in a discrepant role by more actively participating in the class and showing the rest of the group how to behave and react to what is going on around them. The rest of the class could serve as an audience in that case, assuming that some of the members of the class were feeling rather passive. The communications that would go on in lesson situations could be in or out of character, depending on the student, whether or not the parent was present, and the mood itself. In a general lesson situation where the parent and child were both present and the child was fairly young (not yet a teenager), communication would generally be entirely in character. That is, the communication would be formal and appropriate for the student and parent. However, should the student leave the room and the parent remain, the communication may lapse into out of character situations, where the teacher and the parent are sharing information or commiserating as two adults. It is also possible that if the student is older, teenage or adult, that the communication may be out of character, because of the teacher being able to identify with this student better on a person-to-person level, and not finding the need to remain aloof and professionally distant. In these situations, the communication would move often between in and out of character as the teacher goes from having a general conversation with the student to actually providing instruction. The impression one makes is difficult to manage at times, but it is also important. As a teacher, I would like to be seen as a professional at all times, someone who does not let emotions or outside situations affect my work. I would also like to be seen as energetic, upbeat, and involved in the work I do. This relates to maintaining what Goffman calls the â€Å"front. † The behavior at the front is the professional impression one makes, while behavior at the â€Å"back† or â€Å"sides† is related off-stage behavior in actors. Since teaching is often related to being onstage, this is not a totally foreign concept. As a teacher, I must forget any concerns I have when I enter the room to teach a student. I must focus on them and their needs, and not anything else that is going on in my life, good or bad. This is not always possible, and when it is not, I must explain as briefly as possible, apologize, and continue to try to focus solely on the student. I must also smile and use happy tones of voice when I am speaking, even if I do not feel that way. One of the hardest things in teaching is remaining optimistic and positive even when students are struggling or, more likely, refusing to work. It is difficult for a teacher to see students come into a lesson every week with homework undone and no practicing having been completed. What can I teach a student who won’t work on skills at home? But in order to keep my impressions positive and my front appropriate, I must broach the subject of needing to practice more carefully, so as not to discourage the student or to allow them to see how unhappy I am with their lack of preparedness. Teachers are constantly striving for diplomacy in even the hardest situations. Goffman’s work allows me to look at my future career with a much different perspective. I consider that I am on stage and that I am an actor in a play I have created and entered into, but I do not control all the variables. I control myself, but I react to how my students choose to be. It is interesting to note the possibilities that arise in every situation when there are so many different things happening at once, as Goffman points out. However, it is good to think about and try to use in work situations.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Pros And Cons Of Electronic Voting Machines - 1396 Words

Virtue Chike-Okeke Junior Research Period 2 Mr. Larkin 26 October 2017. Electronic Voting Machines Moving away from electronic voting and finding an alternate way to vote that is the most precise and secure course of action. Voting is the process by which a person or group of people formally express their opinion. In the U.S., a citizen must be at least 18 years for them to vote, and voting is voluntary; a person can’t be forced to vote nor can he or she force anyone person to vote because it is a crime. The laws surrounding voting are different in each state and as such each voter is required to register in the voting precinct in which†¦show more content†¦Also contributing to the margin of error is the fact that many electronic machines don’t keep paper records of the votes that are inputted into the systems, and â€Å"Because many of these machines have no paper audit trails, a large number of votes will never be counted,†(Elizabeth Weise). Also having no paper records mean that a ballot can be hacked and changed and no one will know what the original was and have no evidence that it was hacked. Although voting machines have advanced and changed over the decades, many vot ing booth today still use outdated machines. â€Å"Security risks are the number one danger of older technology. The older your operating system or application, the longer the bad guy hackers have to find and exploit vulnerabilities†(Rack Blogger), while officials are still using voting machines from 2000-2004, today. While electronic voting machines have its fair share of dangerous internal problems, the external problems are seem to make the internal problems seem like childs play. Some of the external problems of electronic voting machines are as follows; physical tampering, which covers how hackers can physically hack the machines why at these voting booth when left alone with these machines, and the problems that those who moniter the machines might face; cyber attacks whether from other countries orShow MoreRelatedLaws Of Voting And Its Effect On The Voting System1355 Words   |  6 PagesMeasures To Establish Trust in Internet Voting ABSTRACT The short history of E-voting is that it is a term used to define the act of voting by means of electronic systems to cast and count votes. This article discusses about the transparency and other measures to establish the trust in E-voting. E-voting can lead to success if the voters trust in it and have full confidence on it. 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