Senate Bill 6 – Final

SENATE BILL 6

Senate bill 6 was on the verge of becoming law in the state of Florida, and this simply could not happen. Many within Florida’s education system agreed that the bill would have catastrophic effects on students and teachers alike. However, many angry parents and students spread falsified facts, and as those that were opposed continued to inadvertently label themselves as misinformed, the chances of the bill being vetoed only minimized. Protesters needed to get the facts straight. And really, the facts were enough to put this bill to bed.

Those that were against the bill wondered why anyone would think it should pass. After an economic downfall, the government is looking for ways to regain money lost during the recession. By awarding teachers raises in accordance to their students’ performances, pay upgrades would no longer be awarded by seniority, which is a dependent variable. This cost-cutting initiative was ineffective for a number of reasons, one of which was that the teacher’s performance would be based entirely on one end-of-year exam, regardless of the subject. It seems beyond unfair to penalize a teacher for a single test, and leave every other test, homework assignment and piece of classwork meaningless. Florida would also have to produce all new tests for every grade level – the cost of this would be huge and was utterly ridiculous considering the fact that the whole point of this IS TO CUT COSTS.

This bill could’ve potentially raised students’ performance in school. However, students’ performances depend on their teachers, and the bill may have affected teachers’ performances and would have to not only teach but to become a teacher in the first place. The end-of-year exam would be the sole element deciding how much money the teachers would make for the year, and students’ learning ability would not be improved the slightest because teachers would spend the year teaching students for the test, and not on the whole subject. There is more to education than learning towards a standardized test. For example, English classes cover poetry, novels, short stories, closed texts and a little bit of history. If Senate Bill 6 passed, students would no longer study the English language on a broader scale, and instead would focus on reading and writing in the simplest way.

Teachers would be under enormous pressure should this bill have passed. Under this bill, a teacher would be fired should he or she to have an overall failing score throughout more than five years. It’s hardly imaginable being a teacher under these circumstances. Several teachers at Miami Beach Senior High responded to this alarming fact, including Mr. Robert Ellis, who stated that there would be “temptation” to offer students answers to these tests as a result of getting a raise. He recognized the immorality of this deed, but teachers aren’t the highest paid people in the world as it is, and they have to support their families.

Before they can protest, protesters need to know what exactly they are protesting. Clearly, there was something to be protested, and clearly, it needed to be stopped. Thankfully, Governer Crist heard our pleas.

iPad – Final

The I-Fad (Con)

“The iPad is the future”. That’s what the prestigious technology-centered website “Gizmodo” said about Apple’s new, incredibly anticipated gadget. Regardless of its mixed reviews, the iPad sold over four hundred and fifty thousand copies in its first week, an impressive number, to say the least.

But the question must be asked – why should a person spend five hundred dollars on an iPad if an iPhone costs less than half the price? Marketers are boasting about the iPad’s very glamorous appearance, impressive book-reading mode and new applications. But there is not much that is revolutionary about it, compared to its predecessor. The iPhone does not allow multiple applications to run at once, nor does it allow the use of Flash, and it has a virtual keyboard that is extremely difficult to use, for some. The iPad does not fix any of these “problems”.

That isn’t all, however. The iPad cannot connect to any device without the purchase of separate Apple devices – one for connecting to computers via USB, and one for importing pictures from a camera to the iPad.  It doesn’t even have a camera, like the iPhone.

Five-hundred-dollar laptops include word processors, Flash viewing, cameras, USB ports, a proper keyboard, and allow downloads off the internet. Yes, the iPad has many features a laptop does not– but fun applications do not replace the functionality of essentials like word processors, internet downloads, and so on.

It’s a toy. It’s fun and it’s pretty. The I-Fad is here. And it’s just that–a fad.

Evaluation: Advertisement Phone Call

On February 24^th 2010, I made a phone call to “Manalo’s Restaurant”, a neighborhood Argentinean restaurant, to request an advertising partnership.

I called and when the hostess answered “hola”, I immediately knew there was a language barrier. Sure enough, I couldn’t understand the woman at all, so she had to transfer me – not a great start. The next woman answered, I repeated who I was and asked for an advertising representative, and I was transferred again.

My main problem with advertising is that I am not a very assertive person, not am I a good bargainer. I asked the next woman if she was interested in advertising with us, she immediately said no, and soon became impatient and ready to hang up. Assuming she was completely uninterested, stating they didn’t advertise and that she didn’t want to advertise, I let her hang up on me as she was anxious to do. It should be noted that with this woman, there was also a language barrier which again affected our communication. I realized afterward that there was more I could do in attempting to convince her to advertise with us before I let her go.

I think that, for my first advertisement call ever, it went okay. Despite a shabby conclusion, I think I started out pretty well, and handled the language barrier. I was very direct, as I stated “Hi. My name is David Canfield, and I’m with the Beachcomber, official newspaper of Miami Beach Senior High, and we’re interesting in advertising with your restaurant”. I felt confident when I said it, and I knew my confidence went through the call to the hostess on the phone. Yes, she struggled to understand me, but I think my confidence was clear regardless of the differing dialects.

Although I felt good about how I introduced our newspaper, the response was negative and I didn’t handle it well. When her first response was “no”, I essentially gave up. I allowed her to hang up and end the phone call with no fight, when I could’ve asked for a time to come in, to send a copy of our paper or to offer some statistics like the fact that we have 5000+ people within school families that they could reach. I think that I told myself that there was no way that she would buy our ads, but it was wrong to think that before I even tried to convince her. I also need to remember to stay positive at all times, and ONLY tell them why they should join our newspaper, with no negatives about it.

With this as my first phone call, I think I can build on it and make some strong sales in the future. The direction I need to take is assertiveness, and the ability to refuse “no” as an answer. I need to have multiple responses to ‘no’ in the back of my mind so that I can prove to the client that I am serious and that the advertisement really is a good opportunity. My issue in normal life is parallel to my issue in selling ads, so I think that this is a perfect opportunity to overcome this, both for the future of our newspaper and for my growth.

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