The importance of information systems

The importance of information systems 1. Executive Summary In business world there is no substitute for right information at right time. It is evident that in last couple of decades attempts has been made to develop systems which make information more precise, readily available and easily accessible throughout the organisation. The development and use of information systems is a modern trend which is primarily concerned with the collection, process and dissimilation of useful information that directs an organisation for better planning, better decision making and ultimately the better results. Information systems and information management is a vast subject. In order to discuss the importance of information systems for an organization, the fundamental concepts like what is information, how it can be managed must be acknowledged. In this essay there will be brief introductions of these fundamental concepts and then there will be a case study of Volvos Knowledge Management System, the VPS which highlight the importance of information system and information management in an organization. Furthermore, it is not always without a hitch to adopt and appreciate a new concept and information systems are no different. There are some issues and problems in installing and using such systems which again vary one organisation to another. This essay will also touch upon those difficulties as well. 2. The concept of information in Organization The world information has different usage in different contexts but in organizational context it becomes more complex and difficult to comprehend. Zorkoczy (1981) defines information â€Å"as the meaning that a human expresses by, or extracts from, representations of facts and ideas, by means of the known conventions of the representations used†. On the other hand in organizational context, Stonecash (1981) defines information by stating that â€Å"information is simply symbols (data, text, images, voices, etc.) that convey meaning through their relative ordering, timing, shape, context, etc. information is the raw material for making decisions for creating knowledge and fuelling the modern organization†. In organizational context, information becomes more like a basic resource similar to men, material and money. Information is the binding element that holds an organization together. On the contrary, since it is intangible, information is quite different for physical resources and is often difficult to interpret and utilize in efficiently in order to achieve desirable outcomes from the oragnisation. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of organization and should be properly managed to achieve goals and objectives of the organization (W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye, 1997). Hence, it is importance to acknowledge the importance of information in the organizational performance. 3. Information Management in Organizations Many scholars have recognized the fact that right information and its flow with in the organization can drastically improve the performance and achieve stipulated objectives with ease. But at the same time it is important to note that there is no point of having information which is not relevant to the organisaton. This is the point where information management comes in to play. The prime objective of information management is to make relevant information readily available for the organisation in precise and comprehensible format. Langemo,( 1980) has defined Information management as the â€Å"organization-wide capability of creating, maintaining, retrieving and making immediately available the right information, in the right place, at the right time, in hands of the right people, at the lowest cost, in the best media, for use in decision making.† Also Best (1988) defines information management as â€Å"the economic, efficient and effective co-ordination of the production, control, storage and retrieval and dissemination of information from external and internal sources, in order to improve the performance of the organization.† 4. The concept of Information Systems Ever since its invention, computers are becoming integral part of humans and humans are becoming more and more dependent on the services offered by them. In words of W.B Adeoti-Adekeye (1997)â€Å"the advancements in computer technology have escalated mans desire to obtain computer assistance in solving daily chores and more complex problems: problems which were considered solely in the domain of mans intuitive and judgmental processes, particularly in organizations, a few years ago. Therefore, information systems are becoming area of interest in progressive and dynamic organizations. The need to obtain access conveniently, quickly and economically makes it imperative to devise procedures for the creation, management and utilization of databases in organizations.† Duff and Assad (1980), has defined the information system as â€Å"a collection of people, procedures, a base of data and (sometimes) hardware and software that collects, processes, stores and communicates data for transaction processing at operational level and information to support Management decision making.† In general terms, Information Systems can be defined as a set of interrelated components which accept data or information (meaningful data) as a raw material store and then process it to generates information as a product to assist and support in decision making and controlling activities of the organization. The Information System contains information about the organization and its surrounding environment as well. The surrounding environment includes customers, supplies, competitors and other stakeholders of the organization. The basic three activities input, processing and output generate the meaningful information that organization need. There is another essential element of system known as feedback. It is output returned to appropriate authorities in the organization to evaluate input (Laudon and Laudon 2006 9th Ed.). It can be represented in figure as follows; through one or more transmutation processes It comprises the following functional elements which relate to the organization and its environment 5. Importance of Information System in Organizations Managers must have relevant information that increases their knowledge of internal processes and external business environment. This knowledge reduces the degree of uncertainty and makes managerial decisions more rational and practical. Without relevant information most of the decisions made by managers will be like trial and errors, which in turns decrease the efficiency and profitability and increase the uncertainty with in the organization. The main benefits if an information system can be discussed as follows: 1 Economic Importance: Even though the cost of installation and maintenance of an information system quite high (depends upon kind of system) in the beginning, but in due course the costs drops and appears fair deal when compared to kinds of benefits enjoyed with the help of it. Also with the passage of time cost of information systems tends to decrease, whereas, costs of its substitutes (for instance labour) has been historically tends to rise (Laudon, 1990). Furthermore, information systems use networks, which help an organization to reduce the transaction costs, by making it worthwhile for organization to contract external suppliers instead of using internal resources. For instance, the Chrysler Corporation reduces costs by obtaining more than 70% of its parts from other supplier by using computer links ( Laudon and Laudon, 9th Ed. ). 2. Information Systems Improve Performance: Information Systems are designed to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a process. The information systems speed up the process and reduce the time by removing non-value adding steps in the operation. For instance, Citibank developed the Automatic Teller Machines and Bank Debit Cards in 1977( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). It made financial transactions easy and was a huge success. Further, banks continued to innovate and these days with the help of reliable and secure information systems from TEMENOS, Infosys, Oracle etc, most of the customer can do majority of transaction from their home computer or even from mobile telephone. Moreover, information systems provide real time information which reduces the scope of errors, hence, increases the quality of the output of the process. 3. Importance in Decision Making: Information Systems provides the tools for managers enabling them to monitor, plan and forecast with more precision and speed then ever before. They also enable managers to respond more rapidly and adapt swiftly to the fast changing business environment. The Decision Support Systems can significantly improve results both on quantitative and qualitative fronts. For instance, there are around 142 million employees working in United States generating $12.2 trillion of Gross Domestic Products. If the decision making quality of these employees could be improved by just 1% in a year the GDP might be expand substantially. â€Å"This implies for any organization the ability of manager or employees to make right decision at right time with the help of right information can have extraordinary business value† ( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). 4. Organizational Behavior Change: Behavioral researches illustrate that information systems facilitate flattening of hierarchies by broadening the distribution of information to empower lower-level employees. It pushes the decision making rights to the lower level in the organization as the lower level employees receives the information they need to make decisions eliminating the need of middle managers(Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). This also leads to the reduction is the administrative costs of the organisation. For example, after installing ERP system Knust-SBO Precision Machining1 of Texas, reduced the administrative staff by 50% and at the same time improved the accuracy of on -time deliveries from56.5% to 95%. 6. Case Study Illustration The efficient performance of an organization is dependent very much on the performance of the internal resources of organization and their synchronization with external environment. To illustrate the use and importance of a management information system in organizational performance the following example of Volvo from Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group by Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) will demonstrate that how Volvo achieved superior performances by deploying their Knowledge management system. 6.1 Volvo Group and Knowledge Management The Volvo Group is one of the leaders in its industry with production facilities in 19 and sales in more than 180 countries. In 2008 it employed more than 90,000 employees worldwide majority located in Sweden, France, USA, Japan, Brazil, China, and South Korea. The industry in which Volvo Group operates is highly technology driven and knowledge intensive. Its product range comprises construction equipment, trucks and buses, aircraft engine components, drive system for marine and industrial applications. Since it operates globally the Group is comprised of numerous subsidiaries, known as product related Business Areas (BA) and supporting Business Units (BU). The major function of Business area is to manufactures products, whereas Business Units are responsible for procurement, product plannings and financial aspects of the business. As the Group continued to grow, it recognized that the diversity that the subsidiaries represent could serve as opportunity to utilize all the knowledge within the Volvo Group. The group acknowledged need of the global Knowledge Management System which could help in eliminating waste of resources in terms of recreating knowledge in one subsidiary, while already possessing it in another. Furthermore, such initiative could potentially serve as means of discovering new synergies in the Group that may lead to smooth and efficient operation of the Groups activities. Hence, the Volvo Production System Academy was launched in 2008, aiming to undertake and support such a common group Knowledge Management initiative ( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009). Knowledge Management Systems are designed to store and process the knowledge available in organizations (Wickramasinghe, 2003), and simultaneously support contextualized application of that knowledge (Maier, 2004). Workers are meant to use this technology in sharing information about past experiences and making sense of this information, while performing their tasks (Wickramasinghe, 2003). Volvo Production System Academy (VPSA) is the centre for research, development and innovation in the Volvo Group. The Academy is meant to represents a central research and development unit which provides the fundamentals for the KM initiatives. It developed the Knowledge Management System for the Group, the Volvo Production System. The assumption is that operational excellence, sustainable profitability and customer satisfaction is more likely to achieve if the workers operate in accordance with the VPS guidelines. The VPS model is described in detail through internal documents known as Reference Material, stored in central database and provided through the VPSA Intranet portal. The database and the Intranet portal on which the information from the database is available, represents the core of the KMS provided by VPSA. The ‘good example of VPS model is an essential part of the feedback and learning aspect of the model. It is represents a visual illustration of exceptional execution of a specific module described in the VPS model, this acts as a communication tool to encourage employees to repeat the desirable behavior. Good examples from various factories are stored in the central database in addition to the principles, and available on the Intranet portal. The good examples are either submitted by the factories and then quality-proofed by VPSA, or spotted in the assessments that VPSA conducts. By sharing them through the Intranet portal, good examples are meant to serve factories from different subsidiaries to locally implement the VPS modules by exploiting mutual synergies and learning from each others knowledge and experiences.( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009) Discussion The Knowledge Management Systems are one of the most complex information systems. The Volvo Group has realized that their product and services are not limited to physical resources but also on the intangible assets i.e. knowledge. Since it operates globally and most of its business unit are geographically, demographically and culturally dispersed, therefore it was utterly important for the Group to synchronies its knowledge and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to support the business processes and managerial decisions. The Group achieved it with the help of an information system, the Volvo Production System. However, installing an information system does not automatically result in success, unless continuous participation of all individual workers in processes is ensured. In this case workers have struggled initially to cope up with the changes the system brought in, but the strong organizational culture motivated them to get involved in the process. Problems with Information Systems There might be different reasons, but despite of many success stories there are examples of great failure of implementing information systems in organizations. For instance (web resource1); Hershey Foods The leading chocolate manufacturer in United States accounted 19 % drop in earnings was caused by an incompetent SAP ERP installation that caused distribution disorder during one of its most profitable seasons.   FoxMeyer Drug s The pharmaceutical distribution company was forced to declare bankruptcy after an unsuccessful ERP implementation. NASA -. The ERP system was not able to close year-end books on a Cal Tech contract which results in generation of inaccurate financial reports. Bang and Olufsen In 1999, the Danish Hi-Fi audio- video maker claimed that SAP systems has damaged relation with its retailers It is often argued that most of the issues in ERP systems disasters were not technical but were mainly related to employee and organizational culture of the firm. Many of the failures can be attributed to poor managerial practice in the form of inadequate training (Pang 2001). The resistance to change from with in the organization, lack of high flexibility in terms of customization of information system and inadequate IS implementation strategy may be considered as the major factors for such a drastic failure of the information systems in certain cases. Conclusion It is important to note that information management and information systems are the means not the end of the process. Both are the powerful tools in the hand of management, which when deployed appropriately can bring dramatic change in the way an organization perform and achieve its objectives. Appropriate utilization of information systems benefits both the organization and its employees and its stakeholders. But when misapplied, they can waste tremendous amounts of time, effort, and money. To accomplish successful information management and reduce the chances of failure in future, an information system must be designed and operated with due regard to organizational culture as well as technological factors. There should be an equal contribution from both the business management and the information professionals while designing and implementing a new information system. There is no doubt that better exchange of thoughts between organizational management and information professionals has the potential to develop information systems which will entirely change the outlook how we run business today. References; Best, D.P. (1988), â€Å"The future of information management†, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, March, pp. 13-24. Duff, W.M. and Asad, M.C. (1980), Information Management: An Executive Approach, Oxford University Press, London, p. 243 Langemo, M. (1980), â€Å"Records management/word processing a needed team effort†, Records Management Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 10-14. Maier, R. (2004). Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for knowledge management. Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2001. Pang , L. Managers Guide to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems information Systems Control Journal, Volume 4, 2001 Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group Stonecash, J.C. (1981), â€Å"The IRM showdown†, Infosystem, Vol. 28 No. 10, pp. 42-8. W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye (1997) â€Å"The importance of management information systems† Library Review, Vol. 46 No. 5, page 318-327. MCB University Press, 0024-2535. Wickramasinghe, Nilmini (2003). â€Å"Do We Practice What We Preach? Are KnowledgeManagement Systems in Practice Truly Reflective of Knowledge Management Systems in Theory?†. Business Process Management Journal, 9(3): 295-316. Zoikoczy, P. (1981), Information Technology: An Introduction, Pitman, London, p. 157 1The New ERP System Halves the Administrative Staff, Modern Machine Shop, Feb2002, Vol. 74, p142

Ethics of end of life care Essay

Ethics often play a big role in end of life care in terminally ill people, such as the case of Hassan Rasouli, a man who was left with brain damage following surgery. Doctors determined that the man had no quality of life and that they had intended to remove him from life support measures that were necessary to keep him alive. His family quickly objected stating that they wanted him to remain on life support as in there Muslim religion it was imperative to preserve life. Doctors insisted that he should be removed, as there were no signs of life without artificial means, that the facial movements his family thought to be Mr. Rasouli smiling at them were just involuntary movements. The doctors feel that keeping the man on life support is inhumane verses letting him pass peacefully. The doctors have taken the case to the courts. This is an issues that is very common in todays times, with multiple factors playing a part from old age to terminal diseases, many people enact advance directives requarding their end of life care removing the debate of what their wishes were. The courts sided with the family and allowed the man to remain on artificial life support. An evaluation by a neurologist with the University of Western Ontario’s Brain and Mind Institute, found that Mr. Rasouli did in fact have some neurological function and therefor he was declared minimally conscious and not in a persistive vegetative state, however there is not a large difference in the two.

Theory of Marxism and Sports - 849 Words

The paper that is about to be presented is about how a theory invented by Karl Marx can intertwine with sports as we know it. The Marxist theory mainly affects how people can participate in different sports depending on their class status. In the first two paragraphs, the paper will describe the basic intentions of the Marxist Theory and its background. The next two paragraphs will explain how the the theory and spoats coincide. The Marxist theory is used all over the world. In fact, it is used moer than any other social theory. His thoughts have been used for for diffent political, military, and academic views and studies. Karl marx lived from 1813-1883 in Germany. His theory covers the culture, politics, economics and†¦show more content†¦This is very hard though because equipment and availability for the working class is limited due to lack of resources, especially financially. A Marxist focuses on the distribution of power in sport: Who has the power and why? Inequality can again be identified. Sport is determined and shaped by the economic system in the powerful Bourgeoisie and again promotes the interest of those: increasing capital, maintaining power and privileges (Abercrombie et al, 2000). A very recent example of money and its impact on sports is The England and Wales Cricket Board s decision to send its players to a World Cup match in Zimbabwe in 2003, regardless of political concerns due to the dictatorship of President Mugabe and the possible propaganda impact the match might have Fearing a severe financial penalty in the forms of lost sponsorship, the monetary aspect proved to powerful for them to decline a match of such importance (Guardian Online, 2003). Although the Marxists perspective is aware of its inequalities resulting from money in sport, it fails to recognize that sport can have for individuals other possibilities such as creativeness and provision of challenging experiences. It can be said: Marxism stresses the lack of fit between the different societal parts (Haralambos and Holborn, 2000). ,Show MoreRelated Theory of marxism and sports Essay859 Words   |  4 Pagesabout to be presented is about how a theory invented by Karl Marx can intertwine with sports as we know it. The Marxist theory mainly affects how people can participate in different sports depending on their class status. In the first two paragraphs, the paper will describe the basic intentions of the Marxist Theory and its background. The next two paragraphs will explain how the the theory and spoats coincide. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Marxist theory is used all over the world. In factRead More Marxist Theory and Sport Essay1538 Words   |  7 Pagesunderstanding of Marxism and its applications to sport. I will lay the groundwork for the theory then proceed with how his theory is applied to accessibility issues in sport, distribution of power in sport and commercialization of sport. 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My Philosophy of Education - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2181 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/06/24 Category Education Essay Level High school Tags: Philosophy Of Education Essay Did you like this example? My philosophies on education are those that are similar to the theories of Raggio Emilia. The goal of Raggio Emilia is to have the teachers learn alongside their students, which allows them to develop stronger thinking skills while combining the four basic principles of Emergent curriculum, projects, collaboration, and representational development. I believe that children develop at his or her own pace. A quality environment must be safe and nurturing, which will broaden the childrens physical, emotional, social and cognitive developments. I also believe that things are age appropriate for children may not be developmentally appropriate; therefore working independently with children is for the best. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "My Philosophy of Education" essay for you Create order In my curriculum I would like to incorporate the childrens ideas on their learning developments, I would entice the children by allowing them to explore their senses while working on their listening, and visual skills along with being able to touch and move their items from place to place. I would also enjoy having the parents in my classroom work with as partners in curriculum development. Its aforesaid that parents are the childrens first teachers, and obtaining the knowledge from parents, is the antidote to finding the best mix of school and home, which will make the transition to learning clear and more plausible rather than hard and uninteresting. So, in conclusion, I practice the Raggio Emilia approach as well as the constructivist theory in my classroom and I plan on including both my students and their parents in project developments. Special Education Special Education is defined as Social and educational services, provided by specialized institutions including public schools, for people with disabilities between the ages of three to 21. (Encyclopedia of Childrens Health. 2018) Read more: https://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Special-Education.html#ixzz5Uowrs3w0 The purpose of special education is to provide free and appropriate schooling for all children, including those with a disability in the least restrictive environment, thanks to the IDEA act passed in 1997. Children, who qualify for FAPE, can be educated in traditional mainstream classrooms, with other children without learning impairments as long as there are qualified staff members to lead them. Special education is a variety of specified programs for children. The applications can range from different types of therapies, modified learning classrooms, assisting r, adaptive learning devices including pecs boards, tests, assessments, and altered behavioral techniques. Parents are their childrens advocates. They are entitled to individual rights regarding their child with disabilities and can challenge or refuse treatments or service suggested by schools and its staff. If needed parents have the right to seek legal defense, due process, and second opinions from a professional of his or her choice. (Encyclopedia of Childs health. 2018) Purpose of Schooling The purpose of providing special education for children with different abilities in the least restrictive environment is so they can build skills unique to them†and help them understand and prepare for independent living, applying for and maintaining a job, and assist them in college or a trade school. Children in specialized education need to have individual lesson plans based off their IEPs and medical diagnosis. They also need teachers with positive attitudes; some need modified behavioral intervention plans, assessments, monitoring, routines, and repetition, versus students in traditional classes. According to the Buck Institute for Education; Project Based Learning or PBL is preparing students for personal, academic and career success. It readies young people to rise beyond his or her potential and challenge their lives in the foreseeable future. (Buck Institute for Education. 2018). Project-based learning is an example that allows students to obtain knowledge through a complex and meaningful approach. Students are engaged with the research and collaboration of social skills and learning how to communicate effectively with others. PBL considered being useful for students because it allows them to experience real-world choices, and gives them responsibility, opportunity, its engaging, and focuses on building cognitively. Nature of Learners Knowing your students can be a difficult task for a teacher to master without building a connection with them and their families. Learning about a person requires a bit of research, family backgrounds, medical information, and current living situations. Student confidentiality must be followed along so if someone does not need to know personal tidbits about the child, and it must not leak. Understanding students helps the teacher effectively create a psychologically safe environment, (William and Ochan-Kusuma Powell. 2011). In addition to this, an instructor can determine problematic areas of learning, strengths of the learner, and foster the emotional intelligence of the classroom. Psychologically safe classroom environments described as Maslows proposed in his hierarchy of basic human needs and wants, which must be acquired before a child can learn. (William and Ochan-Kusuma Powell. 2011). Some wants and needs of people include a place to live, food, and security; but we must combine sensory. We all want affection, touch, and a high self-esteem, but in order for us as teachers to demonstrate anything, the student needs to trust and open up to learning, in a positive and nurturing way. Curriculum The Curriculum best fitting for my philosophy of education is the Reggio Emilia approach. This curriculum and program give children with disabilities priority, but they also view the children as ones with exclusive rights. Children with special needs: given a facilitator who not just works with the particular child but with the classroom as a whole. Like any other curriculum program, the individual rights child strictly observed, assessed, and documented to come up with their personal goals. They create a declaration of intent which is not formal, but gives the teacher the materials with methods that are modeled to help the student. Prime reason the declaration is not official is since children learn and master different tasks they are observed continuously, changing and the form needs to be flexible to incorporate this. Instructional Methods Each teacher within the field has their methods of instruction. Mine, however, is adaptable and flexible. I prefer to form small groups with two to three children (with similar skill sets) at a time to give my full attention to them without putting the strain on my instructional time with the other students. I also find creating simple to follow centers help students figure out where they want to work and in a self-contained way. My centers labeled with pictures showing where the item goes and in languages closely identified to the students home languages. Lastly, I will set routines with a visual picture board/plan, so each child understands what comes next, change my books and materials based for attention maintenance, and create theme activates such as plants, or animals to keep and build on the childs interests. Classroom Management Every teacher has something unique to offer in the classroom. His or her techniques vary regarding classroom management styles. The first thing to keep in mind is how to incorporate a child with special needs into a traditional classroom environment. Each program should be flexible regarding behavior and instruction. Some children have limited attention spans and can sit for limited amounts of time, while some have longer attention spans and can sit for the entire activity. Facilitators should understand the project may not be feasible and be prepared to alter the lesson to fit the needs of most children. Another critical task is to have materials and activities prepared in advance to shorten the waiting period, which could lead to behavior struggles. One example: I and my co-teacher (in my current profession) are two completely different personalities with different management styles. We each have a group of primary children we care for, but overall we manage the whole classroom. When creating lesson plans, she prepares activities that are mostly language and math based, as I am more creative, social-emotional, and STEAM-based. I have taken CSEFEL (California Collaborative of the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning) through the Department of Education. Each module/class taught us methods about classroom management and the social, emotional aspect of the child. Childrens behavior challenges usually have underlying means such as need or feel they cannot express. Because of this, there is a need for intensive treatment for acquiring skills to understand what child is saying effectively through interventions. (California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging 2018) Through CSEFEL- some interventions help the child cope with big feelings These include The Tucker Turtle or Sally Snail approach. The point of both social, emotional stories is to show students that sometimes you get mad, angry, or sad, and there are better ways to cope with how you feel then hurting your friends or family members. Tucker Turtle used to destroy his friends, but he learned to use his words to show how frustrated he was. When he was mad, he stomps his feet instead, when the angry child would count to three slowly and blow out his anger, was scared he would climb inside his shell and hide. Through this approach, the friends were happy that Tucker Turtle stopped and reflected before reacting, and if he forgot a grownup was around to help. Assessment Practices Special education assessments determine if a student with specified needs and delays are eligible for services within special education. As part of a multi-disciplinary team, it is the job of every member to determine if there are disabilities within the child and if inclusion is necessary. There are various ways that the multidisciplinary team will check for suspected delays. They involve: collecting and gathering information such as students school records (if any), background information that is pertinent, parent intake surveys, observing the child, and reports from teachers. Next, they analyze the data and submit for evaluation. The evaluation will look at the students psychological, emotional, academic, cognitive, medical history, and language areas for weaknesses and ability. After that, they determine disability and make recommendations for placement or programs for the child. Parents have the legal right to challenge findings. There are many types of assessments capable of tracking the progress of children. The best one for tracking children under one month to 5 is called the ASQ-3 short for ages and stages questionnaires. These completed by parents and are considered the most accurate and easiest way to track the students milestones, along with any delays that show up. The second tracking tool is called ASQ/SE which is used to detect a childs social, emotional development which may be troublesome or many need support in other intervention areas. Professional Relationships with Family and Community Educational programs must provide high-quality services, with emphasis on mental health, oral, nutritional services and ready to provide resources for families whom cannot adequately provide these are necessities for their children. In addition to this, the program must be culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate to the childs home languages. Special education programs must offer structure and child development services recognizing parents as the childrens first teachers they should also encourage family engagement, as well as following the programs implementation of policies and procedures. Teachers and parents must have open communication about the childs milestones, regressions, behaviors, and routines. There should also be parent-teacher conferences at least two times a year unless an additional meeting is needed such as transitional or IEPs. Parents also have the opportunities to learn about and provide feedback about selected instructional methods or what types of materials the program uses. Parents can volunteer in the classroom (with proper vaccinations) and have the right to the open door policy any time of day. Teachers have an obligation to parents to inform them about assessments and testing, but also share the childs progress and results. Since the children and families confidentiality is the most critical aspects of the program, conferences must hold with privacy at the parents request; teachers also have the right to conduct home visits if a hazard is suspected. Closing Remarks To sum up, all classrooms are unique; my mission as an instructor is to help and model expectations with children while learning about their learning styles. My chosen curriculum is a mixture of Reggio Emilia inspired and Headstart high-scope, which spends on free choice and critical thinking. I lead the hands-on approach for the students to engage in their chosen way to problem solve and illuminate the childs learning styles. References TheEncyclopedia of Childrens Health. (2018). Special Education. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Special-Education.html Buck Institute for Education. (2019). Why PBL? Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.bie.org/about/why_pbl Powell. WK. June. 2011. Supporting Educators of Today and Tomorrow. How I Teach Now Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.ascd.org/publications/books/111011/chapters/Knowing-Our-Students-as-Learners.aspx The Hundred Languages of Children. (2018). Children with Special Needs. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://thehundredlanguagesofchildren.weebly.com/children-with-special-needs.html A Blog by Concordia University-Portland. November 17, 2017. Six Strategies for Teaching in Special Education Classrooms. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/6-strategies-for-teaching-special-education-classes/ California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging Making Access Possible. 2018. Californias Vision for Supporting Early Childhood Social and Emotional Competence Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://cainclusion.org/camap/map-project-resources/california-collaborative-on-the-social-emotional-foundations-for-early-learning/ National Association of Special Education Teachers. 2007. TheImportance of Assessment. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://www.naset.org/index.php?id=2876