Black House Chapter Thirteen

13 DANNY TCHEDA and Pam Stevens already have their hands full with would-be gate-crashers when they hear the sound of motorcycles gunning toward them, and the arrival of the Thunder Five is all they need to make their day really complete. Getting rid of Teddy Runkleman and Freddy Saknessum had been easy enough, but not five minutes later the eastbound lanes of Highway 35 filled up with people who thought they had a perfect right to gawk at all the little corpses that were supposed to be stacked up in the wreckage of Ed's Eats. For every car they finally manage to send away, two more show up in its place. Everybody demands a long explanation of why they, as taxpayers and concerned citizens, should not be allowed to enter a crime scene, especially one so tragic, so poignant, so . . . well, so exciting. Most of them refuse to believe that the only body inside that tumbledown building is Irma Fre-neau's; three people in a row accuse Danny of abetting a cover-up, and one of them actually use s the word â€Å"Fishergate.† Yikes. In a weird way, lots of these corpse hunters almost think that the local police are protecting the Fisherman! Some of them finger rosaries while they chew him out. One lady waves a crucifix in his face and tells him he has a dirty soul and is bound for hell. At least half of the people he turns away are carrying cameras. What kind of person sets off on a Saturday morning to take pictures of dead children? What gets Danny is this: they all think they're perfectly normal. Who's the creep? He is. The husband of an elderly couple from Maid Marian Way says, â€Å"Young man, apparently you are the only person in this county who does not understand that history is happening all around us. Madge and I feel we have the right to a keepsake.† A keepsake? Sweaty, out of sorts, and completely fed up, Danny loses his cool. â€Å"Buddy, I agree with you right down the line,† he says. â€Å"If it was up to me, you and your lovely wife would be able to drive away with a bloodstained T-shirt, maybe even a severed finger or two, in your trunk. But what can I say? The chief is a very unreasonable guy.† Off zooms Maid Marian Way, too shocked to speak. The next guy in line starts yelling the moment Danny leans down to his window. He looks exactly like Danny's image of George Rathbun, but his voice is raspier and slightly higher in pitch. â€Å"Don't think I can't see what you're doing, buster!† Danny says good, because he's trying to protect a crime scene, and the George Rathbun guy, who is driving an old blue Dodge Caravan minus the front bumper and the right side-view mirror, shouts, â€Å"I been sitting here twenty minutes while you and that dame do doodly-squat! I hope you won't be surprised when you see some VIGILANTE ACTION around here!† It is at this tender moment that Danny hears the unmistakable rumble of the Thunder Five charging toward him down the highway. He has not felt right since he found Tyler Marshall's bicycle in front of the old folks' home, and the thought of wrangling with Beezer St. Pierre fills his brain with dark oily smoke and whirling red sparks. He lowers his head and stares directly into the eyes of the red-faced George Rathbun look-alike. His voice emerges in a low, dead monotone. â€Å"Sir, if you continue on your present course, I will handcuff you, park you in the back of my car until I am free to leave, and then take you to the station and charge you with everything that comes to mind. That is a promise. Now do yourself a favor and get the hell out of here.† The man's mouth opens and closes, goldfishlike. Splotches of brighter red appear on his jowly, already flushed face. Danny keeps staring into his eyes, almost hoping for an excuse to truss him in handcuffs and roast him in the back seat of his car. The guy considers his options, and caution wins. He drops his eyes, moves the shift lever to R, and nearly backs into the Miata behind him. â€Å"I don't believe this is happening,† Pam says. â€Å"What dumb so-and-so spilled the beans?† Like Danny, she is watching Beezer and his friends roar toward them past the row of waiting cars. â€Å"I don't know, but I'd like to ram my nightstick down his throat. And after him, I'm looking for Wendell Green.† â€Å"You won't have to look very far. He's about six cars back in the line.† Pam points to Wendell's traveling sneer. â€Å"Good God,† Danny says. â€Å"Actually, I'm sort of glad to see that miserable blowhard. Now I can tell him exactly what I think of him.† Smiling, he bends down to speak to the teenaged boy at the wheel of the Miata. The boy leaves, and Danny waves off the driver behind him while watching the Thunder Five get closer and closer. He says to Pam, â€Å"At this point, if Beezer climbs up in my face and even looks like he wants to get physical, I'm pulling out my roscoe, honest to God.† â€Å"Paperwork, paperwork,† Pam says. â€Å"I really don't give a damn.† â€Å"Well, here we go,† she says, telling him that if he pulls his gun, she will back him up. Even the drivers trying to argue their way into the lane are taking time out to watch Beezer and the boys. In motion, hair and beards blowing, faces set, they look ready to commit as much mayhem as possible. Danny Tcheda's heart begins to speed, and he feels his sphincter tighten. But the Thunder Five bikers race past without so much as turning their heads, one after another. Beezer, Mouse, Doc, Sonny, and the Kaiser there they go, leaving the scene. â€Å"Well, damn,† Danny says, unable to decide if he feels relieved or disappointed. The abrupt jolt of dismay he registers when the bikers wheel around in a comprehensive, gravel-spraying U-turn thirty yards up ahead tells him that what he had felt was relief. â€Å"Oh, please, no,† Pam says. In the waiting automobiles, every head turns as the motorcycles flash by again, returning the way they came. For a couple of seconds, the only sound to be heard is the receding furor of five Harley-Davidson cycles. Danny Tcheda takes off his uniform hat and wipes his forehead. Pam Stevens arches her back and exhales. Then someone blasts his horn, and two other horns join in, and a guy with a graying walrus mustache and a denim shirt is holding up a three-quarter-sized badge in a leather case and explaining that he is the cousin of a county-circuit judge and an honorary member of the La Riviere police force, which basically means he never gets speeding or parking tickets and can go wherever he likes. The mustache spreads out in a big grin. â€Å"So just let me get by, and you can go back to your business, Officer.† Not letting him get by is his business, Danny says, and he is forced to repeat this message several times before he can get on to the next case. After sending away a few more disgruntled citizens, he checks to see how long he must wait before he can tell off Wendell Green. Surely the reporter cannot be more than two or three cars back. As soon as Danny raises his head, horns blast and people start shouting at him. Let us in! Hey, bud, I pay your salary, remember? I wanna talk to Dale, I wanna talk to Dale! A few men have gotten out of their cars. Their fingers are pointing at Danny, their mouths are working, but he cannot make out what they are yelling. A band of pain runs like a red-hot iron bar from behind his left eye to the middle of his brain. Something is wrong; he cannot see Green's ugly red car. Where the hell is it? Damn damn and double damn, Green must have eased out of the line and driven into the field alongside Ed's. Danny snaps around and inspects the field. Angry voices and car horns boil up at his back. No beat-up red Toyota, no Wendell Green. What do you know, the windbag gave up! A few minutes later the traffic thins out, and Danny and Pam think their job is pretty much over. All four lanes of Highway 35 are empty, their usual condition on a Saturday morning. The one truck that rolls along keeps on rolling, on its way to Centralia. â€Å"Think we ought to go up there?† Pam asks, nodding toward the remains of the store. â€Å"Maybe, in a couple minutes.† Danny is not eager to get within range of that smell. He would be perfectly happy to stay down here until the M.E. and the evidence wagon come along. What gets into people, anyhow? He would happily surrender two days' pay to be spared the sight of Irma Freneau's poor body. Then he and Pam hear two distinct sounds at once, and neither one makes them comfortable. The first is that of a fresh wave of vehicles racing down the highway to their position; the second, the rumble of motorcycles descending upon the scene from somewhere behind the old store. â€Å"Is there a back road to this place?† he asks, incredulous. Pam shrugs. â€Å"Sounds like it. But look Dale'll have to deal with Beezer's goons, because we're gonna have our hands full down here.† â€Å"Aw, cripes,† Danny says. Maybe thirty cars and pickups are converging on the end of the little lane, and both he and Pam can see that these people are angrier and more determined than the first bunch. At the far end of the crowd, some men and women are leaving their vehicles on the shoulder and walking toward the two officers. The drivers at the front of the pack are waving their fists and shouting even before they try to turn in. Incredibly, a woman and two teenage kids are holding up a long banner that reads WE WANT THE FISHERMAN! A man in a dusty old Caddy thrusts his arm through the window and displays a handmade placard: GILBERTSON MUST GO. Danny looks over his shoulder and sees that the Thunder Five must have found a back road, because four of them are standing out in front of Ed's, looking oddly like Secret Service agents, while Beezer St. Pierre is deep in discussion with the chief. And what they look like, it occurs to Danny, is two heads of state working out a trade agreement. This makes no sense at all, and Danny turns back to the cars, the lunatics with signs, and the men and women working their way toward him and Pam. A barrel-chested, seventy-one-year-old man with a white goatee, Hoover Dalrymple, plants himself in front of Pam and starts demanding his inalienable rights. Danny remembers his name because Dalrymple initiated a brawl in the bar of the Nelson Hotel about six months earlier, and now here he is all over again, getting his revenge. â€Å"I will not speak to your partner,† he yells, â€Å"and I will not listen to anything he says, because your partner has no interest in the rights of the people of this community.† Danny sends away an orange Subaru driven by a sullen teenage boy in a Black Sabbath T-shirt, then a black Corvette with La Riviere dealer's plates and a strikingly pretty, strikingly foulmouthed young woman. Where do these people come from? He does not recognize anyone except Hoover Dalrymple. Most of the people in front of him now, Danny supposes, were hailed in from out of town. He has set out to help Pam when a hand closes on his shoulder, and he looks behind him to see Dale Gilbertson side by side with Beezer St. Pierre. The four other bikers hover a few feet away. The one called Mouse, who is of course roughly the size of a haystack, catches Dale's eye and grins. â€Å"What are you doing?† Danny asks. â€Å"Calm down,† Dale says. â€Å"Mr. St. Pierre's friends have volunteered to assist our crowd-control efforts, and I think we can use all the help they can give us.† Out of the side of his eye, Danny glimpses the Neary twins breaking out of the front of the crowd, and he holds up a hand to stop them. â€Å"What do they get out of this?† â€Å"Simple information,† the chief says. â€Å"Okay, boys, get to work.† Beezer's friends move apart and approach the crowd. The chief moves beside Pam, who first looks at him in amazement, then nods. Mouse snarls at Hoover Dalrymple and says, â€Å"By the power invested in me, I order you to get the fuck out of here, Hoover.† The old man vanishes so quickly he seems to have dematerialized. The rest of the bikers have the same effect on the angry sightseers. Danny hopes they can maintain their cool in the face of steady abuse: a three-hundred-pound man who looks like a Hells Angel on a knife edge between self-control and mounting fury works wonders on a rebellious crowd. The biker nearest Danny sends Floyd and Frank Neary away just by raising his fist at them. As they melt back to their car, the biker winks at Danny and introduces himself as Kaiser Bill. Beezer's friend enjoys the process of controlling a crowd, and an immense grin threatens to break through his scowl, yet molten anger bubbles underneath, just the same. â€Å"Who are the other guys?† Danny asks. Kaiser Bill identifies Doc and Sonny, who are dispersing the crowd to Danny's right. â€Å"Why are you guys doing this?† The Kaiser lowers his head so that his face hangs two inches from Danny's. It is like confronting a bull. Heat and rage pour from the broad features and hairy skin. Danny almost expects to see steam puffing from the man's wide nostrils. One of the pupils is smaller than the other; explosive red wires tangle through the whites. â€Å"Why? We're doing it for Amy. Isn't that clear to you, Officer Tcheda?† â€Å"Sorry,† Danny mutters. Of course. He hopes Dale will be able to keep a lid on these monsters. Watching Kaiser Bill rock an ancient Mustang belonging to a fool kid who failed to back up in time, he is extremely happy that the bikers don't have any blunt instruments. Through the vacant space formerly occupied by the kid's Mustang, a police car rolls toward Danny and the Kaiser. As it makes its way through the crowd, a woman wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and Capri pants bangs her hand against the passenger windows. When the car reaches Danny the two part-timers, Bob Holtz and Paul Nestler, jump out, gape at the Kaiser, and ask if he and Pam need help. â€Å"Go up and talk to the chief,† Danny says, though he should not have to. Holtz and Nestler are nice guys, but they have a lot to learn about chain of command, along with everything else. About a minute and a half later, Bobby Dulac and Dit Jesperson show up. Danny and Pam wave them through as the bikers charge into the fray and drag chanting citizens off the sides and hoods of their vehicles. Sounds of struggle reach Danny over angry shouts coming from the mob before him. It seems that he has been out here for hours. Thrusting people out of the way with great backswings of his arms, Sonny emerges to stand beside Pam, who is doing her best. Mouse and Doc wade into the clear. A trail of blood leaking from his nose, a red smear darkening his beard at the corner of his mouth, the Kaiser strides up beside Danny. Just as the crowd begins chanting, â€Å"HELL NO, WE WON'T GO! HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!† Holtz and Nestler return to bolster the line. Hell no, we won't go? Danny wonders. Isn't that supposed to be about Vietnam? Only dimly aware of the sound of a police siren, Danny sees Mouse wade into the crowd and knock out the first three people he can reach. Doc settles his hands on the open window of an all-too-familiar Oldsmobile and asks the small, balding driver what the hell he thinks he is doing. â€Å"Doc, leave him alone,† Danny says, but the siren whoops again and drowns out his words. Although the little man at the wheel of the Olds looks like an ineffectual math teacher or a low-level civic functionary, he possesses the determination of a gladiator. He is the Reverend Lance Hovdahl, Danny's old Sunday school teacher. â€Å"I thought I could help,† the reverend says. â€Å"What with all this racket, I can't really hear you too good. Let me help you get closer,† Doc says. He reaches in through the window as the siren whoops again and a State Police car slides by on the other side. â€Å"Hold it, Doc, STOP!† Danny shouts, seeing the two men in the state car, Brown and Black, craning their necks to stare at the spectacle of a bearded man built like a grizzly bear dragging a Lutheran minister out through the window of his car. Creeping along behind them, another surprise, is Arnold Hrabowski, the Mad Hungarian, goggling through the windshield of his DAREmobile as if terrified by the chaos around him. The end of the lane is like a war zone now. Danny strides into the screaming mob and shoves a few people aside on his way to Doc and his old Sunday school teacher, who looks shaken but not at all injured. â€Å"Well, Danny, my goodness,† the minister says. â€Å"I'm certainly glad to see you here.† Doc glares at the two of them. â€Å"You know each other?† â€Å"Reverend Hovdahl, this is Doc,† Danny says. â€Å"Doc, this is Reverend Hovdahl, the pastor at Mount Hebron Lutheran.† â€Å"Holy moly,† says Doc, and immediately begins to pat the little man's lapels and tug at the hem of his jacket, as if to pull him into shape. â€Å"Sorry, Reverend, I hope I didn't hurt you none.† The state cops and the Mad Hungarian manage at last to squeeze out of the crowd. The sound level decreases to a mild hubbub one way or another, Doc's friends have silenced the loudest members of the opposition. â€Å"Fortunately, the window is wider than I am,† the reverend says. â€Å"Say, maybe I could come over and talk to you someday,† says Doc. â€Å"I've been doing a lot of reading about first-century Christianity lately. You know, G? ¦za Verms, John Dominic Crossan, Paula Fredriksen, stuff like that. I'd like to bounce some ideas off you.† Whatever Reverend Hovdahl intends to say is obliterated by the sudden explosion of noise from the other end of the lane. A woman's voice rises like a banshee's, in an inhuman screeching that shivers the hairs on the nape of Danny's neck. It sounds to him as though escaped lunatics a thousand times more dangerous than the Thunder Five are raving through the landscape. What the devil could have happened up there? † ‘Hello boys'?† Unable to contain his indignation, Bobby Dulac turns to stare first at Dale, then at Jack. His voice rises, hardens. â€Å"Is this shit for real? ‘Hello boys'?† Dale coughs into his fist and shrugs. â€Å"He wanted us to find her.† â€Å"Well, of course,† Jack says. â€Å"He told us to come here.† â€Å"Why would he do that, though?† Bobby asks. â€Å"He's proud of his work.† From some dim crossroads in Jack's memory, an ugly voice says, Stay out of it. You mess with me and I'll strew your guts from Racine to La Riviere. Whose voice had that been? With no more evidence than his conviction, Jack understands that if he could place that voice, he would put a name to the Fisherman. He cannot; all Jack Sawyer can do at this moment is remember a stink worse than the foul cloud that fills this crumbling building a hideous smell that came from the southwest of another world. That was the Fisherman, too, or whatever the Fisherman was in that world. A thought worthy of the former rising star of the LAPD's Homicide Division awakens in his mind, and he says, â€Å"Dale, I think you should let Henry hear that 911 tape.† â€Å"I don't get it. What for?† â€Å"Henry's tuned in to stuff even bats can't hear. Even if he doesn't recognize the voice, he'll learn a hundred times more than what we know now.† â€Å"Well, Uncle Henry never forgets a voice, that's true. Okay, let's get out of here. The M.E. and the evidence wagon should show up in a couple of minutes.† Trailing behind the other two men, Jack thinks of Tyler Marshall's Brewers cap and where he found it that world he has spent more than half his life denying, and his return to which this morning continues to send shocks through his system. The Fisherman left the cap for him in the Territories, the land he had first heard of when Jacky was six when Jacky was six, and Daddy played the horn. It is all coming back to him, that immense adventure, not because he wishes it, but because it has to come back: forces outside himself are picking him up by the scruff of his neck and carrying him forward. Forward into his own past! The Fisherman is proud of his handiwork, yes, the Fisherman is deliberately taunting them a truth so obvious none of the three men had to speak it aloud but really the Fisherman is baiting only Jack Sawyer, who alone has seen the Territories. And if that's true, as it has to be, then then the Territories and all they contain are involved somehow in these wretched crimes, and he has been thrust into a drama of enormous consequence he cannot possibly grasp right now. The Tower. The Beam. He had seen this in his mother's handwriting, something about the Tower falling and the Beams breaking: these things are parts of the puzzle, whatever they mean, as is Jack's gut conviction that Tyler Marshall is still alive, tucked away in some pocket of the other world. The recognition that he can never speak of all this to anyone else, not even Henry Leyden, makes him feel intensely alone. Jack's thoughts blow away in the noisy chaos that erupts alongside and in front of the shack. It sounds like an Indian attack in a cowboy movie, whooping and yelling and the sound of running feet. A woman sends up a shrill scream eerily like the blip-blips of the police siren he had half-noted a few moments ago. Dale mutters â€Å"Jeez,† and breaks into a run, followed by Bobby and Jack. Outside, what appears to be a half dozen crazy people are racing around in the weedy gravel in front of Ed's. Dit Jesperson and Beezer, still too stunned to react, watch them caper back and forth. The crazy people make an amazing amount of noise. One man yells, â€Å"KILL THE FISHERMAN! KILL THE DIRTY BASTARD!† Another is shouting â€Å"LAW ‘N' ORDER ‘N' FREE BEER!† A scrawny character in bib overalls picks up â€Å"FREE BEER! WE WANT FREE BEER!† A harpy too old for her tank top and blue jeans skitters around waving her arms and screeching at the top of her lungs. The grins on their faces indicate that these people are engaged in some dimwitted prank. They are having the time of their lives. Up from the end of the lane comes a State Police car, with the Mad Hungarian's DARE Pontiac right behind it. In the middle of the chaos, Henry Leyden tilts his head and smiles to himself. When he sees his chief take off after one of the men, fat Dit Jesperson lurches into action and spots Doodles Sanger, against whom he has borne a grudge ever since she turned him down late one night in the Nelson Hotel. Dit recognizes Teddy Runkleman, the tall galoot with the broken nose Dale is chasing; and he knows Freddy Saknessum, but Freddy is undoubtedly too fast for him and, besides, Dit has the feeling that if he put his hands on Freddy Saknessum, about eight hours later he would probably come down with something really nasty. Bobby Dulac is on the skinny guy's case, so Doodles is Dit's target, and he looks forward to pulling her down into the weeds and making her pay for calling him what she did, six years ago in the Nelson's filthy bar. (In front of maybe a dozen of French Landing's most raffish characters, Doodles had compared him to the then chief's smelly, waddling old mongrel, Tubby.) Dit looks her in the eye, and for a second she stops jumping around to stand flat-footed on the ground and give him a little come-hither gesture with the fingers of both hands. He launches himself at her, but when he gets to where she was, she is six feet off to the right, shifting on her feet like a basketball player. â€Å"Tubby-Tubby,† she says. â€Å"Come and get it, Tub-Tub.† Furious, Dit reaches, misses, and nearly loses his balance. Doodles prances away laughing and mouths the hateful expression. Dit doesn't get it why doesn't Doodles just break away and take off ? It's like she almost wants to get caught, but first she has to run out the clock. After another serious lunge that misses the target by only an inch or two, Dit Jesperson wipes the sweat off his face and checks out the scene. Bobby Dulac is snapping cuffs on the skinny guy, but Dale and Hollywood Sawyer are faring only a little better than he is. Teddy Runkleman and Freddy Saknessum dodge and bob away from their pursuers, both of them cackling like idiots and shouting their halfwit slogans. Why is low-life scum always so agile? Dit supposes that rodents like Runkleman and Saknessum get more practice in being light on their feet than regular people. He charges Doodles, who slips past him and goes into a chuckling, high-stepping diddley-bop. Over her shoulder, Dit sees Hollywood finally fake out Saknessum, wrap an arm around his waist, and throw him to the ground. â€Å"You didn't have to get all physical on my ass,† Saknessum says. His eyes shift, and he gives a brief nod. â€Å"Hey, Runks.† Teddy Runkleman glances at him, and his eyes shift, too. He stops moving. The chief says, â€Å"What, you run out of gas?† â€Å"Party's over,† Runkleman says. â€Å"Hey, we were just funnin', you know?† â€Å"Aw, Runksie, I wanna play some more,† Doodles says, throwing a few hip wiggles into the diddley-bop. In a flash, Beezer St. Pierre thrusts his mountainous self between her and Dit. He steps forward, rumbling like a semi going up a steep grade. Doodles tries to dance backward, but Beezer envelops her and carries her toward the chief. â€Å"Beezie, don'cha love me no more?† Doodles asks. Beezer grunts in disgust and deposits her in front of the chief. The two state cops, Perry Brown and Jeff Black, are hanging back, looking even more disgusted than the biker. If Dit's mental processes were to be transcribed from their shorthand into standard English, the result would be, He's gotta have something on the ball if he brews that Kingsland Ale, because that is some fine, fine beer. And look at the chief! He's so ready to bust a gut, he can't even see that we're about to lose this case. â€Å"You were FUNNIN'?† the chief roars. â€Å"What's the MATTER with you idiots? Don't you have any respect for that poor girl in there?† As the state cops step forward to take charge, Dit sees Beezer go rigid with shock for a moment, then move as inconspicuously as possible away from the group. No one but Dit Jesperson pays any attention to him the enormous biker has done his bit, and now his part is over. Arnold Hrabowski, who had been more or less concealed behind Brown and Black, shoves his hands in his pockets, hunches his shoulders, and gives Dit a glance of shamefaced apology. Dit doesn't get it: What does the Mad Hungarian have to feel so guilty about? Hell, he just got here. Dit looks back at Beezer, who is advancing ponderously toward the side of the shack and surprise, surprise! everybody's best pal and favorite reporter, Mr. Wendell Green, now appearing a little alarmed. Guess more than one kind of scum just rose to the surface, Dit thinks. Beezer likes women who are smart and levelheaded, like Bear Girl; brainless skanks like Doodles drive him crazy. He reaches out, grabs two handfuls of pasty, rayon-covered flesh, and scoops wriggling Doodles under his arm. Doodles says, â€Å"Beezie, don'cha love me no more?† He lowers the dumb mutt to the ground in front of Dale Gilbertson. When Dale finally explodes at these four grown-up juvenile delinquents, Beezer remembers the signal Freddy had given Runksie, and looks over the chief's shoulder at the front of the old store. To the left of the rotting gray entrance, Wendell Green is aiming his camera at the group before him, getting fancy, bending and leaning, stepping to one side and another as he snaps pictures. When he sees Beezer looking at him through his lens, Wendell straightens up and lowers his camera. He has an awkward little smile on his face. Green must have slithered in through the back way, Beezer imagines, because there's no way the cops down front would give him a pass. Come to think of it, Doodles and the Dodos must have come the same way. He hopes all of them did not learn of the back road by following him, but that's a possibility. The reporter lets his camera hang from its strap and, keeping his eyes on Beezer, sidles away from the old shanty. The guilty, frightened way he moves reminds Beezer of a hyena's slink toward its carrion. Wendell Green does fear Beezer, and Beezer cannot blame him. Green is lucky that Beezer did not actually rip off his head, instead of merely talking about it. Yet . . . Green's hyenalike crawl strikes Beezer as pretty strange, under the circumstances. He can't be afraid of getting beaten up in front of all these cops, can he? Green's uneasiness forms a link in Beezer's mind to the communication he had seen pass between Runkleman and Freddy. When their eyes shifted, when they looked away, they were looking at the reporter! He had set the whole thing up in advance. Green was using the Dodos as a distraction from whatever he was doing with his camera, of course. Such total sleaziness, such moral ugliness, infuriates Beezer. Galvanized by loathing, he moves quietly away from Dale and the other policemen and walks toward Wendell Green, keeping his eyes locked on the reporter's. He sees Wendell consider making a break for it, then reject the idea, most likely because he knows he doesn't have a chance of getting away. When Beezer comes to within ten feet of him, Green says, â€Å"We don't need any trouble here, Mr. St. Pierre. I'm just doing my job. Surely you can understand that.† â€Å"I understand a lot of things,† Beezer says. â€Å"How much did you pay those clowns?† â€Å"Who? What clowns?† Wendell pretends to notice Doodles and the others for the first time. â€Å"Oh, them? Are they the ones who were making all that ruckus?† â€Å"And why would they go do a thing like that?† â€Å"Because they're animals, I guess.† The expression on Wendell's face communicates a great desire to align himself with Beezer on the side of human beings, as opposed to animals like Runkleman and Saknessum. Taking care to fix Green's eyes, instead of his camera, with his own, Beezer moves in closer and says, â€Å"Wendy, you're a real piece of work, you know that?† Wendell holds up his hands to ward off Beezer. â€Å"Hey, we may have had our differences in the past, but â€Å" Still looking him in the eye, Beezer folds his right hand around the camera and plants his left on Wendell Green's chest. He jerks the right hand back and gives Green a massive shove with the left. One of two things is going to break, Green's neck or the camera strap, and he does not much care which it is to be. To a sound like the crack of a whip, the reporter flails backward, barely managing to remain upright. Beezer is pulling the camera out of the case, from which dangle two strips of severed leather. He drops the case and rotates the camera in his big hands. â€Å"Hey, don't do that!† Wendell says, his voice louder than speech but softer than a shout. â€Å"What is it, an old F2A?† â€Å"If you know that, you know it's a classic. Give it back to me.† â€Å"I'm not going to hurt it, I'm going to clean it out.† Beezer snaps open the back of the camera, gets one thick finger under the exposed length of film, and rips out the entire roll. He smiles at the reporter and tosses the film into the weeds. â€Å"See how much better it feels without all that crap in there? This is a nice little machine you shouldn't fill it with garbage.† Wendell does not dare show how furious he is. Rubbing the sore spot on the back of his neck, he growls, â€Å"That so-called garbage is my livelihood, you oaf, you moron. Now give me back my camera.† Beezer casually holds it out before him. â€Å"I didn't quite catch all of that. What did you say?† His only response a bleak glance, Wendell snatches the camera from Beezer's hand. When the two state cops finally step forward, Jack feels a mixture of disappointment and relief. What they are going to do is obvious, so let them do it. Perry Brown and Jeff Black will take the Fisherman case away from Dale and run their own investigation. From now on, Dale will be lucky to get random scraps from the state's table. Jack's greatest regret is that Brown and Black should have walked into this madhouse, this circus. They have been waiting for their moment all along in a sense, waiting for the local guy to prove his incompetence but what is going on now is a public humiliation for Dale, and Jack wishes it weren't happening. He could not have imagined feeling grateful for the arrival of a biker gang at a crime scene, but that's how bad it is. Beezer St. Pierre and his companions kept the crowd away more efficiently than Dale's officers. The question is, how did all those people find out? Apart from the damage to Dale's reputation and self-esteem, however, Jack has few regrets about the case passing to another jurisdiction. Let Brown and Black scour every basement in French County: Jack has the feeling they won't get any further than the Fisherman permits. To go further, he thinks, you'd have to travel in directions Brown and Black could never understand, visit places they are certain do not exist. Going further means making friends with opopanax, and men like Brown and Black distrust anything that even smells like opopanax. Which means that, in spite of everything Jack has said to himself since the murder of Amy St. Pierre, he will have to catch the Fisherman by himself. Or maybe not entirely by himself. Dale is going to have a lot more time on his hands, after all, and no matter what the State Police do to him, Dale is too wrapped up in this case to walk away from it. â€Å"Chief Gilbertson,† says Perry Brown, â€Å"I believe we have seen enough here. Is this what you call securing an area?† Dale gives up on Teddy Runkleman and turns in frustration to the state cops, who stand side by side, like storm troopers. In his expression, Jack can see that he knows exactly what is going to happen, and that he hopes it will not be humiliatingly brutal. â€Å"I did everything in my power to make this area secure,† Dale says. â€Å"After the 911 call came in, I talked to my men face to face and ordered them to come out in pairs at reasonable intervals, to keep from arousing any curiosity.† â€Å"Chief, you must have used your radio,† says Jeff Black. â€Å"Because for sure somebody was tuned in.† â€Å"I did not use the radio,† Dale says. â€Å"And my people knew better than to spread the news. But you know what, Officer Black? If the Fisherman called us on 911, maybe he also made a couple of anonymous calls to the citizens.† Teddy Runkleman has been attending to this discussion like a spectator at a tennis final. Perry Brown says, â€Å"Let's handle first things first. What do you intend to do with this man and his friends? Are you going to charge them? The sight of his face is getting on my nerves.† Dale thinks for a moment, then says, â€Å"I'm not going to charge them. Get out of here, Runkleman.† Teddy moves backward, and Dale says, â€Å"Hold it for a second. How did you get here?† â€Å"The back road,† Teddy says. â€Å"Comes straight down from behind Goltz's. Thunder Five came the same way. So did that big-shot reporter, Mr. Green.† â€Å"Wendell Green is here?† Teddy points to the side of the ruin. Dale glances over his shoulder, and Jack looks in the same direction and witnesses Beezer St. Pierre ripping film from the back of a camera while Wendell Green watches in dismay. â€Å"One more question,† Dale says. â€Å"How did you learn that the Fre-neau girl's body was out here?† â€Å"They was five or six bodies up at Ed's, is what I heard. My brother Erland called up and told me. He heard it from his girlfriend.† â€Å"Go on, get out of here,† Dale says, and Teddy Runkleman ambles away as if he has been awarded a medal for good citizenship. â€Å"All right,† Perry Brown says. â€Å"Chief Gilbertson, you have reached the end of your leash. As of now, this investigation is to be conducted by Lieutenant Black and myself. I'll want a copy of the 911 tape and copies of all notes and statements taken by you and your officers. Your role is to be entirely subordinate to the state's investigation, and to cooperate fully when called upon. You will be given updates at the discretion of Lieutenant Black and myself. â€Å"If you ask me, Chief Gilbertson, you are getting far more than you deserve. I have never seen a more disorganized crime scene. You violated the security of this site to an unbelievable degree. How many of you walked into the . . . the structure?† â€Å"Three,† Dale says. â€Å"Myself, Officer Dulac, and Lieutenant Sawyer.† â€Å"Lieutenant Sawyer,† Brown says. â€Å"Excuse me, has Lieutenant Sawyer rejoined the LAPD? Has he become an official member of your department? And if not, why did you give him access to that structure? In fact, what is Mr. Sawyer doing here in the first place?† â€Å"He's cleared more homicide cases than you and me ever will, no matter how long we live.† Brown gives Jack an evil glance, and Jeff Black stares straight ahead. Beyond the two state cops, Arnold Hrabowski also glances at Jack Sawyer, though not at all the way Perry Brown did. Arnold's expression is that of a man who deeply wishes to be invisible, and when he finds Jack's eye on him, he quickly glances sideways and shifts on his feet. Oh, Jack thinks. Of course, the Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Hungarian, there you go. Perry Brown asks Dale what Mr. St. Pierre and his friends are doing on the scene, and Dale replies that they are assisting with crowd control. Did Dale advise Mr. St. Pierre that in exchange for this service he would be kept up-to-date on the investigation? It was something like that, yes. Jack steps back and begins to move sideways along a gentle arc that will bring him to Arnold Hrabowski. â€Å"Incredible,† says Brown. â€Å"Tell me, Chief Gilbertson, did you decide to delay a little bit before passing the news on to Lieutenant Black and myself ?† â€Å"I did everything according to procedure,† Dale says. In answer to the next question he says that yes, he has called for the medical examiner and the evidence wagon, which, by the way, he can see coming up the lane right now. The Mad Hungarian's efforts at self-control succeed only in making him look as though he urgently needs to urinate. When Jack places a hand on his shoulder, he stiffens like a cigar-store Indian. â€Å"Calm down, Arnold,† Jack says, then raises his voice. â€Å"Lieutenant Black, if you're taking over this case, there's some information you should have.† Brown and Black turn their attention to him. â€Å"The man who made the 911 call used the pay phone at the 7-Eleven store on Highway 35 in French Landing. Dale had the phone taped off, and the owner knows to keep people from handling it. You might get some useful prints from that phone.† Black scribbles something in his notebook, and Brown says, â€Å"Gentlemen, I think your role is finished here. Chief, use your people to disperse those individuals at the bottom of the lane. By the time the M.E. and I come out of that structure, I don't want to see a single person down there, including you and your officers. You'll get a call later in the week, if I have any new information.† Wordlessly, Dale turns away and points Bobby Dulac down the path, where the crowd has dwindled to a few stubborn souls leaning against their cars. Brown and Black shake hands with the medical examiner and confer with the specialists in charge of the evidence wagon. â€Å"Now, Arnold,† Jack says, â€Å"you like being a cop, don't you?† â€Å"Me? I love being a cop.† Arnold cannot quite force himself to meet Jack's eyes. â€Å"And I could be a good one, I know I could, but the chief doesn't have enough faith in me.† He thrusts his trembling hands into his pants pockets. Jack is torn between feeling pity for this pathetic wanna-be and the impulse to kick him all the way down to the end of the lane. A good cop? Arnold couldn't even be a good scoutmaster. Thanks to him, Dale Gilbertson got a public dressing-down that probably made him feel as though he'd been put in the stocks. â€Å"But you didn't follow orders, did you, Arnold?† Arnold quivers like a tree struck by lightning. â€Å"What? I didn't do anything.† â€Å"You told someone. Maybe you told a couple of people.† â€Å"No!† Arnold shakes his head violently. â€Å"I just called my wife, that's all.† He looks imploringly at Jack. â€Å"The Fisherman talked to me, he told me where he put the girl's body, and I wanted Paula to know. Honest, Holl Lieutenant Sawyer, I didn't think she'd call anybody, I just wanted to tell her.† â€Å"Bad move, Arnold,† Jack says. â€Å"You are going to tell the chief what you did, and you're going to do it right now. Because Dale deserves to know what went wrong, and he shouldn't have to blame himself. You like Dale, don't you?† â€Å"The chief ?† Arnold's voice wobbles with respect for his chief. â€Å"Sure I do. He's, he's . . . he's great. But isn't he going to fire me?† â€Å"That's up to him, Arnold,† Jack says. â€Å"If you ask me, you deserve it, but maybe you'll get lucky.† The Mad Hungarian shuffles off toward Dale. Jack watches their conversation for a second, then walks past them to the side of the old store, where Beezer St. Pierre and Wendell Green face each other in unhappy silence. â€Å"Hello, Mr. St. Pierre,† he says. â€Å"And hello to you, Wendell.† â€Å"I'm lodging a complaint,† Green says. â€Å"I'm covering the biggest story of my life, and this lout spoils a whole roll of film. You can't treat the press that way; we have a right to photograph whatever the hell we like.† â€Å"I guess you woulda said you had a right to photograph my daughter's dead body, too.† Beezer glares at Jack. â€Å"This piece of shit paid Teddy and the other lunkheads to go nuts so nobody would notice him sneaking inside there. He took pictures of the girl.† Wendell jabs a finger at Jack's chest. â€Å"He has no proof of that. But I'll tell you something, Sawyer. I did get pictures of you. You were concealing evidence in the back of your truck, and I got you dead to rights. So think twice before you try to mess with me, because I'll hang you out to dry.† A dangerous red mist seems to fill Jack's head. â€Å"Were you going to sell photographs of that girl's body?† â€Å"What's it to you?† An ugly smirk widens Wendell Green's mouth. â€Å"You're not exactly lily-white either, are you? Maybe we can do each other some good, huh?† The red mist darkens and fills Jack's eyes. â€Å"We can do each other some good?† Standing beside Jack, Beezer St. Pierre clenches and unclenches his enormous fists. Beezer, Jack knows, catches his tone perfectly, but the vision of dollar signs has so gripped Wendell Green that he hears Jack's threat as a straightforward question. â€Å"You let me reload my camera and get the pictures I need, and I keep quiet about you.† Beezer lowers his head and balls his hands again. â€Å"Tell you what. I'm a generous guy maybe I could even cut you in, say ten percent of my total.† Jack would prefer to break his nose, but he contents himself with a hard punch to the reporter's stomach. Green clutches his gut and folds in half, then falls to the ground. His face has turned a hectic pink, and he struggles for breath. His eyes register shock and disbelief. â€Å"See, I'm a generous guy, too, Wendell. I probably saved you thousands of dollars in dental work, plus a broken jaw.† â€Å"Don't forget the plastic surgery,† says Beezer, grinding a fist into the palm of the other hand. He looks as if someone just stole his favorite dessert off the dinner table. Wendell's face has become a reddish shade of purple. â€Å"For your information, Wendell, no matter what you think you saw, I am not concealing evidence. If anything I am revealing it, though I hardly expect you to understand.† Green manages to wheeze in something like a cubic inch of air. â€Å"When your wind starts to come back, get out of here. Crawl, if you have to. Go back to your car and drive away. And for God's sake, make it snappy, or our friend here is likely to put you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.† Slowly, Wendell Green gets to his knees, takes another noisy sip of oxygen, and levers himself semi-upright. He waggles one open hand at them, but his meaning is unclear. He could be telling Beezer and Jack to stay away from him, or that he will trouble them no further, or both. His trunk tilted over his belt, his hands pressed to his stomach, Green stumbles around the side of the building. â€Å"I guess I oughta thank you,† Beezer says. â€Å"You let me keep my promise to my old lady. But I have to say, Wendell Green is one guy I'd really like to deconstruct.† â€Å"Man,† Jack says, â€Å"I wasn't sure if I could get in before you did.† â€Å"It's true, my restraint was crumbling.† Both men smile. â€Å"Beezer St. Pierre,† Beezer says, and sticks out a hand. â€Å"Jack Sawyer.† Jack takes his hand and experiences no more than a second of pain. â€Å"Are you gonna let the state guys do all the work, or will you keep going on your own?† â€Å"What do you think?† Jack says. â€Å"If you ever need any help, or you want reinforcements, all you have to do is ask. Because I do want to get this son of a bitch, and I figure you have a better chance of finding him than anyone else.† On the drive back to Norway Valley, Henry says, â€Å"Oh, Wendell took a picture of the body, all right. When you came out of the building and went to your truck, I heard someone take a couple of pictures, but I thought it might have been Dale. Then I heard it again when you and Dale were inside with Bobby Dulac, and I realized someone was taking a picture of me! Well, now, I say to myself, this must be Mr. Wendell Green, and I told him to come out from behind the wall. That's when those people charged out, yelling and screaming. As soon as that happened, I heard Mr. Green trot around from the side, go into the building, and shoot a few pictures. Then he sneaked out and stood by the side of the building, which is where your friend Beezer caught up with him and took care of things. Beezer is a remarkable fellow, isn't he?† â€Å"Henry, were you going to tell me about this?† â€Å"Of course, but you were running around all over the place, and I knew Wendell Green wasn't going to leave until he was thrown out. I'll never read another word he writes. Never.† â€Å"Same here,† Jack says. â€Å"But you're not giving up on the Fisherman, are you? In spite of what that pompous state cop said.† â€Å"I can't give up now. To tell you the truth, I think those waking dreams I mentioned yesterday were connected to this case.† â€Å"Ivey-divey. Now, let's get back to Beezer. Didn't I hear him say he wanted to ‘deconstruct' Wendell?† â€Å"Yeah, I think so.† â€Å"He must be a fascinating man. I gather from my nephew that the Thunder Five spends Saturday afternoons and evenings in the Sand Bar. Next week, maybe I'll start up Rhoda's old car and drive to Centralia, have a few beers and a nice gab with Mr. St. Pierre. I'm sure he has interesting taste in music.† â€Å"You want to drive to Centralia?† Jack stares at Henry, whose only concession to the absurdity of this suggestion is a little smile. â€Å"Blind people can drive perfectly well,† Henry says. â€Å"Probably, they can drive better than most sighted people. Ray Charles can, anyhow.† â€Å"Come on, Henry. Why would you think Ray Charles can drive a car?† â€Å"Why, you ask? Because one night in Seattle, this was, oh, forty years ago, back when I had a gig at KIRO, Ray took me out for a spin. Smooth as Lady Godiva's backside. No trouble at all. We stuck to the side roads, of course, but Ray got up to fifty-five, I'm pretty sure.† â€Å"Assuming this really happened, weren't you scared?† â€Å"Scared? Of course not. I was his navigator. I certainly don't think I'd have a problem navigating to Centralia along this sleepy stretch of back-country highway. The only reason blind people don't drive is that other people won't let them. It's a power issue. They want us to stay marginalized. Beezer St. Pierre would understand perfectly.† â€Å"And here I was, thinking I was going to visit the madhouse this afternoon,† Jack says.

Reflective Practice in Teaching

Reflective Practice in the context of teaching ESOL Reflective practice engages practitioners in a continuous cycle of self-observation and self-evaluation in order to understand their own actions and the reactions they prompt in themselves and in learners (Brookfield, 1995; Thiel, 1999). Reflective practice is considered as an evolving concept which views learning as â€Å"an active process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice. (Reid, B 1993 cited in Garfat, T. 2005). In my opinion, implementing reflective practice approach to professional development in order to expand our knowledge is a challenge. This challenge involves teacher’s ability to â€Å"reflect on his or her practice† in order to â€Å"bring about change and improvement†, especially in the ESOL context that is represented by variety of learner groups, curricula, available resources, and amount and type of teacher prepar ation (Schellekens, 2007, p. 199). To me, nowadays, teaching students to meet their requirements does not only involve the effective and professional use of methodology, training and concept alone. I think that it is all about the ability of integrating both theory and practice with highly exploratory process of reflective practice. I consider reflective practice as a reflective professional development tool, which I treat merely as a personal low-tech way of incorporating reflective practice in day-to-day classroom teaching in order to make my class more effective. Developing own reflective or critical thinking skills should engage various aspects of teaching, such as preparation process, receiving feedback form the learners, self-evaluation process, feedback or criticism from the colleagues, statistical data, teacher’s diary, training/development and own teaching experience. According to The Institute for Learning’s policy statement on professional formation, reflective practice is a professional requirement to show reflection on the impact of professional development (Lifelong Learning UK, 2007). The Institute’s online personalised learning space, REfLECT, requires teachers to submit variety of individual reflective practice evidence that includes: * self evaluation – an individual analysis of the applicant’s learning needs and goals for the next 12 months, * professional development planning – n individualised learning plan detailing the actions the applicant will take to address the needs and goals identified through self assessment, * reflective practice – reflection on the impact of professional development on the applicant’s teaching practice, the benefit to learners and wider communities of practice: could include, or be a mix of, a personal reflection on the impact of CPD, peer review, learner obse rvations, observation of teaching and learning, collaborative working, etc. (IfL, 2008) The models of reflection, which I have chosen to mention in this paper, promote looking at what has been learned and planning how those lessons can be applied if similar experiences re-occur. The two models of reflective practice in the context of teaching are: Brokfield’s model of four reflective â€Å"lenses† and The Reflective Cycle by Gibbs (1988). 1. Brookfield’s model of four critically reflective lenses In his â€Å"model of four critically reflective lenses†, Brookfield (1995) suggests that we should make use of the four â€Å"critical lenses† through which to view and reflect upon our teaching practice, and he suggests the following: 1. ur own view (which he refers to as autobiography); 2. that of our students; 3. that of our fellow professionals; 4. and the various theoretical perspectives propounded in educational literature. Brookfield treats teacher’s personal experience as the most important insight into teaching to which teache rs have access, and this personal experience should combine both: considerations of classroom and lesson management as well as whether or not the learning experience was a profitable one for the students. By talking to colleagues about what happened in the classroom, not only may we find solutions to problems but also share and broaden our teaching experience. (Brookfield, 1995; p. 31-36). 2. The Reflective Cycle by Gibbs (1988) Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) encourages a clear description of the situation, analysis of feelings, evaluation of the experience, and analysis to make sense of the experience to examine what you would do if the situation arose again. This straightforward and therefore useful cycle appeals to me in several aspects. An incident is identified and thought about to provide a description of what happened. The abstract aspects of the situation – the emotional dimension – are taken into account and reflected upon. This has to be done because if I can stand back from what happened and identify how I felt then those feelings can be evaluated. In the light of reflection I could see how perhaps extremes of emotion affected my outlook and thus actions. Was there anything positive that could be carried forward into the future or negative that needs to be addressed? Is it possible to find the cause of these positive and negative aspects that I might examine later? This analysis allows me to break down the incident into smaller parts that made up the situation. The question I ask myself is: What were the issues, key factors and influences and how did they combine to bring about the incident? Once I have this deeper understanding drawn from all the information I have about the situation I can try to work out what else could have been done at the time. Having concluded what, upon reflection, would have been the way to address the situation I can produce an action plan for the next time the same situation arises. By applying this reflective practice cycle to similar situations the outcome should be steady, gradual improvement, associated with stimulating personal and professional growth, and closing the gap between theory and practice. DESCRIPTION My reflection below describes a critical incident involving my 17 year old, Entry 1 ESOL student from Somalia with undifferentiated Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). In undifferentiated ADD, the primary and most significant characteristic is inattentiveness but hyperactivity is not present. The student manifests problems with organization and distractibility, even though he may seem quite and passive. The symptoms I noticed in the classroom environment included: * a short attention span, * occasionally impulsive behaviour, * difficulty sitting still, * a tendency to express the wrong answer, * inconsistent levels of task-attentiveness, * a tendency to appear forgetful as the consequence of inadequate access to actually well-stored information, * inconsistent levels of task-completeness, often losing things necessary for tasks * an appearance of being forgetful, when in fact the information was never really received or processed, * compromised summarization/paraphrasing competencies. FEELINGS I have found myself wondering whether this student might have a learning disability about three months ago as I noticed that his learning issue, ADD, is impeding his progress in English. At times I was also slightly frustrated with the students’ classroom behaviour and lack of his academic progress. I was advised to take a â€Å"wait and see† approach to this case. I decided that there must be a better way of handling these exceptional students. In order to help me understand the complexity of the issue I decided to do extensive research on students with ADD and ADHD and how to tackle the issues in class, as well as how to help my student achieve in ESOL. EVALUATION After careful evaluation why my student may advance through his ESOL studies at a slower rate than their peers and having done a detailed â€Å"tick-off† evaluation sheet of all of the symptoms I noticed during lessons, I decided to explore future solutions to this problem. Extensive research about students with ADD and ADHD helped me understand the complexity of the issue and how to tackle the issues in class. It really motivated me to find out how to help my student achieve in ESOL. ANALYSIS During my reflections after each lesson and reflective analysis of the student’s action during lessons, I thought it was essential to uncover his special needs before he could get into disciplinary trouble, lose all self-esteem, or drop out of school. I realised that a â€Å"wait and see† approach is this case was not a way to go. Instead, I should act fast and refer this student to be professionally assessed by the Educational Psychologist and organise a Study Support Assistant. In conclusion, I became conscious of the fact that having a special education aide in the ESOL classroom, cross-training of special education and ESOL teachers, and making resources on this topic (literature and trained staff) more available, would be of great help in recognising such learning difficulties and dealing with them on regular day-to-day basis of ESOL teaching. CONCLUSION On the positive side, this reflective practice raised my awareness of the numerous reasons some ESOL students may reveal through inappropriate behaviour and/or limited language learning progress. I have learnt and I will continue to observe such students, incorporating teaching strategies for teaching students with learning disabilities in the classroom, analyse teaching and learning process to help them, make adjustments in delivery of the language when dealing with students with ADD/ADHD, and promptly refer students that present truly special education needs. On a slightly negative side, the previous teacher did not identify the student’s problems early enough or did not have enough evidence to justify my student’s ADD/ADHD as a potential threat to his achievement in ESOL class. I started teaching this student about three months ago but it was only a month and a half ago when I started applying various strategies to meet his individual learning needs to help him success in ESOL despite his ADHD, such as: student monitoring, self management, discipline, and encouragement. In more detail, I provided supervision and discipline through enforcing classroom rules consistently, encouraging him to positive self-talk, trying to be very patient with him, avoiding all distracting stimuli and transitions, physical relocation, changes in schedule, and disruptions, developing an extensive individual learning program, simplifying instructions, giving extra time for certain tasks. I strongly believe that his learning difficulties should ave been identified much earlier and appropriate strategies put in place at the beginning of the course. ACTION PLAN Next year, I am planning to apply the background information obtained by this reflective practice in the new group of ESOL young learners and to relay it to my colleagues. I will also connect with a special education professional who will be happy to observe my ESOL students next year and to provide assistance with strategies to use in my classroom, if the students with learning difficulties are going to be identified. I will also research some literature resources to educate myself more about placement procedures for students with special education needs, practical reading strategies for ESOL students with learning disabilities, and teaching teens with ADD and ADHD. As the most immediate action plan, I shall incorporate special reading and writing strategies for the student with ADD/ADHD. These may include the following strategies. However, the student will be required to give me feedbacks which of them works best for him, and these include: * Using â€Å"previewing† strategies by being aware of the following reading problems: 1. Reversals when reading (i. e. , â€Å"was† for â€Å"saw†, â€Å"on† for â€Å"no†, etc. ) 2. Reversals when writing (b for d, p for q, etc. ) 3. Transposition of letters and numbers (12 for 21, etc. ) 4. Loss of place when reading, line to line and word to word * Shortening or lengthening the amount of required reading * For all assignments, clearly identifying expectations in writing * Making required book lists available prior to the first day of class to allow students to begin their reading early or to have texts put on tape * Encouraging the use of books-on-tape to support students reading assignments * Providing students with chapter outlines, or handouts, that highlight key points in their readings * Having students make a chart similar to the one below of their strengths and challenges so that they, as well as I, can learn from their perceptions of how well they read, write, remember, listen, speak, attend and get ideas out. Skills| Strengths| Challenges| Comments| Reading| | | | Writing| | | | Memory| | | | Listening| | | | Speaking| | | | Attention| | | | Getting Ideas Out| | | | To sum up, reflective practice is perhaps best understood as an approach which promotes autonom ous learning that aims to develop students’ understanding and critical thinking skills. It also helps students to understand that learning is individual. It is an act of being able to reflect on our strengths, weaknesses and areas for development. It is also an emotional response that complements our knowledge and what we understand about a subject, and which enables us to act in a situation. Personally, I strongly agree that the importance of reflecting on what we are doing, as part of the learning process, is one of the defining characteristics of teaching professional practice. References * Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass * The Excellence Gateway http://excellencegateway. org. k/tlp/cpd/assets skills_life_basic_key. rtf (accessed 13/05/2011) * Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. * The Institute for Learning http://www. IfL. ac. uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/4640/ProfessionalFormationStatement. pdf (Accessed 13/5/11) * Lifelong Learning UK, 2007, New Professional Standards for Teachers, Tutors and Trainers in the Lifelong Learning Sector. http://www. lluk. org/documents/professional_standards_for_itts_020107. pdf (Accessed 05/5/2011) * Reflection Models http://www. brainboxx. co. uk/a3_aspects/pages/ReflectionModels. tm (Accessed 16/05/2011) * Root, C. – A Guide to Learning Disabilities for the ESL Classroom Practitioner http://www. cc. kyoto-su. ac. jp/information/tesl-ej/ej01/a. 4. html (Accessed 16/05/2011) * Schellekens, P. 2007. The Oxford ESOL Handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Strategies For Teaching Students with Attention Deficit Disorder (AD/HD) http://www. as. wvu. edu/~scidis/add. html#sect0 (Accessed 16/05/2011) Professional Values and Ethics Values are enduring beliefs, both hard-wired (meaning acquired genetically) and shaped by cultural context, about preferred â€Å"end states† (Urbany, Reynolds, & Phillips, 2008, p. 75). According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009), ethics is discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty or moral principles and practice. Professional ethics and values guide the decision-making process of all companies and organizations. Most businesses and organizations state their values and ethics in their mission statement and in their code of ethics. The professional ethics and values of a business or organization will set the tone of how they conduct their operations, how they interact with customers and how employees interact with each other. Sources of Professional Values and Ethics The three groups include the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA), Ethics Resource Center and the Institute for Ethics. The CEJA develops ethics policy for the American Medical Association by preparing reports that analyze and addresses ethical issues (AMA, 2009). The Ethics Resource Center develops practical solutions for physicians who are confronted with ethical challenges and provides continuing education and outreach programs for medical students, practicing physicians, and residents. The Institute for Ethics is an academic research and training center on ethics in health care. The Institute covers issues such as, professionalism, health information policy and health preparedness (AMA, 2009). Association of American Educators (AAE) The ethical conduct toward students outlines how teachers should interact and communicate with their students. This principle states that teachers hould take responsibility to ensure that students learn qualities that will help them evaluate the consequences of and accept the responsibility for their actions and choices. The second principle, ethical conduct toward pra ctice and performance instructs teachers on assuming responsibility and accountability for their performance and maintaining the dignity of their profession. Ethical conduct toward practice and performance also covers official policies and laws. The third principle, ethical conduct toward professional colleagues discusses issues such as confidentiality among colleagues, and making false accusations about colleagues or the school system. The final principle, ethical conduct toward parents and community includes issues such as, effectively communicating with parents, respecting the values and traditions of the diverse cultures, and manifesting a positive and active role in school/communities. Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) How Ethics and Values Affect Success Professional ethics and values can have both positive and negative affects on a business’ or organizations’ success, â€Å"Values, whether neutral, virtuous or not so virtuous, drive our decision making† (Urbany, Reynolds, & Phillips, 2008, p. 76). Many companies have made millions using unethical strategies, while others have been destroyed by them. For example, several banks were lending money to individuals who they knew could never pay back the entire amount owed as a result most of the banks went bankrupt. However, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest offender in this situation was bailed out by the government with a slap on the wrist. On the other hand, there are several companies that pride themselves in choosing to make the tough ethical decisions. For example, companies that recall millions of dollars worth of products to ensure their customers safety, or companies that choose to operate in the United States although they could operate at a lower cost outside of the United States. Conclusion {text:bookmark-start} {text:bookmark-end} References American Medical Association (AMA). (2009). American Medical Association. Retrieved from www. ama-assn. org Association of American Educators (AAE). (2009). Association of American Educators. Retrieved from

Adidas Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Adidas - Case Study Example The paper will then focus on the SWOT analysis and highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that face the company. In addition, the paper will go further to evaluate the implications of the SWOT analysis on the current marketing position, current business strategy and changes that should be implemented in order for Adidas to attain competitive edge in the global market. The paper will highlight how the company can use its strengths to exploit the market opportunities and turn the threats and weaknesses in to strengths. Finally, the paper will make recommendations on necessary changes to the current business strategy in order to ensure higher profitability.Introduction Adidas Group (Adidas) is a leading player in the global sporting industry and engages in the design, development, and marketing of sporting apparel, accessories and footwear (Blakey, 2011). Adidas mainly targets five sporting fields that are basketball, football, training, running and outdoor. The history of Adidas can be traced back to 1925 when founder, Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler created Adidas after identifying the need of high performance athletic shoes. The gold medals of 1928 in Amsterdam and subsequent medals in Berlin in 1936 by Jesse Owens were the initial milestones that created the impetus to engage in more production of sporting shoes. Adidas 3-stripes shoe of 1949 attained the company a global recognition while German national football victory against Hungarian in 1954 World Cup finals made Adidas a household name across the world (Blakey, 2011). In 1970, Adidas conquered the football market through its Telstar official ball in FIFA World Cup since the ball enabled a higher visibility on the Black and White televisions. In 1971, Rockport Company was established in order to sell advanced technologies and materials in the casual footwear in the US market. However, the death of Adi Dassler in 1978 did not affect the company since his son, Horst and mother Kath e continued with the vision of the founder in making Adidas a modern sporting apparel and shoes provider. Continued innovation saw the development of the micropacer that provided athletics with performance statistics (Blakey, 2011). Adidas sold it stock to the public in 1995 and continued with its efforts of producing stylish and quality sporting apparel and shoes for the sporting industry. In 1996, Adidas equipped over 6,000 athletics from over 30 countries and experienced more than 50 percent increase in apparel sales. In 1997, the company acquired Salomon Group including TaylorMade, Bonfire and Mavic brands and renamed the company Adidas-Salomon AG. In 2004, the company partnered with Stella McCartney and later initiated plans of selling certain business segments like

Decidious Forest Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Decidious Forest - Research Paper Example They are also found in southwest eastern China, Japan, and Russia. Middle East coast of Paraguay and Chile have the largest areas of deciduous forests in South America (Archibold, 1995). (Picture showing location of deciduous forest around the globe) The most significant and common characteristic of these regions is that they all have seasonal changes in temperature and rainfall. The outcome of this is that the tree acquires a special shape so that they can adapt to endure these changes in the environment during the year. The mean temperature in this forest goes up to 50 degree Fahrenheit. The rainfall is also average and ranges between thirty and sixty inches in a year. With the transformation in season, the color of leaves of the deciduous forest also changes (Nagle, 2009). For example, during the month of winter, there is scarcity of water and therefore the leaves can not stay alive. Hence, the leaves start falling off from the plants. But with the advent of spring, the leaves sta rt growing back again. Some plants like evergreens retain their leaves during winter season also. They adapt to the winter and stay alive. There are several species of trees in a deciduous forest their variety depending upon the region they are located in. They generally include species like walnut, hickory, linden, sweet gum, oak, maple, beech, chestnut, and elm. The deciduous forests are further divided into five distinct zones. The Tree Stratum zone is the first zone. In this zone, one would find trees for example oak, beech, maple, chestnut hickory, and elm, basswood, linden, walnut, and sweet gum trees. The zone has a variable height that is from 60 to 100 feet. The second zone consists of sapling and small trees. As the name suggests, the trees here are young and smaller in size. The third zone is known as the shrub zone. Some of the popular shrubs found in this zone are rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, and huckleberries. The fourth zone is called the Herb zone. As the name indicates, it has very short plants like herbal plants. The fifth and final zone is called Ground zone. It consists of lichen, club mosses, and true mosses (MacMillan, 2003). The number of unlike seasons in the deciduous forests are four in all starting from spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While autumn seasons sees leaves changing their color, in the winter, the tress shed their leaves altogether. Dog Wood Leaves Fringe Leaf Ginkgo Leaves Deciduous forests can survive the extreme seasons of climatic change. They grow in those regions where you get plenty of rainfall, which is necessary for the growth of trees. The rainfall in the moderate deciduous forest is spread out around the whole year. But winter is the season of cold and therefore, everything freezes around and nothing is available to animals for feeding. Therefore, animals living in this region adapt themselves to the extreme cold winter and also hot season of summer (MacMillan, 2003). As leaves start falling in wi nter, there is not much of a cover available to the animals to save themselves from the vagaries of nature. The deciduous forests have animals whose pictures are shown below:- Black bear Fox Brown bear Animals use a special technique of adaptation by hibernating in the winter season and living off what ever is available in the other three seasons. The animals try out the plants and see if

Cultural History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cultural History - Essay Example The remains and fossils of people with no written records are studied by scholars to get a hint into how these people lived (Renfrew & Bahn, 2000). It is generally believed that during prehistoric times, the society in the regions around the Amazon was more like a homogenous one and that the Amazon people were people that had little resources at their disposal. But, this has been refuted as recent studies have shown that they were indeed a complex society (Levi-Strauss, 1997). The discovery of immense earthworks and huge sedentary communities in the Amazon has shown that the prehistoric society around the region was not homogenous as people have been made to believe. The high quality of the cultural and ecological diversity of the prehistoric society of the region around the Amazon was something that was not in any way comparable to other societies that existed at that time. It was colonialism and imperialism that ensured the European domination of the New World. The Europeans instit utionalized policies that made them rule the nations of the New World and developed trade for their own benefits. The Europeans also had very strong political, military and economic empires that made the domination of the New World very easy for them.

Is college Education for everyone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Is college Education for everyone - Essay Example This research aims to evaluate and present â€Å"In the Basement of the Ivory Tower† as a lamentation discourse of a college professor about students enrolled in the university but who are not academically prepared to take on such intellectual work. His sadness stems from his observation that most of these students who are enrolled in night school are in school not for the main purpose of achieving true academic excellence but merely to pass the course as a requirement for promotion, for salary upgrade or position reclassification. Early in the article, the reader is treated to a picturesque description of the typical university campuses, where presumably the author teaches, as a way of introducing the subject matter of his discourse. It would not be too long for the reader to know that he is talking about working students in evening school. It would initially seem to this reader that all is well in the campus setting until he gets a subtle warning that â€Å"beneath the surf ace† is a problem that is causing â€Å"frustrations and bad feelings† about students â€Å"who are in over their heads.† At this point, the reader would seem to be cued back to the article’s title â€Å"In the Basement of the Ivory Tower† and would develop a feeling that something is wrong in the â€Å"basement.† It is of course known that the term â€Å"Ivory Tower† figuratively refers to a sheltered institution such as a university of higher education. This reader thinks that such a development in the content is brilliant as it cultivates and sustains reader interest. The author proceeds to describe what the problem is all about by using his course subjects English 101 and English 102 as anchor and the imperative need for students to pass these subject as a prerequisite for course completion. It is apparent that the requirement to successfully hurdle these two subjects is the seed of the author’s lamentations, after discoveri ng that these students enrolled in night school are not academically prepared to pass the subjects. To prove his point, the author narrates incidents to justify his slapping of grades F (for Fail) to majority of his students. The author makes a beautiful exchange of his conversations with a specific student, Ms L, who would get an F and how and why she got it. Of course, the author is very persuasive, as he provides proof for his giving out a failing grade. At the same time, he attempts to involve his readers in his own dilemma, or even guilt, arising from his decision to fail his students who come to school in the evening because they are working during the day and are therefore physically spent and run down to do extended mental work. He then shares his ambivalent feelings of whether to be compassionate and give them all a passing mark or to keep his school’s standard of academic excellence. As if to provide a parallel ending to his opening, the author ends his discourse in the same lamenting posture, leaving the reader in an emotional suspension without seeing a resolution to the problem he has presented. As a critical commentary, this reader believes that perhaps the author should have proposed a few recommendations on what to do, given the problem he presented. Or would that have been his real intention, to put the reader in a state of search for the solution or solutions? This reader would have wanted some relief coming from the author. For example,

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 85

Case Study Example For this reason, it was essential to adopt an advertising strategy totally different from the prevailing ones. b) The first campaign of Axe made use of the broadcast media as the central element of advertising. This media was chosen to captivate the audience after having reached them. The ‘dirty message’ that was part of this campaign was targeted to reach the intended audience by airing the commercials during telecast of television programs that were famous in the age-group that was being targeted. Program like Baywatch, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Real World were chosen for this purpose. In addition to the broadcast media, Axe also made use of the print media to display luring ads in magazines like Playboy, Maxim and Sports illustrated swimsuit issue. An additional line of action was targeting spring break destinations that were favorite among college boys. The walls of these places were covered with posters and pictures of the products manufactured by Axe. One last media used for advertisement was the internet; a website by the name of www.theaxeeffect.com served to entertain the target audience i.e. young boys. c) The second campaign made use of the ‘storytelling power’ of television and cinema combined. Since the issue was to promote the ‘detailer’ and ‘shower gel’ collectively, it was essential to promote the use of detailer using multiple media channels, as it was a novel concept at that time. In addition to the cinema and television, digital media was employed and various means like videos promoted through YouTube were used for the purpose. The idea was to promote the novel â€Å"Axe Detailer: The Manly Shower Tool†, which served just one purpose i.e. â€Å"Clean Your Balls†. In my opinion, this effort was driven by reach. d) Instead of using the traditional forms of promotion, Axe should now focus on promotion through direct interaction with the public. This may include

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business Law - Essay Example ity given, suffered or undertaken by the other." Sir Fredrick Pollock’s definition of consideration is â€Å"An act or forbearance of one party, or the promise thereof, is the price for which the promise of the other is bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable." This was approved by Lord Dunedin in Dunlop v Selfridge Ltd ( 1915) It therefore follows that a gift is not a contract. There is no contract if there is no consideration. However consideration is required to be expressed in monetary terms. As such any discernible detriment to one of the parties could be that party’s consideration ( Duhaime) An agreement not to take a plot of land was considered a sufficient consideration(Hubbs). The law does not insist on the adequacy of consideration as it is between the parties to decide. The consideration should be reciprocal, each party offering consideration. Motive should not be confused with consideration. Our motive for contracting may be for personal reasons but it may coincide with the consideration we are giving or receiving. If the consideration is already â€Å"spent† in a prior contract, a new contract using that same consideration would be valid. "where a contractual duty already exists, it may be possible...to vary the original agreement without necessarily establishing a whole new contract with fresh consideration on both sides." In fact, refreshing a commitment to do something for a third party is consideration under common law† (Frdman G). Further the consideration should not be something or some act which is not legal or immoral or opposed to public policy. If a certain acts punishable under law then it is illegal. For example a work given to un unlicensed contractor is illegal. If the consideration is a past one, it will not make a valid contract. The court decisions on consideration suggest English law is in need of fundamental restatement with regards to Consideration. Dr Corbin and Prof Atiyah have already dealt

A Comparative Analysis Of The Hotels Across The World Essay

A Comparative Analysis Of The Hotels Across The World - Essay Example A comparative analysis of the three hotels will be done to analyse the differences as well as the similarities between them. The first is Bellagio. Bellagio is one of the luxury hotels located at Las Vegas. The quality of art and architecture in Bellagio attracts the customers mainly. It portrays the Italian culture. The main goal of the hotel is creating an ambience which will help the customers to understand the true value of the hotel by means of its constructions. Bellagio focuses on attracting the upper middle class of the society. It tries to bring in the wealthy customers and retain them by providing excellent services. The wonderful fountain dance shows along with the art and architecture, quality services and the casino game shows have helped the resort to the AAA five Diamond Award for 11 times. The second hotel is Sheraton Macao Hotel. It is a hotel situated in Macau. This hotel consisting of 3896 rooms is the biggest hotel in Macau. Sheraton Macao Hotel is built using the modern concept where the Family Suites and the Club Rooms give the view of the renowned Cotai Strip. The brand new hotel provides guest rooms to the customers portraying the state-of-arts having a balcony. The hotel provides six restaurants, bars and a gym. The target market of Sheraton Macao hotel is the upper class of the society. It has designed its services in such a manner which is affordable by the rich section of the society mostly. It mainly focuses on the rich families and also the tourists who visit Macao during their holiday seasons. The third hotel is New York Hilton Midtown. New York Hilton Midtown is situated in New York. It is the biggest hotel of the city and the 101st tallest hotel of the world. The hotel is a walking distance away from the premier attractions of the city i.e. Times Square, Fifth Avenue shopping, Radio-City Music Hall etc. The hotel has been built based on the modern concept and contains spacious guest rooms to provide on demand entertainment. The location of the hotel is within the reach of the city’s most popular attractions and the local transportations. New York Hilton Midtown is a 24 hours business centre where all important business meetings are held. Thus the main focus of the hotel is the business travellers. Each of these hotels has different concepts as well as different target markets. It is due to this reason that the services offered by them differ to a great extent. Each hotel has been able to achieve a competitive advantage over its competitors by implementing own marketing and pricing strategies. They have maintained a successful position in the market by choosing the concepts and target markets in relation to the environment. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Concept 4 Target Markets 5 Market Positioning 6 Experience offered 7 Planning and Design Solutions 8 Response to the environment 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction The design of a hotel plays an impor tant role in achieving competitive advantage in the hospitality industry. It helps to give a separate identity to a hotel and draw the attention of the customers towards it. Moreover, the quality of services provided by a hotel also helps it to achieve success in the industry. The project deals with the comparative analysis of three hotels from different geographical locations. This will help us to identify the similarities as well as the differences between the 3 hotels which have enabled these hotels to achieve success. Bellagio is one of the luxury hotels located at Las Vegas. The parent company of the hotel is MGM Resorts International. It was opened on 15th October, 1998. The hotel has been built after the demolition of the hotel and casino named Dunes (Saving America's Mustangs Foundation, 2012).