Learn about the roles of state and tribal authorities in emergency preparedness, response and recovery.

Understand emergency management responsibilities in each phase of the emergency management cycle.

Describe the value of developing partnerships with community organizations and businesses.

This assignment should take about 3 hours to complete.

The purpose of this assignment is to learn about business continuity of operations in the recovery process after a major disaster. Businesses play a key role in responding to and recovering from disasters. Continuity of operations focuses on putting businesses “back in business” as soon after a disaster as is practical. As the world’s largest retail pharmaceutical company, Walgreens is frequently involved in responding to disasters, restoring their business operations and supporting recovery activities. Also view Walmart’s video of business continuity actions and discuss common themes between Walmart and Walgreens.

Write short answers (100 to 200 words) to the following questions: Use the correct APA Style in-text citation format to reference sources.

What strategies are used by Walgreens/Walmart to address COOP?

Why should businesses have continuity of operations plans?

How can private companies help communities during the recovery process?

Readings:

Federal Emergency Management Agency (2012). Business Continuity Plan. Retrieved from    http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/continuity

Thompson, A.P., Hurricane Sandy Walgreens Lessons Learned, Walgreens, June 11, 2013. Retrievedfromhttp://www.floridadisaster.org/publicprivatesector/2013ppsummit/documents/presentations/4%20Sandy%20Lessons%20Learned%20-%20Walgreens.pdf

Gorman, T., Walgreens Retail Operational Resilience “BCM Case Study”, April 16, 2012. Retrievedfromhttp://www.continuityinsights.com/sites/continuityinsights.com/files/legacyfiles/A15_Gorman.pdf

Walgreens, Business Continuity Disclosure Statement: Business Continuity Management at Walgreens. Retrievedfromhttp://files.shareholder.com/downloads/WAG/0x0x756196/8357B513-0131-475C-BCD1-18648D2BA103/Walgreens_BCM_Disclosure_Statement.pdf

Video:

Walmart Deploys to Hurricane Isaac. Retrieved from http://news.walmart.com/media-library/youtube/walmart-deploys-to-hurricane-isaac-81qzpnggl70

This assignment addresses Learning Outcome 4. Students will be able to analyze disaster-related issues and problems and demonstrate knowledge of resources, response and recovery capabilities, and mitigation measures appropriate for addressing disasters.

Rock Crystal         Story by A. Stifter

                          Albert Bierstadt, Strom Among the Alps.

      Long, long ago — perhaps maybe some time in the seventeenth century somewhere in the Alps, two valleys with a village each  – Gschaid and Millsdorf – lay next to each other, ringed by high mountains and linked by a sole, lonely path.  Due to this separation, the inhabitants considered each other as strangers. Yet it came to pass that the shoemaker from Gschaid married the Millsdorf dyer’s daughter, and the couple had two children, Conrad and Sanna.

    One unusually warm Christmas Eve, the two children set out on the path from the northward valley, through pine forest and over the pass, to visit their grandmother in the valley to the south.  Their mother had sent Conrad and Sanna to their grandparents in Millsdorf to give them Christmas greetings and presents. Conrad and little Sanna set out early, arrived in time for lunch, and were kissed and showered with gifts by their adoring grandmother. Yet she insisted that they start for home early. The temperature was dropping, and ice was forming on the puddles in the road. As Conrad and Sanna climbed the path back toward home, a significant snowfall began. It was a snowfall the villagers later called once in a century: “unprecedented, unwearying, and voracious.” The children climbed and climbed, but their path never descended as it should; they never find their familiar landmark.   

    On the way home, they “fell into” heavy snowfall which became so dense that they could see only the very nearest trees.  They looked for their usual signpost.

   “Shall we see the post today?” asked the girl. “The snow will fall on it and the red color will be white.”

   “We shall be able to see it,” replied the boy; “even if the snow falls upon it and makes it white all over we are bound to see it, because it is a thick post, and because it has the black iron cross on its top will surely stick out.”

   “Yes, Conrad.”

    Yet they did not see the signpost, and instead of going down into the valley, the children wound up wandering up into the bare rock and ice region. The big brother who made a little roof out of the shawl that his sister was wearing to keep the snow off her face; meanwhile, the sister, maintained her brother’s courage simply by how much she trusted him.  Meanwhile, it had been growing dark.  At last they climbed into a stone cave to spend the night there.  To shield themselves against the cold, they drink from the coffee their grandmother had packed for their parents. The exceedingly strong extract took effect at once and all the more powerfully as the children had never in their lives tasted coffee.  Despite the dangers, Conrad, the elder of the siblings, was overwhelmed by the great canvas of nature before them. They saw a northern light wafting in the night sky, and the stars gleamed and shone and twinkled.  Only an occasional shooting star traversed them.. At dawn, Konrad and Sanna set off to find a way down the valley. At last the boy thought he saw a flame skipping over a far-away snow-slope. It bobbed up and dipped down again. Now they saw it, and then again they did not. They remained standing and steadfastly gazed in that direction. The flame kept on skipping up and down and seemed to be approaching, for they saw it grow bigger and skipping more plainly. It did not disappear so often and for so long a time as before. After awhile they heard in the still blue air faintly, very faintly, something like the long note of a shepherd’s horn. As if from instinct, both children shouted aloud. A little while, and they heard the sound again. They shouted again and remained standing on the same spot. The flame also came nearer. The sound was heard for the third time, and this time more plainly. The children answered again by shouting loudly. After some time, they also recognized that it was no flame they had seen but a red flag which was being swung. At the same time, the shepherd’s horn resounded closer to them and the children made reply.

    “Sanna,” cried Conrad, “there come people from Gschaid. I know the flag.”

    Then the children saw on the snow-slope opposite them several men with the flag of Millsdorf.    

    During the night, men had set out  from both villages, Gschaid and Millsdorf, to look for the children. When they were now at last found, they were driven home on a sledge. In the parents’ house, all friends and neighbors were gathered — even the grandmother from Millsdorf has arrived.

    The common salvation of the children became a topic of conversation in the inn. The inhabitants of the two mountain villages, who had previously regarded each other as strangers and treated each other accordingly, reconciled themselves due to this joint rescue operation. From that day on, the children became the property of the village, and were viewed as natives of both villages who had miraculously been delivered from the mountain. Even the mother from Millsdorf was now considered a true native of Gschaid.   

     Comparison – Contrast Composition Directions:  

            You may have followed the story in the news last year about the 12 boys on a soccer team and coach from Thailand who were trapped in a cave for two weeks. Countless people around the world were captivated by the rescue of the young Thai soccer team from a flooded cave. (Locate an article on the Internet and read about this event and how it ended.)

The  news about the Thai soccer team was recent fact; the account of the two children lost in the snow and rescued by the men of the two villages is a story from 1845 – “Rock Crystal.”  Yet there are some common points between the two narratives.

     Write a composition of two paragraphs of five sentences each comparing and contrasting the fictional story of the two children lost in the mountains and their rescue with what happened to the Thai soccer team.  Use specific examples from both narratives.   

Part 2:

Reading the Classics

 There is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of classic writers. Directly one has been taken up, even if it is only for half-an-hour, one feels as quickly refreshed, relieved, purified, elevated, and strengthened as if one had refreshed oneself at a mountain stream.      — Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Books and Reading”

                 THE   CLASSICS   FOR   TODAY

     During this English course, you have been reading modern texts in our textbook as well as in your research for various assignments.  For the discussion questions, many of the topics have involved Great Books by classic authors, especially classic nineteenth-century writers such as  Guy de Maupassant (Week 3), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Week 6), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Week 5), and Henry David Thoreau (Week 5).  In reading such skilled writers, one improves one’s vocabulary as well as one’s critical thinking skills.  You should feel very good that you were able to read, understand, and write interesting commentaries on these classic writers!

RETURNING  TO  WALDEN

    More than being examples of great writing and honing critical thinking skills, however, classic literature is important because it brings up universal themes which are important for today’s society.  One such example you read and wrote about in Week 5, that Thoreau’s Walden (with its peaceful associations with Nature and withdrawing at least temporarily from the hustle and bustle of modern society) has a relevance perhaps even more important today than when Thoreau published his book Walden in 1854.  As you read, Walden is even considered viable enough to see commercially a modern video game!

YOUR  PARAGRAPH  TOPIC

    Write at least seven sentences explaining how one of the following works you have read has a theme with relevance for today.  Make sure you have a topic sentence supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.  Use at least one quote from the work.  Choose one of the following works to write your paragraph about:

“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupaussant

“Under the Pear Tree” by Theodor Fontane (in-class) 

“David Swan” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The Blue Flower” by Henry Van Dyke

Come up with original ideas, and do not repeat anythying you have written before or what other students who have posted before you are saying about the work.  Also include in your discussion a commentary on how the work fulfills the comment by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (quoted above) that “there is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of classic writers.”

Directions: Please provide a response to each of the following questions using APA guidelines for formatting and citations.  Each response must be at least one paragraph in length consisting of three to five sentences.

1.      Define energy.

2.      How much total energy, wood, and water resources do buildings use?

3.      How has the world’s population increased in the last two hundred years?

4.      When did the Weatherization Assistance Program begin and what is its purpose?

5.      What are the benefits received by families whose homes are weatherized under the Weatherization Assistance Program?

6.      What action did President Obama take in March of 2009 that will benefit the Weatherization Assistance Program?  How will the program benefit?

7.      What is the certification program that is maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council?  How many certification levels are there in this program and what are they?

8.      What are the reasons an individual might apply for an Energy Efficient Mortgage?

9.      What are some of the goals that the National Association of Home Builders strives toward?

10.    Describe the types of home assessments that are offered by RESNET.

Bill is 48 years old and has repaired lawn mowers in his small shop in Fairview, Tennessee for the last eight years. He is about 30 miles from Nashville, Tennessee, and he is just 12 miles from Dickson, Tennessee. He has deliberately kept his business small to control costs and complexity. Last week, he received a bulletin from this leading tractor manufacturer that it is introducing a new model with a new computer-based monitoring system. Although he has dealt with limited applications of computer chips in these machines, this is a much more sophisticated application. He knows that several of his customers own this brand of mower and that they are likely to buy the new models. He wants to learn how to repair these computer-based monitoring systems. In the bulletin, the company announced a limited number of seminars at the manufacturing plant in Horicon, Wisconsin. It has also announced a series of Webinars and online training sessions for the new innovation. There is also a manufacturer’s service manual for the new models. Bill cannot take time off or afford to travel to the seminars.
Answer the following questions based on the scenario:
•What do you think Bill should do to construct a learning plan? If he were to write one out, formally, what might it look like? How would you express his learning needs? What would his terminal performance objective look like?
•What kinds of self-motivation does Bill have? Discuss ways in which Bill will apply elements of the affective domain in this learning project.
•How can Bill apply the cognitive concept of metacognition and its extension, reflexivity, from constructivist theory? How do Piaget’s ideas on assimilation and accommodation apply to this example of adult learning?
•What other elements or characteristics of constructivist learning theory might he apply here? How can he learn what he needs to learn as quickly and as thoroughly as possible?
Use research, and APA format to construct your response. Your paper should include a title page, abstract and reference page along with the content.

After reading, studying and reflecting on the articles titled “Origins  (Links to an external site.)of Children’s Literature (Links to an external site.),” “A Brief History of Children’s Literature, (Links to an external site.)” and “History of Children’s Literature (Links to an external site.) consider the following historical perspectives found in children’s literature:

What type of writing for children occurred during the Renaissance period: 1500-1650?
Why were the 18th Century moral writers important in the children’s literature history?
When did the emergence of Folktales occur? 
What was the catalyst for this type of writing?
What type of writing was done for children during the late 1800s? 
Why did this change in writing for children occur?
What types of children’s books were written in the early 20th Century: 1900-1970?
What types of children’s books were written in the late 20th Century: 1970-2000?
How are current day children’s books different from books written through history?
How are current day children’s books similar to books written through history?

(NOTE: You are encouraged to take time to think about and respond to these questions as a way to help you remain active as you read the readings and resources. Reflecting and responding about ideas are great ways to help you retain information as you read.)

1. Use the readings relating to the history of children’s literature to select 3 different historical time periods that interest you. (For example: 1600-1700, 1700-1800, 1800-1900 or 1750-1800, 1850-1900, 1950-2000)
2. Open the Chart Template. Save the template to your computer, and then use the template to complete this assignment. As you complete the chart, describe the major changes in how and why children’s books were written for each of the 3 time periods you selected, paying close attention to how and why social conditions, political attitudes, economic situations, religious practices, language use, educational practices, and print availability impacted each time period.
3. Save your chart again, close it, and then upload your chart using the directions below. Note: you must reply first before seeing responses from other students.