The volatile race to capture conversions has given the legendary commodities market a run for its money. But the “buy low, resell high” philosophy, known as search arbitrage, has left some in the search engine marketing, or SEM, community questioning the ethics of this new word brokering.

A term reserved mostly for the financial industry, arbitrage means buying product from one source and reselling it to another for a profit.

Sounds like the American way, right? Perhaps not. Because arbitrage is defined by the “sameness” of the resold product, the ethics of search arbitrage become gray.

Search arbitrage occurs when a buyer purchases a keyword from one search engine and links the ads using that keyword to another landing page filled with more ads that take the potential customer to another Web site. That next Web site may – or may not – be applicable to the searcher’s initial inquiry because the secondary ads do not contain the exact original keyword. It’s typically the same category or similar interest, but not exactly the same terms. This is where the “sameness” becomes a factor.

The host, or “publisher,” of the ad-filled site makes a profit on that consumer’s second click-through. The advertiser views this publisher as an “affiliate,” and pays him based on those conversions.

It’s a helpful alternative for advertisers with a heavily diversified product line, especially when the consumer is searching with keywords for a niche item. It saves considerable time and administrative cost to bundle these more-obscure searches into an affiliate program like search arbitrage. The company still connects with its potential consumer, and the publisher, not the company, spends his time buying the keywords, reselling them and managing the host site.

Aside from the fact these landing pages often contain little or no content, search arbitrage proves, eventually, to be one-sided. It’s a short-term gain for the publishers, but a long-term loss for the brands they represent.

Consumers, time and again, have proven they will turn their backs on a company when it takes too much effort to reach the product, especially on the Internet. The tiny window of the consumer’s passive acceptance of arbitrage no doubt will close.

Search arbitrage is creative, but not necessarily ethical, and companies searching for ways to stay competitive in markets with desirable keywords are not going to like the end result. Consumers will draw away from searching the Internet if the reason they’ve come – to save time and money – is defeated.

For sure, any effective marketing campaign today includes a strategic Internet presence. It is more important than ever for companies to know exactly where their SEM partner stands on the ethical lines of today’s search marketplace, including arbitrage.

If you fall into complete non-doing (not getting up, not drinking water, not eating), you will most probably be dead in about a week. If you do too much (such as running nonstop across the Sahara), you will also find yourself knocking at Death’s door.

Either extreme is a movement toward death. The ideal lies somewhere in between. Yoga and health are all about finding balance between opposing forces. Effort and rest. Elimination and assimilation. Yang and yin. Day and night.

When we do not feel, when we are not aware of our inner state, imbalance is the inevitable result. Most of us have so little internal awareness that we don’t know we are out of balance until something drastically goes wrong. As an example, most diseases spread in an acidic environment. Because we are not sensitive enough to feel when our bodies are acidic, we continue to consume foods that make our bodies even more acidic. If we could feel more deeply, we would instinctively know when our bodies are acidic, and seek to bring them back into balance.

A body that is in balance craves that which keeps it in balance. On the other hand, a body that is out of balance craves that which moves it further away from balance. Thus, we cannot listen to the predictable wail of our cravings, but we have to feel, and we have to seek guidance, either from deep within or from someone who knows better. Many things that we consider “normal” -pain, old age, senility, and perhaps even death – may actually be avoidable and unnecessary. The aches that we consider a natural function of aging are simply manifestations of imbalance. The inability to move freely, expansively, and with strength has nothing to do directly with aging; it has to do with lack of movement over time, coupled with an imbalanced diet, a rigid mind, and too-brief flirtations with Spirit.

When we are not connected to the light of our source, when our minds are dogmatically opinionated, when our diets are acidic, and when we chronically ignore the protests of our bodies by slouching in chairs all day, our bodies become imbalanced and rigid, and then we blame our lack of mobility on a fabricated villain called aging! Once you are balanced, the work is not over. Whether it is the balance of the mind, the body, or the emotions, balance cannot be achieved and forgotten. When we stand on one leg in Vrksasana, we have to stay vigilant. The moment our attention ceases and we congratulate ourselves for being balanced and upright, we have already begun to fall over. Staying in balance requires as much vigilance as first attaining it. Achieving and maintaining balance are the path, not the destination.

Aadil Palkhivala ©2008

Smile Like the Mona Lisa

While medieval feudalism continued throughout most of Europe, the thirteenth century saw a cultural rebirth take place in Italy. Aptly named the Renaissance, French for “rebirth,” this period saw culture blossom in a way it had not since the time of the Roman Empire. In fact, the Renaissance started as a revitalization of Classical culture, inspired by the unearthing of great Roman monuments that had been buried for centuries. During this period, the citizens of Italian cities such as Florence and Rome, attempted to recreate what they believed to be authentic Classical society. They encouraged philosophy, invention and the arts and this movement gave birth to many multi-talented Renaissance Men such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

You need look no further than the art of the Renaissance to see the era’s ideals of feminine beauty. Portraits show women in loose, flowing robes. Their skin is pale, their cheeks are shiny and their lips are often a deep red. The ideal Renaissance woman was somewhat voluptuous and although her dress was loose, the material was thin and clingy and revealed far more of her body than was permitted during the Middle Ages. In spite of the more revealing clothing, the face, and especially the forehead, continued to be the focal point of the body. It was also the part of the body that received the most attention in the form of skin care products and cosmetics.

An Effervescent Glow

Many materials used in the make up of this period would be considered toxic today. At the time, however, women believed that they were using natural powders and minerals to lighten their faces and give their skin an effervescent glow. As had been the case for centuries, a pale complexion was still considered a sign of wealth and beauty. While Renaissance women did not have any way to permanently bleach their skin, their skin care regimens included dusting the face with a number of white powders. White lead and chalk were still two of the most common ingredients in face powders, and some women even attempted to lighten their skin with arsenic powder.

Once the perfect pale complexion had been achieved, Italian women would apply a number of other powders to highlight their cheeks, lips and bust line. Silver mercury was often mixed with lead or chalk and brushed onto the apples of the cheeks and across the top of the chest. Vermillion, a red substance that was made from cinnabar, was used to paint the lips. While deep red lips were considered fashionable, it was also acceptable to have natural, or lightly tinted lips. Women continued to tweeze their hair lines and eyebrows in order to give themselves a smooth, expansive forehead. To combat any signs of redness or irritation, they would also rub pumice stones along the hairline. (You can read more about Renaissance cosmetics here: http://www.thebeautybiz.com/78/article/history/beauty-through-ages-renaissance)

Cleanliness: An Artistic Concern

Throughout the Renaissance, cleanliness and hygiene began to be increasingly common themes in paintings and literature. A clean body was often used as a metaphor for a clean spirit. Alternately, the latrine became a sign of filth and was often used as a metaphor for moral baseness. It is unsurprising that the citizens of Renaissance Italy were obsessed with hygiene, given that they modeled their society on the Romans, who had been legendary for their bathing rituals. Cleanliness was not only an artistic metaphor, however, but a practical concern. Italy had survived a number of plague outbreaks and staying free from germs was a matter of life and death. Additionally, many people strove to live out the philosophies that were explored in the art of the time. Frequent bathing was a sign of dignity and social distinction. These were subjects of great concern to many Renaissance artists and philosophers. (You can read more about attitudes toward cleanliness here: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100824360)

Skin care treatments during the Italian Renaissance were, in practice, very similar to what they had been throughout the Middle Ages. Bathing rituals were similar, skin care products were similar and cosmetics were similar. What had changed, however, was the attitude toward these practices. While medieval women had seen cosmetics simply as a way to appear more attractive, the women of the Renaissance strove to achieve a transcendent ideal that combined Classical philosophy and art with physical beauty and human distinction.

Karabij is a popular Middle Eastern cookie served with Natef. Natef is a special white cream used for dipping with Karabij.

Karabij are one element in the Middle Eastern cookies family, which in turn is a class of Arabic sweets. It is a cookie made of semolina dough, which makes it very delicate and easy to break. It is baked, and it is abundant in pistachio nuts.

While other Middle Eastern cookies like Mamoul and Mamoul-Mad are filled with many types of nuts such as pistachios and walnuts, as well as dates, Karabij on the other hand is always filled with only pistachios. Even though it is perfectly possible to use a walnuts or dates filling with Karabij cookies, it has been the custom not to do so and to use only pistachio nuts filling with Karabij.

Karabij are essentially small pistachios filled Mamoul cookies. They share the same ingredients as Mamoul and are prepared and baked in the same manner. However, Karabij are usually smaller in size than Mamoul because they are intended to be dipped in Natef. Even though Mamoul is made into different sizes, Karabij are always made into a small longitudinal shape easy to use for dipping.

Karabij are great for those who like dipping. It is a favorite dessert to eat while watching a movie for example. It is much healthier than chips or chocolate since it contains healthy pistachio nuts.

Karabij are popular in Arabic countries. Their popularity did not spread much to the western world because they are closely associated with the white Lebanese cream Natef which is not popular in the Western world.

Karabij are small in size, and one can eat couple dozens of them before noticing. They are in general high in calories, just like any other cookies, so people should watch how many they eat.

These small cookies are considered to be in the same category as Mamoul, Mamoul-Mad, and Ghraybeh, which are all under the class of Middle Eastern cookies. However, while Ghraybeh is a sugar cookie, all the rest are semolina based cookies filled with nuts such as pistachio and walnuts and with dates as well.

Middle Eastern cookies are consumed especially during holidays and celebrations in Middle Easter and Arab countries. They are also the preferred gift during religious holidays and celebration.

In summary, Karabij are Middle Eastern cookies exclusively dipped with the white cream Natef and offered for desert.

As a four-decade Certified Travel Agent, international airline employee, researcher, writer, teacher, and photographer, travel, whether for pleasure or business purposes, has always been a significant and an integral part of my life. Some 400 trips to every portion of the globe, by means of road, rail, sea, and air, entailed destinations both mundane and exotic. This article focuses on those in the Middle and Near East.

Turkey:

Turkey, which lies both in Europe and Asia, offered a glimpse into its rich antiquity with a tour through Ephesus, the ancient Greek city located on the Ionian coast. Constructed in the 10th century BC on the site of the previous Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists, it became one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek Era and flourished under control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.

Extensively canvased on foot, it progressively revealed the aspects of its past, including the House of the Virgin Mary, the Temple of Hadrianm, the Library of Celsus, and the Commercial Agora in its ancient section.

The Live Ephesus with the Ephesians show brought its past to life in the present.

A buffet lunch in Restaurant Le Wagon, a wooden, A-framed building with tree branch support beams, brick and wooden walls, and a red tile roof, featured potato and bean salad, eggplant, stuffed grape leaves, black olives, pickles, phyllo dough cheese rolls, grilled meatballs with tomato sauce, grilled chicken, yellow rice, and baklava.

Post-meal attractions encompassed the Ephesus Museum and the St. John Monument, and the immersion into Turkey’s ancient past was capped with a Turkish carpet making demonstration in Kusadasi.

Jordan:

Surrounded by Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, Jordan, home country of another one of my airlines, offered an opportunity to experience and understand the history, culture, cuisine, and people behind the carrier I partially represented, initially through its modern capital, Amman, built on seven hills or “Jebels.

Mohammed, a colleague I chance-met upon arrival at Queen Alia International Airport, immediately displayed the Jordanians’ signature hospitality by volunteering to meet me at my hotel every day and escort me to the significant sights.

Offered local confectionaries in bakeries, such as delicate cookies or cream- and cheese-filled Kanafa, I walked in his shadow as we entered the Golden Souk, perusing local wares and handicrafts, and then visited Citadel Hill, located 850 meters above sea level on Jebel Al Qala’a and one of the original seven to have served as Amman’s foundation.

The Roman Amphitheater, at the foot of Jabal Al-Jofah on a hill opposite the Citadel, was a 6,000-seat, second-century Roman theater, dating back to the era when Amman was known as Philadelphia.

Other sights included the single-dome, four-minaret King Hussein Mosque, the largest in the country.

North of the city was Jerash, one of the ten cities of the Decapolis, where splendors of Rome’s frontier provinces were preserved through theaters, colonnaded streets, baths, and temples. A knife, gyrating up and down when inserted between column joints, demonstrated that no cement or other binding substance had been used at their juncture.

“Jerash is perhaps the best preserved and most complete provincial Roman cities anywhere in the world,” according to its description. “To walk through the ancient city is to step back into the world of the second century along the southeastern frontier of the Roman Empire. It is the most spectacular of these towns, ten of which were loosely allied in an association of cities called the ‘Decapolis.’

“Called ‘Gerasa’ in Roman times, it was important not only for its individual monuments, but also for its strict and well-preserved town plan, built around the colonnaded main street and several intersecting side ones. Its most noteworthy monuments included the Cardo, the South Theatre, the Temple of Zeus, the Oval Piazza, or Forum, Hadrian’s Arch, the Nymphaeum, the Artemis Temple Complex, and the smaller North Theatre, or Odeon.

“The city’s 14 churches with their fine mosaics all date from the Byzantine era, when the eastern Roman Empire looked to Constantinople for political and religious authority.”

Stone chariot wheel impressions, preserved pockets frozen in time, were visible.

Jordanian cuisine typically consisted of the always available hummus, regardless of the time of day; mensaf, its national dish made of roasted lamb with yoghurt sauce and served on a bed of rice; and honey-draped pastries.

Jordan’s rich topographical tapestry passed beneath the wing of my aircraft several days later during a short domestic flight to Aqaba, the Red Sea resort; the King’s Highway, which had been in continuous use as a trade and transit route for some 5,000 years; the semi-nomadic Bedouin tribes, which still roamed the desert with their sheep, goats, and camels, cooking in the open-air by day and sleeping in tents by night; the mysterious, eighth-century desert castles; Wadi Rum, whose moonscape topography was other-planetary; the eastern bank of the Dead Sea; and, beyond, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Reflections of the red, craggy-rock mountains on the Gulf of Aqaba were the origin of its Red Sea name, location of Aqaba, which itself offered an almost perfect climate for nine months of the year. But prevailing, northerly winds assured the water’s crystal clarity for the entire twelve-month duration. As a diver’s paradise, it offered an underworld of coral and color, as well as a surface one of swimming, snorkeling, water skiing, wind surfing, paddle boating, and kayaking.

The hypnotic sand-and-sea view, overlooking the Sinai Peninsula, served as the natural painting contemplated during outdoor breakfasts at umbrellaed tables under the warm sun, while the candlelit Aquarius Restaurant on the top floor dished up vistas of the crescent-shaped beach, which arched into Israel in the distance.

Jordanian hospitality surfaced in unexpected ways. While journeying to Petra one morning, I offered the driver a piece of fruit from the breakfast buffet and five minutes later he stopped at a local store and purchased a return-gift for me.

Protected and hidden by surrounding mountains, and accessible only by a one-kilometer-long, canyon fissure on horseback, Petra itself, the lost city of the Nabataeans carved into the red rock 2,000 years ago, was captured by the Romans in 106 AD. The Treasury, perhaps its very symbol, was the first building glimpsed as the canyon passageway terminated in the town. Its other significant sights included the Monastery, the enormous temple on a hillside; the Roman Theatre, which was carved into the hillside in the city’s center; the Royal Tombs, which still sported its row of six equally-carved monuments from the first to the fifth century AD along the inside face of Petra’s eastern mountains; and the High Place of Sacrifice, with its altar and the drains for the blood of the sacrificed animals.

United Arab Emirates:

While approaching Dubai, the city in the sovereign state at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia and characterized by its ultramodern architecture and lively nightlife, I regretted that I could not spend more than the few hours allotted for the continuing flight to Malaysia.

India:

Delhi, both New and Old, served as the gateway to the country, a reality somehow striking to my very core when the flight attendant announced shortly after landing, “We’re on the ground at Indira Gandhi International Airport, India.”

The city’s new section, marked by spacious boulevards and modern buildings that reflected its British Empire influence, offered sightseeing opportunities of the Birla Mandir Hindu Temple; the Shri Lakshmi Narayan Mandir Temple; the President’s House, his official residence; the Moghul architecture of the Humayun Tomb, whose double dome later served as the model for the Taj Mahal; the Qutub Minar, the tapering, five-tiered Memorial of Victory minaret; and the 42.3-meter-high India Gate, the War Memorial Arch to the soldiers of World War I.

Old Delhi, characterized by narrow streets crowded with pedicabs, bazars, mosques, temples, shops, and restaurants, offered equally interesting sightseeing opportunities, such as those of the Red Fort, which was constructed in 1648 and was located along the eastern edge of the Walled City on the west bank of the Yamuna River. The structurally imposing Jama Masjid, build between 1651 and 1656, was one of India’s largest mosques. The Chandni Chowk, or silver square, was a bustling market. And the Raj Ghat was a memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi

Curious about local curries, I found them smooth, spicy, and rich, whether in vegetarian or meat dishes.

A four-hour, 233-kilometer-long obstacle course, comprised of a narrow road continually crisscrossed by pedestrians, donkey carts, and motorized traffic, was negotiated by a Sikh driver during a subsequent day trip to Agra, described as “That marble cloud anchored by a sacred river is a superb finale to so many other splendors.”

The Taj Mahal, its centerpiece, required 22 years to complete and was intended to convey the love of a Moghul emperor for his queen immortalized in marble.

The Agra, or Red Fort, the city’s very symbol, marks the citadel that was once the flourishing center of the Moghul Dynasty. A merge of Hindu and Muslin architecture, it was the main residence of its emperors until 1638 when the capital shifted to Delhi.

A carpet-making demonstration preceded the obligatory shopping spree-in this case, for marble inlay works, jewelry, and handicrafts.

Nepal:

Neighboring Nepal was another fascinating immersion into ancient culture, Buddhist mountain temples, and its imposing topography, introduced from the first “Namaste” after landing.

Kathmandu, whose exotic setting entailed tier-upon-tier of mountain walls above which towered mighty snowcapped peaks, afforded sightseeing opportunities of the Swayambhunath Monkey Temple, the Akash Bhairab Temple, Durbar Square, the Tempo of Kuman, the Martyrs’ Memorial Gate, and the neoclassical Singha Durbar Palace.

Hardly a mountain climber, I elected to view Nepal’s majestic peaks, the epitome of which, of course, was Mount Everest, from the comfort of an aircraft during a sightseeing flight.

“Royal Nepal’s daily Mountain Flight allows you to enjoy a unique experience to admire the breathtaking range of the eastern Himalayas from a distance of less than 14 miles, while comfortably seated on board a pressurized aircraft,” it was described in its brochure. “On the outward leg of the journey (eastbound), the mountain range will of course unravel itself on the left side of the plane. But on the return trip (westbound), it will be at the same distance and perfectly clear again, visible to the passengers seated on the right side”

It described Mount Everest, the crown jewel of the range, as “the usually black, pyramid-shaped rock,” which, rising to a 29,032-foot height, was the world’s highest point.” Nevertheless, some 20 other snow-crested peaks hovered outside of the window, including Lhotse, which was the second-highest at 27,940 feet.

Okay, you’ve got about 25 students in your room. Someone told you when behavior issues arise, there should be a sequence of events that ensues, starting with a warning.

What warnings do is insure that all of your students know they can get away with certain behaviors at least once a class before any real consequence takes place. It’s like ONE FREE PASS for bad behavior.

So if each student wants to misbehave, that’s a good 25 warnings to start.

Of course, what usually happens, is that the student gets more than one warning–that’s a bonus pass.

Now if you go to second layer warnings–you know–the SERIOUS warning, you could be up to 50.

I understand these things from both ends. I was kind of a goof off when I was in school. If I knew the teacher was going to warn me every class, that meant I could do whatever I wanted until I got warned. Good behavior begins where consequences begin.

Listen–all of your students know what good behavior is already, right? If not, give them a lesson on what you expect. Then say, “Consider yourself warned.” So let’s cut out the middle man.

There is one time I find it effective to give students a warning, and that is the first day of class. Students are given a complete list of rules and procedures, and included in that list is the warning that there will be no warnings.

After that, if a student misbehaves, hit them directly with your consequence.

When students see your mouth open, not to say, “Jane, stop talking, this is a warning,” but “Jane, you are disrupting the class–come 15 minutes after school,” your behavior problems and your stress level will decrease simultaneously.

This article attempts to provide a description of the many types and varieties of Mamoul available in the Middle East. A differentiation is made between the “Mamoul” which is a rounded nut filled cookie and the “Mamoul Mad” which is a flat nut filled cookie, then a description of the varieties of each type if provided.

These Middle Eastern cookies are some of the most popular desserts in the region. They are considered very traditional desserts and they date back a few hundred years.

Mamoul, pronounced as [ma’mul], and usually written in different forms as in Maamoul and Mamul is a traditional Middle Eastern cookie filled with nuts and consumed all over the year but especially during special occasions and holidays. Because of its nutritious value due to its abundance in nuts, it is often offered to children as a replacement for the sugar coated cookies that are considered to have a much lesser nutritious value.

Mamoul and baklava usually go hand in hand, as they are both considered traditional Arabic sweets and consumed almost in the same occasions. However, while baklava is made of fine layers of pastry dough, the former is a semolina dough cookie. Even though they both belong to different categories of Arabic and Middle Eastern sweets, they are most often sold in the same stores and bakeries. Moreover, people who tend to like the taste of the former also enjoy that of the latter.

Among the two types, Mamoul and Mamoul-Mad, the former is the most well known. It is the more original and traditional version, and most people are much more used to it. Most people in Arabic countries are familiar with the former, but the latter is only popular in certain countries. It is most popular in Lebanon.

The original version is a rounded and delicate semolina cookie filled with pistachios, walnuts, or dates. The pistachios and walnuts filled versions are also garnished with powdered sugar. It is a traditional cookie that dates back hundreds of years and has become popular in many countries around the world. People are welcoming it because its nuts filling make it a healthy substitute for sugar and chocolate cookies which are deemed unhealthy by most people. This Middle Eastern cookie looks very attractive from a health point of view.

On the other hand, “Mamoul Mad”, which is Lebanese for “Flattened Cookie” consists of a pistachios, walnuts, dates, or cream filling sandwiched between layers of flattened semolina dough. Its filling is usually denser than that of the original version and thus makes it sweeter and richer. Its crust is however very delicate and tends to break easily.

In order to differentiate between the different varieties, it is customary to mold the walnuts filled cookies in the shape of a cone, while making the dates filled cookies flatter and the pistachios filled cookies more elongated.

Mamoul has a relatively short shelf life, when compared to baklava, and thus each piece is usually individually wrapped in order to preserve its freshness. This usually increases its shelf life by about few months by keeping the air away from it.

In Part 1 of this article you learned how to get your story started. In Part 2, you learned some tips and techniques for plotting your story. Many writers who start a middle grade novel get halfway through the story and then give up on the project. That doesn’t have to be the case for you. Here are a few tips to help you FINISH your manuscript.

1. Don’t ask for feedback too soon. Any criticism too early can confuse you or make you stop working on your story altogether. Wait until you’re at least 6 chapters into your story before you ask for feedback. Better yet, have a story synopsis to show your critique group, along with your first 6 chapters, so they can see where you are wanting the story to go.

2. If you get stuck on a particular chapter, skip it for the time being and move on to the next chapter or even move several chapters ahead. This will keep you writing, and sometimes you’ll figure out WHY you just couldn’t get a particular earlier chapter to work and you’ll be able to go back and write it once you have a later chapter in place.

3. Don’t worry too much about having all the details for every chapter at first. The first thing you must do is just get the entire first draft on paper. This is the MOST important thing, so just keep writing.

4. Avoid endlessly rewriting the first chapter or the first couple of chapters instead of moving ahead to new chapters. Generally, writers are excited to write the first chapter or two. And the writing flows easily. After that, it starts to become more difficult and we think if we go back and rewrite those first few chapters, we’ll be able to write the next ones just as easily as we wrote the first ones. But that’s a trap that keeps you from moving ahead.

5. If you get so stuck that you just can’t seem to figure out anything for any new chapters, stop and move away from the chapters. Get a pad of paper and start interviewing your main character-or the character who doesn’t seem to be doing what he/she needs to be doing to move the action forward. You’re probably stuck because you just don’t know your characters well enough.

6. Go back and write another chapter. Keep following steps 2-5 until you finish the entire manuscript. Just focus on writing one chapter at a time and eventually you’ll have the entire book completed.

Now you know how to write a middle grade novel – from start to finish, so what are you waiting for? Get started and keep writing until your novel is completed!

In the nineteenth century and for much of the twentieth century, Britain’s empire was so large that it was truly the global superpower. Much of Africa, Asia and America had been colonized. British tentacles had spread far and wide. The British concepts of culture, religion, health, sexuality, law and order were all imprinted on the colonized countries.

There is considerable debate as to whether British rule over its colonies was beneficial or not. There is also considerable debate as to whether the colonies contributed substantially to the British economy. Both these points are discussed, but very little literature is available as to what impact the British Empire had on the average British citizen.

The British Empire is a fact of history that cannot be wished away. The major architects of this empire were the British middle class. Doctors, scientists, geologists, explorers, soldiers, administrators, entrepreneurs got an opening that would have been ordinarily denied to them. This middle class was articulate in furthering British interests and at the same time they also had a reason to strive forward. The middle class supported the aristocracy, which in turn gave the middle class unfettered access to the colonies to work and earn. Many also did a lot of good. One can think of Dr David Livingston in Africa and the innumerable explorers and scientists who flocked to India to map the nation and set up new enterprises. Basically the colonies gave the middle class of Britain a chance of self expression.

The Empire instilled a sense of pride in the average Britishers. He began to feel that he was part of the chosen race to rule the world. Thus Kipling’s comment about the colonies as the ‘White Man’s Burden’ gained currency. For close to a 100 years till 1939, which can be considered as the hay day of the British Empire the average Britishers especially the middle class felt it was their god given right to rule the world. As a spinoff, a lot of good happened for the colonies cannot be questioned. One cannot forget that the entire Tibet was mapped by brave entrepreneurs guided by the officers of the Raj.

The working class in England however was not much involved with the empire. With the Industrial revolution sweeping Europe, the working class did not have much time to think of the empire, enmeshed as it was in its attempt to survive. That is the reason Karl Marx and his theory gathered steam.

In 1939, the first cracks appeared in the Empire with the consolidation of power by Adolf Hitler. Hitler lost the war, but he did enough to rupture the British psyche and destroy the British economy, where holding the colonies and the Empire became an extremely tenuous task. The Middle class cracked and Lord Attlee decided the time had come to dismantle the empire.

In 1945 Britain still nurtured the hope that the Empire could be saved, but a strong nationalist movement coupled with a poor economy at home spun the coin in favor of dismantling the empire. Many in Britain did not realize at that time that age of imperialism was over and the sun had set on the empire.

One of the most difficult skills to master as a teacher is classroom management. Unfortunately, if you can not master this skill you are not going to survive as a teacher, especially as a middle school teacher.

However, when the school year starts, many first-year middle school teachers are pleasantly surprised. All through their teacher training they were told how difficult classroom management at the middle school level can be and how important it is to have effective classroom management skills in order to be a successful teacher.

Yet, during the first days of school there doesn’t seem to be much of a problem…students seem fairly attentive, no one is really talking or passing notes, there certainly hasn’t been anyone talking back or any fights during the first few days…but then things start to change.

You see, those first few days are the honeymoon period…students are nervous and many are a little scared so they sit back and wait. However, by the end of the first week of school, or certainly by the second week of school, middle school students start to feel more comfortable, they start to test the teacher’s limits and classroom management becomes more and more difficult.

It is at this point that many teachers start to panic and immediately resort to various reward/punishment systems, or as Alfie Kohn refers to them…”carrot and stick” systems.

Unfortunately, these elaborate systems are a mistake. They provide only temporary solutions to an ongoing problem. Students who respond to the rewards begin to do their work and behave ONLY if a reward is involved, while at the same time many students who thrive on negative attention actually begin to seek out the punishment.

The better plan is the “proactive approach” to classroom management. The proactive approach is based on the premise that the best classroom management plan is a strong instructional plan…that the key to middle school classroom management is to keep all of your students actively involved in all of your lessons.

Unfortunately, there are times when teachers are still forced to REact. There are times when the teacher has used every proactive trick in the book and still a student does something that requires the teacher to react.

HOWEVER, just because a teacher must react to a situation does mean the teacher must punish the student. The teacher must still save punishment as a last resort only!

So, what’s a teacher to do?

Well here’s an idea…create a “behavior action plan”. Better yet, have the student create the “behavior action plan”.

The key to changing inappropriate student behavior is to have the *student* take responsibility for his actions. First, the student must identify the inappropriate behavior, and then determine why it is inappropriate, and finally, how he plans to stop the inappropriate behavior.

All the teacher needs to do is have the student complete a “behavior action plan”. The plan calls for the student to complete the following three statements:

1. I am writing this plan because I…

2. This behavior was not appropriate because…

3. To prevent this from happening again, I plan to…

Then, at the bottom of the handout make sure to have the student sign his or her name. By signing their name the student is making a promise to follow through with their plan.

In the end, this classroom management approach is significantly better than simply punishing the student for the misbehavior. This classroom management approach has long-term results.