The design, implementation and production process of creating a viable series of Latin shows in Hollywood, Florida

The purpose of this research was to design and implement a Series of Latin Shows to be featured at the Satine Restaurant located in The Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Three shows were created: "Electro Tango," "Bossa Nova Jazz," and "Piel Canela Night" to help generate interest for not only the Satine Restaurant but also for the surrounding area. The artistic concept included big bands, costumes, dancers and a DJ. A production book was created and included the most important aspects of the individual shows such as budgets, costumes, and ground plans, to assure the success of each event. Careful analysis was done for the demographic area and a marketing plan was designed and implemented. The research and practical application of similar shows in the industry determined that the production of these particular shows, although costly, have a qualifiable chance to succeed in this venue.

Self -regulated learning: The role of a journal in the learning process for students and teachers

A fundamental goal of education is to equip students with self-regulatory capabilities that enable them to educate themselves. Self directedness not only contributes to success in formal instruction but also promotes lifelong learning (Bandura, 1997). The area of research on self-regulated learning is well grounded within the framework of psychological literature attributed to motivation, metacognition, strategy use and learning. This study explored past research and established the purpose of teaching students to self-regulate their learning and highlighted the fact that teachers are expected to assume a major role in the learning process. A student reflective writing journal activity was sustained for a period of two semesters in two fourth-grade mathematics classrooms. The reflective writing journal was analyzed in search of identifying strategies reported by students. Research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency counts, cross-tabs and chi-square analyses. ^ Results based on student-use of the journals and teacher interviews indicated that the use of a reflective writing journal does promote self-regulated learning strategies to the extent which the student is engaged in the journaling process. Those students identified as highly self-regulated learners on the basis of their strategy use, were shown to consistently claim to learn math “as well or better than planned” on a weekly basis. Furthermore, good self-regulators were able to recognize specific strategies that helped them do well and change their strategies across time based on the planned learning objectives. The perspectives of the participating teachers were examined in order to establish the context in which the students were working. The effect of “planned change” and/or the resistance to change as established in previous research, from the teachers point of view, was also explored. The analysis of the journal data did establish a significant difference between students who utilized homework as a strategy. ^ Based on the journals and interviews, this study finds that the systematic use of metacognitive, motivational and/or learning strategies can have a positive effect on student's responsiveness to their learning environment. Furthermore, it reflects that teaching students “how to learn” can be a vital part of the effectiveness of any curriculum. ^