Reflection Essay

Frederick Douglass, an African-American writer that I look up to, once said,"We have to do with the past, only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.” This quote was meaningful to me during my 8th-grade-year. In my early years of school, When I was born, I had my tongue attach to the bottom of my mouth. My parents did not fix the problem until I was three years old. Because they waited so long, I developed a speech impediment that hinders my ability to pronounce certain words. Central York School District made me take a Reading test that determines where I would be placed in English. The tests were against me every time I take the test. I hate being in the remediation course, because of the course I was restricted to have the freedoms that my other classmates had. My 8th-grade-year change how I see English today.

The foundation of the stress in my home is provoked by two siblings. Firstly my melodramatic eleven year old brother, Daniel, has bipolar disorder and amongst other mental disorders. He has stayed in mental hospitals multiple times in Champaign and Chicago, from being unsafe at home. Most people don’t know the feeling of celebrating a birthday in a mental institution.

After projects are designated, they are officially sanctioned utilizing a record described as a project charter. Should the company decide to outsource the work to an external resource to complete the undertaking, it will prepare a record entitled a request for proposal (RFP); subsequently, interested outworkers present their proposals for the consumer, who afterwards chooses which free-lancer to hire to complete the project and signs a contract with the designated contractor. (Gido, J., 2015)

In this class we have a credo, and in that credo there are some key words that were capitalized: Read, Think, Write, College Level, rigorously, Holistically, Learning, Safe, and Fun. Everyone has their own way of defining words, some maybe the same and some may be different but that’s ok. In this essay I am going to thoroughly and efficiently explain to you in my own words what each of these words mean to me in the context of this course.

Practicums are a time to put into practice what we as pre-service teachers have learnt in theory. This experience can be challenging and rewarding all at the same time as it makes a pre-service teacher face both their strengths and challenges as an individual and an educator. Lesson planning can be time-consuming during the hours when one is not teaching but makes the teaching time run more smoothly. There are standards that graduate teachers need to adhere to and relationships with mentors, children, families and colleagues to establish all in such a short time.

Happiness, enjoyment, ecstasy, these sense of feeling people always talk about, which lingering around my ears ever since I was a little kid, gets me tired from even giving a try to dig in and to truly understand what it means to be happy, to enjoy, and live in ecstasy. But there is one moment, the moment which crumbles my thought, has impacted me deeply that makes me wonder: Why do people wish for happiness, isn’t happiness expressed through our laughters and on our smiling face? If not, then what is that authentic and permanent happiness we can get? This all starts from the last parent meeting at the end of my elementary school life, which influences my attitude, my personality, and my plans for the future that is close at hand.

Though there was an impressive amount of points and ideas which I will touch on in a few sentences which I appreciated from JD Vance's lecture, what made me willing to listen, swallow and immerse myself in what he was saying was the fact that he pointed out that while there are going to be differences in culture, in opinion, in almost anything there can be differences in… what’s important, what’s an essential part of trying to fix America and restore people’s hope in the American dream is to come at problems and dilemmas from the other side, with a new perspective.

As a 14 year old reader and writer, I never saw a true significance in the subjects. I would often become flustered and overwhelmed when forced to do a writing assignment. I just couldn’t understand why I was being forced to perform a task that, in my opinion, made no impact on the world around me. However, my Sophomore year, my perception began to change. I had begun taking an Advanced Placement World History class. This class made a big impact on me as a reader and a writer for many reasons. Although, I can’t recall every lesson I was taught during the course of this class, but what I can recall is a much more impactful lesson. The lesson that continues to shape how I view literacy and the modern world.

In my English classes, a popular assignment is analyzing the literature in an essay after reading a novel. You may think that because I had this assignment multiple times already, that I would be good at it by now. I should definitely be able to write it without any hesitation or problem. However, that is not the case, unfortunately. When analyzing literature, I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot of techniques and ways to pick up that would help make my writing more efficient. My brain is definitely still developing new strategies that could come in handy when writing. Although sometimes I believe that I am alright at analyzing literature, I do often times have writer’s block and can not seem to come up with an analyzation. Thankfully, due to my most recent English teacher, I had a lot of help and improved myself greatly. I feel confident in the quotes that I pick, confident in the commentary I am writing, and confident in the way I phrase it. I have developed my own techniques as to analyzing literature in order to write an essay along the way.

When I first thought about where I would serve back in the spring, my initial idea was at a soup kitchen. I had worked at one during the Sophomore Retreat Experience, and while I found the three hours we were there exhausting, they were also really fulfilling. However, at the time I was also learning more about myself through the enneagram and was really coming to terms with my particular manifestation of social anxiety. I knew that in a impersonal environment like the one I had experienced at the soup kitchen sophomore year I would not motivate myself to independently form interpersonal relationships. If I went to serve without connecting with people, I would have felt, "that i had no real intention of meeting, even learning about, [the] needs," of those I was serving. I needed an environment that was deliberately structured to create those relationships, like GiGi’s Playhouse. At GiGi’s I feel challenged to live in solidarity with these kids and their parents, and to move past the anxiety that holds me back from connecting with new people.

The first thing that I learned from this class was by The Dominican Charism “The Dominican passion for truth presumes a confidence in the intellect’s capacity for discerning truth and for reaching a level of clarity that enables both teacher and student to distinguish truth from error, and distortions and half-truths from the truth” (Charism) It made me more motivated and confident in what am doing today. Having a connection between the student and the teacher is nice, especially when the teacher understands how each student thinks. However, for my short-term goal, is to get a bachelor’s in business administration. My graduation will be next May of 2018; I am hoping that I can attend my graduation because this is the goal that I have

At some point in our lives, we have all asked the question “What is the purpose of school? Why must I learn this? The first time I can recall myself experiencing these sentiments was when I started French immersion. This subject has always presented a struggle for me as I have always felt that it is rather difficult which was amplified due to the lack of help that I received from my parents, as neither could speak French unlike many of my peers’ parents. Your teachers as well as the principal in schools also play a major impact in your education journey and can ultimately shape your education experience. These challenges can impact all students in some way however, it is important to approach these challenges head on in order to succeed and reach your goals including making yourself and your parents proud.

Between the summers of 2012 and 2016, I volunteered at the bible school offered by my church. The general goal for leaders was to work with elementary school children and lead discussions and assist the children in learning more about our religion. However, my personal goals were to make connections with my students, maintain a positive attitude, and gain communication skills. The group of students each leader works with alternates each summer, proving it to be difficult to create a relationship with my students; but in 2016, I met a child who despite his own difficulties, always remained positive and was grateful for every opportunity he received. I noticed a change in my attitude that summer, I had become both more positive and gracious. I was a role model and confidant for the student, despite our relationship only lasting the summer. In return for my healthy influence, my student taught me that there is a silver lining in everything and everyone deserves to be happy, regardless of their living situation. By reaching my goal of making a connection with a student, I was able to simultaneously achieve my goal of positivity, ultimately improving my leadership. Due to my work in the program, I became more confident and gradually built up my communication skills that helped me become an effective leader. The adults who ran the program recognized my hard work and dedication to the program and would praise my leadership and compassion. To know that my leadership was making a

Organization is one specific tool I have used throughout my life consistently that has helped me become who I am today. When I was a little kid, my mother use to say, “ okay, now help me clean up.” This stuck with me and as years went by, I eventually did so without her asking. I had a place for all of my things. If it wasn’t there when I went to look for it, I became anxious. Point is, at a very young age, I discovered the need for things around me to be organized and tidy. Throughout the course of one’s life, we adapt many practices that later shape who we are. These practices are called literate repurposing. While gathering my research, I came across many unique findings. This character trait has never diminished, and I've repurposed my organizational skills all throughout my life.

As I read J. K. Rowling’s commencement speech for a graduating class of Harvard University, I found myself connecting with the text on a very personal level. As I reread the speech for tis assignment I was able to reconnect with the text and old memories came rising up to the surface of my mind. I connected with the following quote: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all- in which case, you fail by default.” Rowling’s statements regarding failure relate to the time when I failed my math class last year and how that experience changed my life.