Addressing Reflection

The aim of this essay is to highlight the importance of reflection. Initially by breaking down individual skills including curriculum vitae (CV) writing, book and journal evaluation and self-evaluation through sources such as the initial skills identification tasks and evaluation workbook (InSITE).

To begin the session, I decided to talk about what happened last time to continue gaining report and to show that I listened to what she said at the first meeting at 1:00. I asked her what she would like to get out of treatment and the reason why she came in since last time we were not able to really talk about why due to having to do paperwork. I also gave her time to talk about why she came in, validated that she has been through a lot and yet she still came in to see me (2:36), which also helped me identify the present issue of her losing her mom and hasn’t been able to grieve. I asked more questions about how she found out to see how that has affected her, which was a good open-ended question because she explained a lot of the process of how she found out about her mother passing away. Validated how

In order to prepare for this torero trek, I would attend more resume and elevator pitch workshops, and schedule more appointments at the career development center. I attended the Engineering Career fair that was on the 4th of October. In which, I got my first exposure to employers and I was able to practice my elevator pitch and my networking skills. I later scheduled an appointment with Rhonda Harley at the career development center to get some feedback on my resume.

I communicate more effectively by writing than I do communicating verbally. I believe that I write to the best of my ability with the knowledge I have but know that I could definitely learn a lot in this class that will help me write better. I do not write a lot for pleasure or for work although when I was a kid I spent a lot of time writing poems. I really enjoyed it and dedicated a lot of time to writing. As I have gotten older, all my spare time I used to have seems to be consumed by all the adult responsibilities of being a parent, a grandparent, and a Soldier.

When I first started elementary school I was horrible at writing and speaking English, despite English being my first and only fluent language. I started every sentence with "also" and I could hardly say my name. I generally looked at my mom to say pronounce it for me. To be fair, though, Xzavior is a hard name for someone in Kindergarten to pronounce. I was so bad that the school had to put me in an extra English class, so that I did not fall too far behind. Sadly, I did not improve quickly and created a horrible(and hilarious) sentence stating my improvement by first grade (figure 3). Luckily, by fourth grade I had improved enough to only take the required English course for my grade. However, "artistic" writing has never been my forte

I decided to focus on three areas that I am passionate about for my practicum reflection; AdvancED continuous improvement, multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) and relationships. All three of these areas have an emphasis on the importance of a positive culture, building strong relationships with colleagues and students and implementing best practices that foster growth in our school. I am grateful to be able to continue learning with and from colleagues from around our state as well as within my own school system and look forward to every opportunity to have great conversations to benefit our kiddos. I will continue to be involved in each of these three areas and work to apply what I have learned daily with my colleagues and students.

An 86-year-old patient was admitted to hospital for right fracture neck of femur secondary to fall.

The experience that I would like to reflect on this paper is that of Mr. Gregoris’ class participation in “witness talks”. We were each tasked in both the writing and the communication of our differing faith walks to the whole class. The objective of the activity was for each student to make their full introduction into the class, as well as open up about experiences and deep physiological challenges that they may have encountered in their lifetime. The ambience of the room during the witness talks is an interesting talking point, the room was dim, bordering on completely dark, however still had a quite calming feeling attached to it, reminiscent of being at home during a thunderstorm reading a good book. I went first and I wasn’t mentally prepared to go on the day, but nobody else was willing to go, so I decided to take the plunge. Subsequently following my actual talk, we also had to play music, to help us reflect on what we just heard, I didn’t have a song prepared or anything, so I just picked a random one, ironically it just had to be a song I was looking for, for a long time. Others went and shared their experiences and feelings, though I will not forget a few stories and I may never be able to unhear some others. At the end of the day, this was a congress of people connecting on an intimate level greater than what I would see from my own family. I saw the witness talks as a celebration of individuality and difference, especially in a world that sees humans as digits, stats and worst of all money. If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? (1 Corinthians 14:7).

As I write this reflection on Thanksgiving break I ponder my experience throughout this practicum and how thankful I am for this opportunity. Throughout this experience, it has put me out of my comfort zone. I learned at a summer conference that if you are comfortable in what you are doing you are not learning. Well, I have been extremely uncomfortable all while learning a plethora of new knowledge. This practicum has brought me new involvement in committees at our school and helped me in finding my voice. The tool created by John Driscoll: “What? ‘So What?’ and “Now What?’, was a great model to use throughout the practicum. It guided me and gave me direction, along with helping me put all of the work into an organized format.

From taking Critical Thinking and Reading, I have learned more from this class in fifteen weeks than I ever have in the past thirteen years. I’ve read articles and novels that have broadened my horizon about how things are different than what someone may be used to. I learned how life experiences can shape your future and the choices you make. Not only did I learn things through the books and articles we have read, but also from my professor and his own life experiences that he was brave enough to share with the class. I have never had a teacher who wanted to share knowledge as much as O’Hara does, and for that I am extremely grateful that I was able to learn so much from someone who cares so much about his job and his students.

Reflection is considered as a vital element of professional practice as it precedes to insight and then subsequent change in practice. The hypothesis of reflection is not new as it can be tracked as far back in the 5th century by the influential Greek philosopher, Socrates and to the 1930s primarily focusing on John Dewey’s work. Dewey is one of the founders of learning from experience. He theorised reflection as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration’ (Dewey, 1933) initiated by a specific situation which was opposing, perplexing or uncertain. One of its most common use today is coming up with a thought, an idea, or opinion made or an observation made as a result of concentration, suggesting in essence a way of thinking in which one looks back and meditate upon (Agnes, 2004).

This paper is my personal reflection on teaching and learning that is based on a model developed by Schӧn; reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. An action based on reflection is beneficial for the progression of my career as a nursing educator and for the quality of my teaching. When I reflect in and on action, I engage in a reflection which is targeted not only at appreciating myself as a nurse educator, but also at refining my teaching skill (Serdenciuc, 2015). Schön (as cited in Molloy & Delany, 2009) described reflection-in-action as challenging my own inherent critical thinking, analysis and evaluation of an activity while maintaining a sense of inquisitiveness. Schön (1983, p. 280) also mentioned that reflection-in-action is a process where my thinking and action should harmonize. On the other hand, reflection-on-action is a process where I revisit the action with my retrospective thinking so as to acquire insights for the future (Wieringa, 2011). When reflecting-on-action, I should keep a reflective diary to record details of the action immediately after the action (Mulholland & Turnock, 2012, p. 74).

A seminar style course aims for an active discussion amongst all of the students and ideally with minor involvement from the professor to keep things moving. As someone who has never participated in this style of class and rarely raises her hand unless participation is included in my grade, this was a struggle. If I can avoid active participation without it hurting my grade, then I’m always going to opt for that because it’s a relief. But this class helped push me towards almost enjoying these discussions. I wish it was more natural and better balanced between the students, but I’m proud that I warmed up to engaging in classroom discussions with the help of seminar. Being able to speak up in an environment where it’s both encouraged and intended to be mutual allowed me to develop more confidence and comfortability in speaking more in my other classes while pushing me to engage further with texts.

The story I would like to tell involves how I dealt with a difficult situation which continues to shape how I approach problems in my life. The story starts when I was in grade school and involves problems with reading and comprehension. Although I excelled at math and other subjects I really had problems with my reading and writing skills. During this time I felt I lacked the ability to excel in this subject. Throughout elementary school I was assigned to an adult tutor who spent time with me every day during school to help me with this challenge. I wasn't the only student in my class with this hurdle to overcome but I felt like I was alone. To help me improve I was given homework assignments that I was to complete with my parents. Through a lot of hard work, trial and error, and patience, my reading began to improve. By the time I reached fifth grade I was reading at the targeted grade level. However, I wanted to exceed even more and by the time I entered middle school I was one of the top readers in my class.

One thing that I have very significant as a student of problem solving is continually using the entry phase when given a problem. The entry phase allowed me to focus on the logistics of the problem. The following questions is what I found myself asking as a learner of problem solving: what are you trying to find/want to know about the problem, what do you know about the problem and what questions do you have? I not only used these questions in problem solving, but also in my other math classes at UNI. They helped think about what was important in the math question I was trying to solve. I have always struggled with comprehension, I know if I was introduced to this method when I was elementary school, I would have been successful in word problems. These three questions allow the students to break down the question and think before trying to solve. It almost slows down their thought process, which can be beneficial for all types of students.