First Quarter Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

First Year Seminar is a beneficial, getting started-like course provided by West Coast University during the first term of the program. Since the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is very rigorous this course is helpful in adjusting new students, such as myself, to a very demanding, fast-pace program. This class focuses on topics that help students organize and understand oneself and the mission of WCU mission to achieve the greatest success as a student. In my Signature Assignment term paper I will focus on my experience with FYS and what information I’ve gained to help me understand my learning style, strengths and weaknesses I have as a student, how working collaboratively benefits me and how I will go about achieving success at WCU.

I Leslie Garrera would like use this portfolio as an opportunity to have the two English courses at Marywood fulfilled. After high school, I received my associates degree for medical assisting and graduated cum laude in which I took COM 1101 Interpersonal communications, ENG 1101 English Composition l, and SOC 1101 Information Literacy. These courses provided me with a high level of language skills. I also took American sport history my first semester at Marywood which included a fifteen-page research paper that I received a high grade on. I bring this to your attention as I was the only freshmen in the class all others were juniors or seniors and I was able to achieve an outstanding grade as they did after taking both English classes. I

I have learned a great deal in ENG 110. I would like to summarize several of the key points from the session, including “Ockham’s Razor”, definition and process, writing a thesis statement, setting and reaching goals, and comparing and contrasting. Additional key points I learned from this session include making research relevant, avoiding run-ons, comma splices and fused sentences, the pro mind set and the key points of writing. When writing is best to use simple explanations and to define and explain the process. Goals need to be set and adjustments may need to be made in order to stay on track and reach them; in writing the thesis statement should be supported by the evidence from the paper. Comparing and contrasting presents both sides of an argument and discloses the whole story rather than just part of it. Words should be spelled correctly and if necessary clearly defined. Also

My goal for these two quarters was to be able to use more specific detail. In all my essays last year and the beginning of this year, I barely used any detail. At the beginning of this year, I wrote a baseline essay and I got a bad grade because I had no specific detail. When I revised that essay for my portfolio, I added so much detail that I wrote more words revising it than when I first wrote it. In order to achieve my goal, I had to do some

US 101 is all about readings, having discussion and research. When discussing readings there is no wrong or right answer. Everyone has different opinions and ideas they took away from the readings. The research papers tied in with the in class readings. Picking a topic that connected with a reading and arguing for or against the topic was the main part of the paper. Presenting about who you are started off the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester we ended by presenting a research topic that we were passionate about. US 101 pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me a lot.

Proceeding, I set up an additional interview to find out about the current evaluation process that the program is currently using. I hope that the information will help me as I select the assessment tools that I will use. Some of the questions that I was thinking of asking were:

This year I have done a lot of writing and revising. In this semester I have written more than last year while I was in high school. I was often not the best student in high school. I often left things like essays at the last second and didn’t revised essays. In college I was about to receive a rude awakening because in college I had and have to revise my essays it was no longer an option but a requirement. In college I was ill-prepared and overwhelmed by the assignments. It was very tough adjusting to this class at first because it was more challenging and overwhelming than I

Everything I had pieced together went together and while looking at my screen, I realized that I’m probably doing what I’ve been doing every single year and every single time I write an essay. I included more information than I needed, so I started checking for sentences that were extra information that didn’t really need to be there to make my point. Once I was less than 800 words and more than 750 words, I created a copy and worked on my other class essay, which was to write a 500 word essay. I remember the requirements for each class, so I cut out a lot and it was still at 600. That was when I decided to cut out more extraneous information. It did not work as I had hoped it would so I asked for help. I didn’t realize how many more words could still be taken out until the teacher told me the reason behind it. Everyday, there was always a little change and as I got help on my short essay, I made changes to the bigger

My parents have taught me many valuable lessons throughout my life. Among these are respect, hard work, honesty, and dedication. However, the aspect of my family which has impacted me the most was not a lesson that could be taught with words, but rather, learned through my parents’ example. Growing up I witnessed the importance of having a strong work ethic and pursuing an education through my parents’ immigration story. It was in those moments when I saw my parents cry that I truly understood how their background shaped my family.

This world sucks, I am a seventeen year old student studying at Bloor Collegiate. Every time when I would have a conversation with someone about a topic that does not have an answer, I would get stressed and cannot express my opinions well. This is my true feelings because I always found it challenging to include myself in discussions with multiple perspectives. I like math and science, especially physics because there is only one answer. I do not have to express myself to anyone, I can just use an equation and logic to find the right answer. Those subjects are more universal than languages like Spanish or English. Even though the way to solve the problems is tough and complicated, you will always get the same answer in the end. I do not like to argue with other people about society and the ridiculous things that build up our world. For instance, people around me say that learning history is important to avoid mistakes that have been made. So far in my life, I do not remember what I have learned from history. This indicates that learning history was useless towards my knowledge and had zero impact on my life.

This counselor met with Anthony, his grandma/guardian, and transition coordinator, Joe Delegato to review the results of his community based assessment and draft his plan for employment, on 10/10/17.

It was yet another dull day in my high school English IV class. I arrived on-time and placed my worn out, overused, school issued computer on my desk and began looking up the day’s assignments. Soon enough the teacher would begin to speak, but before he even began I was already sitting there with the feeling of annoyance. “A fifteen-page senior research project” the announcement read. “Fan-fucking-tastic,” I remember thinking to myself. Another complete waste of my precious time I could have used to work on my car, or finish the next level of the video game I had been so often enjoying. The teacher announced the usual, “No plagiarism, 12-point font, double spaced, MLA format” nothing we hadn’t ever heard before, but somehow always managed to require 30 minutes of my life to explain. “This ought to be easy,” I had thought to myself, ignoring the rest of the instructions given. Little did I know; this paper was going to change the very way I thought about life.

Over the course of the semester, I have been fortunate enough to work with a student who is having difficulties when it comes to reading. My student does not have difficulties when it comes to hearing a word, but rather when he sees a word. My student has definitely benefited from one on one work with me as well as the additional help he’s getting from the reading specialist during their WIN (what I need) time. My student does not like to read because he knows that he is struggling and he is embarrassed about it. When my student goes to his WIN time, he does really well because the instruction is at his level and there are only two other students who are also on the same level there as well. Besides the current intervention, programs I would recommend are Direct Instruction: Reading Mastery, Letter Spacing, Wilson Reading System and the Lindamood program (LiPS).

In my past years of education I have been involved in many classes, but I had never taken a summer class until this semester in college. In elementary school, middle, and high school, I did not take summer school either. This semester in college, it was necessary for me to catch up on my studies and attend this English class as a requirement for other classes that I also intend to take, therefore I decided to enroll in a summer class to help me catch up with the mandatory classes for my nursing degree. I have been lucky to have chosen a great class with a very helpful teacher who has taught me so much. In this course we wrote four major essays, a narrative, an argument, a report essay and an analysis. I learned many things from the essays