I Felt My Heart Drop

Looking back, I was lucky to have the teachers I had. Most of them would try to help me, but didn’t know how to. There was something about the way the school was designed that it just didn’t work for me. The summer after my 8th-grade year was when I realized I needed to try a different form of education.

Ever since I was young, and began my education, learning was one of the most exciting ideas to me. I wanted to know more about everything around me and the world that we lived in. Even the things that other people found mundane or pointless, I loved to understand; simply for the sake of knowing more. Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was homeschooled which gave me more opportunities to go out and experience things that most kids could not. When I started high school, though, learning became something completely new for me. In my tenth grade year, I began dual enrolling at the local state college where I was immersed in the

One time I was very excited about learning was a project that I did in math class called After Collage. In this project I were given a scenario where I just finished college, and I had to find a job a house, etc. After, we made a budget on all of the expenses that we thought we would pay. Things such as electricity bills, food, laundry etc. Though this project was fiction it made me realize what the real world was like, and I could not just spend all of my money on things that I liked.

As a junior, I enrolled in an AP Language course. Going into the course I was aware of the research paper I would have to write at the end of the year. As a junior in high school, a six page research paper was nowhere near a simple task. Being that my public high school was new to the AP system, the teachers were learning as well as the students; enforcing students to work twice as hard outside of the classroom.

"Constructing a Research Paper" is a unit from "Academic Writing for Graduate Students" was a third edition written by John M. Swales and Christine B. Feak, and published by the University of Michigan in 2012. This book mainly focuses on how to prepare international graduate students to write academic papers. This book consists of a total of 8 units, of which unit 8 explains how to construct a research paper (Swales & Feak, 2012).

a practical class where by I followed a set of written instructions and was able

During my undergraduate career, I have learn a lot more than what was taught in the classroom. It was an experience that you cannot describe in words; something you can only experience. Luckily, I had environment that encouraged me to explore beyond what a textbook has to over via instructor, counselor or peer. When your challenges are arranged as a journey of learning, surrounded by a supportive environment, the wonders you can learn about the world are endless.

That moment when you look around and your thoughts start to wonder and question the many things around. It would always bother me not knowing what it does or how it does it. It was like that song that gets stuck in your head the whole day.But I was different, almost as that feeling to want to learn was stripped away.My whole senior year was me just me trying to make it pass the day. Everything was frustrating to me nothing made sense because the teachers expected you to know already but how could I possibly know that if all my teachers did was sit at their desk without a word almost as if they were like statues.Why should even try if I know I don't understand the subject. Just like Mike Rose said in the story "Reject confusion and frustration by openly defining yourself as the common Joe"(pg#3). We both were placed in system that really didn't expanded our minds but minimize them to point were we accept that fact we should dumb ourselves down. I felt that maybe that this was the best way to take on my studies and let it occupy me instead of letting me roam free in this vast world of knowledge. I regret even till this day of letting myself believe that I was better off in this dreadful loop of constant

I hated school growing up, did the minimum to squeak by. I didn’t even really want to go back to school when I started 2 years ago, the hubby kind of pushed me into it. I hate to say it, but I’ve even passed some of my classes without reading more than a few pages of the text. While I was taking Astronomy last year we spent a week at Disney, had a military function in Minnesota, I landed in the ER with every 3 heartbeat skipping, and my husband ended up in the hospital and had a stent put in. With all of that going on, I still managed to push through and pass my classes… It’s not that I didn’t want to read my text, life just got in the way. If it wasn’t for having a positive mindset, I don’t think I would have been able to push through it all as well as I did. It’s funny, the more that I dive into psychology, the more I see, and believe in the mind/body

When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.

For me, learning always came to me through curiosity and a strong quest to know and understand any subject area that I developed interest in. I used to bother my parents with questions about why certain things were so and I always enjoyed fixing little broken toys, building models such as rockets out of recyclable materials as a child. Progressing through high school, I joined the school’s robotics club which introduced me to

First off, who I am as a learner has changed over the past years. At times before, I wouldn’t take certain classes or assignments seriously and have learned my lessons when I failed. I believe having classmates at the time who weren’t as focused as I wanted to be, played a big role in my lack of understanding in classes. I understood later that if I felt learning was so important to me, I need to realize that it is my future and I needed to focus on my own. Having learner in my top 5 strengths defines me very well. Rath (2007) explains that, “The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you” (p.133). I believe this defines me as a learner because I enjoy having books in hand, opening up my notebook to write notes and learning new ways to understand the class. Regardless if the content is something I have to get in to or if I don’t do well on tests, I enjoy the process of studying and learning more even when I know I didn’t do so well; that is what motivates me. I believe as long as I keep this mindset and understand that this is my strength, I will continue to grow and further my education as much as possible. Even though I have failed a few of my last classes, I never let that stop me from continuing. Knowing that I have “failed” makes me realize I know I can do better and I try my hardest not to let it get me down. I will not get further if I don’t keep trying and as a learner I am a motivator to myself in my studies.

When I think about what counts as learning to me, I think about my life. Just being able to live in this world to me is a learning experience, because I feel that my life is full of lessons and I believe that it takes lessons to learn in life. I feel that I have learned to understand learning more and to also understand the value of learning. As I get older I can comprehend subject matters more than I could ever do before. I am learning to be more serious and I find myself not taking life for granted anymore.

Most of life's situations are learning experiences. People can learn what activities are right or wrong for them by experiences these emotions in different situations. These learning experiences can take place at home, school, the workplace, or anywhere else. The three major experiences that have given me confidence in my ability to learn have all taken place at Penn State University.

The education we receive today holds the power to shape the individuals we will be in the future. Not only does our education aid our choices throughout school, but also the choices we make in our personal lives like where we choose to work and how we portray ourselves to society. Personally, I have enjoyed my educational experience. I have enjoyed learning new concepts and interacting with new people. Of course, there are obstacles along the way. However, these obstacles have given me the opportunity to realize my strengths and weaknesses and learn to improve in both areas. As a student, I hold onto my perseverance, seek guidance from influential figures in my life, and embrace my challenges to which all contribute to my hope to become the finest version of myself.