JUE 100 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

Classrooms come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, and in each classroom, there is a unique structure that can enhance or hinder a student’s understanding of a new concept. Despite the wide variety of teaching methods, there is a clear goal in each classroom. Every instructor aims to teach students the required materials to successfully complete the course, in addition to meaningful life skills. However, lecture style classes do not accomplish anything aside from regurgitating information and showing off how knowledgeable a professor is on his topic. In fact, a recent study on active learning in stem fields showed that students in traditional lecture style classes are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in active learning classrooms (random website thing). That is why, as an instructor, I am committed to make teaching a collaborative process to enhance my student’s mastery of the concepts and life skills, through a classroom structure that facilitates meaningful discourse on main ideas.

As a believer in Christ grows they become more aware of the gifts that they may have been given by the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to use the gifts for the right reasons. We are to allow God to work through us to edify the body of Christ. I see a lot of so called Christians these days using what is supposed to be a spiritual gift to use for ministry of the local church using them for self-edification. They are looking to see how much praise they can get instead of how much pleasure God will get through their service. We as believers need to be able to discern between what a spiritual gift is and what virtue is. A spiritual gift is related to the ministry of Christ and a virtue is related to our character. It is very easy for someone to blur the line between two and get confused. Our spiritual gifts are not the same for everyone, where all who believe should show the fruit of the spirit. To some believers the Holy Spirit gives the gift of serving, teaching, administration, and so on. But in the end it is not what spiritual gift we have but how we use it; this is what makes the difference between edifying the body of Christ or oneself.

Learning something new is something to strive for. However, are all the lessons we learn good ones? After all, there are two sides to every coin. A lot of the times it is easy to find the bad lessons learned but what about the good? Well, that takes a lot more thought. Ironically these were the thoughts running through my head that day, that dreadful day which is permanently burned into the back of my mind.

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.

After reviewing my first journal entry, I find that some of my strengths in writing English are gradually improving, and a number of my weaknesses have improved significantly. It seems to be a good result of long training process. Firstly, I suppose there is no good way to learn English by practicing. To conquer brainstorm skills, I have to approach as many new topics or requirements as possible so that I can get acquaintance with these kinds of lessons and complete them quickly. Secondly, researching the mistakes or paragraphs of others helps me avoid repeating grammatical errors, and have more ideas for writing as well. In addition, when I write about any topics, I have many chances to apply different grammar and structures in my articles.

Last night or so the MAS unit of the 750 stopped working due to some unknown problems and my rotor exploded -- this time we just got rotor dusts ( no sample to recover) -- so the regular 3.2mm HXY is gone. And, their E-free probe was also not working after it came back from Burker -- last week, we tested that probe after Boris returned from his vacation. So, they will send these two probes for repairs and request for a new MAS unit. Mike will not charge the 750 week.

Based on my past experiences, I have learned that making decisions, especially big important ones, such as getting married, making a job or career change, deciding which church to attend, and even deciding where to spend my holidays, are best made with sure guidance from the Holy Spirit, the scripture, Godly counsel, and prayer, or else I could be in for major disappointment and setbacks. I have also come to learn that even if all the factors are present and point to “yes” (i.e. the scripture approves, and my spiritual advisors approve), if I do not have the inner peace of the Holy Spirit, it likely means that I should not move forward with that decision. It could be that although the logic all around me makes the decision seem safe, there are factors that I cannot see that God can see which make it the wrong decision, since He sees further into the future than we do, and He is all-knowing. This can also work in the reverse. Everything I see may make me want to go in a different direction, even the advice of my spiritual advisors, but the Holy Spirit and the scripture may say walk by faith, not by sight, in the direction that does not seem as likely to be right (2 Corinthians 5:7). Most of all, what I have learned from past experiences, is that even with all the careful precaution I take to make the right choice, I will inevitably make the wrong choices sometimes in life, and God is aware, and has made a way that even my wrong choices can still help put me in the place to

I had many questions about the city when I first came to Pittsburgh. I grew up in a small town, so my view of the city was based off television shows and music. This gave me a skewed perception of the city. I have found that one of the most challenging parts of moving to Pittsburgh is figuring out what role I will play. Fortunately, I have some time when it comes to figure this, and other complex aspects of city life, out. Since I have began this course not only have some of my questions been answered, but I have explored more important questions that I had not previously been asking myself. Questions like “How will I play apart in the evolution of Pittsburgh” and “What gives me a sense of belonging to Pittsburgh”. I still have much to learn about Pittsburgh, but what I have certainly learned so far is that it easy to watch the city move past you, but it takes much more to become a part of the city.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always built an imaginary box around my life. It contained everything that I was used to and shielded against any major external changes. This included my school life. Other than my pre-k class, I’ve never been to any other school except for Maryvale Elementary School. I was in the French Immersion program there with over 50 other students. Throughout the years we all became very close, especially since they were the some of the only people I knew my age. By third grade, 10 students had already left and more would continue to leave. This only reaffirmed the bond between the rest of us. In fifth grade, the total number of French Immersion students in my grade only amounted to a little over 30 students.

For me, moving to a college campus was a lot like moving to a different country. No one looked like me. Coming from a community with a large Hispanic population, I was accustomed to seeing people who were darker like me, who were shorter like me, who were darker haired like me, but in college I found myself surrounded by the complete opposite. Everyone was lighter, taller, and had lighter hair. Everyone fit in with everyone else, but I seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. The foreignness did not end there. Once I started interacting with my new community, I realized that we did not even speak the same language. Conversations revealed that everyone spoke in this other language that consisted of acronyms and Greek letters. A language I clearly did not understand. The longer I remained in these conversations struggling to keep up, the more apparent it became that this information did not come from the orientation session the university made all freshman attend. Rather, this information came from a different source: my classmates’ parents. Unlike me, my classmates came from households where getting a college education was the norm, not the exception. Their parents sent them off to college with a cheat sheet while all my parents had to offer me was a good luck card. Eventually, I was able to create my own cheat sheet and today, I can proudly say that I am fluent in college-speak.

Ralph Ronaldo Emerson once said, "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." Although I was unfamiliar with this quote until recently, I would say Emerson's words are a very important part of my life. Without even realizing, I experienced what Emerson was trying to convey with this statement. In my junior year of highschool, I became a part of a pilot mentoring program. Going into the program, I ultimately expected to be helping a student organize their studies or to be explaining class topics to them in a way that would appeal to their sense of logic; I expected to be teaching a student how to do something. However, what I least expected -and what happened- I was the one who learned something new. I learned that the attitude I have in life can drastically affect how I live. If I don’t carry beauty with myself, I will never find beauty around me no matter how hard I try.

Over the course of these first 18 weeks we have covered quite a few titles. We have read texts so old that it is even a question if the author existed at all. In our studies, we covered everything from the very first works of western literature to what is considered modern western literature. All of the texts are great, and all have value for my education. However, two texts--but for the sake of this essay--three texts stood out to me the most. Of all the works we have studied Aristotle’s Poetics, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath were my most favorite.

On November 17, 2017, I helped Vanessa to get everything ready before had anyone came to watch the dance performance. We got everything ready and helped each group to dress up and make sure nothing was missing. Everything went very well and we also provided lunch for everyone where each of us can get together and it ended at 2pm. I helped Vanessa cleaned up everything and make sure everything was clean when we were done cleaning then we had several staffs, parents, and administrators objected about Fall Festival because some of them felt it was offensive due to cultural appropriation where it showed that they dressed up like another country cultural without having students’ parents signed to permission that Fall Festival should be provided but they did not which it was not appropriate. It helped me learn that it was important to talk to administrators to get their opinions first before asking parents for their permission without feeling cultural appropriation. There were couple challenges that I had to deal with during my internship. I had hard time to communicate with some people who I have been work with. But it helped me to learn that not everyone is good at communication and how can I modify my communicate access with them because it is important to have communication with anyone who I work with. It is important to have communicate with anyone who I work with so we can be on same page without being misunderstanding which it could cause more serious problem if we did not

Ever since I was born, I was raised in a Vietnamese household where my parents and grandparents always communicated to me in only Vietnamese. Before I was four years old, I slowly learned English from watching television and listening American radio stations. In my elementary school, I learned the American alphabet by memorization and repetition of the sounds and signs of the American alphabet. Then teachers started to make students learn new vocabulary and helping students make flashcards with pictures for visual aid. To improve my communication skills in English, my teachers often made the students work in groups, so students can learn from each other and practice their speaking. English is all about memorization and then applying what I learned to other situations. During the summer, I went to extra English classes, and my summer school teachers emphasized the importance of vocabulary and grammar. I learned how to diagram sentences based on their parts of speech and memorized how certain phrases must correspond to a set of rule to satisfy the English grammar. My teachers in high school tested my English skills through public speeches and numerous essays. During high school, I also went to Vietnamese school for four years every Sunday where they emphasized the importance of memorization and repetition. My teachers gave me homework to read, and I had memorize certain poems or short stories. They would test me by making me recite the poem or write down the short stories by