LTCC Board Reflection Paper

On November 9th 2015, a town hall meeting took place in my political science class. This meeting was a chance for students of the school to bring up concerns, or issues regarding there education. For their voice to be heard directly to the faculty that runs the school, the students could finally have a chance to get a valid answer. There was questions about safety, mathematics, community college education, and typical student issues.

Being the president of my class and being a student representative for CSSI, has allowed me to voice my views, and voice the concerns

It takes more than words and ideas to put lasting positive change in place, it takes action. Throughout the summer, I kept in contact with the school's administration, and before the first week of school was over, a back to school dance was scheduled. Even though scheduling, and setting up the dance required a lot of work, I was proud that I could do something that everyone in the school could enjoy. As of today the reforms I made to the student council are in full swing. The year is not half over a year, and there has already been twice as many events as in previous full years. Not only that, but things that were unthinkable in the past, such as free admission for most students, have been achieved. Now we come to the most important lesson I think I have ever learned. That real change is possible. Not only in a school setting, but in our homes, and our government. Togethar, through our combined efforts and abilities, we can come together and change our society for the better. The forces of stasis and ossification may seem eternal, but all it takes is one moment where everyone comes together for us to achieve postive and worthwhile

Leading up this stress reduction course, I have had a history of letting things get to me (even small things). This would build up, and at times in my life I have had to withdraw from some commitments in order to practice the self-care that I did not consistently provide myself. I had a stressful adolescence, and my adult life has just started to become more stable and happier in the last 6 years. A lot of this change has to do with my effort to live more mindfully/practice meditation, which can be transferred to my every day interactions, cognitive processing/appraising, and caring for myself and others in my life. I jumped at the opportunity to take a stress reduction course because I knew that there was room for improvement in my methods of self-care, mindful living, and stress management efforts overall.

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).

During today’s lesson, we focused on doing some final edits on Ryne’s Gold Rush piece.

I was given this case file in class but I have no idea what to do with this. I was partnered up with my table mate Katie. “I bet you all are wondering why you have this case. Well you are going to determine if your defendant should be guilt or innocence. And on monday we will go over your decisions. We will later write a paper in class on your decision. Any questions?”, Mr. Myers says. I see Kian raises his hand in the corner of my eye. “Seems pretty easy she was hang so she’s guilty.”. The class chuckles at his comment. I watch the Mr. Meyers take a deep breath and walk over. He takes the paper. “Explain to me the evidence you gained to make that decision.”. Kian swallows hard and looks away. “Exactly. Now make sure you explain your reasoning. Have a good weekend.”

I was very excited to begin my dietetic rotation at Women, Infants, and Children Food and Nutrition Services. I was even more thrilled that my location site was close to my house, making a job opportunity an option after my internship is complete.

Management 1050 is one of my favorite courses I have taken this year. I have been pushed by individuals, critical thinking, moral dilemmas, and more. I learned that situations are not black and white; society would greatly benefit from remembering such a truth. Through the ethical school of thought, and relating the most to Aristotle’s code of virtue, I learned that morals must be held in the highest esteem. While others may not always understand the why, we must be able to feel confident in our character and know that we did what we thought was truly right. Morals may become skewed, but that does not excuse our actions or diminish the impact we can have.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and Greaater Works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:12-14

For my second observation, I choose to focus on making a lesson that would benefit the students with their upcoming paper. I knew from their last paper (they analyzed a cartoon) that students struggled with two things: they either said too much or too little in their summaries and they had a tendency to use quotes when they meant to paraphrase. Therefore, I designed a lesson using picture books that would have students collecting information from a variety of sources, which they would have to do for their final paper, and summarize in their own words what they found.

Wasted Youth and constant void. Growing up and entering adulthood can be one of the scariest things to anticipate. Adults tell us to enjoy our adolescence for as long as we can, because it won’t last forever. Maturity has its pros like legally being able to drink, ability to drive etc. yet it holds the other aspects like, liability. Adulthood can be an extremely scary thing to anticipate as we will suddenly be exposed to responsibility. Some youth accept this fact while others try to run.

Why is a question I often asked and never got the answer too. Being that I was and still am in a state of my life where all I can do is ask questions, I turned to philosophy. With getting my general education in mind I chose this class out of curiosity. Though it was not my intention to actually find meaning in the class, I did. It opened a light that I didn’t think shined as bright as it did. I’ve always let society and my past experiences determine my outlook on life and how I chose to present myself. Dealing with a lot of mental hindrances, like depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, I was nearing my breaking point. Asking questions every day on what the good life was and whether I’d be happy I felt stuck. Now looking back through the semester, I’ve answered a lot of the questions I didn’t know I wanted to ask. Keeping my curiosity alive as well as, the question “Is this the life I want to live?”

“I understand we all have our differences. But while learning about history I've read about white people coming together, Jews coming together, Spanish coming together, different cultures and religions understanding and coming together despite their differences. Slavery was never something that shocked me. What shocks me is how black people have not yet overcome the odds and we're such strong smart people. Why we can't just stand together?” ― Jonathan Anthony Burkett Social Class, Race, and education are all major things that an average young Black male like myself think about on a daily basis.

A time in my life where I realized what i wanted to do in the future,my freshman year I was in my FFA chapter and we had officer interviews, I was the 2015-2016 Valley View FFA Treasurer . At our first meeting as a new officer our ag advisor told us that she was taking a year off due to be able to not spend enough time with her children, she went on to tell us that there will be a new ag teacher coming in to replace her for the year. I had so many thoughts going around in my head like , what if he doesnt care and just acts like a substitute and doesn't actually teach us anything. Do any work with us to get better in our CDE’s which is a Career Development Education , they are competitions that we go to and compete against other chapters for an example Livestock Judging is a CDE or help us with our SAE’s an SAE is a at home project that we do over the four years in Ag for an example mine was show lambs and show calves, we keep records of the money we spent the hours we put in and if we went to any shows or vet appointments.Our ag teacher told us that he’d be coming in for our officer meetings in the summer then take over for our officer retreat. All of the new officers were pretty nervous about getting a new teacher.The officers were talking about how we don’t know what we are doing in our officer positions yet our goals were to make the chapter a better and bigger program.