My Experience Of My Education

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.

I was never a smart kid. I was in the special reading program in second and third grade, and barely passed fourth and fifth. In sixth grade, my first year of middle school, I failed history and English. I should've been held back, but my family's changing residential situation somehow prevented that fact from reaching my new middle school, and I was flung, unprepared into a new curriculum at a level I was completely unready for. Over the course of that horrible year I was tested several times to discover if I were dyslexic, I fought to make friends, and even more to keep up. Unfortunately, my struggles were in vain; I ended the year with a failing grade in every class, and a unanimous agreement from every one of my teachers that summer school would be a waste of time, I would be held back, to repeat the seventh grade. It was the principal of the school who referred my parents to the alternative school program.

Growing up, I convinced myself that if I tried hard enough, I could learn every single fact in the world. Each day I sought out something new to explore, learn, or experience. For me, school was the best place for learning-where I could tap into seemingly unlimited resources on science, math, literature, or history. In short; I was in love with school. However, the excitement of learning every day and feeling fulfilled by the knowledge I was receiving came to a screeching halt in ninth grade, when I realized that my classes spent more time reviewing for standardized tests and controlling students' behavior than on any actual learning. I felt stalled in my classwork. The tutoring classrooms were overcrowded, my teachers never seemed

In an incredibly glamorized and vibrant world, I feel fortunate and lucky to be able to learn from my experiences and grow stronger as a human being living, discovering new ideas, and learning from my own mistakes. Walking through the hallway on a cold winter breeze I remember reflecting and thinking about the bad decisions that I was making. Grade point average of 1.8, not being able to graduate from high school, and missing credits were some of the hardest obstacles that I faced. I remember walking with my head down, feeling an emptiness in my heart. Suddenly, my academic counselor walks by next to me and asks me "Daniela, how are you today? Are you feeling okay? He noticed and saw my sad face expression and invited me into his office to have a conversation. After talking and discussing my hard situation with a motivational tone he told me "Do not worry, I am going to do the best that I can in order to help you because I believe in you, you are brilliant and you will succeed". The moment I opened up my eyes I saw a light of hope and I automatically knew that things were going to change.

Today I had attended my first class of the Summer 2017 semester. I enrolled into the course EDUC 252 for multiple reasons. One reason for taking this course was that it is a requirement for the Bachelor of General Studies (BGS), an undergraduate degree program at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and this course fit perfectly into my busy schedule this current semester. Another reason for my enrolment into the course EDUC 252 was my pursuit of becoming a teacher. I believe this course will help me as a prospective educator with providing me with various opportunities to develop myself as a reflective practitioner. I have been interested in becoming a teacher for as long as I can remember. Unlike many other children who often had a list of aspirations when growing up, I was adamant on the fact that I wanted to become a teacher and would always announce “when I grow up, I want to be a teacher.” I believe this is a result of the positive impact that my former teachers had on my educational experiences. These teachers played a significant role in my life, helping me to build and accomplish my educational goals. Some of these teachers, I still keep in contact with. For example, over the last few months, I have been shadowing and volunteering in my former Kindergarten and Grade 6 and 7 teachers’ current classrooms.

“School time! School time!” exclaimed my Dad as he burst into my room at seven in the morning. Groggy and tired, my siblings and I woke up and dragged ourselves to the kitchen for breakfast. All five of us kids, ran from room to room, grabbing clothes, toothbrushes, and backpacks to get ready for school. The sixth would watch in astonishment, sitting comfortably on the couch, without a worry in the world. Along with some warm milk to her liking, she watched as the rest of the house filled with the daily before-school chaos. Once everyone was ready, we loaded up in our rather cramped Chevy Tahoe, making our way to three different schools all over the city of Irving. On the way, listening to Norteñas, my parent’s favorite type of classical Mexican music. Soon we’d all be dropped off, ready for a day full of learning. Next came the afternoon craze, but that’s a whole other environment.

That day I found out If I was a school shooter I would be a straight white male, 79% of the time. However, if I were to go to jail I would find that all I would have had to be, was a different skin color.

Before I moved to the United States, I went to school in Mexico for about nine years. School has rarely been difficult for me. I’m a fast learner. But as any other thing, school has its bad side too. It was the one that stopped the fairy tale I was living in, and got myself into real life. Movies made me believe that life was going to be easy. That no matter how many dilemmas I’d encounter, people were going to be there for me and help me get through it. School taught me that people don’t want to see other people succeed, it is impossible to compete with the teacher’s favorite, and that good grades are not the only thing needed.

At age 20, I found myself without any formal education, no formal school education of anyform. I came from a homeschool upbringing, by my mother, who despite her tremendous love, left me and my younger siblings to teach ourselves. Based on the belief public school would cause us to lose our innocence **other stupid reasons for homeschool** with a solution to teach us at home instead. Unfortunately the majority of my childhood had little schooling, which caused me to develop social anxiety, fear of public schools; when asked to read the bible in church we would pass, beg not to, lie and say we were tired. I didn’t learn to read until I was 10 years old. However my childhood, despite my different upbringing, it has allowed me to appreciate education much more than others who have been in a classroom since age 4, I have had many unique and experiences and enriching relationships that have all contributed to my life's purpose do something meaningful for others, and enable them to help themselves, just as I struggled at -** enable others to heal themselves with their own power.**

I wish to introduce myself as Elizabeth Nisha Pradheep, a young Commerce graduate from University of Chennai, India who wishes to do a course in Education. I do have an aptitude for teaching and want to take teaching as my profession.

My own educational experience has taught me that school is not about learning as much as it is about getting good grades and assignments done. Student are expected to be successful once out of high school but all a student does is complete the homework that they were assigned.”Thus, it shouldn't be surprising that when students are told they'll need to know something for a test- or, more generally, that something they're about to do will count for a grade- they are likely to view that task ( or book or idea) as a chore.”(Kohn) Instead of schools worrying about the materialistic things, they can receive from their students scoring well on a standardized test, they should focus on their students receiving a proper education. A schools is like a second home where we spend majority of our time at. After school activities take up a large amount of a student's time, there have been days I’ve been at school past 9pm sometimes even later, especially during basketball season. Although educational institutions claim to have the student’s best interest in mind they don’t; schools have a job to do which is educating the future generation, high school should be about learning instead of a competition, and many school do not prepare their students for what is to come after graduation.

Education has always been a cornerstone in my family. My grandfathers were both headmasters of schools in rural Bangladesh. At a time period when graduating from high school was a feat on its own, both my grandfathers were college graduates and wanted to improve the condition of their respective birthplace. They instilled in their children that although a formal education was great, education did not just stop there. You can find education everywhere and anywhere. Even the person who is dirt poor could educate you on something in life. My parents impressed this thought process on my brother and I making sure we knew that education was multi-faceted and learning was not just restricted to the classroom.

Learning is something that no one can truly escape. Personally I feel like I learn a billion new things each day from my surroundings, people, the media and books. As I have dived into college, I have learned so much from all my teachers and classmates. Lately I have been learning so many great things in my Acting I class that pose as new techniques to better my acting abilities.

From early on, school has been a challenge for me. I am one of the youngest students in my class, which meant that I always struggled to keeping up with maturity, which meant I had a hard time being prepared for things. However, given that this was my situation, I worked really hard to prove to myself, and to others that I was not going to fall behind just because of the age difference and maturity difference between my classmates and myself. Although school is difficult, I know I have to continue to pursue a higher education because it is important for me to have a successful and happy future. I have learned that I really need to work hard and not give up even when I am faced with obstacles. I do this by challenging myself and having my goals set out ahead of me so I have something to work towards.

During my early years in school, I was at the top of the class most of the time until I changed schools. From preschool to second grade, I attended Burbank Boulevard Elementary School. I was very proficient at reading and writing, I was always doing my homework, and I was an overall great student. When the time for third grade came, I transferred to Valley Alternative Magnet School. I attended Valley Alternative from third grade to ninth grade. In third grade, I was doing quite well in reading and writing, but I was struggling in math, and I was fat and lazy. As time passed by, I would want to do less reading and homework and more eating.