Personal Reflection

This reflection will discuss personal diffidence and how it has influenced my academic studies, including my practice within placement settings. Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1998) has been utilised as it illustrates a clear structure for the process of reflection. To conclude this reflection will draw together the themes which have emerged and highlight a clear action for future learning that will be used in order to enhance my future practice.

Growing up I became accustomed to being in academic environments that were heavily populated by minorities. Due to this I was constantly surrounded by people who shared similar backgrounds and experiences as me. When I began my studies at the University of Maryland it was a completely different atmosphere. Coming into an environment where I was no longer surrounded by minorities made me feel out of place. Often times I would ask myself if this was the right place for me, but then I would remind myself that my hard work and dedication got me there. Still, I would have my doubts. During my second semester (Spring 2017) I met a couple of girls on campus who were members of SIA. As I began to talk to them more I quickly noticed their strong work ethic and all of their achievements. Meeting them helped me stop feeling out of place at school as I was able to meet more people with similar ethnic backgrounds as me. I admired their interest in creating a community of Latina empowerment. This is one of the reasons I became interested in joining SIA. Being in a place where the issues minorities face are often ignored makes it even more important to have organizations that focus on giving people the support system much needed in college. Another reason I became interested in SIA was through their events on campus. Members are constantly organizing events on many topic such as domestic violence and environmental racism. These events were interesting to me because they were on topics that aren’t often talked about. For example, when I saw flyers about their environmental racism event I became interested in doing my own research on these topics. Events like these are important because they help educate people on topics that are often overlooked. This made me excited to join SIA and be able to contribute to this.

When I first enrolled in the class, I didn’t know what was to be expected of me. I was scared the first time I logged onto the computer to see what the course entailed. Then, things changed and I was comfortable with my new lifestyle of doing work on the computer. I began by making myself a schedule with things that I wanted to accomplish each and every day. As I continued to do this and the end of the course started to become visible I started to grow more and more comfortable. I am happy with how everything has gone throughout this semester. I have learned a lot of things this year, as well as being refreshed with things that I obviously struggled with. This course developed me into a better writer; educated me on how to begin the

Before, I begin my story, here are a couple of the theories I have incorporated about my college experience. The first is Schlossberg 's Transition Theory. As a Transfer Student, this model has helped me understand my transition process through her model. Her theory is grounded in adult development literature. A transition as she defines is “ any event, or nonevent”[ which] results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles.” ( p 37) In her model, she talks about the meaning of the transition for the individual based on three topics: type, context, and impact.Then, she moved into the transition process which is described as reactions over time and as three different phases; moving in, moving through,

To do my research I had to have many participants to correctly do my research. To start my research, I began by researching strategies and completing a literature review on the strategies to figure out what is important to aid me in reach the process target of giving effective feedback to the students. After figuring out what feedback strategies I wanted to research, I then use the strategies during the ten-week internships thought whole class instructional lesson three times and also providing feedback to students' one-on-one or in small group settings through my internship. I used the chosen strategies in multiple ways to make the best use of my ten-weeks there to make the best use of my time there, I gave oral

When our lives become hectic, we often don’t find enough time to stop and think. We work, we study, we move on with our daily lives. However, sometimes it’s nice to actually stop and observe ourselves from a different perspective, even if it’s only for a few minutes a week. This course, l believe, has given me the opportunity to sit down and actually think about my own personal experiences and what it meant to me. The fact that l was able to connect the concept of our chapters with my own personal example and experience, had actually helped me gather more knowledge on the topic. If there was one positive thing that l can take away from this course, it’s that it helped me gain more self-awareness. This course gave me the opportunity to talk

Communication is the delivery of information between multiple groups, it is very necessary to have effective communications in the workplace because everything people do at work results from communication. Work efficiency and productivity is the key to success in the workplace, they can enhance the understanding between employer and employee, and high efficiency and productivity come from effective communication.

During my studies with the University of Oklahoma, my selected area of focus was counseling. In addition to selecting many courses that focused on theoretical approaches to counseling, I also completed the graduate certificate “Helping Skills in Human Relations”.

For each of us, there comes a time when we can look back and pinpoint the exact day that altered the course of our life, for me, one of those days was April 13, 2010. I was 14 years old when I fell off my bike and broke my elbow. After consulting multiple orthopedics, I was told I would never regain my range of motion, but with the help of a certified hand therapist, I was able to regain full range of motion and prove the doctors wrong. Months later I had surgery to reconstruct my elbow that had not healed properly, but again I was able to regain full range of motion thanks to my therapist. While the doctors were able to fix my arm, it was the therapists who were able to give me my quality of life back. It was at this moment that I knew I wanted to be a therapist. During my freshman year of college, I began to develop an ulnar claw which eventually led me to undergo ulnar nerve transposition surgery. After spending countless hours with a certified hand therapist I knew this was what I wanted to spend my life doing. I had been going to school with plans of applying to physical therapy school, but the experience I had recovering from ulnar nerve transposition led me to alter my course of study and transfer schools. Today no one would ever know that I had something wrong with my arm or hand other than the scars which motivate me and remind me of the impact an occupational therapist had on my life, and my ultimate goal; become an occupational therapist.

Since early on in life, numerous individuals have been hearing people talk about college. Parents usually encourage their children to go to college, get a degree, get engaged on campus, be someone great in life and be important in the society. Hearing people talk about their college experience can push someone to go there and see what is there and how is that going to improve himself/herself. When actually going there, then come the experiences and the hard work and experiences come along in every aspect, such as academic, career, and personal facets of someone’s life.

My favorite high school English teacher once said, “You have to want to be a better writer. I can’t make you a better writer without at least some effort on your part guys.” The implied lesson in this quote, about writing and effort, is something I remembered throughout high school and coming into college. In English 109H, I wanted to understand how to transition my writing to a meet a college level. Through in-class peer-editing exercises and identifying and improving problems consistently identified in my writing, I was able to improve my understanding and performance in the course goals of Conventions and Critical Thinking and Composing. However, I still need work on wording changes within Reflection and Revision.

When you understand your emotions, you can keep them in check. When you know your weakness and strengths, it helps to keep you emotionally healthy. During this week, I have learned many new and interesting ideas like how to be in check, how to recognize feelings in a social situation and how I compare with my family and friends when it comes to my Emotional Intelegance.

“Know who you are, and be it. Know what you want, and go out and get it!”

Before going into my reflective essay, it is important to first know what is reflective learning and journal writing. Reflective learning is the system of internally analysing and exploring a problem of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, and which ends up in a modified conceptual angle (Boyd and Fales, 1983). Journal writing on the other hand, is the recording of each day events, personal reflections, questions about the environment, and reactions to experiences (Dyment and O’Connell, 2003). According to Kerka (1996), journal writing is considered to be vital factor of expertise processing and that it enables the learners to “articulate connections between new information and what they already recognise”.

My main goal for this class was to figure out how to make university cheaper and, writing my personal statement. This class offered me more than just two things I was looking for, instead I was informed about workshops and introduced to new ways of researching. I am happy I took this class, it made the process of transferring easier.