Personal Reflection

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

On 08/20/2017 at 1002 hours FTO Wheeler #4361 and I responded to St. Luke’s Hospital emergency room entrance, on 3555 Cesar Chavez St., regarding a women in a hospital gown trying to break the caller’s vehicle window with a brick. Officer Wheeler and I were in full police uniform driving a marked patrol unit when we responded.

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.

From time to time we all hear that dreadful five letter word; “essay”. Even though I am sure that we would all like to delete the word from existence, unfortunately, it will go on being an annoying part of high school. Many students hear this word and immediately begin to worry about whether or not they have a sufficient amount of time to write it, or if they can even write an essay good enough to get an acceptable grade on it. They struggle with not knowing how to write an effective essay. Most students really struggle getting across the idea that they want to tell their readers. "When I came to write my first assignment, I cried," says Daphne Elliston (from essay writing trips you up). "I just didn't know what I was doing." The writing in

NCSSM Residential and Online students must have a high level of maturity, whether living away from home or working daily without teachers or supervision. Please help us understand why you are mature enough to manage your own deadlines, schedule and academic interest.

I have learned that it isn’t as black and white as I once thought to write an essay. I was taught like I am sure most every other student was that there are certain rule to writing and you have to follow those rules no matter what. Not only were we told that but then we were grades and criticized or it. We have learned by example that we are wrong if we go a little bit outside the box when writing for a teacher. The articles I read today have made me feel a whole lot better about myself and my writing because it gives me more of a range to explore my abilities. Writing is a form of art to me and unfortunately it is hard to be told exactly what you have to write. Knowing that there are possibilities out there of learning as well as being creative

As a result of the traumatic injuries which I sustained on December 4, 2014, while working as a police officer and on duty, I am unable to perform my duties as a police officer in a safe and effective manner, without jeopardizing the safety of myself, my coworkers, as well as the public’s, which I took an oath to serve and protect.

Recollection of past experiences has proven to be one of the best teaching tools in existence. It is not just the reminiscing of the past that benefits us; it is the critical thinking that follows said reminiscing that is the most fruitful. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, and much can be learned when reflecting on past situations. These observations, in turn, have the potential to guide our future decision making as well as our future actions. As I ponder the events and actions that have lead me up to this point, I have found that I have done much better at handling my workload and personal life simultaneously than I previously assumed I would. If all goes marvelous and I continue forward through this semester while maintaining my current work ethic, I postulate that I will finish this semester strong and continue to not only learn, but to fully integrate all of this fresh knowledge into my mind to be readily available for years to come.

This course enhances my understanding about bereavement’s theory and counselling skills working with bereaved people. Before I took this course, I thought bereavement only about death of a person. In fact, bereavement can also imply losses such as employment losses and leaving home. Also, changes can be a bereavement too as it is always come with gain and loss. Since one of the course aim is develop skills in counselling with bereaved people, I was nervous before attending to class because I don’t have anyone close to me is deceased. I was afraid that I am not able to work with bereaved people if I don’t have this experience. Now I know that bereavement is a type of loss and I have experience of loss. It facilitates the learning process because I can apply theory to myself and the cases we work on class. This course draws on theories from multiple aspect to discuss about bereavement, grief and mourning. Culture differences surely play a big role in those. As we learned about death in different culture, it is important to learn and respect all culture differences and understand and meet their needs. The film bereavement from a Muslim perspective, Muslim believe that the soul of a decreased person is still present around the person. Therefore, Muslim wants to stay with the decreased person so he/she doesn’t feel lonely. This behavior may not seem normal in other culture. Learning and listening to different culture differences such as emotion, role of mourners and belief system can avoid making assumption of our own culture to the bereaved people, otherwise misunderstandings can create a gap between the counsellor and the bereaved people and possibly lead to conflict too. Also, individual often carry different religion and spirituality. At first, I failed to see the significant of religion in counselling with bereaved people. As I am an atheist myself, learning other religions make me empathize other’s feeling. In class, we worked on a case about a grandmother believe her grandson is in hell. Some religions believe there is a heaven as well as a hell in afterlife. It was my first time to think about someone is in hell as I heard people talk about heaven for the most time. It was a very

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, New International Version). Giving does not have to equate to a monetary sum. Individuals can implement their talents and skills as a form of giving. Volunteering not only affects the receivers, it alters the giver’s heart and mindset as well. During the course of Community Health, I had the privilege of attending a seminar called the Cost of Poverty Experience (C.O.P.E), watching a web seminar entitled Working With the Diverse LGBTQQI Communities 101, attending the Matter Park Festival, and visiting the Veteran Affairs (VA) facility in Marion, Indiana.

The 2016 presidential election was a thought-provoking, exciting, and pivotal time in my life. The campaigning and debates leading up to the election inspired in me a sense of lasting political engagement; even the fact that I was 17 and could not actually vote in the election did not deter my enthusiasm. As exhilarating as those few months were, however, they also provided me with a rather tumultuous identity crisis. 2016 was a hotbed for political discourse in America, and while I was thriving on it, I was also facing contrasting influences from my peers and family on my political ideology. I was realizing that my stances on various issues fell on both sides of the aisle, and unfortunately there was no seat in the middle of the aisle. I did not know what to call myself. I was reluctant to use the ‘independent’ label for fear of not belonging in our two-party system, so I gave an ambiguous, politically-confused answer: fiscally conservative, socially liberal. While accurate, in the vaguest sense, I now realize this answer was imprecise. After taking the eye-opening and life-changing Introduction to American Government course, doing some individual research, taking some online quizzes, talking to some politically active people in my life, and copious self-reflection, I now have a better answer: I am a pro-business democrat. I find this label satisfying because while I strongly believe government regulation of businesses and higher taxes (across the board) are detrimental to

To be honest, I'm writing this for me as much as I am writing it for you.

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.

Mr. Gibson came in to speak with us today. He told us how he goes about teaching his classes and formulates his lesson plans. I took down a lot of notes. I viewed Mr. Gibson as a strong, authoritative figure, with a bright sense of humor. He appears to be very aware of other people. He is a person who values learning something new every day. He loves that he gets paid to help people by using his belief system and he feels his teaching has clicked even more now that he is a parent. Mr. Gibson makes sure that the “Bellwether” Kids are always focusing in his class. Sometimes, students worry about their home. However, when they arrive at school Mr. Gibson gets them engaged in a lesson. They put all of their home worries in a “Sub-Basement”. While in class they should only worry about themselves and their engagement in the lessons.

Participating in the Sixth Year in Administration course work at Sacred Heart University has allowed me the opportunity to develop myself as a researcher and professional author through writing a thesis. This process took place over three classes with the final class running simultaneously with Internship II. The tertiary course involved conducting the specific research, analyzing the data collected, and writing the analysis and conclusion chapters of the thesis. Creating a useable survey was a more challenging process than I anticipated. With appreciation, I was granted permission to use a survey developed by Wertz, Carpenter, and Fewell as the foundation of my thesis. Items were added or deleted to meet the needs of the North Haven Community. To gain face validity, I reached out to professionals in other districts to review my survey and share suggestions to improve it with me. After the survey was disseminated, the responses trickled in. Upon receipt of responses from various staff members, I realized that I would need to convert some of the verbal answer choices to a numerical code prior to being able to analyze the data. Luckily using software such as an Excel spreadsheet this could be done without much complication.