Reflection About Education

The aim of this assignment is to give a reflective account on group presentation and the peer assessment process as well as the development of a personal action plan. It would involve using ‘The What? Model of Structured Reflection’ (Driscoll 2007) to analyse the experience of using a group designed assessment tool to assess my peers and the experience of being peer assessed. Additionally, experience of completing a group presentation would be reflected upon. A personal action plan which identifies areas for personal development and the designed assessment tool is attached as appendix 1 and 2 respectively.

I believe that education is an individual, unique experience for every student who enters a classroom. In order for children to benefit from what schools offer, I think that teachers must fully understand the importance of their job. First, I believe that teachers must consider teaching to be a lifestyle, not a mere forty-hour-a-week job, because a teacher's goals for his/her students encompass much more than relaying out-of-context facts to passive students. As professionals entrusted with the education of young minds, teachers must facilitate learning and growth academically, personally, and ethically. By providing a quality education to each individual in one's classroom, a teacher equips children

This semester felt shorter than the first semester, due to the fact, that we had different things apart from our routine lessons.

In this paper, I am going to examine and compare my views on education to the great philosophers Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. Education should not be something forced on people from a very young age. We are educating our children to be master test takers who conform to the norm and not to think outside the box. My position is supported by Socrates in Plato 's The Republic and Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, Book II. Because students waste too much time on testing, education should not be compulsory.

As I complete my final thoughts for this class, I have come to realize the importance of respecting others. As a future educator, its importance for me to understand the different social and culture values within the classroom. It’s my job to keep a positive environment that promotes learning for all (different ethnicities) students to success. There are plenty resources out there for teachers to utilize inside the classroom to incorporate different students’ cultures. For example, you can incorporate different books on different cultures inside your classroom library. As a teacher, it’s your job to make each child and family feel included. It’s our job to overcome those barriers and challenges that is associated with students who are immigrants. I’m willing to go the distance for my students, but first I need to understand and accept my own personal journey. It starts with understanding your own social identity; your social identity is how you establish yourself as a person.

“Dad why did you leave everything you had in Egypt to come to America?” I observed as he attempted not to think of a generic response. He responded “education” and after a long pause he explained,“education was what motivated me to come to America.” Further he explained how he believed that America’s educational system, unlike those of many third-world countries, allows choice which furthers to success. He repeatedly stated vaguely that in Egypt that real success does not exist. However, despite his opinion, I am not sure it exists in America either.

“Education,” is one of many words that in my opinion cannot be accurately defined rather it varies person to person through culture, community, experience, and social background. For me, education through high school and later to be continued in college or at a university was a number one priority in my house growing up. While it was not a direct part of my culture to be successful in school or even in my community, (in fact you will learn it is quite the opposite of my community standards) it was directly a part of my families background and mother’s personal experience that I was destined to be successful in her eyes of the education realm the day I was born.

It's 1994 in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell is just starting her first teaching job, as freshman and sophomore English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, which, two years earlier, implemented a voluntary integration program. For many of the existing teachers, the integration has ruined the school, whose previously stellar academic standing has been replaced with many students who will be lucky to graduate or even be literate. Despite choosing the school on purpose because of its integration program, Erin is unprepared for the nature of her classroom, whose students live by generations of strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. The only person the students hate more is Ms. Gruwell. It isn't until Erin holds an illegal discussion about a recent drive-by shooting death that she fully begins to understand what she's up against. And it isn't until she provides an assignment of writing a daily journal - which will be not graded, and will remain unread by her unless they so choose - that the students begin to open up to her.

I come from a country where houses are made by hand and people are made by their social class. Being born and raised in Uzbekistan, I have learned many life lessons. Growing up, I was the only child of my mother who raised me alone while she worked two jobs and studied to complete her doctorate in psychology. My mother lived every day with courage, strength, integrity, humility, and determination, paving the perfect example for her son. Being young, I did not understand the depravity with which people in Uzbekistan lived their daily lives; however, looking back I appreciate the hard work my mother put into every aspect of our lives to give me the opportunities I have today. Both disparity and hardship fall onto the hardest workers because of the injustices riddling the social infrastructure: some of the brightest minds were held to lower status jobs whereas less skilled individuals climbed the social ladder on their fathers’ backs. My mother fought through these inequities with me at her side to bring us into a better life.

The ideas I have been considering since starting and college and starting this journey as college freshman has been the idea of not settling for the least and to believe in myself more. This probably sounds like a very basic discovering one has with oneself but it has made an impact on how I believe in myself and how I carry myself in regards to school work and achieving goals. An idea I have been considering is not an easy decision and I know that I won't deciding anytime soon but the idea of furthering my education and actually becoming a practitioner nurse sounds appealing. I don't know yet if I want to fulfill that education after graduation from nursing school but it has been idea that has been been planted in my head by talking to some peers and other nurses that are interested in furthering their education.

Education is a vital part of our society it is critical, from the early stages of preschool, kindergarten, middle and high school and to those that are pursuing higher learning. We are all in a consistent learning cycle, paying little respect to our present educational structure. All through history, we have been learning in various ways. Since we are in the 21st Century, learning is winding up more digitalized. This is the thing that makes it so vital to be able to get a handle on information for what it's worth and have the capacity to apply it to our regular day to day existences. As we learn, we should likewise comprehend that there are diverse learning styles out there that does not transfer data in a simplistic way. This is the reason, as individuals, we must choose if the way data is passed particularly works for us or not. As Friere states in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, "Education either works as an instrument which is utilized to encourage coordination of the more youthful era into the rationale of the present framework, and achieve similarity or it turns into the act of flexibility. The methods by which men and ladies bargain basically and imaginatively with reality and find how to take an interest in the change of their reality." What does it REALLY mean to gain an education? Does it mean you attended a university and got a degree? Does it mean you can recollect pretty much all that you see or read? As I would like to think, it is not one or the other. Being

America's victory against Great Britain in 1786 not only gained them independence but the status of a world superpower; where the world would watch our every move and imitate it. Now, 241 years later we still stand as one of the superpowers of the world. Yet, our testing scores place 31st in the world. Which is why our government has been working on improving our education system, hoping to improve our scores. Yet even with all the attention on improving our system, there haven't been many changes; and our test scores have barely risen. If so many people believe education isn't going down the right path, then why hasn't it changed, in so many years? International testing scores are rising and surpassing ours. Yet, the United States is not making progress in growing educational programs. Over the years we have seen other countries education scores rise, and surpass ours. Despite our current efforts, it raises the question, when will we actually improve our education, and catch up with the world? Even though there have been some changes, our education needs to reworked, and re evaluated, so our scores will rise, and we can catch up with the rest of the world.

God, the Ruler and Creator of every finite and infinite existence in the universe, has called me to a life of love, servitude, and fellowship with other Christians. However, at my age, my walk with Christ is no longer conjoined with decisions made by my parents. The decision of college is entirely mine to make with the benevolent and ever-wise guidance of Christ. By no means is this an easy task, but one ideal has been forthright in my heart-- my education must be Christ-centered.

I have had the experience to teach the class four times during the semester and each of them has helped me to learn a lot. Dr. Walenciak has been traveling a lot so I have been in charge of the class those times. The first time, I was terrified the day before of the class. I needed to talk about the chapter of Ostrander’s book that talks about the history of Christian education. I prepared myself a lot and the day of the class I divided the time so the students could work on a project that we have. I try to summarize the chapter while explaining it. I planned to talk for 25 minutes and I ended up talking for 15 minutes. I was talking too fast and skipping important points without realizing about that. At the time of the class, I felt confident but I was a little nervous and it was harder to express my ideas in English but I manage to overcome that. I was able to explain everything but I was a little disappointed that I could not meet my time goal. After that, I ask them some questions to see if they have understood the topic. It was interesting because I could feel somehow the feeling of the teacher when nobody participates in the class. At the beginning, everyone was quiet but after a while, they start participating. To finish the class, I gave them some time to get in groups and discuss their progress for the final project. I asked for some feedback after that to some students and they told me

Education is indubitably vital to becoming a great person, who can articulate themselves efficiently. Having a plethora of intelligent family members, education is always a topic of discussion when both sides of my family is around. From report cards to GPA’s, words of excitement always fill the room with warm rays of compliments. Even with the notion of needing to keep my grades up, I sometimes make mistakes, causing me to get an earful from my mother and father. With my own self-motivation to be the best I can be, my grandfather plays a big key in wanting to keep my grades up and succeed. Throughout everything I do he's always been and is willing to give a helping hand. I reflect his traits to help become the best I can possibly be.