Reflection Essay

Mmm, you were right the rates are not very generous. I am going to be completely honest; it does put me off a little, from experience how much work will be needed to make this first course a success, which is crucial to ensuring that people feel it's worth signing up for the whole series. I would only want to do this if I can offer something meaningful and valuable. Having spent three days last week rewriting an advanced specialist course for Pilates teachers, I know just how much time these things take as I am sure you do.

The most advantageous learning I had through the process of research and in the time of this class, was when I was presented with the opportunity to teach literacy and foster diversity by becoming a mentor in a local program called Reading Buddies. As a mentor, I assisted elementary students who have fallen behind in mastering literacy, to help improve their skills in English writing and reading comprehension. Many of these students are those of immigrant families, who are currently facing hardships adjusting to schooling because English has been learned as their second language. I have always been passionate about education, so naturally, I took interest in providing help where the structural violence of our non-accommodating American

Doors, oceans, cities, all these different descriptions have been used by different people to describe their mind. However, my mind is a never-ending slide show, with me sitting down watching different slides constantly flash before me on the projector. Their random most of the time, but I can choose which slide goes up when I need it. However, there is one slide that sneakily gets into the projector, I don’t remember putting it there, but it always manages to get in. Whenever this slide appears, shackles come out of my chair and traps me, forces me to look at this memory. I remember it well, I was around 10 or 11, I was sitting in my room playing a board game by myself, see my sisters were always busy and I didn’t have friends to play with, so I always played by myself. Then while playing I start realizing that I'm alone, I cry while the light shines above as I play this board game by myself, with no one around, I was lonely.

In this class we have a credo, and in that credo there are some key words that were capitalized: Read, Think, Write, College Level, rigorously, Holistically, Learning, Safe, and Fun. Everyone has their own way of defining words, some maybe the same and some may be different but that’s ok. In this essay I am going to thoroughly and efficiently explain to you in my own words what each of these words mean to me in the context of this course.

Throughout the course of my high school career I have primarily been intellectually interested in the evolution of the law and the role of legal institutions in modern society. I was first drawn to the law when I realized that it often goes beyond punishing or compensating individuals and considers, more broadly, the interests and goals of society at large and the community in which we live.

Not many people attribute hardship to the actuality that they are the initial root of the issue. In my instance, a speech disorder restricted my ability to effectively communicate; however, a subconscious attribution lead me to limit my social interaction. My failure to extort the idea of structured redevelopment immobilized the outcome of effective action.

At some point in our lives, we have all asked the question “What is the purpose of school? Why must I learn this? The first time I can recall myself experiencing these sentiments was when I started French immersion. This subject has always presented a struggle for me as I have always felt that it is rather difficult which was amplified due to the lack of help that I received from my parents, as neither could speak French unlike many of my peers’ parents. Your teachers as well as the principal in schools also play a major impact in your education journey and can ultimately shape your education experience. These challenges can impact all students in some way however, it is important to approach these challenges head on in order to succeed and reach your goals including making yourself and your parents proud.

When I go into any class, with a weak memory and an developing intuition, I do not orient my success on remembering a lot of pointless information, but learning the art of independent thought. I never imagined, however, I could acquire some of these useful skills through the course Writing 1. Mrs Tocco, you have helped me to develop many of my lacking English skills, such as grammar, punctuation, and how to clearly portray ideas. There is a clear difference in my grammar capabilities. In my first paper, English Nightmare, I had many errors in my paper, from writing to grammar, one of them being, “This is also coming from a Boy Scout who was trained to follow orders and always be honest (for me it's every other situation.)”(Witt 4). This was one of my first quotes and a classical errors in writing. As you well know, I put the period inside the parenthesis, which is incorrect. When I started this course, I was oblivious to things like this and other rules in effective writing like do not use apostrophes, how to block quote, and refrain from using first person in many situations. My editing was my biggest improvement over the semester, but this is broken down into multiple topics.

It was the first day of the new semester. Dr. Razzaque, the professor giving the introductory lecture of his fluid mechanics course, decided to start with an audacious statement. “If you think mechanical engineering is too broad in scope for your liking, remember, you have seen nothing yet.” Aware that he had the class’s attention, he went on, “Think about what you have learned so far. You have taken courses in physics, multivariable calculus, electric circuits, computer programming and so on. It will be some time before you will properly understand how all these elements come together, but when you do, you will probably be surprised by your own understanding of the world.” He then went on to explain, citing Formula One, computational fluid dynamics and biomimetics, how mechanical engineering brings very diverse skill sets together. Those words felt, at the time, like a key to making sense of the plethora of courses that was my college life. Dr. Razzaque had suddenly made me realize the relevance of what I was learning. It would prove to be a pivotal point in my academic life. That lecture, and the following course, renewed my passion for mechanical engineering. I joined Dr. Hasan’s lab a year later as an undergraduate researcher and now I aspire to pursue graduate studies in mechanical engineering. All of these can be traced back to that quiet spring morning more than two years ago.

Throughout this assignment, I worked hard for success and learned a lot from my mistakes along the way. I strongly believe that I have successfully met the criteria and accomplished the requirements for this rant. I was dressed appropriately, with no bright colors or designed shirts, to prevent any distractions whatsoever, however, I had a smart student look, which I would think is the ideal clothing for a rant topic such as mine. I maintained a steady, slow pace, and I frequently stopped moving and turned my body to the camera. I performed this at times I felt were necessary in order for the audience to understand when I am delivering a main idea or main points. “The fact is that our school washrooms are never fully clean and this really pisses me off”. This is an example of when I stopped walking and turned my body to the camera. This line is one of my main points that I wanted my audience to clearly understand. My setting was adequate and relevant to my topic (Bell High School Washrooms). In the start of my rant, I showed a school sign that displayed “Bell High School”, then I walked past the lockers of my school during my introduction. Soon after, when I was talking about girl’s washrooms, I stopped walking in front of one. Furthermore, when I was discussing the interior defects and unsanitary environment, I placed myself in a male washroom, so the audience can have not only a verbal understanding, but also a visual understanding, which I feel had an impact on how much

Inclusion: Means the action or state of including or of included within a group or structure. In education this means everyone has the same opportunity, there should be no boundaries to stop a learner reaching their full potential in the learning enviroment. (wikipedia)

In my English classes, a popular assignment is analyzing the literature in an essay after reading a novel. You may think that because I had this assignment multiple times already, that I would be good at it by now. I should definitely be able to write it without any hesitation or problem. However, that is not the case, unfortunately. When analyzing literature, I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot of techniques and ways to pick up that would help make my writing more efficient. My brain is definitely still developing new strategies that could come in handy when writing. Although sometimes I believe that I am alright at analyzing literature, I do often times have writer’s block and can not seem to come up with an analyzation. Thankfully, due to my most recent English teacher, I had a lot of help and improved myself greatly. I feel confident in the quotes that I pick, confident in the commentary I am writing, and confident in the way I phrase it. I have developed my own techniques as to analyzing literature in order to write an essay along the way.

The challenging component this semester was transitioning from being a high school level writer to a college-level writer. However, English 10 has by far been my best experience in writing. By taking this course I have retrieved many helpful elements, that will help me be a successful writer throughout college. In high school, essays often gave me anxiety and stress, however, when taking English 10, I was able to learn to enjoy the process and the art of writing purposefully and mindfully. Even though I have taken advanced placement English courses in high school and have taken a practice run of college level English over the summer with Professor Brenda Venezia, I was still able to get a lot more out of this course. To showcase my progress in this course, I have included my essay from project 2 a rhetorical analysis titled, “Black Lives Matter!” and a research essay from project 3 titled “Why is Racism dangerous?”, which effectively demonstrate my growth as a creative writer, reader, and thinker.

One aim I remember well is “Why do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unplanned?” as I was the one who helped pick it. You gave me a choice between this question and “do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unnatural?” (something like that), and I picked the former because I knew it better prompted the way you like to guide your lessons. I didn’t think you wanted a debate on whether segregation is planned or not, but rather a discuss on how calculated the racism in our nation is. When you asked the class about the aim, I remember there being silence. Even I was uncomfortable answering because Americans have a tendency to not want to accept their faults. It’s in our textbooks, our curriculum, and our daily lives. Every single history teacher I’ve ever had remained very neutral to the information they taught (which I don’t blame them for most teachers are expected to not share opinions), but you did not care and I loved that!! I feel like I never had the weight of how cruel and deliberate our history of racism was really drop on me until I was in your class. Americans passed segregation off as a natural process because we knew it was wrong, and did nothing about it, but we did not want to feel bad about ourselves and accept what a backwards society we created. It’s such a simple concept, but for some reason, it didn’t hit me hard until then.

When I first heard we were writing this essay, I honestly thought it was kind of pointless (no offense). I always thought that english class was meant to be analytical, and this paper seemed like it had no real purpose (other than maybe helping with college essays). However, as I was writing I really began to appreciate what this essay allows you to do. English was never my most favorite subject ( I tend to lean towards math and sciences), but this essay felt so easy to write. I really enjoyed how it allowed me to truly reflect on who I am as a person and recognize how and why I am who I am. I think that being able to reflect on who you are can allow you to see what the good parts of you are, what the bad parts of you are, and what the