It was the start of another day and I was dreading getting out of my mom’s car and walking into my school. I would much rather be at home playing video games than being forced to do mundane work. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether. 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.
Thankfully, I stumbled across Acton Academy, which has treated me well for the past four years. It’s been a far more positive experience for me because I feel like I can work on what matters to me so long as I continue to work on the essentials. Because of this, I’ve learned to be a leader, a quality I feel like I’ve always had but never knew how to unleash. Something else that has been extremely helpful is how Acton has led me to become more independent since I have to figure things out on my own and I no longer have a teacher who will tell me what I need to know.
Over the four years I’ve been at Acton, I’ve contemplated why this school system works better for me than the public schools I’ve attended in the past.
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.
As my first semester at Rosemont College is coming to an end soon, I would like to tell you how I got here and how will I stay here. While applying to college Rosemont was not first choice. It was on the bottom of my list. But when I came to visits and listened to what the tour guides were saying I thought Rosemont would be the place for me. The biggest problem, for me was I wanted to stay close to home. I have family at home that I really did not want to be away from, it was my first time being away from home. I know that being away from home would be a change for me, it was a hard decision to make but I made it! The first step of getting to Rosemont was applying into then coming to visit, after my first visit I was still uninterested into the school. The campus was dull and dry and I did not see any students walking around or any of them coming out of class. Shortly after Spring Break of 2017 I had to make a choice. I began to look at the bigger picture of why I wanted to go. While Rosemont was not a place that I wanted to come, but I knew that I would get all my work done and more. I was happy I made the decision I made, because I am staying focus getting all of my work done.
The year I switched schools will always be a year that I’ll remember. My parents had told me one day that they finally bought the house and that we will be moving in april. Of course, after I was told that, I knew if we moved I would have to go to a different school, and was already ready to go to reynolds. My parents had given me a choice to either move halfway through 7th grade, or in 8th grade. Of course, me being the cliche kid, I decided to move in the middle of 7th grade. However, I've learned that moving isn't as scary as it seems and it gives you insight on how teachers teach differently, and in their own way.
Process recordings have been very helpful in allowing me to see my strengths and areas that need improvement. It allows for me to check if I am using my competencies correctly and applying all the skills I have been thought. They also allow for feedback from my field supervisor so that I ensure the best services for my clients. I gain a better understanding of what I need to change about my approach and how to develop proper treatment goals with my clients. I get to put the knowledge I gained in all my classes to help a better understanding of the role of a social worker.
We all grow up differently, with a different background and story that follows but, it’s not likely reading and writing are a factor to who we are. When I was two years old, I was consistently having surgeries on my right hand because of my hand disorder called syndactyly. I was used to having help consistently, never honestly did the work for myself but, as time progressed into the fifth grade the reality of school hit me hard. I had a cast on my arm from surgery and was dreadfully struggling to keep up in any of my classes. I failed math that same year and, was clinging to social studies an English by a thread. I was surrounded around intelligent role models yet, I was struggling and didn't take school serious enough. That summer was my final summer before entering into middle school which meant I had to do a summer assignment called “Summer Reading”. Two books, two pages of summaries, for both journal logs, and much more, I wasn't hopeful that I could do it by myself. had much pride that somebody wowed do it for me.
I stood idle in the waits of a euphoric, broad expanse dressed with the essence of an untainted existence--complete and absolute oxygen coherently ushered by hue-rich grasses. The trees animatedly breathed life, seeming to impart and transmit vibrant frequencies of information. As well, the sun did prove its enlightening, divine omnipresence whilst repairing my DNA. Knowing without experience, seeing without sight, feeling without nerval stimulation. I angled my head up complacently, I knew that I was in total control. Mantras and meditations, “This is perfection, this is eternal, this is my universe. I am God.” Then, I opened my eyes. I opened my eyes to a sudden but weighted sense of guilt. I felt like I was cemented to my bed. I felt more disappointed than shocked by this agitating yet alarming feel of harassment. I’d grown way too familiar to the weird, inscrutable sensation that I address to as, the agent of mortal life. Almost chronologically, I was then brought to the thought of the cessation of life. Prescribed to be just another Earth indigenous anomalistic hominid. Maybe, that candid frame of thinking was the reason I endured such a continual wrapping loop of moral destruction. I understood that the very things I saw on the day-to-day basis persists to be reality and I was also aware that we were born behind the eight ball. But, at 14 years old, the simple concept of managing priorities was hard to grasp. To aid the practical nature of self-reflection, I asked
While taking classes at BSU this semester and when doing my interview with Mindy Elliot. I have learned many things about myself, other people, and education. I fall in the behaviorism, pragmatism, and progressivism. I believe that one’s behavior and the behavior of others influence how we learn. I believe that we learn by doing, we learn by working, and we learn from others.
First I would like to mention that I enjoyed reading this Chapter as it hit home for me because the teachers from Loyola Marymount University believe in building family and community strengths and I fit that mold. Even though demonstrating passion and empathy is mostly frowned upon by many in our institutions due to concentrating on teaching to the test. If you provide your students with a safe learning environment, my experiences have shown that they are more apt to flourish. As a result, I provide this type of atmosphere in my classroom. For example, one of the teachers interviewed, Leticia Ornelas, had “Lotion Day” Nieto (2013). I have shared my lotion with students as well. Some of them fall under the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. And like she mentions, it provides them with a safe, caring, and passionate learning environment because you build that rapport. Building teacher to student relationships is essential to student outcomes.
As I write this paper and look around me, I can’t help but to reminisce in nostalgia and almost choke up in tears. To my right is the family room, an open chamber where I have learned more life lessons than any school I’ve been to. Meanwhile, to my left encompasses the kitchen which holds a wide variety of memories from my life; from birthdays to vegetarian Thanksgiving to Saturday night Taco Bell. The love I have for my home, my sanctuary, the place that has nurtured me from toddlerhood to manhood is unparalleled to any other place in the world. However, what I think makes it the most special is that it’s located in Franklin, and it would devastate me if I moved anywhere else, but unfortunately I did.
As a child, the number one question asked is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A ludicrous question to ask a child who has no concept of the real world and real professions other than the ones that their parents have. Most children will answer with being a princess, a super hero; however, I would always say I wanted to work with kids. I thought I wanted to do so medically, but figured out Education was my calling instead. A notion that I was too blinded to see in the past, but so many others saw within me. Now that I am pursuing Education, Elementary Education to be exact, I would not have wanted it any other way. It is exciting taking all of the necessary courses that are preparing me to be a great teacher.
I was 12 years old when I started to play volleyball. I can remember going to the gym for the first time bounces echoing off the walls for the balls being played. Before this, I was a competitive cheerleader for 4 years and had made it to the highest level possible. Hearing the crowd roaring wit =h every hit trick was what I lived for. My friend from my neighborhood finally connived me to try out volleyball and go to a camp. When I got there I remember always doing cheer moves on the volleyball court. In one drill we had to throw the ball across the room “bang bang” went the ball as I hit the back wall every time. The coaches were so impressed and immediately started talking off my parent's ear after the camp.
When I first began this English course, I did not know what to expect, all I really knew was I would be writing essays and papers which I don't particularly enjoy. I was not as confident in my writing abilities but after the first class period had ended, I decided that my goal for the semester would be producing writing that was clear and more effective. The Eclipse of 2017 pushed the first class back, but I still had an assignment to write about the Eclipse. I don’t think I have ever been so nervous when turning something in because I wanted to make a good first impression on my professor. I immediately relaxed when she said we did not have to read our essays out loud but instead explained what freewriting is.
It was on a cold day in January, 2015 when I thought my whole world was going to be flipped upside down. We were living at my grandmother’s house at the time, and in the back of my mind I knew that we were going to move into our own house because that was the plan ever since we sold our old house. With this in mind, I still remember how I felt when my parents came home one night and said, “Our offer on a house was accepted and that we were moving at the end of summer.” I visited this house with them before, but we visited many houses over the past couple years so it sort of came as shock that everything was official. Living at my grandmother’s house was not ideal and it was no walk in the park so I was happy that I was going to have a place my family could call our own again. Although I was excited, I was also nervous and scared because the house is located 45 minutes away from where we currently live. That meant I was going to leave my friends and family and basically everything I’ve ever known.
Overall, I feel as if our presentation went very well. If there was anything I could change it would be having more class dialogue and it not seem so one sided. I also would have liked to ask more questions considering the class already had prior knowledge, of this content. The questions that I would have like to have asked most are the higher order thinking questions; such as, how and why. An example would be, “Why would you select the more colorful curriculum map over the one already filled out?” The anticipated response would hopefully be: “The colorful curriculum map is broken down into each month in the school year; whereas, the filled in map only has two months.” When creating a curriculum map is should be done for the entire school year and not just a month or so at a time. While assessing all of the feedback that was obtained, it was noted that everyone gave extremely positive with minimal critiques. I enjoyed how the class respected our wishes of giving only constructive feedback. The few suggestions for improvement were for me for to speak up, for Brianna to stand up and maybe move around the room, slow down a little (which was corrected as we presented and noted by some), one person said give more guidance on what to write in the organizer, and one said she wished we would have informed them sooner that not all the puzzle pieces would be complete. When it came to the organizer we did not really focus to much on that because we know everyone learns in a different
During my childhood years, I was struggling with school that I was placed in special ed classes and a lot of people thought that I would not be motivated to focus on my education and my future.