Reflection Paper

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.

Considering all of my lessons this semester, my main strength would be modeling the lesson for the students and praising the students with positive reinforcement. I feel as the students remained engaged and they were always willing to participate, which allowed them to meet all of the objectives in my lesson. I was impressed with how well much the students remembered and understood from my lessons. I presented the instruction and goals for the lesson prior to beginning the activity. During the lesson, I frequently asked the students questions in order for the students to remain thinking as well as focused.

For my service learning project I worked in Mrs. Evelyn Costa's first grade class at Meadowlane Elementary. Meadowlane is located at 4280 W 8th Avenue in Hialeah, Florida and was constructed in 1957. There are one thousand one hundred and seventy seven students enrolled at Meadowlane Elementary school. Meadowlane has fifty three classrooms and fourteen portables and there are one hundred and seventy nine students per grade level. The school was built on nine acres of land. The student population of meadowlane Elementary is comprised of 97% Hispanic, 2% White, and 1% Asian.

“Writing an essay is not difficult! I am actually great at it.” This is a common statement that I would formally say, and even believe. In the past, I had never felt the need to thoroughly revise my essays before. In all my past essays, I would work intensely on my first draft and then just turn the essay in. I never spent too much time re-evaluating my writing decisions before turning it in. This process had worked well for myself in the past, and as a result, each essay I turned it would be an easy “A”. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that it would be just like the other easy English class that I have taken. I assumed that I would work on an essay, turn it in, and then earn an A on it, but this was not the case. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that I could continue my previous essay writing methods, but that was quickly disproven. When I received my first graded essay, I was unsure why I earned anything but an “A” on it. It soon became clear to me that I was going to be required to change the way I formerly wrote my essays and spend more time with correcting them.

Reading and writing is a fundamental part of our learning experience. Reading allows you to enter worlds and experience things you wouldn’t be able to experience anywhere else and writing expands your knowledge not only on a specific topic but you learn more about yourself, you’ll be surprised how far your imagination can take you as soon as your pen hits the paper.

Writing has never been one of my strengths. Even in high school, when I took an AP English literature course, I did not enjoy writing papers if need be. Since I did not fancy writing papers, I never developed a systematic writing process. I would write the paper last minute and pray for an A, but college doesn’t work like that. When I came to college, I placed into music classes first so that I could develop those skills, thus leaving my core classes (including English) on the backburner. Although I do not regret this decision, having a two-year gap between English classes made it difficult to readapt. Instead of spending hours practicing instruments and music theory, I faced the challenging task of shifting gears to spend a majority of my time behind my laptop. How was I supposed to manage this new workload?

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.

On August 2017, I started my freshman year of college. My first class was FIQWS 10108, the sun was shining bright, as I was nervous to start my first day as a college student. We first went over the syllabus and discussed what was expected for the class. I was shocked to find out that we would be writing three lengthy papers. I’ve never been an excellent writer so I was worried about writing the papers. My fears soon diminished as my professor began guiding us through the writing process.

Among the eight intelligences displayed in the video, I’d have to say that I’d possess three out of the eight. Starting with logical-mathematical, I do quite well academically on tests and have been ever since I started school. Of course I’ve had some tests where I didn’t do as well I would’ve liked. However, I would classify myself as a proficient test-taker. Often times, I will take the logical approach to thinking and am good with working with numbers and calculations. Especially when I was young, my grandfather would force me to do a bunch of simple arithmetic and I would hate it but I’d get it done pretty easily. Specifically on the subject of math, I’ve always been quite extraordinary on the subject. In my middle school, they allowed all of us to take a test to see whether we could be placed in the advanced math class or stay in the current math class. I ended up placing in the advanced class and did math a grade level above. Currently, whenever I tell people that I’m a sophomore currently taking pre-calculus, their face is usually quite surprised and shocked. I would also add that verbal-linguistic intelligence is something I feel I possess. I am bilingual, speaking English and three dialects of Chinese; Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taishanese. My parents spoke Taishanese as well as the rest of my family but they pushed me to Chinese school when I started preschool at the budding age of five. There, I was mostly taught in Cantonese as well as a class in Mandarin. I would

When I enrolled in English 330, Writing in Education, I was apprehensive. Over the years, proofreading has been one of my strengths which may be a great attribute, but the challenging part has already been accomplished, writing the paper. So, although I absolutely love to research and write about my findings, I have always found it to be a struggle writing essays. The words seem to come easy in my head, but when the time came to write or type those words into sentences was the most difficult. Even though I have endured difficulties and challenges this semester, I have given 100% into each assignment. The discussions, blogs, letters, emails and assorted categories of papers completed, they have all proven to me that, no matter how good you felt you did, there is definitely room for improvement. There is always room for improvement, whether the task is a school assignment or work done on daily basis for over twenty-five years. My writing skills, my thought process and analytical skills have all improved in the last eight weeks.

Mrs. Anderson is the 5th -grade teacher. She has 25 students, but two of her students disrupt the whole class by arguing and fighting with each other. Zack has a specific learning disability in reading. He likes math and geometry, he is a quiet worker during independent work and likes to stay after school to feed a guinea pig. Patrick enjoys telling funny stories and being limelight. He is an average student, likes sports. According to Mrs. Anderson’s observation, Zack likes to argue with Patrick, yelling or crying on Patrick’s teasing or even pushing Patrick if he doesn’t respond to his request. Patrick teases Zack and other students by name calling or making hurtful comments. When called on during class discussion Patrick can give unrelated or inappropriate information ( Star Sheet). It’s a few critical goals for Zack and Patrick to focus during this semester:

We are all strong. Some people never realize this, but everybody has an inner warrior. While it’s true that not everyone has great physical power, but mentally and emotionally everybody has some kind of strength. For me, I am not physically as robust or as athletic as some, but mentally I am strong. There are times when I bring myself down, but I know that my strong mind will soon return to its normal balance and pick me back up. There are times when I am down and I feel I may never be the same, but no matter what my mental strength lends a hand, and returns me to my ordinary routine. The perfect example of my strong mind is my relationship with swimming. My beloved sport, swimming, is meant for someone with a strong mental mind. Therefore, feel like I was born to swim.

This summer has been quiet a busy time to say the least. Since I recently started a new job, I was unable to partner with an organization for my community engagement project. Instead, I worked with my neighbor, Betty, who is 78 years old woman who has recently transitioned home from a six week stay in a rehabilitation center due to a severe fall that prompted her stay. Betty was discharged after Medicare would no longer cover her stay at the rehabilitation center. When she returned home, she returned to home where her grandson stayed but could not relyed on. Betty was basically on her own at home, unable to walk, care for herself the way she was used to, and felt that her needs were not being met upon her return. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how my personal involvement has been service oriented, helped her achieve her goal, and ¬¬¬to critically reflect on the integration this course has provided in carrying out this assignment.

Over the history of this country, many families across the globe have come to the U.S. in hopes of a better life. My family was one of the many that decided to leave our home country and come to the United States. We never realistically imagined coming to America, but when we did, it was a real dream come true. Knowing I was coming to this country as a student was especially exciting for me personally. We were so excited about this new adventure and the opportunities we would have, despite the many challenges that lay ahead. Two of the obstacles I had to overcome, were having to learn a new language, and build new relationships.

Throughout my life, I noticed I did not completely fit in with all the students in my classroom. I spoke with an accent and looked differently than the kids in my grade. I only identified with a handful of children who came from a similar background as me. Both my parents are from Chihuahua, one of the 32 states in Mexico. My parents, along with my two brothers, migrated to the United States in the late 1990’s. My parents had very little education and worked long hours to make ends meet. As a family, we have always struggled financially but have always prospered by working hard. I was born in Colorado and lived here ever since. As a colored individual, I have gone through adversity, but in the long run, these struggles have shaped me to become a stronger person. The struggles I have gone through being a colored, first-generation and significant financial need student have definitely gave me qualities to help me thrive in my future and become an emotionally stronger person than I once was.