Reflection Paper

During multiple instances I have witnessed people minimizing individuals of darker complexion. I have heard things along the lines of “Oh I wish I was your skin color and not so dark.”, or “I wish I were mixed, I would look better if I were mixed, right?” and even comments such as “my parents told me if I ever brought home a dark-skinned girlfriend or boyfriend, I’d be in trouble!” Not only have I witnessed it, but I have too been a victim of internalized racism. One evening, a group of boys surrounded me and became compelled to use the term “light-skinned” to ridicule me. Previously they admitted they longed to be somewhat my skin color, and since they were not they teased me instead. Becoming frustrated by their “jokes”, I probed them asking,

Growing up, my vision appeared to get worse and worse every year. Until I was in first grade I never thought to told my mom, considering it never caused any problems. It was until I would find myself squinting at the board everyday did my teacher wonder if something was wrong. Shortly after, I found out I needed glasses. From first grade to tenth grade, I went through multiple pairs of glasses, and my vision continued to deplete. I never complained about having glasses because they rarely got in my way. That was until high school, when I started running. Trying to sprint with glasses on can be extremely challenging. It took me two years to finally get the courage to get contacts. As someone who struggled with getting contacts in everyday over the summer and struggles now, I want to help those who go through the same conflict.

A sidewalk protects one from the dangers of the road when you need to go somewhere. It keeps you going towards the destination and helps to give one’s paths to follow. Even though it does influence one's direction, it still gives options. Some options might have danger like crossing the street but it will continue to have a plan for you.

Growing up church was not a place we “had time” to attend, and God was not a part of our household. It was not until about four years ago, that I began my relationship with Christ. On July 18, 2011, I began to have nine plus seizures a day; I spent a lot of time in the hospital trying to get answers to my over-night attacks. During this time, I fell into a depression because of the lack of answers. I felt that I was just being given drugs to get me discharged. Many would send prayers, and ask me to come to church, but it was not something I wanted to do. At this point in my life, I held anger in my heart; going to church and hearing about a God I did not know didn’t make sense. My mother was my primary care taker, and dealing with my sickness was not easy. In 2013, she was invited to church by a co-worker, and she took me along with her for the “ride”. We attended citylife church, and from the moment worship began, I was in tears. While the Pastor was speaking, it was like he was speaking directly to me, and I thought to myself, “He must know about why I am so depressed.” At the end of the service, the Pastor asked for those who would like to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior to come up, and I could not get there fast enough. This is where my journey with Christ began, and I learned that it was not the Pastor who was speaking to me on this day. God already knew I would be in attendance on this day, and I needed to hear the message that was given through the Pastor. I

We begin at an early age training our brain how to work in coordination with the rest of our body. Walking with one foot in front of the other, holding a fork and getting it from the plate to our mouth with the food still on it, all require training muscles to respond in a certain fashion. Then we progress and learn various other skills and facts that cause us to function in certain fashions. We learn what is deemed as right and wrong in society and then try to live within the norm. After much observation and study some of us, myself for one, believe that the sun comes up and goes down because that is how God made the world. That much I know to be true, but my understanding of how that works falls short. We try repeatedly to understand the things we know and yet we continue to search for clearer and sometimes even reasonable answers. How does our mind work? Do we know or do we understand? Turn left and you will go right, turn right and you will go left, said no one, until Destin Sandlin tried to ride a bike that worked backwards.

Michael Jordan said talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. This mentality is precisely the case with the compensation project. Individually, everyone could have finished the project however by working with others the project became more polished and finished quicker. In class, discussions with my group allowed me to gain exceptional insight on topics which previously I would have overlooked. Teamwork forced me to open up and look inwards to find how I was limiting the team and way to improve myself.

On my last day with class 3-213, I had the opportunity to conduct an interdisciplinary lesson using nonfiction articles. The articles I used derived from Nonfiction News: African Animal Edition by Cecelia Margo. Accordingly, the students have been studying nonfiction for several weeks and because of this, they had previously learned the various features of this genre. Upon planning for this lesson, I took time to prepare and craft an activity that would promote collaboration and engagement. Thoughtfully, I took into consideration the children that were in the room and adapted my lesson to meet their educational needs. Thus, I decided that I was going to crafted this lesson on the premises of two ideas: (1) tiered-text differentiation and (2) the pairing of advanced and struggling learners. Going into this lesson, I knew that I wanted to ask thoughtful and encouraging questions that would enable students to integrate their prior knowledge and challenge them.

happen the next day and I was constantly worrying about things I had no control over. I never took to time to really appreciate the day. When my dad first introduced me to the song “Tomorrow” by Unspoken, I didn't get the full message. But as I listened to the song more and more I came to realize how significantly this relates to my life. The song taught me how to focus on today, not worry about the future and let God take care of me.

Starting this journey, I was skeptical of what I could achieve in such a short period of time. I was shocked when I began writing this and got to reflect on the progress I have made, physically and emotionally. I have realized that change does not happen overnight and it takes serious commitment. I am now able to connect the activities we do in seminar to my own progressions. I know each situation is individualized to the patient but, getting to work through the process myself gave me an inside to what it takes and the struggles that my patients might encounter. After this journey, I feel better prepared to help clients through similar processes and aid them in making an important change.

As I was first raised as a child, the biggest influential individual in my life is my mother. Nonetheless, she comes from a background from how her parents raised her to treat others in the same manner as you would like to be treated. With this standard, this has been the “golden rule” throughout our family today. By belonging to a Catholic Church since I moved back to the state of Pennsylvania before entering the start of 2nd grade, I attended St.Ignatius of Antioch in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

The act of reading, writing, and listening to literature for enjoyment has always astounded me. Humans are the most complex animals on Earth, yet literature is still a novelty to some. It might be because of what we learn in school that turns us off from literature, but I may be different. I found a love for poetry and creative writing during my freshman year in high school. It was important for me to project what I could not say outloud, and that is where I felt unified with literature. When I put pen to paper, I felt like life had stopped and I was in the moment. Life became increasingly hard as I went through school, but each time I came back to writing, I felt as if I was drifting away in myself yet still in control. It was hard for me to find a way to cope with my ever changing life. The act of writing helped me tell my story in ways that I could not express to others due to our social expectations. Storytelling is important, for it provides a nessecary outlet in order to cope with life more easily.

Everyone has multiple chapters in their life, that create a story. Also, everyone has a chapter of their life they don’t read out all. I have mine, just like all of the other twenty three individuals in this classroom. This single story reminds me of challenge day in the eighth grade. Everyone read the chapter of their life out loud that they don’t usually share. This day was a day to reflect on the internal struggles people go through. This specific chapter people read in their head over and over until it consumes them. Mine may not be the most interesting one you’ll read but it will tell you significant events about my uneventful life. Here we go…

In Elizabeth’s classroom there are various activities going on all about Egypt, there are students demonstrating how ancient kings were mummified for burial. The students are learning about Ancient Egypt, but they are doing it in an atypical way. The activities and lessons are not teacher driven, instead the students are working in collaborative groups except one student and they are working on student driven projects. Some students are learning about pyramids. The classroom brings on a new meaning to organized chaos. A teacher who really needs structure in the classroom may have a difficult time with a classroom that is organized like Elizabeth’s. There are a few areas of concern when approaching student driven activities like what is being done in Elizabeth’s classroom. One concern is how can she ensure that all her students are learning the required content. To me this can be done a couple of ways. She could use formative assessments throughout the learning process as a way to assess if the students are learning the content. These can be as simple as observations of the students collaborating together, or as concrete as a pen/paper quiz over the required content. Another way is to establish content specific rubrics that are differentiated to meet the needs of each group’s specific projects. Of course the rubrics need to be presented and reviewed with the students several times throughout the process. Prior to beginning their assignments and then revisited in weekly

Since I took U.S history and AP Government in high school, I was not completely blind to issues regarding the government prior to taking this course. I knew how the government worked in terms of the separations of powers, the bureaucracy, civil liberties and civil rights, and the different branches of it. Therefore, I did understand the function and the purpose of the government, however, I did not understand them all too well to believe that my trust in the government was high. I see the bad in the good, and the good in the bad, therefore, I was skeptical of the government when it came to certain issues. Furthermore, I like to see all sides of an issue before I take a sand on it, this causes me to be confused as to where I stand in regards to my political thoughts and attitudes. Overall, however, I consider myself to be very liberal when it comes to politics and policy making, especially in regard to women’s rights, immigration, education, global warming and the environment, as well as health care. However, I am still confused of where I stand on certain issues, especially regarding issues such as affirmative action. In essence, I am still figuring out what my political thoughts and attitudes are, but the beliefs I currently have are highly due to my political socialization and hopefully with the information I learned in this course I can continue to better understand certain issues and how I identify with them.

In order to achieve the desired state of my teaching, I need to start by appearing more approachable. Proper nonverbal behaviors are essential for students to understand my feelings while I am teaching. I am going to remind myself to relax, first of all. Hopefully this will decrease my fidgeting too. During the lesson, I am going to remind myself to focus on what is going well. Instead of worrying about how well the lesson is going or how well I am teaching, I am going to direct my focus on the positives. This should help me appear less nervous and more at ease.