Reflection Paper On Reflection

As a believer in Christ grows they become more aware of the gifts that they may have been given by the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to use the gifts for the right reasons. We are to allow God to work through us to edify the body of Christ. I see a lot of so called Christians these days using what is supposed to be a spiritual gift to use for ministry of the local church using them for self-edification. They are looking to see how much praise they can get instead of how much pleasure God will get through their service. We as believers need to be able to discern between what a spiritual gift is and what virtue is. A spiritual gift is related to the ministry of Christ and a virtue is related to our character. It is very easy for someone to blur the line between two and get confused. Our spiritual gifts are not the same for everyone, where all who believe should show the fruit of the spirit. To some believers the Holy Spirit gives the gift of serving, teaching, administration, and so on. But in the end it is not what spiritual gift we have but how we use it; this is what makes the difference between edifying the body of Christ or oneself.

Learning something new is something to strive for. However, are all the lessons we learn good ones? After all, there are two sides to every coin. A lot of the times it is easy to find the bad lessons learned but what about the good? Well, that takes a lot more thought. Ironically these were the thoughts running through my head that day, that dreadful day which is permanently burned into the back of my mind.

Going into the meeting, my intentions for the focus student, at which I wanted my colleagues to notice, were the purpose of each work sample and the information required for each sample. The samples that were provided for my colleagues were the summative project, “Rock Detectives”, and the focus student’s interactive folder he used throughout the entire unit. Based on my colleagues describing the work, asking questions, and through speculation, the intentions were apparent. First, my colleagues were able to identify my summative project and was able to notice that the interactive folder was an ongoing activity throughout the lesson. Next, they pointed out the key vocabulary throughout my unit, “I see vocabulary.” Finally, they noticed that the information was organized throughout the three pieces of sample work, which they noticed my intention of organizing the academic language.

Each Wednesday in class, you will learn about different world religions and how they compare to Christianity. Your class discussions will be lively and Mr. Mackie’s lectures will be informative. Your time in class each week will solely be devoted to learning about different world religions. There will be no English or grammar instruction in class. Our time together will solely be digital and online. Assignments will be sent to you each Wednesday evening via email. For the most part, most assignments are due the following Tuesday by 6:00AM. Students will be notified of due date and time when each assignment is given. Students will send via email their completed assignments to me. While we will not have in-class instruction, this internet approach allows me to individualize assignments and assessments according to the student’s age, grade, and writing level. I will read, analysts and assess each composition and send back to the student (and parent) my detailed notes, comments and suggestions for corrections. The students will not be allowed to revise graded assignments, however, the comments and corrections given in the previous compositions are expected to be applied to each paper handed in there after.

It is helpful for individuals to be aware of their past as they remain living it. I came into this world in 1973 as nature created me, a premature infant growing with the assistance of artificial support while radiating unconditional love, happiness, and innocence. I had no thoughts, beliefs, or stories to abide by. I was just being and experiencing each moment of time that life was offering: to sense, explore, and grow. In recollection of my youth, memories often reemerge of an internal calling to drawing pictures of things found in nature that brought good feelings and the joy of sharing this with others. The artwork most often would incorporate flowers, rainbows, feathered creatures, bees and different nature beings. Every one of them brought a sense of aliveness as a dazzling representational process that would reflect association with Mother Earth. There was much delight for me as a child connecting and resonating with nature, void of any story world. Somehow, through all the purity of that happy childhood, there was an intuitive knowing and sense of a genuine relationship to the natural world, which brought a deep feeling of being seen and understood, which was reflecting all those special moments between this innocent child within and nature. This shared existence always brought a sense of enjoyment between myself and many natural beings. It is common knowledge countless individuals have had comparable experiences. I have survived my challenges by embracing

In today’s society, the main idea that is presented by many people is that there is nothing that can be labeled as an absolute truth. This means that everything that we believe today is based solely on one’s opinion of a certain matter. This philosophy was first brought to my attention during my junior year of high school. I was taking an AP language class, and my professor insisted on starting these arguments about absolute truths and opinions. As one of the only Christians in the class, these topics angered me. The professor was practically attacking the very beliefs that I stand firm on, and I was not okay with it. There would be times where I would raise my hand and present my argument against his belief, but that would always end in a class argument debating one side or the other. Once the class was over, I always found myself revisiting my Word. I could always find my comfort in the Word of God. As Christians, we have to understand the importance of the Canon, or truths given to us by God.

On December 11th, 2006 my dad died due to multiple heart attacks. I as a person stand centered upon this fateful date. Although it was his death that sent me into the darkest chapters of my life, it too formed me into the hard-working, and by extension intelligent, person that I am today.

By the time the world considered me to be an adult, I had an unshakable competitive spirit traceable back to as early as my junior high school days, if not before.

It’s an ambiguous concept. It’s got a scale range from getting a new bed to losing a loved one. Sometimes it’s asked for and other times, it’s not. Sometimes you’re a little girl waiting to get a haircut only for the final result to be disastrous and other times you’re walking out of the salon feeling like royalty. Sometimes you’re simply changing the color of your walls and other times you’re moving to a new house. Sometimes you’re meeting new people and other times you’re losing your best friends.

During my eight grade in highschool, I was the archetype of a school nerd. My only focus was to study and exceed my teachers’ expectations at the expense of any other extracurricular activities. As many common top students, I thought I had to conform to the school rules; that is, excellence can only be achieved through maintaining good grades. I believed I did not have the power to challenge this common conception. Power can be observed in a large scale such as a whole nation, but it can also be seen in a more narrow scale as within each individual. I did not realize how much power I had until I challenged my own beliefs and went out of my comfort zone by joining my school soccer team.

In this course, one of the things I learned that stood out to me cognitively that prompted an internal cognitive reaction was bereavement experiences. On the first day of class, I learned that there are different beliefs about what happens after death. For example, some people think that reincarnation happens after death. However, I believe you either go to heaven or hell. I almost second guessed myself when reincarnation was brought up. Second, seeing the video of the mom discussing the story of her daughter committing suicide prompted an internal cognitive reaction in me. I was thinking to myself, how couldn’t anyone prevent this from happening? I wish that she knew what she was experiencing was only temporarily and not permanently. I was angry that she had to endure so much pain and obstacles in her life. Third, hearing the story of Prof. Windsor life and how she still grew to be strong, successful, and leading groups to help others with similar stories to hers. I was motivated to work on being a better social worker.

Mr. Abedi then introduced me to Miriam, one of the woman volunteering at Open Mosque Day. Miriam was working behind one of the tables educating people on Islam. She gave me a Qur’an , a short biography on Muhammad and lots of other information to take home. She was very interesting to talk as she was raised Catholic and converted to Islam. She spoke about how Islam is a lot like Catholicism and that Mary is mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an more than any other woman. I asked her if she believes Mary is the mother of God and she replied no. Miriam told me she was mentioned seventy times and that she is recognized as devoting herself to God. She explained to me that Allah wants us to pray and that God is great! God is absolute, perfect and unique. I asked her if she believes in God and she replied she believes in Allah and that Allah means God in Arabic. Up until she explained this I thought of God and Allah as two separate people. Miriam was not comfortable taking a picture with me so she found Mr. Abedi and we took a picture together. I thanked them both for their time. Syed commented that he thought it was great that I was open to learning about other religions.

Throughout my career as a student, I have met several great teachers that have inspired me in their field of expertise. These teachers often use approaches of great educators and their philosophies of teaching in order to become great teachers. One of the educators that have a valuable approach to teaching is the educator Eleanor Duckworth, who emphasized the development of intelligence through ideas from students (Hall, Quinn, & Gollnick, 2017). Duckworth’s philosophy can be seen in the two great teachers that I explored in this paper: Dr. DiFabio and Hanne.

Pastors need mentors, mentees, and true peers. I have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with two pastor colleagues both in very different places in life and ministry. Yet, even from these different places, all three of us share some very basics understandings and needs as we strive to serve the church. Rev. Bev Dempsey and Rev. Nikki Brown Rice are the two selected clergy persons I chose for this connection exercise. All the best plans were intended to email and create a great long thread of emails to turn in. One thing we all have in common is that we are much better face-to-face connections than in email. Therefore, when given the chance to decide to connect through email versus personal conversations, we all agreed on personal conversations.

Though my father is Black, I was born into a middle class White family in considerably rural West Virginia. The community in which I grew up in was largely White and conservative, however, I have experienced many different cultures and styles of living in my lifetime. Based on my experience in these various settings, I cannot help but think that the way in which others view me often depends on the person on the other end. I suppose gender is rather obvious to the majority, but I feel as though my socioeconomic status and race are largely subjective. Especially with regard to race, people have perceived me as Black, Dominican, Polynesian, and even White-- almost anything than what I actually am. I have noticed that these various perceptions often depend on who I am with and who I am surrounded by. This, of course, bothers me to a certain degree. As Ropeik (2012) points out, people are tribal in that we stick to those who are culturally and ethnically similar, related or not. I have often felt as though being mixed race in America means being largely tribe-less, resulting in identity ambiguity and confusion.