Reflection Paper

There are multiple reasons I am where I am today and why I’m going where I’m going. I have struggled in school ever since I can remember but without the people that I have had in my life I wouldn’t where I am today. But as I will talk about the teacher have played a huge role in the reason I am able to be where I am today.

For most of my elementary and middle school career, I averaged about two or three absences in a given week. I hated class, didn’t understand why I had to be there all the time if I could come every other day and still get A’s. While this may have been true, albeit arrogant, I now see how I had misunderstood. It took me until my sophomore year of high school to realize how passionate I actually am about it. It was then, with the aid of two specific teachers, that I realized how the most noble and honest thing one can pursue in life is knowledge and education. These two history teachers, good friends to each other, not only taught me about the history of the world and how relevant it is to life today, but also taught me the two most important lessons I’ve learned up to this point.

After completing the match assessment, I familiarized myself with several behaviors I did not know I had. First, I will talk about the statements that I consider most like me. With my career in retail since the age of nineteen I have acquired quiet the few skills. I can get others to do what I want them to do by being very discreet. In order to have a successful team, you must guide each individual to reach success. I am currently employed in a bakery which means that my duties include training new individuals who will be working with me. By holding a professional tone, I have noticed that each trainee complies with their work. I like the freedom that open-ended goals provide me. My personal freedom is something that I do not take for granted. Open-ended goals for me should not set limitations to getting the work done or acquiring new ideas. Additionally, I have noticed that I work best when things are orderly and calm.

In our everyday lives, we tend to categorize people because of their race, culture, their socioeconomic status, and judge people by their looks, age, ability, and gender. When I was working at a daycare past summer of grade 9, I met one Chinese girl who was around 4-5 years old. One time I witness her classmates making fun of her because she has a asian accent when she talks in English, her eyes are small, her mom works at a restaurant with low pay. Even during break, I would always see her sitting in a corner all alone, while others were having fun. Therefore, I took the courage to talk to her. Throughout the conversation, I realized that she was mad at herself because she has a different race from others, language barrier between her and her classmates and she was ashamed of her mother working at a restaurant because other parents work at a higher pay occupation.

Writing is a tool that will be used throughout my lifetime. It is a tool that is worth taking the time to perfect because it will only be beneficial in the long run. On my writing assignments, I earn A’s, but I still have areas that I need to work on. The areas that I struggle the most would be with simple grammar errors such as the use of commas, writing with an active voice, and writing short,simple sentences. First of all, I often do not know where to place commas in my sentence. I struggle with this because I tend to add commas in the wrong place, so I have become confused with the proper use of commas. This is a small grammar error that I can easily correct by learning where and when commas are needed. I have also found and been told that I write in a passive voice when I should be using an active voice. This is a technique that I have to work on by practicing it and noticing the difference while I am writing and reading. Finally, I often write run on sentences or sentences that include unnecessary information. This makes my writing unclear and difficult for the reader to understand. I could improve by writing shorter and simpler sentences that include only the essential information to get my point across. I have noticed these mistakes in my writing and it has also been brought up by others, so I am currently working on improving it.

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.

The Jesus and Christian Community class at Fresno Pacific University is a course where a student can further develop their relationship and understanding of the Bible while discovering a relationship with Christ. All incoming freshmen are required to take this course as a part of their general education requirements which focuses on the book of Matthew, his interpretation, and the historical background of the Bible. One of our assignments is to help incoming pupils understand a certain verse and its purpose. The section we will be focusing on is the in Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 through 21 in addition to the Sadducees and other related topics. Jesus has followers which are the general public and disciples who are the people who claim to be devoted to God called the Pharisees and Sadducees. The faction of the disciples called the Sadducees are a group that are not characteristically what one would depict as humble servant of Christ. They followed their own set of rules and had standards that were different from the Pharisees, the followers of Christ, and Jesus himself. As we continue this discussion, we will see the importance of the verse in Matthew along with the roles the Sadducees and the things that influenced their cultural views.

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.

In the summer of 2016 I left on a rare affair to burn through three weeks in India teaching English at a local primary school in a little village. Much to my dismay that the effect it would have on me in my English class in my senior year of high school. Before my journey began my parents revealed to me that this experience would change my view on a considerable measure of things back home and make me more appreciative of all the opportunities I have in the United States. If were not for this extraordinary experience my literacy practices would have been entirely different my senior year.

Jesus’ question “Who do you say that I am” has been one of the most debated questions in Catholicism. Over the past few years of Theology, I have consistently been taught that the Catholic Church believes “Jesus Christ is God the Son, who became man for us.” According to the Church's teachings, we are encouraged to live the way Jesus did, as He is our Lord and Savior. This means we must respect our “enemies”, ourselves, and for that matter all people we encounter in our everyday lives, just like Jesus did. Throughout the Scriptures, we are also reminded of the way Jesus helped people to believe and made them better people with each encounter, even if they didn’t realize it at the time. All of this made Jesus the person that many people view Him as today. So, in agreement with the Catholic Church, I believe that Jesus was the Son of God who saved our lives and saved us from our sins.

It was mid-July in the summer of 2017. I learned that my grandparents were taking a trip to see my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Bill down in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. They asked me if I wanted to tag along with them. I had many different emotions when I found out. My grandmother has memory issues, so I would have to tolerate that for about twelve hours in a boring, annoying van. My grandfather was on oxygen, so I would have to load up his tanks, oxygen machine, and the hoses, and if you do not know, those are bulky and heavy. Those were some negatives, but once there, I would have a four-wheeler to ride and miles of land to make trails on, cities nearby to explore (Frankfort, Louisville, and Lexington), and many distilleries to visit (Lawrenceburg is in the heart of bourbon country), so I was excited.

Over the course of the semester we have done numerous writing assignments in order to help us dig deeper into topics that we might not have known about previously and to improve our writing skills. I have never been an excellent writer. I’ve had trouble planning out where details would go in my past papers. However, there has been a clear improvement in my writing when looking back on the work that I have done in this class.

Reflecting on the past two terms in school, I would constantly find myself preparing and delivering a lesson which I felt were missing something. I was constantly asking my mentor teachers how I could have better differentiated lessons, especially at senior level. I believe on completing this assignment I have discovered three extremely beneficial frameworks which will improve my lessons and I believe develop a flexible curriculum which allows differentiation for all students to develop their learning capacity and engage them throughout the lesson.

Since arriving on campus, I have been asked how I came to Miami several times. Some would say that coming here is destiny, but I disagree. Psalm 139 says that before I was born, “in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (NKJV, Psalms 139:16). While there are several main components about which I will write, I keep coming back to the fact that God placed me here.

Every school has these four main academic subjects: English, Math, Science, History/Geography. The class I like the most in my eighth grade school year is History. This is because we get to learn about different time periods, different people, different religions, and so much more. We don't just sit in class and read out of a textbook. We get to do fun activities to help us understand more. While we work, we talk to our teacher and have funny and weird conversations. We make fun of each other and have a good laugh. I'm always excited to go to History class.