Reflection Paper

On September 6, 2017, I were documented for an incident that involved a University Housing policy violation. I was charged with violating the University Housing Alcohol 1.2 policy. With my violation, came consequences. I met with The Residence Conduct Coordinator to discuss my actions and came to the conclusion that I would have to schedule a meeting with The Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC) and with that, a reflection paper.

The personal is political is the idea that problems that relate to women’s lives, such as abortion and rape laws, child care policies, etc., can be solved through political action or means (Pateman, 299). The idea is for women to be more attentive in the politics that affect their lives. According to Pateman, the idea is that public factors, such as laws and policies, are structured by personal events (299).

“I have told you theses things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 14:13. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your god; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10. Theses are the words that god has spoken. The lord christ has helped with so many things you may not know about. Have you hear of miracles he does the little miracles in life.

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?

I have always been a believer of second chances, wanting to help people who find themselves in difficult situations within the law. To help people get another opportunity, that I firmly believe everyone deserves. Have we not always been taught to learn from our mistakes, and become better people because of them? I simply cannot accept that a few poor decisions can and should define a person for the rest of their life.

It is easy to underestimate how much effort is required to complete a goal. A common struggle for college students in particular is finding a perfect balance between giving too much effort and too little. Time management is critical and giving too much effort wastes precious time while giving too little results in a poor grade. I have personally found that when it comes to achieving goals either academic or personal, you can never give too much effort. In fact, the amount of effort you put into your work not only determines whether or not you reach your goal, but also defines you as a person. Knowing this fact, I took steps this semester to ensure that I achieved my goal of straight A’s, not just for the class but for the assignments as well.

The lessons that I develop follow a specific format that includes challenging, measurable objectives, appropriate pacing for each component of the lesson, appropriate student engagement strategies, activities, materials, pre-assigned groupings, and helpful resources. For example, I implement strategies and activities within lessons in order to provide students with an excited experience while learning. Within my well-structured lessons, I ensured that I included rituals and routines that students were familiar with. I also provided students with appropriate responses if students had a misconception about the current topic in order to avoid students feeling of embarrassment or frustration. For instance, during a phonics lesson, a student wrote the word "dat" instead of the word "bat." When seeing the misconception of letter reversals, I made the comment to be sure of the direction of their written letters and to remember that "b has a belly and d wears a diaper." Seeing that this misconception was evident, I provided students with a visual of these letters on the whiteboard. Following all lessons that I teach, I reflect upon my practices and continuously ask my supervising practitioner how the previous lesson went and I state what I feel as though I could improve, as I have the tendency to grasp when I make mistakes or could provide clarification for students. I also reflect on my teaching performance when watching recorded videos and listening to voice recordings of my

Throughout each life stage I have encountered weather it being the past future or present I have faced and will face changes. The changes are influenced by the developmental stage, developmental tasks, psychosocial crisis, and central process for resolving crisis, radius of significant relationships, and the coping strategies I have adapted to. Within these aspects previously listed that have influenced me in the past, present, and in the future I have successes and barriers that have also shaped me into the person I am in my present stage. By way of example, the psychosexual theory and the social learning theory draw relation to my development and experiences that have shaped my development through my life stages. Upon the early adolescence, later adolescence, and early adulthood life stages I have encountered have helped structure the development I have in my present life stage.

Bang! The gun goes off and your life flashes before your eyes. It’s the moment I realize I need to focus in on my body’s effort and concentration to finish the course that lies before me. I’m thinking about the race most of the day and preparing mentally for what challenges can occur along the course. Could I fall and sprain or break an ankle? Could I get overheated and sick? I’ve ask myself these questions while running Cross Country for six years. But, nothing can really prepare me for what’s ahead when I’m running. When that gun goes off and everyone starts running, it’s a totally different environment. My dedication and pride got me through coming in last for four years of cross country. I learned this exact lesson as journeyed my way to each finish line, making me stronger each time.

Do you remember what your priorities were when you were eight years old? When I was that age (1965), I was in third grade. One of my jobs was to make breakfast on weekday mornings for some of my younger brothers and sisters. At that age, my primary goal was to figure out ways to get out of work around the house, so I could go outside and play with my cousins who lived in the neighborhood.

So this is the paper on what I have learned personally through my first semester of college. Throughout the beginning of my first semester I tried to treat it like high school. High school for me was always a breeze the teachers were decent the classes were filled with people I don’t really like but act like I do for the sake of getting through each day, the curriculum was easy, and nothing really stressed me out. College, as I learned was an entirely different monster. The classes were full of people who I didn’t know and who probably wouldn’t bat an eye if I showed up with my hair messed up or my clothes wrinkled. Full of faces that are only there to take notes and pass a test. That was the biggest adjustment, people don’t care about other people. Theyre there for themselves and their own personal agenda is what comes first. The initial feeling of being by myself was weird, it didn’t matter what the person next to me was doing nor did it matter what you were doing. Every choice you made was solely reliant on you. In high school if you pull out your phone the teacher gets onto you and takes it away. In college if you want to waste time on your phone you can, people do it consistently too. I’ve seen people playing games on their laptops, watching soccer games, instant messaging their mom. There is a lot of not paying attention for some people and at the beginning of the year I would occasionally get on Instagram or snapchat instead of paying attention because I still had

I don’t think women are truly appreciated for the fierce warriors that they are. I think the downside to my gender is the “period”. I have been plagued with that since I was nine and I can tell you I’m not going to miss it when it’s gone. One experience that I remember particularly growing up was at my high school. A male teacher suggested that math wasn’t for girls and I should go take a economics class and learn to sex something. He didn’t like my response and I was kicked out of class and happy to be away from a narrow-minded misogynistic man. I think one thing that this experience has taught me is that basic respect for people should be given to all equally not just one group.

At a young age, I have always dealt with internal issues such as anxiety. Art is one way I could let myself become calm, it has always been there for me when I needed it, but it soon became a problem once I was made aware that Islam would not allow my way of coping. As an aspiring artist I was told by my Islamic teachers that drawing images, anything with a soul, is a mockery to Allah and his ability to create! According to them, I was honoring the man-made idols that were worshipped by the people of Madinah eventually leading them astray in the times of prophets, that I would be punished for my sin. Soon after though, I would see the broad perspective of religion and belief. For many years, I have been told that nothing else was the truth, except for Islam. With so many days spent inside my home, four years of being in an Islamic private school, and being fed nothing but traditional Islamic ideals and opinions, I would grow up to have a closed mind to the Liberal American way. I countered their overwhelming claims. I came to understand that I had the power to make my own decisions in life and that I could determine what made me happy, what made me a good person, even if that meant rebelling against the way I was raised and taught to live since birth. This was the toughest decision of my life.

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.

I remember sitting in my first grade classroom and staring at the whiteboard while Mrs. Amen talked. “What if all this church stuff is a lie fooling the world?” I thought and would continue to for a while afterwards. Growing up, I had always assumed I became a Christian when I was 6 years old but now I’m convinced it wasn’t authentic. Everyone else in my church and school was one so I essentially thought, "Why not?" However, I was never convinced of its authenticity, having never felt the presence of the Holy Spirit or the Father’s perfect love. It was in no way my church’s fault but the Holy Spirit waited to show Himself to me. Until then I would tune out every time God being brought up and only saw the Bible as a resource for world history. However, when I was 12, God brought me to my knees and over the years has thoroughly convinced me logically, emotionally, and practically of His existence moreover the Bible.