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.

Motivation affects many different areas for students in education. Areas include how the student feels about school, teacher relationships, testing performance, and time and effort spent on academics. Without motivation, academic engagement is almost impossible to achieve. However, research has shown that highly motivated students perform better academically, have a better self-esteem, and tend to complete high school. As a student progresses through school, motivation tends to decline. According to a 2004 analysis by the National Research Council, approximately 40 percent of high school students report being disengaged from learning. In addition, a similar survey showed that 70 percent of students who dropped out of school stated that being unmotivated was a key factor (Kober and Usher, 2012).

“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.

Arriving at college I felt like I had a decent idea of what to expect, because I spent a year at boarding school. The main difference between boarding school, and college to me from the outside, was going to be the freedom of no curfews, no mandatory hours in which you study, no uniforms, and no sexuality segregation within dormitories. For the most part my pre college assumption was right. However, one of the things that I didn’t realize was the amount of different people I was going to meet, and how they would have an impact on me.

Most students can agree that as writers, they have improved since the beginning of the term. For most their work ethic was lacking at the beginning because they believed they could breeze through the class, hardly trying and they would realize this would not work and I was one of those students. Ever since the first essay my work ethic has drastically increased. I would spend more time writing and revising my essays as the term went on. Because of the increase in work ethic, the quality of my papers also increased, as did my stress level. The increase in my work ethic, writing quality, and stress level all contributed to the increase in the grades I received on my essays.

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.

Get the ball into the net. Get the ball through the hoop. Get the ball to the outfield. Or back infield, if I was playing defense.

As a preschooler, you won’t remember much of the things you were doing. In that time your brain and your fine motor skills are still being developed and you were just learning to speak as well. It is also a vital part of our lives, where you start to learn how to read, write, and be more self-aware as you continue aging.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and Greaater Works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:12-14

Going into this term, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My initial plan did not include taking this course this summer. Somehow, Troy ended up changing the schedule and it worked out for me. At least, I thought it was going to work out for me. This term has been very interesting. The classes that I took are PSY 6645 Evaluation and Assessment and CP 6642 Group Dynamics. This paper is going to be about my experience in PSY 6645. I’m going to discuss concepts that were new to me, experiences that caused me to think differently, if I feel as if this course is meaningful, and what can be applied to my professional practice.

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.

- A strong desire to learn: This is quite similar with strong motivation indicated above.

At the age of 10 years old I moved to the United States after a devastating earthquake that nearly destroyed my beautiful island of Haiti in January of 2010. I was forced to leave behind everything I’d ever known because Haiti was in havoc; I was no longer safe. I left my once beautiful country with one suitcase in hand and a heart filled with sadness. To my friends, I was considered lucky to be leaving, but little did they know, starting over isn't the easiest thing especially in an unknown environment. Although, I myself was a US citizen, I never considered the United States as my true home since I had never traveled there or had the desire to. Everything that I ever wanted, my country provided for me. Life in America was foreign to me, and I’d only heard of it through stories, but now I had become part of that story.

I have heard my professor state before, that education is a right not a favor, education is an important tool that should be taught to all students fairly. In a perfect world all students will enter a classroom with full bellies, a goodnights rest, and an eager mind ready to learn; however, we do not live in a perfect world. Some students enter a room hungry, tired, many thoughts running through their head, more energy than they can handle, or even they cannot walk and are being wheeled into the classroom. For this class I have read two very interesting books about smart young men who encountered many challenges at school and at home. John Elder is a bright young man who grew up during a time period where teachers, his parents, or even doctors were not quite sure why he was not like other children. As I was reading I asked myself many questions, but I had one very important one that stood out among them all, would I be the teacher to dig deeper and try to understand why this intelligent student is failing his classes? Blake also faced challenges that made me question what I would do if I were in his or even his teachers shoes.

The textbook definition for motivation is the “inner state that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior. (Ormrod, 2015, p. 186)” It goes on to state that humans usually tend to work with a purpose. Motivation not only “influences the activities that learners choose,” but it also affects “the degree to which they engage in those activities (Ormrod, 2015, p. 186). While teachers do play a big part in motivating students, motivation also has to come from within the students. In order for students to feel motivated, they must have certain primary