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.

Upon entering college, I was actually quite nervous about what to expect from my Composition I class. I’d seen the films, read the articles and heard from others about all the insane deadlines and stress that came with that. I never enjoyed writing or English class in general, but taking Composition I has changed my views on both. This class has benefitted me in several ways, as both a student and a writer. I have learned how to write more effectively, expanded my writing methods, and learned how to properly use different grammar techniques.

It is the night of September 4, 2015, a Friday during football season and getting to perform during halftime of my high school football game was a dream come true. As I am performing I feel a tearing that is coming from my right knee, I immediately fall to the ground in pain, but I had to get back up I can’t let my team down I must keep going. I make it through the dance, barely. I know this pain isn’t normal so I decide to go see a doctor with a very exciting name, Doctor Kazzam, I am hoping for news as exciting as his name. He does the major tests and finds out my meniscus is torn almost in half, meaning surgery is needed. Eight months after surgery and countless hours of knee strengthening physical therapy I am still nowhere close to being able to dance again. At this point I am hopeless, I have no motivation to do anything and I’m starting to give up on everything. I try binge watching Netflix, spending even more time with family, and drawing to try to be happy once again, none of this worked. My knee finally reaches the point of clearing in July. First day back at dance things were going great and they continue to go great for four more weeks I was so happy my motivation slowly started coming back and I was becoming myself again all until August 20, 2016. This time instead of a tearing feeling I feel a pop, and a loud pop as I fall to the ground the girls around me look around to see what that popping noise was. I decide to try a new doctor and this time I pick an

We all know that there is never that one person that is perfect in life, but we always believe that some people are just born perfect. For example, a person that will never get mad and have patience for everything, or a person that is attractive, or a person who has the most improved educational skills. In contrast, on my daily routines, I take out my anger on every little obstacle that gets in my way. I do not bother to take a step on exercising and procrastinate on schoolwork. This has been a routine in my life that I know I have to stop and do something to change it, but I just leave it aside and ignore it as if it everything was okay. Now that I have been reading The Habit and have been assigned to do a 30-day challenge, I have decided to form goals for myself. I had enough with these problems, and I am willing to create a better lifestyle by being a calmer person, living a healthier lifestyle, and being a better student.

On September 12, 14, and 19, 2017 I had the pleasure of tutoring Haven. Haven is a nine-year-old, who is in fourth grade at Mark Twain Elementary School in Hannibal, MO. In each session, we would work together for 60 minutes. I was able to learn a lot of things while tutoring. First off, going in to tutor Haven and not knowing really anything about her and her learning preferences. It was hard not knowing what strategies helped her the most when reading or which ones made it more difficult for her. But that is going to be with any student(s), you just have to go with the flow. You will learn those things as you get to know the student. That is what happened with Haven and I, within the first tutoring session she let me know her learning preferences and what she liked. Then within the sessions we were together, I knew which strategy helped her while reading and what she struggled with.

I was walking down the hallway of the hospital when I heard a patient calling out for help in a familiar language. As I walked into the Russian patient’s room, I noticed a group of nurses trying to decipher her concerns. Despite their efforts, she was still crying out for help due to the language barrier hindering her communication with the nurses about her severe abdominal pain. I happily stepped in and translated between the patient, named Yekaterina, and the nurses. The genuine look of gratefulness in her eyes along with the constant “sposibo” of gratitude I received from her for doing such a simple deed was truly something I will never take for granted. Quite often we find ourselves falling into a daily routine, making it easy to lose sight of why we are doing what we love in the first place. After many months of volunteering at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, this fortuitous instance of being in the right place at the right time reminded me of why I was at the hospital. I was there to help Yekaterina, and other patients like her in the future. I treasure this moment and this memory because it represents perhaps the first time when I stopped feeling like I was simply trying to help patients, and instead stepped into my true role as a healthcare professional making a tangible difference in the lives of people in need of healing.

When I was born to about the age of 8, I kept to myself and enjoyed playing alone. I didn’t want anyone else’s input on what I had to say, because I was happy with the choices I was making when I was playing with my toys. My mom told me I would sit in my room and play with my stuffed animals and My Little Pet Shop toys for hours on end just talking away, but when it came down to group settings I would just be quiet. I have been trying to figure out why that is. I do not remember being to told be quiet or to listen. I just did it. I enjoyed listening to others, because I was learning from their words. I already knew what I thought and didn’t see the importance of sharing that.

I am a Michigan State University transferred sophomore student at WCCCD majoring in Pre-Nursing. I still have my whole life to go. I am 19 years old so, I have a lot to live and go through in life. I am through the adolescent age of becoming a young adult into an official adult.

The purpose of this project was to provide teacher candidates, such as myself, with an opportunity to gain experience in a preschool/pre kindergarten environment. I was given the opportunity to collaborate with the lead teacher in a pre-k classroom to learn about the daily classroom routines. I partnered with a child to implement in-class and out-of-class activities. Through implementation of these activities, I was given the opportunity to collaborate with the child, her mom, and the teacher to come up with age appropriate activities that interested my student. I completed my fieldwork at Kindercare Learning Center in Richfield, OH. I have worked at Kindercare for over a year and I was extremely excited to see what I was able to learn by doing my field work at my place of employment and learn more about the incredible child care center at which I am lucky to work. This location of Kindercare recently earned a 5 star rating from Step Up To Quality. The teacher in which I shadowed this semester was Ms. Jackie. Ms. Jackie has been teaching at Kindercare for a little over one year. She attended Bowling Green University, studying middle level education. She left school prior to graduation as she realized she did not want to teach middle school. Shortly after leaving Bowling Green, she received a job at Kindercare. She initially was hired as the preschool teacher working with the three year olds, but after about 6 months, she moved up to being the pre-k classroom lead teacher.

First I would like to mention that I enjoyed reading this Chapter as it hit home for me because the teachers from Loyola Marymount University believe in building family and community strengths and I fit that mold. Even though demonstrating passion and empathy is mostly frowned upon by many in our institutions due to concentrating on teaching to the test. If you provide your students with a safe learning environment, my experiences have shown that they are more apt to flourish. As a result, I provide this type of atmosphere in my classroom. For example, one of the teachers interviewed, Leticia Ornelas, had “Lotion Day” Nieto (2013). I have shared my lotion with students as well. Some of them fall under the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. And like she mentions, it provides them with a safe, caring, and passionate learning environment because you build that rapport. Building teacher to student relationships is essential to student outcomes.

“Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured” -Rick Warren. Sunday, November 30, 2014 around 12:40 was a very special day for me. Life-changing you could say. This was a breaking of a new day to me. A fresh start and a very new beginning. This is a day that I never will forget. The day when my heart was spiritually opened and an opened invitation was held out to a certain someone. The day I was baptized in Jesus name. Baptism is a sacred event for Christians. It is considered an ordinance of Jesus Christ. It is a concept of being submerged under water to be considered ‘’saved’’. Being saved in other words is saved means that you are accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He is now the center of your life. It means giving up yourself and doing the work of Christ. It means turning from anything that is against the will of the highest. The day I gave my life to Christ was very special to me because I learned a lot that day. I learned who I was, who I was in Christ, and what life after this meant for me.

There I was, standing in the grounds of my school, bound by judgemental onlooking eyes, which studied me for a sign of vulnerability; begging for me to collapse into my self-fabricated darkness. Like a cowardly criminal, I slumped, trembling uncontrollably in the middle of the secluded balcony, where I implored myself to “stop” as I yet again had a crippling anxiety attack which incarcerated my whole body, though this time because my counsellor had called my parents regarding my suicidal ideation. It was punishing enough to wake up in the mornings, though faced with the constant internalization of emotions tore strips off my self-esteem. Tears filled my eyes like an overflowing river and cascaded down my face, though freezing in the silence. Proceeding to tell myself repetitively to “stop it”, as I refused to accept that mental illness was the corruptive reality of my life, I cowered as the flashbacks uncontrollably replayed in my mind. I recollected the words that any mother would dread to divulge to their child; that “sometimes I think that it would be better that you were gone, because then, you wouldn’t have to feel this pain”, contradicting this by expressing to me that “I know it’s selfish, but you can’t leave me”.

When I picked up the book Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland, I could not help but form a negative opinion about it. I thought, “Great. Here is another book trying to tell me how to generically make my life better.” I looked up at Ms. Purser with a sneer and pessimistic thoughts running through my head. As soon as I began reading the first chapter, though, my opinion turned on its head. This was proving to be a book written from a real person’s perspective. Instead of cliché instructions on how to improve my life, I was reading the story of a man who came up in the ghetto, but changed his mentality and began leading a

When thinking of things that excite me and make me feel alive, useful, and engaged in meaningful activities several things come to mind. Helping people, volunteering in the hospital in the Dominican Republic, going on mission trips, and making a difference in people lives are just a few to name.

When I was in 8th grade at Niu Valley Middle School my English teacher assigned a poem project and we had to record ourself reciting a poem that we made about nature. We also had to make a slideshow with pictures that represented what we were saying. The teacher, Ms. Fujimoto, assigned students two weeks to complete the project. During the first week after the project was given, every English class was dedicated to working on the poem project. Throughout this time I decided not to do anything and just go on my phone because I thought the project was very simple and would take little to no time to complete. I was also very tired and the room was like a sauna and it was boiling me until I was soaking with sweat. I vividly remember staring