Reflection Paper

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.

For centuries, people have lived in poverty and many have been deprived of a high quality education because the schools where they live are not very good. The families being affected typically live in low-income parts of cities or states. Oftentimes, families in this situation don’t have the money or support to relocate to a community with better schools. In Boston, children as young as 3 or 4 can be affected by this issue, and it can last their whole lives. When learning about this topic, it is very important to understand why many schools in high-poverty communities are not very good. This is true for many reasons. The first reason is that the school may not have the financial abilities to keep the facilities in good shape. This can come in a variety of forms, including decaying walls, leaking ceilings, or even broken heating and cooling systems. Even if the campus is in great condition, inside the classrooms can be teachers who are not on the higher end of their profession, and lack the skills to expertly educate their students. Lastly, many students in these situations face additional burdens purely because they live in poverty. This may include hunger, fatigue, homelessness, or lack of access to

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always be true to yourself and never let what somebody says distract you from your goals.” Stated once by former First Lady, Michelle Obama. The leading female exemplar emphasized how knowledge was essential for development along with advocating for higher institution erudition. Education prompted me to opportunities, exposure to modern situations, and encounters with people from various ethnic backgrounds and perspectives. Throughout my journey of education, I felt unfortunate to receive certain aspects of my education due to being teased by other children, nevertheless fortunate to acquire my current education due to the content received where I am able to contribute to my community where I confronted challenges that expanded my skill and knowledge for the future opportunities essential to assisting the community with materials obtained by TASS.

As a student radiographer I have come across many learning situations that required me to put into practice aspects of the mandatory training that I completed within my first few weeks at university. I have chosen to discuss manual handling as my topic as I feel it is something that is encountered daily in the job role of a radiographer. The everyday positioning of patients and moving them, either physically around on a trolley or moving them from the trolley to the x-ray bed highlights the importance of good manual handling practice. Poor moving and handling practice can injure the patient or a staff member, this can lead to a loss of dignity and cause discomfort (HSE, 2017)

My perception, understanding and appreciation for Christ has been a long varied, incrementally positive path that started with the introduction of the Scriptures from Roman Catholic catechism classes. I also recall an exceptionally early introduction to prayer through an insert from the New York Times that my father gave to me. Notably, with extreme thankfulness my non religious grandmother sent me to a Christian summer camp as a teen. Here the gospel was presented to me for the first time. Later I returned to work on the grounds of the summer camp in the kitchen over several summermos. In my teen years, my spiritual diet was greatly varied from the house church where I was baptized, to several charismatic churches that we visited when I was young, being invited by a friend.

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

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.

I’m a light skin woman living in south Mississippi. I do not personally identify with a race of people. However, my family identifies themselves as Caucasian, I debunk race identification as an arbitrary made-up system employed to categorize people. I believe we are one race, the human race. I more identify with nationality as an American.

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.

I remember where it all started; I sat on the guard stand of an empty pool with a nagging mother texting my phone and time to kill. It was the summer before my senior year, the summer before I would make the most important decision of my life so far. I stared down at the blank list of schools in front of me; where to start? I visited a few campuses, and my mother put a few bugs in my ear, one for her alma mater, and the other for two historically black schools (HBCUs). I wrote the first down, placing it low on my list, but there was hesitation with the other two. My entire academic career have been in predominantly white environments; how would I navigate a majority black space?

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.

As a correctional officer, would you help your incarcerated close friend who is in the area you are responsible for? I know some of you would because you would do anything for your close friend, best friend, however you want to say it nowadays, but you will eventually help them out on any situation. Right? Walter Winchell said, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. Alex Kaminsky was one of my coworkers at the McClellan Correctional Facility. About four years in service together, we developed this close friendship that he was more like a brother to me than just a friend. Until two years ago, Kaminsky was convicted of dealing controlled substances to inmates and was sentenced twelve to twenty years in Brownley Correctional Facility. Coincidentally, I got transferred to the same facility and not only that, the area that I was responsible for falls in the area where my superannuated friend Alex Kaminsky is. The first situation that popped into my head was, how can I be responsible for that area, if I know it won’t turn out stupendous or what if Kaminsky approaches me? Can I permit the reestablishment of a relationship that might (or might not) prove beneficial to his rehabilitation? Answering that question is difficult for me, but since it’s my job and I have to follow the rules, I have to do what I can and what I cannot do.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (New International Version, Matt. 6.33-34). If I was told these verses when I was younger, they would contain no special meaning behind them, but after retiring from the military and the trials my family went through to get to where we are today, these verses stand out to me every time I read them. Until we go through our own personal trials we tend to be unaware of how strong our faith and trust needs to be in God. There were moments, when I was younger, where I relied on the Lord, but nothing that could have prepared me for the trust required to give to God during a time where my life completely changed. My family and I were a military family stationed in Hawaii where I lived for most of my life; Hawaii was all I knew. So when my father was ready to retire from his job in the Navy, it meant leaving my “safe zone” that I called home. Living in Hawaii was not an option after retirement for a large family of eight, for it was too expensive to afford. With that said, we went to stay with my grandfather in New York while my father searched for a new job.

I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. Having had grown up in the south, I was always around people who are more traditional in viewpoints, especially when surrounding the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual/Transgender, Questioning, and more community. I received my education at a high school where no one hesitated to throw around extremely derogatory terms. Throughout my schooling I had found close friends who had expressed their feelings of not fitting into their biological sex. Every time I heard them talk about their feelings I felt my heart sinking. I knew it was not fair. I found myself constantly feeling their pain. Feeling all their fear, anger, and sadness along with them because I knew that they lived in fear of people finding out who they really were and what their reactions might be. It broke my heart that they were forced into constantly fearing for their safety.

Over the history of this country, many families across the globe have come to the U.S. in hopes of a better life. My family was one of the many that decided to leave our home country and come to the United States. We never realistically imagined coming to America, but when we did, it was a real dream come true. Knowing I was coming to this country as a student was especially exciting for me personally. We were so excited about this new adventure and the opportunities we would have, despite the many challenges that lay ahead. Two of the obstacles I had to overcome, were having to learn a new language, and build new relationships.