Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

My friends and I were speaking on our past relationships from high school and earlier semesters. Reflecting on those times, a lot of effort and devotion went into making golden moments with someone I care about, and it’s a shame that things didn’t work out. Although I have graduated high-school a mere two years ago, I ponder why I stay up late nights thinking about those moments, grateful that I had the chance to experience something so wonderful. Yes, love can be an amazing thing; laughter, comfort, and friendships are all products of love I deeply care for. Despite this, it can be our strongest obstacle when trying to find happiness.

I have never been a strong speaker. No matter how hard I try, my thoughts always come out wrong. This inability to adapt with the communicating world around me made me struggle with my emotions. They stayed bundled up inside of me. It was only until the recent announcement of my soon to be brother when I realized how important it is to have others guide you through your own feelings.

When I was young, I did a lot more seeing than speaking. I was considered a dream child - so quiet, so calm, such a pleasant student. I learned that it was easier to be a wallflower. To attain great grades rather than be yelled at. I grasped that if I was as close to perfect as I could be, my life would be as easy as the circumstances would allow. And to give myself an advantage, I practiced observing others. I knew would be most beneficial to befriend, who was troubled, who was mad, and who was something I could only wish to be: Average.

Throughout this semester, there were many obstacles that I had to face regarding the different assignments assigned. However, I was able to effectively complete all of these tasks to the best of my ability regardless of the amount and specific requirements each one possessed. I also managed to gain a better understanding of the certain processes required to create successful essays. I realized that it was extremely important to stay on task, manage my time wisely, and organize my information in a way that would make the writing process easier. This realization and understanding ultimately allowed me to easily take on more extensive assignments, such as the Rhetorical Advocacy Project.

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

In my early years of school, I had a general understanding of the math concepts I was being taught. Early on, I learned that I have a very specific way of learning, often needing more explanation and guidance from my teachers than my peers required. My understanding of math really began to fall as I entered middle school. I had no understanding of fractions and how they related to the world around me. In my school, I was taken to a separate room to get extra help on the subjects that I seemed to be struggling in a little more. Unfortunately, the focus was often to work on my literacy skills rather than try to increase my understanding of math. While in middle school, I hovered around the ‘not average’ but also ‘not below average’ in most of the subjects, which meant I wasn’t a priority to spend the additional resources. I was taken out of the program that gave me additional help on the subjects I was struggling in, and I was put back into the classroom, left on my own to try and comprehend the material. In grade 7, we began to use a program on the computer to learn our math, specifically fractions at this time. I struggled to learn math on a computer, as I needed real life examples to explain the material. I struggled to relate what a fraction was, to real world examples which decreased my understanding on the topic. I found out I could press a button on my computer that would pass me through the levels, making my teacher believe I understood the material. I wasn’t typically

Writing has always been something, that through my scores on papers, has been proven to be one of my strong suites in school. However, I think this class decided to burst that bubble. Who I am as a writing has changed quite a lot and for the better due to this class. There are elements to my writing that I do not think improved or could use more tidying up, but comparing my first paper to my last show’s that this class made a bigger impact on my abilities than I had anticipated. That aside, there were also many aspects of the class I did not enjoy. If I looked at the class with rose-colored lenses than all I would have taken away from the last nine weeks was a growing experience, but that is not fully the case. The class as a whole left me with major writing improvements, but there were also some parts to the class that were moreso tedious than helpful.

A struggle that I had was being influenced/following others. It all started one happy winter morning it was Valentine’s Day, I had been getting ready to go to school. I had just finished writing all my Valentine's last night for my classmates. I was in a rush, so they all said the same exact thing. I believe it was something along the lines of have a great day, here’s a lollipop. It was a picture of me holding holding out my hand and a real lollipop that my mom had punched through the paper to give it that 3D vibe.

A sliver of moonlight lessened the darkness, but not enough to safely guide our bus driver up the unpaved road of the mountaintops. The bus offered no seat belts and the mountains provided no railings for our protection. The lives of over 120 volunteers and health care providers rested in the hands of our bus driver and his unorthodox driving skills. Despite the harrowing experience, the medical team had arrived safely to Cao Bang, Vietnam. This remote province became our new home and the site in which we helped provide medical care to over 2,000 patients.

At this moment there is currently 7,430,931,842 people in the world. Nearly 3 billion of those people are currently living in poverty. Today, 350,000 babies will be born. The world, continues to grow, to prosper, as I sit in my bedroom staring out the window waiting for creativity to strike and give me the words that so effortlessly describe me. There is currently only one person in the world with the name Gabrielle Vozzi, and right now she is attempting to describe something that is indescribable: herself.

Throughout our discussion there were several intriguing and engaging questions that were asked and sparked a good conversation among our group. One moment where I believe I was most successful in the discussion, was throughout minutes six through sixteen. Throughout this time, we discussed how the Party’s control in 1984 can be seen in the world around us today such as in North Korea. This question was first prompted by Leo but what I feel made this our groups most engaging point was how everyone added to the question by rephrasing it, or adding additional information and perspectives, or incorporating it into aspects they are most passionate about in their lives. From this point, I related it to history and how history can be rewritten to correct ways a nation or person has morally failed. I used the example of slavery to show this point. Starting from about minute eight I discuss with my group how according to an article my English class read last year, Texas history textbooks teach slavery based on how it economically impacted the South rather than by teaching the dehumanizing and awful treatment of other people. This question and the points brought up by this question were what I found to be most engaging. Our group spent nearly ten minutes on this point, because this point took a personal side and everyone had something to discuss from it. I believe the passion developed from this point is what made this not only my most successful moment but one of our groups best

Everyone has at least one point in their educational life that has shaped them into the student or person they are today. For me, coming together after being separated as the “Germantown” and “Farmersville” kids for the first six years of school changed the way I built myself as a student. Becoming friends with new people, having new teachers for every subject, changing up the routine, and actually having to switch classes has taught me a lot of different things.

Every student deserves the best chance at getting the highest level of education they can, however, some students need a little extra support that others may not. A student, Axel, who is currently in my classroom has had a hard time keeping his focus and is often avoidant when it comes to his work. It has become clear that his avoidance becomes a distraction to the whole class. His behaviors currently include but are not limited to: rolling around on the floor during rug lessons, yelling across the room, walking around the room talking to friends, sharpening his pencil five or more times throughout the day, asking to go to the bathroom at inappropriate times, spending fifteen to twenty minutes in the

From the early moments of my childhood, I remember seeing my parents go to Russian Orthodox Church a lot. They would explain to my younger brother and me what was right and what was wrong from the religious perspective. On my 4th birthday, my grandma gave me the Bible for kids as a present, and I remember my mom reading it to me before going to bed. Back then it was just another interesting story that happened somewhere very far away. And yet mom would always find a way to tell these stories in such a manner so they translated really well into the reality we were living in. The more I grew up the more I realized that there was something missing in the big picture of my understanding of the world. I saw a lot of suffering that was happening everywhere, death, natural disasters, and I thought there must be a reason for all of it. Otherwise, the God does not care about any of us. I started to look for the answers everywhere: in the philosophical and religious books, movies, wise counsel from the people who lived a long life. I could not find the truth in church because the whole purpose of its existence with all its rules and restrictions, its idea of God who is something or someone out there, separate from us, and the only being that knows all the answers, was totally alien to me; mainly so due to my unwillingness to accept the fact of transferring all the responsibility for everything one does to someone else. I believed it to be a weakness to acknowledge one’s bad thoughts and deeds as something natural, as an external influence of the evil spirits. For me, it sounded like people who agreed with this concept simply wanted to escape the punishment for what they had done, choose an easy way out.