Reflection Papers

1. What do you believe to be the strongest aspect of your paper, and why?

I have a lot of reasons why I have all of this anger built up inside of me and because I’m not a person who likes to talk about my problems I keep them to myself. With every day week month and year passing these problems grow bigger and bigger it doesn’t stop building until one day it explodes and there I am again in the principal's office being ask why.

I have struggled spiritually in the sense that I questioned myself. If I am doing right or wrong and if making the right or wrong decision. Life is about choices as God created us and gave us free will. In Galatians 5:13-14 tells us “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command; “Love your neighbor as yourself” Therefore, as I see it, it’s harder to carry with a heavy conscious knowing that I did not act in righteous. Though sometimes I feel that I am acting in righteous. For some it may not be the same. What is right for me might not be right for others. However, as I look back what is right in the God’s eyes, I redirect to his laws. In Romans 13:8-9 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Though Jesus Christ coming to clean our sins, he also came to teach us how to live with righteousness by his simple golden rule. Even though, there are several versions in Bible Galatians 5:14 could not be simpler “Love your neighbor as yourself”

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.

Growing up I was very independent because my mom died when I was 4 and my dad was never around.Not having parental guidance made me very independent academically. Back then we lived in New Lebanon and I went to Dixie. When I went to Dixie is when I found out I was academically unique. I never really considered it until my 4th grade English teacher Mrs. Guggenbiller brought it up to me. My brother Anthony had Mrs.Guggenbiller and they were very close. He went to her whenever he needed help and talked to her about personal things. I then grew to have the same bond with Mrs.Guggenbiller that my brother had, I went to her with any of my problems hoping she could help me solve them.

Many decisions, monumental as well as minuscule, are made throughout a lifetime. Decisions can lead to the luxurious Hollywood Hills or the local state penitentiary. These decisions will mold our ever fleeting lives into legendary masterpieces or into unforgiving regret. With such an abundance of decisions, they are easily taken for granite. That being stated, there are decisions that leave an everlasting mark to never be forgotten.

Scrunch a piece of paper. Now try to smoothen the mess out. Does the sheet of paper return back to its original state? I’m sure it doesn’t. “Breaking someone’s trust is like crumpling up a perfect piece of paper. You can smooth it over, but it’s never going to be the same again,” said by an unknown author. In the year of 2015, my family hit its breaking point. An event no one expected, however, I foresaw. I knew at that moment everything from that point on would be different.

I like to think I’m the artsy type, but I know I fit into that category in a more realistic and applicable sense of the word. I’m messy, scatterbrained, horrifically unorganized, and always covered in paint. With these characteristics comes an interesting approach to my writing process: sporadic motivation followed by procrastination, and finally deadline panic. Throughout this collection of essays, drafts, and musings, my mechanisms of writing have been refined through the action of drafting, self revision, and peer revision. Historically, when I write papers, I sit and reflect for days at a time on the essay, or rather how late I can put off actually writing said essay. Drafting has, however, forced me to put my thoughts to paper earlier than the night before the due date. It slows my deadline motivated, caffeine fueled mind enough to actually comprehend and plan out what I write as I write it. Never before have I embraced the slow, laborious mechanisms of drafting. Identity becomes the string that connects each work within this portfolio, either pertaining to the thesis of the individual essays or expressing itself poetically.

To begin, I have to establish a disclaimer: The person I was working with was currently an inmate at my place of employment which is a Juvenile Detention Center. In any event, I cannot legally state his name, so instead of stating his name, I will call him Joe Smith. Furthermore, Joe Smith is originally from Mexico and was brought over by his mother when he was ten years old. Joe Smith has been in the United States for six years, but he has been in and out of school for several years due to his criminal activity. The detention center offers classes for the inmates, but Joe used to skip the classes up until recently. In any event, Joe’s spoken English is far greater than his written English. The times where I worked with Joe (there were many of them) we mainly worked on his written language and reading comprehension (phonics mainly). In any event, Joe was definitely more of a naturalist English learner rather than an academic one. If I had to categorize Joe into a proficiency level, I would say he is beginning to intermediate when it pertains to writing and reading, but advanced speaking wise. In any event, Joe is a male and he was technically in the 9th grade but should have been in the 11th grade (according to his numerical age).

Isn't amazing to think that every word you say and every action you undertake has the potential to change the world? I know that through my education at UConn, I can accomplish that goal.

The First United Methodist Church of Monroe, Louisiana has essentially acted as a second home for me. Ever since I was a baby, I have been attending there. It is a place where I have

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.

Before I took this class, if you had asked me to give you in my own words what I thought culture meant, I wouldn't of been able to answer. Today culture to me is identified by things that vary from the food you eat, the music you listen to, and things that influence you to be who you are today. Like me, today some of the biggest cultural influences that have shaped me to be who I am today are hockey, friends and family.

Blue and red lights flashed outside, while I saw my father being handcuffed; my mother and older siblings crying. I was seven at the time, didn't really understand what was happening but later I found out he was deported. My mother tried her best to raise me, “Sepa como pensar,”my mother would always tell me, which in English it means,“know how to think.” I was raised to face reality at a young age and to know that everything that you want in life comes from hard work.

As the end of the semester is approaching I have come to realize that this class has played a big impact on how I view the world today. Throughout the semester I have gained knowledge on different topics and I plan on using them to make better decisions in the future. I feel that discussing all the different topics in class has made learn how to communicate and understand others better. One of the many topics discussed was that men should be able to express feminine characteristics without being judged or labeled. Another topic was how sex has been viewed throughout families as negative therefore, many children are having babies at a young age or are developing STDs and how the lack of Prenatal care can affect an infant’s health.