Reflective Essay On Education

The aim of this assignment is to give a reflective account on group presentation and the peer assessment process as well as the development of a personal action plan. It would involve using ‘The What? Model of Structured Reflection’ (Driscoll 2007) to analyse the experience of using a group designed assessment tool to assess my peers and the experience of being peer assessed. Additionally, experience of completing a group presentation would be reflected upon. A personal action plan which identifies areas for personal development and the designed assessment tool is attached as appendix 1 and 2 respectively.

I believe that education is an individual, unique experience for every student who enters a classroom. In order for children to benefit from what schools offer, I think that teachers must fully understand the importance of their job. First, I believe that teachers must consider teaching to be a lifestyle, not a mere forty-hour-a-week job, because a teacher's goals for his/her students encompass much more than relaying out-of-context facts to passive students. As professionals entrusted with the education of young minds, teachers must facilitate learning and growth academically, personally, and ethically. By providing a quality education to each individual in one's classroom, a teacher equips children

My life has been influenced greatly by teachers. Since I was a child, teaching is all I wanted to do. My mother is a fifth grade teacher. I have quite a few friends that are teachers. I have been fortunate to be influenced by some great teachers throughout my academic career. I love to be around kids and I like participating in the process of learning. I appreciate learning even today. I enjoy the learning process and hope to one day influence students in the future. I hope to one day become a high school social studies teacher. I enjoy history and geography, and I especially love politics and discussing current events. I like class discussions and letting different opinions express themselves.

As a practicing teaching, it is responsibility to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment for students. Whilst on professional experience at a local school in Cairns, I taught a series of lessons (artefact 4) for a year 8 Health and Physical Education class. In order to effectively teach each lesson, I had to manage the classroom activities and challenging behaviours. I used the ten micro-skills for classroom management to not only manage students’ behaviour but also ensure inclusive student participation and engagement.

Poverty leads to insufficient opportunities, especially in college education. For instance, according to U.S. Department of Education, students who do not enter college or drop out of their classes are “predominantly persons from low-income families.” In support of this argument, the article states that “only 21 percent of those with family income of less than $25,000 were highly qualified for admission at a four-year institution” compared to the 56 percent of students with family income above $75,000. Therefore, students with bad economic conditions struggle with attending university even after entering it. The problem is that the African Americans race gets the harshest disadvantage from their poor economic conditions. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services publishes that almost 40 percent of African Americans under 18 are below the national poverty line, which is three-times higher than their white counterparts. This explicitly proves that unequal economic conditions are the main reason for inequality in education; African Americans are the most disadvantaged. Furthermore, the correlation between poor economic conditions and a lack of education among African Americans creates a chain of inequality. The poor economic backgrounds of African Americans obstruct their children from attending colleges and subsequently, the lack of higher education makes

It is my ultimate goal to be an academic advisor for first-generation, low-income student population at the four-year university level. To achieve this aspiration, I have given thought to the possibility of being an Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) advisor or an advisor for a similar program. As a first-generation, low-income student myself, I know the reality of what it is like to not have the resources necessary to achieve full success at the university level, and I would therefore love to be a resource for this population of students. Because the population that I wish to serve is very specific and has specific needs, my reasoning for the purposes of higher education will be tailored to the needs of this group of students and how I feel that they might best be served in order to ensure their successful development at the university.

Theories provide the foundation for educational practices, and many of them exist. While I consider my personal theory or philosophy of education to be one that is something of an ever-changing conglomerate of ideas, I realize that some of my guiding principals are directly attributed to well a well established theory.

Urban neighborhoods with low-income households have always struggled with providing their schools enough resources. Without enough resources schools many students will inevitably develop the mindset that they are not worthy of a higher education. The success of any student relies on a strong and supportive connection between home and school. This is an issue of class that stems from both the home and the school. Due to a majority of low-income families in the urban aream it makes it very difficult for them to support their children in school. Therefore it would also make it more difficult to support the schools in their community. The cycle of low-income families is a continuous cycle in urban neighborhoods. Students are discouraged to pursue education because of the lack of resources at home and school. They can either turn to life on the street or take on low wage jobs in order to support themselves and their family. When taking this path the give up the opportunity of a higher education putting them in the same situation as their parents of having low wage incomes. Higher education is the key of breaking out of this cycle. Students in low-income households will need to understand that although not having enough resources is a major problem, pursuing a higher education will give them a better chance to be successful in the future.

His book Schooled was a delight for me to read, and once I started I did not want to put it down. I liked many of the characters as the author wrote them well and gave everyone a different personality, this kept the story interesting. The writing style was different than I had encountered before, as each chapter depicted a different person’s point of view. The alternating characters' points of view, allowed me to gain insight into the turmoil that each character was experiencing as Cap influenced their lives. Although I was hesitant of the style at first the story flowed nicely and I could really envision each character. I also really enjoyed the plot of this book. A home schooled eighth grade hippie being forced into society through a normal

While growing up in the inner city, I attended an economically disadvantage school. For starters, our school had 89% of its student’s on free lunch and had only a 43% graduation rate. Teachers at the local high school stayed an average of two years before moving on to better schools and when it came to academics and testing, the school scores has not met the state testing standards in twenty years. Minority and low-income students are more likely to be taught by teachers with three or fewer years of experience and to be in schools with higher teacher turnover (Barton, 2004). However, schools across town were meeting the standards and achieving exemplary status. My parents wanted me to go to a better school, but all the other schools that were considered good, were on the other side of town or cost money for anyone to attend. Within these twenty years, there has been a significant gap in the academic process compared to the other high schools in the district. For years, people thought that the other schools were given a different curriculum and more supplies than the disadvantage schools in our area. For me, I always wondered why the other schools excelled and ours have not. The work I received in class wasn’t very hard, but many of my classmates were not passing. I noticed a difference between most of my classmates and a few others including myself. Most of the classmates never had their parents involved in their school activities nor their school counselors, but a selected

However, not getting a college degree is not the only hardship my parents faced that had influenced my mom to encourage me to pursue a higher education.1965 was the year that changed my mom’s life forever. My grandpa was arrested that year for helping an uprising against Cuba’s government. After his arrest, my mom, uncle, and grandparents were persecuted and mistreated. In 1996 and 1997, my family as political refugees left behind their house, jobs, relatives, and friends in Cuba to come to America, in two trips, in pursuit of a better future. When they arrived to America, they found jobs involving manual labor. With insufficient earnings to maintain

Education is inevitable. It is all around us because we can learn from virtually anything. When you are cooking, dancing, talking or any other activity you have actually had to learn several things to be able to do them. In the educational perspective, I am a pragmatist and I tend to follow after Dewey's footsteps. The concept of Pragmatism is one that developed in the 20th century. My philosophy is based on the idea that learning should involve real-life situations. Learning becomes more concrete to a student when they apply it to real-life situations, as where learning things that do not connect to them has more of an abstract sense. Personally, I would have to agree with Dewey when he said, "I

“Be a reflective teacher. Honestly look at what you do from time to time. Evaluate the purpose of your role as a teacher.” (Robert John Meenham, 2011)

The first week of this unit I had a mix of emotions, excitement and stress . The topics covered each week have giving me the opportunity to increase my knowledge in many areas. Having an interest in teaching when I started this course has now grown to having an interest in learning as well. Reflecting on my education as a child has shown me the growth in teaching and our current education system.

Applying to college was a compelling and demanding time for me throughout my senior year of High School. However, there was an additional amount of stress I experienced due to the limitations brought on to me from my family’s financial struggles. Throughout the college enrollment process, I was disheartened to know that I was incapable of attending certain colleges I preferred due to my lower socioeconomic background. My personal experiences with paying the expensive college tuition cost have impelled me to explore in depth the impact that a college student’s socioeconomic status may have on their college enrollment and degree attainment in the United States of America.