Self Reflection Essay

Hays (2008) discussed privilege and biases based on culture and how these privileges and biases can affect a therapist’s work. Having a healthy understanding of self-identity can help understand the role of privilege and biases. In order to help self-reflect, Hays (2008) presented the ADDRESSING model which includes age, disability (born with), disability (acquired), religion, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, indigenous status, nationality, and gender. This ADDRESSING model will be applied in this paper.

The work in this cycle helped me to grow as a equity-driven leader by providing me with numerous opportunities to engage in investigating, planning, acting and reflecting on the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to provide equity and excellence for each and every student at my school site. I have also realized that when it comes to leading for change, school leaders must have exceptional knowledge base in classroom observation, analysis and feedback. Furthermore, this cycle required me to be self-aware, courageous and resilient in the face of bias, cultural misunderstanding and resistance.

I highly agree with this sentence, self-reflecting is difficult. I am working on self-reflecting and how understanding myself will help me understand others. Self-reflecting can affect people in a positive or in a negative way. I have to learn to pull and highlight all the positive aspects of what a self-reflection emerge, with out fixating on the fear or the negative. Most of us are thirsty individuals that want immediate ratification and reward. We seek a quick buzz without wanting to work hard and without the hangover. We all want the answers and we all want help, but we do not want to help others succeed. I say most and I say we, because it is hard to say I. We all want to fit

These children reminded me of the problems I too faced growing up poor in Baltimore. One consistency within these students’ stories was the lack of diversity and positivity in regards to their perceptions of the average man of color. Comparing these students’ stories to my own tribulations as a youth, I began to realize that there is a pattern of deficiency in quality representation within low income communities. Understanding that I have a gift for education, I sought to help fix this problem not only for the students in Justice for Juniors, but also many others. Since then, I have been dedicating to myself to developing my craft as an educator and continuing to educate and mentor those in lower income communities. To gain more experience, I joined Terrapin Teachers at the University of Maryland which is a program designed to teach STEM majors how to become effective teachers. Through this program I learned key organizational skills and teaching techniques such as; inquiry based teaching, investigative questioning, how to facilitate classroom discussions, and classroom management

The most memorable time when I was impacted educationally by diversity would be my freshman year in High School. I had gone to a private Christian school from Kindergarten through 8th grade. My mom thought that it would be a great idea to send me to public school for my freshman year. Mind you, I lived in Dallas, TX at the time and public school is quite different than private school there. I was not only the minority in school, but I was one of five Caucasian kids in the entire school. I was made fun of for being white, coming from private school, and for being smart. Just like the article, Helping Diverse Learners Succeed, I had to learn about my new environment. I didn’t understand why the kids were mean to me and why

Through the reading of Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development and A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota I have not only learned about the experiences of others, but have also gained a deeper understanding of my own racial and cultural identity and how that relates to other identities around me. In learning this information, I feel that I will not only be able to understand and relate better to my future students, but also understand their backgrounds and how they are affecting them presently. Therefore, I will be able to teach to individuals in the way they need me to, but also create a more welcoming and inclusive environment (racially, culturally, and otherwise) in my future classroom. The information I have read has helped me to understand my own racial and cultural identity, how it relates to the identities of my future students, and what I can do to make educational institutions more racially and culturally inclusive.

As a faculty member, I have experience teaching to diverse audiences. During my time at Youngstown State University, I worked within a student population that had a significant minority and low-income population. I provide opportunities for all students within my courses. In my class, I foster an environment where students are respectful yet feel safe to offer diverse opinions that will be of benefit to everyone in the class. Within my courses I often add an assignment to write about a diversity issue within community. I have also brought speakers to my classes from various minority communities.

Although I have made many positive changes these last few years, there is always room for growth. I found this apparent, as I have witnessed outstanding role models through the university. There is simply no ending point or “final” destination, when it comes to growing and working on your own faults. Therefore, I hope to take what I have learned from my past and college, and be able to continue to find ways of dealing with diversity in a professional manner. Knowing this, it is both exciting and frightening experience, especially knowing the many situations that are to come. However, I hope that I can take each encounter, and be able to learn to become the best role model a teacher can be for each student. I hope that each student, no matter their background, can feel as if they are welcome and accepted into the classroom. I also believe that the university has made tremendous strides to make this possible, especially assigning us classes that directly deal with diversity. In opportunities of mentoring, volunteering, and observations, I have been able to experience early on what it means to be a role model, in a diverse setting. The topic of diversity and this method of currere are extremely important, not only for myself, but also the students of the future. To understand diversity, you have to understand yourself. It is not a simple

Transitioning from a private middle school to a public high school, I was exposed to so much more culture and diversity among whom I am surrounded by. I grew up being taught that I should be accepting of everyone of all races, genders, and sexualities. One of my favorite things is hearing others’ life stories that show how they were molded into the person that they are today. I can bring diversity to NC State through my open-mindedness and life experiences. I have had the opportunity to do mission work all throughout the US and its territories. My travels to Puerto Rico to help the community of Arecibo taught me much more than I was expecting. I was disappointed at first that my group was to clean a church, but seeing how grateful the church

As a teacher it is important to make sure the classroom atmosphere is comfortable in order to ensure productivity. Teaching students that differences are a good thing and those differences can be learned from and valued is a way to help ensure a positive classroom environment. As a teacher I will help my students understand biases, and I will help them be able to accept differences and treat people fairly by educating them about the differences of the people around them. I believe there are many ways a teacher can incorporate diversity lessons into the classroom. Overall, I believe that teaching students to respect each other despite their differences will benefit the students, the teachers, and the rest of the world. Diversity is an important topic today because everyone is different and unique; as a teacher I understand that I will never be in a school that is not a diverse teaching environment. I think that by taking this diversity class, it has helped me to realize and understand the importance diversity in the classroom and the community has to

Nguyen’s continued enthusiasm trickled down to Alicia Lopez, who wanted to teach those students who experienced inequities in the school system. Diversity as we know it! Students of various race, ethnicity, and social, economic status. On the job, learning became a factor for Lopez as she became teaching in an area where classes were small, and generous resources were available, and mentoring was available. As a result of

I’m a part of the Community Club at Early College Academy at Southridge and for our main Service Learning Project we go to Eickenroht Elementary School to teach the students about diversity. I was really excited about this event because when I grow up I want to become a teacher. I not only want to teach my students about reading and math skills, I want to teach them about diversity as well. For our event, you have 10 to 12 kids in each group with 4 to 6 helpers and a leader. This year I became the leader in my group and I got to try out different things with the kids, such as splitting the group in 2 to 3 and having the helpers switch from one group to the other. Later we came back together as a big group and talked about diversity. As a student teaching a student, I understood that the elementary students would have a better chance to be heard by the helpers and leader if there were fewer students in their group. I learned a lot about myself during this event, such as, my level of patience, understanding each student differently and my ability to get the lesson to the students. When I was a leader, I was responsible for getting everything ready for every group, make plans for my group and explain the agenda to the groups. This impacted me by taking charge and not sitting back like I did in previous years. I really enjoyed every part of this event, especially helping the

It would be amazing to be accepted into EcoQuest, and I hope that after you read this you think it would be amazing to have me in EcoQuest too. In the application form you asked everyone applying to comment on these things: our relationship with nature; our relationship with other students; our ability to work independently and make responsible decisions; how we maintain a healthy & active lifestyle; and our academic effort. In the following paragraphs I will address these items.

Even though this class was a requirement for my nursing school, I was interested in getting to know more about my health and how to live a healthy life. After the first analysis, I had several goals and things I wanted to achieve personally, however, the three most important ones were my water intake, eating healthy which includes eating more vegetables and more protein foods since my actual intake was below the recommended intake and finally exercising more to keep fit and strong. Exercising has always been a problem for me because I always think am healthy because of my size and weight, but I have had several incidences where I have been told by my doctor to exercise, so this class was an eye opener for me since I read a lot about exercise but was feeling lazy to start and kept procrastinating.

During the fall semester FYS class, I was able to learn the meet many of the learning objectives for this course. I learned how using critical thinking, reading, and writing skills will help in my work. I learned more about myself and what direction I want to go in my life. The importance of coming of age and adventure were brought to my attention, and the themes that go with it. The class discussions prepared me for when I had to be the discussion leader, and explain my adult adventure plan in the class. I felt that these learning objectives helped me to become a better students during this semester, and to be able to use what I learned throughout the next 4 years.