The Adventures of Ms. Mackin’s Persona “Look at your life and look at your choices” my high school advisor, Kit Mackin, always told me when I was misbehaving in school. Ms. Mackin counselled me from tenth grade to twelfth grade. Ms. Mackin is a teacher at Sci Academy and specifically teaches Spanish to eleventh and twelfth graders, and also serves as an advisor. Ms. Mackin stands at a height of 5’9, with crinkly blonde hair and sparkling olive green eyes. When I was in high school, Ms. Mackin’s love for advising evokes the memory of the love my mother has for me. While in Ms. Mackin’s class, she enlightens all her students with her beautiful smile, which is as bright as a diamond. In addition to that, Ms. Mackin is also mixed with Irish. Ms. Mackin is very whimsical as a teacher, but also unrelenting and feisty in difficult situations. Ms. Mackin has a plethora of personalities, but she reminds me of the beach she goes to with her son. When I was sitting in her class she had so much energy that she made learning fun and she does funny gestures in order for us to learn the words. The joy in her teaching makes students want to learn more about Spanish and make good grades. When Ms. Mackin is in this mode she reminds me of the calm side of the beach. However, lazy students in her class know that her serenity turns to anger, when they don’t do their work. Therefore, when the waves are raging and rough against the turf it evokes the memory of when Ms. Mackin is angry. When
Lynda Barry's writing demonstrates to the reader that schools are more than just institutions that provide learning spaces. Ideally, every kid in a classroom should be living a happy life outside of school. But in reality, this is seldom the case, and some kids are living a rough time at home. Family values are fundamental to a kids' development, yet every day it seems families get disoriented with disputes life troughs in their paths. Forgetting of what truly is important. The school is like a second home to some kids. Barry's essay demonstrates this by explaining the effect school had on her. As a result, she sees the janitor in which she is delighted to see and quickly sparks a smile on her face. Another example is when she sees her teacher Mrs.LeSane and goes up to her and cries. Finally, the last case is the therapeutic value of art Mrs.Lesane believed on.
After reading Sonja Ardoin’s (2014) “the strategic guide to shaping your student affairs career” book, I read a variety of important content that has allowed me to reflect not only in my fieldwork position, as an Advising Assistant for the Puente Program, but also my current status as a graduate student in the Educational Counseling program.
Hard-working students dedicated to their work succumb to stress and panic when the pressure of college and the need to do well intensifies. For Nayla Kidd, who grew up under a household which valued education, this was a nightmarish reality. While in college, Kidd’s mother obtained both a doctorate in toxicology at MIT as well as a masters in public health from Johns Hopkins (Svrluga). From the start, the pressure was on for Nayla, and her family reputation was on the line. On top of maintaining amazing grades, “Nayla Kidd ran track and did horseback riding in high school… she taught a popular belly dancing class at Columbia--[and] loves to DJ” (Svrluga). Her extensive resume reveals her true love for
Sometimes the smallest choices have life altering effects. For instance, deciding to pursue a career in education just like Professor Kleinpeter. Since the doors opened 17 years ago, Kleinpeter has taught Psychology at River Parish Community College. Before River Parish Community College, she taught at the University of New Orleans. Then, in the beginning of her career she taught Special Education for 15 years. It is obvious that Kleinpeter has plenty of experience under her belt, but all of these successes started with a choice.
Juan is a 17 year old senior who attends high school in a small Midwestern community. Juan has many strengths and weaknesses that pertain to his life on the micro level. Some explicit weaknesses that Juan has are his parent’s marital problems and being diagnosed with dyslexia. Since being diagnosed, Juan has not received any supplemental services to help him learn in a way that helps him. Juan’s dad has high expectations for him to pass his college entry level exams, and because of this he has anxiety because he fears of disappointing his parents.
For this paper, I decided to focus my attention on one population that I am potentially interested in working with, which are high school students. The first person I interviewed was a ninth-grade counselor at Alain Leroy Locke College Prepartory Academy. The second person I interviewed was a College Adviser, placed through USC, at Diego Rivera Learning Complex. While the first interview was conducted on site at Locke, the second interview was conducted on campus at USC. For both interviews, I came equipped with my questions already printed out and ready for me to write my interviewees responses down. In discussing the challenges that both the counselor and adviser experience in terms of learning, it is important to first understand the population of students that both professionals work with. While both schools are in South Los Angeles, Diego Rivera Learning Complex is a part of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), while Alain Leroy Locke is run by Green Dot Public Schools—even though it is still within LAUSD boundaries. Both schools have a primarily minority and low-income population.
Elena is an adolescent female, coming to the therapy process demonstrating through actions and words a great deal of anxiety and overall apathy for her situation. Elena is a smart, socially engaged Mexican American attending public high school. She opens the session with presenting problems regarding conflict over what she might do after high school.
Marcelina was a well behaved child in school and had always had straight A’s. She was in the school choir and she had her own choir in church while participating in three other church choirs. She wanted to pursue becoming a doctor. She also wanted to graduate a year early from school.
The person that I chose to interview for this assignment was my mom, Annie Sequeira. I chose to interview my mom because I act like my mom in many ways, and I want to compare her high school experience to what mine will be. During my mom’s high school years, she was very focused on her education and wanted to receive a degree from college. But, most of the people in her village disagreed with her and thought that girls should not have to study or work; they would marry and become housewives. My mom’s family worked in the rice fields, and they thought that she should stay and help them with the farming; but, my mom wanted a better life, so she studied hard. My mom had a teacher and mentor, Mrs. Pimenta, who encouraged her during her high school years and gave her the important advice that an education would help her achieve a better life than farming. Even today, she is proud that she put a lot of effort into her high school education, because there is now a plaque with her name at her school which awards her for high academic distinction.
Having the support of one's family when making life impacting decisions can be very helpful to figuring out the outcome of those decisions. Someone with a supporting family may not have the same self conflicting struggles as someone whose family does not support their decisions. Using Annie Needposh Iserhoff’s chapter “Experts from My Life” originally published in a collection of essays from women graduates of McGill University (collected in Writing As Reflective Action). We will explore the events that took place in her life that lead her to where she is today, and how things may have turned out differently for Iserhoff if she had a better support system at home like writers Todd D. Snyder and bell hooks.
Prior to graduating high school, Mrs. Bowman confided that she received little guidance and direction from her parents or the school’s guidance counselor. Exercising her own judgment, Mrs. Bowman attended Livingstone College graduating with a degree in English. She admits that she was not very good in English, but maintained a good grasp on
She was not strong enough to stand up to her parents throughout the years. She let her mother force her academic dreams upon her, and she always had a tendency to concede when faced with an argument. This outlook only intensified the effect of her parents’ pressure, since they were able to further exert their strong opinions upon her. Marilyn evoked the sense that Lydia was her own project, aimed to accomplish all the things she had not been able to, “Math, she thought that Fourth of July; she will need math, this daughter of mine” (Ng 148). When faced with these challenges, Lydia did not have the resolve to make her own decisions and fight for herself.
One of the nurses gave me a ride to school, but I didn't know how I’d learn as though I do at all. I got one friend here, Jane’s all I need really the only one not doing drugs or stealing. Her mama died about 7 years ago when we were young.She’s in advanced classes, and already knows what college she wants to go to. She’s the kinda person who uses words like malaphor and petrichor, and reads like it’s breathing. Her dad don’t like me, but I like her a lot. The teacher was sitting at their desk again, dealing out quizzes again, and I was drawing in the corner again.
It was interesting to find similarities between two master classes. I always wondered why Maria talked about her past, but when I heard instructor in real master class do that, I realized that it was a technique to teach with personal example. However, in contrast, Maria rather spends the majority of her time talking about her personal life rather than helping her students improve while in reality I witnessed instructor giving all his attention to the students. Maria frequently diverts attention to her past that would surface failures in her life I also had to think about what sacrifice means in Maria`s life. The sacrifice here is the cost of the artist to produce art and it led me to think about how that relates to Maria`s inability to pick between love and career that led her to lose both.
The literary piece by Celeste Flores-Coscolluela, “Why I Quit Teaching at the Chinese School for Girls,” is a short story told in the first person and structures as episodic and static. The author employs tone in order to convey the narrator’s sentiments towards teaching at the Chinese school for girls. Ms. Diaz, though hard working as a teacher, did not appreciate her employment because there were many factors present in her experiences with the Chinese school for girls that could have prompted her resignation.