My personal experience as nontraditional student coming back to Umass was slight nerve racking. I was not sure how I was going to be greeted by my classmates or if they would even understand what it would be like and to have had the experiences of social class division and economic separation I struggled with my entire life. There were many times I doubted what I said or could offer my classmates would be valued and seen as a positive contribution. For these reasons I found having a professor who was not young and not as old who understood social stratification. Professor Ray eased my nerves in her class and gave not just myself but other students a space where they could stumble in thinking and be picked up without being criticized and judged. While the material was content I was somewhat familiar with and others I had no clue about, her teaching style, assignments, and work load made you want to understand the readings and have witty responses and provoking reflective discomfort. During Professors Ray’s class there were issues that came between students that had created tension in a way that had interfered with my focus in class. I was able to bring these issues to her …show more content…
Witnessing my fellow classmates foggy this semester on the , has since lead a way constantly to the material covered in Professor Ray’s class in ways we could not have imagined. What Shakuntala gave us, allowed us to compassionately challenging each other moving forward into our unknown futures with a connection forged by the teaching style and demand of Professor Ray. What she bring to the classroom is commendable and far more reaching then just another class with heavy loads of reading, she instills strength and asks her students to embrace the unknown in a manner that allows growth and maturity of her
I am a non-traditional student. I began my college matriculation 15 years after receiving my high school diploma. I started my family before focusing on my education and career. I have been fortunate within that 15 year gap to be a stay-at-home mother. When my youngest son began kindergarten, I began college classes. This reversal of traditional education and family construction has given me a unique perspective on life.
In this week June 11th through June 14th of 2018 at College of the Desert I have learned three specific topics in my english class with Professor Tapleshay. For a start, my first topic is learning good habits on engaging with my fellow classmates in the Edge program at COD including Professor Tapleshay. In fact, to also get rid of the closed doors that kept my voice locked up for four years at Rancho Mirage High School. My second topic is about the three rules of Professor Tapleshay’s class which are number 1. Show up, number 2. Show up on time and number 3. Do your work. To add on, these three fundamental rules impact my attitude by making me realize how the COD college level classes are going to be this fall which shows how I need to have
While revising her course composition, Nathan focused on the implied assumptions that were integrated into how she had structured the course. She quickly realized how, before her year as a student, she had not considered the other classes students had in between her class periods, and had included articles that did not effectively contribute to learning in the class. “The answer to the problem of reading that I now favor is to hone the assignments to those I will actually employ in my classes while at the same time creating new classroom forums for making direct and immediate use of the readings I seriously want my students to prepare” (R. Nathan, 2005, p.138). Within the rest of the section “Re-entry: The Student as Teacher”, Nathan continued to talk about how other professors should try to comprehend the actual impact that academics have on students, and that assignments that do not have much to do with important course material will most likely go undone. Another way that this experience altered Nathan’s reference to student life is that she gained a sense of compassion to the students that might fall asleep in her class, or start pulling out a snack in the middle of a lecture.
Being a non-traditional college student is hard for anyone, for someone who gets anxious easily it can be even harder. I remember my first day of college, I had spent the previous week sick and could barely talk because I still had a lingering cough. Pacing back and forth at home, I contemplated if it was too late to back out and quit school before I had even started. I changed my clothes several times and thought about giving up so much that I was nearly late to my first class. Additionally, in all the excitement I only took the time to know when my classes started and not where they were actually held. I had no idea why I was even here.
Serving others by utilizing the lessons I have learned through my experiences and my talents is how I want to live my life. As a first generation college student, I want to integrate myself in programs or start my own mentorship program where I am able to mentor and give back to students who are first generation college students as well. I feel it’s important to reach out to first generation college students because the amount of pressure we receive with little to no guidance can be discouraging and lead us to feel alone in this process.
Professor Gichiru is a brilliant woman, who thrives to share her knowledge with all students, not just her own. Professor Gichiru’s willingness to go above and beyond for her students is what made her one of the best professors I ever had. Being the shy and stressed out individual I am, I was a nervous wreck entering my first graduate level class. Luckily for me, it was Professor Gichiru’s course. She is extremely intuitive to student’s needs, which lead me to never feel uncomfortable in her classroom.
The droplets of rain emerge from the towering clouds as I step onto the vibrant green grass for the first time. I lock eyes with the monstrous building and tilt my head back until I have reached the roof. There I was. A stick-like, puny, first year college student looking at my home for the next four years. Yet I can't manage to take a second step. I stand there, staring at the giant brick block and lift my classic yellow rain jacket hood up over my impressively soft chocolate hair, protecting it from the harm of the rain. Four years of Ireland weather lays ahead of me. Four years of bunk beds in dorms. Four years of competing for the number one student. For years of awkward parties and tests. Four years until I'm out.
Working your way through college can be a daunting journey to say the least. There have been a myriad of challenges to overcome, both foreseen and unexpected. A year and half ago I decided to follow my dream of moving to California and obtaining a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. The decision to follow my passion for science invoked both fear and excitement within myself. I didn’t have the support of many friends and family, as I am originally from the East Coast, many of them seen my moving to California as an unrealistic and unnecessary goal. Despite my own self-doubts and the discouragement of my family I made the decision to relocate to California. That decision manifested the most significant chapter in my life to date. In an extremely short period of time I had to find an apartment, in the Bay Area, one of the most competitive and costly rental markets in the country as well as enroll in school, apply for aid and secure stable
I’m a fighter. People tend to affiliate that with something negative but I think otherwise. I consider myself a fighter because I know the things that I have gone through and what I had to do to get past that. I can almost surely say that the majority of my classmates and people in general haven’t gone through half of the challenges that I have experienced. I’m not saying that I’m somehow better or superior but I do consider myself more mature, experienced, and responsible. I have repeatedly gotten a taste of what real life is and I know how hard it truly is but not even that has stopped me from wanting to pursue my dreams. As an immigrant who will be a first generation college student I have felt the stress and pressure not only from my parents
The purpose of this assignment, above all things is to show you how through this course as a whole that I have discovered new things that will influence the way I feel and teacher a subject in the near future. Through the bulk of this semester especially for those who have taken the online class can attest to is the amount of work in little amount of time to do it but it was achieved and succeeded, as you said Dr. Moore “ If you can handle this class you should be awarded for it especially if it is online”. But none the less I strived and with each chapter gained more knowledge in the student that I will have in the future and what is going on in their brains more specific, what motivated them, what they were search for
As a result of my parents emigrating from Vietnam to the United States, they were forced to start from scratch and build their ways up. Being a first generation college student, I also saw the struggles my parents had to endure in order to set me up for a better life. I was taught the importance of education and self-motivation in order to succeed in life. With this in mind I have set out to keep pushing myself to become a great engineer in order to provide a better life for my family and myself.
When I finally can become a teacher, I cannot wait to begin educating the young minds of the future. There are always challenges that arise from ambitions and quite a few exist in my school district. I chose Hillsborough county because it was the district that I attended from about kindergarten, all through high school, and also my associates degree. I experienced things that I loved about that school district and things that I absolutely did not like. It would be an incredible experience to be able to help improve things in a school district that did so much for me. To prepare for my classes in this district, I am definitely expecting to have the opportunity to teach a non-EL student. I had the ability to become friends with many EL and non-EL
Over the past 2018 spring semester in Mr. Hendrix 11th grade class. My peers and I have read, watched, talked, and listened to the lessons he has put before us, Weather we realized it or not, we have absorbed many new thing and cemented old lesson in our minds. I will be reflecting over three questions about this semester in this specific class.
I identify with the independent students because I enjoy working independently and with a busy schedule the self-pace works best for me which allows me to work as I need to on my assignments without having to wait on someone else. Big groups tend to give me anxiety so being able to work independently lowers the anxiety I already have about all the unknowns of the class. Working online allows me more time for my studies due not having the travel time to class and back.
The weeks went by, and we were all enamored by the course, and enamored by Ms. R. She was this kind, nurturing inspirational mother who had free verse orgies in the classroom and said it was okay to use fuck in your short story if that’s the word you felt really worked. She let us write about what we wanted to write about but always gave us an assignment, “Just in case we needed a push.” And she encouraged and praised honest writing, and didn’t always demand you needed, “a thesis, and 3