Reflection Essay

Frederick Douglass, an African-American writer that I look up to, once said,"We have to do with the past, only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.” This quote was meaningful to me during my 8th-grade-year. In my early years of school, When I was born, I had my tongue attach to the bottom of my mouth. My parents did not fix the problem until I was three years old. Because they waited so long, I developed a speech impediment that hinders my ability to pronounce certain words. Central York School District made me take a Reading test that determines where I would be placed in English. The tests were against me every time I take the test. I hate being in the remediation course, because of the course I was restricted to have the freedoms that my other classmates had. My 8th-grade-year change how I see English today.

Knowing now-a-days, how people compare themselves to others. I feel that it is time that we stop. Although it is much harder than it seems. Comparing one another is something we do, there will always be someone stronger, smarter, more attractive, and wealthier. The key is not to let it affect us. An individual will always have something that no one else will. It will differ from each individual. We need to just look at our own life and see what we can do to make it better. If becoming a helper will fill a hole in your life, as it does mine, then do it. If becoming a parent does then do it. We need to stop looking at other people’s lives and focus on our own. We are on this earth for one reason, to live. So we need to stop dwelling on what we don’t have, and go out there and get it, and live, go out and live life. Life is too short to keep complaining about what other people have. Everyone just needs to live life to its fullest.

I have participated in Acts of Random Kindness club, whose purpose has been to spread positivity in the school environment. High school students encounter a variety of emotions such as anxiety, stress, and drama. Hence, we have done uplifting projects such as putting nice complements inside books. We have also reached out to teachers by delivering messages of appreciation to their mailboxes. Furthermore, I have partaken in Colts for Animals, whose motive was to spread student awareness in regards to animal cruelty. We invited guest a few times speakers to talk about issues relating to animal abuse. Moreover, as a member of Garden club, I have helped in beautifying our campus from watering plants to picking out the weeds to digging up for new plants.

For my tutoring component for READ class, I had the opportunity of continuing to tutor my student Ryken. Eleven-year-old Ryken is an incredibly intelligent student, possessing a large vocabulary, however, he struggles distinguishing phoneme sounds while encoding and decoding. In addition to the phonological issues, Ryken’s eyes were crossed when he was young until he got glasses to help the issue. Because of his delayed literacy skills, his parent asked me to tutor him for two, forty-five minute sessions a week. Utilizing the Wilson reading program, I have had the opportunity to tutor Ryken for about thirty lessons. Throughout this time, I have been able to administer testing, teach teach letter sounds, digraphs, blends, closed syllable exceptions, and multisyllabic words.

As I sit here and write this literacy narrative, I reflect on a time in eighth grade when I read a book regrading civil injustice. Back then I wouldn’t have thought to use such fancy words. Instead, something along the lines of “a black boy my age got killed for whistling at a woman! And the murderers didn’t even get in trouble.” So much confusion was attached with my not so politically correct summary of the book. In fact, we read this book in the upmost politically correct way as possible. Derogatory terms such as negro, nigger, and colored was to be renamed and replaced by the word African American. Simple. Nothing too hard to do in eighth grade just switch a word or two around. But how ironic we didn’t go over any set “rules” for the white character’s. No negative connotation related to the word “white” at all. In fact, when we had class discussions for this book it was normal to say “Hiram the white boy went to visit his grandfather in Mississippi.” But if I was to talk about Emmett Till, African American would always be attached to his name. I can admit just like any other person in that class it was weird but we never put too much thought behind it. Just abided by the rules and read.

The opportunity to teach at two high schools in the Bronx made me reflect and struggle with the power of stereotypes surrounding the schools because of the reputation of their borough. These stereotypes did not just impact the way that the schools were perceived, but more importantly the way that my students were perceived and labeled based on the stereotypes reinforced through performance on the Regents exam. Since I was not from New York, I did not have a very good understanding of the stereotypes surrounding the schools when I started, but I knew that the Bronx was a scary place based upon the way that it was portrayed to me through media and in New York history. I won’t lie, I was nervous when I realized that I would be working in a high school in the Bronx in my fall placement, but it did not take long for me to realize that I had been led astray and had believed stereotypes that were far from true.

As a 14 year old reader and writer, I never saw a true significance in the subjects. I would often become flustered and overwhelmed when forced to do a writing assignment. I just couldn’t understand why I was being forced to perform a task that, in my opinion, made no impact on the world around me. However, my Sophomore year, my perception began to change. I had begun taking an Advanced Placement World History class. This class made a big impact on me as a reader and a writer for many reasons. Although, I can’t recall every lesson I was taught during the course of this class, but what I can recall is a much more impactful lesson. The lesson that continues to shape how I view literacy and the modern world.

There I was in the eleventh grade in my final month of school before Summer break. I was sitting in the front row near the door of my Math Inquiry classroom, just behind the foreign exchange student from Japan, Kokoro. The room was empty with just two students. With five total in the class, three of which were absent, it was just Kokoro and I. As we were looking over the math I found it to be the most heinous subject. I could not comprehend the material my teacher lectured on the unit circle. The curriculum for that was difficult. As a result my teacher Mrs. Dickey an intervention specialist and math major managed to answer my questions when I could not comprehend the material.

In my English classes, a popular assignment is analyzing the literature in an essay after reading a novel. You may think that because I had this assignment multiple times already, that I would be good at it by now. I should definitely be able to write it without any hesitation or problem. However, that is not the case, unfortunately. When analyzing literature, I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot of techniques and ways to pick up that would help make my writing more efficient. My brain is definitely still developing new strategies that could come in handy when writing. Although sometimes I believe that I am alright at analyzing literature, I do often times have writer’s block and can not seem to come up with an analyzation. Thankfully, due to my most recent English teacher, I had a lot of help and improved myself greatly. I feel confident in the quotes that I pick, confident in the commentary I am writing, and confident in the way I phrase it. I have developed my own techniques as to analyzing literature in order to write an essay along the way.

A red shirt with black jeans. As I approached the building's entrance, I thought nothing of my clothing. Neither did the officers who checked my identification, patted me down, and escorted me. The program coordinator had instructed us not to wear green shirts, to make our clothing distinct from the forest green uniforms of the "inmates." I sat in the classroom, preparing for class, going over readings for the lecture, thinking about possible debate topics, and conversing with the students. A correctional officer entered, glanced around, and declared to the instructor, "There should only be five inmates in here. I'm counting one extra."

Organization is one specific tool I have used throughout my life consistently that has helped me become who I am today. When I was a little kid, my mother use to say, “ okay, now help me clean up.” This stuck with me and as years went by, I eventually did so without her asking. I had a place for all of my things. If it wasn’t there when I went to look for it, I became anxious. Point is, at a very young age, I discovered the need for things around me to be organized and tidy. Throughout the course of one’s life, we adapt many practices that later shape who we are. These practices are called literate repurposing. While gathering my research, I came across many unique findings. This character trait has never diminished, and I've repurposed my organizational skills all throughout my life.

I was born in central Los Angeles and remained there until if was five years old. Due to our growing family and some of the concerns surrounding community violence my parents decided to move to Van Nuys. Even within the San Fernando Valley there are areas of high community violence, gang activity and poverty. However, I felt as sense of community support and safety due largely in part to the *** established early on in my elementary school. Though community gatherings my mother found a new source of social support and support networking. The ability to learn about our neighbors and community helps to establish a sense of cohesion, trust and a real community. I remember my mother and neighbors coming together to talk about issues within the larger community that may have been or concern or placed children and families at risk. As I grew older things appeared to have changed. Families moved away, businesses closed down, and again it seems the once united community has reverted to an individualistic neighborhood.

Throughout high school, I took my grades seriously as I maintained an overall grade point average of 93. My grades have always meant a great deal to me, however, I never knew how to correctly study. I had remained aware well before I came to college that my hands-off studying techniques would need to be forgotten and left in high school. However, until Allison Peer visited our class I was still unsure of how to get the most from my college experience and was not aware of how to successfully study. From what I have learned in this class and from Allison Peer I have decided to change a few of my study habits. For example, I would like to stop procrastinating my work and set up a schedule for studying and homework between classes, visit my professors during office hours when I miss class or when I do not understand what we discussed during class, and I have already begun connecting different ideas from different courses together to help me learn the material on a deeper level.

As a Junior at Downtown Magnets High School I took two AP courses that were AP Spanish Language & AP U.S History along with my regular courses like Mathematics, Science, English, and etc. It was not until I entered my AP U.S. History class that I really learned about All nighters and the use energy drinks and Coffee. I don’t like to Fail but to succeed one must learn what failure feels like to better their understanding of how to Succeed. I “technically” passed the first semester of the Course with a Solid “D” but that did not satisfy me since I knew that I deserved better after all the Time and work I put in to studying two days before each quiz and test. I did not understand that time and effort did not lead to success.

Prior to the beginning of my sophomore year in high school, I had already decided upon heading to pharmacy school and learning about the profession in detail before eventually graduating with a professional doctorate degree in pharmacy. Taking advantage of the Summer Scholars Advanced College Academy program offered by the local community college, I could participate in secondary dual enrollment while still in high school. Throughout the entire three years from there on out, I would typically attend high school classes in the morning and afternoon and come evening time, I would head over to the college. During my sophomore year, my brother advised to stick with 3- and 4-unit non-science courses to slowly ease myself into this new schedule. Focusing primarily on the relatively lighter breadth requirement courses, I would be endowed with the opportunity to come home, eat a snack, and complete a few homework assignments before heading to class once again but this time, at a different institution.