Category: Portfolio & Reflection

Everyone has a different perspective of school. Some people love it others like me hated it. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t try to pass. In fact passing was my only goal for a while. I didn’t care about what they taught as long as I passed with a high grade I was happy.

Ever since I was born I have had asthma. For those of you who don’t know asthma is a type of disease that effects the lungs and airways. There is no cure to asthma only temporary treatments. Because of asthma I had troubles breathing and was sent to the nurses office or sent back home. I rarely attended class so I was given worksheets instead, I didn’t get to learn with other classmates only the nurse helped me or my brother. My brother helped me a lot with the worksheets so I didn’t have to try that hard to pass my classes. The best part was that every time I passed my class I was rewarded by my parents. They rewarded me with games, clothes, even trips outside of the state. I didn’t learn much but at least I got through. However this changed after a few years.

Asthma can progress overtime, it can get worse or better. In my case it was a lot easier to control because I learned how to use the medication and treat myself. By this time I’m already in middle school and instead of heading home after an asthma attack, I would just go back to class. The days felt longer and I had a lot more work to get done. It felt completely different from having someone else guide me through a worksheet. Now I was struggling to pass because I wasn’t used to working alone but luckily my friends from my elementary also came to this middle school. I thought about how I should approach them, whether to ask for them to show me the answers or for them to show me how to do it. At that moment I felt like I shouldn’t have people do all the work for me and instead I should learn how to do something myself. Asking them to teach me felt really weird, it felt like admitting that I wasn’t as smart as them which was true and I hated feeling that way. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be behind them and instead be the one they ask for help instead. I studied at night alone to make sure I truly understood what to do after all I could ask for help during test. Usually I’m nervous during test and relied on cheating by seeing someone else answer, but sitting there looking at my paper, it all seemed so easy to do. It felt good to be able to pass on my own. I even started to help other friends who would start to fall behind.

High school was a weird experience, some of the kids there cared about their grades while others barely passed. The students that were barely passing didn’t care about their grades, they only hanged out with each other and ignore the work. It was then I started to get lazy with my work, I did the same thing they were doing. I hanged out with them often and would turn in work late. My grades started to drop but not because I had problems understanding its just that I wanted to be more social and hang out with my friends. My uncle who is a lot older than me began to tell me that I should go back to working on my grades. When I asked him why he started to talk about when he wasn’t able to go to college. When he passed high school he had to get a job to support his brothers and sisters. He was refused multiple jobs because he didn’t have the requirements. He needed to have a degree to show he understood how to do the work but he never got the chance until recently. After hearing this  I just knew that I didn’t wanted to be refused because I didn’t go to college and learn.

Now that I am in college I see that all of my experiences were crucial to make the person I am today. I know what its like to not be as smart as other but I know that if I work hard and if I’m determined I can accomplish my goal. And that I shouldn’t get lazy and stop trying half-way through. That would just make all my efforts till now meaningless. Even if I’m not at my best right now I can keep trying and improve on myself.

My main views of education come from my experience in the school system, thoughts on the systems and how these experiences affected me and how I learned from them. I personally think some aspects of the American school system are flawed.

 

From my experience one way the school system is flawed is how classes are structured, what they teach and how they teach their subject. A main reason I think this system is the use of common core. According to google”The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). … The Common Core is informed by the highest, most effective standards from states across the United States and countries around the world”. Think this is not a very good way of teaching mostly because not only does it put most of education in a box and tell you not to teach outside of it, it also puts a constraint on teachers to teach kids in a timely manner. This based on what I saw in School doesn’t work for everyone because not two students are the same and because of common core kids are left behind because they cannot keep up with the system.

One experience that changed my views on education is how being in special education changed me and how certain problems in school are stigmatized. A quick fact about me is that I have ADHD(Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) because of the ADHD I had to be in Special education class. While I could do the work the other “normal” could do and in some cases do the work better than them, at the end I was still in a special education class. Worst part is that the teachers would give me different work in elementary and middle School because I would do the work before everyone else but I still took medication, I am mostly well behaved and I do most of my work but as soon I don’t that they just asked me ” did you take your medicine today” any time I was different they always Said the granted I did not they them for that made me so they probably thought it wasn’t a problem and continue to do it. But because of that when I got into the group I had to explain myself to not only the teacher but other kids too. I think this made me better at school.N

ow for college my main problem is just it seems like a scam. For instance, from what I hear, professors and lectures aren’t really there for you to learn. They just show you what to do and when you do it if You need help with some you have to do it yourself or ask a fellow student for help. I also don’t like how short semesters are. I just think that is not enough to learn the skills of a certain subject in school considering that you don’t have to go to school every day. I say the best way to learn is repetition which is why I probably did so well in highschool. I think college is getting hard as it is hard to pay attention to school work from home. But the stuff I’m learning are things I’ve already learned. It’s probably because I’m not in school personally.

One Last thing is how useless secondary education seems to some people but that is only because they either don’t like school or see college as too much work. But in reality people who either pick up internships go to a trade school or do anything outside of college are technically secondary education. I say we need to change that when we say secondary education is immediately think college but anything that helps you to learn a skill to get a job after highschool is secondary at least to me.

My views on education are views that are unique to my based circumstances. I think there needs to be room for improvement in the school system and mind set. While I might think it is a bad thing for school can be a positive thing for someone else, all that matters at the end of school is that we learn.

 

 

My main views of education come from my experience in the school system, thoughts on the systems and how these experiences affected me and how I learned from them. I personally think some aspects of the American school system are flawed. A few way I think the system is flawed are in special education class and grades.

From my experience one way the school system is flawed is how classes are structured, what they teach and how they teach their subject. A main reason I think this system is the use of common core. According to google”The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). … The Common Core is informed by the highest, most effective standards from states across the United States and countries around the world”. Think this is not a very good way of teaching mostly because not only does it put most of education in a box and tell you not to teach outside of it, it also puts a constraint on teachers to teach kids in a timely manner. This based on what I saw in School doesn’t work for everyone because not two students are the same and because of common core kids are left behind because they cannot keep up with the system.

One experience that changed my views on education is how being in special education changed me and how certain problems in school are stigmatized. A quick fact about me is that I have ADHD(Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder)  because of the ADHD I had to be in Special education class. While I could do the work the other “normal” could do and in some cases do the work better than them, at the end I was still in a special education class. Worst part is that the teachers would give me different work in elementary and middle School because I would do the work before everyone else but I still took medication, I am mostly well behaved and I do most of my work but as soon I don’t that they just asked me ” did you take your medicine today” any time I was different they always Said the granted I did not they them for that made me so they probably thought it wasn’t a problem and continue to do it. But because of that when I got into the group I had to explain myself to not only the teacher but other kids too. I think this made me better at school.

Now for college my main problem is just it seems like a scam. For instance, from what I hear, professors and lectures aren’t really there for you to learn. They just show you what to do and when you do it  if You need help with some you have to do it yourself or ask a fellow student for help. I also don’t like how short semesters are. I just think that is not enough to learn the skills of a certain subject in school considering that you don’t have to go to school every day. I say the best way to learn is repetition which is why I probably did so well in highschool. I think college is getting hard as it is hard to pay attention to school work from home. But the stuff I’m learning are things I’ve already learned. It’s probably because I’m not in school personally.

One Last thing is how useless secondary education seems to some people but that is only because they either don’t like school or see college as too much work. But in reality people who either pick up internships go to a trade school or do anything outside of college are technically secondary education. I say we need to change that when we say secondary education is immediately think college but anything that helps you to learn a skill to get a job after highschool is secondary at least to me.

My views on education are views that are unique to my based circumstances. I think there needs to be room for improvement in the school system and mind set. While I might think it is a bad thing for school can be a positive thing for someone else, all that matters at the end of school is that we learn.