Glass Castle Perspective with Life

My description of home is wherever my heart is and the people that are in it. Family and my closest friends is what I determine home, not some big, fancy mansion with 6 bedrooms. Material things is not what family or home is really about, it is the people that care about you. Almost like what the Walls is about, not having the material items and money but about caring for one another and just getting by on what is important.

          To me, what I think a typical America culture scenario is just the basics. Both parents having jobs, trying to support one another and children if they have any and living in a nice home. Sure almost every family goes through a tough situation every now and then, but they do just fine and move along like the Walls family did. Some days were better for the Walls then others, when they would go out to eat and have the fridge stocked full with food. That was a typical good day for them, when they wouldn’t go hungry. Our days in America culture are not quite as bad but bad things do happen to us. For example, a parent losing a job, might have an impact on the bills getting paid and shortage of money. Things like that happen and we just try to survive on the positive things in life and that is exactly what the Walls did in this situation when the dad gets fired from his jobs.

          As of right now, the way I think an America culture is, fits my family’s description. My mom and dad both have good jobs that keep them going. Then tend to make enough money to keep a roof over my head and my stomach full with food. The way I live is quite lovely and appreciate everything I am able to have. We live the typical everyday life and there are some rough patches along the way but with each other’s support we do just fine.

          Sometimes when I see how my parents struggle with life it makes me sad. It makes me feel like I have to find a way that will make things all better. We are never really in a hole like the Walls family is but sometimes if work is slow for my parents we may have less money than the previous week that to me is when I see the struggle in my parents face. But nothing like the Walls family compares to my family. I cannot imagine my life like the Walls family, they get by but sometimes it makes me sad because they live a rough life. We always have the basic necessities that we need for daily life unlike the Walls family. We have food on the table, clothes on our backs and the love of one another in my family which is all we need. So all in all, my family’s life goes strong and with the love and support of one another we make it through together, through thick and thin and live the typical American life.

 

Education Reflection

When I had to write my first college paper for Writing 100 I was full of mixed emotions, but mainly I was scared. Writing papers is not really my specialty. I am always afraid that it is not going to be good enough no matter how hard I try. I could never get my ideas down on paper, but actually when I am scared it helps me to put thoughts down on paper and that is how I began to write to my rough draft.

          My first step that I did was write my rough draft. What helped me in the process was being scared, it helped me too push myself to put my thoughts onto    paper. While I pushed myself I began to say “oh my god how am I going to get this done or what am I going to do”. All these things began rushing through my head. Little sayings like that help me to write. But one of my biggest concerns is I feel like it has to be perfect even though it is a rough draft, also if what I am doing is right. Sometimes I get all in a panic and be like “I’m I doing this right, maybe I’m not.” I panic over the little things. I strive to do my best so I can show the teacher what I am capable of. Also listening to music puts me in a good mood and motivates me which can help me put my thoughts on paper.

          Afterwards, is revising my paper. Even though we did peer revisions in class, what I also do is go to my mom for help to read over it, she helps me be motivated by the words she says to me for example, “Aww you did a good job writing your paper, it is clear, understandable and you get your point across”. She always seems to tell me that I did a good job but there are a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Now I feel like my mom just says that to be nice which some people I am sure can relate. But I think that is what moms just do.

          Lastly, what I do is my final draft. Once I have it revised and finished my final copy I submit my paper online in the drop box in my Writing 100 class. Once I have it finished I become happy and relieved that it is done and over with, but then I get in my panic mode for when it is time to hand back the papers to see what my grade is. I’m sure people can relate getting all afraid about getting their grade back. I just want to try my best and make the teacher want to enjoy and remember the paper I wrote. I want to make myself proud along with my parents and teacher. Each time I write a paper I am going to try to come up with new ways to motivate myself along with different strategies to get the paper done.

 

         

My Education Experience

Throughout my life I have went to three schools, Blue Mountain Elementary East, Blue Mountain Middle School, and Blue Mountain High School. These three schools, each a higher class of education has taught me well and got me where I needed to be today. Each of these schools had higher standards of one another, but that is of course expected because each school had higher grade levels that expected more out of you. But the schools I have went to, I cannot complain about because I have enjoyed those years very much and helped guide me along the way.

My first school, Blue Mountain Elementary East, consisted of kindergarten through fifth grade. Our school consisted of many different kids from around the world and of different living situations, but we didn’t really call ourselves a “class” but if it was a class it would be more likely the middle class. Some kids you can tell had more money than others but we all acted like we were the same. Those were the simple days. How this school had taught us was really just the basics. We learned the material that we needed to learn to proceed to the next grade. We were taught the alphabet, numbers, spelling, and mathematical problems. For example, the mathematical problems, how the teachers would teach us is by lecture. In the lecture the teachers would do practice problems on what we were learning, for example, fractions. Then she or he would give us homework for the next day to go over and to see if we had any questions, if we did they would show it on the board so we could see our mistake. If we couldn’t find it, the teacher was more than happy to help any kids after class.  The procedure for how we learned went basically for everything besides numbers and the alphabet, we learned them by saying it after the teacher said it. The way the teachers helped us after class and provided us with their attention helped my want to be successful in the near future.

 

(Blue Mountain Elementary East)

 

            The second school I went to that helped me along with my life/career was Blue Mountain Middle School, which held 6^th-8^th grade students. This higher up school was more in the middle class unlike the elementary school. This is when the kids would show off what they had that other kids didn’t. Also this school started to introduce technology usage on what we needed to do and the uses for it. For some kids it was harder because of their type of living arrangement. Some couldn’t afford computers or other electronic devices to help them practice using technology at home so when it came to class they needed more assistance. This is also when teachers would start giving us online homework assignments, so the kids that had low budget parents had a hard time trying to get the work done. The teachers though were really nice and compassionate that they worked with those kids at school to get them familiar with a computer and helped them with their assignments before they went home.

The way this school taught us was we had a set schedule of eight classes a day. Each of those classes was in different rooms with different teachers and students. This is when school became tricky because teachers were expecting more out of you then when we were in elementary school. Again, we learned the basic material we needed for to proceed to the next grade and to prepare us kids for the big board tests to show the board of directors how good the teachers were at teaching us, for example, the PSSA’s. Our school to would always come up one of the top five for our test scores, so their strategy of teaching us kids had to work and all they did was do lectures up in front of the class and did practice problems. On the other hand, we also went on field trips to make what we were learning fun.  This enhanced me to learn more because I enjoyed it. This then helped me get the grades for the goal I wanted to achieve.

(Blue Mountain Middle School)

 

            Lastly, the third school I went to was Blue Mountain High School. This consisted of 9^th- 12^th grade. Now this school wasn’t really associated with a type of class because once again everyone was helping each other out and everyone felt the same around one another. The middle school was an awkward stage where everyone thought they were better than one another but the high school everyone believed and saw that we were all equal again. Our school was good among the staff and students, like a big happy family.

            How we were taught in this school was having a schedule consisting of eight classes with a wide range of basic, college prep or honor classes that kids were placed in. Now in this school we had lots of speeches and projects to get us into the college experience and on the college level. For the one project we did the teacher put us in groups to present Greek Mythology.  We were graded harder based on projects, speeches and tests. The tests were still graded on a lenient side because we still got study guides when the teachers would finish their lectures but for the most part it was getting harder. The high school pushed us to be at that college level, especially for the SAT’s and the real world.  So the high school really affected my career because I felt I needed to get good grades to make it to college to become the nurse I wanted to be. So during these last couple of years of high school I pushed myself to strive for the best.

(Blue Mountain High School)

The different learning experiences got me where I am today and I am very happy that the Blue Mountain School District helped me learn everything I needed to. My school helped me get on the path where I wanted to be on and I couldn’t be more proud of being a Blue Mountain graduate.