Semester Reflection

       This semester was not what I was expecting it to be when I first walked into the classroom on our first day of college. My previous English classes we were assigned multiple essays as well as readings and I believe since we were poured with so many assignments to do at once I never took time into one essay to make it sound as well as flow good. However, in English 114 we were assigned 4 big assignments and multiple little assignments. With the little assignments we were asked to annotate, summarize articles, explore new readings as well as review our peers work. It is important to be able to work with your classmates as well as being able to critique each other’s work. In the end it is only beneficial to you as well as your peers as you want everyone to become better writers. While being in this class I was taught many new strategies as well as being refreshed on new ones. With using double entries on my notebook, I have become more comfortable using the concept as I used to do it back in high school. I have always been opened to using many sources for this class, such as google docs, iLearn, Microsoft Word, blog and being a responsible student and checking my email daily to keep on track of my assignments as well as using it to communicate with my teachers. 

         With the many reading assignments that were given to us throughout the semester I really enjoyed. They varied from Tik Tok articles to the #MeToo movement and every time I read a new article there was always something new to learn. With the 4 big assignments there was so much time given to work on each of these projects that allowed us able to make it the best version of the essay possible. I believe the purpose project really allowed all of us students open up about our experiences through school and as we did peer review that also allowed us to connect with one another and know a little about each other’s past. While working on the purpose project we learned a lot more about one another, but when working on the Inquiry project I learned a lot more about myself, the background from where I come from as well as my family. Going home over Thanksgiving break and being able to interview my grandma was so nice to discover and be educated about my nana as well as learning more about my race and traditions that we continue to carry on. With the new strategies that I was taught while being in English 114 and the ones that refreshed my memory I will continue to carry on throughout my future English classes as well as my other classes as I learned not only how to become a better writer but as well as becoming a better student. 

The course I would choose to teach would be the sports seminar. I enjoy almost all sports and just the different techniques each athlete brings in order to be successful in their sport. I would want to teach the history of sports, the mentality of an athlete as well as the technique and correlation that is needed to be a successful athlete. I would do a field trip to an actual sporting event for my students to see the athletes in live action. And I would assign different articles and reading on different subjects in order to educate my students more about sports. While teaching this class I would hope to encourage my students to not necessarily be wanting to go out and become a Division 1 athlete, but I would hope to help them realize how much mentality as well as physicality is put into being an athlete. 

Finalized Inquiry Project Interview

Inquiry Project Interview 

            On November 29, 2019 it was a cold Friday morning. In a small little town called Victorville where we live about 85 miles away from Los Angeles, we received about 2 inches of snow on Thanksgiving Day which is very rare to actually see snow, and have it stick. So, the following morning the snow is slowly starting to melt and fade away as I sit with my grandma whose name is Neva and she is 65 years old, we are at the kitchen table to interview her for my Inquiry project. We started at 10:15. There is a football game playing on the television in the background, my little cousins are chasing the dogs and we are all just getting finished with a pancake breakfast. I have my laptop opened ready to ask my grandma questions. I learned quite a lot from the limited amount of questions that I asked. At first, I believed that I am more Spaniard and White then anything else, however I have discovered that I am more Mexican and have very little Spaniard in me. I know this must have been a huge confusion to everyone as I first believed that I was half Spainard, but throughout this interview and talking to my family they made realize that I am half Mexican as well as half White and very little Spainard in me. I came to discover that my great grandmother was born in Williams, Arizona. At first, I believed that she immigrated from Spain to America, however I discovered that she was already born in the United States. My great grandmothers name originated from it being a typical Hispanic name of Cecilia. We lost our Spanish language because when my great grandmother was younger, she was bullied in high school because she did speak Spanish, so she was forced to erase the language out of her because she was embarrassed. In those times she was bullied so much and was not able to be a part of a beauty pageant because she was Mexican. So, throughout time with her being bullied it was lost within our family.  I would hate to have pushed my nationality away because of others bullying you to the point of embarrassment, yet they still do it in today’s generation and it is such a shame. We continue to speak very little Spanish in my family today but not fluently. We continue to carry on the food ways in my family by continuing to cook Mexican food such as beans, rice, chile, but we did not learn how to make traditional tortillas the way my nana would make so that would be the food that we do not continue to carry on. We continue to carry on my nana’s traditions by showing well mannerisms, doing chores around the house, listening to Mexican music, eating the same food as well as being classy and professional the way she taught us to be. Her day to day lifestyle consisted of being a very good housewife. She would clean, cook, iron, and was very particular in everything she did. My nana had 6 children, so they always kept her on her toes. Through this interview I discovered that my nana was not immigrated to the United States and her parents were already in the U.S. when she was born. They originated from one part of Spain that is called Linares. My nana’s mother which would be my great great grandmother came to Williams, Arizona when she was 5 years old. Immigrants were assigned a state to live when they were being sent off and they were all assigned a specific state that way they would be evenly spread out. So, they were sent to Arizona and that is where my nana was born. In Williams they owned a ranch called the Pinecrest Dairy and they would deliver milk locally to everyone in town. When my nana was 13 years old her mother died. She ran away to the ranch and lived there for some time. A few years later she got married and her husband was a construction worker so he would travel a lot and they eventually ended up in California where my grandma was born and eventually my mother as well. 

While doing this essay I have learned so much information about my nana as well as her past. I believed it was one thing to what I figured her past was like however I was very incorrect on many things. But I am glad to have been educated on my nana’s childhood as well as knowing how she was brought to California. While doing the interview with my grandma at the dinner table, my uncle and my great uncle who is also one of my nana’s sons joined us in the interview. So, I did interview more people than I anticipated but I enjoyed it. They all brought information to the questions that I was asking and even some memories that I enjoyed listening too. Doing this interview made me feel closer to my family as I learned more about our background and being educated on my nana more and how her parents immigrated to the United States. The interview ended at 10:58.

Revised Mentor Letter

Rebekah Schroeder

rschroeder1@mail.sfsu.edu

1600 Holloway Ave

San Francisco, CA 94132

December 3, 2019

Subject Line: Help Me Encourage Others the Way You Encouraged Me.

To:

Benjamin Hammond Haggerty

1935 10th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102. Redfin.

Dear Mr. Haggerty

Ever since I was 12 years old I have always been inspired by your music as well you 

as a human being to become a better version of myself. I have always admired your willingness to be yourself and to not be afraid of who you truly want to be. I would like to request an interview regarding your past as I am curious to what you have been through and how you have become the man you are today. I have struggled myself of showing who I truly am and being afraid of what others were going to think of me. I have a couple questions already set up ready to ask about you as well as your lifestyle and how you were desired to show everyone who you really are. I hope this letter finds you well and that you would be interested in having an interview with me to get a better understanding of your background that made you into the person that you are today. Thank you! 

-Sincerely Rebekah Schroeder

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XXvjRqRS5f0G3FARvSmx9BNn--1HtTEfIFFQbL8MkWk/edit?usp=sharing