Where the Person Is - Essay Example

In 1999, I met and later married my husband who I met at an IBM advertising conference. We married six months after the conference and we moved to the United States. Currently, we live in a small, friendly, community in Norwich, Vermont. Our home is on a farm, and we have four horses, four dogs, and four children.

I am currently working full-time as a graphic designer at a very successful advertising agency in Woodstock, Vermont. In addition, during my free time, I enjoy reading a good books and working out in the gym. Some of my hobbies include skydiving, hiking, and horseback riding.

One challenging issue for me is the fact that English is my second language. This means that I often have to use an editor to make sure that I am writing the words correctly. What many people do not realize is that students with English as their second language have to use other ways of learning English than natural English speakers. According to Yau-hau Tse (2011), “students used six dimensions of language learning strategies: cognitive, social, association, compensation, assistance, and constructive strategies” (p. 33). These strategies are particularly important when a student is in college because they are basically on their own to learn. As an example, an individual may have to use all six of these strategies at the same time when they are listening to a lecture in class. Although all students must use some of these strategies, the foreign language student must use all of them at different times within a lecture. This means that we have to be highly focused and very targeted to the lectures or the reading for our classes.

Because English is my second language, I use several learning styles to complete my classes. I notice that I ask many questions in class to make sure that I understand what is going on. I learn best through hands-on learning, face-to-face, and lectures. These methods suggest that I am a visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learner (Fleming, 2011). This means that I need to hear and see what I am learning on one level and if the course adds some type of hands-on ability, it allows me to engage in the learning of that subject. I find that if I have more than one way to approach a subject I have a better understanding of what I need to do to be successful with that subject. Luu Trong (2011) states that understanding learning styles is important to engage students in specific learning. He calls learning styles “a consistent way of functioning which reflects cultural behavior patterns …” (p. 291) which means that because learning styles are based within cultures, they also can be stretched to accommodate more styles as they are developed. I am not sure that I am developing new learning styles yet, but perhaps this will happen later. Barnes, Marateo, and Ferris (2007) suggest that there are many different styles to consider when working with learners, and students today are part of a generation that they call The Net Generation. They say that this generation is very interested in education and that they are brought up in education from a very young age. I see myself as part of this particular generation and I do believe that my education is very important to my future goals.  As they state, I have been involved with the Internet for a very long time and have and I understand my learning style very well. As a teacher/counselor/mentor/leader, I hope that I will be able to help others in the way they have helped me. I would like to nurture the people I work with and help them move forward in their lives.

There are many topics that I am interested in and I am having difficulty narrowing them down. I am interested in academic freedom for both teachers and students. I wonder if academic freedom should be controlled by laws or whether there is a different way that this should be formed. I also wonder whether Spanish should be declared the official language of the United States because there are so many people who are Spanish-speaking today. I know this would cause great controversy on many levels if it happened. I also wonder whether juvenile defenders who commit adult crimes should always be tried as adults.

I do have a few research questions. I would like to know when we are supposed to start on our major projects for the research proposal and the PowerPoint presentation. Do we need to choose our topic for this or will the professor give us a topic? Finally, I would like to know the criteria for these assignments.