3. Punctuality

Punctuality is not one of my strengths, but when I started with my school placement I made a promise/ goal to myself to never be late. So far I have hit that target with vigor. Even when I biked in the mornings I have made it on time, or for the most part five or more minutes early. My marching band director used to say on time was five minutes before you need to be there. This great care spent on getting there on time makes it so I am not rushing into the class. I can collect myself and mentally prepare myself for what is happening that day in the math lesson.

I am working on making those five cushion a regular occurrence for my classes at the college, but sometimes that is not possible when professors hold their class late, but for the most part when I am late, it is my fault. I am glad to say things have improved and punctuality is a thing of the present.

7. Morning Workout (November 30, 2008)

After fall break my roommate, Lindsay and I made a goal of exercising Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the morning. I was not exceptionally thrilled to get up so early before class because she sleeps in on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I already have to get up early, but the morning is the one time of the day where other things will not get double booked. The first morning we went was quite painful. I don’t think I was really awake until about 15 minutes of the elliptical machine. Now it is not so bad. I was not able to this last week because I have been pretty sick. The discipline of getting up early has been good. Knowing that I am going to get up early makes me get to bed a little earlier. This time in the morning is also a good time for Lindsay and me to talk.

Another way I have been working to be more active is with my intramural volleyball team. I am a captain this year. I pulled together a funny team of Senior guys, myself and freshman girls. We are all at different skill levels, but it is still lots of fun. I like that I was able to cross class lines and integrate people who would normally never get to know each other.

6. Brigitte Hudicourt Tuesday November 26, 5:30-6:30

Last evening Rayna’s mother, Brigitte Hudicourt, came to Goshen and spoke about how Goshen has made a lasting impact on her life. We gathered in the basement of Kulp for dinner and stories. A large group of 30 packed into the crowded basement. We ate dinner and then Mrs. Hudicourt began speaking. She spoke of her life starting with her youth, time spent at Goshen College, what it was like raising children during a politically turbulent and violent time, and what she does now and why she does it. Mrs. H, a young boisterous Hatian woman came to Goshen College in ’79. At that time the only dancing allowed was contra-dancing, nothing like at home. While a Goshen her life was impacted, impacted in such a way that she transformed into a different person. While at Goshen she accepted Jesus and learned to about those funny Mennonites. She became, as anyone does when living abroad, a “hybrid.” She explained the positive and negative aspects of being a hybrid. After Goshen she worked with MCC in Florida as a translator. Back in Haiti she married at had Rayna. During this time there was much violence and fear. She was adamant that she would never have a gun in her house, a idea that was hard for her husband to understand. Right behind Rayna’s school was no man’s land and you could almost always hear gun shots. What you heard was not one or two shots, but rounds of machine gun fire. Mrs. H is an opthamologist. She started her own group practice and performs surgery and other eye care, but not for only those with money. Her practice will not turn patients away, whether they can or can not pay. She also works with doctors without boarders. I knew that Mrs. H was Rayna’s role model, but I did not know her story. I now know why she is Rayna’s role model. Mrs. H’s story was amazing and she is an astonishingly strong woman (physically, mentally, and spiritually), a true heroin.

I can relate her story to my life. After coming back from living in Germany for a year I am too a hybrid of cultures. I need to pull from my experience when I teach to give a more rounded approach to my students.

3. Strengths Quest (November 19, 2008)

Through my RA leadership class I took the Strengths Quest test. This test is series of questions that help determine your top 5 strengths. The idea it that if you focus and develop what you are good at, instead of what you are bad at, increases performance and find the right fit for a job. These strengths are not necessarily perfected yet, but with deliberate work you can reach your full potential.

My signature themes (top five strengths) are: Developer, Individualization, Connectedness, Empathy, and Includer. The Developer “sees potential in others” and believes that “no individual is fully formed.” The Developer’s genuine goal is to help others succeed and seeing this success brings strength to you. The Individualization theme focuses on the uniqueness of each person and seeing their strengths. The Connectedness theme shows that you believe that things happen for a reason and that we are all apart of something larger. Empathy is fourth on my list and it shows that I sense the emotions of those around me. I am able to see the world through someone else’s eyes/ perspective. My last signature theme is Includer. I definitely see this day to day. I avoid exclusive groups and work to “stretch the circle wider.”

I really enjoyed taking this quiz and I am working at strengthening these strengths. All of my themes suggest teaching or working with handicapped children as a possible currier paths. This is a great affirmation for my choice an Elementary/ Special Education Major.

2. Voting (November 1, 2008)

This year was my first chance to vote. I felt a little distant from the whole process in part due to numerous factors. I voted by absentee ballot so I didn’t go to the polls and for me it was a little anticlimactic. I almost was unable to vote because my absentee ballot came so late. Luckily I got it just in time. I feel that politics today is just about putting the other person down, digging up any dirt in their past and flaunting it to the public in a self righteous way. I don’t want to say that I vote purely on part lines, but it is hard to contradict that statement when both sides are so polarized and I might have selective hearing, but 95% of the time, when I hear a negative add towards a candidate, it is supported by the Republican national committee.

In my placement at West Goshen I was able to see the kids vote. It was really interesting seeing how excited or unexcited they were. They definitely emulated their parents. I think all of the children were pretty gung ho for Barack and one child that was ecstatic for McCain. For some, the process was really confusing.

I still remember voting for Clinton in a mock election at Hesston Elementary in Hesston, Kansas. Being apart of that simple mock election, way back in elementary school made a memorable impact on my life. Often as a kid you are left out of things and the mock election introduced me to the voting process and tickled my taste buds for the political process.

3. Linguistics Study Group (November 15,2008)

This semester I have been studying linguistics with Jesse, a classmate. This has been really valuable in helping us both to understand the material better. We started meeting during the phonetics unit. During this unit we needed to memorize the phonetic alphabet and learn how to read different things that were phonetically written. When we were doing workbook pages it was really helpful to have that second pair of ears to listen while we were trying to figure out what was written.

I am finding out in a concrete way that the best way for me to learn something is not by reading about it, but by talking about it with someone else or just trying it out. I have found out over the years that it doesn’t matte how much i read about something to find out how to do it, I need to try it out. Talking about linguistics and having someone question me makes a connection that just reading about the topic does not.


Jesse, who I study with, is very dyslexic and I am learning some interesting methods he uses to help him overcome this disability. This is really important to think about when I teach. It is very important to use different methods to cover one topic. The use of a combination of verbal, visual, and hands-on is critical when working with kids, especially when you have kids that are new language learners or learning disabled.

2. The Media (October 30, 2008)

It is really interesting and quite disturbing what the media can do. I guess I would never make a good politician because the finder pointing and gnashing of teeth at the other side of the isle to reincarnate the middle school lunch room. The differences are what are looked at, not the similarities.
When religion gets entangled in it, I feel as if it gets even worse. More often than not I see right wing Christians claiming that God is on our side and this troubles me. I am a Christian and I am a follower of God and I don’t think that God is strictly on the left or right of the isle. When I talk with people with very different opinions than myself I work really hard at truly listening to them and try to understand why they believe what they believe.


On my floor there are varieties of political views, religions, and ethnicities, but the majority, or the loudest voices lean democratic. The beginning of this week one girl wrote a statement on her white board that essentially said that if Obama was elected we would be overrun with Arabic speaking terrorists. I was not on the floor when this happened, but I heard about this from numerous people. This statement greatly troubles me. I not only have very close friends who speak Arabic and are Muslim, but another girl on our floor comes from a country where Arabic is a prevalent language that is spoken. After 9-11 my friends were persecuted and profiled and this kind of hate is unacceptable, especially on GC’s campus. This statement in no way is a supporter of Goshen’s core values. I have yet to be able to talk with the girl who wrote this statement, but when I talk with her I plan on asking her a few questions. This is a hard thing to tackle because here a Goshen we are all college students and as a college student I do believe we have a higher level of intelligence. Talking to a “peer” who breaks standards is difficult.

7. Walks with Emily (November 12, 2008)

In the last month I have been taking weekly evening walks with the Ministry Leader from my floor. This time is a wonderful time where we can debrief from the day, the week, or what is to come. Walking outside we are able to see the beauty around us. When it is dark out we stare up at the sky in wonder and aw.

We have both come to the conclusion that it is a lot harder than expected to have such a prominent position on campus. The stress of balancing personal, academic, community building and life in general is difficult. It is a balancing act that can sometime seem to be on the verge of tipping. We normally walk for 30-45 minutes and this short time once a week really helps me to get ready to tackle what need to get done. We also are able to talk about what is going on, on our floor and I am able to bounce ideas off of her, with out being interrupted by others. Even though it is quite a bit cooler at night, we still bundle up and have our little walk and talk.

7. Time for myself 10-2-08

With being an RA, working at Sauder, and other responsibilities with classes, homework and clubs I don not have much time to squander away. Most day are spent with last minute work at making deadlines and attempting to get sleep. So with the stress piling up, I know that I need to work on a few things. Mainly I need to learn how to say no to responsibilities that are not necessary and when I do have free time, to use it effectively. If I just “veg. out” that does not recharge my battery.

In the mornings before I go to West Goshen I have been working at getting up 15 minutes earlier than needed and having some quiet mediation journaling time. This time is really nice even though I am not fully awake. It gives me complete silence (on a floor where that is a rare thing) to journal and think forward about what is going to happen during the day. When I being teaching lessons in my placement this will be a nice time to review lesson one last time before I head out to the school. Hopefully I will be able to continue with this quiet mediation time for the rest of the year.

Another piece of the meditation time is my bike ride to the school. I take the path by the dam and then go through Shanklen Park and then through Mullet Park. Right now the weather has not been bad and just a little cool in the mornings. The changing colors on the leaves are beautiful as I follow the creek. The other week I saw a doe and her fawn when I rounded the corner. I got a few meters away before they darted off into the forest. Theses morning are a true testament of the beauty of God’s creation.

2. The Political Spin (September 29, 2008)

This is an interesting e-mail I received :

“I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight. . . . .

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* If you name your kids Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig, you're a maverick.

* If you graduate from Harvard Law School, you are unstable.
* If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services Committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs Committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is local weather girl, 4 years on the city council, 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, and 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence-only with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, *much* clearer now.”

I laughed out loud when I read this e-mail and then was a bit disgusted. The media is an ever going source that can skew even the straightest of lines. When I do watch the new, I often can't stand to watch it very long. To me, it seems that every story that the news covers has to be has to be so dramatic and sensational. Death and destruction are about the only two things that will always be there.

Maybe it was the lack of language skills or things just went over my head, but while in Germany the news was never so sensational. The need to strike fear in the watcher, I felt, was not there in the same way as in American news.

The most annoying thing I find with Obama vs. McCain is the fact that the issue of race is always brought up. Why is Obama judged on his race before the stance of his political views? I guess this race issue bothers me because I think of a person’s personality before the color of their skin. This is because of what my parents taught me growing up and I am very thankful for that. The exposure of people from other cultures and the consistent living out of the golden rule has had a great and positive impact on my life.

As I think ahead into the future as I pursue teaching, I want to create an atmosphere in my classroom of safety and equality. I hope to have a poster of Norman Rockwell’s painting, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” I have loved it ever since seeing the original in the UN building in NY.

6. Multi Cultural Monday (sept. 15)

I have attended two out of the two multicultural Mondays so far this year. The first Multi Cultural Monday (MCM) I attended occurred on September 15^th. The guests were poet Brenda Cardenas and poet Maurice Kilwein-Guevara. It was hosted by the Latino Student Union. Brenda and Maurice had spoken during convocation about their poetry and writing that morning.

During the MCM both Brenda and Maurice talked a little bit more about themselves and what Brenda Cardenas read a few poems for us. The one poem that I remember most vividly was “Report from the Temple of Confessions in Old Chicano English.” I believe she read it during convocation. It is a poem filled with vivid imagery, metaphors and Spanish language.

This is a web site with her work where you can read her poems or listen to her read them. http://voices.e-poets.net/CardenasB/poems.shtml.

During lunch she read to us “Sonnet for Thunder Lovers and Primary Colors.” This is just a short poem that is a good example of her style and rhythm, but does not have any Spanish in it. I really loved being able to listen to her poetry firsthand as she read them.

Sonnet for Thunder Lovers and Primary Colors

(When Sweet Nothing Just Don't Cut It)

You're more than soda fizz, than sparklers lit
for kids at play, than fireflies' flit in sky.
You spin around my heart and up my thigh
with the whistle and boom of a botle rocket.
Baby, those other jugglers' gigolo tricks--
magician's spell and mime's unspoken sigh--
don't turn my head, don't catch my ear or eye,
but your mercy rolls in my hip pocket.

Some women lke the subtle hints, require
a pastel touch, a whispered cry and blush,
but not me: I am all hyperbole.
Your howls of red, your strokes of green sapphire,
your cayenne kiss, serrano pepper rush
from lip to nape of knee will do for me.

(Published in RATTLE: Poetry for the 21st Century, Vol 5, No. 2, Issue 12, Winter, 1999)

I really enjoyed Breda’ poems, but I had a hard time understanding some of them. I don’t know Spanish and so I definitely felt like an outsider when Brenda, Maurice, and other students would spit out Spanish phrases or words.

Maurice’s poetry that I saw during convocation was animated and brought to life the issue of racial stereo typing.

here is the link

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/uwm/guevara.html>

This particular poems was apart of the Poetry Everywhere Project which tries to expos a wide range of people to a variety of poetry. There were multiple writers involved along side with Maurice. I believe the poetry was put on buses and shown randomly on TV.

It was really interesting hearing from both writers about what inspired them and what they see in their daily life. We touched on social justice issues, racial equality and current events. I enjoyed this MCM, but I did feel quite out of place since I don’t speak Spanish.

Like any great MCM we had a lovely lunch, this time of Tamales that were purchased from Universal Tamales in downtown Goshen.

One thing I take away is the disconnect language can make. As I think about teaching ESL/ ENL students I need to remember the frustration that comes when one does not know the language.

6. Helping others

Wednesday the 24th of September was Goshen's 10th annual Celebrate Service Day. As the RA it was my duty to gather the sophomores on my floor and contact our service assignment. There were only 4 of us who went, but we still had a blast. We worked with REAL Services an organization that helps people who are living at home and need a little more help with things around the house. The group that wend consisted of myself, Lindsay, Emily, Christa, and Char (our faculty representative.)

We started the morning off with the other students meeting in Schrock Plaza for breakfast and a prayer of sending. We then loaded into Char's car and headed to our first spot.

We were not sure what to expect when we rang *Dorthy's door bell. We introduced ourselves and went to work. We worked on things that were too difficult or dangerous for Dorthy to do. We cleaned the outside windows, inside underneath the sink in the kitchen and the bathroom, washed the siding on the porch, and raked the leaves surrounding the house.

I really enjoyed cleaning for Dorthy. I started inside under the sink and we were able to talk while I worked. I think it would be so lonely living alone. She talked a little about her husband (who had passed away) and history of her life. It was really interesting and I am glad we could keep her company for a few hours. While we were at Dorthy's house, one of the REAL Service's employees stopped by and gave us our next assignment.

After finishing up at Dorthy's we stopped and got sandwiches for lunch and at them at the park. It was a nice time for us to reflect on the work we did and what was to come next.

Our next assignment was with *George. George lives at home with his mother because he has Lou Gehrig's Disease (also known at ALS.) "ALS first affects legs, arms and/or throat and mouth muscles but ultimately affects all voluntary muscles, resulting in paralysis. Usually progresses rapidly with 3- to 5-year average survival" (http://www.als-mda.org/disease/als.html.) George was an incredibly lively man stuck in a paralyzed body. He sat in an electronic wheelchair that he controlled it with the movements of his head. I believe he has had ALS for over 15 yeas. He told us that he had started feeling the symptoms in his twenties.

At George's house we stained the Ceder siding shingles on the front of the house. The group had a good time doing this. We were working all together so we could talk with each other and with George, his mother and his nurse. George, his mother, and his nurse sat in the shade of a tree and watched us while we worked.

I had never been around someone with ALS before. I think it would be so difficult to see your body deteriorate so slowly and in this case, such a long time period. I was really amazed by his attitude towards life.

He really showed that you really need to live each day to the fullest no matter what situations you are in.

I need to remember that no matter what situation I might be placed as a teacher, I need to live my life and teach to the fullest, reaching out to all my students and what ever difficulties they my have.

“Always remember to slow down in life; live, breathe, and learn; take a look around you whenever you have time and never forget everything and every person that has the least place within your heart.”



*Names have been changed to comply with privacy laws.