Literacy Struggles

One struggle I remember having with literacy was when I had to attend speech therapy becuase of the horrible consonant, R. I hated speech therapy, it was a woman that stood there in the hallway with me and just repeated words like; word, world, water. They weren't fun she expected me to know the difference in what I was saying and what she was saying. I am now in a speech class to learn how to teach children with hearing impairments speech and one of the things we learned not to do is just sit there and repeat the word thinking the student will eventually understand. Any word with 'r' in the middle most often was hard for me, words with 'w' and 'r' were the worst. It is ironic I think as I'm typing this how many words have a 'w' and 'r'. All these words with those letters I am typing I had to say 10 or 20 times each speech therapy session on Wednesdays. This was only when I was in third grade. I didn't have to worry until thrid grade about my speech. It was interesting when I finished my therapy I would be complemented on my speech by my teachers and parents becuase they knew my problem. But why complement me? I didn't accomplish much just figured out how to say 'word' 'worry' 'world' 'water' I just could say these words more clearly now and not miss the 'r' sound.

Narrative: Let it be true.

What does it mean to be safe and secure? It means you can live with out abandon and not worry about judgement. Thats something I used to not feel. I would go to church, a safe place right? Not for me, my cousin would bring his friends to youth group and at first I wouldn't realize it was happening so I didn't tell anyone it was more of a "I don't want her on my team" "she's not good at this" type comments. One night though it got hard to ignore. We had just went on a trip so we were in a church van. I couldn't get away, I felt so trapped. I can't even remember the comment I made just the response from my cousin's friend. "you aren't welcome here" Imagine, being at a church, or place your whole life and hearing those words. My world was torn apart. I couldn't escape I was in a moving vehicle. My youth pastor was in the same vehicle but I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't hear what was said to me, but if he did he completely ignored the fact that I was told "you aren't welcome here". I had been at that church honestly since before I was born, my mom was born into that church and grew up there and I grew up there so it was hard. I would only go to events after that that had nothing to do with the youth group. I would go to morning church but would not set foot back in the youth room. I started going to a different youth group, I love it there. I started my freshman year of high school and am still involved in their college youth group. We never fully switched to that church so I only go on Wednesday's but I do visit some Sunday's. My boyfriend goes there so it is easy to be involved with their church on Sunday because I can just tag along with him. After that day I resented Tyler, the boy who said that to me. I never wanted to speak to him again because he hurt me. About a year or so later he decided that he would apologize. I took the apology but didn't go back. I said "thanks" and he asked if I would come back to the youth group, I said no it wasn't fun for me and that I was involved in another youth group. After that youth pastor left, he was asked to step down because he was a volunteer anyway I went back for that youth pastor and have actually been involved there and the second church. It always worked out that my first youth group would meet on Sundays and the other on Wednesdays so I could do and enjoy both. I will always remember this time and grow from it. Nothing anyone says can bother me much anymore because I wasn't welcome. I knew that and now I know that even if I am not welcome that I can still make the most of the time in that group or activity.

Informative/Explanatory: Mission Trips

I have been on one mission trip and am getting ready to go on another and I am so excited! I am going to tell you how to sign up on for a mission trip or how you might get involved with one then how to raise support or get money to go on a mission trip.

So I was asked to go on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic when I was 16 by my youth pastor, not always do you just get asked, sometimes you have to find some somewhere or look for the trips. The one I am about to go on is with a campus ministry called Cru, they send students all over America and the world. I am going on a stateside summer mission to Daytona Beach, Fla.

When I decided to go on this mission trip to Daytona Beach I signed up online on the website for the trip, for Cru you have to apply and get accepted, that's not the way with most mission trips. After you apply and get accepted or get asked to go on a mission trip you need money to get there, right? To get the money you need to raise support, for Daytona I am in the middle of this process. The mission trip will have a set price you need to get the money. For one week to the Dominican Republic I needed $1600 but for three weeks in Daytona Beach I need $1595. That doesn't seem like a big difference but there is a difference in the mission, in the Dominican I went to several orphanages and villages and helped do odd jobs there, I also went to another country. The way you raise support is through letters and fundraisers. You send out support letters but money isn't the only thing that you need for a mission trip you also need prayers so that is what support letters are for and you just build ministry partners.

Finally you get to go on your trip but you need a plane ticket and transportation on where to go once you get there. In the Dominican we had buses to take us everywhere but when I get to Daytona I am going to have to rely on staff and other students because I do not have a car.

I am really excited to go on my upcoming trip and already have half of my support raised!

Argument Post: Dresscodes

Each high school has a dress code and most of the time that's needed because high schoolers can be unpredictable right? Well as a student and having my mother teach at the high school I went to there was no getting away with anything. Well my mom having to know the dress code because she works there knew if my outfit was okay for school every morning. It was a special week at our school about drug awareness so we had dress up days the day that changed my view on dress codes toward my future students was mix and match day. We aren't allowed to wear leggings with out our shirts or dress coming past certain areas. My mother and I both agreed that if I wore leggings with shorts that would count fairly well within the dress code. My first class of the day my teacher told me I needed to change because my outfit, I'll admit I didn't, I went to my mom and told her I was told to change and she told me that I was okay. That sounds spoiled but I agreed and so did a couple other teachers in the room that she was in. Later that day I was in the student union because one of my teachers had to leave and no one took her class so we were out in the open area so the principle had easy access to us if something went wrong. I heard the office door open and looked, there was a girl who wore a dress that was entirely too short for the dress code and it didn't have sleeves, she had walked right passed the principle and nothing got mentioned to her. I was furious because I was within dress code but still got told to change but she could just waltz in pass the principle and nothing gets said! Well I later noticed that people who were known for having money, or were on sports teams and were actually good (starters on the basketball team, football team, cheerleading team, dance team ect.) they would get nothing said to them. As someone who wasn't very good at my sports, or didn't have much money I would get any little thing about my dress pointed out. My sister had the same experience with dress code. 

When I become a teacher and there is a student who is following dress code, like in my instance, I will not say that they have to change. I still don't understand that teachers logic in telling me that I was not in dress code. In the dress code it states "skirts, dresses and shorts must be of reasonable length, made of appropriate material and adhere to the following regulations:

a. reasonable length is when standing, the clothing reaches the top of the knee cap. The split of the skirt or dress must adhere to the preceding guideline.

b. No shirts or dresses without sleeves are permitted to be worn. 

c. No spandex shorts or tights may be worn as an outer garment. 

d. No frayed, cut-off, ripped, or threadbare pants (or shirts) may be worn. No holes are permitted in any type of pants. 

e. No tight-fitting or see-through clothing items may be worn. 

f. No pajamas are to be worn." (www.russellind.kyschools.us/docs/RHSDresscode.pdf)

Now with that stated the girl who wore the dress mentioned earlier she had an off the shoulder dress that would put her our of dress code because of the letter b after fore mentioned "skirts, dresses and shorts must be of reasonable length, made of appropriate material and adhere to the following regulations:". Now my shorts were not of appropriate length by themselves but with leggings that were not an outer garment I, my mother and several other teachers believed them to be appropriate and adhere to this standard of dress. 

As a teacher in the future I will send any person I believe to be breaking the dress code to the office, their families wealth not taken into account, I believe that is a form of privilege we do not need to teach students when they are in high school or lower. I want to treat everyone equally and if that means equal punishment so be it. 

source: Russell Independent School Dress Code, http://www.russellind.kyschools.us/docs/RHSDresscode.pdf