Category: Personal Beliefs

1. What is your philosophy of education?

With almost one in four Australians born overseas, this melting pot of cultures has made an invaluable contribution to my life and driven my desire to experience teaching all over the world and all the cultures it has to offer. The most rewarding experiences so far have been the international teaching experiences in Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, China and Australia. Five totally different cultures and environments, each broadening my teaching and life experience enormously whilst providing me with a tremendous feeling of satisfaction. These experiences have taught me much about the fundamentals of teaching, as required, to overcome the significant language and cultural barriers encountered.

I have been fortunate enough to have taught in different schools around the world utilising a variety of curriculums. This has not only broadened my understanding but also solidified my philosophy of inquiry based teaching and learning. In inquiry based learning tasks there is no “one size fits all” solution and no one prescriptive recipe for academic success.I believe that learning activities should be authentic and experiential. I found that learning is most effective when based on meaningful learning activities. I enjoy using the ideas from the children and providing the learning experiences for them to inquire deeper into the topic. It shows acknowledgment of their interests and my students can feel a strong connection to the learning community. I love using the environment and local communities, planning provocations to spark curiosity from the children where they can identify problems and use their knowledge and skills to solve them. I am always amazed at how capable students are when they are given the opportunities to inquire.

I believe the role of the teacher is to facilitate students learning and guide them to explore, explain, understand and draw conclusions from learning tasks, involving hands-on and real world problem solving activities. My philosophy closely aligns with the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB PYP) philosophy. The PYP offers a holistic education where the children can be the directors of their learning with a strong focus on international mindedness.This is why I thoroughly enjoy being a PYP teacher.

My classroom is a community where everyone is unique. Having an inclusive, welcoming and positive environment where each students’ learning style is considered is important for student success. I assist my students to express and accept themselves for who they are, and embrace the differences of others whilst being open-minded and respectful. I support students to develop their own values and be well rounded citizens. I encourage all students to share their ideas and be risk takers.

Learning doesn’t stop when the school day is over, students are encouraged to become lifelong learners, embracing every learning opportunity they are presented with. If they approach these learning opportunities with a smile then I feel a great deal of satisfaction.

2. How have your previous/current experiences; engagement with this module to date; and reading of relevant literature helped to shape your philosophy of education?

There have been a number of influences which have shaped my philosophy including, reflecting on the module, my international teaching experience, reading literature and observing experienced teachers.

I participated in the personality quiz from the week 4 lecture, my report back was “progressivism” which is the child-centred approach, focusing on having the content relevant to the students in order for them to learn. This fits perfectly with my philosophy of how I deliver lessons. My belief that there is no ‘one size fits all’ is supported by (Dewey, 1997; Levy, et al., 2011) there is not one prescriptive recipe for academic success.

Along with the child-centred approach my experience working in a constructivist school I found there is a common theme from my philosophy and the schools philosophy that effective learning comes from meaningful learning activities.

My beliefs of having an inquiry approach in my classroom have been influenced by reading literature. The inquiry approach to learning can be traced back to Socrates, though modern theoretical foundations have their roots in the works of Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky. (Blessinger and Carfora, 2015). Research suggests the Inquiry based learning (IBL) can be an effective teaching and learning strategy and can produce positive learning if designed and implemented properly, with regard to context and creating the proper linkages between teaching, content, learning, and assessment (Cuneo et al., 2001; Cuneo et al., 2012; Hickey et al., 2000; Justice et al., 2007; Lynch, et al., 2005; Vajoczki, et al,. 2011). Since IBL is centered on authentic and meaningful problem scenarios and question based investigations, it more naturally aligns with a student’s own values and learning needs.

Each international teaching experience I have taken on has shaped my philosophy of education. My experience in China, a class of 40 children who all had individual separate desks with no provocations on the walls and a lectern at the front for the teacher to stand and deliver the lessons the different to my beliefs of being a facilitator to learning. I realised that I would have to reflect and find a way to work with what I had, in order to teach in the way I believed. I utilised the outdoor play areas for inquiry and moved tables together for collaborative group work. Some of the more common IBL activities include research projects, experiments, and role-play scenarios. The commonality of these activities is that they are active, experiential, meaningful, and they are focused on higher-order thinking.The students were not used to working in groups, sharing ideas within a team and collaborating. I worked with the class to build a community where they shared and collaborated more openly. With my approach to teaching having an inquiry focus these activities usually involve collaboration with others such as fellow students and teachers. (Blessinger and Carfora, 2015).

My classroom is welcoming and inclusive environment, where every child has the right to learn. Research suggests that the ideal inclusive classroom should: value all pupils and acknowledge different personalities and gifts; be respectful, treat pupils as individuals, enable children and adults to talk freely to each other and value pupils’ opinions; and have no ‘one-size-fits-all’ curriculum.DfES (2002).

3. How has/does/will your philosophy of education impact on your practice/role as an educator?

My philosophy of education impacts my teaching on a daily basis. It acts like my teaching map which provides me with the direction to move ahead. It impacts my decisions daily in my role as an educator. If I know the direction I want to go then I can guide my students to reach their destination.

After taking the time to reflect on what and why I teach in a particular way definitely impacts my practice and role as an educator. This critical review has allowed me to revisit literature and solidifies my philosophy. I listened to a lecture from Antena Productions 2009 and the lecturer mentioned how important it was to critically reflect on our teaching practice. I agree, this critical reflection of the philosophy has made me reflect on my daily teaching practice.

I have taken action when the philosophy of a school didn’t meet my philosophy of education with agreement, I revised the classroom set up and moved tables around to reflect a collaborative workspace.

Knowing that IBL activities, teacher as the facilitator and inclusive classrooms are supported by extensive research to show student success, motivates me to uphold this philosophy. When I am planning my lessons, I often reflect on my practice asking myself many questions; is this meaningful for students? How can I enhance their learning experiences? What will they take away from these activities? What is my expectation? These are all questions stemming from my philosophy of education which is drawn from my research, observations and experiences over the years. My philosophy of education is dynamic and circumstantial.

Reference:

1. Antena Productions (2009). Reflecting on Outstanding Teaching.. Available at: http://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/reflecting-on-outstanding-teaching database [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].
2. Blessinger, P. and Carfora, J. (2015). Inquiry-based learning for multidisciplinary programs. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
3. DfES (2004) Removing Barriers to Achievement. The Government’s Strategy for SEN. London: Department for Education and Skills.
4. DfES (2002) Including All Children in the Literacy Hour and Daily Mathematics Lesson: Management Guide. London: Department for Education and Skills.
5. Cheminais, R. (2013). How to create the inclusive classroom. David Fulton Publishers.
6. Ibo.org. (2017). What is an IB education?. [online] Available at: https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/what-is-an-ib-education-2017-en.pdf [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019].
7. Cuneo, C., Inglis, S., Justice, C., Lee, W., Miller, S., Rice, J., … Warry, W. (2001). Thinking and doing outside the box: Interdisciplinary inquiry learning partnerships. Research and Development in Higher Education, 24, 1522.
8. Cuneo, C., Harnish, D., Roy, D., & Vajoczki, S. (2012). Lessons learned: The McMaster inquiry story from innovation to institutionalization. In V. Lee (Ed.), Inquiry-guided learning. New directions in teaching and learning (Vol. 2012, Issue 129, pp. 93104, doi: 10.1002/tl.20010). New York, NY: Wiley
9. Hickey, D. T., Wolfe, E. W., & Kindfield, A. C. H. (2000). Assessing learning in a technology supported genetics environment: Evidential and consequential validity issues. Educational Assessment, 6, 155196
10. Lynch, S., Kuipers, J., Pyke, C., & Szesze, M. (2005). Examining the effects of a highly rated science curriculum unit on diverse students: Results from a planning grant. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42, 921946.
11. Vajoczki, S., Watt, S., Vine, M. M., & Xueqing, L. (2011). Inquiry learning: Level, discipline, class size, what matters? International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1), Article 10.
12. Levy, P., Lameras, P., McKinney, P., & Ford, N. (2011). The pathway to inquiry-based science teaching. The features of inquiry learning: Theory, research, and practice. Retrieved from http://www.pathwayuk.org.uk/uploads/9/3/2/1/9321680/_the_features_of_inquiry_ learning__theory_research_and_practice_eusubmitted.pdf

Through both the curriculum and teaching it aims to develop the intellectual, emotional and physical potential of each child, in a secure and stimulating environment. International perspective: A driving force behind the PYP is the philosophy of international mindedness.

‘Personalised learning embraces every aspect of school life, including teaching and learning strategies, leT, curriculum choice, organisation and timetabling, assessment arrangements and relationships with the local community.’ (DfES 2004: 3.1)

The principles of learning and teaching underpinning personalised learning should: set high expectations and give every learner confidence that they can succeed; establish what learners already know and build on it; structure and pace the learning experience to make it challenging and enjoyable; inspire learning through passion for the subject; make individuals active partners in their learning (assessment for learning); and develop learning skills and personal qualities. (DfES 2004: 3.2)

I can make the National University proud of me after finishing my degree by letting them know that their vision and mission for students like me were effective. Their mission for students is to mold them into ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizens. Letting the NU community know as a graduate, I am already an ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizen. Another thing that I can make the National University proud of me after finishing my degree in college is by letting them know that I implemented their virtues, attitude, and behavior in daily life.

Showing that I am an ethical citizen demonstrates respect, empathy, and compassion to everybody. A citizen that builds relationships based on fairness, humility, and open-mindedness. And an ethical citizen that accepts responsibilities and duties and acts accordingly. Showing that I am a spiritual citizen embrace feeling even the uncomfortable ones. Understanding the feelings of humans are healthy and necessary: and that is the part of me being spiritual. Being a spiritual citizen has to do with having a sense of purpose and peace. Showing that I am a responsible citizen who knows the knowledge about my role in the community, state, and the world. And I am a responsible citizen that has a role in making the world a better place to live and a change agent that acts out against injustice in social, economic, and environmental sectors.

I can see myself being a part of the NU community as a graduate by knowing that I have the knowledge of the virtues, attitude, and behavior of the National University. A student of National University should have an attitude of integrity, compassion, innovation, industry, respect, resilience, and patriotism. Being honest, being fair, and doing the right to anybody at all times is my way to show integrity. Showing how much I value people, how I treat each other with care, and how I understand regardless of any situation is my way to show compassion. The way I show innovation is by having critical thinking, always thinking creatively, and having the right decision making. Simply working hard and knowing how to manage my time, effort and resources is my knowledge about being Industry. Having respect is a big thing for being a student at National University because this how we treat something or someone. Simply listening to what other person has to say is a basic way of respecting. Being resilient is proof of the strength of my character that can’t easily be discouraged by trials and tribulations. Being patriotism is my favorite because I devoted love for my country (Philippines) and everything that it stands for.

In conclusion, I am proud to be a student at National University not just because of their quality in education but their mission for students to be ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizens. Another thing that I can be proud of is the values I learned a lot. The National University will totally be proud of me after finishing my degree in college because I show that I am valuing the quality of education that they are giving and the values and skills that they taught.

In social studies, you can learn a lot about our country, environment, government, culture, and so on, but you should expect to be shocked. Expect the unthinkable, as they say. We benefit from social studies because, in today’s world, a young learner needs to comprehend what it means to be part of a true community. Studying social studies is one of the most efficient ways to overcome fear and find who you truly are, one of the most successful techniques for being a good citizen and improving future generations.

I’ve been pressured since I was a child, I’ve felt trapped and controlled, but when I came across the subject of social studies, I tried to speak up and learn how to fight for my rights. Government, history, civics, economics, and other subjects are covered in social studies. There are also culture, environment, and geography topics, where you can learn about how nature is a blessing. I didn’t know about the scenery we have here in the Philippines while I was in primary school, but when I saw the Taal Volcano and the Mayon Volcano, I begin to fantasize about traveling to visit those sights. When social studies allow us to explore, even if just through books and some cities, it encourages me to dream and use my imagination to its full potential.

When I was 9 years old, I was taught that illegal logging was okay because the forests were being processed and producing paper, so I was grateful, but later on, social studies taught me that it was bad since there are certain downsides to illegal logging. As far as I can tell, there are numerous factors that can hurt the environment, including little flaws and blunders that can have a significant impact on the ecosystem. So, as time goes on, I discover some pages on Facebook and IG a tiny environmental organization, where I am eager to help my neighborhood and my fellow Filipinos.

Social studies are beneficial not just to us as students, but also to us as citizens. Social studies, together with its standards, develops us from a societal standpoint and properly educates us on national and economic issues. Social studies will assist us in thinking outside the box; it is a subject that is vital to understand in order to make our lives easier to change and adapt once we are adults with a mature attitude.

“There’s nothing like a good book”, said every English teacher ever. But for a stressed, sleep-deprived HSC student, some things come pretty close. Like the incredible feeling of finishing the last exam on your timetable, getting a decent sleep, or passing a math exam can feel like the best thing in the world. With a new wave of tweeting, snapping, and status-updating teenagers, learning about the importance of reading may sound like an overplayed Taylor Swift song on the car radio. I mean, what teenager could possibly spare the time to do a little extra reading? And what makes it so important?

Perhaps I don’t come across as the biggest reader. But for me, like many people I know, books have been a key in my life that I perhaps haven’t enough credit for. As a child, books were an escape and a sanctuary, and a peaceful oasis. Books transported me to places I never imagined I’d visit and exposed me to ideas I had never considered. I wish I could personally thank the magical authors of my childhood. Thank you for every smile, laugh, tear, adventure, pounding heart, and heart-wrenching ‘what’s going to happen next’ moment. I don’t know if I read because I was curious or if I was curious because I read. Probably both. I do remember, however, that Roald Dahl was my king. The sugary taste of milky, melting-in-your-mouth, chocolate lingered on my tastebuds and mind for a week after learning the wonders of a magical, distant factory. Every chocolate bar I opened for the next year was incredibly secretive and dramatic (just in case). Each page took me to crazy, new worlds of witches and talking bugs and kids stuck inside fruits. But I will say, the idea of giants (no matter how friendly) outside my window at night was always a little creepy.

For years, words entangled my mind and threw me into fantastic new worlds for hours, until my rumbling stomach and the lack of light pulled me out again. I’ve breathed the dust from crowded Nazi hideaways. I’ve ached through excruciating hiking trails and tasted the bitter ocean air from the most beautiful beaches. I’ve escaped mazes, solved murders, destroyed witches, talked to lions, and lived a thousand years.

When my teenage years got rougher, and years of caring for a sick mother had left me jaded and burned out, I turned back to books. I threw myself into fictional people’s problems. I cried with them, I sympathized with them, I laughed with them, I pitied them, and I used them. I used them to soften my own problems, the problems lurking in my house that I couldn’t repair. But the more I read, the further my perspective shifted. Without realizing it, reading had become less about escaping my world and more about understanding it. In every character, I have found the best and worst parts of the people I love. And in some, I have seen my own.

It was through reading that I came to understand hope is not a foolish concept, love is transformative, heroes and allies come in all forms, and monsters can be overcome. But most importantly, reading has taught me that my circumstances don’t have to define me. My invisible scars don’t have to hang so heavy around my shoulders, and my anger at myself for being helpless wasn’t worth the weight. My invisible chains of guilt didn’t have to hang so heavy around my shoulders.

As much as it gets repeated, reading is powerful. It is knowledge, it is empathy, and it connects people and betters them. And I know it has bettered me. Despite the impact that it has had on my life, the sad truth is that not everyone shares my opinion. In fact, many despise reading. But regardless of your stance on the topic, I’m yet to meet someone who’s never read anything useful or interesting in their life. Whether it’s Shakespeare, Harry Potter, comic books, Vogue magazine, or the timeless tales of Roald Dahl, I believe there is something out there for everyone to enjoy reading. So why not give it a try? You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.

Literature matters to your life. As you begin to study literature, you might have thought to yourself, why do I have to read this, what am I supposed to get out of it, what does this mean and what’s the point? These are all very basic questions that I often hear from people who are not as interested in literature, and they are very valid. Many times when you come into a discipline like literature, it’s difficult from the outside perspective if you don’t already have the taste for literature to understand what kind of relevance it could have to you, your job, your future career, or just your personal life. So I want us to think through these questions and to take them seriously so that we can understand how these questions inform our study of literature and its importance.

So, all of these questions can essentially be answered by saying that the story is about identity. Literature is actually essential to how you understand your own identity. Some points we’ll discuss include that all cultures have stories, no matter how different they may appear. Stories are a unifying element of human experience, and story is the way that we process experience. So when you think in terms of literature, I want you to stop thinking of it as something that is out there separate or external to yourself and instead begin to recognize the way that story is part of your personal identity. One of the ways you might see this first is in the way that we tend to have conversations with a narrative structure. If you haven’t talked to someone recently or have something surprising happen to you, introduce a story to a listener. And you already understand the story structure which tends to underlie a lot of our conversations. You determine characters involved in the action, you emphasize important points of the plot, and you might pause for dramatic effect. And then you’ll lead someone up to the punchline to the conclusion of the important point of the story that you’re telling. So in all of these ways, you’re already sharing conversation narratively, and that becomes a big part of how literature begins to function: it starts in our personal interactions, and then it becomes something that’s written down and translated, and it becomes bigger than a person, but it really all begins with thinking of our lives as actual stories, the story becomes essential to our understanding of self because when we tell stories and our experiences we do so because we actually process information narratively, so we’re telling stories to explain events or to give a sense of personal history.

What I want you to understand is that literature is really just like you. So, the stories that you’re reading are coming out of cultural backgrounds where authors have taken characters and ideas and different personalities and events and shaped them into literature. So, authors are picking out the stories that have major plot points, that would be representative of certain people’s cultural experiences, they write them down, and then we read them because we can recognize in them something common to our own experiences. So when you read literature, you should be able to find some point of identification, being able to recognize stories that are uniquely human and that transcend cultural barriers. So that’s really the importance of literature is that it puts down in writing and records these common human experiences that we can all recognize and feel that we’re a part of in some way, regardless of where the author comes from or what personal backgrounds they have, they’re saying something that could be representative of personal human experience overall.

Even if you don’t feel personally connected to literature because you don’t enjoy the reading process, you’re still encountering stories in a lot of different forms, primarily in terms of film, which also has a similar narrative structure, and also drives a lot from different literary texts. So I want you to think through why literature matters. It’s really a record of all these different stories that went beyond one person’s experiences to become a story of natural national cultural or universal human identity. It started because they provide us with that sense of cultural connection and identity, demonstrating common human experiences and helping us understand essential parts of our lives, death, birth, joy, tragedy, and all those kinds of big ideas. Stories help us to contextualize those and to feel both entertained in the sense of perhaps a superhero movie where we can look at heroism and think about what our values and our ideals are for heroism, as well as educated in terms of something like a documentary or a text that’s a memoir when you’re reading about someone’s personal experiences going through a struggle that you might or might not have experienced yourself. Stories are teaching us who we were in the past, who we are now, and who we have the potential to be, so they’re forming two different goals here – entertainment, pleasure, versus instruction or education – whether that’s historical or present-day social problems, or thinking about how we can be better in the future. So all of these different purposes are why literature is created and why it can speak to your life whether or not you are an English major, or whether or not you have a career in English studies.

In social studies, you can learn a lot about our country, environment, government, culture, and so on, but you should expect to be shocked. Expect the unthinkable, as they say. We benefit from social studies because, in today’s world, a young learner needs to comprehend what it means to be part of a true community. Studying social studies is one of the most efficient ways to overcome fear and find who you truly are, one of the most successful techniques for being a good citizen and improving future generations.

I’ve been pressured since I was a child, I’ve felt trapped and controlled, but when I came across the subject of social studies, I tried to speak up and learn how to fight for my rights. Government, history, civics, economics, and other subjects are covered in social studies. There are also culture, environment, and geography topics, where you can learn about how nature is a blessing. I didn’t know about the scenery we have here in the Philippines while I was in primary school, but when I saw the Taal Volcano and the Mayon Volcano, I begin to fantasize about traveling to visit those sights. When social studies allow us to explore, even if just through books and some cities, it encourages me to dream and use my imagination to its full potential.

When I was 9 years old, I was taught that illegal logging was okay because the forests were being processed and producing paper, so I was grateful, but later on, social studies taught me that it was bad since there are certain downsides to illegal logging. As far as I can tell, there are numerous factors that can hurt the environment, including little flaws and blunders that can have a significant impact on the ecosystem. So, as time goes on, I discover some pages on Facebook and IG a tiny environmental organization, where I am eager to help my neighborhood and my fellow Filipinos.

Social studies are beneficial not just to us as students, but also to us as citizens. Social studies, together with its standards, develops us from a societal standpoint and properly educates us on national and economic issues. Social studies will assist us in thinking outside the box; it is a subject that is vital to understand in order to make our lives easier to change and adapt once we are adults with a mature attitude.

I can make the National University proud of me after finishing my degree by letting them know that their vision and mission for students like me were effective. Their mission for students is to mold them into ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizens. Letting the NU community know as a graduate, I am already an ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizen. Another thing that I can make the National University proud of me after finishing my degree in college is by letting them know that I implemented their virtues, attitude, and behavior in daily life.

Showing that I am an ethical citizen demonstrates respect, empathy, and compassion to everybody. A citizen that builds relationships based on fairness, humility, and open-mindedness. And an ethical citizen that accepts responsibilities and duties and acts accordingly. Showing that I am a spiritual citizen embrace feeling even the uncomfortable ones. Understanding the feelings of humans are healthy and necessary: and that is the part of me being spiritual. Being a spiritual citizen has to do with having a sense of purpose and peace. Showing that I am a responsible citizen who knows the knowledge about my role in the community, state, and the world. And I am a responsible citizen that has a role in making the world a better place to live and a change agent that acts out against injustice in social, economic, and environmental sectors.

I can see myself being a part of the NU community as a graduate by knowing that I have the knowledge of the virtues, attitude, and behavior of the National University. A student of National University should have an attitude of integrity, compassion, innovation, industry, respect, resilience, and patriotism. Being honest, being fair, and doing the right to anybody at all times is my way to show integrity. Showing how much I value people, how I treat each other with care, and how I understand regardless of any situation is my way to show compassion. The way I show innovation is by having critical thinking, always thinking creatively, and having the right decision making. Simply working hard and knowing how to manage my time, effort and resources is my knowledge about being Industry. Having respect is a big thing for being a student at National University because this how we treat something or someone. Simply listening to what other person has to say is a basic way of respecting. Being resilient is proof of the strength of my character that can’t easily be discouraged by trials and tribulations. Being patriotism is my favorite because I devoted love for my country (Philippines) and everything that it stands for.

In conclusion, I am proud to be a student at National University not just because of their quality in education but their mission for students to be ethical, spiritual, and responsible citizens. Another thing that I can be proud of is the values I learned a lot. The National University will totally be proud of me after finishing my degree in college because I show that I am valuing the quality of education that they are giving and the values and skills that they taught.

“There’s nothing like a good book”, said every English teacher ever. But for a stressed, sleep-deprived HSC student, some things come pretty close. Like the incredible feeling of finishing the last exam on your timetable, getting a decent sleep, or passing a math exam can feel like the best thing in the world. With a new wave of tweeting, snapping, and status-updating teenagers, learning about the importance of reading may sound like an overplayed Taylor Swift song on the car radio. I mean, what teenager could possibly spare the time to do a little extra reading? And what makes it so important?

Perhaps I don’t come across as the biggest reader. But for me, like many people I know, books have been a key in my life that I perhaps haven’t enough credit for. As a child, books were an escape and a sanctuary, and a peaceful oasis. Books transported me to places I never imagined I’d visit and exposed me to ideas I had never considered. I wish I could personally thank the magical authors of my childhood. Thank you for every smile, laugh, tear, adventure, pounding heart, and heart-wrenching ‘what’s going to happen next’ moment. I don’t know if I read because I was curious or if I was curious because I read. Probably both. I do remember, however, that Roald Dahl was my king. The sugary taste of milky, melting-in-your-mouth, chocolate lingered on my tastebuds and mind for a week after learning the wonders of a magical, distant factory. Every chocolate bar I opened for the next year was incredibly secretive and dramatic (just in case). Each page took me to crazy, new worlds of witches and talking bugs and kids stuck inside fruits. But I will say, the idea of giants (no matter how friendly) outside my window at night was always a little creepy.

For years, words entangled my mind and threw me into fantastic new worlds for hours, until my rumbling stomach and the lack of light pulled me out again. I’ve breathed the dust from crowded Nazi hideaways. I’ve ached through excruciating hiking trails and tasted the bitter ocean air from the most beautiful beaches. I’ve escaped mazes, solved murders, destroyed witches, talked to lions, and lived a thousand years.

When my teenage years got rougher, and years of caring for a sick mother had left me jaded and burned out, I turned back to books. I threw myself into fictional people’s problems. I cried with them, I sympathized with them, I laughed with them, I pitied them, and I used them. I used them to soften my own problems, the problems lurking in my house that I couldn’t repair. But the more I read, the further my perspective shifted. Without realizing it, reading had become less about escaping my world and more about understanding it. In every character, I have found the best and worst parts of the people I love. And in some, I have seen my own.

It was through reading that I came to understand hope is not a foolish concept, love is transformative, heroes and allies come in all forms, and monsters can be overcome. But most importantly, reading has taught me that my circumstances don’t have to define me. My invisible scars don’t have to hang so heavy around my shoulders, and my anger at myself for being helpless wasn’t worth the weight. My invisible chains of guilt didn’t have to hang so heavy around my shoulders.

As much as it gets repeated, reading is powerful. It is knowledge, it is empathy, and it connects people and betters them. And I know it has bettered me. Despite the impact that it has had on my life, the sad truth is that not everyone shares my opinion. In fact, many despise reading. But regardless of your stance on the topic, I’m yet to meet someone who’s never read anything useful or interesting in their life. Whether it’s Shakespeare, Harry Potter, comic books, Vogue magazine, or the timeless tales of Roald Dahl, I believe there is something out there for everyone to enjoy reading. So why not give it a try? You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.

Literature matters to your life. As you begin to study literature, you might have thought to yourself, why do I have to read this, what am I supposed to get out of it, what does this mean and what’s the point? These are all very basic questions that I often hear from people who are not as interested in literature, and they are very valid. Many times when you come into a discipline like literature, it’s difficult from the outside perspective if you don’t already have the taste for literature to understand what kind of relevance it could have to you, your job, your future career, or just your personal life. So I want us to think through these questions and to take them seriously so that we can understand how these questions inform our study of literature and its importance.

So, all of these questions can essentially be answered by saying that the story is about identity. Literature is actually essential to how you understand your own identity. Some points we’ll discuss include that all cultures have stories, no matter how different they may appear. Stories are a unifying element of human experience, and story is the way that we process experience. So when you think in terms of literature, I want you to stop thinking of it as something that is out there separate or external to yourself and instead begin to recognize the way that story is part of your personal identity. One of the ways you might see this first is in the way that we tend to have conversations with a narrative structure. If you haven’t talked to someone recently or have something surprising happen to you, introduce a story to a listener. And you already understand the story structure which tends to underlie a lot of our conversations. You determine characters involved in the action, you emphasize important points of the plot, and you might pause for dramatic effect. And then you’ll lead someone up to the punchline to the conclusion of the important point of the story that you’re telling. So in all of these ways, you’re already sharing conversation narratively, and that becomes a big part of how literature begins to function: it starts in our personal interactions, and then it becomes something that’s written down and translated, and it becomes bigger than a person, but it really all begins with thinking of our lives as actual stories, the story becomes essential to our understanding of self because when we tell stories and our experiences we do so because we actually process information narratively, so we’re telling stories to explain events or to give a sense of personal history.

What I want you to understand is that literature is really just like you. So, the stories that you’re reading are coming out of cultural backgrounds where authors have taken characters and ideas and different personalities and events and shaped them into literature. So, authors are picking out the stories that have major plot points, that would be representative of certain people’s cultural experiences, they write them down, and then we read them because we can recognize in them something common to our own experiences. So when you read literature, you should be able to find some point of identification, being able to recognize stories that are uniquely human and that transcend cultural barriers. So that’s really the importance of literature is that it puts down in writing and records these common human experiences that we can all recognize and feel that we’re a part of in some way, regardless of where the author comes from or what personal backgrounds they have, they’re saying something that could be representative of personal human experience overall.

Even if you don’t feel personally connected to literature because you don’t enjoy the reading process, you’re still encountering stories in a lot of different forms, primarily in terms of film, which also has a similar narrative structure, and also drives a lot from different literary texts. So I want you to think through why literature matters. It’s really a record of all these different stories that went beyond one person’s experiences to become a story of natural national cultural or universal human identity. It started because they provide us with that sense of cultural connection and identity, demonstrating common human experiences and helping us understand essential parts of our lives, death, birth, joy, tragedy, and all those kinds of big ideas. Stories help us to contextualize those and to feel both entertained in the sense of perhaps a superhero movie where we can look at heroism and think about what our values and our ideals are for heroism, as well as educated in terms of something like a documentary or a text that’s a memoir when you’re reading about someone’s personal experiences going through a struggle that you might or might not have experienced yourself. Stories are teaching us who we were in the past, who we are now, and who we have the potential to be, so they’re forming two different goals here – entertainment, pleasure, versus instruction or education – whether that’s historical or present-day social problems, or thinking about how we can be better in the future. So all of these different purposes are why literature is created and why it can speak to your life whether or not you are an English major, or whether or not you have a career in English studies.

Taking risk doesn’t mean succeeding every time, and thats ok .Taking risk can lead u to failure which in turn can help you grow as a person. Many of life’s greatest achievements require going outside of u comfort zone whether it means overcoming shyness to perform onstage, investing money to help your business grow, or putting yourself out there for a chance to find love, some of life’s most rewarding experiences come as a result of taking risk.

However, many of us have a difficult time dealing with the uncertainty that goes along with taking risk. A feeling of unease grows out of not knowing the outcome and fear of potential failure . What if I embarrass myself infount of everyone? What if I lose all my money that I invested ?what if I open my heart and get rejected? What if I’m not good enough ?

Answer with another ”what if”: What if the point of taking risks isn’t the outcome, but the procces in and of itself. Through rising risk, we must confront our fears, and sometimes that leads to failure .. But what if that wasn’t such a bad thing after all? Many are turned for by risk. It is actually easier and more comfortable to sit down in the safe spot and more comfortable. But, this is what distinguishing the does from the dreamers.

While dreamers is still sleeping and eating for the best moment to take action, the talker has caught the rewards. Risk takers are likely to be successful because they do not limit themselves and are willing to put in their energy other person is hesitant. With risk comes a fire, burning push to keep you going and reach the finish line. Most times, people who are adventurous are the ones who take risk. They are ignited with a zeal to reach new heights and such zeal empowers them to be more creative and prepared to win.

Risk takers know that succes won’t fall in your lap you have to chase and hunt for it. That is what they do when they take risk. They are shooting for the sky amidst the storm. through the chase, they find steemisgly rare opportunities that may nevr have been found if they waited.people who take risk are bold. somehow this courage is shown and endearing. With courage also comes confidence and aleartness. when every other person withdraws, they are willing to stay in . This makes risk takers leaders as they are anointed to be by their own self .

The pain that you dont know doesn’t hurt . It is actually what you don’t know that hurts you. knowledge is vital to success. Risk takers are able to idetifly such knowledge because they are willing to undergo a process that will provide such knowledge. Through such knowlege, they can navigate future steps and sail throgh diffcult waters.