magana-jackie-blog

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“Are you my mother?”

       It was the beginning of first grade when I noticed I wasn't reading as much as the other kids in my class. I began to wonder where they were getting all of their interesting books from. I told my mom I wanted books just like the kids in my class. A few days later she arrived with a book called “Are you my mother?” It seemed very weird at first because of the illustrations of a dog and a bird. As I began to read I was completely drawn to it. I couldn't yet read perfectly because I would mix my Spanish with English. The words became easier to read as I continued to read the book over and over again. 

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Braces Lady

        Eight grade writing was my eye opener. My school placed pressure on my teachers on teaching us how to time manage and write essays. Mrs.Johnson, Braces lady as I remember her, taught me everything I know now. From her I learned what a hook and what the hamburger of an essay was. After, teaching us the basics, she began giving us topics to write about. Every time we would enter class we already knew to begin writing. After time progressed, so did the prompts. She added essays as the weeks passed. We had to learn how to develop and organize our ideas before placing them on paper. They overwhelmed me at first but thanks to it all, I can write papers a lot faster with well developed responses and ideas.

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Cereal Box

As I was growing up I loved Frosted Flakes. They always had word puzzles on the back that even if I didn’t understand I would try to read and fill in the boxes. It soon became a habit to just act as if I knew what it said. After a while I began to notice that I understood what I was reading and that I could write it as well without having to look back at the words. At times, the “toy inside” boxes made us have to send a letter to the company. I intended to doing it a couple of times but I never dared myself to. My morning habits became very useful when I entered second grade. Everything changed because now we were urged to work out of workbooks that involved writing sentences. When the time came I knew how to properly write certain sentences because of the practice I had from those early morning readings.

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Dr.Seuss

As I grew older I needed more help reading. At the time Dr.Seuss was the most popular author to me. Everywhere I would go that donated books always had stacks of Dr.Seuss selections. Which meant most of my reading came from his books. I would have to use context clues and many other methods that I felt I wouldn’t have to use while in school. Most of his books were fairly easy, however, they did introduce me to larger selections as time progressed. I started with the typical Green Eggs and Ham. Till this day I remember having to interpret the illustrations to understand the meaning of the words, of course with the help of my mom. Dr.Seuss was the greatest children’s book author to me. 

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Equal Chance Opportunity Scholarship

        Writing about ones story is difficult but if sharing it can help you overcome it, then do it. This scholarship essay brought all the strengths out of me to express a small chunk of my life. It was the most difficult thing to do. I made sure it was proofread multiple times before submitting it because I was scared of my choice of words. I hesitated to include a couple of things because they were too hard to express about. The construction of this essay took around a week because I did not know where to begin. I did not want my sponsors to feel pitty for me. I wanted to express in those pages my hard work and dedication that lead me to the point of even writing it. As result of this essay, I am now able to write this reflection passage. I got the scholarship and I now attend UofM.

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Family

      Family has been a big part of my educational path. They have influenced me in multiple ways. Such as encouraging me to always do my best. My parents have always gone throughout their way to provide me with everything I need to succeed. My siblings are my motivation. I learned to read and write in order to one day help them out and not let them have to struggle like I did. All that I do is to set an example for them. In other cases when I have my teenage mental break downs they are always there to help comfort me. 

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Great teachers

       Through my thirteen years of school I have come to the conclusion that everyone has different teaching styles. Some are better than others and that all depends on the students learning preference. I have had teachers that don't necessarily teach at my preferences, however, they've gone out of their to help me comprehend the material. Speaking two languages placed a huge barrier. I struggle to grasp a lot of the information when I was younger. I am so pleased to say that I have had great teachers who took their time to teach and encourage me even when there was a huge barrier. They did everything to help from asking other students to partner up with me to asking other resources such as ESL teachers to help me.

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Harper Lee

    My freshmen year of high school was full of surprises. I never expected it to be so different. It started off with my English class. I was not expecting that list of books to be so long.  Through the course of the year my favorite book was “How to Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The book fascinated me to a point that I volunteered to act out the parts of Atticus. This took time because I wanted to know every line. I wrote down the whole trial and memorized every part. I believe acting out his part brought out a creative character I did not know I could do and gave me the motivation of writing out a whole trial. 

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intersate signs

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JabberBlabber

    As a kid I always loved to write letters. This kids newspaper would always encourage us to write to a fictional animal that was considered our friend. He encouraged us to write to him and in return we would receive a gift or even have our letter posted in the following weeks copy. However, every time I wrote, I only received stickers. It always attracted me to read all the responses of those who did make the newspaper. There were kids from multiple cities in Tennessee. I made sure I always wrote to him. The newspaper also included crossword puzzles and activity sheets that tested our knowledge. Many were mind teasing but always drew us in to complete them.

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kindergarten

      The most difficult place to step in was Oak Forrest Elementary. The first place ever in which I had to actually address other people besides my family, IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE!!! It was the scariest thing ever. I felt like an outcast. I usually loved school since I had gone to pre-K, however, in a Spanish speaking facility. I was so embarrassed when the teacher would just yell at me “ecuas elppa ssorc ssirc” or at least that is how it sounded to me. It could have just been “criss cross apple sauce,” but you know, how was I suppose to know that meant crossing my legs while sitting down. I had to develop comprehensive skills and learn how to relate order words to Spanish to understand. Also by visualizing things. I remember having to sit on the floor by the couch, next to my mom while she taught me how to spell my name. She had all the patience in the world; even when I would leave out half of my name off the page. I believe every effort I had to put in had to be doubled in order to someday, such as today, be able to say all of this. 

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Labels

             As a female, shopping becomes very intriguing; especially online shopping. As a 9 year old I remember asking my mom for her card to order decorations for my room. Every time I received a package I always focused on the labels attached. They had all sorts of information that I wanted to know about. I always tried to copy them onto my computer. I would spend hours typing out fake labels to play with my little sisters. Various labels included certain information that I didn’t understand. However, that never stopped me.

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Mail

     Como pasaban los dias, en mi mente yo me preguntaba porque yo sabia hablar espanol pero no escribirlo. Luego me puse apensar, alomejor yo misma me puedo ensenar. Empese a notar que muchas cartas en espanol le llegaban a mis papas. Asi que me puse a tratar de leer las. Poco a poco, fui mejorando y empese a reconocer las palabras mejor. Poco despues empece a escribirle a mis tias. Mi mama al igual me ayudaba a leer las cartas. El poder de leer y escribir salio de las cartas que llegaban en el correo.

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Notes

          The transition from kindergarten to middle school was a bit challenging. I was always used to being babied. All of the sudden I had to learn what cornell notes were and how to write down the important things from powerpoints. A lot of strategies were acquired throughout that transition. Multiple times I felt disturbed by the idea of having to jot down notes. I hated having to write so much in so little time. However, over time I realized that everything became a lot easier to study if I had the notes. Notes shaped my studying habits.

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Optimistic parents

The most important support that a kid needs is from their parents. From the first year of school to the first day of college and till forever I have had and will have my parents support. They have encouraged me through everything. Every time they weren’t able to help me due to the language barrier, they always found a solution for me and my siblings. For example, when I wanted to get ahead during high school, without hesitation they agreed to help me take summer courses even if it required to pay. I remember standing in long lines to register and when it was finally my turn they told me they don’t accept checks. I thought to myself that all this wait was for nothing. I stared at my aunt who doubtfully provided no sight of hope of helping me. I then proceed to calling my dad, with the doubt in mind that he would be mad and tell me to go home. To my surprise, he calmly said “How much is it?” With hesitation I said “400.” He replied saying, “Okay I will be there in fifteen minutes.” It took him five.   

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poems

        My 8th grade year I had a special assignment that required me to write narrative poem. At first I didn't realize how hard it would be. When It was time to write, I struggled because I felt that poems could only rhyme. I thought to myself, how will I write about myself with meaningful words that rhymed. I need inspiration and couldn't seem to find any at all. I remember going to my mom for help. She quickly began to describe in many ways, however, she said it all in Spanish. What she was saying in Spanish to me, couldn't be directly translated because there wasn't a direct translation. So I decided to do know unthinkable to my teacher. I pieced everything together that my mom said I wrote about my mom; in Spanish. I was excited about turning it in. The next day, the due date, my teacher receives it and just stares at me. She wasn't to happy. I failed that portion of the assignment. She made me rewrite it. It took a lot of time to figure how to translate everything I said. Writing that poem helped me learn how to convert my Spanish meaning into English more efficiently.

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Quotes

As I progressed into the teenage stage social media was also progressing. With social media progressing, the development of new things came about such as pictures with quotes. Those quotes influenced me a lot because I felt direct relationships to them. I always spend most of my time reading and relating to them. Finding new quotes meant finding new people that also related to them. This was done by viewing the comments that were posted; which sometimes had deeper meanings. If people would have known this I could have been labeled as a nerd or socially weird person. This was my one personal time killer that I enjoyed the most.