Motivation

Education is an essential part of me. The main reason my parents. My parents with three children, had decided to emigrate from South Korea to the United States was so that my siblings and I would have the best education possible. When I was only ten, I could not understand why she had to bring me to a foreign land where I could not even speak the language. Eleven years later, as a student at University of Washington, I thank her with all of my heart for the wisest decision she has made for me. I understand that I am fortunateto live in a place where education is highly valued. As for me, I embrace the privileges of high education available to me and would like to seize all the opportunities given to me. With the knowledge I have gained, I desire to live an exciting and joyous life with people I love. Then, I want to help many more to have hope and passion for life as I do. With that said, my parents motivate me to study harder in school. It is now my turn to pay them back for all the things they have done to me. I want to study harder in school and get a good job because my parents have sacrificed their life for me to go to school in the U.S.

Motivation

In high school I feel I most motivated when I played basketball. I strived to be the fastest and best on the team. All my time and energy went into running and playing basketball to be the best. I was motivated from within not from someone else, although you could say my peers motivated me because I wanted to be better than everyone else. Working hard payed off and nothing felt better for me then when I truly had a good game, which kept me motivated to keep working harder. I feel motivation is best when it comes from within and you don't do it because someone else wants it for you but because you want it for yourself.

Entry 8-Motivation

There are many things that motivate me in my life.  Throughout my education, my parents were the motivation behind working hard to get good grades.  They required me to be trying my hardest at all times and trying to get all As.  However, they did not punish me for not receiving all A's as long as I was putting forth the effort.  My initial motivation was to not be punished for not doing everything I could and try my hardest.  However, it turned to more of a self motivation. I was motivated to get all As in order to make them proud and get into a good college.  

I have a job outside of school.  When I got my first job, it was because my parents told me I could not get a car unless i could pay for my own gas and insurance.  Getting money and being able to have a car was my initial motivation in getting a keeping a job.  Now the reason I keep a job is because, yes i am still motivated by the money, but now I am also motivated by maintaining a good resume and to be able to network.  

Finally, i am motivated to play basketball.  I played throughout high school and then quit my senior year.  However, I have been motivated to continue to play recreationally by the fact that it  keeps me active and it is something I love doing and want to continue to improve on for my self, even though I don't play on a team anymore.

Entry 7- Intelligence

I work at Oakley, a retail store that sells high end sunglasses and beach and snow outerwear. I am a manager at my store and have been working and gaining knowledge about Oakley products for three and a half years now.  The products have a lot of technology and there are many different styles of sunglasses and lenses for a variety of activities. Over the weekend, I was helping a customer who was joining the military looking for about which sunglasses would be best overseas. I was talking to him, teaching him all about the different technology and which styles would be best and why when he responded with, "wow, how do you know all of this stuff? you're so smart".  In this instance, I believe what he meant by smart was I have a lot of knowledge and information about the products and that I was doing a good job of relaying my knowledge to him.   

I also asked my parents this weekend what they believed being smart or intelligent meant.  My mom responded saying that being smart meant working hard and producing correct answers.  She said it was not being lazy and doing everything possible to show results.  My dad believes intelligence is something you're born with.  Initially he said that smart people are "wired smart" and have the capacity to learn things quickly.

Entry 6

I have been involved in many adult-run learning environments in my life.  All throughout my education in public schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade, every classroom was adult run.  The teachers were always the one's to design lesson plans and activities and had complete control of the kind of learning that went on in the classrooms.  I don't believe this is bad at all, I feel like i had a great upbringing and education.

Although I have never participated in a child-run environment, I am taking a curriculum class that focuses on different approaches to learning and types of curriculum.  Many of these curriculums consider the activities that the children want to be participating in, and they essentially design their own lesson plans, they have a lot more control over their own learning. 

I believe that children run environments are good and beneficial, however, I think their needs to be a balance of adult-run and child-run situations in the classroom.  Without teachers and teacher-run classrooms, children would not learn nearly as much.  On the other hand, it is important for students to have choices and experiences that they can decide on in order to help them grow

inetlligence vs. disability

When I hear someone say so and so is so smart, I automatically think they must be perceived as intelligent because they were able to master or understand a task, and do particular well at it. I feel there is no such thing as one person being smarter than another, and simply that everyone is intelligent in their own way. Everyone is wired differently, therefor especially good at some things. One may be really good with numbers and math, and one may be really good with writing and reading etc. There are all types of intelligence. Whereas when many people think of disabled they think of it as a negative and something which holds someone back, makes things more difficult, and often times makes them not the same or not as "smart" as others. I completely disagree with this generalization and view disability as just being wired differently, like intelligence.

intelligence

I have a friend name Brittney at my work. She told me that she studied Korean
history at her school. She said she is really interested in going to Korea for
a year, so she wanted to learn more about Korean culture and the language. She
started asking me about my homeland, Korea.
My family and I immigrated to U.S. when I was in 3rd grade. Ever since
then, I visited Korea now and then. Moreover, because my parents don’t know how
to speak the English language, I speak Korean at home. This is why I know so
much about Korean culture and the language. Anyway, I started teaching her
basic Korean vocabulary words and talked little bit about Korean history. I still remember her face, the way she looked at me; she was amazed. She said, “Wow, Laura, you’re so smart, how can you be fluently in speaking Korean and English.” To tell the truth, I was little embarrassed.
This is what I told her. “Brittney, of course I know how to speak Korean
because I am Korean.” She said, “I know, but it seems like you really know what you’re talking about”. She also said, “I have a friend who immigrated from Korean, but knows nothing about Korea”.

Different goal for all cultures

Completely different goals for all cultures. For example, children in Kwara’ae of Oceania have grown themselves to the market to sell. Likewise, Fore (New Guinea) infants handle knives and fire safely by the time they are able to walk. In America, higher education (learning literature) would be more important.
My Exmaple:
I immigrated to America from Korea when I was about eight years old. In my culture, ‘respecting elders’ is very important. Instead of waving hands to elders, we bow. I have a friend who was born in U.S. I remember we were both watching TV on my bed, and my mom came into my room. My mom expected her to get up and bow to her, but she didn’t get up. Just by looking at my mom’s face, she was in shock. Even though Sarah and I am both Korean, she’s more aware of American culture than Korea culture.

My upbringing

Growing up my parents placed many high standards on me and my siblings in school as well as sports. The main message they placed on us was to never give up on anything. So when things were difficult in a sport or school we were looked down upon if we gave up. I particularly had a frustrating time in math in school, partially because I'm dyslexic so numbers did not seem to click in my brain. I was constantly frustrated and stressed out in math and almost failing. I thought with my bad math grades there was no way that I could possibly get into UW. But I worked my hardest and never gave up in any math classes getting up to pre-calculus. Now I am proud of myself because I have the determination to never give up on anything no matter how hard, and to always strive for the best. I am proud that I have made it further than many people ever thought I would. From being called stupid in elementary school because it took me longer to get certain concepts, to one of the top Universities and more to come. Determination and perseverance has helped me accomplish many goals and shape me as a person.

culture

Culture: Experiences in life have taught me how imperative social justice can be; it opened my eyes to the world, to the different unspoken laws in each culture’s society. The boundaries, morals and unspoken rules of society are inevitable with our human nature because it is in our natural desire to belong and want to be accepted; with this inevitibility, social justice can only be philosophical. These boundaries, morals and unspoken rules are the key to which provides us acceptance into a certain cultural group and without acceptance, I would be lost amongst the world itself. I immigrated to America when I was about eight years old and upon reaching America’s soil, my uncles’ greeting was warm; however, I soon learned that America was not at all that I had expected. WhenI was placed into public school without the knowledge of the English language, I was terrified. My experience was not at all easy because other students were not willing to accept me for who I was or even dare to help me. Rather than being invited over to play a ball of game, I was always alone in a room and finally I decided it was not fun being shuned away from a group. I needed to figure out this particular group’s social habbits (of course then I did not think this way, but rather I am able to logically rethink my past now that I am older) and their morals, their type of language, and their style. The main point was to be able to comprehend the language in order to be able to figure out the smaller parts, which in turn will lead me into acceptance. Finally, I know English language, can communicate with others fluently without any Korean accent, analyzed and accepted their fashion and social habits, and learned their morals. I know I would not have been the same person as I am today if I had not come to America. With all the hardships I had experienced, I collected a lot of wisdom of decision making, taking care of myself, thinking of others, and various other valuable tools needed to become independent.

Entry 5- Development

My personal and life goals are very much shaped by my upbringing from my parents and my religious and cultural beliefs.  Growing up, it was always expected that I would try my hardest in school. I wasn't expected to get all A's, but I was expected to do all of my work and try my hardest to get the best grade possible.  Because I was raised on these expectations, it became a goal of mine to go to college at the UW.  Initially, the goal started out simply wanting to get good grades in classes by doing well on homework and tests, however, over the course of high school, my goal broadened and I was working toward getting into one of the best colleges in the state.  My parents had a big impact on these goals.  Other goals I have include wanting to help people in as many places as possible. This goal stems from my Christian religious beliefs and the fact that I am told to serve others. This is what interested me in the ECFS major.  I have a passion that I have gained both from my parents and my beliefs that is making me strive toward becoming a teacher.  

To me, goals are greatly impacted by what we know. Our goals and the people who influence them are often part of our upbringing and have guided our beliefs all of our lives.  

ZPD example of my own

An example I have of ZPD from my own life would be learning to do different hair styling techniques. As silly as it sounds, my sister use to always do my hair for me in highschool when I went out to dances etc. Then when I was a senior in highschool she helped me do my hair but I could never get it the way I wanted, but eventually through her help could. I reached the ZPD could do my hair completely on my own, and then through internalization I could then transfer the knowledge to my friends and teach them.