Introduction- Karen Medina

By -
Hello, my name is Karen Medina, I am 28 years old and would fall into the category of "Non-Traditional" student. I recently celebrated my 5 year anniversary of marriage, my husband and I have a 3 year old son and we are welcoming our 2nd baby on Valentines day. Yes, my life is as stressful as it sounds. It is extremely hard to juggle school, work, and home life. With that being said, my son is my biggest motivator to finish college once and for all, (no matter the number of mental breakdowns I have a semester).

I currently work as a first grade assistance and although I love it, it has shown me that Middle Level is the place for me. Middle level with English/History concentration. I am not sure which concentration I would like to start out in, both have great things that I enjoy. I love reading and writing BUT with my busy life I hardly have time to read or write. I will say that I am a bit of a romantic and enjoy anything written my Nicholas Sparks. Also, working with small children I have had the opportunity to ready children books, and although they aren't books that I can read on a Sunday afternoon they are books that I enjoy reading them to my son. Authors like, Mo Willems, Laura Numeroff, and of course Dr. Seuss. I will say that I am excited about the books listed for this class, I am always open and ready to read new books and to be exported to new worlds through them.  This will be my second year at upstate and have enjoyed meeting future educators who in one way or another have given me hope that I am not alone in this journey.

Comments

  1. JessAugust 29, 2017 at 8:59 PM

    I started to tell you in class you were glowing, but I wasn't' sure if you wanted everyone to know yet. You're so beautiful girl and I'm so blessed to have you in my class again. Romances are so breathtaking, I love Nicholas Sparks too. Keep pushing, I know everything seems so hectic right now, but it is only temporary. You have a bright future and a beautiful family.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C
Read more