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Personal Reflection Essay on Financial Preparedness

I have always[PS2]  been a person who overly cares for his family. My family would come first before any other thing. This is why my main goal in life is to be able to provide for my family in the best possible manner as long as I live. In respect to this, I have been massively saving through banks so as to be able to invest some of the savings for the betterment of my family. Thus, my financial life has been all about working hard and[PS3]  saving as much as I can. However, it recently dawned on me that I will not live forever! This fact got me thinking; what would happen to my family, the ones I dearly love, after my demise? At this point, I realized that it would be no use saving and investing massively without getting prepared for what would happen after one’s death. I thus made up my mind that I have to change this financial habit of saving without considering the life of my family after I would be no more. I thus sought for the services of a financial expert who duly advised me as subsequently explained.

One of the strategies that I would put in place regarding my financial plans after my death is that I would keep my vital papers in a centralized location. As a matter of fact, I intend to[PS4]  purchase a box that is fireproof and use it as a central storage location for keeping the following important documents: healthcare durable powers of attorneys, advance directives, wills, funeral arrangement notes, and, insurance documents for life and health. I would keep the box in a safe and central place in my home. This would accord my family easy access to the documents in case of my demise. I would also keep wills that are duly updated. I would do this by ensuring that my wills capture all the important information about my current worth, both in fixed and current assets terms. Such wills would make it easy for my family to settle my estate and inherit my wealth without complications. This would strengthen my dream of providing for my family even in my absence after death would have stricken.

Finally, I would keep an index of all my assets. I would generate the index by capturing all my investments, savings plus any other important assets. Ideally, the index would be a description of what the assets are and where their location is. The idea behind this strategy would be to enable my family to use my wills and the index in locating and inheriting my assets. In other words, an asset mentioned in a will would be easily accessed through the index. In putting in place all the strategies described herein, I would seek for the services of a financial planner. As informed by my financial goals, what I would want to remember in the future is the need to care for my family even after my death.

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Credo

During my days in the elementary, middle and high school, I really liked the English classes. As a matter of fact, English classes were my favorite lessons. I was fortunate enough to be gifted with teachers who really inspired me in my quest to learn proper English. The teaching methods that were applied by the teachers really appealed to me. I really liked them. I got involved in various activities that helped me in getting strengthened in English. The activities were conducted by my wonderful and helpful teachers who were ever ready to assist. I also have to mention that the teachers were extremely careful about classroom management. They knew and appreciated what it means to have an effectively managed classroom. They also knew the impact classroom management would have on students. Given my desire to learn English, I developed a passion of becoming a[PS1]  teacher of English right when I was still in my high school. I would want to one day apply the methods I witnessed my teachers using in teaching us English. My love for the language would definitely make me one of its best teachers.

The only think I so much loathed as a student of English was interruptions during English lessons. I wanted to grasp as much as I could during the classes but unfortunately, I could not do that thanks to the interruptions. This is because the interruptions greatly interfered with my concentration during the lessons. Pedagogy requires that teaching is done in an orderly and systematic manner (Dewey, 2015). I believe that the interruptions interfered with my capability to be systematic and pay attention to the methods that were being used for teaching us. I thus missed important concepts at times. I believe that unwanted or unwarranted interruptions would be overly detrimental in any other field, not only in education. “There are good times to be interrupted and there are bad times to be interrupted” (Carrier, 2009). In my view, one of the worst times to be interrupted is during classroom lessons. This would especially be more destructive if the attention span of a student is short. Like in my case, a single interruption would completely throw me off balance and I would consequently lose focus for a good number of minutes.

I would wish to become the kind of a teacher that would create significant impact on his students’ lives. I would want to ensure that the students apply what I teach them in class to solve various life problems. As a teacher, I am aware that I would be tasked with classroom management responsibility. In this respect, I would wish to always ensure that in spite of some students’ disruptive behavior during lessons, the lessons would run as planned and smoothly to the end (Hue & Li, 2008). I would apply some of the best methods that would help me deal with such behavior so that their impact on the smooth running of the lessons would be limited. I would intend to achieve three outcomes through effective classroom management during my classroom lessons: a classroom environment that is orderly[PS2] ; academic learning that is meaningful and enhanced emotional and social growth of the students; and, complete utilization of time meant for academic work and decreased negative student behaviors (Eyster & Martin, 2010).

Further in my practice as a teacher of English, I would wish to instill into the students the vital components and concepts of the English language. My intention in doing that would be to help the students use the language to maneuver their ways to success in life. This is because I believe with English; one would be in a position to access a host of opportunities in life. Further, it is my belief that in a classroom, the student should know what is expected of them. They should also be aware of the responsibilities of the teacher in meeting their academic demands. Coupled with my knowledge in what I should do as a teacher, I am sure the lessons would be fruitful and serve their due purpose.  

References

Carrier, L. (2009). Getting Interrupted: What are the Effects?. Csudh.edu. Retrieved 9 March 2016, from http://www.csudh.edu/psych/lcarrier/Interruptions.htm

Dewey, J. (2015). My Pedagogic Creed (Classic Reprint). Charleston SC: Forgotten Books.

Eyster, R. H. & Martin, C. (2010). Successful Classroom Management: Real-world, Time-tested Techniques for the Most Important Skill Set Every Teacher Needs. Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Hue, M. & Li, W. (2008). Classroom Management: Creating a Positive Learning Environment. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press