Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

It amazes me that we are finally here! Throughout the years, I have often thought about this moment. How it would feel to be with all of you, in our caps and gowns, finally graduating. I remember as a child, thinking about what I would look like when I was "all grown up," how I would act, who I would love and what kind of person I would become. And now here it all is, we're ready, we're done with high school, and I couldn't be more thrilled or scared! We go through this twelve-year metamorphosis, and then one day, we wake up and its over, our ascent into adulthood has come. We're ready to face all that life has to throw at us, to make a life for ourselves, outside of school and childhood, to go to college, take a year off or get a job. Yet at the same time, it can be terrifying to complete...

Respond to differences of opinion and conflict constructively Essay

As a teaching assistant I am part of the wider team of teaching staff in a school. Everyone has different roles and responsibilities and this can sometimes lead to conflicts. On one occasion I was working with an EMA class doing role plays in a hall. It was the last lesson of the day and we were using the interactive white board. The after school film club was due to use the room straight after us and the coordinator was very annoyed that she was unable to come in and set up ahead of her class. She insisted that the EMA class use another space. While I could understand her frustration at being delayed I could also see the benefits to the EMA class of using the hall. It provided the children with opportunities to do exercises that couldn’t be done in standard classroom. I could also tell that they really enjoyed working in the space. The discussion between the teachers became slightly heated and I could see that there was tension. In order to resolve the conflict I suggested we carry out the activities that require the white board early so that the coordinator could come in towards the end of our lesson and set up the film. This solution was accepted by all. I felt I dealt with the situation constructively. Seek advice and support from relevant people when needed. As a teaching assistant I always seek advice on issues I am unsure of. If had a difference of opinion with another member of staff I would ask the teacher I worked with or different member of staff for advice. If was having difficulty with any of my responsibilities I would ask another member of staff to help and support me to ensure I was doing things correctly.

The Poem Teacher by Langston Hughes - 536 Words

Sometimes we learn the most about life when it’s too late, and that’s what happened to the speaker in the poem â€Å"Teacher†. â€Å"Teacher† by Langston Hughes is a serious poem about a person who didn’t live their life with morals and when he dies, he regrets his life choices and experiences the true dark and dreariness of death. This poem sends a message that people need to live life as best they can, that hope is an important and wonderful part of life, and that regret is the worst thing to have after life is over. â€Å"Teacher† is a lyric poem and it is in a quatrain structure. It has 4 stanzas and 16 lines. It is a lyric poem because it displays the emotions of the speaker and has a musical sense to it. This poem has a very distinct rhyme scheme, being that every other line has an end rhyme. The meter ranges from 3 to 6. Every different thought in thins poem is organized in its own stanza, The speaker in Hughes’ poem comes off as a dead person who is thinking to himself about his past and the way he lived his life and where he is now. In line 3 (â€Å"I tried†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) the speaker talks in first person and throughout the whole poem there is no indication that he is taking to anyone else. Line 9 (â€Å"But now I lie beneath cool loam†) supports the idea that the speaker is dead. The tone in the poem stays serious throughout but slowly becomes more and more dramatic. The tone it express a loss of hope, it is regretful, dreary, and gloomy because it uses words like à ¢â‚¬Ëœfirm,’ ‘pinched,’ ‘gleam,’Show MoreRelatedLangston Hughes Essay1084 Words   |  5 PagesLangston Hughes was a large influence on the African-American population of America. Some of the ways he did this was how his poetry influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlem Renaissance. These caused the civil rights movement that resulted in African-Americans getting the rights that they deserved in the United States. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young and his grandmother raised him. She got him into literature and education; she was one ofRead MoreLangston Hughes Theme For English B845 Words   |  4 PagesIn â€Å"Theme for English B† Langston Hughes dramatizes race and self-identity. Hughes is struggling to relate himself to his teacher and everyone around him, so he starts off by telling readers about his background such as his age and where he has lived. â€Å"I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston- Salem† (2). Through the first stanza of the poem we know that Hughes is living through a time where race is a big issue and not too many African American adolescents are in school like he is. He is learningRead MoreEssay on Langston Hughes1393 Words   |  6 PagesLangston Hughes  Langston Hughes was one of the first black men to express the spirit of blues and jazz into words. An African American Hughes became a well known poet, novelist, journalist, and playwright. Because his father emigrated to Mexico and his mother was often away, Hughes was brought up in Lawrence, Kansas, by his grandmother Mary Langston. Her second husband (Hughess grandfather) was a fierce abolitionist. She helped Hughes to see the cause of social justice. As aRead MoreEssay Langston Hughes932 Words   |  4 Pages Langston Hughes Throughout many of Langston Hughes poetry, there seems to be a very strong theme of racism. Poems such as Ballad of the Landlord, I, Too, and Dinner Guest: Me are some good examples of that theme. The Ballad of the Landlord addresses the issue of prejudice in the sense of race as well as class. The lines My roof has sprung a leak. / Dont you member I told you about it/ Way last week? (Hughes 2/4) show the reader that the speaker, the tenant, is of a much lower classRead MoreBiography of Langston Hughes Essay1046 Words   |  5 Pages The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a â€Å"darker brother,† as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and thatRead MoreTheme for English by Langston Hughes and In the Inner City by Lucille Clifton802 Words   |  3 PagesOut â€Å"Theme for English B† by Langston Hughes and â€Å"in the inner city† by Lucille Clifton are both simple poems written by African American during a time where being black was not so popular and a trying time for those whom were black Americans. They both wrote about the plight of blacks during their perspective times; Hughes’ piece was one that spoken in a straightforward and blunt manner, while Clifton was a harsh and muggy one. Both of these poems were written in everyday language, I wouldRead MoreHarlem Renaissance: The Double Consciousness842 Words   |  3 PagesRenaissance was Langston Hughes. Many of Hughes poems are about the act of writing poetry, justifying African-American poets right to speak and create verse, which was denied in previous eras. The act of literacy for African-Americans was depicted as a radical, self-conscious act in Hughes output. This is explicitly seen in Hughes poem Theme for English B. The poem very literally po rtrays a young, African-American man (presumably Hughes himself) being given an assignment by a white teacher to writeRead MoreThe Writing Style Of Langston Hughes1001 Words   |  5 Pagescollective, is one of the many legacies of Hughes, who has been called â€Å"the architect† of the black poetic tradition. He is certainly one of the world’s most universally beloved poets, read by children and teachers, scholars and poets, musicians and historians. Langston Hughes became the voice of black America in the 1920s, when his first published poems brought him more than moderate success. Throughout his lifetime, his work encompassed both popular lyrical poems, and more controversial political workRead MoreLangston Hughes Poetry: Analyzing Themes of Racism956 Words   |  4 PagesLangston Hughes Throughout many of Langston Hughes poetry, there seems to be a very strong theme of racism. Poems such as Ballad of the Landlord, I, Too, and Dinner Guest: Me are some good examples of that theme. The Ballad of the Landlord addresses the issue of prejudice in the sense of race as well as class. The lines My roof has sprung a leak. / Dont you member I told you about it/ Way last week? (Hughes 2/4) show the reader that the speaker, the tenant, is of a much lowerRead MoreLangston Hughes: Spokesman for Civil Rights960 Words   |  4 PagesOctober 2012 Langston Hughes: Spokesman for Civil Rights The purpose of this essay is to examine the theme of three Langston Hughes poems; â€Å"I. Too,† â€Å"Mother to Son,† and â€Å"Theme for English B.† The theme of these three essays is civil rights. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1902. His parents separated early in his life, he lived with his mother in Kansas City. Langston Hughes attended High School where as a senior he wrote, â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers.† Langston became a Merchant