Blog Post #1: How are you a participant in your destiny?

As readers of The Alchemist, we have observed Santiago struggle throughout his journey and analyzed the traits that allowed him to successfully participate in his destiny. Now it is time for you to reflect on a trait you possess that allows you to participate successfully in your destiny.

For your first posting, please complete the following steps:

1. Upload your essay on Santiago's Characterization.
2. Consider and choose one trait that you possess that allows you to participate in your destiny.
3. Craft a well-developed paragraph that describes the trait and offers evidence as to how it helps you participate in your destiny. Be sure to begin with a topic sentence and end with a concluding sentence.
   
4. Find an ARTISTIC image that reflects the characteristic you possess and upload the image to be displayed with your paragraph.
5. Make final revisions and editing before publishing your post.
6. Add a creative title that represents your trait.
   

Use the following example to serve as a guide.

Reflection: My Journey

Picasso: Woman Before a Mirror
With life, comes experience, and although late in life, I have learned to develop my reflective nature to benefit from these experiences. Like Santiago, reflection is a process that I have learned to engage in and embrace in order to fully participate in my destiny as an educator. It is reflection that allows me to develop a lesson, assess student learning, and engage in necessary revisions. Reflection enables me to step back and look at an experience from a distance; I can see what went well, what did not go well and what needs to be done to improve my instructional pedagogy. Engaging in dialogue with students as well as colleagues and seeking information from texts and classes are benefits I have gained from reflection. However, possessing a reflective nature is not always rewarding, it can also produce frustration. At times, the reward of attaining optimal growth supersedes the frustration that an end is always out of reach. Nevertheless, as Coelho relates in The Alchemist, it isn't about the outcome, it is about the journey and reflection allows me to participate in this journey.