Blog - 10 Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

•  I spend most of my time at my mentorship helping with the children and actually being involved in my class which is pretty meaningful for my topic and gives me great hands on experience in teaching kids. When the kids aren't there, I am usually helping my mentor prepare lesson plans and activities for the kids.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?   

•  My mentor was actually my teacher when I was little, and over the summer I contacted her to see if I could work with her. She didn't take a lot of convincing, because she says she can always use some extra help.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person

• I believe I've spent about 65 hours working with my mentor so far, so I'm pretty comfortable with her. It's been a 10/10 experience.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

•  This interview went well because it was short, sweet, and concise. I got good answers for all of my questions and my mentor felt better prepared to do this interview. I could tell by the length of the answers that my mentor got more comfortable answering the questions more towards he end of the interview. Keeping that in mind, I could improve by adding some beginning questions to break the ice or get my interviewee in the zone.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

                              
1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

•  I have scheduled my interview already with my mentor, Jessica Sosa.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

•   Classroom management strategies or the academic shift kindergarten has taken are two specific areas I find promising. Classroom management is essential for successful teaching and will always be relevant. The academic shift, on the other hand, has been a growing topic of interest that is affecting teachers and young children more now.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

•  I have already begun to focus most of my research checks on those two specific topics. The sources I use are mainly articles, journals, and videos that I find online or in the Calpoly database.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process

•  How does a teacher ensure a positive and productive learning environment for their students? What affect does the class atmosphere have on the kids?

Blog 8 - Independent Component 1 Proposal

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

•  At my mentorship I mostly help my mentor prepare her lesson plans and organize things in her classroom. This doesn't really give me that much of an opportunity to spend time with the kids, so for my independent component I will start actually spending time with the students by teaching in small groups. My mentor and I have already talked about it; instead of making copies and laminating things for her like I have normally been doing, I will help her with rotations and group lessons. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• I plan to take pictures of each lesson I am apart of, describe what I've done in the log entries, and show examples of the artwork and worksheets that the kids do when I teach them. 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This will help me get an even better understanding of my topic because it will be allow me to explore it in a more hands on approach by actually having the opportunity to teach. 

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log

• Updated log link

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor is Jessica Sosa, and she is a kindergarten teacher at Berlyn Elementary. I feel that she has been teaching for a long enough time now to have gained the proper skills and knowledge on managing a classroom and ensuring learning. 

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• Where did you go to school and what did you major in?
• What motivated you to pursue a career in this field?
• What would you say was the first hands on experience you got in teaching?
• What are some challenges you've had to overcome as an elementary school teacher? How did you overcome these challenges?
• After completing your secondary education, did you feel prepared to enter a classroom setting?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?   

• What has worked for me so far is being able to mentor at a place where I am very comfortable and able to get hands on experience on teaching children. It's been a positive experience, because I know that what I'm doing at my mentorship is appreciated by the kids and teachers that I am woking with. 

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

• What I have found difficult about my senior project is narrowing down my topic to something specific. Research checks are what have helped me find specific things that I might be interested in, but overall I'm not sure what I'd like to focus on. As time goes on however, I'm sure I can narrow it down. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• I learned from this interview the importance of the student-teacher relationship. Throughout the whole interview my mentor kept on going back to how much teachers learn from their students, not just the other way around.  Something I would do different for my other interviews is give my interviewee a list of the questions a few days in advance, this will make them feel more comfortable. My first interviewee claims that she was a bit nervous, so next time I'll try to reduce that. 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

• Yes, my mentor gave me some great advice on who I should talk to, and where I should volunteer. The most useful was the organizations that she recommended me to look into. I think that looking into these organizations, and possibly joining them would greatly benefit my senior project and also be a good extracurricular activity for me to do. 

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• My interviewee was my mentor, Jessica Sosa. She is a very articulate person who has been a teacher for over seventeen years and because I feel comfortable with her I thought she would be a great first interview. 

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep

Like most others, what I most want to accomplish with this project is graduating from Ipoly with some sense of direction. This senior project is an opportunity for me to meet people that will help me explore a possible career option as an elementary school teacher. I hope to be able to expand my knowledge and my resources on my topic that will help me learn about the importance of student-teacher relationships and parent-teacher relationships. I would also like to learn more about different teaching methods and which ones work best for personalizing the learning and ensuring understanding among the students. Being a kindergarten teacher is a very appealing career option for me because I enjoy spending time with kids and I believe that teaching students reading and writing basics is a great fundamental imprint a person can make on a kid. THE END.