Blog 14 - Third Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

• I plan to interview Monica Leon (Isaiah Leon's mom). She was a teacher for eleven years, has been a principal for three years at Pedley Elementary, and she's written a children's book. 

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 

• I'll be interviewing her two weeks from now on a Wednesday at 2pm.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

• What sources did you find most helpful when you began teaching in the classroom. 

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

• As a principal, what kinds of sources or advice do you give to your teachers.

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

• How can a kindergarten teacher create a positive learning environment?
• What methods have you personally found to be most effective in the classroom. Are the students engaged?

Blog 13 - 10 Hour Mentorship Check-in

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

• I am mentoring at Berlyn Elementary School in Ontario. 

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

• My contact is Jessica Sosa. She's an amazing teacher and she loves what she does. 

3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

• I've done like 100 hours, man. Overachiever, whoot whoot, amiright? 
• Link 

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours

• I've done so much in this time at my mentorship, I honestly feel like a useful asset to the classroom. I love working with my mentor, and the kids and I have really grown attached to each other. I'm very comfortable with my mentor and we work very well together. She leaves me sticky notes on the small tasks she needs me to do when she's busy, and we text each other any details that come up in class when either she isn't there, or I'm not. It's been amazing watching the kids grow so much from the very beginning of the year. I no longer have to help them spell their names, or tie their shoes. I've been able to be apart of all the skill building lesson plans and the fun learning atmosphere. I've already completed my hours, but that's not going to stop me from continuing to go to mentorship. I've already talked about my second independent component with my mentor. We will be beginning to do reading groups where she will be with the intensive reading kids and I;ll be doing guided reading with the rest of the class. I'm gonna be the teacher :)

Blog 12 - Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in

school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?
I didn't really have a chance to do much for my senior project in an actual classroom during break because schools were closed. I did however continue to work on my upcoming lesson, came up with interview questions, and I think I have a better idea of what I'm going to do for my activity.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?
The most important thing senior project wise was me coming up with the ten interview questions we will be doing soon.

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

My wonderful boyfriend/best friend Isaiah Leon has tons of family members who are teachers. His step mom teaches 6th grade, his aunt teaches kindergarten. His dad taught physics for 10 years. And his amazing mom taught 5th grade for 15 years and has been a succesful principal/ children's book author for 3 years now. So i could interview any one of those amazing/experienced people. 

Blog 11 - Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson and why?

• I am most proud of the poster I used as a prop and the content of my presentation. The poster was helpful for me to remind me of what I wanted to talk about, and was a nice visual for my audience to understand what I have been learning from my mentorship. In regards to the content of my presentation, I feel that it was very informative and I was able to cover all my bases in the allotted time. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• I would give myself at least a P for my first lesson, because I hit all the P requirements stated at the top of the contract.  Also, I personally believe my research was clear and concise and I cited two of my sources (including my interview with my mentor.) Overall, I think I did what was asked of me, so it was a successful first lesson.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson? How can you use that knowledge to give a better lesson 2? 

• If I could redo my first lesson, I would probably rehearse it the night before instead of accidentally falling asleep and winging it (in my defense, it's been a busy/tiring week). Rehearsing would force me to iron out what exactly I will be saying and in turn will help calm my nerves to give a better lesson in the future. 

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