Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement
What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

• I am most proud of the fact that my audience was very respectful and would laugh at my jokes. But I am most proud of the fact that my activity had an AMAZING response. Every one was engaged and was working the way I wanted to work. My instructions were very clear and the audience was very cooperative.

(2) Questions to Consider
a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.
AE       P          AP       CR       NC
b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project? 

• Everything had gone according to plan for me. My powerpoint was very helpful to me and had just the perfect amount of words. My activity was amazing, I had all of my materials (food) and had kept all of my audience engaged and focused.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

• The only thing that didn't work was that I could have gone over my powerpoint one more time, because during my presentation I had found a few errors. Also I would have passed out my materials in a different way. Perhaps as the steps went along rather than pass them out before I jumped into my activity.

(5) Finding Value
How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

• The senior project has been very helpful to me when it comes to researching. At the beginning of the senior project all of my results had to do with the "top ___ ways of teaching middle schoolers" but as the year progressed I learned how to search what I was looking for. 

Exit Interview

1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers? What is your best answer and why? 

• EQ: What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?
• Answers: My first answer is being able to reach a teaching method that appeals to every student's learning method. My answer number 2 is providing students with more stress outlets during school hours. And for my final answer I believe that educators need to treat all students equally. I believe that my best answer is my final answer. Students are treated equally for the most part, but educators tend to have their "favorite" students, and this is okay up to a certain point. What I'm saying is when we walk into a different classroom whose students are know as the lower performing class. Educators can be known to make snap decisions on how this class is most likely to behave and students catch onto how teachers feel about them. So when they're already "judged" the students think why should we even try if their not even giving us a chance.

2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• My mentors played a major part in my senior project with everything. They helped me in the process of getting hands on experience and being able to see how they teach from a new perspective. It is because of my mentors that I was able to come up and find my answers. Mr Alvarado recommended me some books that he was kind enough to lend me, that helped me come up with my final answer. The book is called "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". Ms Medina helped me with finding my first and second answer by having me work with different kids in the study groups that she has weekly during her final period. 

3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them? 

•  Some problems that I had faced came when I was researching my topic for answers. A lot of what I was finding at first seemed to just be tips for new teachers. For example, there were a lot of articles that went about saying 'here are ten tips for classroom management' or "top five things every new teacher should know/do'.  And these were helpful at first, but after the third research check these articles seemed repetitive and began to look less and less professional and reliable. What I did to overcome this was I began to change my word searches and started looking at articles from newspaper sites. I also asked my mentors what authors they thought were very helpful in the field of education. 

4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer you essential question and why? 

• Two of the most significant sources that I had used were the books recommended to me by Mr Alvarado called "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed." by Paulo Freire. This book helped me with my best and final answer. My other source that had helped was basically a lot of TED Talks. They had so much to offer me and gave me so much to consider when it came to thinking about students and how they learn and the quality of the learning.

Blog 17 - Interview 4 Reflection

Interview 4 Audio

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?

• The most important thing that I learned from this interview was how common core is a step in the right direction, but its not living to the potential that everyone was hoping it was going to be. It gives kids more than just learning how to memorize something they are actually learning the process of how things work. 

2. How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

• It gives me a variety of things to add to my presentation. Like how some teachers think that common core is a waste of time, and others think that it is a step in the right direction. I can include the opinions of y mentors and other example I have of teachers.

Fourth Interview Questions

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

• There are many people that I can take in to consideration when thinking about who to interview for my fourth interview. I could interview one of the other math teachers that teach the advanced class. Or to interview the principal of the actual school so that I can get the opinion of the higher ups of the school. 

2) Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

• What has being a teacher done to show you about kids at this age?
• How long have you been working in the education system?
• How much has it changed from when you started? 
• Has it changed in good ways or bad? And how so?
• Do you feel that you've left a lasting impression on a student?
• My Eq is "What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?"
• How would you recommend I answer this question?
• Do you have books on education that you have read that you could recommend?
• What did you do as a first time teacher that you wish you could change now?
• How do you deal with disruptive kids in class?
• Have you noticed if boys and girls learn different subjects differently?
• How do you help kids that seem to be struggling, but put in no effort to try and improve themselves?
• Have you picked up some things from past teachers that you now use in your own classroom?
• Is there anyone who you think can help me answer my essential question?

Blog 19: Third Answer

1. EQ

• What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?

2. Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)

• I'm not entirely sure yet what I want to make my third answer, but I do have  few ideas. One of them being to change how we teach our students. Another idea being to remove middle school out of the education system. Making k-8 schools or 8-12 schools.

3. (3 details to support the answer)

• If we were to remove the middle school part of education we would have students that feel they need to be a role model for the younger kids or they would want to aspire to be like the older kids if they were moved in with the high school students.
• Two it would make the stress on students just a little easier.
• Lastly, it would 

4. The research source(s) to support your details and answer.

• One research resource that that supports my answer is my 28th resource. It talks about the benefits that it would have if we took out middle schools in general. 

5. Concluding Sentence

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Blog 18- Answer 2

1. What is your EQ?

• What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?

2. What is your first answer? (In complete sentence format)

• My first answer in answering my EQ was being able to teach in a method that appealed to every students learning method. So teach to the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

3.What is your second answer? (In complete sentence format)

• My second answer could be to give the students either longer breaks or more access to their electives. Teaching them that it's okay not to be right 100% of the time as long as they learned from the mistake.

4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• It has been proven that students who take band as an elective get a 23% higher grade in their core classes compared to students who don't take band.
• Ipoly itself has a ten minute passing period for students to unwind, and we have a tiny campus as it is.
• yes

5. What printed source best supports your answer.

• The printed source that best supports my answer was my thirty-seventh source because of what student do with their electives and what they can do with their stress levels.

6. What other source supports your answer?

• Several TED Talks help support my answer, one that sticks out is the one I have for my fourty-eighth source. It talked about how schools are seen to be killing creativity in their students.

7. Tie this together with a concluding thought.

• Students in the US are the most stressed out then they ever have been in years. And the stress can lead to health problems, some students suffer anxiety/panic attacks. We can't just remove them from school, but we can make it more bearable. Hopefully by funding/adding more electives this can be something they look forward to as well as a place for them to unwind and channel out the stress that can build up.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

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

• I am not entirely sure about what I want to do for my independent component 2. I have some ideas but would like to actually sit face to face and discuss what exactly are the options of things that I can do for independent component two.

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

• I could possibly take a class or create my own lesson plan. But again I am not sure about what I can personally do. If I took a class I may not have time for school work because of my busy schedule. If I planned a lesson plan I don't see how that could take up 30 hours to put together and possibly teach.

3. Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This component could help me in several ways. I could see if teaching could actually be for me. See how it is for a teacher to get to where they need their students to be at specific parts of the school year. If I did another 30 hours to my actual senior mentor ship hours I might not be able to make time for the actual 50 hours.

4. Post a log in your senior project ours and label it Independent Component 2.

Look at sidebar :D

Independent Component 1

“I, Idalia Lopez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 33 hours of work.”My mentor Mr. Roberto Alvarado helped me greatly throughout my independent component/mentorship hours. He gave me a ton of advise about teaching middle school students and what works best when teaching different classes. He teaches both math and science so understands how to switch gears and teach different subjects to different classes and students.I was able to see how I was doing as a kind of teacher's assistant. I helped with grading and saw how students could be and saw what they could do when putting their minds into something that they thought could be cool. 

• INTERPRETIVE 

• Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  
  

 Durring my extra 33 hours to my overall mentorship hours I was able to see when the kids were taught. In this example it was about when they were being taught about the cell. Then before wrapping up the unit I was able to see how much of it they understood when they were made to build either a plant cell or an animal cell. Some of my favorites were when some of the kids came in with their cell projects and they were made out of food. Some were made as cake, while the ones who went even further above and beyond made their cells out of jello and fruit. In this picture the student made their cell out of clay, string, tooth picks, and a multitude of other things.

 This is a sample of what some of the kids would bring me to help them with after school. In these problems I helped one of the students with drawing graphs and figuring out formulas. I myself was a little rusty in some of the math problems that they got assigned. And some of the things they were learning were being taught completely different from when I was being taught by the same teacher.

 I helped several students through out the 33 hours I was at mentorship. I offered help in multiple subjects when they needed the help. In this picture a student was working on her homework for history. It was about the characteristics of Islam and what aspects of it can be seen our society today. I cannot upload many photos of students due to confidentiality reasons.

• APPLIED

This component helped me understand the foundation of my topic better because I was able to see what I could be doing as a teacher if I decided to go into this field as a career. It gave me a better understanding of what I could take into consideration when thinking about answering my EQ. By adding on the extra hours to my mentorship hours I was able to spend more time with actual student and be able to get the ideas and research I needed through hands on research, compared to if I had read a book. For example, one of the articles I had read for my research talked about how middle school students need a lot of patience because of how they are at that specific age. And I was able to see that hands on, but it also showed me that not everything I had read in articles was specifically true. 

Lesson 2 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

• I am most proud of being able to talk about what I do in mentorship. Mentorship plays a HUGE part of my senior project and to be able to talk about it was very nice.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

• I feel that I deserve a P because I was had proper projection of my voice through out my entire presentation. I was dressed professionally and was able to engage the audience. My activity had the entire class invested into it as well as providing the debrief after I concluded my activity. 

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

• What had worked for me in my lesson 2 was being able to have a power point with me as well as one of my friends controlling my power point slide right besides me. Also I enjoyed being able to add an activity to my presentation to help me see how my classmates were enjoying my presentation.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

• I would have talked more about what I have done research as well as my independent component. I may have also added more to my activity.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

• I believe my answer 2 could be about how students should be given more time to having a break in between their classes. It doesn't necessarily need to be too long, just as long as it's longer than 3 minutes. Something along the lines of extending their resting period or having less classes in one day and more time spent in one class.

Third Interview Preparation - What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?

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

• I plan to interview the other 7th grade teacher Mr. Kawakami. He teaches the advanced class of mathematics. 

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

• I have not yet scheduled the interview but plan to do so this week when I go to mentorship.

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

• What has helped you with teaching advanced middle school math?

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).

• What do you do when you see that some students are struggling with a lesson you taught them?

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

• How do you know when students understand what you taught them in class?
• What do you recommend to new teachers who are having trouble with teaching students?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

• I am completing my mentorship at Sparks Middle School located in La Puente. (15100 E Giordano St, La Puente, CA 91744)

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

• My contact is Mr. Roberto Alvarado. He has been a teacher for over 10 years, with experience on teaching different grade levels.

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 have done as of January 7th I have completed 35 hours and 35 minutes with my mentor excluding my summer hours. I am including my independent component hours, I just need to separate the hours.

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

• Every time I go into mentorship I start off by sitting and doing service learning by watching how my mentor teaches his class either science or math. After that I stay in after school and tutor some of the students that stay after school so that I get a feel of what teaching could feel like. 

EQ: What is the best way to ensure that middle school students retain what they learn in class?

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?

• Right before we got off for break I was able to squeeze in two hours into my mentorship volunteer hours. Over the break I was able to read sections of a book my mentor had lent me. It was called "The Structure of Schooling: Readings in the Sociology of Education."

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 I learned from what I did over the break was I saw what kind of material students studying to become teachers read and it gave me an idea of what to expect if I were to take classes such as the ones my mentor took.

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?

• I plan on talking/interviewing  one of the other teachers from Sparks (where I go for mentorship) whether it be a teacher teaching the same thing to the same grade or an eighth grade math teacher teaching. This is because a seventh grade teacher would be teaching the same students I'm working with when I'm with my mentor. But on the other hand if I interviewed an eighth grade teacher it would give me a different perspective of students.