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.

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