Blog 8 : Independent Component 1 Proposal

• Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
• What I plan on doing for my 30 hours is to be the teacher of the classroom. I plan on printing out handouts, creating homework, and coming up with fun games and activities for the students to do. I'm hoping to do my lesson on learning their colors, new animal sounds, and counting up to 20. If I do this for my 30 hours, then I will get the feeling of having to teach each student differently, because each student may learn differently than others. Since each student learns differently than I would have to do different activities and different lessons. I would also have to come up with things to keep the students into the lesson.
• Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
• I will show that I did 30 hours by taking photos, bring the different handouts, and explaining or video taping the different lessons and activities that I did with the students. Also I can bring in the homework that I assign the students and the classwork that they complete in class. I will reach my 30 hours because I will teach for three hours every day and the work that I have to do at home like: creating activities, getting supplies, finding different worksheets, that fit every students disability, to do during class and homework worksheet to do at home. 
• Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.
• This will help explore my topic more in depth, because having to find different techniques for each student but that still teaches the same topic as the rest of the class is the same as IEP program.  Having to find multiple worksheets and lessons for every student's different disability can help me see how special education is a lot of work because of having to teach each student differently. Some students learn with words, others with iPad, or with worksheets or pictures. Also just working with the students one on one will help me because it's giving me more experience with each student and each of their own different disability. 
• Update your Senior Project Hours log.
• I plan on updating my senior project hour log every time I go to the classroom to teach and when I'm at home creating the activities and worksheets for the students to do the next day. 

Blog 7 : Second Interview Preparation

• 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 Jenna Baumann, and she is a teacher at Anderson Elementary School. She's considered an expert to me because she works and teaches children with special needs. Therefore, she has plenty of experience with children who struggle in learning because of certain disabilities. 

• What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What type of college courses did you need in order to work with special education?

• What made you want to work with special education?

• What type of degree did you graduate with from college?

• With that same degree, what other jobs could you get?

• What skills does one need in order to be a good teacher for special education?

• How long did it take you to become a special education teacher?

• What is the process of becoming a special education teacher?

• Has this been your dream job since you were young?

Note to self

(The interview is due 10/31 by 8AM in numbered Q&A format to turnitin.com.  Additionally, a reflection of the experience as well as a 5 minute audio/video clip should be posted on the blog by that time.)

Blog 6 : Advisory Prep

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

• Some things that have worked well for me concerning my senior project was finding a mentor, and having lots of detailed research based on special education. Being around my mentor and her students have made a positive experience for me, because I have created a bond with her students, have been able to participate more, and the students now look up to me as one of their own teachers too. 

• 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?

• The thing that I'm finding most difficult concerning my senior project is finding people to interview. For this past interview I didn't want to interview my mentor because I wanted to interview her for a more important event. I can ask my mentor to recommend me to other faculty or others that she may know, in order for the interviews to work better for me. I'm also having trouble on visiting my mentorship. I say this because the school I mentor at runs from 8 AM - 1:30 PM. I don't have enough time to drive all the way out to the school because it's located in San Bernardino, when I'm located in Pomona around the time the students get released. I can perhaps find a closer mentorship near me in order to make it work better. The senior team has helped me so far. For example, Mr. Rivas has recommended me to two people who work in the office that have experienced with special education.  However, I do not know how else the senior team may help me. 

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?
• The most important thing I learned in this interview is the that teacher aids in a special education classroom play a very important role next to the teachers. Something that I would do differently for my next interview is to have prepared more questions. 
2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?
• Yes, I did get more resources because now I can get research on RBT and try to get more detailed facts about their role in a classroom. The most useful was the RBT because now I have more things to do my research check on. 
3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 
• My interviewee is qualified to help me because she has been working with special education since 2001 and is a certified person RBT and is still working with students and their behavior. 

Blog 4 : House Advisory Prep 1

Throughout my senior project, I'm hoping to show others that people with special needs are "normal." When I go out with my little brother all I see are people judging, and that's something that I don't want to see. People look at my brother as if he's not normal. I understand if it's a child who looking, but when it comes to adults it hurts me. Most people see my brother as if he's strange, but no one knows him like I do. He's just as normal as every other. He speaks, walks, eats, play, and learns just like anyone else. He may be slow at most things, but he can still do things like everyone else. Since I'm so close to my brother I know how to react to him. I understand that I need to repeat things over and over until he understands, I understand that he has trouble with things that seem easy to us, and so throughout my project I want to show others that special needs people are like you and me. They may have struggles that are easy to us, but to them it may seem like a big challenge. Therefore, I hope people can gain the patience to understand their disability and to help them. I also hope to get people to want to know more about special needs and to love them just like I do. 

Blog 3 : First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview?  Why?
• I plan on interviewing Adrienne Campos. I would like to interview Ms. Campos because she is the teacher's aid. She has been working with special education for many years now, therefore I believe she has plenty of experience with the different types of special needs students. I'm also interested in asking the difference between a teacher's aid and the teacher. I understand that she is the aid and is always with the students, but I still wonder what her main role is in a classroom. 
2. What additional questions do you plan to ask?  
• What special education techniques have you used to help the students learn?
• What inspired you to be a special education teacher/aid?
• How do you handle a student when he/she misbehaves? 
• How would you explain the classroom atmosphere the teacher provides for the students? 
• Do you think it's a better learning atmosphere when special needs children are combined with other students? 

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

• Name - Jenna Baumann
• Phone Number - 1 (951) 505-3553
• Organization - Teacher at Anderson Elementary School

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

•  Mrs. Jenna was a qualified expert for my topic, because she has worked with special needs children for many years. She has been my brother's teacher for the last two years and the improvement in him is astonishing. Therefore, I knew Mrs. Jenna would be a great mentor, because of the impact she has on her students. 

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.    

• How does a repeated lesson affect your whole lesson plan?
• What helps the students to learn easier?
• When does the teacher know to move on to a different lesson?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

• The most important thing that I gained from this experience is patience. I learned to be patient because of the students. The students at Anderson Elementary all have special needs, therefore the faculty and I had to be very patient with the students because of their disabilities. For example, Mrs. Jenna had planned to learn about farm animals for only one day, but since the students had a hard time the lesson ended up being two days more than expected. Some students learned quicker than others, but others still had trouble. Therefore, I would have to sit down and go over the same topic more than once, but with the patience that I gained throughout the days it became much more easier on me and the students.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

• I'm still confuse on what I would want my senior topic to be. I was hoping to have the topic of the development of students learning. My mentorship helped me with my decision because seeing how each student learn differently can really affect them. Some students used puzzles instead of cards to learn the different animal sounds. Also some students had different worksheets. The worksheets would all have the same topic, but some would have more pictures or more color than others. Some students would learn with the iPads. They would push the sound or color of the animal to explain themselves or to name out the animal that was being shown to them. Seeing all the different ways the students can learn made me want to learn more and wonder why they need to learn that way.