Lesson 2 Reflection

FOR NOW! ):

1. What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
• What I'm most proud of in my lesson two presentation is the fact that I know my topic so well. My senior is very important to me because of my younger brother. Ever since my brother was born I was always so interested in why he was born the way he is, and how I can help him to make "life easier". 
2. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

               AE       P          AP       CR       NC

• I would give myself a P.

• Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
• I personally believe that I did all the points on the contract in order to get a P. And so this is why I think I deserve a P! haha.

1. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
• I believed a lot worked well in my lesson. I liked how the class was interested into my activity and hook. That showed me that they were willing to participate.
2. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
• I think my speaking skills could've gone better. I would go back in time to change the way I talked because I got nervous and spoke to fast, and somewhat stuttered at some points.  
3. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
• I think my answer two will focus more on the behaviors that the children have and how the teachers can help and how the behaviors affect their ability to learn. 

Blog 14 : Third Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
• I plan to interview my mentor, Jenna Baumann. She has been teaching special education for plenty of years and has been rewarded a higher position in the school, vice principal, because of all the great work she has done for the school and students. 
2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 
• Friday, February 12, 2016 at 1:30 PM. 
3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
• What is the technique that really captures the students attention and help them learn?
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).
• Who / What do you believe helped you learn the most about teaching special education?
5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 
• What helps with the students focus on their work and keep them from keeping distracted?
• Do you believe that my EQ is a open ended question? Do you believe that I can get more than one answer for this question?
• Since my mentor is easy to talk to, it is quite easy to keep the conversation going. I'm also very close with her to the point where I feel comfortable to be straight up with her and ask what she thinks of my EQ. 

Note for me 

(The interview transcript  is due to turnitin.com with the 5-minute audio excerpt and entry to the blog on Friday, February 19th. In addition, you need to turn in the verification sheet to your house teacher)

Blog 13 : 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

• Where are you doing your mentorship?

• I am doing my mentorship at Anderson Elementary School. 

• Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

• My contact is my mentor, Jenna Baumann. She's an expert 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. 

• 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 about 15 hours. I haven't updated on my mentorship log though. ):

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

• I help with the students, make copies, clean, and just help whenever my mentor / school may need it. My comfort level is very strong with my mentor only because I would always volunteering before I actually asked her to become my mentor. We kinda already knew on another because of my brother. I plan on remaining my hours with the same school only because I'm already familiar with everyone in it and I also plan only finishing my hours with my brother when I work with him. 

Blog 12 : Holiday Project Update

• 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?
•  Over winter break I was unable to attend my mentorship because the school was off for winter break too. However, my little brother was assigned homework to do over his winter break, and I was the one to sit down with him for an hour each day helping to complete his homework. Also, since my brother has special needs I needed to use some of the techniques I learned from my mentorship in order for him to learn and finish the homework. 
• What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
• I learned that each student learns differently. My brother can fully learn only with the technique of hand-over-hand. But others students learn by repetition or speech. The source that I learned was a possible answer for my EQ and I was able to notice when helping my brother do his homework.   
• 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 to interview my mentor, Jenna, because in my previous interview she was able to provide me a lot of research. I also find her interview to be the most helpful from my research so far. With the information she gave me I was able to come up with my EQ, and therefore I feel like she would be the one to help me the most with my possible answers.  

Blog 11 : Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?
• What I'm most proud of in my lesson was that I had a lot of information to talk about. I'm proud of this because it's shows that I really know my topic and that I'm always learning more with research checks and at my mentorship. 
2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.
• I think I would give myself a P on my lesson because I knew what I was talking about, my hook activity really tied in with my lesson, I had constant eye contact with the audience. I also mentioned my interview one, two, and my mentorship, and I believe I showed three months worth of research throughout my lesson, However, I unfortunately went over time. I had to be cut off! Who knew that ten minutes would pass by so quickly ):
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 go back, I would change the way I spend my time. I would make sure that I don't go over time and that I manage what to say or else to speak less of certain things. I would also try not to use note cards on my next presentation and try to be more confident in myself. I can use this knowledge to give a better lesson two by not only practicing my presentation at home but to also time myself so I know not to go over time. Also if I practice more then this will help me with the fact of not using note cards and being more confident in myself next time. 

Blog 10 : Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentor-ship 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...)
• What I'm doing at my mentor-ship is observing what the teacher does and also helping the students complete their work. I help them finish their work by doing hand-over-hand in order to trace the worksheet and to show them how to complete and how to do the worksheet. I also clean the classroom when the students are out and I prepare their backpacks with take home notes for their parents and preparing them to go home. Yes, I'm surround by lots of experts. There are four teacher aids in the classroom alone and there are other teachers and staff that are experts in what they do as well. 
2. How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  
• I found my mentor because she's my little brother's teacher. I didn't really have to convince her because she already me and knew how interested I was in the topic and was always happy to answer any questions that I may have and always happy when I went over to visit and help her around the classroom and students. 
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 mentor-ship/with this person?
• My comfort level is very strong with my mentor only because I would always volunteering before I actually asked her to become my mentor. We kinda already knew on another because of my brother. This relates to the time that I've spent with my mentor because when I go to do my mentor-ship hours I already feel apart of the staff because I was and still am there so often, so that I can have a normal everyday conversation with any staff person and even some students. 
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?
• A lot things went well in my interview. My mentor gave me so much information that I can use for research and the conversation would never have an awkward pause or moment. I think it went well because we already somewhat know one another so it was easy to have a conversation with one another. I need to improve with more interesting and more in depth questions. I know this because I feel like I could have gotten more information out of my mentor. I will go about it by starting to develop good questions as I go along when doing my research. Also I can ask other staff members for more information on things that I may be researching on. 

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).
• Yes, I do currently have a mentor. I unfortunately still haven't scheduled my interview with my mentor. 
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.   
• With all the research I have been doing, I think a more specific area that I want to learn more about, is the way a special education teacher knows what method of teaching to do for each student's disability. If this idea does not play out smooth then I hope to focus on IEP for special education.  
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?
• The kind of sources that I think will help me more in the next month are books. During our library visit I wasn't able to check out books because my school ID was not registered. I will get these sources at the Cal Poly library because it's on campus and it's easier for me to check out books and to return them on time. 
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.
• Possible EQ - What technique do teachers use in order to assure that each child is learning?