Blog 23: Final Lesson Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project?Why?
For my block presentation, besides the obvious (making time!), I was honestly really proud of how put together my PowerPoint was. I had lots of compliments about how it really flowed and how the transitions were great. I was also really proud of my activity and how everyone was engaged in building their marshmallow sculptures.
As for my senior project, I was most proud of my independent components, both my first and second, just because they provided me with so much information that it made me comfortable to giving other people information on Early Childhood Education. My first independent component where I did extra hours at my mentorship allowed me to spend more time with an expert in the field and just see how a regular day goes for them. My second one allowed me to apply all I have learned from research and collaborate with another fellow iPoly student, Ingrid Nicole Mata, and that helped me explore more on my own, independently.

2. 
    a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?
         AE      P      AP      CR      NC

    b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?
         AE      P      AP      CR      NC

3. What worked for you in your senior project?
What really helped me was that I was never short on research material. It was tricky to find very recent articles but anything that wasn't necessarily recent I could ask my mentor, or one of the other teachers at my mentorship. So if I had to pick one main thing that really worked for me in my senior topic was my mentorship and my mentor, Ms.Chami.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?
Honestly, I can't really think of much that didn't work in my favor for senior project. If I could travel back in time I probably would do everything the same with the exception of being more prepared. Being prepared and knowing my topic by heart is definitely something I would've worked on; not because I didn't know my topic well enough but mostly to help me have more confidence on what I was talking about.

5. How has senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.
At the very beginning I didn't really think my senior project would have a huge impact on myself or my future career choice, I just made the connection that it helped me practice working with younger children and learning how they worked. 
However, today at the very end of my presentation when a girl asked me, "Why did you choose early childhood education as your topic?" I had to think fast because I've been working on this project all year long so I thought I was going to respond with the usual "It intrigued me." but I didn't. I realized that I choose it because it has always been a viable career option for me. Just because of my personality and because I really enjoyed working with younger children; they have so much potential for the future. So this project subconsciously helped me realize a back-up plan in case med school doesn't work out (fingers crossed) and it does cross along the same lines of child development. If all goes well, however, I already have some basic knowledge on how children develop mentally, physically, and emotionally all thanks to my senior topic. 

Blog 22: Mentorship

LITERAL

(a) Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties updated on the right hand side of your blog

Updated on the right hand side.

(b) Contact Name and Mentorship Place

Chami Jayasinghe from the Montessori Academy of Chino.


INTERPRETIVE

(a) What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
On a personal standpoint from my time at the Montessori Academy of Chino, I definitely grew a lot. I developed more self-confidence in myself, because when you are around children for long periods of time, in their eyes you can do no wrong and that was a real ego boost and I learned how to just be myself, and to me that was on of the most important things I gained.
On an academic level I learned how to determine my priorities and manage my time accordingly; I had to set a schedule for myself and be reliable because my mentor would expect me to come a certain day to help her out.

APPLIED

(a) How has what you've done helped you to answer your EQ? Please explain.
Going to my mentorship and helping out helped me answer my EQ because I got to see both sides of my essential question at the same time. My essential question talks about how something a child develops in preschool helps a child in kindergarten. To most this seems very tedious and difficult but since I volunteered at a Montessori school, where the grade levels are mixed, I was able to see exactly how preschool children were learning and how kindergartners who have already learned the material, applied it to their work.
Another benefit to having volunteered at my mentorship was that they were a very hands on, let the children explore, type of school so in the case of my essential question where I was wondering what skill was most useful to a child I got to see what they used more and how it affected them.

Blog 21: Exit Interview

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

My essential question is, what is the most important skill a child develops in preschool that helps them best excel academically in kindergarten? My three answers to this question are:
     o Fine motor skills
     o Executive function skills
     o Social-emotional skills
After much research and investigating I came to the conclusion that the answer which best suits my essential question, and the kids in their development, is fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are the foundation for many of the activities, lessons, and daily functions of a child's life. They allow a child to explore and understand the world around them because they can manipulate objects around them and communicate with their movements.

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

When I first came across fine motor skills and learnt what they meant and how they had a strong influence on how children continued to progress in school I thought that it was important but  I had to know more before settling on it. So I continued to look at different skills that had a major role in a child's academic achievements and it all came back to a  child knowing how to work with their hands; mentoring at a Montessori school where a lot of their activities are hands-on, I realized just how much they affected a child. At this point I knew it was a very strong answer and it had lots of information to back it up on why it was so essential for a child to have, so I decided that this would be my best answer.

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

I think the most problematic problem I had was finding good research on how fine motor skills, or any of my skills for that matter, really affected a child's academics. I had to learn how to search very specific phrases so that my research wouldn't repeat; a lot of the articles/websites I would find would basically state the same thing: what the skill was, what it does, how teachers can help strengthen them. While this information was great and everything it didn't tell me how it would affect a child's education if they weren't developed properly or how a child would succeed if they had that particular skill. But like I said by looking up specific terms and phrases my research then became much more specific and really helped me understand the skill.

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

Gibbs, Jeanne. "4: A Perspective on Children's Development." Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities. Windsor, CA: CenterSource Systems, LLC, 2006. 36-46. Print.
     o This was one of the very first books I ever used to actually understand how exactly children
        learn. This particular section in the book talks about the stages of development in children and
youth and has charts supporting evidence.The author herself has The author has spent her career
studying and implementing systemic processes and programs to support children's 
development.

"Fine Motor Development and Early School Performance." Fine Motor Development and Early School Performance (n.d.): n. pag. Fingergym. Fingergym Fine Motor Skills | School Readiness Program. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. <http://www.fingergym.info/downloads/Finemotordevpp1-4.pdf>.
     o The article I found helped me realize how important and impactful fine motor development is

        for a child. It talks about what fine motor skills are, how they develop and what specific motor
        skills children should develop to get ready for formal school.

April Extra Post

Throughout this entire project I  found it very interesting and helpful in finding something that I like to do. However, nothing I've really done this year, senior project wise, has made me as proud as my independent component 2 did.

With the help of a fellow senior, Ingrid Nicole Mata, we built a blog where we gathered and collected information on our topics and it really helped me embrace my topic with all the regular posts I had to do. So as we are now nearing the end of the year I can truly say that this is one of the products that I am most proud of and worked hard to pull off this month.


Now onto May with all the fun of senior presentations!

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

(a) I, Alexis Crisanto, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 31 hours
     and 45 minutes of work.

(b) During my component the person who really helped me through it was my fellow collaborator,
      Ingrid Nicole Mata. We would get together discuss our topics, what we planned to do for our blog
      and overall just bounced ideas and thoughts off one another.

(c) Hours have been updated.

(d) During my independent component 2, Ingrid and I created a wonderful blog and a pinterest where
      we collected information and ideas based on what professionals have gathered themselves or what
      they've personally done with children in their classrooms. We also met on various occasions at
      school to just discuss what we will each be writing for a blog post or what we would like to
      accomplish for this project. I also did some individual research for my posts' that are on our
      conjoined blog. This really helped me because outside of research check I wasn't really doing any
      intense research on my own.

INTERPRETIVE

As I mentioned previously through many trials and errors, and lots of blog construction, Ingrid and myself created a blog where we talked about articles we found, ideas we hoped to recreate, and activities we found. We did one but unfortunately weren't able to get it on camera because of technical issues but we did learn from the experience nonetheless. Below are the pictures of our creation from The Alexis and Ingrid Show!

[Before]

[After]

All official with our Gmail!

First post!

One of my first research based posts.

Helped me figure out my final lesson activity!

Where we spent count less hours looking for pins.

We have a total of two random fans! 

APPLIED

Being able to share ideas and discuss each other's different experience when dealing with children was such a great experience. I learned all she had from her mentorship and I'd like to think that she got the same from me. Being able to have someone there with whom you share similar topics is amazing. When we would discuss what we would be writing for our next blog post we would talk about our answers to our own EQs, how we came up with them, why we choose them and just spend time sharing information. It has helped me "own" my answers in a way because I've discussed them with her for such a long time that I feel more at ease answering questions about my topic, essential question, and my answers as well as experiences I've had at my mentorship.

In my last independent component I observed my mentor and as much as I gained knowledge about how she taught and how she gathered information herself it was totally different doing it myself and posting about it regularly and finding new information. This component helped me answer my EQ, what is the most important skill a child develops in preschool that helps them best excel academically in kindergarten, by helping me look for research, outside of my research checks, that validated my reasons behind choosing the answers for my essential question which where: fine motor skills, executive function skills, and social-emotional skills.

March Extra Post

Spring is here, which means SPRING BREAK!
However, before we get to have fun we have to focus and work. For my independent component 2 I have promised to do a blog that provides information and fun. There will be weekly posts either about research we've -Ingrid and I- found or crafts we want to do.
To post that up though we need an actual blog!

(BEFORE)

That's what we've been working on, establishing the account, coming up with specific ideas on when, how, and what we'll post; after much hassle our blog is finally up!

(AFTER...still under minor construction)

A link to the blog can be found on the right side of my blog under independent component. Posts will officially begin in April!

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Preparation

Fourth Interview Questions

Content: Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. The focus of your questions should be on your answer to your EQ. They cannot be about the background of the person

1. EQ: What is the most important skill a child develops in preschool that helps them best excel academically in kindergarten?
2. Why does preschool make a difference in your opinion? 
3. Do all children need preschool?
4. What is a high-quality child program in your opinion?
5. What have been the most formative experiences you've had in your work with young children and families? 
6. What kinds of varied learning activities have you planned/implemented this year and why?
7. What affects a child's developmental process?
8. How is a child's mind best stimulated?
9. What do you think about fine motor skills? How do you use them, if at all?
10. How do you think a child's executive function skills help them?
11. Have you seen a child's emotional issues have an impact on the way they learn? How?
12. What role does play have in a child's development? 
13. Do you have communication with your kid's parents? How does this play a role?
14. In your opinion when are children most involved? Why?
15. How do you organize your classroom? Why do you organize it in this way?
16. What part of being an early childhood teacher gives you the most satisfaction? 
17. What part of doing this work is the most difficult for you? 
18. How might you use an individual child's assessment to develop curriculum in your class? 
19. How do the children influence your methods of teaching?
20. What is the most essential thing you need to do every day with the kids? 
21. Which teaching method do you prefer, Montessori, Traditional, or other? Why?