Literal
1. Summer Log => Mentorship
2. Contact Name: Thushara DeSilva
Contact Number: (909) 591-3937
3. What questions were raised because of the 10 hours of experience? List them.
- Based on the different developing levels of the children, how are lesson plans arranged? Each child has different ways of grasping various tasks, especially when they are barely beginning to learn and are already at different stages, so how is one lesson plan arranged for all the children?
- How does the academic plan, in action, differ from that of the summer? I saw during the summer session that the kids would have their hour or two of academic time and then they had their break, followed by their lunch and finally nap time. How does this process differ from the actual academic school year?
- Does the material taught to the children stay with them? When people put their child in pre-k/day care at such an early age they tend to do it because that way the child will have an advantage later on, is that true?
Interpretive
4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
The most important thing I gained from my mentorship this summer there is a lot more to teaching a little group of toddlers than I expected. Based on the far memories of what I remember preschool to be like, the teachers require an insane amount of patience. I have had plenty of experience with toddlers, my cousins, but not at the level I got to partake in. There was this one time a child did not want to sit down at circle time and while a regular parent would probably demand the child to sit down and listen, the teacher paid no attention to the child and gave the child time to see how much fun it was to sit down with friends and sing songs and let the child on their own come to the circle and participate. Teaching toddlers isn't just telling them what to do and when to do it, it is giving them a chance to learn when it's okay to do their own thing and when it's time to participate and pay attention because when they're older it plays it big part in how they interact with others.
Applied
5. What is your senior topic going to be? How did what you did help you choose a topic? Please explain.
I originally wanted to do cosmetology; I figured it's my last major project might as well do something fun but it didn't really appeal to me too much or work out how I planned. So when my mom was telling me a story about how I used to "force" my younger brother to play school with me when I was in kindergarten and teach him how to do math, read, and write, I realized I wanted to do something related to teaching; more specifically teaching children. My mom's friend daughter works at a day care, so I asked her if I could go and she said she'd ask her director if i could come in. I ended up spending my time there for my mentorship and that's how I realized that for me teaching pre-k is fun and that's what I want to do for my senior project.
