(a) I, Alexis Crisanto, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours
of work.
(b) My mentor, Chami Jayasinghe from the Montessori Academy of Chino, really helped me
throughout the entire process just by being patient and by telling me about possible articles
and books that would help me. An article that really helped me answer my EQ was the one
written by Timothy Curby and Abby Carlson, "Fine Motor Skills and Academic Achievement".
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| This article I found really helpful because it talks about the influence that fine motor skills have on early education and it also helped me come up with my activity for my second lesson. |
(d) During my independent component I observed my mentor's classroom and did small tasks for her.
Which included: preparing activities for her for another day, grading papers, occasionally helping
out the kids when they needed it, and mostly just asking questions myself. I spent a lot of my
time jotting down possible ideas for activities/crafts to do relating to my EQ, what is the
most important skill a child develops in preschool that best helps them excel academically in
kindergarten? I also did some independent work at home by spending time looking at other
teacher's blogs and creating a board on Pinterest which led me to links about activities that work
specifically to improve a child's fine motor skills-which was my first answer-among other things,
like ways to best arrange a classroom to promote academic stimulation, developmental charts,
helpful websites, etc.
INTERPRETIVE
As I mentioned I observed Ms. Chami's classroom for my independent component and it was such an essential part of my research and gaining knowledge about early childhood education. I was not able to take pictures of the children working because it would require me getting permission from all of their parents and the Director didn't feel very comfortable with that, however I did take pictures of work they've done. Since they go to a Montessori school a lot of their work revolves around it being very independent, with help if needed, but for the most part they were working by themselves and since the classroom had ages from 4-6 the older children helped the younger ones, which helped strengthen their skills. By watching them from my little corner I was able to observe how they used their gross motor skills, fine motor skills, social skills, etc., and like I mentioned before that was how I was able to come up with my first answer to my essential question. The opportunity of going to mentorship for an extra 35 hours really helped me gain insight to the developmental process of a child because I was not only able to see how the children actually interact in a classroom but I was also given the opportunity to have a first hand experience in their learning processes/methods.
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| One of the first spelling tests I graded and she was just off by one. :( |
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| Getting cotton ball fluff off of kids is really hard especially when the glue has dried! |
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| Another almost completely right paper :( she got really good at writing her ones though :) |
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| I remember Ms. Mary, Ms. Chami's assistant teacher, was so sad to take down her scarecrow, she worked so hard. |
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| I got to make my own ornament and I brought it home to my mom! |
APPLIED
My topic is Early Childhood Education, when I had first proposed the idea of doing an extra 30 hours on top of my 50 for my independent component, I honestly saw it as an easy way to get the hours out of the way but along the way I realized that the component on it's own really helped me gain a deeper understanding on my topic by having a professional available to me multiple times a week and it also gave me the chance to explore my topic in my own way. For example, I created a Pinterest board which helped me combine something I enjoy doing, pinning, with doing school work. It helped me explore a possible career in my own way which I think was the whole purpose of the component.
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