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.