Final Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? I am most proud of my activity, because it emphasized my third answer. It also showed if the students were paying attention to the content I was telling them and if they learned anything. Most did, but there were some slackers. 


(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?  P

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

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

I think my mentorship was what worked most in my senior project. I spent a lot of time there and my mentor taught me a lot about my topic

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would probably change my topic earlier than I could've. If I had known where I was gonna be mid December to early January I would've changed my topic during September or earlier

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?  I learned a lot about the teaching field and how tough it is and can be. I never thought of going into teaching as a career, but all the information I have learned throughout changed my perspective on teaching from an easy job with lots of vacation time to a tough job that has lots of deadlines and new lessons that have to be made every week or two.

Blog 22: Mentorship

    Literal

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

·     Contact Name and Mentorship Place

Rosemarie Aguirre ((626)253-9664) and Griffith Middle School

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

Probably has to be the progression throughout the year. In the start of the start of the mentorship, the students didn't know me well and I didn't know them that well either. Throughout the year my relationship has grown immensely and now I have loads of fun and help them out a lot.

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

This experience has given me the first hand experience on how and what you have to do to teach 6th grades special education. The process of learning through doing takes a big role in this subject, because I'm literally teaching 6th grade special education students lessons.

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers? What is the best way to teach 6th grade special needs students, Integrating the Common Core standards into each students IEP, Using Visuals and Mnemonics, and Lesson Differentiation. What is your best answer and why? Lesson Differentiation, because my other two answers are forms of Lesson Differentiation.

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

It was the last answer I came up with so me and my mentor came up with it last. My first answer was too vague so I had to change it to better suit my topic and I did.

(3) What problems did you face? I had to change my third answer, that was a small issue, but a quick change resolved it. My first answer was patience and understanding, very VERY vague, but I didn't see it as vague before I wrote it in my essay template.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why? The book that I keep referencing, Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers has been an important one. It gives a lot of info about my topic and has helped me through the year. My other source is my mentor. She helped me come up with my third answer and guided me through my first two answers. Her name is Rosemarie Aguirre and she has taught 6th grade special education for about 7 years now.

End of Month Blog: April

This month was a very productive month. I did my Independent Component and finished most of my mentorship hours this month. That's really about it, nothing special

IC 2

Literal

1.  “I, JOSHUA AGUIRRE-DAHDOUH, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
2. ROSE AGUIRRE, My Mentor

Interpretive

The 30 hours of work I did was A LOT of 1 on 1 time with the students that needed help. I also Taught them a couple lessons in Ancient Civilization, (Ancient Egypt, Israel, and Arabia) Science (Matter cycles), and Math (Long Division, Place Values, Area and Perimeter). It was the week of spring break, My mentor's school just finished their break. Since I was on break, I spent the whole day there, which landed me 8 hours for 4 days. There was also open house a week after and I decorated the classroom with their work.

Applied

This helped me with gaining a lot of experience through all the time I spent with the students. I can only usually go right after school which gives me only the last 2-3 hours of the day, but since I got the full 8 hour school day, I saw what they were doing throughout the whole day.

END OF MONTH BLOG: MARCH

This month was not the best, in terms of getting things done for my senior topic. I did a lot in the beginning of the month, worked on some hours for my independent component, and was productive, but, most of the month has been working on the powderpuff cake. Another thing is that my mentorship has been going through some tragic times, a student was stabbed in front of the school. Sadly, he died on the way to the hospital. It was pretty crazy. Fortunately, they caught the people responsible and found out that they were from Garfield High. Ever since then the security at the school has been going up dramatically, making it harder for me to just visit. All in all it's been OK, but not as productive as I would want it to be.

Blog 18: 4th Interview Prep

1. What are some highly effective strategies for teaching special education and why?
2. How do you combine technology and strategies into the teaching?
3. What are some important tools or materials that can be used to teach special needs students?
4. What is one of the best ways to get control of a noisy classroom?
5. How do you get a student to learn if he does not want to cooperate?
6. Have you had any kind of special type of technology used to teach special needs students?
7. What are some ways that keep you up to date with special education best practices?
8. What kind of attitude should you have towards special needs students?
9. How do you personally feel is the way that the students learn?
10. How can using different types of mnemonics help the students learn easier?
11. What do you believe are the three major challenges facing special education today?
12. How have you collaborated with general education teachers to benefit your students?
13. How have you monitored the progress of each child? 
14. What particular skills or abilities do you have to help special needs students?
15. What are the most important skill you must have to teach special needs students?
16. What kind of students are the easiest to deal with?
17. How can you keep the students from fighting and/or disrupting each other?
18. How can you maximize the potential of a student?
19. What is the best way to teach 6th grade special needs students?
20. How can you keep your students focused and engaged during class?

Blog 17 - Answer 3

1. EQ:

 What is the best way to teach 6th grade special needs students?

2. Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)

A teacher with patience and understanding towards their students can cater to their students' individual needs better and faster

3. details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example): 

Patience is key when working with special needs students as they tend to be slow.

A teacher that has no patience gets very frustrated when a student of his can't read due to dyslexia.

Understanding the child's needs are just as important.

The research source (s) to support your details and answer
My mentor, http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/04/08/fp_armstrong.html

Concluding Sentence

I know this answer is really cliche, but it takes someone with these characteristic traits to give a proper education to special needs students

End of month blog: February

This month I went to mentorship almost everyday to get them done. This month was pretty fun because of all the after school events at my mentorship. There was a movie night, a play by the students, and a band performance. I was probably at mentorship for 40 hours this month.

Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?
What is the best way to teach 6th grade special education

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
Integrate the 6th grade common core standards into each students’ IEP

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
Using Pneumonics and Visuals into their everyday lessons

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

1. It helps the kids get focused more easily
2. It adds another dimension of learning
3. It creates a mechanism for the kids to rely upon

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?
Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers.

6.  What other source supports your answer?
My mentor and the students

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.
What other things can I do to teach these kids89

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
Prep and give a lesson to my students

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
I will observe my mentor teaching her class,  make a lesson, then teach a lesson to the kids

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
This will give me more insight on how to teach special needs students by actually teaching them.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, Joshua Aguirre-Dahdouh, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• Rose Aguirre, 15 years experience of teaching.
• (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.
• (d) Explain what you completed.    
• I completed what I said I would do.
• I taught the students about Ancient Israel. I read the chapter all about Israel to them and re-read it for those who needed it. 
• Made a Newsletter with my mentor and helped her modify it for 2 different weeks
• INTERPRETIVE 
  Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  
• These pictures are the ones I used for my lesson 2 presentation, but I forgot to explain them :/
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   I took this Groupie after I finished reading to them. It was almost at the end of the day.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 
• The foundation of my topic relies on what is the best way to teach special needs students. By observing my experienced mentor and actually trying it myself, I got a feel on how it's done and what I'm supposed to do.

End of Month Blog: January

This month I did a lot more hours than last month due to the fact that school was back in session. I did about 25 hours this month, but about 20 of them I have for my independent component.

Lesson 2 Reflection

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
My Powerpoint because I thought it looked nice

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?
                            AP
     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
                           I turned in the rough draft a day after it was due


3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
My hook and regular activities

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
Maybe change the organization of the slides, and talk a little bit more

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
Pneumonic and Visuals

Blog 12 - Mentorship 10 hours

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

    Griffith Middle School in East LA

2.   Who is your contact?

     Rosemarie Aguirre

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?

    14

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
    
    Basically helped all the students with their work, posted their work on the walls, graded their papers, and taught them 1 on 1

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1.  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?

I couldn't do anything,  because my mentorship is in a middle school. They are closed over the holidays.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

N/A

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

Avery's mom, because she works in the same field as my mentor.