Blog 14: Third Interview Preparation

For this interview you will prepare 10 open-ended questions that focus on your newly approved EQ (in fact, your first question can be your EQ.) Remember, all interviews must be done in person unless they are specifically approved by your house teacher. Additional, one person may be interviews a maximum of two times.

Just my uncle and I having a casual conversation.

My Essential Question: What method is best for a high school teacher to ensure that her students comprehend the material?

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?
• For my third interview I plan on interviewing my uncle, Mr. Yousef Nasouf,  who is the principal at Nogales High School. 
2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule and interview. What is the date and time of the interview?
• The date of my interview in January 21, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.
3. Phrase an open-ended  question that will help you find research resources that would help you answer your EQ.
• In order to find more answers to my essential question, (What method is best for a high school teacher to ensure that her students comprehend the material?) what types of research would your recommend I find?
4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to , etc). 
• In order to expand upon my answers to my essential question what activities do you suggest I do?
5. Phrase two open-ended  questions that help you understands your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.
• What influenced you decision on becoming a high school principal rather than an elementary one?
•  Every student has different learning capabilities, in what way do you think teachers can best accommodate their needs. 

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

This is the high school I am completing my mentorship at.

1. Where are you doing your mentor ship?
• I am currently completing my mentorship at Nogales High School located in La Puente.
2. Who is your contact? What makes this person an expert?
• I am working with Monica Hidalgo who has taught tenth and twelfth history as well as English. She has received her education from UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and Cal State Long Beach. Not only does she have a masters and bachelors degree in multiple subjects but Ms. Hidalgo also has half of her doctorate in U.S. History from UC Irvine. She has taught at the high school level for eight years, and she has the knowledge and experience I could benefit from.
3. How many hours have you done during the school year?
• I haven't completed any service hours this years because I have done them in the past but I just haven't turned in the community service forms. 
4. Succinctly summarize what you did , how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.  
• I have 24 hours left for the required hours and I plan to complete those hours the same as I have been doing so. In my mentorship I have graded papers, create lesson plans, teach three class periods, and help create a final exam for Ms. Hidalgo's sophomore history classes. My mentor and I have worked cohesively in ensuring that I have been gaining the popper knowledge necessary to become the best teacher possible. I don't think that our relationship has turned into a friendship because I don't think our relationship should be on that level. I see her as a person who I can approach if I have any question about what I need to do. We have worked well together and I have enjoyed my mentorship so far. 

Blog 12 - Holiday Project Update

This is the high school where I am currently completing my mentorship.

• It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether its over break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

• Over break I didn't focus on much of my senior project because I had worked on it during Thanksgiving break, however I did work on describing the process of my senior project on my Independent Component Log. During my Thanksgiving break I had taught two classes at the high school where I am currently completely my mentorship at and I had finalized the lesson plans I had set up for the class during that week.

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

• The most important thing I had learned from the work I had done with my independent component was that I needed to be confident when approaching 30+ young adults. This was the most important thing I learned because this lesson can apply to all aspects of my life in the present and future.I learned that confidence most important from the students that I was teaching. 

• Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers to your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

• I plan to talk to my uncle who is the principal of Nogales High School, he is accessible and has experience with students from grades 8-12. If he is unable to be interviewed then I plan to talk to a school psychologist, even though I don't know any, I should probably start contacting these people soon.

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

Here is one of my props from Lesson 1.
Fun Fact: I finished painting this at 3:17 am on the day of my presentation.

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?
• I am most proud of my props and my hook activity. I put a lot of effort into making the brain used in my presentation and selecting certain questions for my hook activity, Even though these were the best aspects of my presentation I know I can improve upon them even more.
2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.
• For my first lesson I would give my-self a P because I excelled in some areas than others. I feel as if I deserved an AE in the Effective Communication are because my audience was really interested in the props and the hook activity, I was also good at making eye contact with my audience and having enough volume. I need to work on my professionalism because I cursed, to me that isn't a big deal, but to others it can really effect your credibility. I deserved an AP in some areas or Justification of Foundation, like research. I had my printed source and I referenced it, but I never showed them and i think that's why some of my peers thought I didn't really research. In all honesty this lesson was a mess, I'm not going to make any excuses but I wish I had prepared more.
3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson? How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?
• There are so many different things I would change about my Lesson 1. The organization of my presentation would be completely different because now I know what I need to improve upon for next time. I would also change my hook activity because it was a little time consuming for 2 minutes, for my next lesson I will just try to perform my own hook activity in order to test the time of it. My professionalism was a little off because I cussed twice which is terrible and embarrassing, next time I am definitely going to have to discipline myself to be more selective with my words. The lessons I have learned from today's presentation are going to help me create a better Lesson 2 because now I know what not to do.

Blog 10: Interview 2 Reflection

 Here is the link to my second interview: Interview #2

And if you don't feel like listening you can read my transcription. :)

1. Please explain how you're spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else? Are you shadowing? Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic? If so, what? Are there other people who are experts in the location? Etc...)

-I have been mentoring at Nogales high school with a history teacher named Miss Hidalgo. When I am at my mentorship I usually grade papers, converse with my mentor, look over lesson plans with her, and observe her teaching methods. Everything that I have done at my mentorship is related to my topic so it's beneficial to my research and I enjoy doing the tasks assigned. There are other teachers at the school I could possibly mentor with but my current mentor was the most willing to take on the responsibility of an extra high school student.

2. How did you find your mentor? How did you convince this person to help you?

- I found my mentor by sending emails to the different schools in my area. The email consisted of information about iPoly's senior project and my topic. I stated that I needed someone to help me gain a better understanding for teaching and to commit to helping me for about 60 hours in total. I didn't really have to persuade anyone into helping me I just asked and they either email me back or they didn't and that's how I found my mentor. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship? How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

-At this point am I mentorship I've had the ability to form a relationship with the person I'm working with. On a scale of 1-10 I would rate my relationship with my mentor at a 7, pretty chill but also serious. I've gotten comfortable with my mentor to the point where I can ask questions without feeling awkward or scared to do so. My mentor has told me about her past and what it was like for her in high school and I've also told her about some impactful experiences that I've had, so it's giving me the opportunity to form a bond. Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to mentorship   for two hours unless something comes up. This has given me the ability to create a relationship because of the large amount of time that I've spent with my mentor.

4. What went well in this interview? Why do you think so? What do you still need to improve? How do you know? How will you go about it?

-The best part of my interview was he answers that I was receiving from questions that I was asking. I thought this was the best aspect of my interview because I had prepped my mentor with the questions that I was going to ask her so that way she could prepare herself for the type of answers she would provide me with. However I still need to improve on my awkwardness, I didn't really know when my mentor was done talking so I felt like I was cutting her off at some points in the interview. During my interview I felt a little weird when I would start to ask a follow-up question but then she still had more to say about the previous question and that's what made me feel a little awkward. This conflict is more of a social problem, so I'm just going to have to learn when it is my turn to speak. 

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

• State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person. 
• I have a mentor and I have completed my interview.
• At this point, your research is properly guiding your studies towards more specific areas within your topic. Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons. 
• The areas that have given me most interest in research for my topic are, the different methods of teaching that are the most effective, as well as the various types of learning.
• What kind of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth? Where will you go to get them?
• The kind of sources that will give me the most depth are the ones that have been written by doctors who have experience with the way the brain works. To get these sources I will go to the library, or online to forums that discuss the best possible methods of teaching.
• Write down a possible EQ. Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers. At this point, the senior team is more interested in understanding your thought process. 
• What is the most effective method of teaching high school students?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

          For my senior project I plan to research and create two lesson plans, and a quiz for 10th grade World History. I plan to research the common core standards for World History and create a lesson plan that follows the standards. Not only will I research the standards but also the topic of the lessons which will be about the Industrial Revolution to ensure that I am educated well enough to answer questions about the topic. I have spoken to my mentor about this and she feels comfortable with me teaching her class for three periods of fifty-sis minutes. The lesson plans will be able to appeal to all students with different levels and learning abilities through auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles. The lesson plans will follow a combination of lesson plans, including the Madeline Hunter Lesson Plan and my own style of teaching. Because some students are more advanced than others the lesson plans will have challenging aspects but still be easy enough for students who are slower to complete the learning objective. Once the lesson plans have taken place there will be a short quiz that will be the closing to the lessons.In total there will be

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

          In order to meet the expectation of 30 hours I will document my Individual Component by logging my progress and how long I have worked on completing my component. There is a lot of research to be done before I actually have to create a lesson plan. I have to research the 10th grade standards and make sure that I follow the ones that apply to the topic that I will be teaching which will be tedious because I have to actually apply them to the lesson. I estimate that this will take me about five hours to research and select. After I have researched the standards I must also research the most effective ways of teaching and how to accommodate students with disabilities because of the No Child Left Behind Act. This is going to take a while to do because the all of the different obstacles I will have to face when making changes to my lesson plans to better assist the different students. Once I know all of the standards and the different ways to teaching effectively I will create my lesson plan, worksheets/ activities, and quiz. I feel like this component to my project will take the most\ time because I will have to change and revise to reassure the effectiveness of my planing. After everything has been completed then I will teach the two lessons to an actual class of 35 and then give a quiz.

3. Explain how what you will be doing to help you explore your topic more in depth.

         This will help me further my knowledge of my topic because I will have an actual experience where I can draw information from on what is the most effective way of teaching which will also help me answer my essential question. The experience I will gain from teaching a lesson plan will put the research I have recently done into effect by aiding me in creating my lesson plan. My depth of knowledge will increase from lesson planning because I will be learning about the most effective ways of teaching.