Blog 11| Lesson 1 Reflection

What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

• I am most proud of the fact, that I got over what needed to be done. That isn't the full reason of what I am proud about, what I saw for recommendations and commendations had helped me realize the potential I have for giving out presentations. This gives me a better perspective of what I need to do for my next lesson.

What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• Although I had shown the potential, I deserve an AP possibly a CR. According to the rubric/criteria I had not met the time needed for my presentation, I did not have a full prop, and I had not shown citations or at least mentioned my sources.

If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson? How can you use that knowledge to give a better lesson 2?

• A couple of things I would do if I were to go back, 1) I would give myself more time to prepare before my next lesson possibly a full week (Apparently 2 days of preparation does not work for me.) 1) is actually the only thing I would do, get myself better prepared.

Blog 10 | Interview 2 Reflection

Yay!

Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time.

• I am currently spending time in my mentorship as somewhat of a shadow. I really can not do much for some meetings with students of the program are meant to be "personal" or sometimes there are some events that happen ever so often that I do actually get to help out in. There are times when my mentor asks for my opinion about things and then he goes on by explaining why he does(n't) do what most people ask of him. I was able to go on one interview with a Mentor and Mentee pair up with Carlos Carrillo I saw how he helped the student get their tutors or mentors. I spend my time from 1:30pm to 4-5 pm every Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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

• I've been in Uncommon Good since 7th grade, around teh time I got my mentor (For  a Teacher) I was already doing some volunteer work at Uncommon Good. Since my EQ was going to be something "If middle school students should learn more about college" I decided to ask a few of the staff at Uncommon Good if I was able to interview them or have them mentor me in their careers.

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?

• I have to admit my parents trust these people at Uncommon Good, so they are at a family level relationship, just because they have helped me and my family a lot with school and home related things.

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?

• I thought everything went well in this interview, I got to interview my mentor at a nice somewhat quiet and professional place, and me and my mentor did the interview on the first try without having to stop for a pause or anything! I think I still need to improve with transcribing things, next time i'm bringing a note pad to write down at least notes to make transcribing easier.

Interview Link:

https://soundcloud.com/jonathanalv-1/interview-2 

Blog 9 | Advisory House Prep

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 my interview is complete.

At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your

topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

• My research is currently guiding me toward understanding about what counselors do, my research is also helping me in understanding what middle school students and high school students need to learn about college. In my interview that I had done (Which was today. Sorry for the late upload) my mentor, Carlos D. Carrillo, I had learned that it is important to teach students as early as 6th grade for the purpose that students gain a better knowledge of college.

What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

• I plan to use a few sources that my mentor is currently recommending, right now I am currently reading on what parents should do to let their children learn more about college.

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 most interested in understanding your thought process.

• Should students learn more about college before or during high school. (Its something)

Blog 8 | Independent Component 1 Proposal

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

• My first option for my Independent Component, I plan to create an event where students, who attend Uncommon Good, learn more about High School/College. In this event I plan to present to students of what to expect when applying to College, or the SAT's.
• My second option for my Independent Component, I plan to present to middle school parents about my experience in the Uncommon Good program, letting families know how learning about college and taking advantage of the resources offered by Uncommon Good may benefit their children.

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

• I plan to take pictures of these presentation, of me presenting and of the crowd I plan to present to.

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

• Both options presented are meant to help me learn more about Counselors and what they do for the community/students. During my independent component I am hoping to see students or parents willing to learn more about academic success, or in my case 'college'.

Update your Senior Project Hours log.

• -Soon-

Blog 7 | Second Interview Prep

(I dont want to end up saying that in the end of my interview.)

Who is your mentor and where do they work? If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• Now that I have changed my topic to 'College' Counseling I have few new mentors. Carlos D. Carrillo and Nancy Dufford both work at Uncommon Good, where they help students achieve their goal of getting into college. Uncommon Good is a non profit organization, they do their best in helping low income families and their students to receive a better education. I believe that Carlos Carrillo, and Nancy Dufford are experts in what they do (College Counseling) because of their 10+ years of being in the program. For this next interview, I plan to ask my questions to Carlos D. Carrillo, he is a graduate from the University of Redlands.

What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• Since you've started with the program, what have you struggled with the most concerning students or staff.
• What did you do after college?
• Has this profession change you in anyway? How?
• How have you dealt with past changes in the educational system? Or how does the 'common core' standard have an effect on you or the program?
• How do you manage to keep the students up to date with SAT's, or College Admission?
• Do you think middle school students should now more about college? Whats your opinion on this?

Blog 6 | Advisory Prep

(I know that picture is not relevant to the post but hey its something to keep my mind off things)

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project? What has made it a positive experience for you?

• A few things have worked out well concerning senior project, some of the "few" things include being able to get a mentor in the topic that I am pursuing, the workload, and being able to manage my time (Senior Project-wise). Getting a mentor has made it a "positive experience" because I got to interact with someone I don't usually talk with and being able to bond with this person I was able to get the most of what I wanted for one I information regarding COMMON CORE and stuff like that. The workload has also been a great thing because....There isn't much to worry about than the past few years (Probably because I'm not taking Young-scholars). I was also able to manage my time separating the important bits such as senior project and the SAT.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project? How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you? How might the senior team help?

• I'm not really finding anything too difficult about senior project, the only thing is that many people tend to stress a lot about things, I don't tend to do that. For the people that do though, they may need a 1 week break from blogs or research checks (Like about every 5 weeks of blogs/RC).

Blog 5 | Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? Is there anything I would do  differently for other interviews?

• The most important thing that I had learned from this interview is that I would have to find a place where there would be less interruptions, I also learned that I would have to edit my audio before I upload to SoundCloud.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts? What is the most useful? Why?

• Sadly I did not receive any additional resources or contacts, but I had told her earlier, before the interview, that my topic is somewhat going around the idea of "Should middle school students receive some (If not, 'more') information about college" Mrs. Collins suggested I talked to some counselors, luckily I know a few counselors at a program I go to (Uncommon Good). I plan to change my topic from 'Teaching" to counseling since my topic seems to be going to assisting students to college.  

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• Mrs. Collins is qualified to help me because of her experience in her field, since she has already dealt with a few things in the district she also seems to have more knowledge about the higher up dudes (EDIT: Administrators)

Link to my Interview Click Here

Blog 4 | House Advisory Prep

(A quote from Mark Van Doren)

I'm hoping to accomplish a few things through my senior project ("Teaching"). One of which i'm hoping to get a better understanding of the whole school district system. I'm planning to learn about these districts by volunteering in different school (Vina Danks in Ontario,  and Lincoln Elementary in Pomona). I also plan to figure out whether or not it is important to start showing students what college is or what it has to offer.

Blog 3 | First Interview Preperation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

• I plan to interview my mentor, Mrs. Collins, she has worked in the school (Vina Danks) for a while now and she seems to know a lot about how the things work around the school. With her experience I will be able to see what I really need to know about College/High School Preparation in an 8th grade level.

1. Additional questions that I may ask my mentor.

• What led you to this career?
• This school prepares students for High school/College. What time during the year will there be a point where the school talks about careers? Is it a simple career day event?
• With the new common core standards, is there a big impact on the way you need to teach?

Blog 2 | Summer Mentor Ship

(Thats the school "Vina Danks")

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

• Teresa Curiel Collins | (909) 477-0273 | Vina Danks (College Prep Academy) Middle School

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?   

•   Ms. Collins has been teaching for over 5 years now. She is also a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.

1. "From what I've seen during my mentor ship, you already have a connection with your students. Do you have the same connection with the parents as well?"
2. "With the new 'common core' changes will this affect the way you have taught your students over the previous years?"
3. "Do you input 'college' like work into your classes?"
1. These questions are to know a better perspective of the school, and how they show the students into a 'college/high school' like environment

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

• One of the most important things I have gained from this experience was, really just knowing that there are schools that do not lower standards (I.e. dropping a passing grade to a 70). I have also learned that there are many other ways to giving students a chance to go for something higher and a more successful education/career

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

• I'm planning to have my senior project about "Teaching" Just that. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well to be more specific my topic in "Teaching" would be more on how do we better prepare students to go into college or high school. Many students tend to go into high-school not knowing that it will be a very important chapter in their lives. Such as sophomore and junior year where colleges tend to look at your status and look if you're taking things "Serious" or not. During my mentor ship I have learned that students will achieve/learn more if they know what to expect later on in life (College and high school)

Mentorship Hours:

• To see what I did through my summer (Only a few days) click on the link below
• "Link"

Blog 1 | Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1.What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?

• Entrepreneurship: One reason why I found this helpful was because the presenter showed a lot of information needed in the presentation, I also learned about where or what are possible sources of research
• Elementary School Teaching: I found this to be somewhat helpful although the presenter did not talk much about mentor ship (maybe mention them and what they did), however this was one of the topics I was going toward (teaching)
• Teaching: This presentation stood out to me, although the presenter stumbled on words, the presentation showed me that there are many different EQ's available for this topic (more than what I would have expected)

2.List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?

• Do NOT procrastinate, besides that it would have to be finding a mentor as soon as possible and make sure to show that you are a responsible student/men-tee. 

3.What topic(s) are you considering, and why?

• Teaching/Engineering/Medicine; I am planning to use Teaching for my senior presentation's mostly because I find it more resourceful and a very interesting subject/topic to do my senior presentation on. I have considered Engineering and Medicine but I find myself limited to mentor ship resources around my area.

4.What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).

• If students were to find their topic would they keep that topic until the end or will the students actually purse the topic in the near future?

5.What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?

• I have a Tutor, and I know my mom's friend is a teacher around upland, however I would find it difficult to mentor with them for the reason that they may not do any teaching over the summer.