May Additional Blog Post

So, on May 28th, I did my Final Lesson Presentation in the Junior Math class. I had a few props out during my presentation; stuffed toys for the activity, activities I did at my mentorship, and some books that helped me in my research.

I think I did really well on presenting my information and I'm happy I got it over with. Now, I only have two weeks left of being an high school student.

I'm ready to gradute international Polytechnic High School and move on to the rest of my life at Mount Saint Mary's University (Chalon Campus) in Los Angeles.

Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

• I am most proud of how I explained my answers and a little bit of my foundation. When I explained my information, I made sure to refer to my sources. I know I mentioned some my experiences in my mentorship and how my I-Poly experiences helped me with my whole senior project.

(2) Questions to Consider

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

• I think I deserve a P because I met all the things for P consideration. I talked and did my lesson for at least an hour. I referred to my mentorship and printed sources.

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

• I think for this overall project, I deserve a P. For the senior project components and assignments, I made sure I completed them and made sure I knew all, or most, of my information.

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

• What worked for my in my senior project was connecting and attempting to engage with the audience. Since social-emotional skills is an ability we need to interact better with others, I was able to share about how I-poly helps us practice these skills because we do many group projects.

(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?

• If I had a time machine, I would make sure I would tell myself to pause for a bit and make sure I present all the information I need to help my audience understand more about my answers or about my project because I know I forgot to mention multiple things. Also, I would make sure I slow down a bit because I think I barely made it past the one hour mark.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

•  Senior project has been helpful to me in my future endeavors because I was working with children. In the future, I hope to be a pediatrician. I want to be in the medical field and still work with children. Although I only worked with children the ages 2.5 -5 years old, I will know how to deal with them if they get irritated by something or if they do not know how to describe how their feeling. I also know what to do if my future children throw a tantrum.

Blog 22: Mentorship

LIA Response to blog:

• Literal
• Sabrina's Senior Project Hours
• Corona-Norco Family YMCA
• Volunteer Coordinator: Therese Marquez
• Phone: (951)736-1415     E-mail: marquez@ycornor.org
• Mentor: Miss Jenny Zymora
• Phone: (909)346-8117
• Interpretive
• What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
• The most important thing that I gained from this experience was that the social-emotional development is one of the main abilities children ages three to five need to have in order to get through life. They need this ability to be able to communicate and work better with others. I also learned how to deal with children better if they are not following the rules. I am able to negotiate with the children rather than bribing them.
• Applied
• How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.
• My EQ is: what is the most effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their students social and emotional development? What I have done during mentorship that has helped me answer my EQ was through play. Although I helped the children find the words that matched to their feelings and observed what they needed to work on, play was the best because they get that hands on experience with their emotions and others emotions. They learned not to hit out in frustration when they are playing. The children come up to the teacher to let them know what their classmate did and how it made them feel. Then the teachers would talk with the children to explain how it is not nice whatever they did and bring emotions into the conversation. Also, we mainly do activities with the children. It's all just fun stuff.

       

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 effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their students' social and emotional skills?". 

My answers are:
1.) To teach the students' how to self-regulate emotionally so they could manage and understand theirs and others feelings.
2.) To have the students engage in play so they get hands on interaction with theirs and others emotions.
3.) To observe and get to know the child to see what they need to work on.

My best answer is sort of a combination of all of my answers. It is my answer 2, to have the students engage in play so they get hands on interaction with theirs and others emotions. My reason is because through my experience in my mentorship, all we do is do activities and play. All the children do is play, play, play. They learn through the activities and story books, but majority of how they learn is through play.

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

The process I took to get to this answer was through my mentorship. My interviews with my mentor and the other teachers at the Corona-Norco YMCA really helped me come up with my answers. Before, I thought the best answer was to get to know the child and observe them because all the children are different. They're all different ages and they understand things differently. My mentor and the other teachers helped me see that the best strategy to help a child develop their social and emotional skills is through play. They helped me see that the 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

Problems I faced in finding these answers was finding a specific strategy because I found many techniques that could follow multiple strategies. For example, with teaching a child how to self-regulate, a technique is to have a child do some role play with their peers and that also falls under the play strategy. Also, with observing and getting to know a child, you need to observe them doing something like how they interact with their peers. Because some techniques could intertwine with other strategies, I saw that most of the techniques follow my answer of having the students play. Thus, helping me find my best answer.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My first significant source is a book called, "Play: The Pathway from Theory to Practice." by Sandra Heidemann and Debbie Hewitt. The book was very informative with play in preschool. It explained the different kinds of plays 1 to 5 year olds experience and gave some tips in what to look for in seeing the child improvement in their social and emotional development. 
My second significant source was an interview with one of the teachers at the Corona-Norco YMCA and mentoring. Lizbeth Barrera was really informative when I interview her. She went into detail with her answers and gave examples, like some of her experiences. It was also easier to understand her answers because I've also seen and experienced what she had.

Be prepared with evidence and specific examples to support any response.  It is also significant to cite sources as you explain.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

(a) Statement saying: “I, Sabrina Dalan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(b) In “Play: The Pathway From Theory to Practice” by Sandra Heidemann and Debbie Hewitt, they listed a few games preschool student’s could play. The teachers at the YMCA also helped me understand how to answer my EQ better.

(c) Sabrina's Senior Project Hours

(d) My Independent Component 2 was like my Independent Component 1. I continued with helping making and preparing activities with my mentors. Then I would play games with the children such as “Mr. Fox, What Time Is It?” or play puzzles with them. I would also supervise the children when they would work on activities.

INTERPRETIVE

Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

APPLIED

How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

This component helped me answer my essential question because of the interviews I have had with the teachers at the YMCA. They helped me come up with my three answers for my EQ and they helped me see those answers applied in the classroom. 

April Additional Blog

So this month, the YMCA celebrated Easter. We had activities to prepare the children for easter, so they made rabbits, little chicks, and decorated eggs. They had an easter egg hunt so all the children had to make their own baskets to hold their eggs. From what my mentor told me, parents donated a lot of easter eggs so each child in the YMCA had about 25-35 eggs.

The other theme we had for this month was planting, so we had the children plant their own flowers.

We also had a small yogurt day. All the children brought in some fruit, granola, or yogurt donation so we had lots of healthy fruit.

March Additional blog

Hey guys!

So this month at my mentorship, the theme was sports!

The first week of March, the kids played soccer. The whole week, they learn the rules and by Friday, they had a game with the other classes.

The second week, they had a basketball game. Like with the weeks before the, they learn the rules and had a game with the other class.

The next week was a baseball game and the week after was a football game.

Blog 18: Fouth Interview Preparation

1. What is the most effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their student’s social and emotional development?
2. What kinds of outdoor activities can help children develop their social-emotional development?
3. What kinds of indoor activities can develop a student’s social-emotional development?
4. What is a good technique to get a child to open up to a teacher?
5. What technique has worked for you to get to know a child? How were the results?
6. What are some signs that a child needs more attention in developing their social-emotional development?
7. If a child usually self-talks, what should a teacher do to help them talk with others? What is the best technique?
8. Some children may be too shy to approach others. How would a teacher help the child interact other students without breaking down
9. When a child uses destructive self talk, what should a teacher do? Why?
10. How can a preschool teacher get a child involved in group play if he just wants to isolate himself?
11. What kind of one-on-one can a parent do with their child to see what they can do to improve their child's social-emotional development at home?
12. Since there are alternative ways in school to do discipline a child without "time out", what are good techniques to discipline a child at home?
13. What programs do you recommend to parents to put their child in if they have difficulty developing their social-emotional development?
14. Knowing that the preschool age group is still working on language development, what is a good way to teach them words to express their feelings?
15. I read that nursery rhymes could help a child learn. How can nursery rhymes help a child’s social-emotional development?
16. These days, many kids love watching TV. What kinds of shows or videos could help a child develop their social-emotional development?
17. Do you have any good storybooks that could help develop a child’s social-emotional development? If so, what are a few good books?
18. I learned from another teacher that it would be best to get to know a child to see their social-emotional development level. Working with many kids, how do you get one-on-one with a child to learn about them?
19. Is there a technique that all preschool teachers use to develop all their student's social-emotional development although they might be at different levels? If there is, what is that technique and how is it taught to the students?
20. Could interaction with animals help a child's social-emotional development? How?

Blog 17: Third Answer

Just like you did for answer 1 and 2 post your:
EQ

• What is the most effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their students' social and emotional development?

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

• The most effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their students' social and emotional development is to observe and get to know the child to see what they need to work on.

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

• All children are different; age and skill level

• Can’t teach same strategy that teaches a 5 year old to a 3 year old because they won't understand it

• See what child like to do and get them to teach other students

The research source (s) to support your details and answer

• Play: The Pathway from Theory to Practice by Sandra Heidemann and Deborah Hewitt

• Interview 3

Concluding Sentence

• Before you could actually teach a child, you have to know what level they are at. You have to know what they know and find out what ways can help them learn.

February Additional Blog

February! This month, we celebrated Valentine's Day and all our friends at the Y gave out treats. Each of the kids had made a mailbox (with a shoe box) to hold all their treats. Since the kids get really hyper with sugar, we had to hold their mailboxes on a top self until their parents came to pick them up.

(Gifts from my mentor and other teachers)

I haven't been going to mentorship much this month, but I know that the theme for most of our arts and crafts was music. I cut out musical notes for the kids to glue on their music sheets and they made musical instruments (2D ones).

Blog 16: Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

What is the most effective strategy for a preschool teacher to use to develop their students' social and emotional development?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

The most effective strategy to use to develop a preschoolers' social-emotional development is to teach them Emotional self-regulation, which will help children understand, identify, and manage their own and others feelings.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

The most effective strategy to use to develop a preschoolers' social-emotional development is to teach them through play so they have hands on experience with their emotions and others emotions.

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

1.  Children love to play

2. In play, children have to communicate to get a turn with a toy or to join the game.

3. Children could learn how to manage their emotions with roleplay.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

"Play: The Pathway From Theory to Practice" by Sandra Heidemann and Debbie Hewitt [book]

"Support Social and Emotional Development - Through Play!" by Zrinka Peters [article]

6.  What other source supports your answer?

My interview 3.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

Because children always think about play, why not make learning fun by teaching them about emotions through play.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

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

I plan on continuing on coming up with activities to do with the children and asking my mentor about training days. I’ll look online for project activities (arts and crafts), song activities (dancing), or role-playing.

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

I will suggest activities to my mentor, prepare them, and explain how to make it to the children. I will take pictures of the completed projects of my students’ or make my own.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

This will help me see if my answer 2 to my essential question, which is to have children engage in play to have hands on experience with emotions, is an effective strategy.

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

Sabrina's Senior Project Hours

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

• • LITERAL
  (a)  I, Sabrina Dalan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 35 hours and 10 minutes of work.
  (b) My mentor, Jenny Zymora, suggested sites like Pintrest or other blogs that preschool teachers have to come up with fun activities.
  (c) Sabrina's Senior Project Hours
  (d) Most of the time I would be in the classroom, I would help prepare the activities of suggest more activities we could do. I always assisted the children with doing the activities and helping them get the materials they needed. I supervised them when they had scissors and reminded them to put on their aprons when they were painting. I observe how the children interacted with each other.
  • INTERPRETIVE
  This component has been really significant to me because I learned and understand the importance of preschool. It's not just arts and crafts, nap time or playtime. It does not only prepare you for the academic learning such as writing your name, counting, or learning the alphabet. It prepares you for life. Preschool teachers help you develop many life skills.
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this.
  The component helped me understand that the children's fine motor, sensory, social, and emotional development are being developed. I know one of the preschool teachers explained to me how preschool is the foundation of a child's success in school. Without preschool, a child may enter kindergarten without the proper skills needed in life. The activities that we do really practice these certain skills.

January extra blog post

This month, I haven't been going to my mentorship, but sadly, when I went, my mentor told me she moved to the morning half of the class. She introduced me to the new teachers, Miss Lucy and Miss Cathy. Since they were still getting used to the new schedule, they asked me what the kids usually did with Miss Jenny. I explained to them what we usually do and helped them learn the students' names.

Since I don't have any pictures from mentorship this month, I'll just show you pictures of some of the books I thought were useful for my Lesson 2 presentation.

This book helped me with my research and presentation because it gave me some ideas for my answer. It suggested more strategies on what to do to promote a preschool students' social-emotional development such as expanding their vocabulary with a word chart. 

Also, it explained why time outs should not be given to preschoolers.

This book helped me think of my second answer. In the 2 chapters I read in this book for research, it talked about the kinds of play young children go through and how it helps them promote their social-emotional development.