Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

For my 2-Hour, I'm most proud of the fact that I was able to get through an hour of talking to a very large audience. I get nervous speaking in front of large groups of people, and the fact that I actually wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be during my presentation shows that I've really come a long way from the shy and timid girl I was in freshman year. Sure, I still wouldn't go out of my way to actively participate in public speaking, but just knowing the fact that I could if I wanted to, and actually do good during it is an amazing feeling. As for senior project, I'm really proud of the fact that I was able to do over 100 hours of mentorship.  That was definitely an invaluable experience.

2. Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation?

P - I definitely think I hit all the required points needed for a P, but I don't feel that I did anything above the requirements that would give me an AE. I am still proud of all the work I did in my presentation, however.

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project?

P/AE - I think I deserve a small boost in grade for the many mentorship hours that I was able to accomplish, and I feel that I did a lot of research in preparation for my two hour presentation.

3. What worked for you in your senior project?

I really, greatly appreciated the help of the I-Search. It just helped me organize and present my 2-Hour and made everything just that much easier. It was a really helpful guideline - especially if you didn't write nearly as much as you could have in your I-Search - those were the things you could start talking about in your presentation. It was just a really great organizational tool and I would've probably been a lot more nervous while preparing for my presentation if I had not had the I-Search.

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 think I would have come up with better Independent Components. Sure, my two ICs definitely gave me invaluable experience for my overall project, but maybe if I had just gone a little above the norm and done something greater, I could have experienced something much better and fulfilling for my project.

5. Finding Value

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

It's made me open up a lot more to people. I usually keep everything to myself, and don't really ask people for help because I'd feel like a bother. But senior project has really taught me that you can't do everything on your own. Eventually, you'll have to ask people for help and support. With every presentation regarding our senior project came around, I would have to ask those around me for help, especially my finally, which is something I usually never do. It's also taught me how to be just a bit more outgoing and confident, and this definitely showed through my two hour presentation. I sounded a lot more confident than I did in the beginning of the year, and I definitely felt a lot more prepared. So, this new confidence will help me int he future with interviews with potential employers, and just any public speaking that I will ever need to do, and for that I am grateful. 

Sigh of Relief

Wow! I actually did it. I'm so surprised that I actually wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be during the actual presentation. I really wish I had taken a picture of my set up, but unfortunately my frazzled mind didn't think of doing that in the morning. Thankfully though, I have passed and for that I am beyond relieved. I'm just really thankful for all my friends and all the support they gave me, it really meant a lot. And I'm glad that they were there to watch my presentation and wish me luck. Again, I really wish I had taken a picture of my room decor because I thought I had done a really good job. I do have a few photos of the pictures that were up on the walls, however, and here are a few:

Pre-Presentation Jitters

So I'm having those nervous jitters that always come along with a big presentation. Or any presentation, really. I still get really nervous with big crowds. So I decided to share a few screenshots of my presentation and some materials for one of my activities! I'm really proud of my PowerPoint because of the animations that I put in and because I wrote in a few witty comments that make me smile, and will hopefully make others smile, too. So here are a few:

There are lots more animations and comments throughout my presentation, but these were the first ones that I wrote in, so I decided to share them!

Some dolls that I will use for one of my activities.

Product

I know there are still other opportunities to talk about my product, but I felt that having a blog post would be helpful for me to sort out my thoughts.
My product is being able to communicate better with adults, and just people in general. During my mentorship, I had to do everything on my own. I couldn't rely on my parents to speak for me as I did when I was smaller. For one, their English speaking skills aren't very good, and two, it would seem kind of strange that I wouldn't be able to speak for myself when trying to look for a mentorship - it just wouldn't look good. So throughout this entire year I have slowly been improving my communication with other people, specifically  strangers that hold information that I need to gather.
This communication skill has been improved through the countless projects and presentations throughout these four years in I-Poly, but I think Senior Project really gave it a bigger nudge because I had to rely on my self for everything. I couldn't depend on others and expect them to do the face-to-face talking for me. No, I finally had to do this for myself and I couldn't back out because my grade depended on it.
So I am truly grateful to this project for being able to take me out of my shell just that much more. I no longer get to the verge of an anxiety attack at the thought of speaking to someone I'm not used to. Sure, I still get a bit nervous, but not nearly as much as it was before.

Breathe in, breathe out...

As the day of my 2 hour presentation gets closer, it's getting harder for me to calm down because I feel like I still have so much to do. I've made countless of lists however, and everything is going right on track, so I decided to take a break a few days ago and relax with my nieces. Here are some pictures from a poolside.

Collage

I made a collage of a few pictures that I have taken throughout the year of my mentorship days, and a few of the many times I have babysat my three lovely nieces. I'm actually really happy the way this came out, and I'm definitely hanging this in my room later on.

Laying out all the pictures.

Adding a border - the final piece!

Blog 25: Mentorship

Literal

Log of Hours
Elizabeth A. Carr
(626) 917-0959

Interpretive

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

Patience is probably one of the biggest things I gained. Working with children for three hours a day can really take its toll on you, and if you get impatient things won't be too fun for you. Children are spontaenous and can easily change their minds, so you have to learn to go with the flow a bit and not be so strict and set in your ways. Of course, there is a need for structure in some aspects, but when you can, you should let the children have fun and be free - as long as its safe. When things get a little too rowdy, however, it's good to remain calm and collected, getting angry and yelling unneccessarily shows that you still don't have enough patience to be working with children.

Applied

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

It definitely helped come up with my first answer, and gave me reasons as to why my second and third answers were important. It gave me insight and first-hand experience on how children behave in the child care environment, and what things affect the way they act. By seeing these things up-close, it was easy to back up my research and understanding with the real life experiences. If I hadn't done this mentorship, I don't think I would have had the same amount of comprehension in my topic and answers as I do now, because research can only take you so far.

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1. What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?

My EQ is: How can a child care provider create an emotionally and physically healthy child care environment?
My first answer is knowing how to communicate well with a child in order to build a trusting relationship. This answer came about from Sara Gable's article. My second answer is to have a proper child to staff ratio in a daycare at all times. My third answer is to always follow the sanitary care regulations. Both my second and third answer come from the California State Guidelines and Regulations concerning the care of children in a daycare.
My best answer would have to be my first answer: knowing how to communicate with a child to build a trusting relationship between provider and child. Having a trusting relationship with the children at a daycare will allow you to not only see how they are doing physically, but also mentally (emotionally). With my other two answers, its only concerns are the physical aspects of a child's health. With communication, you can get into the mind of the child and know how they're feeling and what exactly they are thinking.

2. What process did you take to arrive to this answer?

Child care was the main topic for my senior project, and my EQ came about when I started to focus on the well-being of the child and how the environment around the child affected them. A good daycare is one that would allow a child to do better in school in their later years. So I researched on what exactly it was that allowed for children to do better in later years of life, and I found countless articles about developing a child's cognitive ability, communicating well with them, and raising them in a sanitary environment. My potential answers sprouted from these articles. My first answer was about the importance of communicating properly with child. My second and third answers outlined the importance of a safe and sanitary environment. But my best answer is my first answer, and this conclusion was formed when I came across an article by Sara Gable called Communicating Effectively with Children. In this, she outlined the significance of talking with a child according to their ages. Its the same as when an adult communicates to people of different standings - you communicate with children of different ages in different ways. Better communication with a child leads to a trusting relationship between a provider and a child.
I think the fact that my second and third answers didn't include the emotional aspect of my essential question, which plays a big part in creating a safe environment for a child, was what led me to have my first answer as my best answer.

3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

One of the problems I faced was finding a place to do my mentorship. It was not so much finding a daycare that would accept me, but more of finding a daycare that had a convenient commute for me. I needed to find a place that I could get to by bus, because I still can't drive on my own or have a car, so public transportation was the only way to go. It took me about two days to search for and call all the daycares that I could easily access, and I was finally able to find one that could meet with me and discuss a schedule with me. This happened around the month of October, and I was able to finish all my mentorship hours at Footprints Child Care Center.
Another problem I faced was finding activities to do for my two hour presentation. The activity I had done for my 30 minute presentation had a few kinks that needed to be worked out, and I looked for ways to fix them, but it wasn't until I talked to a friend that I was able to come up with an even better activity. It still has the same concept and idea behind my old one, but her input vastly improved on how the activity would be executed.

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

I think my two most important sources were my fourth interview and The Child Care Problem by David Blau. My fourth interview was very helpful because it Lily Velasco's answers to my questions reinforced a lot of what I had learned in past experiences and in research. She helped me to confirm that my answers were of importance to my EQ and that they had reasons that definitely backed them up in many ways.
David Blau's book was of importance because it was what lead me into the direction of my EQ and answers and what the entire feel of my senior project would be. It basically set up the foundation for everything I know now.

5. What is your product and why?

My product is learning how to communicate well with children and other providers. Providers need to be on the same page when the safety of a child is in question. They need to make sure that no harm comes to a child while in the daycare and in the hands of someone other than their own parents. It's also especially important of someone of my age who volunteers or works at a daycare to know the exact expectations of the older and more experienced providers, and to know all the rules that need to be followed in the daycare. This communication between me and the other providers allowed me to not be so shy when it comes to talking to others. I had to ask questions in order to know the correct way of doing things around the daycare, as any mistake could be potentially harmful to anyone in the daycare.

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1. Who did you interview and what house are they in?

I interviewed Stephanie Salas from North house and Samantha Torres from East house. 

2. What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

Stephanie: I haven't decided on one yet, but I'm thinking about doing a branch of psychology. It interests me since I'm taking a psychology class up at Cal Poly, and it's really interesting to me.
Samantha: I plan on doing my senior project on voice teaching, I don't know what specifically yet though. Because it's a big interest of mine.

3. What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?

Stephanie: Well, my mom majored in psychology, and she works for a non-profit organization, and that's the sort of thing that they do there. So I'm just thinking of volunteering there and helping out a bit.
Samantha: I plan on following and helping a vocal teacher.

4. What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?

Stephanie: Hopefully I get some idea, because I'm still not sure about doing the psychology thing. So maybe get some ideas for things that are related to that. (I told her about Jada and how she's doing her senior project on Autism and Psychiatry, so that she should try to see that presentation because it could help her out.)

Samantha: I hope to get a good idea of what to expect next year.

5. What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project?

Stephanie: She only asked if there were any topics that couldn't be done for senior topic. So I told her about the Astrology thing and how the senior teachers want students to stay away from those kinds of topics because of money issues that have occurred in the past.
Samantha: "I want know what to expect like in detail for senior year." I told her about the beginning of the year and model assembly, and the sorts of things to expect for that, like the workload and such. I told her about how the senior project work spreads out and how a big chunk of it is worked on during April and May, and how May is the start of working on the two hour presentations. 
She also wanted to know if you could do well in both your normal classes and senior project. And I said yes, it was all really about managing your time well and making sure to turn in every assignment on time - be it core or senior project related.

BHS

Breath Holding Spells (BHS)

Recently, my niece has been having moments where she just stops breathing after crying for a long period of time. They started occurring a few months ago, and have been getting a bit frequent. She's been taken to the doctor, but apparently it's nothing serious. I decided to look it up anyway because I often babysit her and it's a bit scary having to deal with something like that on your on, so I wanted to know as much as possible. I found this helpful link. It talks about what it is, what the causes can be, and how to treat a spell after it happens, since in most cases it's not really easily prevented - as children can start crying about many different things. 

This is helpful to me because it helps with dealing with my niece, and it can help me prepare for future encounters with other children who might have the same problem. I will be able to prevent injuries to the child during the time of the spell with this new information.

Blog 22: Final 3-Column Chart

Final Chart

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal

(a) I, Roxana Castaneda, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Source:

Mentorship at Footprints Child Care Center with Dr. Elizabeth A. Carr

(c) Log of Hours (Towards the bottom of the spreadsheet)

(d) The thirty hours I did were done at my mentorship at a daycare in West Covina. I went there twice a week for three hours everyday. During those three hours, I would feed the children some snacks after the toddlers' nap time was over, and we would spend most of the day outside after snacks, if the weather was nice. On days it was raining, or too hot, we would be inside and watch a movie, draw some pictures, or play with toys or blocks. 

Interpretive

During those thirty hours, I was able to put my findings from my research into action. I could put the tips I read about controlling the behavior of a child into action and I gained a lot of patience in the process. Working with children is tough, especially since they're so energetic and a bit unpredictable  so it was good to have some information stored in the back of my mind from research to adapt to different kinds of situations with the children. 

Evidence:

• Summaries of what I did everyday
• Photos from the daycare
• More photos

Applied

The experience gained from going to my mentorship twice a week has been very valuable. Not only did it help provide more evidence for all three of my answers, but it left me with very sweet memories of the children there. For my first answer of using communication techniques to get closer to a child, it helped provide a place in which to practice those techniques. For my second and third answers of having a proper child-to-staff ratio and following sanitary regulations, I was able to see those things in action. Seeing the daycare with one teacher for every eight children and washing their hands before handling food and after changing diapers, it was great to see how my answers were reinforced in that setting. 

Playtime

Toddler Time

Blog 20: Three Column Chart First Draft

First Draft

Blog 19: Senior Project and ESLRs

1.  What ESLR have you excelled in most in your senior project? 

Effective Learner.

2.  Please explain why you think you have excelled in this ESLR.

I believe I have excelled most in this ESLR because my mentorship requires you to research a bit on your own before taking care of small children, and also because you learn as you go. As you take care of more children, and are around them more often, you start learning new things about the children themselves and how best you should talk to them or treat them, since each child thinks or acts differently. You learn to cooperate with them and in turn they will be likely to listen to you or talk to you more.

3.  Provide evidence from your senior project to support your claim.

Blog 18: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1. What is your essential question?

How can a child care provider create an emotionally and physically healthy child care environment?

2. What is your third answer to your essential question?

By having a proper child-to-staff ratio, all the child’s needs will be met immediately by the provider.

3. What are three details to support or justify your third answer?

• It's one of the biggest indicators as to whether or not the daycare is of quality.
• The younger the children are, the more provider's you'll need per child so that each child is properly looked after.
• It gives each child the proper attention they need, allowing for the risk of injuries to be lowered because they are more closely looked after and are not idle or by themselves.

4. What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

There's actually quite a number of sources that helped me justify this answer, but I suppose that the best source was source number 34 (Blau, David. "Chapter Seven." The Child Care Problem: An Economic Analysis. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001. 125. Print.) because it talks about what makes a daycare "quality" and it mentions the child-to-staff ratio.

5. What do you plan to study next and why?

Something more on communicating with the children, because while there can be countless of answers that include the physical safety and health of the child, it's harder to think of an answer for the emotional and mental aspects of the child.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

1. How can a child care provider create an emotionally and physically healthy child care environment?
2. What is the best way to build trust with a child just starting off in the daycare environment?
3. How do you get close/comfortable with a child who is shy?
4. How do you get close to a child who is NOT shy? 
5. Is special action taken when a child won't open up to anyone? What?
6. When do you know its time to get a new staff member in the daycare?
7. How strictly are the state sanitary regulations followed?
8. How often do the children at daycare get sick? How do you try to prevent sickness?
9. Is it easier to have an age limit set at a daycare?
10. What is the staff turnover/schedule? What is ideal?
11. What is the ideal environment for a daycare?
12. What kinds of credentials should a person have if they wish to become the director of a daycare?
13. How much college experience/credentials should a director have?
14. How is a new child introduced to the already normal group?
15. How often are there meetings between parents and teachers to discuss the child?
16. How strict are the restrictions on who can pick up the child if the teacher or director has not seen the person before?
17. What kinds of special instructions are given by parents for their children?
18. What are the most important state regulations?
19. Is their weekly/monthly/yearly checks by the state at a daycare? What do they look for?
20. What behind-the-scene work is required to run a daycare (paperwork)?

Blog 16: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

1.  What is your essential question?

How can a child care provider create an emotionally and physically healthy child care environment?

2.  What is your second answer to your essential question?

My second answer would be that the child care provider would have to meet all the safety regulations set by the state.

3.  What are three details to support or justify your second answer?

• Children have been injured in daycares before due to lack of safety regulations.
• Many safety regulations are to have certain exits and emergency escape plans, much like a normal school.
• There are a few articles floating about in the internet that show that some parents don't think their child is safe enough at a daycare.

4.  What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

Source 46, because it was an article on how a baby was probably permanently injured due to lack of safety regulations held by the daycare the child was in.

5.  What do you plan to study next with your second answer and why?

I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by doing a lot more research on safety issues within daycares, because I currently do not have much research on that. I would also have to research more about what kind of safety regulations are currently in place and if they could be improved upon based on parents' feedback/complaints that can be found in news articles so that I can have more solid information about my second answer.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.

I plan on doing more service learning at my mentorship in West Covina. 

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.

I already go there two times a week for 3 hours everyday, making it a total of 6 hours a week. I can easily get 30 hours done in 5 weeks if I continue following this plan.

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ?  

I think doing hands-on learning at my mentorship is the best way to help build my second and third answers. Volunteering at an actual daycare can give me first-hand experience at the do's and don't's of daycare.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Literal

(a) I, Roxana Castaneda, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Dr. Elizabeth Carr

Footprints Child Care Center

(626) 917-0959

(c) Log of Hours (IC hours are at the bottom)

(d) I went to my mentorship for 6 hours every week. I looked after the children that went their by either making their snacks, playing with them, looking after them on the playground, or doing some arts and crafts with them.

Interpretive

Here are some blog posts I made about some of the things we did at the FCCC:

Art

Playtime

I also wrote a summary of what I did everyday on my IC log.

Applied

Going to a place and actually putting your research into practice can help you learn even more than with just your research. It's like doing an experiment, you can't just do a little bit of research and call it a day, you should go out and put your theories into practice and test it out. So going to my mentorship helped me broaden my knowledge of how kids act around adults and around other children, and how they respond to new people being introduced into their world. I've learned that some children can be very shy and won't even try to approach me because they're not really very trusting of you yet, but once they warm up to you, it's a really great feeling.

Art time!

Some artwork on the wall.

Talking instead of drawing!

Hard at work.

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

30 Minute Lesson Plan

From the FCCC