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