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)?