Independent Component 2

Content:
 LITERAL
      (a) I, Isabel Vazquez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
      (b) The two persons who helped me complete my independent component were Valeria de la Peña and Peter Rainville.
      (c) Digital spreadsheet
      (d) During my volunteering at Cortez Magnet I helped the teachers in various ways. In Mr. Rainville's classroom I would help the students when they had classwork and I would walk around the classroom asking if they needed help or whenever they had to work in groups I would sit at one of the tables and participate in their conversations and give them feedback on their work. In Ms. De la Peña's class I did more work. I graded student's tests and quizzes, organized her books by reading level, put the students' work in their folders, and helped the students who were behind with their work. I also helped her transfer some files on to each of the student's computers that they were going to use to create a history powerpoint. Additionally, I helped her create a new STEM project for the students in which they were given a list of materials that they can use in order to create a parachute and they have to try to keep the parachute up in the air for the longest possible time at a given distance.

 INTERPRETIVE
  In order to show proof of my 30 hours of work I took a picture of a log that I keep in the office at Cortez which I use to sign in and out everyday I go. I also took a few pictures of the books that I organized and of the easter egg hunt that we did in the classroom.

APPLIED
   This component helped me answer my essential question because I was able to see the students' math skills and designed a project that was not hard to do and which would entertain the students. They were all eager to do the project and were sharing with other students what materials they were going to use so that their parachute was the best.

Fourth Interview Questions

Content:
1. What is the difference between curricula and curriculum?
2. In your opinion, how can a teacher best help a struggling student?
3. Do you believe that teachers get trained properly?
4. Is this what you expected it would be like to teach?
5. In what ways would you make students more interested in math?
6. My EQ is what is the best way for a middle school math teacher to maximize a female student's score on the California State Test, what would you do?
7. Do you believe that today's society encourages males to excel in math rather than girls?
8. If so, how can this discrimination stop?
9. How do you meet each one of your students needs?
10. Do students retain more information through lessons with visuals or by going over a lesson various times.
11. How would you define Common Core?
12. Would you rather continue to use the State Standards as a guide for your lessons or would you start using Common Core?
13. What is the biggest difference between Common Core and State Standards?
14. Do you agree that in order to help a student a teacher must first learn about the student's culture in order to see what learning styles the student may have?
15. Currently, how are students in your class doing in math?
16. Do you create lesson plans in advanced or do you start creating them once you see that the students are progressing?
17. What is the most helpful advice you can give a new teacher?
18. What books do you think would help me obtain more knowledge of my topic?
19. Education is a very broad term, what specifically can I do research on to generate more answers to my EQ?
20. Aside from testing, how can you ensure that your students are learning what you are teaching?

Advisory Meeting #2

Content:

What is the best way for a middle school math teacher to maximize a female student's score on the California Math Test?

Answer #2: A teacher can help a struggling student by creating a lesson plan that meet the student's needs.

-Students have different studying methods. Ex. designing a study guide for the student

-What does the student want to achieve? Ex. Personal goals and objectives
-Most struggling students need to go over lessons so they dont fall behind. Ex. Tutoring

Teachers should see what the students needs are and adapt to them by creating a personalized lesson plan based on their needs. 

Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
      For my 30 hours I will be tutoring a group of 6th grade students who are currently struggling with math. I talked to my mentor and he said that he would look at the student's grades and he would give me a list of names of those who have the lowest grades in math. Parents will be notified that their children will be receiving tutoring afterschool, hopefully I can tutor them twice a week. 
2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
      I will take a picture of the log that I have at Cortez where I have to record the time I go in and the time I go out. 
3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.
     This will help me explore my topic more in depth because now I will interact with the students more and I will have to create lesson plans and study guides so that they can improve their grades. I will have to dedicate alot of time to this because I am going to have to see each student's strenghts and weaknesses and I am going to have to adapt to each one of them. 
4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the independent component 2 log.

Independent Component 1

• Literal: 
• (a) I, Isabel Vazquez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work. 
• (b) The people who helped me complete my independent component were my mentor Peter Rainville and Valeria de La Peña. They are both teachers who work at Cortez Mathematics and Science Magnet School. 
• (c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours) Post it next to your mentorship log. 
• (d) In my independent component I was able to do a variety of things. First of all in my mentor's 6th grade class I was able to help students with a iMovie project that they were working on for Math and I also helped with others in-class assignments. In Ms. de La Peña's 1st grade classroom I helped those students who were behind with their work or who were struggling. I also tested some of them on their vocabulary, but I mostly helped the teacher by organizing the student's work and putting them in folders. 
• Interpretive:

• I was able to obtain a picture of the log that I keep in Cortez which indicates the time I go in and the time I get out but it only shows from January until now. 
• 
  
• Applied: 
• The independent component helped me understand the foundation of my topic better because when I used to do community service at Cortez with other teachers I didn't work with the students as much. I would usually help the teachers by organizing papers, grading, or doing copies. However, now I was able to interact with the students and observe the different personalities and attitudes of the students and how the level of enthusiasm changes from elementary to middle school. For example, in the first grade classroom all the students are always participating and they are really eager to learn new things. In the 6th grade classroom, the students have to be called on so they can participate and most students are always off task and they whine about everything. I was able to observe the needs of those 
• 
  

Third Interview Questions

1. In your opinion, do teachers focus more on students who struggle or students who are doing good?
2. Do you believe that the current state standards help you create creative and etertaining lesson plans?
3. What techniques do you use to keep your students engaged?
4. What would you consider the hardest thing about being a teacher?
5. Do you meet with other teachers reagularly to share ideas or to discuss new lesson plans?
6. Do the students know what the goals and objectives of the classroom are?
7. How do you incorporate real-life situations into your lessons?
8. If you could change anything about your job what would it be and why?
9. How do you deal with students who refuse to do their work and don't listen to the instructions?
10. Many agree that education is taking a step backwards, do you agree with this statement?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

Content:

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
       I am doing my mentorhsip at Cortez Mathematics and Science Magnet School. 
2.   Who is your contact?
       My mentor is Peter Rainville, a 6th grade math teacher 
3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?  
       I have done about 20 hours and 20 minutes of mentorship.  
4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
      At first I helped the ladies in the office by stapling papers ad makig copies and then when I went to my mentor's classroom I helped some students who were working on a project. They were making math videos using iMovie. 
5.   Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they should call to verify it.