Culminating Blog

This Capstone Project has been a journey.  I went through so many obstacles and hardships.  There were many bumps in the road.  I had a good start but I started to procrastinate along the way.  I needed to constantly communicate with my mentor in order to collaborate both of our busy schedules.  It was hard to find time to complete my hours.  But through countless efforts, my mentor and I were able to complete the whole 25 hours.

This Capstone experience made me realize what I really wanted to be for my future.  It saved me a lot of money for college since I know what exactly to spend my money on now.  The Capstone Project also made me realize that school is over everything.  School is over friends, work, and "relaxing time".  I learned how to manage my time correctly and to prioritize my priorities.

The one and only challenge that I had was managing my work schedule with my Capstone schedule.  I finished my hours in the last week before the evaluation was due.  If I did not ask for less hours of work every week, I probably wouldn't have turned in my evaluation.  I figured that making money was more important than this project.

Thank god I realize sooner than later and still on the right path onto graduation.

Last bit of hours.

I had work this Saturday so I had to meet up with my mentor before. She have me some of her secrets of how she managed to get in front of a classroom everyday without being nervous. Presenting has always been a weakness of mine and I thought I would be able to just stand up and talk, but it's not like that. I've seen Ms. Lauderdale teach before, she makes it look so easy. And I need to dance around when I'm presenting. I showed her my presentation and she liked it. I just need to work on my posture, she said. She always showed me how I'm supposed to take charge with my class and how to not have favorites. She told me that her goal everyday is to treat all her students equally and have a "safe for everyone" classroom where everyone gets along, at least for just that period. I worked at 4 and we met from 12:30 P.M. until 3:45 P.M. because she was kind enough to bring me to work. I didn't have the evaluation form on me at the moment so I told her I was gonna come by her classroom and bring it to her then where she can fill it out and I can get it same day.

Hours logged in this session: 3 hours
Total hours logged: 25 hours

Picture time!

One of the feedback from my presentation that I got was the lack of pictures and visual content that I had in my PowerPoint so I wanted to solve that today. Friday, May 2, 2014, I took pictures of my mentor after school grading papers, and we went through her daily routine. She showed me where she goes to the gym. She basically took my throughout her daily life so I can see it first hand. I took some pictures of lesson plans so I can include that in the PowerPoint as well. Since we were driving around most of the time, I was able to knock off 4 hours that day. I've been becoming really productive with my hours. It was mostly procrastination that inspired me.

Hours logged in this session: 4
Total hours logged: 22

So many hours in such little time!

Thursday, May 1, 2014.

As time is coming closer, I'm starting to freak out! I have 3 more days to finish 10 hours! So right after school, I take bus to El Camino high school. I meet with my mentor once again. I told her that I did my presentation today and I told her how it went. But I also told her the feedback that I got. So she told me more about "Common Core" and I was able to work out the loose ends. We didn't get to talk much cause we got interrupted, we had to go to the GSA meeting which was perfect because it related to my essay. After the meeting, we went back to my mentors room to discuss "Common Core" a little bit more cause that's a big part of my presentation and it's really changing how testing used to be. Thanks to the GSA meeting, I knocked out another 3 hours today!!! I'm so close to my goal of 25 hours!!!

Time logged in this session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 18

Nothing to do

Yesterday, April 29, 2014, was my day off from work.  I was trying to make some plans with friends since it is really hard to find time for my social time but everyone was too busy working or meeting up with their mentors.  I figured, I might as well meet with my mentor since I have been lagging on my hours.  So after getting out of school at 2:01 PM, I walk to the bus stop and took the ECR bus to El Camino High School.  I stopped by Starbucks and bought my mentor some coffee since I was waiting for the clock to hit 3 o'clock.  During my meeting with my mentor, we went through the "Common Core" program once again, but this time, more in depth.  I have realized that the "Common Core" is starting to impact South City because it is required that YEARBOOK should do some sort of reading.  Maybe I would care about it more if I wasn't graduating this year, it's really unfortunate for Juniors and underclassmen though.  But anyways, "Common Core" is pushing for reading in all classes: Math, Electives, History, English (obviously).  I find it really cool how my mentor is a "Common Core" trainer because I can learn first-hand about what "Common Core" really is.

Time logged from this session: 3 hours
Total time logged : 15

Speeding Through the Hours

After school on Monday, April 28, 2014, I took advantage of the last day of Spring Break and scheduled an early morning meeting with my mentor.  From 10 A.M to 3 P.M, we talked and I also created a lesson plan myself.  It actually took a really long time to finish just one lesson plan.  Standing in front of a class is pretty nerve wrecking if you really think about it.  I always thought it was so easy because you got paid for talking all day.  I realized how important it is to prepare the day before so you know what you are going to say, how you're going to say it, and also, how your students are going to learn from whatever you said.  As I spend more hours with my mentor, the more I drift from the idea of becoming a teacher.

Time logged from this session: 5 hours

Total time logged: 12 hours

Time to grade tests!

On Sunday, April 27, 2014, I met with my mentor once again but this time from 4-7 P.M. I corrected some assignments and tests, imputed them on the grade sheets, and learned how to input them onto schoolloop. In this session, I learned that it's a lot of work to be a teacher and there's a lot more to the job than to teach 5 classes a day. While grading the work, I had to be really careful because the grade that I was marking on the papers were the grades that other students would be receiving. I would just remember all the times a teacher would mess up on my grades and I didn't want to do that to someone else. After 3 long hours, all the work was graded and imputed into schoolloop.

Time logged for this session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 7 hours