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?

I am proud of my first and best answer. The reason why I choose this was because I felt like I did a good job of explain my answer and that I gave a lot of information and went in depth with it too. Also my activities. I really like them, I thought that they really help support all of my answers. 

2) Questions to Consider

What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

I would like to say either a high P or AE-

What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

  P        

3) What worked for you in your senior project?

The research checks help me a lot. They help me to actually make time to research and to get quality research. If we didn't have the research checks every Friday I honestly think I would not have done well on my 2 hour.

4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would have loved to have gone to different places for mentorship. I did like where I was at but I think that going out to difference places to get different perspectives would have been great too. My problem was the transportation and getting there.

5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.
Well in the future I for sure plan to work with deaf children and in the deaf community. I am torn between being a DHH (Deaf and Hard of Hearing) teacher or a school psychologist. The knowledge  I already had about Deaf culture was just the tip of the iceberg.  With this project I was able to have a deeper understanding of how deaf children have a hard time in school. I know why and how I am able to change that.  My reasoning for wanting to be a DH teacher is because I saw in Christy Neria's classroom I saw how passionate she was about teaching these children and how she helps the build there BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills)  and CALP  (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) for them to be successful. Also with being a school psychologist I can able to help these children throughout their school career. According to Gallaudet University 20-50% of deaf people have an additional disabilities. I bet having one is hard already, imagine having two or more, I am sure it might be hard for them to want to go to school. What I got from my project was that I know, through research, and experience from mentorship, what some of these children go through. Already having these experience at such a young age I feel that later in my life I can be beneficial to the student.

Blog 25: Mentorship

    Literal
MENTORSHIP LOG

    Interpretive
The most important thing that I have gained from this experience was trying to meet the needs of the students. When I would work with a student one on one I found it very hard to explain what I was teaching. I know how to do the worksheet but I didn't know how to sign the explanation. It was the most difficult thing for me. I had to search how to sign certain words. Ask the deaf teachers and the interpreters how to sign a word or how they would explain this concept. I cant come up with an explanation on the spot but if I go home and thought how I would be able to sign instructions on how to solve a problem I could be able to do it now.  This is important because teachers need to be able to make sure that all of the students understand what is being taught. If the student doesn't know then the teacher has to figure out another way that they might understand, that is what I had to do in my mentorship.
    
   Applied
Being at South Hills and going to Mesa Elementary helped answer my EQ because I was able to see the teachers use two answers I found to answer my essential question in the classroom. My first answer: having a strong foundation in ASL, I saw that mostly when I went to Mesa. Christy Neria would have the students write a story in English but have them read it in ASL. I wrote a story of my own and was able to read (sign) it to the class. I also got to her technique in teaching Language Arts.
  

Baby Essie

This weekend my father was asked to come speak at a deaf rally in San Francisco and in San Jose. Its pretty hard to talk and sign at the same time. It is like listening to Spanish and English at the same time. You are not going to receive all of the information. I originally was not going to go due to school and the homework I had to do. But the ADAM (Advocating for Deaf Apostolic Ministry) called my father and asked if I was available to interpret for him. While I was up there I was able to see some old friends. Robin, the hearing lady next to me, is a fully certify interpreter. Next to her is her Deaf husband, Jan. And the baby is their daughter, Essie who is hearing. But seeing Essie who can't talk as much for her age right now, both of the parents talk to her in sign language. It's so cute seeing her dance to the music and when it stops, she stop dancing turns to her mom and signs to her "music". Now I know that my EQ targets elementary students who are deaf and baby Essie is neither of those. But she helps prove my best answer which is having a strong foundation in ASL. Both parents fully communicate with her in sign language and she gets it and is able to communicate back. Now she isn't signing these long sentences, that's crazy. But she is able to communicate back to her parents. It is cool being able to see by senior project being applied to real life.

Deaf community

 

The deaf community is, to me, so amazing. They are so close and always there supporting one another. South Hills, this year, was the host of the DHH prom. Yes, the deaf have their very own prom. I didn't know that either. Well there are a total of 20ish some deaf students in South Hills so few other schools who have deaf programs came together to have enough people to have a prom. It was pretty successful and much fun.

Deaf Expo

 

We went to Deaf expo. Deaf Expo is where all these Deaf organization come together. Here was a picture of me and Matt "the Hammer" Hamill. He is a deaf pro wrestler. He was so cool. And here is a little of Deaf Culture. 

 

 

RC

 These are some of the really amazing books that Christy Neria let me borrow for my I-search and research checks.

 

video

This is my 4th interview and though it is a video of my interview I thought it would be cool to share because Marie Lubman is a deaf teacher that works at my mentorship and you get to experience just a little bit of Deaf Culture. I hope you guys enjoy it :)