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 :)

2nd time at Mesa

 All four pictures are when I went to Mesa the second time. The kids really wanted to show me a move that they made. This is there really awesome cool reading corner, there is Christy Neria in the red shirt and black hat in mid sentence. And in the last picture she slits the class in two and here is her half of the class in their math groups.

Mesa Elmentary School

This was my first day at Mesa Elementary School. I was able to go to Christy Neria class which her class had 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. For the first day she just had me observe the class, but I still enjoyed myself very much.

technology

In the first picture is of a video phone (vp). many Deaf people have this in their home. Just like how we have house phones, the vp is there house phone. on the screen of the tv is a camera and when some one is calling there is a flashing light to get there attention. When they turn on the vp it is like video chatting and they sign to each other. On the bottom picture you see a yellow light next to the clock. Well the deaf students cannot hear when the school bell goes off so in the deaf classes they have that light. so when the bell goes off the light turns on. Just some technology that the school uses to help the DDH program.

Going to different classes

 

Throughout mentorship with Mrs. Gough I was able to go to another class. To Mr. Cummins a DHH teacher who teaches English, so I was able to see different deaf classes.

 

First day of mentorship

 

First day of mentorship at South Hills High School. It was so scary. All my life I have been to small schools and coming to South Hills was a whole new experience for me.

Blog 24:Exit Interview

What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your essential question and why?
My essential question is: How can  a deaf elementary student best become grade level literate? The best answer that I found to answer my EQ was that the deaf child should have a strong foundation in ASL (American Sign Language).

What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
During research checks I found some articles that discussed the reason why the deaf population have, on average, a 4th grade reading level due to the lack of language that they obtain. That theory has been always in the back of my mind as a possible answer. But it wasnt until my 3rd interview with Maire Lubman where she enlighted me about the importance that deaf children should try to master ASL first. Once they acquired ASL, the English language should be not a greater challenge for the deaf students as it was before. Marie Lubman also shared her story when she was in school and the challenges that she faced. After that interview I felt confident that having a strong foundation in ASL first was indeed a good answer, but was it the best answer? When I went to Christy Neria class at  Mesa Elementary School, before I could even ask her questions,  she was giving me amazing information about BICS AND CALPS and how she incorporates them in her classroom. When I got the chance I asked her two important questions: How can a deaf student best become grade level literate? Christy informed me that deaf children need to be exposed to language from day one. They need to establish a first language. From there, the deaf child need a constant exposure to print words and communication in their first language.  And that the parent(s) should always reference that ASL and English are two separate language so the child may acknowledge the difference. The second question was: What were some challenges that you faced in the classroom? Her response was that she wanted to see more parental involvement. She informed me that about 90% of deaf children have hearing parents and not all of those parents learn sign language. Thats why these children have such a hard time in school because they didn’t establish that foundation of language when they were young. And the perfect time for any child to learn a language is from 3 years old-5 years. So many of these children missed that and there is only so much I can do here at school. Lastly at the end of the day she let me borrow a book called Rasing and Educating a Deaf Child and I found that book to be beneficial to my senior project . 

 What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
Through out the whole project I have had two main problem that I had to face. I like my mentorship at South Hills High School, but I want to go out to other places. I did not want to stay in the same place for mentorship, I wanted to encounter another perspective. There is a Deaf organization called GLAD (Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness) and they have many deaf community services. I wish I could have gone but the headquarter is in LA, and I did not have any transportation of arriving there. Though I was unable to go there, I found another place that was closer in the area, Mesa Elementary School.
My second challenge was being able to communicate with the teachers. Every teacher that I have come in contact with, except Christy Neria, are Deaf. Though I am slightly fluent in ASL I did have trouble understanding what they were expressing. To paint a picture of the situation, it is like a person who has taken a spanish level one and two class. Then they have to talk to a native spanish speaker. What seems like a normal speed of talking to the native spanish speaker seems like 500 mph to the somewhat beginner spanish speaking student. How I was able to overcome this challenges was just having to practice on  signing, finger-spelling, and receptive skills.

What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
I have a few sources that helped me to come to my best answer which is having a strong foundation in ASL. First was Christy Neria, who has been extremely helpful to me helping me become confident in my first and best answer and hep me come to my second answer. Another source was  a book called Language Learning Practices with Deaf children and Raising and Educating a Deaf child.

What is your product and why?
My product is how to individual approach students needs. This is my product because you may be very knowledgeable in the subject that you teach but the main goal for a teacher is that the students understand. I realized that not every student are the same. Some may get it faster than others, some may not. My second independent component help me to figure that out.

Blog 22: 3-column chart

3-column chart

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1.  Who did you interview and what house are they in?
Ari Cocjin
East house
2.  What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
I'm not sure but I have narrowed it down to design, marketing, and forensic. I choose these three because I did a poster for project Prometheus and that caught my attention in design and the geometrics that are behind all of it. Marketing because I am drawn to the psychological aspect of it, like why they buy what they buy and why they buy that specific brand. For example the have a bottle of ketchup and they slap a label on it and people buy it.  Lastly, forensic because when growing up I would watch CSI shows and it was always interesting to me. 
3.  What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?
I am not sure of what I want to do for mentorship. I am still working on it. 
4.  What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?
I would like to see some hands on activities and for the seniors to make their topic and presentation interesting and not boring.
5.  What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?
What would be a good mentorship for me?
I personally can not help you answer that question but there is  a senior, Nicole Diaz, who is doing forensic photography. I know it is not the exact same thing but if you do decide to pursue in forensic then I do recommend that you talk to her and if you could, watch her presentation. 
How would I be able to choose to see her presentation?
You don't, juniors are assigned where they are going to be placed but if you are really determined to see a presentation then you can switch out with another person. But how they did it last year was you had to find another junior who is in the presentation that you want to see and if they are willing to switch with you, you have to have them (the other junior) sign a slip and have both teachers(the teacher of the 2 hr presentation that you were assign to you and the teacher of the 2 hr that you want to see) sign the slip as well. 

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, Rahel Hernandez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b)  Sharon Gough (Mentor), Michelle Benavides (Interpreter), and  http://www.tsdvideo.org/ (website)
(c) hours log
(d) Mrs.Gough, my mentor allowed me to teach her 5th period class (it was her 5th period class because that was the time that I would be able to make it after school) .  

INTERPRETIVE
The significant part of my independent component 2 was coming up with the lesson plans. I never know the time and effort that went in to making a good lesson plan. Also how I was going to teach them took alot of planning. I would search up ideas on how to teach a certain topic. Or if I didn't know how to sign a certain word I would have to look it up. I actually went over to Michelle's house and we went over on how to sign my lesson plan I had for the following day.


I use this same picture as on blog 19. I feel like this capture how my independent component 2 was for me. Looking up how to sign words and making lesson plans.

APPLIED
I choose to do this as my second independent component because  I thought it might support my second answer which was knowing different instructional strategies.  My plan was to find which strategies work best for this class that I had. The independent component 2 really did help me understand that every child does learn differently than other. While teaching the class (which is only a class of 3) there was one student who seem to not be comprehending the topic. It was frustrating on my part because I felt like I wasn't doing a good job and I did not know how to explain it any better. In one of our 2-hr house Purther  suggested that I look into IEP (Individualized Education Program). When I looked it up the main purpose of an IEP is to set a goal  for the child and have them try to achieve that goal. Learning all of this, my answer did sort of change to setting an IEP for the student.

Blog 20: Three Column Chart first draft

Three column chart first draft

Blog 19: Senior Project and ESLR's

 Ipoly's 4 ESLR's:

• Effective Learner
• Effective Communicator
• Effective User of Technology
• Effective Ipoly Citizen

The ELSR that I have excelled in my senior year, for me is the Effective Learner and Effective Communicator. I chose the Effective learner because we are suppose to assume responsibility for our own learning. At first, I did not like doing this at all. I didn't like to do research on my own, I kind of felt lost, and I didn't like the freedom that we have. It was too much for me at first. But over time I had gotten use to doing all these research checks and was getting into it. Getting excited when I found a cool article or a book that I knew was going to be very helpful.  I realized there is so much that I don't know and I just wanted to learn more and more. And what is more awesome is that everything that I am learning I can apply it to my mentorship and my independent component 2, which I am currently doing. I also chose Effective Communicator because I've always been the type of person who enjoyed working by myself and can adapt in working in groups. But my biggest problem that I have always had was communicating with other people. So what I notice about myself, especially this year, was that I had to communicate with my teachers in order to gain better understand of what we should be doing and just trying to do my best this year.

I'm not sure if you can see the picture clearly but the first two pictures is of a website that really helped me a lot on improving my signing skills when I go to my mentorship. The bottom picture is something that I have been working on my Independent Component 2. Its just a picture of one of my lesson plan and what I was going to teach them for that day and the problems that I was going to use.

Blog 18: 2 hour meeting answer 3

1. What is your essential question?
How can deaf elementary student best become grade level literate?
2. What is your third answer to your essential question (write your third answer in a complete sentence)?
My third answer is knowing the instructional strategies that are best for their class or students
3. What are three details to support or justify your third answer (details are examples or facts)?

• Every student is a different type of learner. So if a teacher always gives lectures and the student is a visual learner, the student will have a difficult time retaining the information.
• When the teacher creates, establish, and enforces a safe environment in the classroom, the student then feels "safe" and will be able to work and listen better.
• Knowing different technique is important because if you use a technique called Cubing, where you look at something from different sides. One side you compare it, associate it, analyze it, apply it, and then argue for or against it. This is a great idea for a English class, but not as useful in a math class. Maybe for a math class we can use the "Think, Pair, Share" technique.

4. What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

The most important source that not only help me get me to this answer but also help me to justify my answer was a book called Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One size doesn't fit all by: Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman.
5. What do you plan to study next and why?
I would like to research further in the technology that is available and the different sources that a teacher can use for their class that will help their students.

Blog 17: 4th interview questions

1. How can a deaf elementary student best become grade level literiate?
2. What are some challenges that you face when teaching your elementary students?
3. What kind of visuals do you use and why?
4. What kind of support services does this school or school district provide for the deaf student?
5. When you are teaching, which do you think best benefits the student: being oral or using sign language?
6. What kind of signing do you use in the class? (ASL-American Sign Language, SEE-Sign Exact English, Pidgin sign-a mixed of both)
7. I read in a blog and it said, "SEE was develop in the early 1970's to better enable deaf students to learn better English." (Lineham) Do you agree that SEE does help deaf learn better English? Why or why not?
8. What challenges do you see the child face in the the classroom?
9. Do you think it would be easier for the child if the parents learned sign language?
10. How does ASL grammar and English grammar differ?
11. From your experience what is the best way to teach this grade level and why?
12. Do you think that cochlear implants really help the student to do well academicly?
13. What is the difference between speech and language?
14. What are your thought and feelings on the Rochester method and on cued speech?
15. When you first started teaching, what were the peperations that you had to make?
16. Going back to the first year of teaching, how was your experience?
17. What was one "Ah-huh" moments that you had that you felt you made progress with your students?
18. How can you prepare the students to transition them from elementary to middle school?
19. In your own words, describe what Sign Language is.
20. What is deaf culture?

Blog 16: 2- hour meeting Answer 2

Content:

1.  How can a deaf elementary student best become grade level literate?

2.  My second answer to my essential question is knowing different support services and more specifically knowing about speech therapy.

3. Support services are going to speech therapy, going to the audiologist, or even learning cued speech and more. All these services do go hand in hand and work together. The audiologist gives the student a hearing test then provides hearing aids. Going to speech therapy helps with productions of sounds. Lastly if you learn cued speech it helps improve with their literacy or learning sign language they are learning a visual language because they might not be retaining what they are hearing (if they are hard of haring).

4. The source that help me come to this conclusion was source number 18 on my WB. Source number 18 helped me because the journal talked and about all the different support services that are available for the deaf child and the benefits that they have for the child.
 

5.  I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by learning more of the different support service that are out there for deaf child and to be knowledgeable in each support services but to be an expert in speech therapy. This is important because even sign language is consider a support service and these children need all the help they can get to become successful in life and with these service they can achieve that goal.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.
For my independent component study 2 I'm planning on going to my metorship place and go into Mrs.Gough's 5th period class and teach her subject, which is math.
(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.
It will meet the 30 hours requirement because not only will the time to make up the lesson plans and looking for new idea on how to make the students to become engaged in the the class but if you also take into consideration the time I will be there teaching and each class is about an hour long. So I figured teaching at least once a week till this independent component is due is how I will make the requirement.
(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ?
This helps me with my EQ because in one of my answers I was thinking about how instructional strategies plays a very important role in help the students improve in the classroom. 

Blog 14: Independent Component

literal: I, Rachel Hernandez, affirm that I have completed my Independent Component which represent 30 hours of work.
 log hours
At my mentorship all I do is help the kids with whatever they need help such as a math problem or telling them what a certian word means or helping them trying to figure out what a sentence means. Also when some of the classes that I would go into were very small, like two or three, I got to see how the teacher handle the classroom and how they taught their children.
 Interpretive:

Here is Conor's class in 5th period, which is his DHH English classroom. Right now he has a simple flash cards with a word in the front and a picture of the word in the back. When he shows the front side, which is the word, the students have to sign the word to make sure they know what they are reading and to match the signs with the word. For example the front side of the card says "shirt" the student would have to sign the word "shirt" and then Conor's would show the back side which would have a picture of a shirt. For me the most significant part was learning how the teachers taught their students.
Applied: The component helped me more on understanding on what me second answer is for my essential question. But this also helped me with understanding my foundation because it taught me how hard and the effort it takes to help these kids learn and to be successful in life. When I was in Conor's class he came up and told me that one of the students he has can't even read. He told me that she picks up the same book, Twilight, for the past 2 years because she knows it popular. He also told me that they put her on the waiting list in Riverside, there is a deaf school out there. She would've gone and helped her alot more than they could do but her parents didn't want to send her there. So what they have to do is, instead of giving her the normal paper test, he has a 'one on one' with her so to speak. He signs her the question and she answers and thats how she passes. But hearing that story it just proves my point that having a strong foundation in a language first will be able to benefit the student or child in the long run in his/her life.

My essential question: How can a hearing impaied elementary student best become grade level literate in English?

Blog 13: Rough draft 30 min presentation

30 min Rough Draft

Blog 12: Third interview questions

1. What is the best way to teach hearing impaired students?
2. For the subject that you teach, do you notice a difference teaching deaf students and hard of hearing students?
3. Is it better for a hearing impaired student to be in a mainstream or in a special day class (SDC)?
4. In your opinion, which do you feel will benefit hearing impaired students: having a hearing impaired or hearing teacher?
5. Would a hearing impaired student benefit from learning English as their first language or ASL as their first language?
6. What are some challenges a hearing impaired student has to face when in a mainstream class?
7. What are some academic challenges that you see hearing impaired student face in your classroom?
8. Why do you think it's difficult for hearing impaired children to acquire the English language?
9. What made you become a DHH teacher?
10. Looking back, how was your own personal experience in school?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hour check

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?
I am doing my mentorship at South Hills High School.

2. Who is your contact?
Originally it was Michelle Benavides, who is an interpreter at the high school. But I have been working more closely with Mrs. Gough and she is in the area that I can benefit for my project.

3. How many total hours have you done 
32 hours 20 mins 

4. Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
Every time I go for my mentorship, Mrs. Gough has me do the same thing I do all the time. She allows me to work and help her deaf students with whatever they need help on, which is mostly math.
5. Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number. 
Done.