Meeting up with my mentor

                                                         When I see my mentor

November 5: My day consisted of giving my mentor the letter that I wrote to her which was the Mentor Letter.I also asked her questions and talked about possible lesson plan ideas.She told me where I could volunteer.
Total hrs. spent:1 hour
November 14:I checked up on my mentor to to talk about some ideas that I had for my lesson plan.I also check up on my mentor to talk more about college and preschool.She let me borrow her college book which is on Child Development and she let me keep a smaller booklet.
Total hrs. spent:1 hour
December 17:I went to go talk to my mentor about what I was going to teach the preschoolers the 21st of December.I showed her the two books that I chose to read to them.I also sort of got an approval on my lesson plan ideas.I also asked her questions about college and what classes I should take to get sort of an idea of classes to take to meet my ECE units.Which are Child Development classes.
Total hrs. spent:1 hour
To be continued...
I also spent two hours talking to my mentor about finishing touches to my senior project and because of this I have a total of 30 hours.

My Teaching Plan & What I Learned

When trying to come up with a lesson plan,teachers have to design it using a web diagram as a tool to guide them with possible lesson plans and possible times in which these activities may occur.I remember that it was only October and teachers were already creating the December lesson plans. Christmas was coming up and I had three ideas and I got to do two since it was a funky sort of schedule day.My lesson plan consisted in tying it to the season and I thought what I better way than to do a lesson plan on Christmas in which they can create their own reindeer using food and learning how to make patterns on a paper Christmas tree. It was snack time and I settled down the kids.They were quiet and they were attentively listening to my instructions.I first said get your Ritz cookie out and put cream cheese on it.I waited.Secondly,I said put green M&M's on the Ritz cookie to create eyes.Thirdly, I said put the red M&M towards the end of the cookie to make the nose.Last,but not least I told them to put pretzel sticks towards the top to make the reindeer.But, before we made this I made the kids guess what we were making.And a boy got it right away and he said, "Are we making a reindeer?" and I said yes.It was a total success.My second lesson plan was around 3 p.m and I pulled two kids at a time where we would use stickers as ornaments to create a pattern on the Christmas tree.Some struggled and some had an easier time making the next pattern.Some of the kids also argued because they couldn't agree with each other but they managed to get the job done because I made them work on the cognitive stage which is to resolve  their problems by asking questions and stating what they don't like to come up with a solution that could help them complete the pattern and coloring the tree.I learned that it takes more time for others to learn something while their are those who get it right away.What would I do differently next time?instead of making it a partner activity I would work with them individually to help them more.I worked on these lesson plans for an hour and they came into effect the second time I went to go see my preschoolers.

Time spent on lesson plan: 1 hour

Preschool day 3

It was January 2nd when school resumed for the preschoolers. A lot of the kids did not go to preschool. I went to the preschool at 7:30 a.m and that is the time that they open. It was a random day actually because we had few kids show up to preschool. The teachers were on vacation and we had subs from the Real Program. The kids had free time and I was with a group of kids that were playing with play dough. They were working on their motor skills which are when you use your hands and muscles to make something. For example, there was this hard play dough toy that required a lot of their muscles to make play dough come out in twisted strings.Then,it was lunch time and one of the kids got upset with the other and accidentally hit the other child and the teacher helped resolve the problem.The teacher would ask them questions and then they would ask questions and then they would talk it out and resolve their problems.I would say that they were in the cognitive stage because the cognitive stage states that " kids learn how to solve problems, ask questions and think critically. And this incident proves that stage.We then listened to stories and we talked about New Years and we sang the weekday song. I also finished my 25 hours that day but hopefully I will go and visit them to learn more about preschool and Child Development. I plan to visit them on February and I was thinking of doing a little mini lesson plan on valentines day but with more of like them making cards and exchanging them between their friends.More of it being like friends appreciation day.We could also make cookies and have that be part of the snack time activity.I also realized that being a teacher takes a lot of dedication and patience because planning takes time and it has to be enough to cover the whole day. I also learned that preschool isn't all that cheap but their is a statistic that kids who go to preschool have a higher chance of going to college and being more social when entering kindergarten while their will be those kids who will probably cry on the first day of school.It's also hard for a kindergarten teacher to teach those who did not go to kindergarten because she has to teach them to take turns,raise their hands,and also teach them how to share.

Hrs:9
Total Hrs: 25

Preschool day 2

It was December 21 when I went to the preschool to do my lesson plan with the kids.I arrived at 8:15 a.m and most of the kids had already arrived. I met new kids that I had not seen from my last visit. I met Manny, Gaby, and this other boy that I sadly forgot his name. I sat down and I read them books that they chose for me to read. What I really liked was how they got so excited when I read their favorite books to them. They started making predictions and they gave comments about the book and that really ties with what I am reading about in the Child Development book that my mentor let me borrow. It was getting close to Christmas time and my lesson plan was how to make a reindeer using Ritz crackers, cream cheese, M&M's, and pretzel sticks. It went really well because they followed my instructions,it was snack time and they got to make two reindeer's. I was a bit nervous but everything went really well.Then, later on Santa made a visit and gave all the kids a book. After, that I got in a table and I called two kids at a time to color a tree and make a pattern on the tree. We used stickers as the ornaments. I noticed that some kids had trouble making a pattern while their were others that found it a bit easy. Some of them couldn't agree on how to contribute when trying to color the tree. Some would get upset because they wanted to color the tree in a neat way while the partner wanted to scribble scrabble the drawing. What would I do differently next time? I would probably call one person at a time to see how I can help that person individually. There's no right or wrong way in teaching, but teachers also need to see what they would do differently next time. But, I really enjoyed this day so much with the preschoolers! Also since I always go during my school breaks their schedule changes because it's the holiday season and some kids don't show up to school. They had free play,snack time,more free play, lunch time,nap time,art time, and that is what they did. I also plan to volunteer next time and check out what the kids will do next time I see them and hopefully by then I will be able to come up with another lesson relating this time with the season.

Hrs logged in: 8
Total hrs:16