Reflection

      I don't think I would've been able to have completed everything of my physical project if it wasn't for my mentor. My mentor and I kept in constant communication whether she wasn't going to be there the day that I was coming or if  I wasn't going to make because I was sick or I had to stay back at school or even if the school schedule changed. My mentor was pretty understanding when it came to my schedule because she knew how busy it was to be a senior.
     Over the 25 hours I worked with my mentor, she helped me a lot on what I need to do because sometimes I would be confused with what to do and she would be able to help me on it. When I started working with the kids, I knew I couldn't let them get away with anything but I also knew I couldn't be too strict, so I told myself I had to be in the middle, I wasn't too lenient but I also wasn't too strict. I was being my usual fun, happy-self. I always made sure the kids were having fun especially when we were doing our activities.
     Personally, I had so much fun working with these kids because knowing about their skills, it still didn't bother me. I treated them as if nothing was wrong with them. These kids always had me smiling from day one, I loved seeing the smiles on their faces as well. Socially, the kids made me seem more opened about how I taught each and every one of them. Knowing that I want to teach, they have given me the opportunity to show that I'm able to teach any kind of student.
     I've encountered many problems when I worked with the kids not only because of their disability but also because they're still young and they don't really know how to act in school yet since they're just in kindergarten. It was hard to get their attention most of the time but I learned to discipline them in a way without them knowing that I was disciplining them. I basically would just tell them that they wouldn't receive their sticker or that their star would be moved down to a star that meant they weren't doing any good. Most of the time, when I was there, the kids didn't really do anything that was severely bad. Just a little acting out was the worst I've seen the kids. But in the end when Ms. Wood told me how they were in the beginning of the school year, I wouldn't believe her because of how they are now. Honestly, I loved working with these kids and I just love working with kids in general. This made me love teaching even more and that I really want to be a teacher now.

April 19, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were so excited to see me as usual. I told them that today was my last day and they seemed pretty sad about it. A couple of them asked "Where are you going Ms. Sammie?" and all sorts of questions but all I told them was that I needed to go back to school and that I didn't need to come back anymore. But when I got there they were starting their board math and then we split up into groups. Ms. Wood just had me do coloring worksheets with the kids. Pretty easy last day, we just hung out, colored some worksheets and talked a little about themselves and how they were feeling that day or basically whatever they wanted to talk about. Today was just an easy day filled with the kids being all happy and what not. When it was time for me to go, all the kids came over and gave me the biggest hug ever and said "BYE MISS SAMMIE!"so loud. It was cute but it was also sad that I had to leave the kids because I grew to love them so much.

April 18, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, I went back at the usual time around 9:10 and they were starting their board math. After board math, we split up into groups and Ms. Wood had me do another worksheet with the kids on numbers and connecting the dots and guessing what the picture was. The kids had a little hard time with connecting the dots since it's not all in the correct order where you would have to move the lines so you could see the picture. I ended up helping the kids connect the dots and having them just coloring the picture after I connected the dots. The kids were pretty good today! After we did each groups, the kids went to the rug and their speech teacher came in and had speech with them. While they were doing speech Ms. Wood had me help put up the sunflowers that the kids made from yarn and popcorn kernels. It was cute because each kid made their sunflower differently from the others. Today was a pretty good day with the kids.

April 17, 2013

(3rd hour)
After we did math time, the kids played twister. It was so cute watching them play twister because they get so competitive about it. They kids were all over the place. Like one leg would be on the one side and the other leg would need to be on the other side and it would take them a while to figure out how it would work out. After we played twister, it was time for snack. The kids lined up and waited outside. I helped passed out the snacks that the kids wanted. After snack time, I helped Ms. Wood with yard duty. One of the kids got hurt so I took him to the office to get an ice pack and stayed with him for a little until he was better and then took him back for recess. After recess ended, it was time for me to leave to come back to school since school was starting soon. Today went by pretty smooth and fast. I had a lot of fun with the kids today.

April 17, 2013

(2nd hour)
They started doing their daily writing. After their daily writing, they did board math and then we split up into groups. Ms. Wood had me do a coloring worksheet with the kids. The kids weren't as hyper as usual; maybe it's because I've been with them since the morning so I've probably gotten use to them. They got a little hyper during the activity but it wasn't too bad. I just had them coloring. What they had to do for their worksheet was that they had to look for 10 Easter eggs and had to color them. It was fun because the some of the kids couldn't find the eggs so I helped them and they were laughing cause they were like "oh, it's right there..haha" it was cute. There wasn't a lot of troubles because the kids were good and knew what they needed to do. They were more happy getting their stickers than anything as well because getting a sticker meant getting closer to a prize or lunch with Ms. Wood.

April 17, 2013

Today, I got to Los Cerritos earlier than usual because it was star testing week at school so I decided to just go to Los Cerritos when they started. Today I did 3 hours with my mentor.

(1st hour)

Ms. Wood and I chatted for a little since the kids were doing shelf games and I couldn't really do anything to help them so we just sat and talked about my hours and how many more hours I needed to do. After they did shelf games, they sang some songs, checked how the weather was like, and counted how many days of school they've had. I didn't really do much in the first hour, but I just watched what Ms. Wood did with the kids and talked to her a lot about the kids and different disabilities they had and how some are moving up to 1st grade but not all of them.

April 9, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were calm! When I walked in, they were just finishing up their daily writing and just started their board math. They all looked at the door when I walked in and said "HI MISS SAMMIE!" like they always do. They were finishing their board math and we split up into groups. Ms. Wood had me work with the kids on counting with the calendar. So basically what we did was look at a calendar and we went through the days of the week as long as how many days there are in a month. The kids kind of lost attention at one point but I got their attention back by playing a little game with the calendar. I kind of game them a math problem and they would just have to figure out what the answer was and what day that answer landed on. The had fun with that mini game. Today was a little slow but it was okay because the kids still had fun with what we did.

March 26, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were so hyper again! Right when I got in there they were like "HI MISS SAMMIE!" then they were all talking at the same time so it was hard to hear every single one of them so I had to tell them to quiet down a little and that they would be able to tell me later. So they calmed down a little and finished their board math. When we split up into groups, Ms. Wood had me do ordering with the kids again. This time we ordered number 1 to 30. So with each group, we counted the numbers from 1 to 30 then I had them cut out the numbers and glue it to another piece of paper in the order that it was supposed to be in. This time it was easier because the numbers weren't scrambled. They were already in order so all they had to do was cut out the rows of numbers and glue it to another paper. Pretty easy compared to the other day when they had to scramble through all the numbers to find 1 to 10. Today was a pretty easy and fast day with the kids working really well together to help each other out. There were a couple incidents where the kids wouldn't want to share the glue but I told them it wasn't nice so they shared and everything was okay after that.

March 21, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids gave me their usual greeting with the biggest smiles on their face. A couple of them ran up to me and gave me the biggest hugs ever. It was so cute because they were all smiling and hugging me and just saying "HI!" When I got there, they were doing their board math so I just sat there and waited until we split up into groups. When we did split up into groups, Ms. Wood had me do the color patterns again with the kids but this time, I let each individual kids pick their own colors and what patterns they wanted to do rather than having them have a group decision on what patters they wanted to do.  The kids had fun with this activity because they were able do their own patterns. Today went by really smoothly because they really listened today and didn't act up at all, which was a good thing because it showed that they were having a good time doing this activity. I gave all the kids their stickers and they were so happy because they saw their pattern that they made got stickers for that. Today was a good day and it went by really fast since we worked pretty fast.

March 19, 2013

Today, when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids seemed really crazy and  energetic but I managed to pull through and be stern with the kids when they are playing around too much. But when I got there, they acted like they were monkey's in a zoo because they were so hyper and it was a little hard to grab their attention. After daily writing and board math, we split up into groups. Ms. Wood had me have the kids ordering number 1 to 10 that were mixed up on a paper. So basically I had the kids say their numbers 1 to 10 on an example paper that I had then I gave them a piece of paper with the numbers on there and had them cut out the numbers and put the numbers on another piece of paper that was given to them and they were to put those numbers in order since they were all scrambled in the first piece of paper that was given to them. It was a little frustrating because since the kids were crazy they weren't really listening and they almost started gluing random numbers when they were supposed to be gluing the numbers in order but I had to be a little strict at that point and told them that if they weren't going to listen that they were going to be moved down on their stars and they got sad and started to work hard and try to do everything as best as they could. So today was a little frustrating.

March 14, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids gave me the usual greeting that they always do. When I got there they were doing their daily writing since they were a little behind on schedule because they were playing around too much. After their daily writing they did board math which took about 5-10 min but it was okay because I saw how the kids acted around each other when Ms. Wood was paying to another student that was doing board math. After board math, we split up into groups! Ms. Wood had me do this big poster about color and shapes patters. We used the big poster in order for the kids to see the different patterns that were going to be on the paper that you get to keep yourselves. Today, I let the kids pick the 2 different colors they all wanted and I let them decide what kind of patterns to do. I made sure the kids all agreed which each other before I started moving the shapes around to confuse the kids, but it seemed like, they were having such a wonderful time

March 12, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, I got my usual "HI MISS SAMMIE!" I always look forward to that because I know if I'm having a bad morning, these cute little kids will always manage to make me smile. When I got there, they were doing board math so I just hung out and waited until we split up into groups. Today, Ms. Wood had me do addition with the kids which wasn't that bad. The kids were just a little antsy today so it was kind of hard to keep their attention but it's okay, I managed to keep calm and just talk to the kids to get their attention. Some of the kids were really good about everything and was able to finish the math problem that were given to them pretty fast and earned stickers. For the other kids messing around, they realize that they didn't get stickers and asked for them but I told them that they would only get their stickers if they finished their math. So they worked quickly on their math problems. Some of them weren't able to finish on time so they weren't able to get a sticker which caused them to be disappointed but I told them that they were going to be able to work on it later so they can get a sticker later and that the next time I came and that if they worked hard, that they would be able to get more stickers and they got happy again. I love when I'm able to work with the kids in a way where they won't be disappointed because of the way I've reasoned with them.

March 7, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, I was greeted by the usual, "HI MISS SAMMIE!" while they were doing their board math. It's so cute when I see them doing their board math and when they go up to the board when Ms. Wood calls on them and they get it right because they get so excited over it. When we split up into groups, they kids were so excited because I told them that we were going to do bingo! The kids love playing bingo, no matter what type of bingo they play, as long as it's bingo they get so excited about it. It was a fun day with the kids because they did an activity that they loved doing so it went by pretty smoothly today. There weren't any complications with the kids and what we did. Just had a fun time playing bingo. It was so cute when they would shout out "BINGO" when they won because they got so excited. Because I knew the kids loved playing bingo, we played it as many times until it was time to switch groups. The kids were so good about everything today. I loved it.

March 5, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were so jumpy! Most of them ran up to me to say "HI MISS SAMMIE!" and gave me a hug. They just started board math, so I told them that they had to go back and sit down because Ms. Wood was waiting for them to continue their board math before we split up into groups. After board math, we split up into groups and I did color recognition with the kids. What I did was pull up some colors from a deck and had them guess what color it was and they would have to say it. Some of the colors, the kids didn't know so I had to help them but I had no problem helping them, just as long as they got the color afterwards. There wasn't many troubles today with the kids and what we were doing. The kids were really good today which made me really happy because there weren't any kids that were messing around too much or acting up because sometimes it would happen, but it didn't happen today and I'm glad it didn't because the kids were so good with the activity that was given for us to do.

February 28, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, I got my usual "HI MISS SAMMIE!" or "GOODMORNING MISS SAMMIE!" and I love when they do that because it just puts a smile on my face and the fact that they're always smiling makes me so happy. When I got there they were starting to do their board math. Sometimes when they do their board math, I realized that when some are working with Ms. Wood, the others aren't paying attention. They're either playing around or they're raising their hand and talking to Ms. Wood saying how they haven't gotten picked to up to the board yet. When we got split up into groups, Ms. Wood had me start doing patterning wit the kids because she wanted them to start doing patterns. We did patterns with colors today with the kids.I laid out a sheet of paper for them and I had them pick to different colors and started coloring to make a pattern. Most of the time, the kids would start to color and then start coloring like the whole paper so I had to give them a new paper and show them which way to make the pattern. It got a little frustrating with the kids but I managed to pull through and tell myself that I could do it because I know I can. I just needed to give a little more patience with what they were doing because sometimes after I told and showed them what to do, they would still not really get it but it was okay because I just let it go and continued on with what they were supposed to do. All in all, today was a little frustrating.

February 26, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were their normal hyper-selves. They would shout out "HI MISS SAMMIE" like they always do which always puts a smile on my face. When I got there, they were finishing up their daily writing which is they write the date and draw a picture. When they finished their writing and drawing pictures, they would run up to me and show me what kind of picture they drew. After they did their daily writing they did board math. A lot of the times, they would be playing around on the rug when they were supposed to be sitting in their color squares. I wanted to go over to them and tell them to sit quietly but I felt that it would get in the way of Ms.Wood teaching them and besides, she would tell them to do it already, so I didn't really need to go over to them to tell them to behave. After board math we split up into groups again! Ms. Wood gave me shape bingo to play with the kids! In the beginning, with all the kids as they were rotating, it was hard to get their attention to listen because they would be not listening or laughing too much. But after a while, they got used to it and started to listen. I knew they loved playing bingo because they're always excited when they see the bingo box. I love how they would help each other say what the shape was when I would put the shapes up for them to guess what shape it was. Today was a fun day with the kids, a little frustrating at times but it was still fun .

February 14, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were all so happy and excited because it was Valentines Day! Right when I walked into class, they all shouted out "HAPPY VALENTINES DAY MS. SAMMIE!" with their cute little voices. They also gave me a card that they signed their names on and gave me chocolate and a rose. It was so sweet because they were all so full of smiles because they all gave each other valentines day cards. They did their daily board math then we all split up into groups again. I did a worksheet with addition on it with the kids. It was a little frustrating today because the kids wouldn't cooperate with the activity that I was given to do with them. A couple of times I would have to say their name a little loud and Ms. Wood would hear me talking to them to pay attention and she would call their came and tell them that it wasn't an appropriate time to play around since it was math time. The kids started to pay a little more attention but at the same time they didn't really want to do the math worksheets. Some of them were really good about doing their math and finished their math early and recieved stickers from me. Today was a little frustrating but it was a challenge that I had to face.

February 12, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, some of the kids were a little out of hand. Some of them were running around, one was crying, others were being quiet because they were confused or scared of what was going on. A little after I got there, the kids settled down and they got better so they started doing board math again and then we split up into groups. Today, I did color bingo with the kids. I knew that they were excited to do color bingo because they looked so happy and wanted to get straight to playing the game. I could tell they were having fun because when I picked the next color out they would shout out the color of the card. I was happy with the kids today beacuse they helped each other a lot when some of them thought they didn't have the color and they would help them point out the color on their card. I loved how when the kids won they would shout out "BINGO!!!" like 5 times so they would get their sticker. When I gave them their stickers they went straight to Ms. Wood to tell her that they got a sticker and sort of ran around before they went to get their sticker sheet to put their sticker on. A lot of the time they wanted to play another round because they wanted more stickers. The kids were really cooperative today and I'm glad they had fun.

February 7, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids greeted me like they always do. Of course they were hyper as well because that's how they always are. Today Ms. Wood had me do patterning with bugs with the kids today after they had their board math. Even though patterning is pretty easy, the kids are always so hyper when it comes to them doing activities. Especially when it's with the bugs because they love playing with the bugs and acting it out as if they bugs were chasing each other. At times the kids would get frustrated with each other because one might have been more rough with the other which would cause the kids to act out even more. Sometimes it would be hard to get their attention back to doing patterns again because of the way they wanted to play with the bugs. I still had fun with the kids doing patterns though because I would help them find which bug was next and that I would trick them sometimes to thinking that one bug was the bug that they were looking for and they would start laughing. I love when the kids just have the biggest smile on their faces when they're having fun.

February 5, 2013

Today, the kids and I did patterns and counting with insects! They kids were pretty active so it was hard to keep them calm and get them to pay attention. But the kids had fun counting and doing patterns with the insects. They had so many questions about it cause some insect were fallen off from the body and the kids thought that it was broken. It was cute but it took them a while to finish what they were supposed to do. Even though the kids are cute and it took them a while to finish what we were supposed to be doing, it was my job to keep the kids on track with what we were supposed to be doing rather than letting them keep asking questions about the insects and what not. Maybe the fact that the kids were pretty active was the reason for them to ask many questions, but sometimes I feel like if they were to keep acting active like the way they were, I feel like I wouldn't be able to handle them as well.

January 31, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos Ms. Wood had me do some stuff for her class while the kids were doing other activities. I put a poster up on the wall on top of the sink where all the kids put their hand prints on then I colored some folders for the kids to use while the kids were doing math with Ms. Wood and Ms. Larocca who is teacher aid to help Ms. Wood teach as well. Today was a pretty calm day since I didn't do much besides help out with the smaller things. I did also watch how the kids were acting when they were doing math with Ms. Wood and Ms. Larocca and they were doing their work but they were still messing around. Sometimes it worries me about how if the kids mess around on purpose or if they just get distracted easily because of how they are.

January 29, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos Ms. Wood had me have the kids count to 100 by tens. After they counted by tens to a hundred, they had to cut out the numbers that were in a random order and rearrange them on a long sheet of paper by themselves. If they got lost, I helped them by going back and having them count by tens again and they remembered and continued gluing the numbers to the long sheet of paper. The kids were pretty calm today so it was a plus that we got through things pretty quickly. I felt that today went really quick due to the fact that the kids were cooperating very well with the activity that was given for them to do.

January 24, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were super hyper and just all over the place. Ms. Wood had told me that they were going to get a new student and that the kids were just overwhelmed with all the adults that were in the room for the reason why they were acting the way they were. Ms. Wood gave them wiggle time which gave them about 10 seconds to move around and shake out all the hyper-ness from their body. They did that about 2 times and she split us up into groups and I took some kids and had them color because today was their 100th day of school so they were coloring 100 things on their paper! After a while, one of the teachers invited them over to get some treats, they got to get 10 of each snack which totalled up to 100 treats in their little ziplock bags.

January 22, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, the kids were happy to see that I was there because right when I walked into that door all the kids said "HI MS. SAMMIE!" and that put a really big smile on my face. Today we did a little something different, we had a group of 5 kids and Ms. Wood would send some kids or all of them over to me and had the kids to guess who had more kids in the group whether it was Ms. Wood or I. That took up kind of a lot of time because the kids had to sit still and count out loud to make sure that they count correctly. Then I helped the kids put stickers next to their names and they were telling me how they have so many stickers and I just told them how proud I was that they got so many stickers.

January 17, 2013

Today when I got to Los Cerritos, Ms. Wood wasn't there because she was at a workshop but it was okay because I was still given things to do. Instead of playing bingo today, we played color and shapes! Which is like the same concept of bingo except the kids had to say what the color and shape was. I loved how the kids were so into the game and wanted to win so badly because they knew that they would get a sticker and they really wanted to get stickers. I also loved how the kids helped each other to find out if they had the color and shape of the card that they had said out loud. The kids get really excited easily so they lose their attention a lot. But we try to get them back on track and to make sure that they are focussing on what we're doing at the moment.

My first day- January 15, 2013

Today was my first day meeting the kids! I was sort of nervous to meet them and see how they were like or how they would respond to me being there. The kids were actually pretty excited to meet me, they all wanted to know my name and what I was doing in their class. Ms. Wood split the kids up into groups and I was in charge of bingo! So I played bingo with the kids. I had them say the number that I had chosen from the stack of cards. They had some trouble but I helped them out with what the numbers were and if they had the numbers on their cards or not. When we had a winner, I gave them stickers. I gave out a lot of stickers on the first day! When it was time for me to go, the kids were sad that I was leaving so soon because they felt like I just got there not too long ago and now I have to leave already, but I told them that I would see them on Thursday and they told me there were excited to see me then.

Meeting my mentor, December 20, 2012

I met my senior mentor on the last day of school before winter break started. Her name is Kendra Wood, she is a kindergarten special education teacher at Los Cerritos Elementary School. When I met up with Kendra, we discussed what time I would be in the class from this time to that time, about the fact that the time that I will be at the school is when they do math time, and what I will probably start off doing with the kids on the first day. I'm really excited to meet the kids and see how they're like!