Blog #1

My internship is at an Elementary school called Southgate Elementary in Hayward, pretty close by Impact. This school starts at Kindergarden and ends at 6th grade, so there is a variety of ages that I interact with throughout the day. The campus itself is not all that big but the population of students is very large. There are about 35 kids in the classes that i go to throughout the day. My mentor, Mr.Ward, did a really good job at splitting up my schedual so that i get an equal enteraction with all of the age groups. Im still a student myself and the classes i help out in sometimes get really stressful, the staff is really good with giving advice and pointing me in the right direction. The stregnths i have at my work place supporting the 6th graders in their math and english classes. I feel like this is my stregnth because they are working on basic algebra and writing anf formatting essays. Math & essay formatting are two things that im really good at, so its easy to find what they're missing and fill in the gaps, which is the main goal me and my mentor have set for me. A weakness I have at my workplace is working with the kids that are still learning to read. Its hard for me because there are a lot of rules to reading that seem basic to me but is all new to them. Its hard to explain it to them in a way that they will undestand me and not get confused with all the rules. All in all, i enjoy my workplace. I feel like this is a place that I can really make a difference in the educational system.

Blog #2

Mr.Ward is the name of my mentor at Southgate Elementary. If at any time he isn't present the principal, Mr.White, is my backup mentor. Mr.Ward is a 4th rgade teacher. He deals with all of the 4th graders throughout the day. I don't know a lot about his rotation, but i do know that he is a math teacher. Mr.Ward became my mentor because he was the one who was interested in helping me and some other Impact Academy students start up a tutoring program. In his 4th grade class they are working on division and he noticed that a lot of the kids were missing the basics of multiplication, which made division extremely hard for them. When I came to him about the WLE project, he instantly jumped at the chance to have extra help finning in the gaps.

Blog #3

My main responsibility at my WLE is to pay attention to the students that I am around when I'm there. This is so it will be easier for me to identify the areas in which they struggle. Since my entire project is to fill in the gaps of education that the kids are missing, it's important that I pay close attention to the kids so I can get to work on making them stronger learners. My title to the kids is Ms. Tarshe'a, but I'm just a tutor. I was given a schedule by my mentor that I follow each tuesday. In the beginning of the day, I'm working with third graders on strengthening their reading skills. Next, I move on to the sixth grade math class where we are working on basic algebra. After that, I move on the the first graders and help them out with their letter sounds and pronouncing words.  Next I go in the lunch room and make sure the kids do not play in the lunch line and get hurt or cut the line. Once, I caught a kid that i had just taught in the class before cutting the lunch line. I told him to go back to his original spot in the line and he told me that we weren't friends anymore. I'm not going to tell a lie it did hurt my feelings a bit, but only because he is so little and i know that telling someone they aren't uur friend anymore is a very big deal in elementary school. The last class that I am in is the fifth grade class and help them with  whatever the lesson plan is, but we mainly work on multiplication tables. Lastly, I go teach my intervention class with the sixth grade math students from 3 to 4.

Blog #4

I started up a tutoring/after school intervention program for my workplace along with some other students from Impact. The kids inside my sixth grade intervention class fail almost all their tests and quizes in math class. My goal is to track one students progress and by the end of the WLE project, this student will be able to pass their tests and quizes with at least an 80% or higher. I came up with this idea when i graded a test that the classes had taken and sat in throughout the classes and seen how many of the kids weren't understanding the material. I'm extremely interested in putting my math and teaching skills to work and seeing how many kids I make math easier for. If they understand the basics in elementary school, then they will only excel in middle and high school. I'm not of what all I will need to accomplish but so far, I know that I need to pick a student to shadow, come up with different lesson plans to help them understand, make tests and quizes that i can give them to test them durning the lesson, and also come up with a final exam.

Blog #5

Today at my WLE I followed my normal schecual of going to the classes throughout the day. At the end of the day I taught my 6th grade math intervention class. We were working on rates and porportions. The project that myself and my mentor talked about was a individual tutoring program where we would have to pend one on one time with students and tutor them in the areas that they struggle in the most. At the beggining of the progam I give them an assessment that mesures their skills. Then after a few weeks of individual tutoring we give them the same assessment. Based on the test scores we would see how affective our tutoring program actual was. So far i have picked a student to focus on.

Blog #6

The leadership skill that I am utilizing the most at my workplace is thinking critically. I have to observe the students and identify the areas that thay struggle the most in. I do this by analyzing their performance in class and in one on one practice. Taking all of this into consideration I have to put together a plan to fill in the missing peaces and help this student accel in school. I feel like I am very good at explaining the material to the students in a way that will help them remember the skill forthe remainder of their years in math class. I think my ways are affective because I teach them what helped me remember math materials from when I was their age. I feel like this leadership skill is the most helpful in my WLE project because I have to take what I know as a student, step outside of myself and apply it to another student in the place of a teacher. My Mentor use Comminucating powerfully the most because he had to orginize the entire WLE experience in order for us to do our WLE project.

Blog #7

through this WLE experience I have learned that I am really good at explaining material to students in an affective way. I sometimes enjoy it, but other times I can tell that I'm only doing it because I have to. It puts me at a fork in the road on if teaching is something that is in my future, most likely it will not be my carrer of choice. A challenge that I faced a lot was being able to explain the material to students that learn slower or differently than I did when I was their age. Plus i have to keep reminding myself that they do not know all of the things that I know because i find myself getting frustrated when they struggle on understanding things that are plain common sense to me. Being at this WLE made it more apparent to me of how important education is. It also opened my eyes on how easy it is for a student to fall through the cracks at a young age. School was never really TOO complicated for me, I understood things quickly, so that was never something that I paid attention to. My WLE project may not change the world or stop that process of falling through the cracks but thats not what I am aiming to acheive. If my WLE project helps one ofr two students understand basic material that they will need for the rest of their academic life then it was a success. My WLE project also helps me practice my puplic speaking because I have to get up and teach a class in front of about 30 students and a teacher.

Blog #8

In order to find my WLE and get hired I had to brainstorm ideas of where I could actually intern at. Once i had some ideas I needed to go up to the school and explain the WLE experience to the principal and staff. Once they felt that I could be useful I was hired. The most effective was of looking for a job and getting hired is by knowing what your going to say before you walk into the building. Also by looking professional, not necessarily exhibition style but looking put together. After this WLE experience, i think being a professional means having a variety of techniques to do your job. Also being orginized, responsible, and a people person.

Blog #9

Today I went through my normal schedule that I go through every week. I have improved as an intern because I am now able to identify strategies for a student to help them understand the math material. I am now also able to identify the areas where a student struggles quicker and easier. My internship is a great place to be because the students a staff really value having us there. They treat us with great care and are always open to help us out with our projects. The are really warm.

Blog #10

My final thoughts about WLE is that it is really confusing and stressful. I'm not even sure what I am supposed to be getting out of this. but what I did get out of this is is that it is really easy for kids to .be left behind in school. A lot of the kids that I dealt with did not have the basic math a dreading skills that they will need for the rest of their educational days, such as multiplication tables and letter sounds. Overall I enjoyed being at my internship. I feel like I really made an impact of the kids and their learning abilities. Next year I would like to be at Southgate El