Blog 11 - Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

• What I'm most proud of in my lesson is my hook activity, with my phonology cards.  I had a very hard time finding one and the one that I ended up  using engaged the audience a lot more than I had expected. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• I would give myself a P. I believe I earned a P because I made time, I spoke clearly and loudly, I cited 3 different articles, I used quotes from my mentor from interview 2, I believe my content flowed nicely with each other, and I spoke out to the class , making eye contact and making a connection with my audience for a majority of the time. 

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

• If I could go back I would make sure to have practiced presenting a lot more than I had. So that I didn't have to refer to my notes so often and so that I could stay making a connection with my audience more than I had. Also, I would be prepared with more props. I will use this knowledge for lesson 2 by practicing my presentation so many more times. Also, I will use  props, like charts or toys, so that the audience stays more interested and can be a little more involved. Like if I were to pass around the  toys and they could hold them in their hands or I had them do an activity with the toys. 

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

• I have been shadowing and occasionally playing with the kids. I task I do is passed them a toy that a therapist than asks them to name. Recently I have been holding up flash cards so that the kids can read off too. I plan to me more interactive with the kids in the future once my mentor and I start setting milestones for ourselves. 

2. How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?   

• My mentor is my grandma and I live with her. She was definitely very accessible. She was open to mentoring me since in her eyes she'd love if I was a part of the family business too.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

• I feel very comfortable with my mentor. She knows who I am and I know who she is so we're not expecting anything out of the ordinary from each other.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

• My mentor didn't feel weird about the fact she was being interviewed and recorded, she just talked. The answers felt real and something she would always say, instead of them being strained and awkward. I still need to improve on finding more questions to ask. I have to think of more specific questions that are geared in whatever area I want to start concentrating on in Speech-Therapy. 

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

• I currently have a mentor, her name is Sara Romo Miranda. My mentor interview is scheduled for 26 October 2015. 

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.   

• The area I find most promising would probably have to be speech-language pathology with toddlers ages 0 - 3. Mainly because thats the age range my mentor works with, but also because I'm finding a lot more research on toddler specific therapy. Also, with toddlers there is a more prominent parent involvement aspect that provides me with more information for my research checks and final presentation.  

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

• My 2 main sources for the next month would most likely be ASHA, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the database on the Cal Poly Pomona Library website. Both of the sources I can access online and since my mentor has an account on the ASHA website, there aren't many restrictions on the articles and inflammation that I can obtain. 

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

• What is the most effective way to provide speech-language pathology to a toddler to ensure that they are achieving the goals that were set at the beginning of the, before the start of the therapy sessions?

Blog 8 - Independent Component 1 Proposal

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• I didn't know what I was going to do but I've decided to do 30 extra hours of mentorship. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• I will be taking notes and typing out those notes into my log. I will also take pictures and videos. 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This will help me watch speech therapist in action and experience real sessions with clients of all ages. 

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor is Sara Romo Miranda. She is a speech therapist with her own private practice. She is a SLPA, a speech-language pathologist, not an SLPA , speech-language pathologist assistant. Since she's a SLP, it means thats she has her Masters degree in her field. In my grandma's case, its her Masters degree in Sciences and Communicative disorders. 

1. What college did you go to , and for how many years?

1. Do you have your undergraduate degree in anything? 

1. How long was he process to open you own speech clonic?

1. Did you need another degree to open the clinic?

1. How long has your clinic been open and what kind of struggles have you encountered that you weren't expecting? 

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year? What has made it a positive experience for you?

• When I started my senior project with my grandmother as my mentor, I was worried I was going to grow quite weary of her. It has actually turned out to be quite the opposite, I look forward to watching my grandmother work, and by extension, I look forward to watching her other SLPA's do their jobs as well. Working with someone so near and dear to my heart has been more of a positive experience than I was expecting going into this project.

2.What are you finding difficult concerning senior project? How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you? How might the senior team help?

• What I'm finding difficult concerning my senior project is finding an essential question. Im not sure how I can adapt to make that portion work better for me? I suppose just doing more and more research would do. I'm also not sure what the senior team might do to help. I'm not even sure what direction I want to take my essential question nor am I aware of what are of Speech-Language Pathology I should focus in on. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. I learned that every speech therapist, whether they work in a clinical setting, a school setting, or  a home setting, has a specific standard of work and even in that, no speech therapist performs them the same. There is no correct way to help a child learn especially because every lesson plan is crafted specifically for that child. In reality, everything depends on the client.
2. I don't regret interviewing David or the way that the interview went. If I were to change anything, it would jus the of course to interview someone different. As in, instead of interviewing a SLPA in a clinical setting, like David, I'd interview a SLPA in a hospital setting because they're two completely different work environments and they work with completely different clients. 
3. During this interview, David didn't specifically give me specific contacts but he did recall an introductory book on Speech Pathology that he would get me the name of sometimes after the interview.
4. Since I haven't received the book yet, I can't give an accurate description but I feel that since David used it at the beginning of his journey into Speech Pathology, that it could be very beneficial to me. I'll make sure to get back to you on that.
5. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me is the fact that he as an SLPA works under my mentor, Sara Miranda, who's an SLP. Sara Miranda has a Master's Degree in Sciences and Communicative Disorders which makes her an expert in her field and for David to be under her wing makes him also on his way to becoming an expert in his field. David has been working 2 years at My World Speech Therapy and plans to go back to school for his Masters degree in one year.