Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

Ady Hernandez 

(626) 383-9084

Canyon Early Learning Center

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?

Ady holds Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education and is currently working on earning her Master's and eventually her Ph.D. She is continuously attending different trainings and conferences to help her grow professionally as a pre-school teacher. Ady also puts a great amount of focus and attention to her students and even their parents. She is the kind of teacher who enjoys what she does and looks forward to her job and working with the kids. 

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.    

How much time goes into making lesson plans and how does a teacher come up with the plan?

How do you handle a child who is throwing a tantrum or having other behavioral problems?

How do school budget cuts affect teachers and students? How do you overcome these problems? 

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing I learned from my experience is that when you're a pre-school teacher, cooperation is key. Since there is a morning class and an afternoon class, teachers will have to share a classroom. One teacher will have the room for the first half of the day and the other for the second half of the day. At first, I thought this wasn't a big deal, but after speaking with my mentor, I learned that some teachers can be extremely hard to deal with. Teachers who share classrooms are partners, and sometimes, partners can be difficult to get along with. Maybe they want the crayons on the left side of the room and you want them on the right. Partners have to make a big effort into cooperating and compromising so that everything is best for them and their students. Luckily, my mentor's partner this year is extremely easygoing and they have no problem getting along (so far). But she has told me stories wherein her past partners will not take no for an answer and are not willing to share their space. And I thought pre-schoolers having trouble sharing their toys was bad...

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

I am going to continue having teaching pre-school as my senior project topic. I found myself enjoying mentorship this summer and I would really like to see what's in store for their new school year. I can see myself having a good time and learning a lot by continuing to volunteer at Canyon Early Learning Center. The people that I met there seemed really fun yet professional and were all very welcoming to me. I feel like the school is a good fit for me and that I will discover if teaching pre-school is the path I want to take in the near future.