Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement
 With my two hour I am proud of how my activities went, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. With senior project I am  really just proud I did it and stuck it out all year.

2. Questions to consider
a. I would give myself a P because I met talking time, had at least one activity and set up/broke down by the time that I needed to.

b. I would give myself a P on the overall senior because I worked passed any problems and did what was asked of me, if not more.

3. What worked was having my house teacher there to help me whenever I needed her. It gave me a sense of security and really made the process easier.

4. What didn't work was sometimes presenting to our two hour house sometimes presenting to our house. If we just stuck to one person we were constantly presenting to it would make it easy to get feedback and not have it conflict with another teachers feedback.

5. It has helped me in that now I am sure of what I want to do when I get older. Also, because of all the research/papers/presentations we had to do I am now more prepared for college than probably any high school student that hasn't gone to iPoly.

2-Hour Presentation

2-Hour Lesson Plan

Independent Component 2

Independent Component 2 Log

http://youtu.be/r5LdZciZZc4    -   Not Alone

http://youtu.be/rNywUuVbTR8   -  She Will Be Loved

http://youtu.be/_EvsarsAiwc     -    Forget You

http://youtu.be/17UnEsbMq9U    -   Party in the USA

Literal:

a) I, Alicia Sepulveda, affirm that I affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) What I did was I learned four songs in ASL/Sing signing. After I learned these songs I recorded myself performing them and uploaded them to Youtube.

Interpretive:

What I did has to be one of the toughest and most rewarding things I have ever done. It took me while to actually learn each of these songs. One might think that I could learn them in a day, and maybe that is true, but that would be a day of 24 hours non-stop working. Learning Not Alone took me quite a bit of time because it was the first one that I tried to learn. It was a slow process learning it because I had never sat down to learn a song is sign before. Then there were some signs that the person I was watching was doing that I knew differently so I had to fix it to fit my way of signing. I wasn't able to work on any one song for longer than maybe 3 hours ans some change, which meant that every time I went to practice I had to learn the parts over again. 

When I finally moved on to She Will Be Loved I had a very tough time. In that song there are so many different ways to sign any given part that I had to search for the way I wanted to sign it. I found a videos of multiple people doing the song and none of them were really what I wanted to sign. What I ended up doing for that song is working with my sister to get a interpretation that as completely my own, and then looking at another video if I was having trouble with any part of the song. It was a difficult to combine my style and the style of the person I was watching so that I could get something that was mine but was accurate. 

After She Will Be Loved I moved on to Forget You. This was the most difficult song for me to learn. Moving from nice slow songs to this was a really hard transition. The up-tempo of the song made it so that even when I was learning it I would miss words here and there. That made it difficult when I would come back another day to learn or practice and I would realize that I missed a bunch of words. When I was filming I had a very difficult time with it too, where as the other songs took me at most 13 takes this one took me about 23 takes. I would trip over my hands when I was trying to sign or I would get on a roll and someone would interrupt me and I would try to do it again and fail. 

With Forget You done it was on to Party in the USA. Party in the USA was very fun to learn at the same time that it might have been more difficult that Forget you for me. Party in the USA was the only song that I did complete ASL no real sing sign. I always wanted to add more words than I needed when I was learning PitUSA. I have a lot to thank the original signer for because he really did make it fun for me to learn. When I was filming it only took me 15 takes and I had fun every time, unlike when I did Forget You and I kept getting frustrated.

All of this took a lot out of me and was over 30 hours of work. Just the taking the time to learn the songs was 30 hours. It was harder for me to learn the songs because my mind would not accept what I was learning. It is much harder to learn ASL when I already have Spanish and English competing for my attention in my brain. It was a mental work out but I really feel that I got a lot out of all of that work.

Applied:

This helped me answer my EQ in more than one way. It honestly showed me that in order to learn sign and know how to put things together I needed to know sign language. That being my third answer it gave me confidence in it. It would have been easier for my to learn the songs if I had a great understanding of ASL but because I didn't this helped expand the working knowledge that I already had. It also showed me that even in sign signing you have to be versatile in you signing styles. You can sign word for word what a song is saying, or very much like ASL you can tell a story. Having all of that I could say that I got validation for my answers and a new explanation for my second one.

Helping 2013

Sebastian Yanes: April 20th, 12 PM

Q: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

A: I am thinking about doing either classical, Brazilian, or flamenco guitar.

R: My only recommendation for you is to make sure you pick the one that will give you the most research throughout the senior project.

Q: What do you plan to do to complete the 10 hours of service learning (working with an expert) which is due prior to senior year starting?  Note: They also have to complete the 50 hours during the school year.

A: During the summer I am going to be volunteering at a place called Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

R: I suggest that you try to get more than 10 hours done if you can, other than that it sounds like a solid service learning place.

Q: What do you hope to see or expect to see when watching the class of 2012 present their two hour presentations?

A: I expect to hear a good thesis, and I want to be surprised with their knowledge. I want them to show that they have good knowledge.

R: Just be respectful of the person presenting because it is nerve racking for the senior that is up there.

Q: What questions do they have about senior project?  What additional recommendations would you give the 2013 student about senior project?  Be specific and note what you told them.

A: What are the answers? And how do you present?

R: Answers come later on in your senior project after you have done research and you have your essential question set, they are really just answering the question you set for yourself. Presenting is just like regular presenting, you have a talking time and you need to speak up and be confident. Besides that just make sure you have research and you should be set.

Teresa Melendez: April 26th, 11 AM

Q: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

A: My idea is maybe something to do with writing or working with a newspaper.

R: Try to focus your topic and make sure that you will be able to get research because honestly you do it all year. 

Q: What do you plan to do to complete the 10 hours of service learning (working with an expert) which is due prior to senior year starting?  Note: They also have to complete the 50 hours during the school year.

A: I was talking to Purther and he suggested working with my local newspaper, or working up at the Cal  Poly Newspaper.

R: I suggest that you try to get more than 10 hours done if you can. Both things sound like good learning experiences just make sure you decide which one you are going to do.

Q: What do you hope to see or expect to see when watching the class of 2012 present their two hour presentations?

A: I expect to see something that I can build off of you use to help me in my senior project.

R: Just be respectful of the person presenting because it can be scary and nerve racking to be up there presenting for any period of time.

Q: What questions do they have about senior project?  What additional recommendations would you give the 2013 student about senior project?  Be specific and note what you told them.

A: I don't really know what it is.

R: Really it is just a means to make life after high school less scary. All though senior year you focus on a topic that you can very well end up studying in college. It is a research process, you go through answering questions, presenting the answers that you have, doing independent components, and service learning. You work all year and hopefully end up with a focus for when you leave high school. Now all you have to do is get a focus and I think you should be set.

Angel Diaz: April 27, 9:30 AM

Q: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

A:  I want to do teaching history to 8th graders because I am a history nerd.

R: That is really specific, I like it. I don't really have any feedback for you other than it seems like a solid topic and I like that it is focused.

Q: What do you plan to do to complete the 10 hours of service learning (working with an expert) which is due prior to senior year starting?  Note: They also have to complete the 50 hours during the school year.

A: I am going to go back to my old school and service learn there.

R: My only suggestion for you is to try to get more than 10 hours done if you can.

Q: What do you hope to see or expect to see when watching the class of 2012 present their two hour presentations?

A: I expect to see hands on interaction, not just them presenting at us.

R: We have activities that we do to go along with our answers so there will be some hands on things. Make sure you are respectful to the person presenting because talking for a 30 minutes and presenting/being up there for a minimum of another 30 can be scary.

Q: What questions do they have about senior project?  What additional recommendations would you give the 2013 student about senior project?  Be specific and note what you told them.

A: I'm scared, what exactly are the components that you do? How would I do a science project?

R: We have a variety of components. One of them is research which you do all year long, then there are presentations like answer presentations and 20 minute, which is a smaller version of 2 hour, 2 hour and some others in between. You have service learning and 2 independent components that are 30 hours each, science fair, and them some other things that go along with research like towers and things like that. Honestly it isn't that scary it is just a lot of work, but it seems worth it now towards the end. Don't be worried about science fair, you could do something with lesson plans or how people retain information, it wont be bad. Don't go into it thinking the worst, everything works out for the best as long as you work.

3-Column Chart

3-Column Chart

Room Creativity

To be completed....

Content:

(1) How do you plan to address the room creativity expectation?
(2) What activity ideas do you have for answer 1 or 2?

Answer 2

EQ: What is most important to consider when assisting a hearing impaired person?

Answer: Changing up your signing style.

Evidence:

1. Some people are born Deaf or become Heard of Hearing over time which determines how they sign.
2. There are two different types of signing ASL and Exact English.
3. In order to effectively communicate with whoever you are assisting it is important that you can match their signing style. You can't really sign ASL to a person who signs EE because then they will have a harder time understanding you.

Sources:

1. Service Learning
2. Third Interview
3. Articles on Exact English.

The Product

My product thus far is understanding of the technical things that go into working with the deaf. Mostly I have gotten this out of going to service learning and seeing audio tests. It has also come from the extensive research we have been doing. This is going to help me when I get my interpreter certification.

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

1. I am actually not sure what I am doing for my second independent component. I might take a sign language class at Mt. Sac. Or I might learn how to perform hearing tests and perform them on people, maybe do a hearing test for the school.

2. How the sign language class would give me 30 hours is that I would have to be there 2-3 hours  a class. That means in about 10 classes I will have already completed my 30 hours. If I do the hearing tests I would have to spend at least 20 hours learning everything there is to know about performing a hearing test, how to actually perform one, and how to read the results. The rest of the 10 hours would be the time it takes to actually perform said hearing tests.

3. How the sign language class relates to my eq is that when I say assisting interpreting is one of the things that I mean. In order to interpret I would need to know sign language. Right now I know very basic sign, but by taking a class I would be on my way to being fluent. Also it would start me on my path to becoming an interpreter. The hearing tests relate to my eq because again by assisting this is one of the things that I mean. So knowing how to perform a test would help me to understand better what to do with a patient when they come to me.

Independent Component 1

Literal:
a) I, Alicia Sepulveda, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b) What I completed was a a week, starting and ending everyday during school hours, of being deaf. I also wrote a paper explaining what my week was like and what would need to be done to accommodate a deaf student at a hearing school.

Interpretive:
By doing this week of deafness I got to see first hand what it is like to be a deaf student. Doing this gave my insight that I would never get being a hearing person. Going through my life at school not being able to hear is the closest I will ever get to being completely deaf. By doing this I know and understand the deaf community more because I know and understand what exactly it is that they have to live with everyday. I did almost 24 hours of being deaf and I worked on a paper for over 6 hours. Those 23 hours and 47 minutes were observed by my teachers and by students all over iPoly. My paper I wrote for 4 hours and spent the rest of time I spent correcting and rewriting said paper. I took screen shots of my clock to show the time laps in when I was working.

Applied:
My essential question has to do with working with the deaf. By doing this independent component I was able to see what a deaf student would need and how I would need to prepare if this student where in an all hearing class. By analysing what I experienced and figuring out how it would have been better I saw what I would need to consider in assisting a heard impaired person. An example is I now know that I would have to find a way to allow my deaf student to see what other people where saying in the class. When I ask a question I need to have an effective way of getting what is said in an answer across to the deaf student. I learned that and much more about what I would need to do when working with a deaf student.

Evidence:

The screen caps of the time while I was working on my essay. They start at PM end at AM.

Link to my essay -----> One Deaf Week

Link to my Log -------> Independent Component Log

Presentation 2 Rough Draft

Lesson Plan

Answer 1

1. It is important to consider the prejudice that Deaf people face everyday.

2. In one of the articles I was reading they talked about how most people are surprised to find out that Deaf people can drive, or that they can do really anything that hearing people can do. Most of the time Deaf people are looked at as mentally disabled by hearing people because they assume that just because a person has a disability they are less intelligent then them.

3. I found evidence for my answer in I See A Voice, in a show that I was watching that shows the realistic side of being deaf Switched at Birth, and in an article I found called Deaf can do, can't do.

Service Learning

Currently I do not have a service learning person, but I am in contact with some places.

The places I am looking into are GLAD (Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness), John Tracy Clinic, and HEAR Center.

The first service learning that I am trying to get is working with GLAD and with that I have the email of one of the people that work for GLAD. The second is I have to number for Jill Muhes at the John Tracy Clinic. I was put in contact with these people by the people I was originally looking for service learning with, the HEAR Center.

I haven't started work at any of these places yet.

Edit:

I now have a service learning person.

The place I am service learning at is the HEAR Center in Pasadena. They work with people who are losing their hearing. I will be working with Alyssa Wasserman and helping in any way that I can. I will be observing audiovisual testing as well as speech therapy. I also will be trying to volunteer at the Hope House in El Monte for some extra hours.

I will be starting Thursday, January 26th.

Third Interview Questions

1. What do you think is most important to consider when assisting a Deaf and/or hearing impaired person?

2. How long have you been working with the Deaf?

3. Are you an interpreter?

4. How many people have you interpreted for?

5. Is there anything you need to do differently when working with a Deaf person as opposed to a hearing one?

6. Is there any differences, that you have noticed, between Hearing and Deaf culture?

7. Have you ever been to and Deaf events?

8. What was the atmosphere like?

9. What do you consider when you are working with a Deaf or HH person for the first time?

10. Is there anything you have noticed among interpreters or speaking coaches that doesn't really work?

11. Do you think people treat Deaf people different than Hearing people?