Ana Tavake WLE Blog
Blog #1: My Workplace: Tuesday Oct 11th
1.What is my workplace called, and what does it do?
Hayward High School, it provides education for students in the area. Starting from grade 9 all the way through to grade 12.
2.Is it a small business, a medium sized business, or a large corporation?
I wouldn't call it a corporation, but I guess you would call it a educational program for students.
3.Where is my workplace located and what does it look like?
My workplace is located in a well surrounded neighborhood located near three great schools, East Avenue Elementary School, Markham Elementary School, and Bret Harte Middle School.
4.How many people work there?
As an average high school, I would say that Hayward High has more than 20 teachers making up their staff and faculty.
5.What sorts of people does my workplace employ?
All sorts of people, many people with different ethnic backgrounds.
6.Do most of the people there have a 4-year college degree, 2-year college degree, or technical certificate?
I would say so, I haven't personally had the time to speak to each and every one of them, but in order to be in their positions, I would say they have some kind of certificate related to their career.
7.Who does my workplace serve?
The students. Absolutely the students.
8.What are the strengths of my workplace?
It's in a great area, located near many bus stops, and down the street are fast food restaurants, out of all the people I know there, they are mostly living that area.
9.What are the weaknesses of my workplace?
A lot of fights happen. I've seen this school on the news at least once.
Hayward High School, it provides education for students in the area. Starting from grade 9 all the way through to grade 12.
2.Is it a small business, a medium sized business, or a large corporation?
I wouldn't call it a corporation, but I guess you would call it a educational program for students.
3.Where is my workplace located and what does it look like?
My workplace is located in a well surrounded neighborhood located near three great schools, East Avenue Elementary School, Markham Elementary School, and Bret Harte Middle School.
4.How many people work there?
As an average high school, I would say that Hayward High has more than 20 teachers making up their staff and faculty.
5.What sorts of people does my workplace employ?
All sorts of people, many people with different ethnic backgrounds.
6.Do most of the people there have a 4-year college degree, 2-year college degree, or technical certificate?
I would say so, I haven't personally had the time to speak to each and every one of them, but in order to be in their positions, I would say they have some kind of certificate related to their career.
7.Who does my workplace serve?
The students. Absolutely the students.
8.What are the strengths of my workplace?
It's in a great area, located near many bus stops, and down the street are fast food restaurants, out of all the people I know there, they are mostly living that area.
9.What are the weaknesses of my workplace?
A lot of fights happen. I've seen this school on the news at least once.
Blog #2: My Mentor: Tuesday Oct 18th
My mentor's name is Mary Walsh, she's a teacher at Hayward High School. She teaches Pre-Calculus, Algebra II & she teaches a Algebra Support class along side Ms. Hebert. Every Tuesday is the same, I arrive there, she's like everyone's mom so she sells food before school. By the time she stops selling it's time for kids to get to their lockers and their first or second class, depending if you have zero period. When we actually get situated in class, it's her Pre-Calculus class and I'm sitting at her desk while she's next to me writing down the do-now for the day. About 5 minutes go by as people are working out the problems and we're chatting about the weekend or what's coming up for Hayward High activites. Then as we hear the noise level start to rise we stop talking and her and the class go over the do now. Since classes aren't as long as hours they don't have time to do much. They go over their do now, turn in their homework and take down a small bit of notes the class if over. After that we move into the next class and do the same thing over again. Until we get to her algebra support class, we go through little color the photo papers and explain to them how to do a certain set of problems and then the class is over. With that being her last class we go into a small break and then it's lunch. basically everyone from the morning come back for another sale of food. After lunch she grades certain papers and i put them in for grades. As soon as i'm finished putting in grades it basically time to go home. That's it. I became interested because she's really interested in polynesians and she make teaching look fun. It makes me want to be a teacher like her.
Blog #3: My Role: Tuesday Oct 25th
At my WLE internship my main responsibility is assisting her in grading papers and putting in grades. Each week I am doing the same thing, arriving at 8 and not starting work till 1-ish. Then from there i put in grades and make the next days lesson. I would say my title is a teachers assistant. I'm there helping her out and passing out papers. A regular day is her yelling at kids to be quiet and pay attention. Like answered above it mainly explains my day, just grading papers and putting in grades. Like last tuesday i graded one of their tests depending on what class and timsing it by 10, 4, or 13. & Then putting that grade into the gradebook.
Blog #4: Project Brainstorm: Tuesday Nov 1st
For my WLE project I wanted to do a Current Event Quiz Show, which I used to do in both 9th and 10th grade, but both my AS teacher and me feel I could do something deeper and go more into depth so when my advisor came and visited with me at my internship my mentor suggested that I do a foldable. I personally didn't come up with this idea but I was all for it, i've seen her do foldables with her students and they seem like the childrens really understand it and they are able to use them on quizzes. I figured it was a great idea since it am excited on working on something for the students, i'm always up for helping kids that are stuggling. I know that I have a stuggle in math but i know if i understand it i actually like it and it's to the point so much where i had gotten bored at my internship one day and started doing math problems to pass the time.
Blog #5: Progress on my WLE Project: Tuesday Nov 8th
Today at my WLE I did the same thing i normally do which is arrive there, sit for about two & a half hours until her third period class is over and then i start entering grades, but since my mentor didn't feel well we went out for food, she had peet's coffee for some tea and i had a subway sandwhich(yum!) and then i arrived back in class and started sorting papers and putting in grades, helped my mentor and another student deliver papers to other teachers. I also met other polynesians, I had met a girl named Helen and she is hilarious! I was talking about my family reunion coming up and she was talking about what she plans on doing for Thanksgiving and it was cool to see how other Tongan's go about their holidays and we compared how our fathers treat men and women differently. We also talked about how her grandfather was one of the first Tongan's in the bay area and how he worked in an airport and thats where mainly all our family work now. My mentor and I haven't talked about a project yet. I decided to wait for my academic seminar teacher to have a full discussion about what i'm actually doing. So next week we'll go over my project plan. As for the project overall I feel like I could do something that really helps the kids that struggle in my mentor's third period algebra support class. I struggled through math and I would love to give back to those students and help them. I was thinking about a little game to help them understand, or something along the lines of that.
Blog #6: Leadership Skills: Tuesday Nov 15th
At my WLE I am using the leadership skills Completely Projects Effectively, Collaborating Productively, and Communicating Powerfully. I believe I'm using these leadership skills well at my WLE. I believe I could improve by incorporating other leadership skills into my WLE, but overall I feel that I did a good job. These leadership skills could help me do work by setting goals for myself and staying organized because I do have an issue with staying organized and when there’s a whole bunch of things out of order I start to get frustrated. With my WLE I was able to stay organized and organize my work into areas that could be completed in a day and other areas that would take a day or two to be completed. My mentor used the leadership skill communicating powerfully because her and Ms. Hebert sat down together over lunch and thought about what lessons they were planning to teach when Ms. Walsh was going to be out later in the week.
Blog #7: What I learned, Reflection: Tuesday Nov 22nd
What I learned about myself was that I’m able to teach in front of students and get of the fear of public speaking because I do have a shyness of speaking in front of large crowds. I didn’t really have challenges when at my WLE, but when I did I addressed them with my mentor. A life lesson that I learned was to speak up and don t be afraid to put your ideas out there. My creativity was put to use during my experience because when I was doing my project I wanted to do something that would be fun for the students, I had already known that they enjoyed doing foldables, and it’s more fun than doing notes because it lets them get involved and work with others to see how they got their answer and when it was time to turn their attention to the front board they did and they asked how I got my answer on the foldable and you can’t really do that with notes, they will ask questions but they won’t really want to be as involved with notes as they do with foldables. What I believe now more than I did before my WLE is that I have the potential to do something and stand in front of a class and teach a math lesson. When I say I have the potential to do something I mean I have the understanding, being in this math class really opened my eyes to something different, not just being in the place of a student but seeing through the eyes of a teacher. The specific skill I leaned was to know when to step up and put your ideas out there. Don’t just go along with what someone says because it might not be what you want, and to also have patience with students, most students learn in different ways whether it’s writing something out over and over again or making flashcards. I would say it’s important, math is use in our lives daily. I would want students using this method in things they do in school or with their kids. What I’ve learned from my WLE will affect my choices because instead of completing something half done, I could go the extra hour or half an hour and make it proficient and organized.
Blog #8: Professionalism: Tuesday Nov 29th
In order to find my WLE and get hired, I had to think about the people I know that would be a fun place to work. Since my sister had my mentor has a teacher before I figured it was a great opportunity since I always thought about being a teacher and what teaching is like through their perspective. The most effective way of looking for a job and getting hired is by thinking about what you want to do. You don t want to get accepting into an internship and it isn’t what you want, so do something that you think you would enjoy doing. As a result of my WLE, I think being a professional or a responsible adult in the work world means being on top with your work and not slacking off. Also not to hold back, when you do something put all your effort into it, you want your work to be grade A work.
Blog #9: Life at my WLE: Tuesday Dec 6th
Today I presented my project in front of an Algebra Support class, as an intern I think I have improved by being able to cooperate with other people, when I have to work with other people I don’t really want to but I’ve learned to be nicer to people and work with them. While working at Hayward High I noticed things like how it’s very supportive of students and well-spirited, but that students don’t get much work done since their quite chatty.
Blog #10: The End: Tuesday Dec 13th
I wish that it doesn’t have to end, but since it is coming to an end I’m glad I had the opportunity to work with Ms. Walsh and her staff members. I will take this into consideration again, maybe I do want to be a teacher, or maybe I don t. When I’m a senior I’ll probably end up doing something I’m going to major in like graphic designing or forensic science. I was thinking about those as a junior but since it was my first year doing a internship I thought I would just test the waters and see how a WLE internship works. As for being a senior next year I’ll deepen my thoughts on what I want to do my internship.
