Reflection #3:

Dear Geno,

Hey, it's you from the future. A LOT has happened in between your time and mine. First off, I got a job. You really started working hard in college, great job in advance. Anyway, down to the real stuff. The world has not really changed a lot in terms of social injustice. It is DEFINITELY better now than before though. There is a lot more representation of diversity now. Along with that, they made education and healthcare more accessible, which is great. There are a lot of small things which I can't really fit in this letter, so I guess you just have to see it for yourself. One more thing. If you EVER feel down and feel like giving up, don't. Keep on moving forward because after you pass all of those hardships, life will be smooth.

Regards,

Geno

Reflection #5

1. Go through and identify the "problem statement" parts for the film - community affected, problem area, affect of the problem, etc.

The problem statement within "Just Mercy" is that the black community does not get enough justice. There are people in the black community who have to face unjust decisions. These problems affected all of the black community. Everyone is afraid to take action, which leads to endless oppression.

2. What were some of the community/individual partnerships that you noticed in the film? How were they represented?

Within the Equal Justice Initiative, there was a woman named Eva Ansley. She was a white woman who also fought alongside Bryan Stevenson for equality among races. There was also Bryan and his fight for Walter Mcmillian, known as Johnny D among his friends and family. He was accused of killing a white teen girl and put on death row before receiving justice.

3. What roles (think social change ecosystem) were portrayed? How did they work together?

One of the biggest roles shown in "Just Mercy" is the disruptor role. This role is largely portrayed, especially in Bryan Stevenson. He took many uncomfortable risks. First, he became a lawyer and got an education at Harvard. Harvard back then was mainly a white community.

4. What were some of the things that worked for these partnerships? What made things difficult?

Bryan and his fight for Mcmillian was the biggest fight shown in the movie. It ended up in Bryan being able to get justice for Mcmillian. He was able to get a second trial for Mcmillian and then was able to remove all charges against Mcmillian. Although Bryan succeeded, there were other times where Bryan was unable to receive justice. A time when this happened was with Herbert Richardson. Herbert was a war veteran who was put on death row for killing a woman named Rena Mae using a bomb. Herbert did not mean to harm anyone, and in Bryan's attempt to free Herbert, Herbert was executed.

5. Who could you partner with? Who might be good resources and allies within the affected community? People doing work with the community already? People who aren't doing work in the community, yet?

I plan to spread my message across the whole school and make other people aware of my problem statement and how I am going to fix it. In order to do this, I want to partner with the counselors, as well as people within the student council. I could take advice from people who have experienced these problems, and also take advice on how to solve these problems.

Reflection # 6

In the two readings I have done, I learned about lots of different types of feedback, what are the backlashes of them, and what I can do to give good feedback. In the first reading titled "Three Triggers", it talked about three types of feedback that had backlashes. First, there are Truth Triggers. I found this interesting because it shows that some people do not want to hear the truth, as it is wrong and unfair. People do not want to hear the truth because it hurts. Some people need to understand that the truth truly does hurt, and we have to accept it. Secondly, there are relationship triggers. Relationship triggers are triggers which happen due to someone being biased toward someone's advice. In cases like these, people would rather take advice from people who are more respectable in their mind than others. This bias is hard to overcome. Lastly, there are Identity Triggers. Identity triggers happen due to misunderstandings in someone's word. These happen very often, which makes it hard to take advice from someone who has a different perception of these words than you. In the second reading, it also talked about 3 types of feedback. This time, it talked about appreciation, coaching, and evaluation. These are good types of feedback, but sometimes it gets too much. For appreciation, it is good because some people want to be known for the work they have put in. Eventually though, if someone shares too much appreciation, people start to not believe this appreciation, and it becomes worthless. Secondly, there is coaching. This is closely related to the first reading, because some people feel they do not want to be told by people what to do. This is also connected to evaluation, as people do not want to have a breakdown on what they have done.

Reflection #7

While preparing for my pitch, I did not feel that confident. I had come up with something but felt I needed feedback in order to make my idea better. After the first pitch, I felt a little better because I got feedback and questions from my capstone class. It helped further develop my idea and made me question if I really wanted to do this project or not. I then prepared to do my second pitch which was in front of both my capstone class and half of Mr. Mumau's capstone class. My peers gave me feedback on how I can make sure people will agree with me. I feel that this project will turn out successful due to the feedback my peers and advisors gave me.

Plan for the week of Oct. 24

• Layout what the teachers are going to share with the students.

• Work more on the pitch so I can use it for my prototype presentation.

• Get more research on this topic using HPA library resources and use the information in my pitch.

Teaching Strategies Layout

• What are your strategies to get students involved in class?

  • Ex. Office Hours

  • Voluntary office hours tend to not help as much because the students who show up are more motivated to get work done than others. I want to give everyone an equal chance to succeed in the class.

• What are the main goals of this class? (Things related to the overall change of a student.)

• How effective do you think your teaching is? (Will students be able to pass this class easily due to your teaching or is there excessive work that they will have to do on their own?)

• What are you most proud of in your teaching? (What is a big thing that students acknowledge and take advantage of in your teaching?)

• What are things you could improve? (Do you think your style of teaching is helpful for all students or only the select few that want to learn?)

• Do you think diverse classrooms are harder or easier to teach?

• Ask for feedback from the students and what can the teacher change in their teaching.

  • This will continually be asked both in person and over the use of google forms. (Once every week)

  • The form will be anonymous, but the student can choose whether it be anonymous or not for individual help.

Reflection #8

I emailed lots of teachers to ask if I could come in to observe their classrooms and how they teach. I emailed Ms. Scarth, Ms. Inaba, Mr. Quayle, Mrs. Kassis, and Ms. Cam. All of them have responded, and I will be able to observe all of their classrooms next week. Tomorrow, I will work on creating a new document specifically for these observations and what I will be observing using my last experience with Mx. Lai.

Reflection #9

Today, I started a new document which is going to be used next week for all my observations. I have different headers, some of which include the seating, teaching style, students, conversation, and the classroom activities. These all have small sub-headers which will help me get to know what is effective in a classroom, what effects the students learning, and what is not effective in a classroom.

Reflection #10

Today, I am going to try and implement some of the strategies I have learned from my observations so far into my capstone. Yesterday, I observed Mrs. Kassis' AP Calculus BC class and gained lots of information on how a math teacher teaches. I saw both flaws in her teaching but also good teaching strategies. I am going to try and find ways to solve these flaws and possibly use some of her teaching strategies. this goes for the future observations I will be doing. Later today, I will be observing Mrs. Cam's English 12 class. On Thursday I will observe Mr. Quayle's E period capstone class, and Ms. Scarth's ELL US history class during F period that same day. My final one for this week will be on Friday during A period and I will be observing Ms. Inaba's A period Japanese 1 class.

Reflection #11

Today, I was supposed to observe Mr. Quayle's capstone class. This is moved to next week because they had a field trip today to help out one of the students in the capstone. Later today, I will be observing Ms. Scarth's ELL U.S history class. This will be interesting because it is an ELL class and it will be a lot different from a normal class. On Tuesday, I observed Ms. Cam's English 12 class, and I thought this was really interesting. She uses a loud tone to keep the class engaged but also tries to blend into the class by matching the students' energy. The students seemed engaged and participated a lot.

Reflection #12

Today, I observed Mr. Quayle's outdoor classroom in the garden. It is a lot different because it is outdoor and the environment is very quiet, which leaves lots of space for students to stay engaged. Mr. Quayle has lots of ideas to talk about and keep students talking, and the students are really comfortable with each other. He has guided the students with ideation into their capstone's through field trips and also had students research on their own. I want to take some of the environmental aspects from this classroom as well as ideation and put those into our indoor classrooms we have now.

Reflection #13

Today, I worked on a survey which I will send out to the students from each classroom I observed. This survey aims to help me get student opinions on what makes them feel comfortable and able to learn. This survey will also help me out with my teaching toolbox. It will tell me what the students notice in the teaching style and if they notice things that I don't as an observer. I hope to finish the survey by next week and want to send it out as soon as possible so I can start collecting results.

Reflection #14

I have completed my teaching toolbox and am now working on a lab report-style document that explains what the toolbox is for and how it works. It will also explain why the items in the toolbox are effective, my journey along the way, my observations, and how I got the information on the teaching toolbox.

Final Reflection

Throughout the year, I have learned many things, thanks to my capstone teacher Mx. Lai, my capstone class, and all of the teachers who I observed as well as Dr. Cole. This class has been challenging yet fun, and I hope to carry out the work I have done and learned in this capstone with me into my future.