Blog #3:
Take a moment to think back over your WLE day this week…what was it like? What happened? What did you take away from the experience? (minimum 500 words)
If you get stuck, consider some of the following questions:
· What value or purpose did what I did today serve (for me personally, for school, for my site)?
· What did I learn about others? What did I learn about my self? What did I observe (self, world, others)?
· Is what I am doing valuable? How do I know? Is it meaningful work?
· What questions do I have?
· How has my experience at WLE changed my perception of what is possible out a ‘school’ experience?
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Its been really easy to get to my WLE sense my mother works here so thats a plus, I also arrive here at between 7-7:30 so i'm never late thats another plus to working at the same place my mother does. I have been really enjoying working here I think this is because of the great atomsphere here its so friendly and positive here it never ceases to amaze me. I'm happy I pick Children's Village as my internship because I'm kept busy and I hate having idle time on my hands, but my boss also knows when I need a brake its weird how it works but I never feel tired or over worked. Today I finished half of my project I'm doing for "Raising A Reader" all I need to do now is to get some more plastic containers to put the files with the children's books in them and take the plastic containers to the children's classrooms. I also helped my co-worker Claire store the supplis in the classrooms. Some of the supplies were milk, blackberries, and apples from Sysco the food company *ANOTHER TASK THAT KEEPS ME BUSY*
I arrived at work place learning experience at about 9:20 in the morning. At first I thought I was going to be late because the train wasn't coming so I learned that I should leave my house a little bit earlier. I was lucky this morning since I arrived with only little time to spare. I was met with a surprise as everyone was actually present this week. This week's work place learning experience one was a tiring one. KC Jones came to visit me and my mentor to talk about what I'm going to be doing for my project that I will be presenting in the exhibition. So far we have decided to have me write like plan sort of thing where I write step by step instructions teaching the next person who will be in charge of Donor Appreciation Day. Today I did the same as last week when I started. I sorted the new feedback packets that arrived that week into folders and then I started finding good pictures into a different pile which will go into the Donor Appreication day cards that we will be sending to the Donors on March 21. That was most of my day. I spent I think if I could recall correctly a good 4 hours or more on picking photos for the cards. After photos, I wrote thank you cards to new teachers that registered to the website so my hand became a little sore afterwards. I also reasearched the cheapest place to print digital pictures or make copies of pictures. I will now know which place I should go to if I want to save money on digital pictures or making copies of pictures. I also found out today that there is a lot more to planning an event than meets the eye. You need to do a lot of things like planning the plan stage and all the money that's invovled with having an event. Everyone at the office is really nice. I met everyone that was working at the office. Everyone was really kind and also really helpful. Everyone is also really calm and mellow and loves to joke around. Kelly has also helped me a lot with all her help. She answers all my questions and is always really polite. I have been having a really good time at my work place learning experience. It has been a really positive environment and everyone likes to joke around. I am suppose to have a lot of work next week and not have any break time so next week is probably going to be a really tiring one. I wonder how much harder work can get...
during this week of WLE, i felt that i was more comfortable with the environment at Chibi-Chan. last week, since it was the first time i was at my WLE workplace, i was experiencing everything that was new and this week, i got more used to everything like playing with the kids during structured playing time or during circle time when they were singing and dancing to music or reading books. this week was much more different than last week in terms of the kids' behavior towards me. they seemed to be even more attached to me(except nap time at least) and they would call me by "teacher Peter" instead of going to other teachers instead since they weren't used to me being around yet. that made me feel like i was actually a teacher and not just a person who would come for only one day and leave. what i did today was kind of what they did last week since the schedule at Chibi-Chan was a day to day basis and today was a day where the kids learned Taiko(which is a type of drum lesson), learned about the days of the week, made a chinese lantern to specify that tomorrow is chinese new years, sang, had story time, and much more. oh yeah, not to forget, KC came to visit me today and it was kind of awkward. basically, today, i assisted the teacher in cleaning up a closet that was FILLED with kid's toys from blocks, puzzles, to fake play food. that showed me that children at a preschool really do have all that they want in terms of toys. back then for me, all i cared about was play time and who could grab the toys first, but here at chibi-chan, toys are at an abundance. besides cleaning up a crazy closet, i was still getting used to what the kids do on a daily basis so mostly, i was just watching on how they did everything. for example, when they were have circle time today, the teachers would be asking them a question like "what will make a person sad?" and as i was sitting on the side, i learned how difficult it was to explain to kids in a way that they will understand whats wrong from right because they would usually think of the opposite reason first instead of the positive one like to hit someone instead of just talking it out. i think that soon, i'm going to have to do something that i'm not comfortable with(thanks to KC) but i'm up for it because if i am to be scared to present something in front of kids, i would never get a chance to actually do it as a profession in the future. what i took away today was probably how fun and cool it is to have a swarm of kids call me a teacher and to me, i felt a lot like i was helping them and not doing much like i did last week. i also learned that if i am to ever be a teacher for preschoolers or kindergarten kids, i would have to be really neat and organized or else it would take around a day to clean up everything like a closet full of toys and puzzles.
Last week was more of an introductory session with my mentor and the rest of the creative technology team here at Bethel. Today, I jumped right in. I arrived at 8:55, five minutes before the office is supposed to open. It was super quiet because Sheila was the only one in the office at the time. (My mentor usually arrives around 9:30 to 10:00.) As soon as I set up my laptop at my desk, the first thing I did was check my drop box to see if anyone had left tasks for me to do. There weren’t any, so I emailed Jym from the creative tech crew to see if I could help him out with his weekly output (podcasts, keynotes, etc). He put me in charge of talking with this Sunday’s speaker to see what images and graphics we could put on the Keynote slides. I found out that most of our images come from iStock photo. They have tooons of great pictures, so it was hard to choose from the large selection.
After talking with the speaker, I was able to get a hold of the outline for the sermon as well as the skeleton for the keynote. I spent the morning searching through old archives of photos and on istockphoto.com to see which pictures could illustrate the sermon the best. This is where Ted’s digital design techniques came in handy. It was a lot of fun playing email tag with the tech crew, sending designs back and forth to see how much we could tweak them. Jym is especially picky with these sorts of things, so it was a challenge completing this task. I learned a lot from this because usually when I design something and I show it to someone else, all they say is, “That looks great! I couldn’t have done it better myself!” But this time, it was different having someone say, “Ok that’s a good start, but see if you can do this..."
Most of the rest of the day was spent learning new software. I mostly focused on Apple’s Motion from the Final Cut Studio package because it is something the church wants to use in the near future to boost up animation in movies and announcements. When, I first opened the program, it looked pretty confusing. It’s not like Apple’s iLife applications where you can just play around with the programs and catch on as you go. In addition to training myself through online seminars that the creative tech team set me up with, I might actually have to get a book in order to learn to use it properly.
One other task I completed today was redesigning the “First Time Visitor” cards the youth department has people fill out if it is their first time attending Ignite, which is Friday night youth group. It has become my goal to redesign a lot of what is printed at Bethel as we move forward in our Multimedia Department.
Right now, I am waiting to hear about future video projects where I can learn more about Final Cut Pro. Next week, I will really push to see if there is a project I can get started on. It all depends on what the Pastors are speaking about, so we’ll see.
Last week my WLE was a little different that how it went last week. It was not as fun as it was last week and I didn’t do that much educational. I know that this weeks will be a lot different. Last week all we did was clean up the garage to have room to put CD orders and organize the tools to finish building the rest of the studio. For about an hour I sat in on a studio session and watched how my mentor mixed songs. After that I loaded Artists CDS on to this internet database that would put the CD on itunes or a similar music downloading program. It was really helpful to the studio to help them do all the cleaning and organizing. It was not just me doing it my mentor and I did all the organizing and cleaning but they really needed to do it because the garage was really out of shape. Watching the studio session helped me a lot. Last week I got to see how he recorded but not how he mixed and now that I know how he mixes I can see what the whole process is. I learned that it is really just about how you hear music and how well you know it. The technical side looks hard but not as hard as I thought. I also learned how CDS were actually put onto itunes and other internet databases. I don’t think it helped me very much at all. I didn’t learn as much as I could have working there. I also don’t think it helped anyone else. It was pretty much only helping the studio. I do however learn that where you work its not always going to be doing exactly what the company does. My mentor explained to me that there is a lot more to running a studio then just recording bands. Just like any other job, you always have to do other things so you can do what your occupation is. This week I think will be way more valuable. I am going to start on my potential project for the beginning of the day which should teach me a lot. There are two booths in the studio and the one of them is not set up very well at all, it just has most of the hardware set up. My job will be to finish setting it up, this will teach me a lot about how pro-tools works and how to use it. I will also see how a booth is set up and know how to do it. I don’t really have any questions, I think that I only did this cleaning up and organizing this one week because it really needed to be done. I have already had out of school experiences so my perception has not really changed, I have had a few jobs already, this one is just as relaxed as most of my other jobs have been, I don’t know if that goes for most things that happen or if I have just been really lucky.
KC THIS IS ISIS:
Here at my WLE (C5), I am really enjoying myself. I have had some trouble with my blog but I have decided to type. It was only my second time being there and already I felt like it is my real job. The keeps have become so attatched with me, and it males me feel like I am an asset to the C5 community. Because this is a pre-school, there is already a daily itinerary that we followed. So as usual I started my day off at play time, where I mainly drew flowers and animals for the kids. I was excited to hear that after my first time being there kids were very happy to have me back. One childs mother had really wanted to meet me because her child had spoke highly of me all week. It made me feel good inside. I helped the kids build bridges with Legos and read books. We then went to circle time where we got to discuss some of our highlights of the morning. Its really good to see how exciting the kids are to share their current moods, and it gives them a chance to express how they are feeling. Snacks were set up and after I cleaned the snack area. The kids make big messes but I was already prepared for that. After snack we got the kids ready to go outside, and I noticed that I a lot of children came to me for help. They really look up to me for a lot of things. They want to hold my hand, play with me, and in general have become accustomed to my presence at C5. Some of the kids wont leave me alone! But I figured that it was all apart of the process and I wouldn�t trade it for anything. I really like working at C5. Helping prepare lunch time and talking to the kids. I am starting to fall in love with the kids, and I treat them as if I had kids. Not only does working at C5 gives me experience with working with kids, but it also teaches me that when I have kids, that I should also have a curriculum for them. Learn to Provide a stable way of handling things such as, conflicts, and being able to communicate with them. I think my purpose today, is my purpose everyday. Being good role models and that�s what I focused on. I know that I have a big impact on the children at C5 because whenever children are crying or need help, then I always come around to show my support and comfort, but handle it so that something is learned. I was able to mediate conflicts and make other friends(what we call the children) feel comfortable. Make them feel loved. I realized that every child comes from different backgrounds and have their own story, and some share similarities. They are all children and they all like to have fun and learn. And I think my part is to show them how they can do both at the same time.
this worksite to me is like neverland. the kids literally get to do whatever they please. its crazy. the kids like playing with me and im glad to be liked and so much happens at this worksite! its funny when you see the kids eat their buggers or get buggers and put them others hahaha yea.. what else?.....oh somthing i learned about some of the kids is that they can be mean to each other worse then kids at our school. they take toys and there is this one boy named jackson who will take toys and hit kids with it because he jus doesnt like them or that he is bored. thats carzy and he gets me mad because he thinks he can do whatever he wants and i feel the urge to hit him when he hits kids because none of the kids will try and hit him back. he is ssome what a bully but i think he ay be bi polar.
Today I walked in and headed straight to the gray whales classroom. At Pacific Primary they have kids from three to five years old on average. The three-year-olds are called sandpipers. The 4-year-olds are separated in to two classes, the gray whales and the rainbow dolphins. After that the kids either go to preschool or stay and become coyotes. The way they separate the 4-year-old is that the quicker learners become rainbow dolphins and the slower learners become gray whales. This doesn’t mean that one class is smarter, they are just different learners. I have had the chance to help in both classes and like all the kids and I treat them no differently from one another.
In the mornings, when I arrive, the gray whales are just finishing cleaning up and gathering around the carpet for morning circle. This is when the teacher leads a discussing ranging anywhere from blocks to dinosaurs. I enjoy circle a lot because I am able to see the kids struggle for attentiveness but have flashes of brilliance. In preschool you develop a deeper thinking that gives you a head start in elementary school. After the teacher sends kids on by one to go to the bathroom and tells them to put on a jacket we head outside to the yard.
Once in the yard, I revert back to my childhood at the preschool. I get to remember how fun it is to “play”. The kids are constantly creating games that involve both them and me. When I am not being tricked into eating an imaginary hamburger that has been laced with poison, I am being sent to jail for the unjust crime of drinking water from the kids water fountain.
The kids are always trying to see how much they can get away with when playing with me. It’s hard to say that the teachers undermine my authority when it is obvious that the kids don’t always listen to me when I tell them no or to stop. I’m learning from teachers, students, and from myself, that in order to get respect from a group you need to exude confidence. If the kids see that I know the rules and have the power of a teacher then they will start treating my like one. I still learning the rules of the school, but I have no idea what it means to have the power of a teacher.
Today was a lot like the last week. We continued to strip and scrap computers and we also did some sorting power supplies and laptops. All in all it wasn't the most interesting day from an outside perspective, but I thought that it was great because it was something new that I was doing and that I hadn't really done before. I started to get to know the other people working there and they are some really cool nice people. They are all laid back and comfortable in their work environment, which makes it a lot easier and less intimidating then it could be. I was pretty nervious the first day but I'm getting into the job and starting to think about what we are going to be doing for our final project. Probably building a computer and then documenting it's creation in a humorous commercial like manner. Something that will get a laugh but fufil the requirements for the end project. It should be great if we do it right.
Well I’m a little late on this blogg, but I’m going to think back to this day. I came to my WLE around 9:30am. When I arrived in front of the building it was about 9:20 I had to stand in a long security check line so it took me about 10 minutes to get upstairs in the actual office. When I got into the office my mentor was on the phone, so I just nodded my head, walked past her and put my bags down. The first thing that I did was grab the key card. This allows me to get in a lot of the doors. I went up stairs to another part of the DA's office to get my mentors mail. When I got her mail I came back down stairs. When I came downstairs I logged onto the computer to do the police report things. Then when I was finished with those I had to send them to the 4th floor. I came back and did some work in the conference room like filing and straightening up in their. That was stress free. After I completed that I filled dome stuff into the misdemeanors database on the computer. After I was completed with that it was lunch time. I went to lunch with this other intern that comes there every Wednesday also. When we came back from our lunch break my mentor didn't have anything else left for us to do, so she sent us upstairs to work in the record room. That was fun because I enjoy working in the record room. To me it's a more chill environment were I can come out more then what I feel is a tense intimidating environment upstairs. I didn't really take anything away from the experience, because I wasn't focusing on the things that I could take away, but over all this WLE day was fine.
I never thought that being a cake decorator would be this much work. I thought that doing all the different designs with frosting was going to be easy and writing with frosting would be simple but I was very wrong. The people I work with are very friendly, funny and family oriented, they act like family and enjoy their jobs, you can see it in the way they do what they do. It's amazing. I can't wait to open my own business, and I hope that when I do start up that the people I work with will be as incredible as the ones I'm working with at Kathy's. Kathy and all of the other employees have been so helpful to me in so many ways. They have helped me with all the little things and I really value the experience that has been pointed to me. I am having so much fun and learning so much I don't want it to be over. I have learned so much so far in this experience and I haven’t been there that long. Because of this WLE I think that I am going to dedicate the rest of my schooling to opening up my own successful bakery. Because of this great place I have realized that this is what my future should look like. Today I learned about how hard frosting is hard to work with and how for some designs it’s really easy to work with while others are hard to work with, but it really depends on the design. For example I learned how to make a rose and those are really easy to make, while a girl that has been working there for a year still is having a had time it was really simple for me. I believe that what I am doing there is valuable to me because I will be using everything I learn when I get a job somewhere at a different bakery or if I end up getting hired or they offer a job for me there I will use what I know to move up and do what I love to do the right way.
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