Journal Prompt: Tell us about how you selected your mentor, What was your first

mentorship day like? What did you do or observe? What did you think about your mentor?
If you were unable to start meeting with your mentor, please explain how you selected your
mentor, why you were unable to meet with him/her, and what you are doing to facilitate
being able to start asap.

My mentor is Ms. Pickett and I choose her because she has a variety of information about teaching Deaf
Ed and has been teaching ASL classes for 4 years. She also went to two amazing colleges, Stephan F.
Autin and Lamar University to learn as much as possible about the deaf culture.

My first day of mentoring was a little weird because I used to be her student now I'm “watching her
teach”. Also, when I was in her class in ASL 3 and 4 she was very flexible when we had her phones out
because we knew the expectation. But this year, in ASL 2, she has been very strict about the phone
policy and it made since because they are the “babies” and they are new to the expectation. On
Thursday, September 13th she found a new app to make power-points more engaging to her and the
students. When I was watching her use the power-point all the students were more aware, and they
were more involved in the lesson. Ms. Pickett is an amazing teacher and a fantastic mentor.

Journal Prompt: What did you choose for your Fall ISM Project Topic? Why did you select this
topic? What role did your mentor have in helping you come up with topic ideas? Please also
discuss your mentorship experience this week.

I choose to compare cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids. I’m involved in the deaf
community and I see children with hearing aids, cochlear implants or nothing at all. And I
always wondered what parents must go through to decide on which device was better to have
a CI or a hearing aid. My mentor suggested a verity of different options and I picked this one
because it fits me best.
This week when I was with my mentor, Ms. Pickett, she was talking about Deaf President Now
(DPN). She explained on how this movement was shined on the Deaf community back in 1988.
In 1988 at Gallaudet University, a deaf college in Washinton D.C, had a hearing president for so
long and the deaf and hard of hearing students had enough. They rebelled, refused to go to
class and marched. After a week the hearing president has resigned and deaf was put in places.

What key points did you decide to include in your mid-term presentation? What three things
have you decided you will need to research for your final presentation/project? Why? Also-
please share an experience from your mentorship this week as well.
My five key points are 1) How to prepare yourself when your child receives a CI or hearing
aid 2) Cochlear Implant (CI) and how you get it 3) My child has a CI now what (after) 4)
Hearing aids and how you get it 5) How does society see people with CI/ hearing aids. I
choose these points because my overall topic is comparing a Cochlear Implant and Hearing
Aids. Each of these points are processes of which a hearing parent would think about when
they have a Deaf or hard of hearing child. Again, I have a CI myself, but I have no idea how
my or other parents must have felt when they found out their child has a hearing loss. My
three research topics are 1) things you should know before considering a CI 2) How do get a
CI (how you “pass the test”) 3) What do you do after your child has a Cl? When I received
my Cl, I was two, so I had no idea what was going on. As I got older I realized what I had and
why I got it. I never realized the process of receiving one and how much stuff my parents
had to think about before going for it. Also, just an FYI there is a 50/50 percent chance that
a candidate would even qualify for a CI.
With my mentor I discuss the things I was doing in ISM like the product and the overall
things I would like to make at the end of my presentation. This week the students worked
on an ABC’S story/handshape with their name and made a story. This week it was mostly
student self-paced.

What do you think you accomplished during the 1st 9 weeks of this mentorship
experience? What do you hope to accomplish this next 9 weeks?
This nine weeks I learned a lot about the Deaf culture. It’s interesting how the deaf culture
has grown so much. There were times where the deaf community had to fight to have a
Deaf president at Gallaudet University. The Deaf also had to fight for ASL to be used in a
Deaf Ed classroom; instead of being forced to read lips and learn speech. Now they are free
to either choose to talk or sign.
I hope to learn more about the Cochlear Implant and how they were developed. I also want
to learn how they knew what was need in order for a Cochlear Implant to work, and who
developed the 1st Cochlear. What equipment was used for both Cochlear and hearing aids
to work? How do people decide that a certain CI program works best for their child?
Review your 1st 9 Weeks Mentor Evaluation. Specifically, read any comments written by
your mentor on the second page/back. What areas were your strengths? What areas did
your mentor feel you needed to improve on? Also, review your scores and any areas that
you did not receive a score of "5". How do you plan to address the areas where you need
to improve during this nine weeks grading period?
 According to the evaluation my strengths are being dependable, wonderful and I help give
the students a new perspective on activities. I need to improve on expressing my ideas and
being more self-initiative. I noticed my work habits in section I have a score of 4 which isn’t
bad, but I could do better. I think I want to show my mentor that I can improve on my work
habits. I want to work on my punctuality, appearance and dependability. Maybe once I ask
my mentor how to improve on certain qualities I will improve more and help my mentor
during class time. I’m glad I got a real and honest feedback so now I can improve my
behavior while I'm with my mentor.

Journal Prompt: Describe what you did during your mentorship this week. Also, What do you
think is the best thing about your mentor and/or mentorship site? Why?

On Tuesday I was unable to meet up with my mentor due to a TET field trip. On Thursday I
went into her class and they were taking about ASL classifiers. ASL classifiers are descriptive
signs but without using real signs. I like to think about it as charades. Towards the end of
class, they played a game using ASL classifiers. They all sat in a big circle and one person has
to make an imaginary object using ASL classifiers. Once they finished with their imaginary
object, they have to pass it to another person at any direction.
The best thing about my mentor is that, because we’ve known each other for two years.
She knows what I'm interested in and she always suggests the best opportunities for me.
Also, because she has a lot of experience in these areas, I'm interested in when she talks
about her experience. The cool thing about my mentor ‘s classroom is that she enforces a
sign day in her classroom every day and every now and then she will specify which days
they can talk.

Journal Prompt: From the eyes or perspective of the

customer/client/patient, what do you think is the most frustrating thing
about the mentorship site where you are spending your mentorship time?
What do you think is the best thing about your mentorship site (again, from
the perspective of the customer/client/patient)? Also, what did you do this
week during your mentorship?

In my mentorship I don’t have any clients or patients, but I do have students and parents. I
think if someone was coming in the classroom, they would be frustrated about the students
choosing to talk instead of signing on designated “Signing days”. When my mentor hears
them talking or whispering, she takes points off their grades. The best thing someone would
notice is when you have a few students who really try to learn the language and they apply
the language outside of the classroom.
This week I watched a group of students do a presentation on a restaurant menu, they had
to sign each food that was on the menu and had to include how to make that type of food.
On Tuesday she gave them a long-term assignment, the students must pick a book and they
need to learn how to sign the book to little kids. That means they need to have good facial
expressions so would keep the little kids engage.

Journal Prompt: Tell me about your most recent mentorship experience.

What was the best thing/worst thing about it? Also, tell me how you are
doing with regard to progress on completing your final PRODUCT (AKA->
Your Supplementary Item, Not your project/PowerPoint)

This week students were working on a reading project and my mentor is also teaching them
about role shifting. Role shifting is used when you have more than 2 characters and you use
your body to show, or “act out” each character. It’s the same thing as a dialogue in a book or
a passage. The best thing about my mentorship is that you will have some students who will
ask questions and check to make sure they understand the project and you will have others
who couldn’t care less.

I just finished a rough draft on a Cochlear Implant and I’m still adding somethings and once I
like the rough draft, I will start drawing on the poster board.

Journal Prompt: Share about your most recent mentorship experience.

Also, tell me what you are most nervous about with regard to your upcoming
final presentation.

At my mentorship I walked around and help students draw a map. When they were done
with their own map, they had to describe the map to their partner. The goal is for the
partner to match the other persons map as close as possible. The purpose of this map is so
students can use the language and help them use their ASL skills to describe the objects on
the map. I’m nervous about the lack of confidence I will have when I present my power-
point.

Journal Prompt: Share about your most recent mentorship experience.

Also, tell me about your PRODUCT. How do you plan to incorporate it into
your final presentation? Why did you choose this particular thing/item as
your PRODUCT?

At my mentorship students were working on a long-term project and when I was there, I
walked around and helped students. Also, this week I started audiology and they were
discussing, which student should be placed in 504 or Special Ed. Also, I noticed there are a lot
of reports that must be filled out in audiology. Each student has it own file from all over
CCISD and some of Texas city. My product is a poster board and on the poster board talks
about the Cochlear Implant. I plan to show the poster board at the end of the presentation
along with my weebly. I choose this product because it’s the best way to show /clarify what a
Cochlear Implant is.