Blog 11 - Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

• The thing I am most proud of from my lesson is the overall outline/organization for my presentation. I am glad that I was able to not only establish a smooth outline, but also tie everything together. I planned my lesson so that what I was talking about would relate to what I would be talking about next. For example, I talked about exercises and those exercises were in the pamphlets I brought/talked about next and the pamphlet showed exercises that had equipment in which I talked/showed next.  

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• The assessment I would give myself on my lesson is a solid P+. I believe I earned this grade because there was no concern with volume/enunciation, body language/eye contact, and engagement of the audience/content clarity. I am more than certain I was loud enough and made eye contact around the whole classroom. I also do believe I got the audience to focus and my content was very descriptive and understandable. I have also earned this grade because my research was clear/concise, more than one publish research source was cited, my interview was mentioned, and I showed depth of this 3 month process. I did everything that was required of the P consideration and I believe I did quite well on this presentation as a whole. 

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson? How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2? 

• If I could go back, I would definitely do my hook better. Probably having someone break the chicken bone and me explaining exactly what the bone is comprised of was the better thing to do. I think I can use this knowledge to give a better Lesson 2 because this shows me that I actually need to do more research on the anatomy of the body because that is a big part of physical therapy. So, I hope to research and learn more about the actual science behind physical therapy.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1.  Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?) Are you shadowing? Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic? If so, what? Are there other people who are experts in the location?

• My mentorship time will be spent at Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Health Care. I am specifically working in the Children's Services Center. Here I will be volunteering in the "Kid's Crew" classes. These classes promote development for specific age groups of 3-15. I will also be able to shadow my mentor some days in physical therapy sessions of certain patients. I am able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to my topic because there are so many things that play a part in pediatric physical therapy. There are other people who are experts in the location because Casa Colina is a rehabilitation hospital. 

2. How did you find your mentor? How did you convince this person to help you?

• My orientation director at Casa Colina referred me to my mentor. There was not much convincing I had to do to have this person help me. She is very nice is willing to help in whatever way she can towards my senior project.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship? How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at your mentorship with this person?

• I am pretty comfortable with my mentor. She is really nice and I know I will grow even closer to her as my mentorship continues. I have not spent a lot of time at my mentorship YET, but once I do, I will learn a lot from her!

4.  What went well in this interview? Why do you think so? What do you still need to improve? How do you know? How will you go about it?

• The interview was relatively smooth. There was no awkwardness or anything. I think I need to improve on actually engaging and comprehending in the interview rather than focusing on trying to get the questions done and totally miss what the interviewee is saying. I will go about this by trying to ask more natural questions and really focusing on the interviewee while he/she is talking. 

Link to Interview #2 Sound Clip:

https://soundcloud.com/megan-thi/interview-2-mp3cutnet

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person. (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc.)

• Currently, I do not have a mentor. However, I will in the couple weeks to come. I attended the orientation at Casa Colina Rehabilitation Center, the place I will be doing my mentorship, on October 20. During the orientation, I learned that due to the fact that their center is so big, volunteers will not be placed in their according departments to start volunteering until next Friday, the 30th. Unfortunately, this is when the mentor interview is due. I have asked the HR manager there if maybe I could perhaps interview my prospective mentor, however, she said because I have not become a volunteer yet, I cannot actually go into the areas in which the PTs work and also, she cannot guarantee what department I will be in until she sorts all the volunteers out. So because of this, I have not scheduled the interview because I do not know the who my mentor will be YET. I will be talking to my house teacher, Mr. Holt, about the problem I am having and ask him what I should do about it tomorrow! (10/22)

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic. Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

• I am really interested in narrowing my topic of physical therapy down to pediatric physical therapy. Currently, I work at a tutoring center in which I work with children from 3-16 years of age and this is right around the age range in which a pediatric physical therapist works with. I have learned that throughout my years of working there, I truly enjoy working with children/adolescents and know I would have a great experience working with pediatrics in PT. Because of this, I know this may a realistic area I would be interested in working in for my future career, which is why I would like to experience it now!

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth? Where will you go to get them?

• I think sources that are specifically published by the American Physical Therapy Association (Section on Pediatrics), will definitely help me gain more research depth. My only struggle with this is that the books published from APTA are quite expensive and hard to get my hands on. I hope to ask around (I heard Mrs. Ortega has a book) to find one of their publications to help me further my research. I also hope to find more sources that actually talk about how the child/adolescent body works because I want to learn a lot more about how patients are treated and why. 

4. Write down a possible EQ. Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers. At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process. 

• What is the most important factor in ensuring a child (patient) reaches their abilities to the fullest while maintaining the teamwork of both the PT and parents?

Blog 8 - Independent Component 1 Proposal

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• For my 30 hours, I plan to do an extra 30 hours at my mentorship. I am going to be doing my mentorship at Casa Colina, a very big rehabilitation center. Because of its size, the extra hours will allow me to explore and volunteer in many areas of the center. These areas can include pediatrics, sports, women's health, orthopedics, neurology, geriatrics, and cardiovascular. I am not quite sure yet as to what exactly I will be doing there, however, I know I will get a hands-on learning experience. 

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence. 

• To meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence, I will keep a log of each day I spend volunteering and what exactly I did during those hours. This will go in my mentorship log and will prove my volunteering there. 

3. Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• I think these extra hours of volunteering will definitely help me explore physical therapy in more depth. Because I get to volunteer in all these different areas, I will get to know what it's like to work in them and this will help me figure out what I want to specialize in if I do decide to pursue this career in the future. I hope to experience a little bit in each of these areas of my mentorship, so that I can get a better understanding of the field as a whole.

4. Update your Senior Project Hours Log. 

• Done.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work? If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• As of now, I do not have a mentor yet; however, he/she will be working at Casa Colina because I will be able to start volunteering there once I attend the orientation on October 20th. Casa Colina is a rehabilitation center home to a variety of therapies. Their services include inpatient care, outpatient care, transitional care, long-term residential care, and even a surgery center. Casa Colina has been around for more than 75 years and I am more than certain I will have a great mentorship experience here. 

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What is your education background?
• Where did you go?
• What did you major in?
• What was it like?
• Have you worked anywhere besides Casa Colina?
• What was that like?
• How long did you work there?
• How long have you been working at Casa Colina?
• How long have you been a physical therapist?
• What skills have you learned throughout your years working as a physical therapist?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning your senior project this year? What has made it a positive experience for you?

• Concerning my senior project this year so far, my interview worked really well for me. When trying to find an interviewee, I was extremely worried I would not be able to find someone because I had not even found a mentor yet. I knew I had to ask around in order to find connections and I have been really lucky with that so far. I was able to interview two therapists (PT and OT) and get a feel on not only physical therapy, but occupational therapy as well. The thing that has made it a positive experience for me is definitely interviewing people and learning a lot more about the field in specific. I can firmly say that in this first month of school, I have learned a lot about physical therapy and that is a very positive thing for both my project and my future!

2. What are you finding difficult concerning your senior project? How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you? How might the senior team help?

• One thing I am finding difficult concerning my senior project is the research. It has only been a month and I feel as if I am already running out of sources and places to look for the research. I find myself reading broad articles during research check and I would really like to find more detailed articles. However, I have been struggling to find them anywhere! I think I can adapt to make research better for me if I learned some researching tactics. Perhaps, the senior team can give me tips on how and what to search when looking for sources. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1.  What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• The most important thing I learned from the interview was the different type of areas I can work in as a physical therapist. I have a lot of options if I become a physical therapist and they explained this to me with a lot of detail! I don't think there is much I would do differently for my other interviews. I really liked the fact that I was able to interview two people at the same time and get two different opinions, so I would like to make that happen again in my future interviews if I can. Also, I came to this interview with 15 questions prepared and perhaps having even more questions won't hurt to have for the future as well! 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts? What is the most useful? Why?

• I did not get any specific contacts; however, they told me confidently that I will receive a lot of help and learn a lot from my mentorship at Casa Colina. They really pushed on me pursuing volunteering at Casa Colina and this definitely helped me solidify my choice for my mentorship there. Both Cindy and Elise told me to contact them if I needed any other help in finding someone else they work with for a future interview. They also mentioned that a good resource for my research can be found on the APTA website under the student section in which I never knew was there!

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• My interviewees are very qualified to help me because they have so much experience with everything physical/occupational therapy. Both have received doctorates in physical/occupational therapy and have worked in this field at not just Kaiser, but many other facilities for over 10 years. They definitely relate to me as a student interested in their field and are very willing to help me however they can because of that.  

Link to Interview #1 Sound Clip:

 https://soundcloud.com/megan-thi/interview-1