Nina’s Blog – Page 2 – Just another Scarsdale Schools Blogs Sites site

Capstone Interview Blog Post

We have been working on Capstone for a couple of weeks now. I am very proud of my research and my interview! Let me just remind you what my Capstone topic is. My Capstone topic is Anxiety. If you do not know what Anxiety is, please click on this link to find out the definition. If you would like to see my last blog post on Capstone, please click this link.

At first, I had planned to have only one interviewee, Lisa Bonaviso, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist in the Pediatrics Associates of Westchester. I thought of her because I knew I needed a Therapist in order to tell me about Anxiety. However, when she said that she might not be able to do it for legal and privacy reasons, I decided that I would have another one. The other person I was going to interview was Jennifer Turetzky, a School Psychologist at Heathcote Elementary School. I knew Jennifer Turetzky because she works in my school and she helps children with their Anxiety. Then, both Lisa Bonaviso and Jennifer Turetzky said that they would be able to be interviewed! I was so happy that I had two interviewees!

My first interview was with Jennifer Turetzky. I was really scared that morning. My interview with her was in person, in school. I was scared when I walked down to her office. I felt that maybe everything would go badly or maybe I was not good at interviewing someone! At the end of the interview, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about my interview with Jennifer Turetzky. She was really nice, and she answered my interview questions interestingly. I was excited because I had finished something that I had been worrying about for many days. This interview took about 15 minutes with about 5 more minutes to go back to my classroom. These were my interview questions for Jennifer Turetzky.

Why did you decide to become a school psychologist?
What do you have to do in order to become a school psychologist?
How do you feel about helping students with their anxiety?
What do you think that most children who come to you are afraid about?
How can technology help school psychologists?
What tools or sites do you use while helping a child.
What sites do you think can help people with anxiety the most?
What are some ways of treating anxiety that school psychologists have proved more useful for children?
What changes have been made to your practice during Coronavirus?
How did the usage of technology during Coronavirus affect your practice?
Can sessions for students improve in some ways? If so, how?
What do you think can help a counselor in the future?

Jennifer Turetzky answered with a lot of good information. I found that I was surprised by Jennifer Turetzky’s answer in the first question! Her whole family worked in schools! I was really happy that I was able to interview her.

Next, I interviewed Lisa Bonaviso. I also got a lot of really good information from her. I wasn’t as scared as before because I had already done an interview. My mother was able to be there for my interview! My interview with Lisa Bonaviso was in the afternoon at 5:30 pm. I was way more relaxed in this interview than the former one. Unlike my previous interview, the one with Lisa Bonaviso took about 30 minutes. These were my interview questions for Lisa Bonaviso.

Why did you decide to become a Therapist?
What do you like about being a Therapist?
What do you have to do in order to become a specialist for CBT? Was there special training? Please explain if so.
About how many Therapists are there who work in Anxiety in your company?
What are some topics that the people you help are anxious about?
What tools do you use as a Therapist to help the people who have anxiety?
What are some ways of treating anxiety that Therapists have proved more useful? How are they useful?
What apps do you suggest to use to calm down anxiety?
How has Coronavirus affected your practice? Have there been more people you help?
During the Pandemic have you seen people more anxious about Coronavirus? If so, what are the causes?
What Technology can help Therapists during Coronavirus? How has Zoom aided your sessions?
What do you think will help Therapy in the future?

Like my first interview, Lisa Bonaviso gave me great information about my Capstone topic. When Lisa Bonaviso answered some questions, I found that I was surprised. On one question, we discussed Telehealth before Coronavirus. She said that she never wanted to do Telehealth but then she said, “Well the joke was on me!” She said that because we were soon going to be in Coronavirus going onto Telehealth for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I thought that was rather funny! Both interviewees were able to answer all questions and I was very excited because of that. I learned that I should think quickly if I would like to ask another question and that I didn’t need to worry about these two interviews.

Overall, I loved interviewing Jennifer Turetzky and Lisa Bonaviso. It was really fun and exciting. I got a lot of great information from the both of them!

Categories: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies5 Comments

Rube Goldberg Video

nsanders28 April 28, 2021February 9, 2022 #Contraption #Design Process #Insight #Rube Goldberg #WeVideo/Imovie

I finished my Rube Goldberg a couple weeks ago and making the video was a lot of fun! Although it took a long time, I still loved it!

My experience designing my Rube Goldberg was really fun. At first, I thought it was going to be really hard and it was! That just shows how interesting and fun it can be. I knew I had a lot of things I could use in the house, so I took some random things like a Tupperware Container lid. I also used a spoon, a lot of tape, dominoes, two bouncy balls, books, a toy bus, and a big toy car. At one point, I did not know if I should take away a step. I realized that later I would have to make another step. My father, who was helping me with my Rube Goldberg said, “Well, just add another step.” My thought was, “It’s not so easy making another step.” It was hard! But still, I succeeded. When my Rube Goldberg had finished, I was actually surprised. You can see it in the video below. The Rube Goldberg was fun, interesting, and at the same time, hard.

From my Rube Goldberg machine, I learnt that I should never give up even if I have failed many times.

Making the video was not very complicated to me. In fact, I did it right after I finished my Rube Goldberg machine! First, I had to decide which fails I would put in (There were many fails so I couldn’t include all of them!) Then I put in an acting scene with the steps of my Rube Goldberg machine. I then put in the transitions, and the music! I love putting in the music, it really sets the mood to the video.

Here is my Rube Goldberg Video.

Here is my Rube Goldberg Final Sketch. Please click on it to see it in full view. I had to change my sketch a bit because I could not make a ball bounce up to the top of the ceiling. That would be too dangerous and I did not have a bouncy platform anyway. I also added my books and DVDs to make a domino effect onto the plate. Then, I had to add some tape to the bouncy ball at the end of the ramp.

Categories: 5th Grade, Science, Technology2 Comments

Task Definition

nsanders28 April 22, 2021June 9, 2021 #Blog Post #Capstone #Main Inquiry Question #Reflection #Sub-Question

In school, I am starting a Capstone Project. A Capstone Project is a project where you have to do a lot of research on a topic you can choose. This project is the last big project of the year. We have had other big projects like the Constitution Project, the Immigration WeVideo, the Rube Goldberg, and the Where I’m From Video. My topic for the Capstone Project is Anxiety. However, in Capstone you cannot just have a big topic, otherwise it would be too much to research on. That is why you have to make a Main Inquiry Question and Sub-Questions.

There were a lot of documents that we could fill in that would help us with our topic, and our Main Inquiry Question. These topics include,

Two Topic Selections
Wishes and Worries
Curriculum Wheel Organizer
5E Capcon 2021 Schedule
Art of Questioning
Interest Inventory
Main Inquiry and Sub-Questions Organizer
Capstone Rubric for Main Inquiry Question

When I was filling in the documents, I had to think about what my interests were, what good questions I could ask. Some of these documents really helped me. For example, the “Interest Inventory” and the “Curriculum Wheel Organizer.” The “Interest Inventory” helped because it showed me what I liked to do and what topics I liked. The “Curriculum Wheel Organizer” helped because I could see what curriculum went with the topic I was most likely going to do. I chose my topic to be Anxiety. The documents that helped me a lot were,

Two Topic Selections
Curriculum Wheel Organizer
5E Capcon 2021 Schedule
Capstone Rubric for Main Inquiry Question
Interest Inventory

Next, we were going to have to choose a Main Inquiry question. Mine is, “What are the top five ways of treating Anxiety and how has the use of technology aided its treatment?” This is a 4th Level question. A 4th Level question means that it can have “What are the top five ways of…” Here is the link to the Capstone Rubric for Level Questions. First, I had to talk with my teacher about some possible Main Inquiry questions. My first question that I had come up with my teacher was, “How has Anxiety help evolved and how can technology aid it’s treatment?” I could not find many articles on “How has Anxiety help evolved.” I knew I needed articles so I changed the first part to, “What are the top five ways of treating Anxiety and how has the use of technology aided its treatment?”

Then, I had to do the Sub-Questions. Sub-Questions are questions that answer your Main Inquiry question. I picked my Sub-Questions by putting down many and then choosing the best ones. These are my Sub-Questions:

What are some ways people can treat anxiety that most people say have worked successfully?
How does technology help anxiety during Coronavirus?
What are some apps that can help aid people with anxiety?
What is the most commonly used way of treating anxiety and how does it help?
How has Coronavirus changed the way of treating Anxiety?
What do people include in the apps that help people with anxiety?

Before, I was worrying that my Main Inquiry question would not have many resources. I worried that maybe all of the resources I have would not be enough. However, I looked at my resources and decided that I might actually have enough resources. In addition to the resources I have, I will do an interview! I am really excited for my Capstone. If you wanted to see some of the resources I might use, click on the link below.

On a Google Document, we need to write my resources. These are some of the resources I am going to put on the Google Document. I am hoping that soon, I will have a page full of resources!

Categories: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies8 Comments

Rube Goldberg Design

nsanders28 April 13, 2021April 30, 2021 #Blog Post #Reflections #Rube Goldberg #Science #Sketch

I have recently been working on a Rube Goldberg machine that brings your homework to you. A Rube Goldberg machine is a big chain reaction that ends up doing a simple task. My Rube Goldberg machine was getting your homework to you.

Before actually creating the machine, I had to do a lot of things before. They include, making a sketch, designing the steps, and doing some research. Designing my machine was really fun for me! I loved making the steps because I love designing things. Some challenges with the design and sketch that I had were that it was tricky to tell if my plan was going to be successful. When making the plan, I had to do a lot of changes to my steps.

The resources that I used were, The TrueFlix book on Simple Machines, I used that to create the simple machines I was going to use in my Rube Goldberg. I also used a website called Joseph’s Machines. This helped me get inspiration for my Rube Goldberg.

It has been really hard to test my machine. It took around 25 – 35 tries. I knew I needed to get the assignment done so I didn’t give up. It was very frustrating having fails at the Rube Goldberg. I didn’t like having to rebuild the whole thing after a fail. Still, I did not give up, and I kept on trying until…Success! My Rube Goldberg worked. After my father stopped the video, I was so happy that I literally jumped up and down.

I had to revise how my homework was going to get to me. At first, I thought that a ball would hit another ball so that the string attached to the homework would go down. I soon found out that plan was not going to work. I decided to make the string be attached to the ball that would get hit by another ball instead of having the ball collect the string while bouncing on the floor.

A big insight I had was when I realized that my ball had to be attached to the string. I couldn’t believe I had not thought of that before! I soon changed my plan and…Aha! My Rube Goldberg worked!

Below are the steps to my First Rube Goldberg plan.

Please click on the image to see it in full view.

Below are the steps to my Final Rube Goldberg plan.

Please click on the image to see it in full view.

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies4 Comments

Reflecting on Creating My Immigrant Interview WeVideo

nsanders28 March 16, 2021March 17, 2021 #Blog Post Reflection #Immigrant #Immigration #Project #WeVideo

I have been making a WeVideo on my Immigration Project. I posted a blog post about my interview with my mother who was the immigrant. This is the blog post: My Immigrant Interview.

I have to admit that I was not very good about the organizing. I had a lot of days to do the video but I only decided to do a couple of those days. I realize now that was a mistake. I could have spaced out the making of my video so I would have more time to do it.

In a WeVideo, you need,

Media. For me, I had to take a picture of a picture from my immigrant. I could also take stock photos.
A script. Here is a link to my script. Script for Immigration Video. When I was reviewing the video, it seemed as though something was wrong with the script. It seemed off of the right timing.
Organization. As I said before, I was not very good with the organization because I had left the making of the video to a bit less than a week.
Music. I do not think you can add your own music to your video. However, there is a lot of music on the template where you get your backgrounds and pictures.
You need to know what order to put you slides in. If I put what my mother (the immigrant I interviewed) missed ant then I put when she went to America, that would not make sense. I would have to make them in opposite order.

I am proud of myself and my classmates to have made our videos for a very big project. To me, the project was confusing at times, however, it was exciting. I have found that when I get into WeVideos, I really like making them!

Below is my video! Enjoy!

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies2 Comments

My Immigrant Interview

nsanders28 March 8, 2021March 11, 2021 #Immigration #Immigration Project #Immigration Questions #Interview #Reflection

We started a project that had to do with immigration. We had to interview an immigrant to know about how they emigrated. I interviewed my mother. My mother emigrated from London. It was a short interview but I got a lot of questions answered.

For the interview we had to,

Figure out who we were going to interview and ask them if we could record.
Make 10-15 questions that were not Yes/No questions. I had to put “Why?” at the end so they could explain.
We had to do the interview.
Finally, we had to write a blog post.

Doing this was very fun. My favorite part was writing the questions. I liked doing that part because I knew I could choose the questions. I also liked where we were paired up with partners. Our partners had to reread our interview questions just to see if they were okay. Or, If we had to change them.

These were my interview questions.

1. 1. 1. 1. What is your name and where were you born?
      2. What were your feelings when you left where you lived?
      3. Why did you leave your country?
      4. How old were you when you left your country?
      5. Was it hard leaving your country? If so, why?
      6. What were your feelings when you arrived in America? Why did you feel that way?
      7. What were some difficulties in America?
      8. What surprised you most about the new country?
      9. Did you make a family of your own? If so, who did you marry?
      10. Do you ever go back to your home country? Why?
      11. How did you get your first job? What was it?
      12. Do you like this country? If so, why?
      13. What do you miss about your home country?

I learnt some other things by interviewing my mother. I never knew that she felt straight away at home in Manhattan. I got a lot of really good answers!

We are making and immigration project where we have to incorporate the answers we got from our interview into a video.

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies3 Comments

Debate Unit Reflection

nsanders28 February 10, 2021February 11, 2021 #Counter Arguments #Debate #Plastic Bags #Research #Teamwork

In the last week or so, I was working on a debate with my group. My group consisted of 4 people including me. Me and 3 other girls. Our debatable issue was, Should Plastic Bags Be Banned? Overall, I am really proud of our final debate. Here are the steps leading to our final debate.

We were given our groups, our questions and our articles to research on.
We researched and then we did 2 other debates.
For our final debate, we had to make our script. 2 of us would have to do, Yes plastic bags should be banned (I was in this group with one other person.) and No plastic bags should not be banned.

Let me explain further what we had to do in all of these steps.

For step 1. We was given a lot of articles. We did not necessarily have to read all of them. All we needed to research were some things that had reasons for our topic, and evidence.

For step 2. We did 2 other debates once we had researched. We switched sides each time. For me, my first practice debate was No plastic bags should not be banned. My second one was, Yes plastic bags should be banned. My final debate was Yes Plastic Bags Should Be Banned.

For step 3. We made our script. We also had to make counter arguments.

In my final debate, I had forgotten to say my quote so I had to say it in the summary.

My group and I had to do a lot of Facetimes because we had to rehearse and see if our evidence was good.

I think we did very well for our debate. Overall, I think plastic bags should be banned. Although paper bags are as bad or even worse, I know that we might be able to ban plastic bags and use cloth bags and tote bags.

Categories: 5th Grade, Reading5 Comments

Constitution Project Research

nsanders28 January 24, 2021January 27, 2021 #19th Amendment #5th Grade #Constitution Project #Research #Women's Suffrage

Hi, during the past few weeks I have been doing research on my Constitution Project. It has been really fun! My class and I got to choose our own research sites and it was really fun taking notes on them! I did not take a lot of time with the research. I did one site in one day, another site on another day, and then I split up the last site into to days. You might be wondering what resources I used. I used, Factsite (Linked.) National Women’s History Museum, (Linked.) and finally, History.org (Linked.) If you are interested about the question that I picked for my project, please go to the Constitution Project Research Question blog post I posted. I think that history.org was one the site that was harder to research on. I thought it would be great because it has a lot of things about history. However, when I looked at the article, it did not have as many dates that I thought it would have. It was hard doing the research with history.org. I am really excited about the final product of my project. I can’t wait!

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies1 Comment

Constitution Project Research Question

nsanders28 January 11, 2021January 14, 2021 #19th Amendment #Research Question #Voting #Women

My class and I are about to start our Constitution Project. Each of us got to pick our own question to research on. Mine was, “What were the events that led up to the 19th Amendment?” Why did I pick this? I picked this because I knew that the 19th Amendment made women’s votes legal. I really like hearing about famous suffragettes and most of all, I love hearing about how many women took a stand against what was unfair. The questions we could ask were limited, they had to do with the Constitution so I picked the 19th Amendment. I wanted to know what happened when women took a stand for their right to vote. I can’t wait to find out!

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies3 Comments