Final Reflection
Taking a moment to look back at Capstone.
As my senior year comes to a close, I found myself thinking about what I have learned and how far I have come personally throughout highschool. Through trial and error I have found myself reflecting not only on my project but also myself, The beginning of my senior year I was extremely stressed about finding a good college, maintaining grades and friendships, and trying to focus on managing my stress better. I had no idea what to do for my capstone project and found myself stressed out and going to do something I was not passionate about teaching and researching. Thanks to my wonderful teacher and classmate, I was able to do something to help myself and others. Mindfulness and stress management truly has made a difference in my life and being able to teach others about it has made me grow and change as a person.
At the beginning of capstone, I found myself unmotivated and indecisive of what to do. I kept hearing from teachers and students “You should pick something that you are passionate about” “Make sure you have background knowledge about it” or even “It’s community service so give back to your community” and as some would be in this situation, I completely drew a blank on what to do. I was talking to another student one day and she tried to help me with brainstorming topics and hobbies that I talk about, then, she said “ why don’t you just teach mindfulness?’ and it all clicked. I didn’t know who or what about mindfulness I was going to teach but I knew it had to incorporate mindfulness and exercises to cope with stress and emotions. Originally I was going to teach middle schoolers at the Boys and Girls Club in New Britain exercises of how to manage emotions and stress but it didn’t end up happening because of policies and communication with the directors so again I was lost. Again. Then my mom had told me to call around some schools which I hadn’t thought about doing so I got on the phone and called numerous schools around my area. Like I thought was going to happen, I was turned down and rejected from schools due to covid and the teachers not having availability for outside speakers. Then I stumbled across Kinsella in Hartford, I asked to speak to the principal to tell her my idea for my capstone and was put through her office. My heart was racing because I thought I was going to get rejected again but after I explained my lessons and goal of the teachings The principal agreed that students need this especially right now because of COVID and the distance lockdown restrictions. The principal connected me to Mrs.Marchetti who is a 2nd grade teacher at Kinsella in Hartford. I was extremely nervous but ready to share my knowledge with others, my biggest challenge was having to simplify my lessons so that they’d understand what I was teaching them.
From November to May I taught the children and it has definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things. I grew and learned more about myself from struggles and was able to get through to a crowd who I never thought I would have the pleasure in teaching. The children were absolutely amazing and interactive, they were giving me feedback on lessons and telling me their experiences with stress and emotions along with what they do to “be happy”. I felt like I really was able to connect with them and even after I had my 15 hours I still wanted to teach them and found something else I was passionate about which is children development. I also learned how to handle my stress/emotions better since I had done lots of research on exercises for them to do along with beginning to get over my fear of public speaking and getting to know others on a deeper level and understanding. I am grateful for capstone and the lessons it has taught me for the outside world, as capstone is coming to a close I am beginning to reflect on failures and triumphs I have had throughout my senior year and how appreciative I am to have a class like this at SMSA.