This past week I got to be involved with two different programs. The first program, was the annual Valentine's Day Dance, that Dr. Craft puts on with the Cortland community. This was my third adaptive dance that I got to help out with. Before the dance, all the volunteers come together to learn the dances, and decorate the dance studio. Each person gets to help lead the dance with the assistance of other volunteers. Our students ranged from young children, to older folks who live in group community homes. Everyone here is unique and very talented. As a volunteer I was able to help modify different dances for the students. For some, the movements were too fast, or there were too many. Instead, I would see what the ability of the student was and then design a dance for them, where they could follow at their own pace. The students were really happy to be at the dance. Many of them wanted to keep dancing, some did not even leave the dance studio to get refreshments. In this type of environment, the students are free to let go and have fun. It is a safe place, where no one is going to judge. With this environment it also allows for the students try new things. During a dance, one student sang the whole song, while we danced to it. That was really cool to see him have the courage to sing. For many of the students, the feedback I gave to them, was positive reinforcement and kind words. It is not my place to say " you are doing that step wrong , your arms need to be more at your side" I would instead compliment them on the things that they were doing. For example, " wow great job at hand clapping , show me what move we should do next" . If I could make any improvements it would be to try to have some of the students interact more with each other. I'm sure the students like the one on one attention, but I think it would be goo to have more group dances, if possible. Overall, I really liked leading dances with adults and children with disabilities living in the Cortland community. It is a nice time for everyone, and you know what they say " time flies when you are having fun ". The dance is a great way to celebrate the holiday, and to reach out to the community, and not just the campus of Cortland.
The second program that I got to help out in was our weekly Challengers program for children. I would say that this week, was a lot of on the fly teaching. About ten minutes before the class started, we were told that our teaching plans were changing, which basically made everyone a little nervous. At the beginning of the program, myself and another teacher are given two students. We do an activity with them, then bring them in for the main portion of the lesson, then at the end our two students come back to us for a conclusion. My partner and I picked up with the activities that we were doing from last week. Since we have two of the older boys, they really like to run and be active. In our game of red light, green light, everybody got a turn. Since my partner and I could see that our students were doing well with this, we decided to try to throw some tricks in the game by calling out " blue light" or any random word that we could think of. Out students really liked this activity. After ten minutes our students went to the main group activity. My job was to observe the teachers and give them feedback. I thought their activities were really good. In our program we have one student who is smaller then the rest, and over all needs more assistance. With the lessons to come, I really hope that me and the other teachers can get her involved. One awesome thing that I saw the teachers do, was stress safety. They constantly repeated themselves. At the end of our lesson, some of the feedback that I was able to give, was to not be shy. Instead be ready to participate, laugh and have fun. at first it can be a little scary going into a gymnasium full of children. The two boys that I was working with really began to get comfortable at the end of the class. My goal for next week, is to pick up where we left off. The behavior of my two students and the rest of the children was once again really impressive. We have a great group of children, and they make the program as good as it is. As we continue to build the program, I hope to see more children improve and learn. We can adapt any of the games to make sure the children are participating. I cant wait to see what we are going to have for next week.
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