Observation day 2

Today I volunteered at Avalon again; I taught 2 lessons.

The 10 AM Lesson: Mary, a mildly downs, heavily CD girl
This lesson almost turned my whole project around. Mary was, to put it nicely, difficult. We began by asking her to do her stretches, which she refused. We stopped Renny (her horse), and told her he wouldn't walk until she stretched. It didn't work. Finally, the instructor Sarah came over and said that the only stretches Mary will do are touching Renny's ears and tail. Fine. We did the stretches, and then began the rest of her lesson - most of which was just walking. We did do a little trotting, which she did well at, but in general, it was difficult to get her to follow directions and speak. Mary's biggest challenge is "using her words." Needless to say, at the end of the lesson I was worn out and relieved to be done. I asked Sarah (the instructor) what the deal was. Sarah said that she had talked with Mary's dad who said that Mary has begun to shut down. If you push her, she pushes back harder and it's like banging your head against the wall. On the plus side though, he said that she does better here, and is more willing to participate in Avalon than she is at home or at school. The horses do seem to help a little; albeit not as much as one would like.

The 12 pm: David, a blind, severely learning disabled boy
David was a blast compared to Mary. He sat on his horse (Fritz) and smiled and giggled straight through. With David, we're primarily working on balance, so we do a lot of trotting, circles, weaving, ect. He did his stretches when asked, and responded well to directions from "the right" or "the left." We also played catch for awhile (quite a challenge when blind! haha). Educationally, David is working on learning to read braille, so we worked on that a little bit too. (The letters on the wall that we use also have braille dots). We mostly worked on spelling his name, which he did pretty well at, although doesn't seem to understand what it is he's doing. His mom also volunteered during the lesson, which David seemed to enjoy. She said that Avalon has really helped with the braille thing. Apparently in school he just sits there and lacks complete interest. Doing in on horseback in short doses seems to have made a difference for him. In general though, most of David's lesson was just working on his balance and giggling. haha

so I read over Michelle's progress report and it looked good, but I have to say....I have no understanding for what the assignment is here. Well, I understand the assignment, I just have no idea how to find logical arguments - ick. Ah well, at least I've read over the progress reports right?

Working on my progress report - it's coming along. I'm a little concerned about this new - send it out the night before - thing, since I wasn't planning on having a completed, other people can read it, copy yet...but maybe its for the best.

Its just hard with my other classes - I spend my time worrying about them, and this sort of catches up on me. Well, I'm going to stop procrastinating and get back to work.

Volunteered today - I actually just got home. I jotted down observations while I was there, but I'll put them in an organized fashion here.

I simply observed the 11 o'clock lesson:
*3 riders, 1 certified instructor, 1 un-certified instructor, and 8 volunteers
*1 mentally handicapped rider, 2 mental and physically handicapped riders
*In general, the lessons consisted mostly on riding form, however one rider (Garrett) worked on other stuff: (Garrett is severely mentally and physically handicapped, he's 14 years old but is at a beginning reading level)
-He started out with warmup stretches - hands over the head, "airplane arms," reaching forward, backward, ect (physical therapy stuff)
-Sarah (the certified instructor) and the three volunteers working with him (using the horse, Fritz) then began work on spelling exercises. He began by spelling out his name with the letters on the wall, and naming three words that started with each letter. They then played categories while walking around (to keep the movement strengthening his hips). Categories is exactly what it sounds; they did "sports" so for each letter, Garrett and the volunteers had to come up with a word. They took a break after that to play horse basketball and do some trotting, but then got right back to school work. Garrett was given a mini version of a few of the pictures on the wall, and had to find them. Once he had directed the horse to the picture, he had to stop, back up, name the animal on the photo and spell it. This all pretty much took up the whole lesson.
-I've worked with Garrett personally for a few years, (longer than the instructor even!) so it's safe to say that this lesson was incredibly productive for him. Most lessons with Garrett are a lot of giggling. Sarah, (the instructor), thought part of the reason today went so well was the change in the horse used (from Renny to Fritz), as well as having the requried 3 volunteers to help (instead of being short handed). Volunteers kept him on task.

I sidewalked and taught the 12 o'clock lesson:
*Kerry, a mildly learning disabled 10 year old girl, on Fritz with 2 experienced volunteers and myself
*The lesson consisted of:
-Initial warm up stretches (the same as those done for Garrett)
-We then worked on steering for awhile - weaving cones, turning circles, stopping, backing up. This primarily worked on her direction following skills - she was very responsive and seemed to enjoy it.
-Then we got into some spelling and english stuff. First, we worked through a set of flashcards that has a picture on the front of an object, and a word on the back. We asked Kerry to name the object on the front (horse, envelope, cup, ect). Depending on the object, we then asked follow up questions. (Name the colors of the socks, where is the animal from, what are two other words that start with that letter, ect). We did this activity for 20 minutes, and then played basketball for a bit as a break. We then spelled out her name, naming off 3 other things that start with each letter. She was required to steer to each letter as well as back up and stop at each letter (more direction following). We finished off with quite a bit of trotting, since that's what she's really been working on.
*Reflections: I asked Sarah about the lesson when it concluded. She said that Kerry is usually very easy, and responsive to instructions. She has a hard time understanding directions sometimes, so working on that was key. Spelling and language is something she needs help with, so her lessons are directed mostly at direction following and linguistic skills. Sarah said that the lesson today was very focused for her, although she seemed a little "down". (Weather related?) Overall, Sarah said that it was a good lesson (yay me! haha)

Posting a blog....let's say. No progress on the progress report as of yet - that's this weekend/next week's project more than likely.

Exams yesterday went terribly. Quiz tomorrow that I should be studying for, but I'm going to run instead - woohoo. It's beautiful out!

I have absolutely nothing to say today, this is just a horrible waste of space. So with that, everyone enjoy their day

still frantically studying

Nothing new to report - still studying for my exams and stuff. That being said, my progress report will include the following: (I'm counting this as my draft for now since this week has been Hell)

Volunteering scheduled
-Monday and Tuesday: morning hours at Park Lawn Elementary
-Wendesday/Thursday: 10 AM to 3 PM at Avalon TEC
-This Saturday the 24th: 10 AM to 2PM at Avalon TEC

Interviews scheduled
-Patrick Middleton: after class (during the morning recess)
-Sandie Petersen: phone interview to be scheduled at a later date
-Jenny Stamm: may not be possible as she is on materinity leave again

Research conducted
-previous research (as listed on a MUCH earlier blog)
-more research pending

Questions set up:
-"What is the most challenging educational aspect of this job?"
-"What makes the teaching challenging?" or "What environmental factors are most causal to your challenges?"
-"What changes, if any, would you make to improve educational successes within your environment?"
-"How do you feel about the success in Hippotherapy?"

Questions are proving challenging, since I don't want to "lead the witness," nor do I want to attack one group or another as being less successful.

It's been awhile - kind of a rotten week. Plus, blogger was down a few times this week so I couldn't even get on to blog (although honestly speaking, I wouldn't have had time to.)

Technically, I don't have time now, but I'm ordering pizza and I'm waiting for the order to go through.

Big exams this week - lots of exams that I need A's on, lots of exams on material I don't understand. Woo hoo.

As a consequence, I haven't even considered the progress report. I have made some progress though:
*Contacted and confirmed observation/volunteering with Patrick Middleton
*I have confirmed observations at OMS (whether or not I chose to do it - we'll see. Time is pretty tight)
*Confirmed observation/volunteer dates at Avalon TEC.
*Got permission from parents, authoritys to do observations. Tape recording won't be possible, but I guess that means I'll just have to journal more detailed than I otherwise would have.

My time that week is really tight - I'm training for a job during the summer. I also have a ton of doctors appointments that just had to be scheduled (but I wont go into that). It should work out though - I have 14 hours planned out between Avalon and School observations...so it should be enough.

Alright, pizza is ready. See you Monday

nothing really to report

Blogging 3 times a week if super difficult when there isn't anything to report. Well, here's what I've accomplished this week:

I contacted Patrick Middleton and set up days to observe and times. I even get to help out! I'm pretty pysched about that, cause I love the kids in his class right now....they're fun (the same ones from when I TAed a long time ago)


So that's the update...good stuff...see you all Wendesday.

presentation reflection

My presentation was yesterday.. Overall it felt like it went pretty good. My relfections:
*Probably could have spoken slower (yucky time crunch)
*I wish I had explained some of the pictures (but, again, I was worried about the time)
*I also feel like I might have been shifty

My reviews were overall, pretty positive. Mostly people told me that my graphics were very helpful (although one review said that some of them seemed pointless; that's why I wish I had explained them). Some said I seemed nervous, while others said I seemed confident and knowledgable. Most said my project seemed technical and complicated - but very well researched.
I guess all of those are fair - the way something looks will be different for everybody.

One comment was particularly interesting:
"Consider child:teacher ratio"

Well, I definately hadnt, but I think thats a HUGE part of the difference in the environments. I'm thinking about directing my project into that direction also. We'll see.

Todays thoughts

We started presentations today - it was neat to see what other people are doing. My project seems pretty different from them at first, but I think that's what's cool about this assignment.

Anyway, update on the project. This weekend, I went home and took pictures for my presentation. It was nice to get back to Avalon, it's like a second home for me.

I really have no idea what to blog about in here. Nothing has changed for my project. I completed the presentation, and because I haven't actually started the project, I didn't make any changes from the proposal. Nothing has really developed or changed yet, since my original idea changed at the beginning of the course.

Oh well, heres to knocking one blog out for the week.

Completed my presentation today....now all that's left is detail stuff - pictures, animations?, editing....practice

Looks good though!

While doing the presentation, I thought of some details that may change with my final project. I may not be interviewing all 4 people - I might just do Patrick Middleton and Sandie Petersen. Also, I may not tape record. We'll see.