Personal Reflections

Fitness Station Reflection

            I really found this assignment interesting and fun. Focusing on one area at a time made it a lot easier to see how important each different area is. I was glad that it made fitness planning seems less scary. At the same time we had a bit of a hard time finding just the right activity, there were so many to choose from! It is great that simple games can be used to create fitness skills and also make it easier to see where students are struggling without having to test them in any embarrassing way. I really enjoyed getting to participate in the different stations created; they were fun and made me feel like a kid for a little while.

Lesson Process Reflection

            Creating this lesson plan was an adventure. It was tough finding axial movement activities that seemed interesting and fun. I like the animal stretches lesson as soon as I found it because I work with Preschool children and my go-to rainy day activity is "The Monkey Dance" by the Wiggles or "Animal Action" by Greg & Steve it is a fun and engaging way to get kids moving without need more than a stereo and some dance space. I think that the into, through, and beyond method is an effective way of breaking a lesson down in a easy to use way. Getting to practice lesson planning and execution gave me a great sense of confidence in my ability to administer a lesson on anything, I appreciated the practice when I had to do a lesson plan in another class.

Children with Special Needs Blog

            I found these videos to be very fascinating and in depth perspective of children with special needs. It was interesting to see the history of autism in the video about Temple Grandin. Seeing the way that doctors and researcher studied and figured out the spectrum and went from mother shaming to realizing that it was biological tells so much about how horrible it must have been for children and their families growing up with autism while it was still unknown. What I found most interesting about Temple Grandin is that she was the first to be able to tell what it is like to be autistic, that it is not just craziness, but fixation and anxiety that can be managed and understood. As far as how it affects me as a teacher I think it solidified my belief that getting down to a child level to understand is always the best way to go. I have worked with children for years, mostly in the non verbal infant and toddler range, and realized the benefits of thinking the way they think and understanding the way they see the world is the most important way to meet their needs. I will always strive to carry that idea through to the elementary level because remembering that the world looks different from the age means I will be more able to address their need for understanding.

            The Anat Baniel Method was so interesting! I loved the progress you see in the children and the way that it isn't about all children should be "here and this age" it is about guiding the children through the different levels at a pace that works for them. For me it wasn't as surprising that these children could do all these things, I have had infants in my care before that have been labeled as delayed, because they were "drug babies," that most people believed would always fall behind in their abilities. I never liked looking at it that way, and neither did my co-teacher, together we would work with them and slowly helped them learn to do all the things others said they wouldn't. Without realizing it I think we were using this method and it works. It is hard work and it takes a lot of dedication, but it is so worth it. To be able to look at one of my students that was supposed to be delayed and unable to do so many things not only meeting milestones but surpassing them always made me so happy.

            The last video made me so happy. I loved the way that Emily interacted with her students. She treated them with respect and dignity as well as expecting reasonable expectations of them. I feel like children with special needs are like toddlers when it comes to the way they think and how people treat them. I have noticed that people like to believe that toddlers are not smart enough or old enough to understand most basic instructions or social interactions and consequences. I noticed a lot of similarities between the way I treat my toddlers and how Emily treats and speaks to her students. I loved watching the way she talked to them, while not babying them like most tend to do she spoke directly to them and addressed their needs as well as reminding them of the people around them. She didn't reprimand them for making mistakes in physical touches but she also didn't let them slide for it either, which is something that not a lot of people can do. It is easy for people to let children with special needs make mistakes and have behavioral problems because they believe that those children just don't know better or they pity them. This just cause them to not know that what they are doing may be unacceptable behavior and they then believe it is okay; when someone takes offense or is uncomfortable they don't understand why it is wrong when it was never wrong before. This can be extremely frustrating for a child. I enjoyed the concept of creating a community of acceptance where other students could realize that children with special needs are relatable and are not someone to shy away from or pity, but to befriend and respect as peers that think and act a little differently.

Fat Like Me Blog

            My thought about watching Fat Like Me is that I wasn’t going to be too interested in the concept because I lived it. I know what that is like and as glad as I am that she got the experience to see what that is like the other girl was right, we don’t get to take it off at the end of the day. At the end of the day that girl had a onetime experience that will make her a better person, and maybe be nicer to her over weight classmates. At the end of the day though it had hasn’t done much for the rest population. Ali said she doubted the sincerity of the students apologies and reasoning because they found out she was skinny. I agree with her, the only children that seemed to sincerely consider this new struggle were the ones that were in Ali’s class and asked her questions not knowing they were being recorded and Amanda during the interviews. The others seemed to only care because they knew they were on camera and their principle was sitting right there. The others seemed to have an air of trying to backtrack since they had been caught, or act like they didn’t know their words are hurtful. When Sean told John that he just need to say something I knew that he hadn’t grasp anything. John was right, it is easier for people to fight back when they are confident in themselves, but a person that has been made fun of their whole life does not feel enough self worth to argue, because at that point you are already telling yourself that it is true so why fight it.

            For myself I felt like Crystal growing up. My sister and brother had the metabolism of my maternal grandfather’s side of the family and the attractive features of both sides of my family. I however, got the metabolism of the men of my dad’s side of the family and the bad combinations of some of my parent’s features. For example; my mom’s curly hair that doesn’t dry straight combined with my dad’s straight hair that doesn’t curl well either, so it more is a big weird poof when I don’t spend time managing it. I know that they don’t understand because they have never had to deal with the fact that we could eat the same thing in the same amount and did different things to us both. I can’t count how many “well if you just…” statements I heard growing up. My family could not understand the struggle that I went through. While now I have been able to begin finding the self confidence and beauty in myself, it was really hard to find that in myself during my school age years and into my young adult years. I am glad there are programs now that help parent’s learn to better support their children become better, but even now I don’t see that in all the school systems, or even in the area around us.

            I liked what Christiane had to say about the way that the weight can control not just the way people treated and looked at you, but also the way that you thought about yourself and what you wore. The fashion industry and beauty standards of our culture made me wear sweats and “mom jeans” in junior high and high school. You don’t want to go shopping because it is almost impossible to find things in your size and being in public you didn’t even look at cute top or dress because you knew that someone would say something about it. And you are subconscious that everyone will actually notice you, and not in a positive way. Ali’s experience was it was just a small version of what people with a weight problem have to go through and I am glad that it is included. Amanda’s reaction and light bulb moment is exactly what I wanted to see come from this experience.

            This documentary is important for the majority of the population that may not live with this problem everyday but can get a comprehensive look and understand. I think this should be shown to students at the junior high and high school level at least. It is a way that children can see what their ideas and words can do to a person and maybe develop a sense of empathy for their fellow students. Like Carly said, it is sad that Ali had to go through this experience just to grasp a small bit of understanding. For students such as myself, this experiment was not mind blowing, it was a reminder of what life used to be like and sometimes still is; I still hate shopping for clothes and spend a lot of time worrying what other people see me as. The documentary was interesting and I enjoyed hearing that programs and plans where being made to help combat this problem, but it is only the beginning and I to see more to help.

Performance Level Blog

            This assignment was really fun and interesting. I really like the hands on learning aspect, it was really informative to see how all the different levels of skills look (Thanks for the accurate portrayal Marco) and how to better teacher each to those skill levels. I think as adults we forget what it was like to not know how to do these skills because we have already been experts on that skill for years; it made trying to do the beginning work so much harder and I can now imagine how daunting these must seem to small children. Creating developmentally appropriate lesson plans for physical activities is so important for the K-6 group because that is when most self-esteem issues begin and if you create lessons that exclude those that are behind the curve on a skill you are helping foster a feeling of inadequacy and low self esteem in children. Children are less likely to want to try activities if they believe that they will be reprimanded or made fun of because of their skill level. Improving children's abilities and enjoyment of physical fitness requires patience, understanding, and a willingness to accommodate those needs.

Supervision and Bullying Blog

            I have worked in preschool, after-school programs, and daycare for 8 years now and watching that video was painful. To see those teachers not actively observing and moving about the play yard was shocking to me. I am hopeful that this is an exaggerated example of neglect and not the norm of teachers. Children's safety and well-being is important and no trivial conversation should ever take precedent over that. It is important for teachers to know that teaching children about empathy and kindness are just as important as academics. For example, when I have students that have hurt each other in some way (a bite, a scratch, pushed down, hit, etc.) I make that an opportunity for learning. The child that has done the hurting helps fix it; they help their classmate up, hold the ice pack, ask the injured child what they can do to help them feel better, apologize, or whatever is need to help their classmate. By allowing children to understand the consequences of their actions and the effect it has on their victims you help them develop empathy and an understanding that their classmates feel just as they do.