SennaEl-KaissiHawkenProjects2024

 

 

 I was initially inspired to create this project because I remembered that back when I was a student in Coach Gold's class, every year she would have a student shadowing her for their senior project. Since I know Coach very well and I am interested in the realm of exercise science and physical activity, I thought this would be a perfect fit. I am very happy to have met my initial project goal of gaining experience in the physical education field and getting a better understanding of how active young kids are. The only thing I would have enjoyed more would be spending more time with the school's physical therapist for the Great Expectations program. I did not know there was a physical therapist at the school until one of my final days so I would have liked to spend more time with her, but I did enjoy speaking to her about her past jobs and how she chose her field specification. One thing I learned about myself throughout the project was to hold my ground and be confident. One ti...

There is a program at Orange called Storm Helpers, in which 4th and 5th graders can give up their recess to come to the gym and help teach the kindergarten classes. Two girls and two boys are allowed to help every day. I am so torn with this program because it has so many positive and negative aspects. In theory, it helps the big kids develop leadership skills and takes some of the load off of the gym teachers. The helpers are supposed to demonstrate activities and help some of the kids who don't understand the rules. With such a busy schedule, it truly is helpful to be able to get a break and let the 5th graders move the equipment and stand up and play with the kids. However, there are some storm helpers who take advantage of the program instead of treating it as a privilege. Sometimes, there are helpers that just clique together with the other helpers, and completely ignore the kindergarteners. For example, there was a kid crying, and just a couple of feet away were the "hel...

At Orange, there is a class called Outdoor Science. In this class, the students learn hands-on about basic chemistry, biology, and physics. When the students are in 4th grade, they get a 2-day "Outdoor Science" event, where they travel through different stations led by different teachers. There is a Tie-dye station on solubility, an egg drop station on physics, a car racing station about physics, A station with the music teachers where you sing a song about the circle of life, a recyclable art station with the art teachers, a predator and prey station about the food chain, and some others that I have already forgotten. The gym teachers were leading the Predator and Prey station, and they developed three fun games to demonstrate the relationship between animals. The station started with a 10-minute lesson on what a predator and prey are, what an ecosystem is, how/why animal populations fluctuate, adaptation, what it means to be extinct, and factors that can affect animal popul...

 One thing I have learned about myself is that I need to hold my ground more. To my surprise, many of my students will lie or manipulate me to get what they want. For example, one time my mentor was not in the room, and two students asked me to go to the bathroom. When I was at Orange, the policy was one at a time to go the bathroom, so I assumed that it would be the same now. I told the girls that one could go, and when she got back the other could go. However, they said that Coach Gold always lets them go to the bathroom at the same time, so I believed them. Just as I let them go, however, Coach Gold spotted them and told them that they had to go one at a time to the bathroom. Despite my believing that they should go one at a time because I was new and didn't know the policy, I let myself get pushed over by a couple of fourth graders. This instance taught me to hold my ground on what I think is right, and more importantly, ask questions if I am not sure about something. A similar...

 What has surprised me the most so far is the students I have been working with. The student's behaviors and attitudes were not what I would expect from elementary schoolers. For example, it is a common trend that students have issues with dealing with losses. In gym, the majority of activities are competitive, and thus have a winner and a loser. Not all, but many kids seem to have a fear of losing. The kids tend to believe that there is no way that they could lose, therefor there must be something wrong with the game or the kids playing it. This leads to arguments with teachers and students and a lot of assigning blame. I don't think I have ever heard the words "you cheated" more in my life. My mentor and I have had to break up several disputes between students about cheating and the rules of the games. In fact, despite very clear game instructions, the kids seemingly bend the rules to fit their best interests, sparking the problems in the first place. For example, i...

  Orange: Coach Gold's classes Black: Coach Z's classes Plan: 30-minute break to plan new activities

 While working with the kids, I have noticed and learned a lot that I wouldn't have expected. First, contrary to what I was expecting, the kids are more receptive to a video demonstration of an activity than a live physical demonstration. I believe that this is because of the increasing use of technology and the amount of time that kids spend watching YouTube or TV. Since they are so used to staring at a screen, watching a video of the activity is far more engaging than watching the coaches demonstrate. Second, I learned that validation is a necessity for the kids. I would estimate that the coaches and I give out a total of about 3-6 ice packs per day, and while some of these may be deserved, the majority are not. Most of the time, a kid will get hit with a foam ball or bump into someone, and then ask a coach for an ice pack. Miraculously, within a minute of having the ice pack, the injury has disappeared, and the kid is ready to play again. My hunch is that the injuries are not ma...

 On my first day with Coach Gold, I got to Orange and began my day at 8:50. Since Wednesdays are Coach Gold's busiest days, there wasn't too much time outside of classes. We had 10 PE classes that day, with each class lasting 30 min. The classes were all of different grades, and there were different activities for different age groups because of the different skill levels of the children. This was a very important piece to understand because it is something that I probably wouldn't have thought about: Kindergarteners should not be expected to perform at the same level as 5th graders. Typically, each class plays two activities, a warm-up, and a main game, both corresponding to the current unit. Additionally, each homeroom has gym class twice a week, and each unit lasts for two weeks, so 4 different classes have to be planned per unit. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier with skill levels, there have to be different activities for different age groups, so Kindergarten through 2...

In the future, I hope to work in the exercise science/sports medicine/physical therapy field, and it all started when I was very little. As a kid, I was a proud member of Coach Gold's gym class (except for one year when I got moved to another Teacher). Coach Gold also coached my rec volleyball team, so she was a big role model for me. In fact, for a very long time, I wanted to be a gym teacher too, carrying around a whistle just like her. As I got older, I became more confident that something in that same physical activity genre was something I wanted to pursue. I have been coaching a couple teams lately and it has been fun, and I want to take a step further and work with different age groups. I just wrapped up a volleyball coaching job where I taught beginners grades 4th through 8th volleyball, and Coach Gold works with kindergarten through 5th for her gym class and high schoolers for volleyball. Since this stretches outside what I have done in the past, My goal is to learn more a...