4/12/2012 Chalking and New Games

    This week in class we started our long group presentations. The first group did a project where we went outside and drew with chalk about our days, our feelings on different things, and general reflection. They designed this as an activity for people with HIV/AIDS, but I can see how this would work for a multitude of populations. I think it would be beneficial for children who are experiencing bullying, victims of domestic violence, or patients with mental disorders. I feel that it would be best aimed at populations that want to focus on the mental aspect of therapy rather than the physical. I liked doing this activity because I've had a stressful week, and it gave me a chance to relax, look back on it, and vent my frustrations. It allowed me to look back on not just my day, but I looked back for several years. We had the chance to write a letter to anyone we wanted. Patients participating in this activity may write to their abuser, to their disease, or a person that they miss which is what I chose to do. There were times in the activity when I was happy, frustrated, sentimental, and finally at peace with it all. I can see doing this in the future as an activity with whatever population I work with.
   The second group led us in New Games. This is something I was familiar with from REC 200. They attempted to adapt the games to different populations. This is always a tricky task when participants don't actually have a specific impairment. We played several games where there was no winner or looser. This can be a difficult concept when working with competitive, college-age students. I like new games because they are good for children who are not good at competitive games and find them discouraging. They are best for children or participants with developmental disabilities. With new games it is important to make sure directions are explained clearly because participants often look for a motive or a winner in the game which is not what new games are about. Without clear directions the games can be frustrating, but when you understand the concept of the game, anyone can have a good time. I can see doing new games in my future career if I work with children with autism, but not if I work with the elderly.
    Next week my group will present and we will have the opportunity to see many more possible activities to do in the future.

Innovative Activity #6: Hooping

   
 Hooping is a new form of exercise and therapy that uses one simple tool found in any elementary school gym class and many childhood garages. Hooping is now starting to take off as a form of therapy most often found in clinical settings and settings where clients are working an increasing their self-esteem. The participant group can range from children in a pediatric unit receiving cancer treatment, to elderly patients in long-term care, to people in incarceration. Hooping provides low intensity exercise, but classes are offered that can burn a significant amount of calories. Hooping can prove therapeutic to people with low self-esteem because a hoop is something participants can control yet they can also learn from the hoop's changing ways. The rhythmic motion can be soothing to participants with sensory disorders. The exercise will help some participants gain self confidence because exercise physically improves bodies as well as raising endorphin levels making participants feel good about themselves afterward. This activity can be adapted to a number of populations because even if participants are unable to use the hoop around their waist, they may still be able to twirl it around an arm or wrist. Watching hoop dancers could also be a means of therapy in itself because watching them could be relaxing. I can't think of any populations that hooping would not be fit for.
    Hooping at its most basic involves revolving a hoop around your hips in a rhythmic pattern. Hoops can be twirled around arms and legs as well. Classes are offered in which hooping is done to music. Here is an example of what looks to be a beginner hoop fitness class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijNWiqr9tHc&feature=related. Participants gradually become better at hooping and start to hone their techniques. Here is an example of a young woman on Ellen, proving how popular this activity is becoming for exercise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkaskuVeHos&feature=related. This is an activity that can be done alone or in a group session. Classes are becoming more popular as more teachers become certified. Classes are more commonly offered in larger cities, but soon there may be classes offered in the La Crosse area.
    The only resource someone needs to participate is a hula-hoop. These can be quite inexpensive, but prices go up as hoops become more decorative or heavier for more intense exercise. A participant can choose to take classes, purchase workout DVDs, or purchase books on the subject. These would be an extra cost, but they are not necessary because there are many informational videos on youtube.com.
   I learned about hooping from a guest speaker in our class. Much more information can be found online. Some resources I found helpful include the following: http://www.hoopgirl.com/index.php, http://www.hoopcity.ca/forum/topics/hooping-as-therapy-for-state-hospital-residents?xg_source=activity, and http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20110210/hula-hoop-workouts-burn-calories.

4/5/2012 Hooping!

    This week in class we were told that we were going to learn about therapeutic hula-hooping. I didn't really know what this meant, but I love hula-hooping so I was pretty excited for it. When I told my friends what I was going to be doing in class, they looked at me like I was crazy, but I just told them that I have the best major and have fun studying for your tests. We had a guest speaker named Alli who taught us why hooping is so great. It turns out that hooping is great exercise as well as relaxing when you are stressed out. She made me think about hooping in a way that I had never thought about it before. She showed us how to dance with the hoop and just let yourself be free. Her energy was contagious!
   Hooping is an activity that I had not thought much about previous to this class, but now I am thinking about the different ways I could use it in the future. I think you could use it with students in a residence hall as a de-stress program, with elderly participants as a gentle way of getting moving, with youth at risk as a different means of self expression, and so many more.
    I was surprised in myself during class because I thought I would fee awkward and uncomfortable during some of the activities, but I found myself letting go. I wish we could have done more with the hoops than we did. I think if a hooping class were offered on campus, I would be one of the first to sign up. I would really like to learn more about hooping and I think I might soon be doing some research on the topic. Hopefully I can find some helpful books and Alli said to check out youtube for great videos. Here's a pretty cool example of hoop dancing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j46ll2_jR7k. Now I'm off to find more about hooping!

3/29/2012 Presentations

    Today everyone presented their projects on different adapted activities. My group presented on adapted hunting and fishing. It wasn't the most exciting topic, but I think we put together an alright presentation. The first group presented their project on kayaking. They seemed truly interested in their topic and got the class to do an activity similar to what we do in class for other activities. The second group told us all about adapted cycling. This was a cool presentation because they brought in two hand cycles and we all got to try them out. This may have been the highlight of my day. That is definitely an experience I would not have gotten anywhere else. Group three did their entire presentation on goalball. I expected them to do a little more, but we did get the chance to play that too which made the presentation more interesting. Group four had extreme sports. Sadly we didn't get to participate in any sports for this one, but they told us about a lot of sports I didn't know much about. I think my favorite one was Hardcore Sitting. It involves using a wheelchair in many of the same tricks that people do on skateboards. Here's an example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWfw_uUrWC8. The last group to present before us taught everyone about chair yoga. It was a pretty simple concept to me because it is something I have learned about before. We also got to try that out.
   As I said, my group presented on hunting and fishing. I don't think our topic lived up to the exciting standard that had been set for us by other groups, but I think we shared a lot of good information with the class. In working on the project I learned a lot about different types of equipment used for adaptations. I also learned about organizations that had adapted fishing programs. I was excited to learn that there are several in Wisconsin. I don't know that I have a lot of interest in doing adapted hunting or fishing in my future, but one day I might use what I learned to help someone who is interested in it.
    Today I learned about a lot of inspiring activities. Hopefully in my future as a TRS I will get to try many of these out. Next week we are going to learn about Hula-Hooping; I'm excited to see where this goes!

3/22/2012 Day of Silence and Darkness

    This week's class was spent concentrating on not just people with visual impairments or people with hearing impairments, but instead we learned about people who deal with both at the same time. We watched several videos at the beginning of class about leading people with visual impairments and a video about deaf-blind theater. Our first activity was to lead a blindfolded partner around campus. Personally I found that it was easier to be led than to be the leader. Being blindfolded made me more aware of the unevenness of the sidewalks. The next two activities involved one group being blindfolded and the other group leading them without being able to vocally communicate. We did tape art and a project with modeling clay. I found leading my participant in tape art to be particularly challenging partly because I didn't know exactly what I was doing myself. The modeling clay activity was confusing both participating and leading. We were trying to make specific shapes, and it was hard to communicate that without words.
    I didn't have any goals at the start of class but was simply ready to learn. During class my goal became just to understand everything that was going on around me. I learned that patience is more important than I first gave it credit for. I expected it to be challenging to lead a participant without talking, but it was hard not to force the participant to do something and still stay on task. It was tricky to know when I needed to provide more assistance and when I should just let the person use their own creativity. I'm glad I got to have a little first hand experience working with a participant without being able to verbally or visually communicate. I would like to have more training in this area because I feel there is a lot more I could learn about communication. I'm glad that I do know a little sign language, but here that didn't even matter. As instructors we were all on the same playing field. Working with people with hearing impairments is something I had considered as a possible career field, but I had never thought further to people with a hearing impairment and another disability. I'm not sure that I would want to work with that population, but if I did I would certainly look to get as much training as possible.
   Here's an example of one of the videos we watched. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgcm83tyv3Y

Article Review: innovation in leadership

  The article I read was called "Innovation Leadership: how to use innovation to lead effectively, work collaboratively and drive results". It was from the Center for Creative Leadership. The authors are David Horth and Dan Buchner. I located this article before spring break by doing a search about leadership and innovation using Google.
   This article was written for business professionals who are looking to improve their workplace. The article focused on not doing the same things simply because they have always been done, but rather trying new ideas and not being afraid of failure. Economic instability meant that you don't know what the future holds so you can do what you did in the past and expect it to produce positive results. Doing the same things will only give you the same results; if you want improved results, you need to be open to new options.
    Leaders need to be open to listening to ideas of their employees and customers. Employees also need to keep their minds open and be willing to adapt their ideas to improve them. This is their two tiered approach: innovative leadership and leadership for innovation. There were six innovative thinking skills to help business people. These included: paying attention, notice what is going unnoticed; personalizing, using your own and customers personal experiences; imaging, using pictures and metaphors; serious play, exploration and prototyping; collaborative inquiry, pulling together multiple viewpoints; and crafting, not using either/or thinking, but using several ideas.
    I will apply this to my professional development because every client I work with will have different needs and abilities. I can't use the same approach for everyone. What works for one client may work for another, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try something new that could be better. I also need to be open to combining my ideas with the ideas of others and to adapt and change as the situation changes.
    I would recommend this article to anyone who will need to work with a team and in a changing and growing field. It is a good article for TR students to show them that innovation is necessary in many professions, especially TR.
    Here is a copy of the article I read: http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/InnovationLeadership.pdf

3/8/2012 Being Innovative

    This week's class was all about using our creativity to actually make adaptations that we could use in real life. We had done research on adaptive art equipment and were given a bunch of random supplies and told to go for it. We adapted pencils, pens, stamps, markers, and scissors. In my opinion, the scissors were the most challenging and the thing I spent the most time on. We wanted scissors that easily sprung back open. The most effective way my group came up with was putting a sponge between the handles. I also tried to model a pair after real adaptive scissors by using a soda cup lid. This ended up making them a little harder to use, but I think with different materials it could have worked. With the pens, pencils, and paint brushes we added things like parts of egg cartons or bubble wrap to make the handles bigger. We also made stampers out of sponges.
    From trying to make different adaptations I learned that you don't need fancy supplies and equipment to make something usable. All you nee is a little effort and a few basic things. You can find anything that you need to make a simple adaptation lying around your house. This week I also learned that while I can start an idea, I might need someone else's help to make it work. This was true of my second pair of scissors. I tried taping part of a cup lid on, but it wasn't working like I wanted it to. Aden, one of my group members, took a look at the scissors and decided that he could help. I was skeptical because I thought the scissors were a lost cause without better materials. He kept working on them though and even though in the end they weren't perfect, it was still worth a try to have someone else work on what I started. Someone else may have knowledge or experience that I don't know about so letting that person share his/her opinion on a project can benefit a whole team. This week I strove for excellence by working on my scissors. Even though I couldn't figure out what I needed to do, I still worked on them to try to make them better.
                                           
    Here's an idea of the scissors that I was trying to recreate. These scissors are much easier to use than regular scissors, and if you haven't tried them, I recommend that you do. I can see how they would greatly help a person with arthritis or anyone who has trouble cutting.