Oops and thoughts about the future...

Yeah, so I just realized that I posted the Friday article Wrap-up on Thursday and my sense of time is all off. I thought last night was Friday, but then I thought today was Thursday or Wednesday while I was driving to work. Oh well.

So the post yesterday had something to do with a hint that I'm contemplating teaching again. I am. It'll probably be years down the road. I'm looking into programs. I should get my degree in it this time at some point. There's a fast track program which would be more my speed, but it looks like I'll have the same problem as last time because I won't get classroom management or grade assessment skills until after I'm already in the classroom... but I've found some good resources on my own this time and may look into that down the road. I do need to figure out what prereqs I need though because while I could be fully competent going into the fast track program in Physics and maybe Math, That's not all I want. I'd also like to have the necessary reqs. for health and Phys. Ed.

Why?!? Why would someone who HATED Phys ed want to teach it? How could I teach phys ed if I still have an innate loathing of volleyball? Well, I don't know the answer to the third question, but to the first and second I put this: through my work with MovNat & Exuberant Animal this past year and by being exposed to SPARK (the book) and stuff like this, I think I can best apply my knowledge and positively impact people by applying my science at an early age... It's so empowering when someone tells you WHY you should move and move a lot, rather than when someone tells you that you SHOULD move a lot. It's also better getting the education in WHY and the experimenting and learning it for yourself. I think I can do the most here. That is why. : )

This is why: Physically Active Play and Cognition

Friday Article Wrap-up & Teaching Commentary

• 7 Step Model to (some) cancer
• The Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training

• Clock Ticking on 100,000 teacher jobs
• How Should We Teach our Future Teachers?

OK, I normally refrain from adding commentary on the Friday Article Wrap-up, but this one is near and dear to me since I'd wanted to teach since 7th grade, taught for a year (hellish) and am considering going back to it someday. It's especially near to me because I had an opportunity to be one of those people who gets left behind in school at an early age and I also (thanks to a wonderful teacher who pulled me back from the abyss) went on to excel in school.

Long story short: the more I hear about education cuts, the more I feel ill. I hear people complain about jobs going overseas and worries about the US staying competitive in the marketplace, etc, etc. Then people go on and complain about bipartisanship & spending and we're spending too much, so let's cut education. OK, I admit that's a very simplistic view of what people are expressing, but those sentiments exist. I really WANT people to start thinking about teaching and education the same way they think about doctors and engineers. They are critical. They get paid alot because they are critical. But you don't get doctors or engineers without the teachers teaching them first. Teachers and kids are the building blocks of all other industries. How much they succeed dictates how much our country and industry succeeds later. You can't have an educated voter participating in the democratic process without an initially educated student. And engineering jobs and innovation jobs will continue to go overseas if the better educated people are overseas. Just think about it. END of rant.

Well, that might have gone OKish...

In case you didn't know, I've been working with Kwame Brown in a kinda of apprenticeship to work toward becoming a certified animal trainer (Exuberant Animal, that is). It's been off to a bit of a rocky start, but I think things are progressing. Having taught dance for so many year, I have my stride with that down so that I barely have to think about it. I know well the safety points to hit, the kind of humor that I like to incorporate, the methods that I find effective, have ways to work with different abilities to get the desired results, and have a good feeling for class flow. I started teaching in '99, so it's now a LONG time ago and I don't at all remember what it was like when I started. This has made this learning to lead hard because the methods and skills and MO that I had developed for dance DOES NOT translate 1 to 1 into Exuberant Animal. It's unsettling, because I feel lost, but also fascinating because I am learning a whole bunch of new stuff, new ways to work with people, etc. It's a very good process to be going through. I'm also taking over someone else's class, rather than starting something essentially on my own (with dance, there were several teachers, but we were ALL new at it so there was no established class feel in the beginning). So I've an added challenge (probably mostly in my head) of trying to figure out how I should lead it since the participants are used to Kwame's style and sense of humor and let's face it... I am not him. He is not me. That's just the way things are, so I need to figure out how to get my own stride.

So, on and off, Kwame's been settling me small portions of the class to lead some warm ups or exercises to get my feet wet. It's been a bit awkward because of the issues mentioned above. Last week, he set me up to start the class: "pick 5 things that you want to do and we'll go with that" and then just never really took over again, so last week was my first whole class. It was awkward as hell, especially since I had not enough material picked out, was kinda winging it, trying to figure out how to challenge people but keep them comfortable and safe, and ADDITIONALLY try to come up with what we could do next. Egads! Let's just say that I'm pretty sure the awkwardness that I felt inside carried over. Oh well. This week, yesterday in fact, was my second full class. This time, I was fortunate enough to have a vague heads up about the fact that I'd get the whole class again and so I got some time to prepare, come up with a conceptual theme, and make a list. I felt much better, I think it went much better for the people playing, I know I still have a lot of work to do. I'm not nearly there yet, but it definitely seems like something I can work on, get better at, and actually be able to lead effectively. Yeah, that's the other weird thing about this certification - it seems like one must tread a very thin line between just leading by giving ideas, and teaching. You don't want to 'teach' too much because you want the participants to explore their full range of motion - as far as they're comfortable with, and explore their own creativity. Also, you don't want to leave it too loose because there are certain safety considerations to take into account. It's fascinating. Well, let's hope I keep growing and figuring it out! : )