CORE Lifestyle and Recreation Complex Placement:
My second placement in the Recreation and Leisure program at Conestoga College was at CORE Lifestyle and Recreation Complex, my days varied between a couple different things. I would help organize membership paperwork and greet people at the front door in the morning's usually because morning's were usually very quiet with not many people showing up. Then in the evening it would get more hectic with people showing up for soccer game, people wanting to play basket ball in the gym and other events. During that time i would just walk around and make sure everything was ok and that their were no problems or emergencies. I helped create a kids summer bootcamp schedule, for summer day activities. If i had any free time i would usually go and start cleaning something, since they facility would get dirty easily, just so it didn't seem like i was sitting around doing nothing. Overall my time there was good, the employees were very kind and friendly, the facility was very nice and well equipped and i was able to learn what it all took to keep a facility of that size going.
Stork Family YMCA Placement:
For my first placement in the Recreation and Leisure program at Conestoga College was at the Stork Family YMCA. A regular day for me at placement would be starting off in the main office, where i would help with different administrative tasks like searching, and adding YMCA ID numbers on the main attendance for swimming lessons, creating a program plan for different day camp's or helping figure out what the costs should be for a future intramural sport's league. After lunch i would get changed and head over to the pool and guard for an hour till swimming lessons started. On the first thursday of placement i was asked to if i could permanently sub for one of the swim teacher's, from then on i taught her classes on thursday, they ranged from small children in bobber level all the way to young teen's in star classes. So after guarding on thursday's i would get ready for my teaching, when the time came i got in the pool and taught my classes. On wednesdays i didn't have classes to teach so i would be paired with another teacher and help them out with their class, usually i was paired with attacher who had a large class of kids so i could help him/her with all the kids. It was a great experience, the facility was nice and clean, all the people who worked their were nice and friendly and because i did such a good job at teaching swim classes on thursday they even offered me a job there, which i ended up accepting.
Volunteering at High School:
For one of my field placements i went to my old High School to help out with tutoring, i was asked if i could help out some grade nines that were having trouble with some of there English home work. I help the students by editing there assignments and essays after they finished. I also helped some of the students with there poetry cause i have a knack for poetry so i helped them out ans corrected some of there work (picture of me correcting work). After a few hours of tutoring it was time for the students to go home, they were all very kind and thanked me as they left. I learned that you need to have a cheerful and positive attitude when you work with anyone, it makes for a much more positive situation. Also i leaned that everyone learns differently some students needed a little more help then others and i had to use different methods like drawing it out or saying poetry out loud so they could understand me better.
Volunteering as a Swim Instructor Assistant:
I also Volunteered as a Swim Instructor Assistant at a recreational complex, i helped out the main instructor by getting equipment, helping to take attendance and by demonstrating different types of stokes to the kids. I helped to demonstrated different skill the instructor was teaching so the students could see what he was talking about, i also demonstrated different types of rescues and spinals for the older students in the higher classes. I also had a kid in one of my younger aged classes who should have been at a lower level but was given to "ok" to go to a higher level accidentally, so we had to modify our lesson plan to give him a little extra help, i spent most of my time helping him out while the instructor worked with the rest of the class. So i learned there are times when you will need to adjust your plan to fit everyone.
YEE HAW Adventure Farm:
All the first year Recreation & Leisure students were told to go to YEE HAW Adventure Farm for a retreat style get to getter. It allowed us to get to know each other better, and to gain more friends. First off after we showed up we were told to do an activity that made us talk to other students to accomplish a BINGO game were we had to find out other peoples hobbies. We then watched a video about how to stay positive and have fun doing your job. Afterwards we were separated into smaller group and we talked about why we were in Recreation and Leisure and what we wanted to gain from it. To finish the day we did a couple of team building games and at the end of the day i made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about the other people in my class. I also learned that its easier to do something when you have friends to help you and cheer you on.