Reflection on Short Activities 9/23/10

I really enjoyed today's activities.  They were all interesting and unique in their own way and everyone was really comfortable talking in front of the entire class which was nice to see. All the ice breakers and name games I felt were very appropriate since we don't all know each other yet.  It was also interesting to hear the purpose of all the different activities or how they could be changed to fit the population one is working with. That is definitely something that I wish my group would have done just because I think it would have added an interesting aspect to the presentation. The noodle group was very dynamic and I would have loved to know where they got all of those noodles from.  Also the fact that everyone in class participated and had fun just shows how much we all want to be in the major we are currently in.  It's not easy to come up with activities that have a purpose, age appropriate, new, and creative so to see all the different ideas was  very inspiring.  I am definitely going to use some of these ideas in the future.  Finally I enjoyed how the old activities such as telephone were new and improved to make them more exciting and challenging.

9/16/10 Reflection on Second Class

This week's class I felt was more focused on the work aspect of putting together successful TR activities.  There's a lot that goes into the process of making sure that each activity is effective and works for the particualr patient or population you are working with.  When we talked about the different ways of  discussing the activity with the participants I particualry liked the debriefing method.  By talking to participants about what they liked and disliked about the activity the leader can get a better idea of how to improve the activity in the future and also what aspects worked out well. Without getting feedback from clients or participants you wont know for sure if the point of the activity came across or whether or not they got anything out of it.  Like Professor Lewis said with TR activities there is always a purpose, thats what makes it Therapeutic Recreation.  I also found the funneling techinque very helpful because I often find it hard to come up with open ended questions that really facilliate a provoking and interesting discussion. Therefore starting with broad open ended questions and then going into a more specific approach seems like it would be very effective. In the example that Professor Lewis gave us I thought it was very smart how he fed off our answers to come up with the next question.

9/9/10 Reflection on first class

The thought of a three hour class that lasted until 7:00 pm at first sounded like a bit of challenge, but from the activities of our first class and the types of projects and group activities that we will be doing throughout the semester I can honestly say that I am looking forward to this class. I think that the ice breakers were a great idea because the first day of any class can be overwhelming especially when you do not recognize many faces.  Doing all of the group activities definitely makes the time go by faster but most important of all it allows us to practice coming up with creative recreational and therapeutic activities which will be the future jobs for many of us.  I especially enjoyed the last activity where we had to make an activity of two random items. It's a good example of how sometimes you have to improvise and just work with what you have..which in some cases might not be a lot.