Week 3: Sing-a-song

Walking into class this week, I was probably the most frightened that i've ever been to go to class before.  I love to sing with my friends; in the car when we jam to a song really loud that we know all the words too.  But I definitely have a fear about singing in front of my peers, especially by myself.  This week we each had to sing a song in front of the class.  The song had to be like a camp song or a short sing-a-long that you might hear at a restaurant for someone's birthday.  I was toward the end of the circle of singing so watching everyone else gave me time to calm down.  It made me feel better when people verbalized that they were nervous because then I knew I wasn't the only one that felt that way.  It was a lot of fun and the class was supportive of everyone who sang and even chimed in.  My goal for the week was to be able to sing in front of the class and not screw up and do the right motions with the words.  I was successful!  I learned that a lot of the time people are just as nervous and feel the same way that we do and to just relax and do my best.

The first day of class, I remember Professor Quackenboss saying that we would be singing in front of the class and her exact words were, "If you can sing in front of a group of people, you can do anything".  I agree with her completely.  I feel like this activity put us out of our comfort zones the most.  As a recreation therapist we will need to be able to distract and entertain very easily and to get people's attention or focus singing is most effective.  On top of that, we all learned awesome songs to use!

After singing we did a couple more activities and learned about processing and how it's important.  Processing allows you to get a lot more out of an activity when you guide someone to talk or express their feelings at that point in time instead of assuming the participant understood the objective.  Especially if you're with a group, people can learn from each others input and opinions because there are different points of view expressed.  Overall it was very fun and we all had a lot of laughs! 

Week 2: Music and Dance

Last week was our first group presentation.  The groups topic was music and dance, and they incorporated a little of both in their presentation.  There was a guest speaker about music therapy and we used several drums that she brought in.  I learned a lot from the guest speaker as far as how music can be used as therapy.  To me music is used to calm me but I never thought that you could actually facilitate activities that could be used in an institutional setting or part of a rehabilitation program.  The drummer was a musical therapist at a rehabilitation center for women with addictions and explained the prevalence that these drums have in their lives.  Drumming with each other we learned it's not about the leader or just you, it's about the people that surround you and how you need to pay attention to there actions to repeat them yourselves.  We also had a "jam-sesh" where we played music and drummed along with the beat.  The group also used different instruments and we did different activities that included rounds and we really needed to pay attention to everyone in our group.  Then came the dancing and they brought up a couple wheelchairs.  We played the popular Wii game "Just Dance" which was a blast! It was definitely harder in the wheelchair than I thought but never the less still fun!  All the activities that we did were very relaxing and we enjoyed ourselves.  I learned that I was very musically talented after using the drums, you don't need to be perfect or very good at anything you just need to put effort into it and have a good time.  During the class time I tried to put myself in different situations and try to see things from people's perspectives that might be fighting addictions, or physical and mental disabilities.  Learning all these adaptations to things in every day life will help me implement them in my future career!       

Week 1: Intro

This week was the first week of class so there was a lot of introduction things going on between learning names and what the class was about.  We combined to classes and did ice break activities outside.  One of the activities was where you stand in a circle and someone stands in the middle and says something that they like and if you like that too you need to run and find a different spot and you might end up in the middle.  Another activity we played involved everyone getting a piece of paper with an animal or type of person on it and we needed to act that out without using any verbal ques and try to find everyone that was similar to us.  The activity that I thought was most beneficial and that I had never done before was where we were split into groups, were given scenarios of negative situations and had to say something positive that came out of it.  I thought this was a very good activity and will use it in the future for clients I have that tend to always be pessimistic. This is the second year that I am taking TR classes so I'm starting to see a lot of familiar faces.  I used to be shy but I am making very good progress about participating and enjoying myself in activities and in the class.  I guess that would have to be my "strive for excellence", that I really put myself out of my comfort during the class duration.  I had a lot of fun, and am really excited for the rest of the semester!! :)