Stephen Wk. 2: Tape Art! :D

This week in class, we did an all class activity on tape art.  There is so much that you could do with a couple rolls or tape, saran wrap, and scissors.  We watched a couple awesome tutorial videos to see how we create our sculpture and then watched a short youtube video that showed how tape art had been placed in different places in public.  We didn't have a theme or any guidelines, we just went with the flow.  We were allowed to bring in objects to tape or use for our creation.  Creativity was a huge aspect this week because you had to be able to use the tape to make your imagination come true.  We were in our groups so we also needed to work as a team and make sure we incorporated all of our ideas.  I feel like that was the biggest challenge because everyone went a different way with what we wanted to create.  We did a good job though listening to each other, using everyone's thoughts and ideas and putting them into one.  I brought a flamingo to class and we used that as our basis of inspiration and taped one of our group member's legs and then another girls hands.  Together, we created a human twist on the flamingo. 

We also worked on 2-D art which you can see on the wall, the hot air balloon.  That wasn't our groups creation but we had one of our group members do a handstand and then taped the outline of her body.  Tape art can be used for specific populations and can potentially address a lot of goals and objectives from the four domains.  We talked about it after we were done with all our projects and came to the conclusion that tape art wouldn't be good for geriatrics or people with fine/gross motor skills.  It would be a good activity for troubled adolescence because it really stresses social comfortability and boundaries and working together as a team. 

First week in Dr. Stephen's section

I really enjoyed myself during the first week after the switch into Stephen's section.  We did ice breaker influenced activities in a sense that he wanted to get to know us and where we are at as far as facilitating activities and group work.  We were given a couple different scenarios, props, and limitations where we needed to come up with activities that addressed two of the domains (physical, emotional, cognitive, or social) and have goals specific to our creation.  There was one group that was given paper, tape, Dixie cups, and balloons and had to incorporate every prop in their activity.  We had shower caps, tape, medical gloves, a Halloween bucket and saran wrap.  We came up with a "medical play" activity where the participants would have to dress their partner, who was immobile, as a doctor in "scrubs" and walk them to the middle of the room and grab the "patient" or skull Halloween bucket for surgery.  I really tried my hardest during these activities to see how creative I could be and how quickly I could think.  I felt that the exercises were really good because as TRS's we need to ALWAYS be thinking on our toes and be accepting to new challenges.  There might be times where we need to quick put together an activity, and the job in itself we don't usually get a lot of funding for our programs so we need to be resourceful.  Everyone came up with really good activities that could be facilitated with a lot of different populations, and of course we had a lot of good laughs! 

I am thoroughly looking forward to this weeks class because we are doing tape art which is something i've never done before.  I'm interested to see the process it takes to get a finished product after watching the video in class on it.  I am also looking foward to more group presentations on different topics and the innovations!   

Article Review Assignment: Adaptive Devices/Technology

Article Review Assignment:  Adaptive devices/equipment

Name of article:  “Factors Affecting Older Adults’ Use of Adaptive Equipment: Review of the Literature”

Name of journal:  American Journal of Occupational Therapy

Name of author(s):  Laura Hastings Kraskowsky and Marcia Finlayson

I found this article through Goggle Scholar.  I originally found it on the Therapeutic Recreation Directory website but they didn’t have the full text article, just the citation.  After typing it on Goggle I found the full text version; I couldn’t even find it on the American Journal of Occupational Therapy website.  I found it on November 2^nd, 2011.

                I chose this article to review because it not only deals with the population that I am most interested in (geriatrics) but it also has to deal with occupational therapy.   After getting my TR degree I am thinking of going onto school for OT.  This article addresses the main issues that there are with adaptive equipment and uses of it by the elderly.  Something to keep in consideration is the level of mobility and functioning the clients have.  If the client has a very little range of motion or doesn’t participate in high skilled and enduring activities, then some adaptive devices might not be appropriate.  There are many things to take into consideration when prescribing an adaptive device; client’s personal factors, training with the device, client’s environment, client’s economic status, etc.  It is very important to, as a therapist, become knowledgeable about all the devices that you plan on using with clients and prescribing for them.  If you do not know how to use the device it will be very hard to try to facilitate the use of the device with others. 

                I think this is an important article because it gives you a checklist of things that you need to consider when using adaptive devices.  It’s always important to be aware of the population and their levels of ability.  This article might pertain more to people who are thinking of going to work with geriatrics or as an occupational therapist.  It weighs out the positives and negatives concerning adaptive equipment.  I would definitely recommend this article to other therapeutic recreation students.    

Article Review Assignment: Therapeutic benefits of a specific activity

Article Review Assignment:  Therapeutic benefits of a specific activity 

Name of article:  “Community Gardening in a Senior Center: A Therapeutic Intervention to Improve the Health of Older Adults”

Name of journal:  Therapeutic Recreation Journal

Name of author(s):  Elizabeth N. Austin, Yvonne A. M. Johnston, and Lindsay Lake Morgan

I found this article off of the Therapeutic Recreation Directory website and typed it into Google scholar to find the full text PDF.  It can also be found in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal.  I found this on November 2^nd, 2011. 

                The reason I chose this article is because I don’t know a whole lot about using gardening as a recreation tool, so I wanted to gain more insight.  This article also had to deal with the older population and the therapeutic benefits that gardening had on their improvement of health.  Knowing the benefits of physical exercise, elderly still do not always engage and that sort of activity, which leads to deterioration of health.  Spaces for gardening need to almost always be private if you are seriously trying to use it as a therapeutic tool; actually nursing a plant to maximum growth, keeping animals and other species away from the plants, and controlling the weather (sunlight or water).  This can get very expensive so a research study was done on the benefits of gardening, to back up the cost.  This article states that gardening has been proven to:  give opportunity for exercise, provide nutritional and economic benefits, improve physical and mental well-being, and give a place for social interactions.  As TR Specialists, we are qualified to plan, teach, and give leadership if necessary to help seniors with their gardens.  I think gardening is a good way to provide recreation because it’s not only calm but the clients are benefitting from the activity almost immediately without even realizing it. 

                I would really recommend TR students reading this article because it uses the leisure ability model in detail and an outline for the research so we can really relate to the purpose.  It also gives a lot of insight on the aspects of gardening that can be utilized for therapy.  For example, if a TRS was trying to start up a community garden, because they are so expensive, they could use this article as a means of persuasion by showing administrative board members the benefits and how they outweigh the negative (if any) impacts of gardening with seniors.  Sometimes as TRS’s we will need to fight for funding money and really prove ourselves that we are just important, if not more important, than everyone else.   

Article Review Assignment: Leadership

Article Review Assignment:  Leadership

Name of article:  “Creative leadership:  a challenge of our times”

Name of journal:  School Leadership and Management Vol. 29, No. 1

Name of author(s):  Louise Stoll and Julie Temperley

I located the article in EBSCO HOST on their database on November 2^nd, 2011. 

I thought this was a very good, thorough article on creative leadership.  The title is what got my attention, because I think that creativity is a big issue today and most people resort to “Just show me how to do this”.  I took a different approach with the assignment for this part of the academic article reviews, and did it from a standpoint of a teacher; who is either teaching our types of classes about Therapeutic Recreation, or how we can apply the leadership techniques when we teach others during facilitation of activities.  The article focuses on education and outlines criteria needed to keep creativity going in the classroom.  According to the article, creative leadership is defined as “...an imaginative and thought-through response to opportunities and to challenging issues that inhibit learning at all levels.” (pg. 2)  This directly related to TR because we always need to be thinking on our toes and not every activity or lesson is going to go as planned so we need to be ready to accept challenges or issues that go along with it.  Another aspect of the article that could be applied to my future in TR is that it mentions promoting the creativity of your colleagues.  Depending on what kind of environment and population you are working with, it is always important to make sure that creativity juices are flowing amongst everyone to make it a successful environment.     

I would definitely recommend this article to everyone going into the field!  There is a lot of good information and key points that can not only help you, but spark interests in other aspects.  In this article there authors outline a lot of useful applications such as how to promote creativity of colleagues and goes into great detail.  It was an easy read, because the topic was so interesting so I didn’t lose focus.  The length of the article isn’t bad either; it’s only 15 pages with adequate spacing.  After reading this article I have a lot more insight on creativity.   

Group Presentation: Arts and Crafts

Last week was not only our last week in Heather's class but it was the week that my group presented!  We had the topic "Arts and Crafts" and did our presentation on a different take than the other groups.  We didn't focus individually on specific disabilities but we did our presentation from a CTRS perspective.  The presentation was split into five total groups with the first activity being modge podge journals that we cut pictures from magazines for, then a haunted house food making station, a bracelet making station, a mural station and then a group activity/social station.  I thought our presentation flowed well and we hit all the major populations between our five stations.  During our debrief we addressed different populations the activities would work for, how we can adapt the activities, and then other related activities others have done.  Also, during our presentation we had a powerpoint slideshow that played the whole time with artwork from people with a variety of disabilities and different media.  I found it very inspiring, especially because there were people with severe visual impairments that made such beautiful pieces of artwork!

I was very nervous for our presentation and how people would react because we were doing a different format.  There was still a majority participation of the participants with facilitation from us, but it was mostly supposed to be their exploration of activities.  I thought it went really well, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves!  This week I strived to be a good facilitator and to assist my group members in all our work.  Facilitating programs in class always helps for my future career; it's a place where trial and error along with mistakes can be learned from and it doesn't hurt our reputation as professionals.

I really enjoyed our class time with Heather; I enjoyed all the group presentations along with the adaptive golfing outing that we did as a class and got to know everyone really well.  I am really looking forward to switching into Stephen's class and seeing what that class has to offer! :)  

Week 6: Camping and the Outdoors

This week was really fun!  The topic was adaptive camping and outdoor activities.  There was a guest speaker from NASA and he talked about their organization and brought in some pictures of new improvements that they plan on making for a pond.  NASA is a volunteer based organization that mainly focuses on hunting and  some water activities.  It is especially known for taking people of all sorts of backgrounds and disabilities with mentors out to the woods for deer, bear, small game hunting and fishing.  The only downfall I thought was about the program is that they mainly target older populations.  The president said they tried running a kid's program last year but the turnout wasn't that good, so maybe with the right advertising and programs it will be sucessful this year!

For the group presentation I thought it was cool how they had the campfire set up made with a fan, a lamp, paper with a wood design, and tissue paper.  The group used a creative way, relating to the topic, to split everyone up.  They showed interesting videos about adventure camps in Canada, where people can go bungee jumping in their wheelchair and zip lining.  For the second half of the presentation we went outside and tried putting a tent together, while all having a different disability.  The disabilities were:  use one arm and your non-dominant one, visual impairment, and someone in a wheelchair, along with a CTRS.  I found this situation frustrating because I have set up a tent several times and my disability was interferring with my ability to help.  I was in a wheelchair and it was hard because I couldn't bend over too far otherwise I would fall out and tip over.  I feel like that experience will help me in the future because it will give me insight on how people feel in those situations, and how to help them as a CTRS and give them maximum ability.