Final Service Learning Reflection #2

The thing that comes to mind when thinking about comparing one of the stories we have read to our tutoring is from Savage Inequalities. Savage Inequalities was all about the education of poor inner city school systems. There was a lack of funds present so the education and facilities suffered as a whole. These are examples in America, the wealthiest country on the planet. I can only imagine how bad it can get in poorer countries throughout the world. Usually at the top of each lesson plan, it says to chit chat with your student for five to ten minutes. I usually ask them how long ago they moved to the United States, how many children they have and their ages, and then I try to ask them all kinds of different questions about their home country. When I ask this question, I usually always get something about the financial shape of the country. “I had to come here for money,” or “Jobs were not good over there.” I usually ask a question or two about the schooling system in their country too and I usually get a negative remark. I think to myself it’s funny that they are coming here for work with the economy here the way it’s been. I have not worked with one student that has had anything about a high school education. They all get manual labor jobs or minimum wage jobs like a cash register worker at a gyro shop in the mall, a store clerk, or a maid at a hotel. Where the money is put into schools is where the highest learning will be achieved. Money controls almost everything. It’s sad, but true. That’s why No Child Left Behind is a detrimental plan to our education system, but that’s for another blog post.

Final Service Learning Reflection #1

I believe that there a few similarities in the way student learn literacy at NALC and the typical formative literacy experience of an American. A similarity I can think of is the instruction material is constructed in a similar scaffolding manner. They introduce the most basic concepts and examples and build on top of them more complex ideas. Also in the books I have worked with at NALC the lessons are structured similarly. For example, the lessons start out with recalling and building on prior knowledge (Sometimes this is subtle, for example they throw in a few vocabulary words from past units with the new vocabulary words). This also happens when they ask students to tell about the picture at the first of every lesson. Then, they introduce the new vocabulary words and have practice pronouncing these words and learning the meanings. After that, there will be a short story where students will work on reading and pronouncing words and comprehension. Finally, there will be some sort of closure to the lesson depending on the level of the student. This is the same structure most schools use to teach elementary students English, and other things. In contrast, they are learning one on one instead of in the classroom setting. This might increase the efficiency of learning, but one of the best ways to learn is from other people. The students lose this affect in a one on one setting. They lose the advantage of other students asking questions. Granted, they can propose questions to the instructor, but sometimes it’s hard to ask the right questions that make that light bulb come on, especially when the students are of limited English proficiency. Also all of the students are not learning from professional instructors. I have felt semi-confident with the students I have worked with because education is what I’m in school for and I try to apply concepts I have learned in class with my students to make learning optimal. I believe there is a difference in ways that you can go about instructing people even on something as simple as short vowel sounds.  

NALC Serivce Hours 6 and 7

Hour 6

I worked with a woman from Laos. She was very nice and flew through the lesson. We ended up completeing almost three whole lessons. She was very smart and picked up on things quickly. She was a little slow listening and comprehending what was said and she also had a little trouble pronoucing some phonetic sounds.

Hour 7

This time my second student actually showed up! He was a man from Egypt. The lesson was going great until about halfway through he proposed a question. We were learning about school supplie vocabulary and counting money. One of the questions was, "How much money does Tomas need?" This man asked me what does meant. Whoa. I sat there stammering and stuttering all over the place trying to think of how to explain it to him. The only answer I could come up with was it just sounds right. Sometimes it's hard explaining easy things to people that speak limited English. I got up out of my seat and approached the man and woman in charge of the Antioch NALC. They pulled some books from shelves, a few English to Arabian translating dictionaries, but could not come up with anything. We even used Google translator. Still, we could not find anything to help this man. It was very frustrating, but at the same time it made me think deep about our language and also, being an education minor, it made me think about the process of teaching English in schools and how these issues are overcome.

Service Hour 5

Today I helped a woman from Ethiopia. She could speak and understand the language ok, but she was illiterate. I found out later that she was also illiterate in her native language as well. We did basic things like work on short vowel sounds and words that started with these sounds. Then, we practiced writing some lower case letters. She had a hard time reproducing the letters i would make for her; she even had a hard time tracing the letters. But, with all of this in mind she was a very hard worker and a very nice lady. It's inspiring to see someone struggling that much, but to have the determination to go on and keep trying.

Final Service Learning Reflection 2

The first thing I noticed about the materials used at Nashville Adult Literacy Council, were the arrangements of the learning materials or books. As noted in a previous blog post, I arrived very early to my first session to prepare. After I prepared I flipped through several of the books. They are all arranged in a scaffolding manner, where every book builds on itself. Then the series of books are tiered in a way to build on it even more. Just by looking at how these books are arranged and structured, I would guess that this would enhance learning to the fullest potential, instead of teaching somebody the language without as much structure. English is a complicated language with idioms, homonyms, and other things of this sort so to have a learning regimen that is so structured makes sense.

 I have completed all of my tutoring hours at the Antioch location. It’s a small portion of space with a wall to divide the area down the middle. On one side there is a reception desk, two offices, a conference room, and a bathroom. On the other side if the tutoring area, along the back wall there are tables with chairs that face the wall. These workspaces for two or three people are divided by cloth covered plywood on wheels. There is one area sectioned off for a small group I would assume and another area at the opposite end of the room that consists of a round table, probably once again for small groups. There haven’t been very many people there when I tutor. There was a time or two when there was another one on one tutor at the other end of the room. It may have been a little distracting, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome fairly easily. NALC does well with the space they have there and makes learning as efficient as possible in my opinion.

M.A.D. Artifact

I could not figure out what I wanted the artifact to be for this project. I could have talked about a baseball, or a bat or glove, but that seemed to general. I started thinking about what was really important to M.A.D. and it was not just baseball, but helping the players start to progress towards becoming a man. I have a shirt from M.A.D. and on the back there is a few things. The first thing is a bible verse: "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." - 2 Timothy 4:7. Under this verse in quotations it has what M.A.D. stands for. . . Making A Difference. This shows where the emphasis is for this program. Yeah, they're training the kids to play baseball and they had a lot of success last year, but there is a little more to it than just baseball.

Digital Short

My thought is to show the class the facilities of the M.A.D. Baseball Program and to show some action shots from the young players in games. I might supplement this by taking sme pictures of the players training in the facility and show the direct correspondence to outcome in games.

Service Hours 3 and 4

Not as anxious this time, I arrived early and began my lesson plan for my next student. S.H. was also from Egypt like my first student. He was a very nice man. During our chit chat period I learned that he worked at the Tyson meat factory. His wife was actually being tutored at the same time across the room. Afer I learned that he had been in the States for about 7 years, the conversation died off once again. I could tell he felt a little uneasy because he started to open up his book when he had ran out of things to say. The tutoring session went great. He was a hard worker and he took notes and make corrections. He strugled with some vocabulary. He kept getting words mixed up and he would forget the definitions of words. What was cool though is he understood some humor.For example, like I mentioned earlier his wife was across the room. Our story was about a couple. The man liked to watch tv and didn't talk very much and the wife was described as a very talkative person. One of the queswtions for comprehension was asking the reader (S.H.) if he is talkative or quiet. He responded I am quiet, but then he pointed at his wife and with a smile on his face told me that she loved to talk and made a hand gesture that was conveying a mouth opening up and closing. We had a good laugh about it.

Once again for the second day in a row, my second student did not show. I learned later that he was a clerk in a small grocery store and it was robbed while he was there. He had to talk to police that day about this incident.

Service Learning Hours 1 and 2

In my first hour I arrived to the site early to fully prepare for my lesson. I was feeling anxious waiting on the student to walk in. Finally H.S. came in and sat down beside me. We shook hands and began to talk. I learned she was from Egypt and worked at a gyro stnd in the Green Hills Mall. She was a very sweet lady probably in her early to mid forties. The lesson plan said to chit chat for ten minutes, but it stalled out after about five. It's funny the things I take for granted. I could have talked to her for an hour about Egypt, her culture, and what she thought about America, but the language barrier made every aspect of the conversation difficult. I was not only having to listen, but I was also trying to add words to supplement every sentence so it made sense to me. She knew she wasn't making a lot of sense and I think this embarrassed her which is not how I wanted her to feel so it was a little awkward. Trying to get her to understand the questions I was asking was an even harder task, but with that said we flew throguh the lesson. She could read very well and comprehended fairly well. She had problems with listening for comprehension, but as I found out later that is very common. H.S. took notes on words she didn't understand and even brough an Egypt to English dictionary for words I had difficulty explaining to her. I enjoyed working with her very much.

Unfortunately my second student did not show.

Glossary

Circuit Training- Quickly going from one exercise or lift to another to keep the heart rate up and fatigues muscles
Cross-fit- The mix of different activities and exercises into your regular workout to cause muscle confuion, to keep your workouts fun, and to get a more complete workout. These activities include swimming, cycling, and running.

Fast Twitch Muscles- Muscle fibers that contract more quickly than slow twitch muscle fibers that equate to overall quickness and power.

Free Weights- Weights that are not attached to a machine with a cable or chain.

Kinectic Lifts- Exercises that involve covering a distance. For example, bear crawls, plyometric box jumps, sprinting, etc.

M.A.D.- Making a Difference

Plyometric Exercise or "Plyo"- Where muscles are quickly loaded for an action, the action is completed, and the muscles are loaded again. For example, jumping onto a bench then jumping off, and then back on again for multiple repetitions.

Repetition or "Rep"- How many of the lifts or exercises you do. For example, if you bench press ten times you have completed ten reps.

Set- A given number of reps in an exercise or lift. 3 sets of 8 reps would mean you have done 8 reps of a particular exercise 3 times.

Static Lifts- A prticular lift where the person doing the lift does not cover any distance. For example, bench press, curls, squats, etc.

Superset- A combination of a certain lift and a body weight exercise that are done together. For example, after doing a set of bench press, immediately do 10 pushups.

How Am I Connected to the Culture?

Being an athlete throughout high school and college, weight training has been a significant part of my atheltic career. In high school, I went to the local gym and I wasn't too sure about what I was doing, but I was lifting weights and I saw improvements in strength and muscle tone. I started trying to educate myself and research about the proper way to weight lift and safely become bigger and stronger. In college we always had a set plan so I learned some things from every regimen I've been a part of. After four or five years of learning as I go, I can adequately get a beneficial workout in by myself. There are people like me that are knowledgable enough to conduct their own workouts that still choose to be personal trained. Is it worth the money? Does a personal trainer reap many more benefits than an indivdual can on their own? I have always wondered how many people see improvements after working hard and paying a pretty substantial amount of money. Another reason this topic is relevant to me is because I work with younger baseball players when I have free time and enjoy it very much. Things could work out where I might have an opportunity to train for a living one day. I think this would be very helpful information to know.

Helping Answer My Question

My ultimate question is how often are the clients expectations met when they are personally trained. It was interesting getting the trainers aspect of these goals and how they are met. Wilson Tucker, a trainer at M.A.D. Sports Training told me that he works with his clients to make a tangible, but challenging goal or goals. They set up short-term and long-term goals. Wilson told me these goals are accomplished everyday. I can't wait to the some of the clients takes on these goals.

Interview with Wilson Tucker

I interviewed Wilson Tucker, a trainer at the facility I'll be in and out of this semester. Wilson has worked at M.A.D. for 5 years now and is head of baseball specific training. When we were trying to schedule this meeting he said he was really busy and he didn't have a lot of time so I had to keep this interview short, precise, and efficient. The main thing I inquired about was how his expectations for his clients and his clients expectations for themselves are different, and how does he compromise and get everyone on the same page. He works with a lot of younger players that are usually 10- 16 years old so parents are also involved in this process.
TB: Do you enjoy training and why?
WT: Yeah I do, I like seeing them become better athletes and better men. It's also cool getting to see their abilities grow because of the work we have put in together.
TB: What are some of the expectations you usually have for your clients?
WT: I'm just looking for progress. I expect perfection out of them and myself so they expect the same. That's how I earn their respect.
TB: Do you ever alter these expectations and why?
WT: Yes, I have to find otut what the kids really want because at the end of the day they're the ones that are going to be putting in all of the hard work. Sometimes their parents will want things for them that they don't want and that's where the trouble starts. I believe if you want something you gotta work for it. We hold each other accountable so we can be as close to perfect as possible.
TB: How offten are these goals met?
WT: Everyday. I have had one client that has not responded well and has not improved, but his parents were a big problem. Another big part of my job is to motivate the people I train. It's just like running a business. It's the same concept as managing people. I have to find a way to get everyone on the same page and motivate them to get the job done.

Micro Ethnographic Report

I'm at the Belmont baseball team's championship ring ceremony. Everyone is dressed nicely and there are lots of happy faces around the Vince Gill Room. The language from thre players in the room is almost completely about baseball. The coaches I overhear are speaking of this coming year and how much promise it holds. When the president of the school takes the stand  and the ceremony starts, he speaks a few words about last years performance, but quickly moves to his expectations for this year. It's very brief and the head coach walks up to the mic. He does not even speak of last year as much as the president, but instead starts using language like "repeat" and "back to back championships" and "NCAA Regional Championship." The rings are passed out and that concludes the banquet.

Something that surprised me was how much traffic there was throughout the courtyard. I don't know if I have never paid close enough attention or if maybe there are special times when I'm in class that the traffic is more frequent. It intrigued me that there was a rope swing tied to a tree in the middle of the courtyard. This seems like a very unorthodox place to have a ropeswing. I live off campus so I wouldn't know, but maybe after classes students use it. It disturbed me that I saw a mom walk into a guys dorm.

Project Specifics

I would like to study a fitness culture, in a gym with personal trainers and their clients. I have a connection with MAD Sports Training in Cool Springs. I would be able to study sever different personal trainers there. At MAD there is more than just weight training, they also train lacrosse, soccer, football, and baseball teams. A question I would like to answer is if the clients actually see gains in weight loss, strength, and muscle tone.

Project Idea

Based on all of the criteria as far as being accessible and something I'm interested in I have came to the conclusion that I want to do my reasearch on the Nashville Sounds baseball club. I know I will have to be more specific than that, but I in the next few classes I will work it down.

Discourse Video

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In this video the obvious discourse is two nationalities clashing. The Russian comes over to America to have an exhibition fight with an old Heavyweight Chmpion. Another discourse is the Americans are viewing this fight strictly as an exhibition, mostly for entertainment. The Russians have a different mentality; it's to win the fight at all costs. This fight is also during the Cold War time period. Creed's competitiveness gets in the way, and even though he realizes very quick this isn't just an exhibition anymore the past his prime champ has to fight for his life.

Cardinal Sins of Writing

When I think of things that I was always taught to refrain from in writing one really big one comes to mind instantly. This rule is not to ever start a sentence out with a conjunction. Sometimes it just feels right to start a sentence out with one of these words. I'm no authority by any means in literature and writing, but I have noticed in different books and other pieces of literature where authors have started sentences this way.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've also been told over and over again about staying away from run on sentences. I guess there's sort of a fine line between the two of these ideas. Sometimes I find myself trying to write a new sentence so I can avoid the run on, and it sounds the best to me to start with a conjunction. I guess it's something to work on.