2nd Post

Well the first semester has ended and the only thing I have done with my project is the retreat. Although I was working with Ms. Mc Mahon and Mr. Carol on introducing my games to the P.E. class, I have not been able to do that. After all the planning, we had worked out a date and a time but due to unforeseen circumstances I was out sick that day and for most of that week so we were not able to reschedule. Unfortunately, I did not have time to work out the details before the semester ended but I do have all the intentions to work it out another schedule with Mrs. Wimble.
The second half of this semester proved, for me, to be fruitless for the most part. I am almost finished with everything as far as the application part is concerned; all I have left is the written portion and my final presentation. For my written portion I was thinking about making a rule book but I feel like that is much too ordinary. I’m still working on that. As far as my finial presentation, I have a few ideas.
I also don’t think I am completely finished with the application. Although I suppose I have done the required application I would like to use my games to bring the school closer as well as to make people see you don’t have to be a starter or an award winning athlete to play fair and have fun. I am hoping, hopefully by going through SLC, to have a faculty verse student game in the gym. In my head, I envision splitting the school up into colored teams, a blue team and a green (or white, which ever our school color is now) team. That way everyone can be included in the competition even if they aren’t playing. I hope that, if this happens, it will be a fun thing for everyone to be involved in, in the way they are most comfortable.
I’ve been having fun with this project and I’m learning a lot. It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Trying to organize everything is rather difficult and sometimes, as I have found, it doesn’t work at all. I think that had I chosen a different topic, I would have had an even more difficult time. I’m glad that I have been successful for the most part. Even when things didn’t go as I had hoped, I learned something. I’m looking forward to trying out my next idea, the faculty/student game, and working with the P.E. class next semester.

P.S. I have talked with SLC and MC Fireball is set for the Lock-In in March

Journal 1

Teaching an Angle Ball clinic at Camp Susquehannock

Since the end of my junior year I have been working on my Senior Exhibit. It started out as something that was really far away and I didn’t need to think about it, then I realized I needed to write journals and I had about five due and zero written. Although I didn’t have any journals written, I had started to work on figuring out what I wanted to do for my Senior Exhibit. I had also met with my advisor, Mrs. Garbutt, and bounced some ideas off her and tried to narrow all my options down. We got it down to 3; SCUBA diving, flying, and bringing games to FA. At first, I chose to learn how to fly. The idea was great, I had a friend with a pilot for a step dad and they owned a plane, what could be better? Well I’ll tell you, communication and stability. That plan to learn to fly was unfortunately a no-go because Mike, the pilot, and I were not able to communicate well enough to get a schedule together for me to learn, besides, the plane was up for sale and we didn’t know how long we would have it for. So I moved on and chose to bring games to FA. I am already a certified SCUBA Diver and although it is amazing I felt like bringing games that instituted a sense of confidence in athletics would not only be more fun, but it would also be worth while.

Now that I knew what I wanted to do, I had to decide what I was going to do for my summer learning. I already had a great idea; why not go to the place where I learned these games to learn how to teach them? And that is exactly what I did. For my summer learning I went to Camp Susquehannock, the most amazing place to spend your summer, and taught clinics and refereed 4 different kinds of games. The games that I was most focused on when I went there were Gaga, Angle Ball and Buff Ball. Once I got there however, I learned a new game, MC Fireball. After seeing how much fun the campers had playing, and how easy it was to play and set up, I decided to add MC Fireball to the list of games I would bring back to Fredericksburg Academy. I spent six weeks learning how to teach clinics, teaching the clinics on the games I was bringing back, and refereeing these games. While I was doing all of this I documented everything. I had the camp photographers, Tim and RK, take pictures of both the boys and the girls playing all of the games, I also had Tim record a game of Angle Ball that I plan to use in my finial presentation. I was also able to get all the rules and type them up.

Once I got home I put everything I learned to use and I contacted the SLC. I asked them if it was possible to use one of my games at the retreat. Before school even started I went in to school and attended an SLC meeting about the Retreat. I explained briefly some of the games I was using in my senior exhibit and together we decided that Angle Ball would be the best one to use for this event. I am happy to report that my first application, the retreat, went very smoothly. The only problem we had was getting half cones but I was able to get some before we left for the retreat. Since school has started I have been working with Mr. Carol and Ms. Mc Mahon on getting these games introduced into the P.E. program. So far I feel like my senior exhibit has been a great success and I’m looking forward to continuing it throughout the year.