Lacrosse

Today was a good day for lacrosse. It was beautiful out and I met a lot of my CAS goals.

During the school day, I really didn't want to go to practice. I had a really busy weekend, I was really tired, and I had a lot of homework. I had plenty of excuses for skipping it and my friend told me she was thinking about skipping it, but I decided to go anyway. I'm really glad I did. I stay committed to lacrosse even though I wasn't too excited about going, which I think will help me learn perseverance. An even better reward than perseverance though was the way I felt after practice. It was a really warm and sunny day and it felt good to get the exercise. Sometimes, its really hard for me to do what is good for me, but it definitely pays off!

I also worked collaboratively with a senior on my team to run practice today. I think it went well. Because the season hasn't officially started yet, we aren't allowed to have the coach practice with us yet. Therefore, team members have to lead the practices. Today, we ran a couple laps and then went over the basics of lacrosse for the newer members of the team.

I was able to help teach them to cradle, throw, catch and scoop the ball off the ground. I think I met my goal today to help others, or at least came really close to meeting it. I discovered that a good way to teach is to ask the "students" what they have questions about and move on from there. If I talked about, maybe, running for a half hour it would be pointless because they all know how to run already. It worked better when I asked them what they wanted to know and then taught them. This helped the freshmen to pay better attention and, I hope, helped everyone learn more about lacrosse. On the other hand, though, at the end when I was asking if anyone had questions about the rules, no one really said anything. They didn't have questions about the rules because they didn't know about the rules. So sometimes you just have to start talking and then let the questions come. I think its a give and take thing. You have to know what you're talking about, but also be willing to let the learners ask questions.

I also worked with some sophomores on the team. They knew how to play lacrosse, so I had them help me teach the beginners. They were good at this and also helped me remember things I forgot to say.

Lacrosse Proposal

Activity: Sturgis Lacrosse Team

Dates of Activity: 2/2/10 to about 5/1/10

Category: Action

First Learning Outcome: 5. Show perseverance and commitment in activity

Second Learning Outcome: 4. Work collaboratively with others

Sponsoring Organization: Sturgis

Adult Supervisor: Coach, Scott Arcenas

Why is this particular activity being chosen?

I am choosing this activity because I like Lacrosse. I have been playing for two years and I enjoy the exercise and I love the people on the team. As an upperclassmen, one of my duties is to help the newer players. I also need to work hard to contribute to the team. This will be a challenge because I have a lot of homework and a job and I will get tired sometimes. I will have to keep playing and practicing hard even when I'm tired. I think this will make me a stronger person.

What are a few personal goals to be achieved? How will you measure progress toward these goals? How will you know you've reached these goals?

One of my goals is to score at least three goals this season. Last year I scored two, and this year I want to try and get one more. I will measure my progress by the number of goals I score in practice and in the games.

Another goal is to be a good leader and to help the newer players on the team. I will measure my progress of this by how much I help them by giving instruction or answering questions. I don't think I will know for sure exactly when I meet this goal.

How will this activity meet the two learning outcomes you've selected?

I hope that this activity will help me lean to show perseverance and commitment. I think I will get tired of lacrosse, especially if I am busy with other things. I will try not to miss practices or games. I think that by staying committed to the activity I will learn to be more perseverance.

Because lacrosse is a team sport, I will have to work together with my teammates to win games and to get better at lacrosse. I will try to help new players improve at lacrosse and I will try to work together with the team in games.

What is the value of this activity to you and others? And, if applicable, how will this activity benefit others?

I think this activity will benefit me and the other players on the team through friendships and exercise. The more enjoyable I make lacrosse for others, the more we will all benefit.

Turkey Program Reflection

My plan for this activity was to help plan and initiate my advisory's contribution to the Turkey Program. I wanted to stay organized myself and help others stay organized during the activity. This program also raised ethical questions and helped me realise the ethical implications my actions can have.

During the activity, I helped to plan out and organize a list of what everyone would bring for the dinner. I also bought jello to bring in, but I ended up bring it a day late.

The outcome of this activity was that a lot of food was brought in. A couple small things were missing, but a family will have a nice Thanksgiving dinner to enjoy.

I thought that the Juniors in my advisory worked well together. We took different parts of the responsibility. For example, one kid explained everything to the advisory, I recorded information, other people offered to baked deserts and other brought stuff in. We could definitely lead more activities in the future.

I really hope that this activity benefitted the family who received the dinner. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, food can bring people together, and I hope that this act of service provided the family with love as well as keeping them from being hungry.

I think that I set reasonable goals in this activity. The goals were not too high or too low. If I offer to help with something, I think that I should be able to stay organized enough to follow through with it. I also think it is reasonable to help other people stay organized.

I didn't do as good a job at following through on them, though. While the list I kept helped remind people of what they were assigned to bring and met my goals to help others stay organized, I didn't fulfill my first goal of staying organized, because I failed to bring my food in on the correct day.

On the other hand, I met both of my learning objectives. I did help plan and initiate this activity because of the list. The turkey program helped me to consider the ethical implications I can have. For example, as I mentioned before, is it really fair or right to give one fancy dinner to one family when thousands are in need of simple food? I think that helping this one American family is at least a good start. I mean, at least I helped some people. I also think it is good sometimes to help people in your own country who might need food before you send all your resources to another country. This is a very difficult issue though.

I felt good about this activity I really think it benefited a family and it gave me and my advisory the satisfaction of helping others. The only thing I felt bad about was bring the jello in late. That was a good lesson for the future: Make sure you know the correct date and still try to bring in stuff early.

The Dead Line

One mistake I made with this activity was that I got the dates mixed up, and I ended up bring the jello a day late. Although I had been worried about other people bringing their food in, I should have been more focused on doing my part as well. I guess if I ever do this again, I will bring in food extra early to make sure I don't bring it in late or forget it. Even when I'm one of the people planning and initiating an activity, I have to make sure that I participate in the activity itself.

Learning Objective 7

Consider the Ethical Implications of Your actions

It's the last day of Thanksgiving break and I have had a good week. My family came on Thursday and we had a big dinner, watched TV, went for a walk, it was good. Thinking about my Thanksgiving makes me wonder about the dinner my advisory and I put together. I wonder if that family had a good Thanksgiving. (For my part, I got the pick up day mixed up, so the family didn't get any jello, but more about that in the other post.) I hope they appreciated the rest of the food.

As you sit close around a table enjoying good food, conversation and family, a meal can bring people together in a way nothing else can. I hope that by catering to a family's physical needs my advisory and I also bought love and fellowship to that home. yeah, it sounds ridiculous, but I hope it is also true.

Thanksgiving also reminds me of all the hungry people in the world. I was wondering, is it fair to donate my time and money so that one family can have a nice meal when there are thousands of hungry people who would be happy with any kind of food, no matter how nice or gross? I don't know. Maybe the family we donated food to is really poor, maybe not. This is at least a good issue to think about.

Turkey Program Planning

So far for the Turkey Program, we have made a list of all the foods we need for a Thanksgiving dinner and assigned the foods to everyone in our advisory. I am in charge of keeping the list and reminding everyone of what they should bring.

We have collected a couple of items, but we still need a lot more, so I hope that everyone brings their food tomorrow. So that we can be ready for Tuesday.

This activity is really helping me to realize how hard it can be sometimes to lead an activity. Although we have a good plan for bring the food in, there is no way I can control whether the plan is followed through. I just need to stay organized and remind everyone of their responsibilities.

Turkey Program Goals and Description

The Turkey Program will help families all across Cape Cod. Thanksgiving is an important holiday in my family and I would like to make it special for other families as well. I will help plan and lead the activity as well as contribute food. I am in charge of making sure everyone brings the foods they were assigned. This will be a challenge because although I am in charge(along with the other Juniors in my advisory) of planning what foods we will bring, it is ultimately the responsibility of the other students in my advisory to bring it in. I can plan this activity, but I can't "control" whether or not everyone follows the plan. I think this will personally affect me by making me a better leader through practice. It will also help me to appreciate my thanksgiving dinner more. I am realizing how much planning goes into a Thanksgiving dinner and what a privilege it is to have one.

One goal is for me is to stay organized during the activity. Sometimes I lose track of what I'm supposed to do. I will know that I have reached this goal if I bring in the food and money I agreed to bring. My other goal is to help others stay organized as well. I want to support them by reminding them of what to bring in and if necessary, bring it for them.

Learning Outcome 3

The Juniors in my advisory and I are in charge of this activity, so we have to plan and initiate it. I am in charge of the list of foods everyone has to bring. I have helped to assign the foods to everyone. We are also taking the initiative for this activity. We are expected to lead it and take responsibility for its success or failure.

Learning Outcome 7

I think this Turkey Program will also help me to consider the ethical implication that my actions can have. By simply sharing food with another family, I can show them love and do something good for them. I think that whenever you do a service activity, it could also arouse other ethical issues. For example, is what you are doing really the best way (morally) to spend your time, effort and money? Will your act of service really benifit the people you are trying to help?

This activity will help me to practice leading an activity. I will also learn to value what I have more. Finally, I will get the benefit of feeling good for helping others. This activity will also help a family to have good food to eat and to enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday.