Personal Learning Project

(I'm so sorry this write-up is late, I have been doing my project, I forgot this part)

For my personal learning project I will be learning how to crochet. My mother has always crocheted very well and I have always sort of wanted to learn how. I will be spending time with her to learn the basic principles of crocheting and hopefully, at the end of the semester, be able to present a finished item. I hope this will challenge me (not too much hopefully) to stretch myself and learn a new craft-hobby that I can use in the future. The only practical application I can think of is to be able to make wonderful (depending on how good I get) homemade gifts for my friends and family for the holidays. I also want to do this because I think it’s a good idea to learn how to make things for yourself, I feel in a way it’s a lost art in our society. I hope that through learning the basics of crocheting, I will later be able to cultivate my new talent and try at some point in my life to make a homemade sweater. That’s a little ambitious for our class, so I’m aiming a little lower for the purpose of this project.

Facilitation Self Assesment

First off, I know from past experience, that being a facilitator is a very weak point for myself. So I will start with what I felt I could have done better.

While reading about toxic waste online, I thought the game looked extremely complicated, while doing it in the comfort of my own home, my siblings and myself struggled to reach the goal of the activity with the rules in front of us. I made the mistake of assuming my classmates would have equal trouble completing the assignment. I gave them a pre-made loop which was what ultimately led them to figure out the activity within the first 10 minutes of the activity. In retrospect, I wish I'd given them the chord with no pre-made loop to add time to the activity.

I also felt my rules were not incredibly thorough and I found my self saying "also" more then I would have liked to.

The game looked much more frustrating online and I was looking forward to pulling the group away from the activity to talk through what they were doing, however, it went so smoothly and everyone had such a level head it was never necessary.

I think I did a good job stepping back from the situation and letting them work without my involvement, I was very proud of myself for that because it's one of the reasons I've been a terrible facilitator in the past. I thought it was a good idea to have my classmates do the activity again with more handicaps to make it more challenging, therefore more of a learning experience and less of a game.

On the upside to the whole thing, everyone in the group seemed to enjoy the game and the low level of challenge after our other classmates more difficult, frustrating game. I think as a stand alone activity that day it would not have gone over as well.

Facilitation Activity Write Up

Toxic Waste

Objective: Place the container of toxic waste into the neutralization zone within a time limit.

Materials: Cup of waste, Container for neutralization zone, one bungee loop, rope, 8 chords

Procedure: The team must find a way to move the waste to the neutralization zone within the time limit without getting too close to the waste.

Rules: The game has a 20-minute time limit, none of the participants are allowed to get within the rope’s distance of the toxic waste, if any part of their body gets too close to the waste, that part of their body will be unusable for the duration of the game. If the waste is spilled the game either ends, of the must start over from the beginning

Variations: give handicaps freely, instead of the loop, try giving them just a bungee chord and let them figure out the loop, try dumping the toxic waste instead of placing it into the container

Hints or Other info for future facilitators: Depending on the ability of the group, make the game harder of easier to fill time

Safety Considerations: Watch out if you make people blind, take time to analyze if people get frustrated

Edgework Model

Every summer growing up, my family would take trips to Lake Powell. While we were there, all of the cousins would go out cliff jumping. However, I had always had a crippling fear of heights.

Old Edge Patterns

Feelings:Scared, anxious, abandoned

Physiology:Rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, shaking uncontrollably

Pattern/Defense: Make excuses, lash out

Belief: "Everyone is braver than me." "I'm such a loser."

Conversation: "If I jump I will die." "There's no way this is only 15 feet."

Support: Cousins

Metaphor: I pictured myself alone on the cliff or dead in the water

Edge Resources

Feelings: Inclusion, Excitement

Physiology: Racing heart rate but with mental calm

Pattern/Defense: Think less

Belief: "This is awesome." "I am awesome."

Conversation: "Don't think about it." "If you do a trick, everyone will cheer."

Support: Cousins, self

Metaphor: Fearless, like a bird taking off in flight

Processing the Experience Response#1

This reading helped me, I'm finally starting to get my brain around what experiential learning is. It seems like the key element to experiential learning is the processing part.

It seems to me that how a person processes an experience is very personal. Two people who share an experience have the potential to process a situation very differently. I would imagine that a persons previous life experiences will greatly effect their reflections.

It makes me wonder how the others in class are reacting to this course so far and what they are taking away from it versus the experience I am having.

What is Experiential Education?

From what I understand, experiential education is the process of learning something through experience, then taking the time to reflect on it (mostly through journaling/writing about it/etc.) so we can better understand how the experience affected us.

I noticed that experiential education typically refers to more active class settings, therefore making recreation classes well suited for the experiential learning process. I also thing this process could be applied to other types of classes if they were more engaging with students.