It is now more than two weeks since the start of the National Youth Sports Program and I have just finished my role as an educator for the camp. From the beginning, as nursing students we were spit into three groups each with our own education topics including nutrition, self-esteem, and my groups topic being physical activity. We started each day of camp bright and early and every morning we would take attendance of a specific group of children we were assigned to. I happened to be the leader of group 12 which included about 25 children, ages 10-12. Keeping in mind there was a total of about 400 kids, ages ranging from 10-16. Most of the kids met in Adelbert gym, so you can imagine the chaos some days in the crowded and hot gym but we quickly led the children to either their first sports activity or enrichment class.
Enrichment for me included teaching about physical activity and its importance with two other nursing students. We designed 5 lesson plans that each lasted about 50 minutes which included: BMI, cardiac health, muscles, sports injuries, and sedentary lifestyles. The hardest part about creating these lesson plans was the variation in ages with the children and tailoring each one to multiple levels of education. Throughout each day for 2.5 weeks we taught 4 classes and made the lessons as interactive and hands on as possible. We let the kids play games and do activities such as Simon says to teach the muscle groups, ride that pony (sounds odd, but the kids loved it) to teach about the heart rate, jeopardy, calculating and plotting their own BMIs, and charades just to name a few.
As of today I am enjoying the camp and I can see the positive attitudes and eagerness to learn with most of the children. Through education I think that we are having an impact on the children and it is evident by the reactions and just interacting with the kids everyday. We taught about BMI on the first day of camp and I am still having kids reference and talk about the information we taught. Leaves me with a sense of accomplishment especially with the hard work that I have put into the program. Also, being with the kids for 7 hours each day all week, you can tell that many of them look up to me, they put trust in me, and even consider me a role model. I will be continuing the rest of the program coaching and playing football and I hope that my experience will be just as satisfying as the education portion.
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