Senior Project Reflection

PART ONE: Two Hour Presentation


1. Student Assessment- P
         -I met my talking time and the group seemed to enjoy the activities. I feel like I met all the P requirements but didn't do much to get much higher than that.


2. What are you most proud of in your two hour presentation? Why?
          -I'm proud of the poster I made because I have terrible penmanship but they looked pretty dope. (I really am proud of them but I think I should put an actual presentation answer soo...) I'm proud of the feedback I received from the junior class and my classmates.




PART TWO: Overall Senior Project Experience


3. What do you think you did well on in the project? What do you think you could have done better? Explain.
          - I think I did well with my service learning and Independent Components because I learned the most doing those. I think I could have done better prioritizing my actual work loads because I had a tendency to turn things in kind of late.


4. What is your EQ and what is your best answer?
          - What is the most effective way to influence young athletes to play softball? -Having a good coaching philosophy


5. How has the last month of culminating events affected your answer to you EQ? Has it changed? Why or why not?


          -The last month made me think more about my answers more, especially the three column chart and I-search because I had to go in depth and connect answers. I kinda changed my best answer from just communicating to philosophy because philosophy includes communication so it had my old answer in it.


6. What suggestions do you have in order to improve the Senior Project?
          - I think it would be a lot of easier if all of the teachers announce dates and clear things up, so all the houses are on the same page with things. some points in the year, different houses had different due dates for things or were unaware of some parts of project.


7. Overall Senior Project Assessment- P
        - I think that I did good with some components like; my three column I was proud of, exit interview, service learning, and my two hour. However, some other parts were lacking and I could've done a lot better on.

Service Learning

Literal
For my service learning I shadowed Coach Ford at Mt. Sac. I assisted the coaches with drills at  practices, and also attended some of the games. I completed over 50 hours, I attended practice Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:00-4:00 starting November-January then starting back up after a short winter break.  At games I kinda just watched the team play and observed coaches.
     Coach Kelly Ford- 909)274-4732
     Coach B- 909) 274-4939
Interpretive
The most important thing I gained from this experience was my product of my senior project. But also just being able to watch a team with a coach that is highly accredited and has an outstanding program opened up a lot of learning experiences for me. Coach Ford also opened my eyes to a new perspective on softball, not just coaching.
Applied
My time at Mt. Sac helped me with my senior project because I got to watch coaches that have been part of teams that have gone far (won several tiles, championships) and the coaching staf helped me answer my EQ by showing me the various approaches they take to coaching but also how they all have a very similar philosophy on coaching, which is why their staff is able to work well together.

Independent Study 2 LIA

L- I, Emily Almeida, affirm that I completed my independent study which represents 30+ hours of work.
I assisted in coaching a youth (8U) recreational team for the season.

I- I spent over 50 hours with the Bat Girls team at practices and games, helping the coaches and occasionally running my own drills.

A- This helped my senior project because it gave me the hands on experience of coaching a youth team

2 hr Rough Draft

Topic: Coaching Softball
EQ: What is the most effective way to influence young athletes to play softball?

Classroom Theme: Outside, trying to reserve the field
Sponge Activity: 

1. Stretches, proper stretching for softball pregame
2. Talk to group, intros and stuff while stretching to keep them active
3. It relates to answers because you have to keep group active with intstruction, effective practices, proper techniques

Introduction:

-I will Introduce myself, my topic and why I chose it.

-Then I will break down my EQ for the group and the perspective (coaching) I took in answering it

               -Most effective

               -Influence

               -Young athletes

-After that then I will break it down into what we will be doing during the lesson, what I will be going over. Talk about the history of the sport and how it's evolved into such a large youth recreational sport, then talk about my answers to my EQ and conclude with best three sources and my product.

Foundation:

 Because of the focus on youth athletes I will talk about the history of softball and how it has become such a big recreational youth sport instead of going into career of coaching (college coaching, WMLS, etc.). * or maybe I can hit on both?

     -History- The first games, in Chicago around 1880s. Kitten Ball. development of rules, Gearge Hancock. Evolution of male to female sport

     - The Rules and Positions, simplified as if teaching to a group of young athletes.

     -Slow pitch (adult play) and youth fastpitch, leagues and popularity of sport now.

Answer 1:

Teaching skills and technique

     -I will talk about the coaches job, teaching kids the sport of softball

     - part of the first point will include the significance of a coaches athleticism( ability to perform/demonstrate skills) and background in the sport(knowledge)

     - I will talk about proper teaching and teaching proper techniques and the downside if you do either wrong (effective teaching, but improper techniques OR negative teaching habits of the right techniques)

     - The importance of teaching PROPER technique with effective teaching

     -I will have to hit on the effects of improper teaching or teaching improper skills and technique

Activity

For this activity I will teach them the proper way to field a ground ball.

or I was thinking teach half the group how to properly field a ground ball or execute some other skill and then have them use proper teaching techniques to teach a group of students.

     - This activity will show the execution of a proper technique and how to properly teach it (wether I teach the whole class a technique or not)

    - I will need gloves and balls for this activity *which I may ask to borrow from Hanke or obtain a set of my own

Answer 2:

Philosophy

    - I will start off with what is philosophy in terms of a coach's philosophy

    - A coach should communicate their philosophy, well let their team and staff know how they expect things throughout the season to go, getting the rest of their staff to implement their philosophy

    - I will go over different coaching philosophies and what makes each philosophy good or bad

          - "Buzz words"

    - Most philosophies are a mixture of broader philosophies

Activity

I'm not quite sure how to run an activity that relates directly to the answer without being to similar to teaching technique. I was thinking run some skill teaching (batting) and hit/emphasize buzz words

 

* I need to review answers three and activity

Best Answer 

Here I will go over philosophy and how important it is because it basically makes up how you run your team and how keeping the girls interested and fun makes them want to play (which is why #3 may be running/scheduling practices). philosophy is the difference in coaches

Three Meaningful Sources

1. Service Learning with Coach Ford at Mt. Sac
2. Third Interview
3. Coaching Girls' Softball: from the How-to's of the Game to Practical Real-world Advice, Your Definitive Guide to Coaching Girls

Product

My product from this project is the connection that I gained at Mt. Sac and the ability I may have to play there next year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I will go over the importance of a coach in an athelte's life and the most important parts of their 'job'. I will recap on my answers and what I have done this year for my senior project.