Practicum Journal Entries: Alexa Thornton

Journal 1: 9/17/2020
Today was my meeting with Kristen from the Garage Youth Center. She seems
like a very easy-going person and I am excited to work with her to send out videos
to the students at the garage. We were able to accumulate some ideas and thoughts
about how the program, Fall into Fitness, will run. During this interview, I
definitely had to recall what I learned about professionalism and proper questions
to ask as it was already different doing this virtually. I was pretty nervous at first,
but after getting to know her, my nerves were immediately calmed. I am interested
to see how the program will run virtually and how the students will be able to
access the videos.

Journal 2: 9/22/2020
In preparation for the start of Fall into Fitness, I began to brainstorm some
recipe and exercise ideas. I added these to the google docs that Catharine created to
save for the information. Kristen gave us specific directions for the recipes we
chose which limited our options, but we were able to come up with a plethora of
different options with some research. It was interesting to find recipes that did not
require baking and exercises that could be done without materials. I definitely had
to reuse a lot of the modifications that we talked about and used during GetFIT,
just in case the students weren’t able to perform the exercises.

Journal 3: 9/30/2020
I took this time to go over all of the information that other students put into the
google doc and made sure the recipes and exercises were appropriate for the
students’ abilities and the materials they had. Since the document was basically a
dumping ground of everyone’s ideas, I went through and gave it a more
professional and uniform look. We shared this with Kristen to make sure she
approved of the recipes and if any modifications were necessary.

Journal 4: 10/1/2020
To keep each video organized, I created a calendar including all the important
dates for the duration of the 6 weeks. The calendar showed the start and end dates,
the title of the video that was being uploaded and they day it is uploaded on, the
date that each video would be due, and the day we are sending out the final
evaluation. When deciding the order of progressions throughout each week, we
decided to use each of the components of fitness as our main topic the week. Now
that we had most of the details worked out for the dates, times, and video ideas, I
was able to create a flyer for Kristen to post on their social media.

Journal 5: 10/4/2020
We still had a few kinks to work out with the Fall into Fitness program and I
took this time to email Kristen, Catharine, and Dr. DiRosa to fix these. Dr. DiRosa
gave us a checklist of what to complete

Journal 6: 10/7/2020
One very important piece of information that we wanted to know at the end of
this, was how much information the students obtained while watching our videos
and the level of participation that we were receiving. In each video we wanted to
include take-away learning pieces for the students to know and connect the “why”
to the exercise or recipe they’re doing. We decided to do this through a final
survey/evaluation and reward the students with a prize of completion. Today I
created a document to collect all of the facts that we include in each of our videos.
We will use this content to create our evaluation at the end of the 6-weeks.

Journal 7: 10/9/2020
Today I recorded the first video of Fall into Fitness, the flexibility video.
During this video, I found it challenging to explain the different terms related to
flexibility in terms that the students could understand. I chose to discuss static and
dynamic stretching, and I had to recall information from prior classes on different
stretches for each one. There was so much going into this video and I was fearful
that the students wouldn’t be able to hear me or wouldn’t be able to follow along.
Since it was the first video, I also wanted to include and introduction about the
program, and I was nervous to leave out any key details. After recording the video,
I worked on editing it so that it could be uploaded by Sunday.

Journal 8: 10/10/2020
Since I was assigned both the fitness and nutrition videos for the first week, I
recorded the second video, the nutrition video, today. When making this video, I
was worried that it wouldn’t be long enough and so I decided to combine both of
the overnight oat recipes in this video. I ran into a minor difficulty when making
these recipes. I created a recipe that I did not like and my reaction to tasting it was
caught on camera. I tried to cover it up, but I was apprehensive to put it in the
actual video.
 Journal 9: 10/11/2020
The videos for the first week of Fall into Fitness were due today and since I had
to record both videos in the same week, I was definitely pressed for time and very
stressed about getting them in. It was a lot of hours crammed into one weekend and
was a huge challenge on top of my other schoolwork, but I managed to get both of
the videos in. I really struggle with perfectionism and I wanted each and every
detail to be perfect in the videos, so it took me a lot longer than I had expected.

Journal 10: 10/13/2020

The first video was uploaded on the Garage Youth Centers Instagram and
Facebook today and I was super excited to watch it. The first video was a very
significant date considering the stressful lead up, and I was relieved that all went
well with the quality, sound, and presentation. I was nervous about how this
internship would go virtually and with the nutrition videos, I was concerned about
how they would pause the videos to get the recipe down. After Catharine and I
discussed this concern, we came up with the idea of doing weekly flyers to display
the recipes.

Journal 11: 10/14/2020

Dr. DiRosa, Catharine, and I met today to discuss the successes and failures of
the first week, as well as what we need. We ran into a pretty large challenge in
which no volunteers signed up to create next week’s video for fitness. Since
Catharine was going on her honeymoon this weekend, I was the only other person
available to make the video. It was a very stressful week with mid-terms, move in,
and creating the video, but I knew I had to step up and get it done.

Journal 12: 10/15/2020

I was really anxious about making the video on strength since I had to quickly
gather a plan and record the next day, but I managed to get it done. It definitely
took longer to record and edit this video since there were so many different
components included. It was challenging to think of exercises that would be fun,
interesting, and engaging during the virtual viewing. In this video I also had to
recall exercise modifications for the students to do. It was difficult during the short
time to incorporate both the regular form and the modified form while explaining
the directions. Once I finished the videos, I felt so accomplished at all that I had
done in the first week of Fall into Fitness.

Journal 13: 10/16/2020

Today we ran into a problem that I never anticipated happening. Kristen
requested that our videos be 20-30 mins long and one of the first volunteers
submitted their video and it was only one minute long. I was really disappointed
both myself and the volunteer because I definitely should’ve explained in more
detail what we were looking for, but I expected there to be more effort on their
part. The video submitted by the volunteer also had many typos and overall poor
quality, ultimately deeming it unable to send to Kristen. I was really stuck in a
tough situation, because I had already crammed in one video last minute before
moving into school tomorrow and Catharine wasn’t available either because she
was on her honeymoon.

Journal 14: 10/20/2020

Due to some of the troubles uploading videos on the youth centers end,
Kristen had connected me with Tony DaChuna, who uploads the videos. I was able
to share the google drive folder with him so that he could access the videos. We
were able to discuss a few of the problems that were occurring and work out a
better plan for uploading. After talking to Tony and coming up with a plan, he
threw a large curve ball and said that the was going to continue with the plan they
had originally. I was nervous that we weren’t doing the best we could, or he didn’t
like our ideas, but I think he did end up changing to one of the ways we had
suggested. It was very beneficial to get in contact with him so that we can ensure
the process goes as smooth as possible.

Journal 15: 10/21/2020

In beginning to cultivate different aspects of my portfolio, I was able to do
some more research on the Garage Youth Center that I didn’t necessarily know
before. The company’s organizational culture is guided by 5 core principles of
community relationships, leadership, core spirituality, academic potential, and
irresistible fun. I loved that they included irresistible fun to embrace the spirit of
youth and channel it into life-giving activities. This really drives home the
intentions of our videos and the overall purpose of the program.

Journal 16: 10/22/2020

Today I have come to realize the great challenges of working with others
and relying on each individual to put the same efforts in their videos that you do. I
have some fears that the videos we are sending are not living up to the expectations
of Kristin and I definitely don’t want to disappoint her. She did say in the
evaluation that we have done excellent work, but I still don’t believe we have done
the best we can. I have been apprehensive about sending a few of the videos due to
their quality and content. This goes along with the troubles of working with others
in a group, but we are especially experiencing the difficulties since being virtual.
As an intern who is organizing the due dates and content of the videos, I hope that
I am doing all that I can to make the program the best it can be.

Journal 17: 10/27/2020

Doing this internship virtually has been very difficult and keeping
communication strong has presented many problems. To keep Dr. DiRosa in the
loop, I decided to meet with her and discuss how the internship has been going. A
very big accomplishment we experienced was hitting the halfway mark for the
program and each week sending out fun quality videos.

Journal 18: 10/28/2020

In the beginning of the year, we sent out a push-up challenge for the students
to complete and work on throughout the six-week program. Now that we have hit
the mid-point of the program, Catharine and I discussed how we could send out
another challenge or if we should continue with the push-up challenge and see their
progress. After talking with DR. DiRosa, we decided to have them push the
numbers from the previous challenge and see if they can beat their record. I think
that this is a fun way to gain personal success and want to achieve more for their
own health rather than beating their peers.

Journal 19: 11/5/2020

To assess our work as interns, Catharine and I are sending out a Fall into
Fitness final survey/evaluation for the students to complete. During this time,
Catharine and I discussed what would go into the survey and how we would assess
the students’ knowledge gained from the videos. In making the survey, I was
surprised to find it difficult to come up with wrong answers for the questions we
were asking. It’s a total change of mindset when making up a quiz because as the
one giving the quiz, you know the correct answer, but then you have to think of
what the question asked, “is not”.

Journal 20: 11/8/2020

This week presented more problems with the uploading of videos, and now
both people set to do the nutrition and fitness video were unable to do it. We found
this information out last minute on the Sunday they were due. Throughout the
internship I have learned that I strongly dislike having to rely on others for my own
personal success. This internship was partially reliant on the fact that volunteers
would upload videos and I wished it had just been us to create the videos. I think
that this was a huge lesson that I learned in this internship which will definitely
help me in the future. Instead of relying on others to do the work, I can do it
myself. This will only make me a better and more well-rounded worker.
Journal 21: 11/10/2020
Vanessa Sanchez, one of the volunteers, communicated with Zena Tracey to
pick up the prizes for the students that completed the six weeks of videos. We
decided to use this as an incentive for the students to watch the videos. I then
arranged a time to meet with Zena and Zach to pick up the prizes. We were given
water bottles and t-shirts to give to the students. It was great that these were the
prizes because throughout many of the fitness videos, we told the students the
importance of hydration. The water bottles also say, “The Future You”, which
correlated to the program, as they are working to make their body healthier for
their future. I was really happy with the outcome of the prizes and am eager to give
them to the students.

Journal 22: 11/11/2020

As I mentioned in the previous journal, one of the volunteers last minute was
unable to record the video. I set aside this time to record it for her. It definitely
challenged my time management skills and recording a video was completely
unexpected. I had a very busy schedule this week but didn’t want to disappoint the
Garage and students with no video this week. Thankfully I was able to rearrange
my schedule to get the video done. I ended up creating a yoga video and found a
lot of relaxation during it, which was much needed. This was a very difficult video
to record as I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a peaceful mediation person. It
challenged me in many ways, but I was proud of the final product. We received an
email from Tony saying that the videos were awesome, and he was so thankful and
proud of our work. It was so nice to have this reassurance.

Journal 23: 11/13/2020

We are approaching the final week of Fall into Fitness and we wanted to
create some fun videos for the students. One of the very popular social media
platforms right now for teenagers is Tik Tok. For my final video I decided to create
“Learn Tik Tok dances with me”. It was so much fun to make and I think that the
students will really enjoy the video. One problem that I ran into, which I was not
expecting, was finding videos with clean lyrics and appropriate dances for the
students. It took me a lot longer than expected to sort through the dances and find
ones that would be good to record. I am not a very good dancer, so these were
hysterical to make. We have noticed that the students are much more receptive to
these funny videos and I think that they will like this one.

Journal 24: 11/14/2020

 After editing and uploading the Tik Tok video, I went through all of our
assignments to be sent to the garage and added information to the final evaluation
from the past two videos. I also took this time to put together all of the prizes and
emailed Kristin to arrange for a time to give them to the students. I was
disappointed to finish my last video for the students. Although this internship did
not necessarily correlate to my future career path, I have learned so much from it. I
will definitely take this knowledge and apply it to jobs in the future. I have had
many positive experiences with this internship, and also negatives, both of which
have helped me grow as a student, intern, and future employee.