Working at the Murray Center

One of our assignments for EDU 255 was to volunteer 10 hours outside of class in a setting that would be similar to teaching. Jess Forte and I volunteered at the J.M Murray center to work with individuals with disabilities at their morning fitness club sessions. We started every session with a warm up that involved stretching with free weights or scarves and then moved on to other activities in the fitness room. We had the consumers use balloons and beach balls to work on hand eye coordination and we used Lummi sticks to help them be able to stay on the beat of certain songs. Jess and I always used music at the fitness club as well. The consumers responded well to and really enjoyed country music and 90's dance hits. The consumers worked on aim through throwing soft dice and bean bags at hula hoops across the room. The main part of fitness club took place in the dance room. Jess and I taught a dance to the monster mash during Halloween as well as the Cha Cha slide, Electric slide, and the Macarena. The picture at the top is a picture of myself teaching two consumers Ruth and Shane the Macarena. Because the consumers love country music, Jess and I also taught a number of line dances. We did line dances to Cotton-Eyed Joe and Achy Breaky Heart. We always ended fitness club with a cool down. In the beginning we did stretches similar to those we used as a warm-up. As we moved further on in the semester we decided to incorporate Tai Chi and the Ju-Fu Kata, a self defense relaxation technique, into our cool down routines. Overall I really enjoyed this experience and would love to volunteer at the Murray Center again in the future. This experience boosted my confidence in my choice to add a concentration in Adaptive Physical Education.