My Expectation Going Into The Practicum

In all honesty, I did not have expectations going into the practicum. I wanted to take a risk and take subjects that I had never encountered in high school and sports studies was one of them. I mostly wondered what each class was going to be and how we were going to learn about sports through a different lenses such as english and sociology. Therefore, my expectations were exceeded because the practicum allowed all my brain power to be focused in one subject (sport), yet we dove into in numerous different subtopics in sports. For example, in Professor Colas’ class, we learned about sports through a week long lens each week, eventually reaching thirteen ways we can look at sports. One thing I did not expect was the community service aspect …show more content…
We are typically greeted by our little friends, standing about 4’5”, with large smiles and snacks being eaten. First, we begin talking about how their days were and their favorite thing they learned in school today. After snack time, we escort the children to the other half of the cafeteria where many games are setup to keep the children company while various members of the after school program clean up. Following game time, which usually ended in me losing Connect Four or being jumped on, the leader of the program, Mr. Dave, provides the children with three to four options for the day (to go outside time/dodgeball, watch a movie, computer lab, or arts/crafts). However, on occasion there is a group, usually from the college, to teach the kids fun interactive games, while learning about animals or another subject matter. For example, one day an environmental studies program visited and gave a presentation to the kids about bats, which eventually led to a version of sharks and minos, but instead with bat wings. The kids are usually picked up consistently starting at 4:15pm-6:00pm, and our group typically left when most of the kids were picked up because all of us play sports and have team obligations. Our objective through working in this program …show more content…
I enjoyed all the speakers equally because each talk sparked my mind with different information and offered interesting perspectives evolving around the conversation of race and gender in a sporting context.
However, one speaker did stand out to me. Although I was unable to attend his talk, Blackistone was fortunately able to attend and contribute to our class discussion the following day, which was super interesting to hear his story about where he is today and to discuss current events within sports. In the future, I would suggest that more speakers come because I found them extremely helpful and the knowledge I gained from these talks has heightened my awareness surrounding many inequalities within modern day