Full Court Basketball Clinics

With the end of Genius Hour and 10th grade year coming in quickly, I am trying to squeeze in at least 1 more session of playing with the kids I have one planned with one of the children from the last session, and plan to hold one with my older sister and her friend.  I am also trying to come up with an idea for my final product.  I have contemplated making a interview with some of the kids who I worked with, but I am not sure who to share the video with.  I have learned many things in this process and think that other people might be interested too.  I am not 100% set on the idea of making a mini documentary, and am open to suggestions. My original product for my project was to make a power point discussing what I learned, but since this is to similar to the TED talks I have to change and I am scrambling to find Ideas. Thank you for reading, and feel free to give any suggestions regarding my final product!

This weekend I was able to host my first clinic.  I had 5 kids who all go to FRA come.  I also had a friend who had volunteered to help join me in the clinic.  In the being, since I did not know many of the kids very well. After a little while of just talking and shooting around the kids seemed ready to play game.  I had come up with a few little games that I had played at some basketball clinics when I was younger, but the kids did not seem very into it.  I then decided to ask the kids what they wanted to do, to which they replied, "Let's play hide and seek!".  You might be wondering how would you play hide in seek in an empty gym, but that did not prevent us from running around finding hiding spots.  I learned that when working with kids it is very hard to get their attention, so there is no need to get frustrated when not everything is going to plan.  Even though we did not play much basketball until the last 15 minutes where we just passed the...

Hello, this week I have worked on preparing for the first camp this Sunday.  I had planned to host about 5 kids at FRA, but with the middle school play being this weekend many kids will not be able to come.  I have decided to reschedule the camp for a later date.  This is not an inhibitor, but a learning experience.  I now know understand that I need to make note of large events that might be going on during that might take away from what I am planning.  I also have learned that it is important to inform people farther ahead of time in order to let them fit it into their schedule. Even though I will not be holding a camp like I planned I am still planning to take my older sister and another child who has been anxiously waiting to play basketball this Sunday to a nearby park or the YMCA depending on weather to play and hang out for a little while.  Thank you.

This week I spoke with coach Dawson, who is in charge of the Heart To Heart program here at FRA.  I told him about the project I am doing, and he seemed interested.  I asked him to send me the contact information of the students and parents of the students in the Heart To Heart program.  The Hear To Heart program at FRA is similar to the special ed departments at public schools.  This program gives kids who have down syndrome the opportunity to attend a great school like FRA. I have also communicated with the athletic faculty in order to use a gym.  Luckily a close friend of mine who is struggling to find people to attend his clinics is hosting one the same day I was planning to.  I will be joining him and bringing other kids along.  I think that this will be even better than with just the Heart to Heart kids.  I think it will be a god opportunity for the kids to be able to interact with each other in a fun way.  Thank You.

This week the Basketball games were canceled due to the long holiday weekend, but that did not stop progress.   On Friday I came up with the idea to do some clinics with some of the kids in the school’s heart-heart program.   Unluckily the man who runs the program was off coaching at the state wrestling meet, which our wrestlers did quite well at, so when I see him Monday I will talk to him about getting the contact information for the parents of the kids in the program.    This week I also got to attend a great event held by Bet Buddies of Tennessee.   Best Buddies is a worldwide program which pairs kids with special needs with a buddy who hangs out and just becomes friends with the people.   I attended the annual prom with my school.   The prom was held at the Bridgestone Arena, so it is a very big deal.   I saw many of the kids who I had played basketball with.   This was another great experience where people with disabilities and oth...