2. Early Perception My early perceptions of this project were that it is A great way for Teachers to become active in their local communities. I especially liked the fact that we would be working with children with disabilities. I feel as if these children deserve to have great things happen to them and just being able to help them achieve their goals is incredibly rewarding.
3. The organization I chose to do my Teacher In Action project with was the Special Olympics of Seminole Country. I chose this because I enjoy working with children and I've always been drawn to children with special needs participating in sports.
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5. Personal Information My name is Cory Laatsch. I come from A military family and used to move every 2 years. One thing that always remained constant for me was my participation in sports. I’ve always loved the feeling of belonging to a team. Me and two of my three sisters
6. Engagement Activities Although my hopes while volunteering at the Seminole County Special Olympics included coaching the athletes I was not able to get a volunteer position doing that. Instead I was a class B volunteer that helped set up the actual events. At first I was incredibly disappointed in this since I would not be getting the direct interaction with the kids as I had previously hoped.
7. Engagement Activities However I soon realized that what I was doing was both rewarding and important. Most of the time we were short staffed and worked franticly to get everything set up. Being able to assist in setting up these events for the athletes was very rewarding because without the volunteers setting up for these events they would not happen. I was still able to interact with the athletes and watch all the competitions as well so my experience with the Special Olympics was definitely a positive one.
8. Engagement Activities I got the idea to do my Teacher In Action project at the Seminole County Special Olympics from the discussion boards in the classroom.
9. Participant Demographics Athletes 6-7 may participate in Special Olympics training only. Athletes age 8 and over can participate in Special Olympics training and competition. There is no upper age limit in Special Olympics. I believe upwards of 200 people were served from my service hours.
14. Reflection This experience has definitely been a positive influence in my life. Being able to work with ID individuals and help them participate in and enjoy sports is something that I thoroughly enjoyed. I think the thing that had the most impact on me was seeing everything come together. After setting up for all the events and just watching not only the Athletes but their families enjoy what we had done was incredibly rewarding.
15. Reflection I will take away a definite respect and more understanding for individuals with Intellectual disabilities. I feel like every future Teacher should do a project like this. I at first was nervous since I had never been around a group of ID individuals. However my trepidation soon melted away as I started to realize that these individuals are amazing human beings. My outlook on ID has improved dramatically and I am grateful that I was able to have this experience.
16. Reflection From this experience I feel like I will definitely be better equipped to accommodate the needs of ID students that I will encounter in my classroom.
