This past Wednesday and Thursday was all about improvising. The consent forms on sex education for the older female group did not get back to us on time. The curriculum was hampered but fortunately, the medical students improvised.

Meanwhile, I was out interacting with the younger female group ( <11 class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">counselor and planned activity, Jeremy, Valerie and I offered our assistance with the warm up exercise and ball games.

I am obviously new, and a few of these teens were not hesitant to ask general questions about me directly. Again, I am surprised that the females are more extroverted than their male peers in comparison to my experience from last week.

I noticed that a few of the female teens were already exhibiting "boy crazy" behaviors. They were more interesting in interacting with the male "attendants"; who were close to their age, than participating in the physical activities.

What I saw as boy crazy behaviors include refusing to take part in the warm up exercise or activity but instead followed the male attendant around and were coquettish in behaviors and mannerism. Once the attendants were gone, I see the same female teens slouching on the sitting area or even lying on the seating area instead of rejoining the group in their games.

Please correct me if I misinterpreted the "boy crazy" behavior I witnessed. I find it disturbing...Perhaps we should introduce "Tween Dating and Relationships and Abuse" module to this group?

Last Thursday was my first time interacting with the young adults at Good Sam. I noticed lots of unspoken rules and non verbal communication going on between the "kids" and counselors.

I was observing the male teens from the back of the class while Jeanette, Christina and Byron were giving the sex education presentation. Most of them did not seem to be listening or avoid eye contact. The biggest surprise was when questions were asked, most of them could answer them! So, do not be fooled by their appearances. They were listening despite they do not look interested!

Back when we were all going through our training phase, several guest speakers mentioned to make the class fun. Now, I fully understand from first hand experience that making the class fun is important. The young adults liven up immediately when they heard they are playing a game i.e The Sperm-Egg Fertilization game.

Jeanette and I both agreed, that even though we do not know how much information these teens could remember, but if they could retained as much as 5% of the content taught, we have helped them build on their knowledge on sex education.

Wednesday, Week 2

Guys!

We really pulled it together today. I am so impressed by the nutrition/diabetes awareness demonstration. I thought the props were extremely powerful tools in getting our point across, thank you Jeanette for being so creative!

I noticed that a lot of the kids were "getting into" being healthy by asking questions after the presentation and by pulling us aside throughout the day to show us the number of steps they had taken.

On a side note, we probably need to set up some type of clearly marked 'permanent bins' (preferably in the Plum room) that the kids can come back to on their own to pick up their folders. I noticed that many folders had been forgotten and a few of the cameras we handed out were still in the boxes/crates we left behind last week.

Keep up the amazing work,

Cristina

Ideas to get you started on reflection

Last week was our first week at Good Samaritan Community Center working with junior high students at Day Camp. This blog is an outlet for you to reflect on your time at Good Sam. You can do this any way that you like, but if you don't feel you have any ideas of how to start, try answering some of the following questions.

• What surprised you the most about your first interactions with the students?
• What are some of the differences you noticed between the younger and older kids? In working with the boys versus the girls?
• Did anything come up during the first week you felt unprepared for or overwhelmed by?
• What have you learned from the kids?
• What do you think you could do differently next week to improve your time at Good Sam? What worked well that could be done again?

Hi guys,

My OR elective has been keeping me busy and exhausted, but I can still contribute to the project. If you guys need opinions, suggestion etc, please post them here. I will reply ASAP. Even though my class ends at 3 pm, and I still can help run errands after.

Teck

First Posting

I have just started this blog for our project, Healthy Choices for Kids. This blog has been started to give the medical and nursing students that are participating to post their reflections about their participation in this project. I was at Good Sam yesterday and was interviewed along with Ashley Garcia by a reporter from the Express News newspaper. She was interested in knowing the history of the evolution of this project, how it is going right now, and what we are learning from the children. Next Wednesday, Sarah Lucero, from KENS, will be coming to Good Sam to do a story on the project for airing later in the summer.

In reflecting upon the two week course that began this project for the students, in retrospect, I like the idea of the teaching fitness by having the students participating in it. It really drives home the point that all of us, as health care providers, need to understand: "that are ability to walk the talk" is critical if we are to have an impact on our patients. However, it is important to remember that we do need to schedule in time for cleaning up after the fitness activity so that the rest of the day does not become delayed.