Dean gustafson by Freestyle Academy

Teaching Adorable Monsters Written and Designed by Dean Gustafson

Dedication I Dedicate this project to Andres Romero, The Aquatics Director at the Palo Alto Family Y who gave me the job to work with all the wonderful kids. I Also Dedicate this to my co workers, Dafne and Andrew, who allowed me to inter view them and get their viewpoint on my subject. Especially, I dedicate my documentary to my Mom, Father, and everyone who has made me who I am today. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done it without any of these wonderful people

Table Of Contents Chapter Page Foreword -

Introduction

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Conclusion: -

Foreword I work at the Palo Alto Family Y so I got to see members enjoyment and overall improvements physically and mentally, so initially that’s what got me interested to do it for my documentary. At first, I wanted to learn about what made kids crazy, random, fun, and also the psychological reasoning behind difficult children and how to change that. But getting into it, I uncovered how unique the Y is as a location and what its strengths and overall objectives of making a better future by improving the community. I wanted to share what the Y brings to Silicon Valley to take precedence in my documentary, but also what the Y does for the whole world as well. I really like what the Y does for its members and their faculty members as well, and I wanted to share that experience of healthy living and personal improvement, so that readers could possibly go to the Y and figure it out for themselves. The Y is truly a unique experience like no other because its a really great way to exercise and feel good about it. I organized

this book the way I did because I thought it introduced the reader in the best way. First I gave a little background to the Y, the history, its purpose because then you can figure out why it’s great. Then I explained my core topic, the Y pool, and what you can do there such as its classes and activities because I wanted people to get an idea of what the Y brings to the table. Then, lastly I ended with what the Y can do to improve its teaching through visual learning, patience, and mutual respect because initially I wanted to figure out what makes a student misbehave because its important in my job and was interesting to me. During my research for this topic, I went to search and try to get valuable information to improve my teaching overall and figure out why kids don’t listen to me or whatever the situation may be. But after I did some research and conference with Mr. Greco, I figured that it would be best to focus more on what makes the Y special and why is it such a great experience. My most interesting thing I found in my research was that children have extremely raw emo-

tions and don’t really mask what they want, and capitalizing on that information you can find out their incentives and why they are acting a certain way, correcting that behavior is extremely easy. My greatest challenges in my documentary was getting all of the material from my location. At first, they didn’t want me to take pictures and didn’t want me to interview, but after discussions, it worked out in the end. Also, after doing my interviews, my audio didn’t transfer and got deleted somehow so I had to go back and do them again, which was annoying to say the least. Overall, the Documentary Project was a an experience for me. I got a hands on experience as a journalist, and I learned how to take on challenges and overcome them. Before I did this project, I didn’t think the Y was that much of a unique location, I just thought of it as a job, but uncovering its missions, purpose, I figured out what an amazing place is and what I’ve given and what I have gotten back from the experience. 7

Introduction

“So Johnathan, what did you do today?” “I don’t know.” “Oh come on Jonathan, just one thing that you did.” “Uh well, today a seagull pooped on my head, I chased girls around like a bull and it was really funny.” “Johnathan, How could you forget that!!” “I don’t know I just did I guess.” At the Palo Alto Family Y this is just one example of what a swim student will tell you on a daily basis. As the indoor pool fills with the sounds of laughing to whistles and “NO RUNNING!” the Y is a great, unique place like no other where it is as much of a playground as it is a class room. Children are our youth, the next era of society, and as a whole

will control what the future brings. With that being said, what measures can we take to make sure that the human race will thrive? Certainly, many things have to be taken to mind, education, mental wellness and as well as physical health. At the Palo Alto YMCA, we aim to aid to make our youth strong by offering all of these values in camps, classes, as well as swimming lessons. Starting with something small, swimming we can teach our children not only a great way to exercise, but sharing, caring and social skills as well, and ultimately make them better adults down the road. At the YMCA, the faculty aims at strengthening community, giving great programs that offer a multitude of skills, and overall creating a better future. As a swim instructor at the Y, I want to make children learn meaningful swimming skills while having fun too, and I believe that our program completes that goal. With this in mind however, I feel there is always room for improve-

ment, so for my documentary project, I chose some of my coworkers to answer some questions about their job to give different viewpoints on their job as a whole. With this valuable information, I can see where we can improve and create an even better learning environment for the children. As a swim instructor, there are many ways you can get children to participate actively, but what happens when a kid does not want to learn? what sort of issues come from this and how can we change their behavior? Searching the web and local libraries I delved into the psychological science behind learning, specifically how children learn to get a different perspective and try to improve my teaching methods. After this intensive research, I have found that is successful, what is not, and what this means for teaching as a whole.

Chapter One A Corporation with A Cause 11

The YMCA Beginnings Kids laugh and play, while waiting for their classes. Just minutes before their teacher comes to get them by the rainbow cones with the teachers name card on it, the kids line up in single file. Once the teacher gets them, 30 to 40 minute classes are filled with games, fun, and excitement, the children learning without even knowing about it. Bret Gustafson, a swimming instructor, views the YMCA’s class time, “Yeah I think 30 minutes is actually the perfect amount of time the age group that I’m in, because any longer they just wouldn’t be able to pay attention”. Bret’s point in the subject is that 30 minutes of exercise a day is the perfect amount of the children that he teaches to learn meaningful teaching skills, exercise, and have fun in a great way. Once 12

class is over the giant room is filled with “awws!” and “NO WAY”. The children are truly have had fun in the pool, learning a valuable life skill.

The Palo Alto Y in our local community is a gym where kids and adults can exercise and better themselves in a community. As the people improve

themselves, the YMCA wants to promote a multitude of values: Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society. Fostering dialogue and partnership between people of different faiths and ideologies and recognizing the cultural identities of people and promoting cultural renewal. Committing to work in solidarity with the poor, dispossessed, uprooted people and oppressed racial, religious and ethnic minorities. (www.ymca.int) The YMCA is committed to create a essentially empowering environment where anybody, of any background can change their lives for the better.

The Palo Alto “Family” Y In our Y, we specifically desire ecumenical, voluntary movement for for the Industrial Revolution. As a to create a Whole Family experience women and men with special empha- young man, Williams was concerned with our 4 core values, Caring, Honsis on and the genuine involvement with the lack of healthy activities esty, Respect, and Responsibility. of young people and that it seeks to available to the youth of England. When the PAFY teaches your child share the Christian ideal of building Typically men of his age spent much swimming or is supervising them at a human community of justice with of their time and coin at local taverns one of their camps, we make sure love, peace and reconciliation for the at brothels, and George Williams saw that they are learning, not only about fullness of life for all creation. Each that this was not a healthy lifestyle to the curriculum, but also about them- member YMCA is therefore called uphold. On June 6, 1844, Williams selves and life choices. Not only do to focus on certain challenges which founded the Young Men’s Christian we want our children to improve on will be prioritized according to Association in London England and their skills, we also want them to im- its by 1851 there were YMCA’s in the e a k UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, prove on themselves and u k in d o f m o y , s m r e t become better human France, Germany, France, The in f u n n dre w) (A ” “ Yo u p u t it e m o h t beings. We want them to Netherlands, Switzerland, and the a f e e l mo re m e h t become the best they can United States. Later in 1855, the be, but also having some own confirst official meeting of 99 delegates fun while doing so. text.(www.ymca.int) in North America and Europe met in Paris for the First World Conference YMCA has a rich and great The YMCA mission is to of the YMCA. This important meethistory that has changed the course spread such ideals across the world ing of these people around the world of history over the years. As their ofto promote peace and love. With this had amazing repercussions, and as ficial website explains explain: in mind, keeping the YMCA mission a result of this, many organizations goal is a strong and ambitious one, such as the YWCA, World Council of Affirming the Paris Basis but I believe that it can be completed. Churches, World Student Christian adopted in 1855 as the ongoing In its early its early beginnings, the Federation have based their mission foundation statement of the mission YMCA was founded by George Wilstatements to the YMCA’s mission of the YMCA, at the threshold of the liams, who was one of the many men statement, “that they all may be one” third millennium we declare that drawn to industrial cities because of (John 17:21). the YMCA is a world-wide Christian, the vast amounts of workers needed 13

Caring, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility While the children learn to we are entitled, and we don’t unbelieves that the United States has swim, the parents work out and thus derstand how much quality is taken a real issue with childhood obesity, creates a unique experience that for granted. I feel that education is and the Palo Alto YMCA aquatics would be difficult to get elsewhere. underpaid, but honestly, seeing all department aims to help with that At the Y, swimming classes, weight my children laugh play and have fun very important issue. YMCAs around rooms, yoga, cardio work, camps, more than makes up for what I am the world create communities and its child care are offered to members. compensated for. Here at the Palo true desire is to make those commuAs a faculty member in the AquatAlto Family Y, kids and Adults are nities strong. In the U.S. the YMCA ics Division, my coworkers and I given the opportunity to strive for is the leading nonprofit committed to have taken on strengthening communities through teaching chilyouth development. Last year, The dren from the “A good student is a student that actually cares YMCA helped 1,108 people that ages 4-14 to about getting better at what they’re learn- could not pay for our services. The Y learn how to is a safe haven, a community that no swim. Swim- ing. They will be attentive, and put passion into matter the circumstances, anybody ming as a life learning what your teaching them”(Dafne) can thrive. skill is very important, in fact over 3,308 people drown in 2004 their goals, especially because the Y’s and is an important issue that the workers make their members goals Palo Alto Y has taken on. Since 1909 their own goal to complete, and want YMCA’ has been teaching people success from them. The Dr. Melinda how to swim and they will continue S Southern explains on sciencedirect to improve on their programs and , puts the epidemic of obesity, “The services to create the best experience current environmental experience possible. of young children includes few opportunities for physical activity and What the PAFY brings to our an overabundance of high calorie society is important, and I feel that in foods”. In other words, sciencedirect this day and age, many of us feel that or the author Melinda S Southern, 17

Chapter Two The Aquatics Division 19

What We Strive to do The Aquatics Division is a great place for the children of our community to thrive and learn in a safe place. Swimming has touched me and I love it a lot, it really has made a difference in my life and because of this, I wanted to give children the experiences that I have had. The Palo Alto Family Y has given a unique experience for me that I will never forget, but also I feel like the faculty and I create a unique experience for the members as well. The atmosphere at the Y has made me smile when I walk in the door, and smile when I walk out, and I hope that I make the members at the Y feel the same way I do. Even when mistakes are made on our part we make sure that the members get the best possible service. As Dafne Gonzales, a swim instructor, explains, “ you talk to them, you apologize, you try to make any changes and you talk to your supervisor because they might have a solution for the problem”. As this quote shows, we want to make sure that the experience is always satisfactory no matter the situation.

The Palo Alto Y has a multitude of sports and exercise, including swimming. On the PAFY official website they explain, “YMCA Swim Lessons teach children skills critical to water safety, social interaction, fun, and lifelong fitness. Participants move at their own pace building a sense of confidence and accomplishment as the progress.” As a swim instructor, I feel like the Palo Alto Family Y accomplishes this very well. We make sure that our students are constantly improving and having fun too. I love teaching my children because how rewarding it is. It is a heartfelt job and you get to see your work because you can see the children improve every class. It is amazing to smile to the parents and tell them that their child is doing great and improving. Its really great to see the community created at the Y grow and thrive with the work you put in. The work you put in gives back to you in a multitude of ways and its a really special experience to have. At the Y, we offer classes for children 4-16 and to adults of any ages as

well. For varying age groups we have classes that are codenamed as fish and other aqueous animals. Pike, Eel, Ray, Guppy, Polliwog, Minnow, and Ducks are all classes children can take, and if they prefer, parents can sign their child up for private lessons. As adults, they can sign up for a private instructor teach them the basics or improve their strokes. With any child we take, we always try to maximize fun and maximize their swimming improvements, because for the Y the most important thing for the faculty is creating a great experience to our members. When teaching my children I try to make them laugh, interact with each other in a positive way and keep them actively learning. However, to keep them actively learning, discipline and order must be retained to keep them participating positively.

Approaching Difficulties Teaching Children is a verygreat experience that I have had a lot of fun with but it does not come without its difficulties. On hubpages, a website where professionals and enthusiasts alike share their ideas on certain subjects, Marie McKeown explains, “If you don’t have a lot of experience with children, it can be quite intimidating to try and get them engaged in an activity, and actually keep their attention for more than five seconds so you can teach them something. These are normal fears, but the best thing you can do is relax”. What McKeown is getting at is that keeping children engaged can be hard and keeping your cool is what you have to do to succeed. I 100% agree with this statement, when dealing with children, you have to stay level headed and be yourself to get through to them. Whatever the situation may be, certain children don’t want to learn or just are difficult children to teach. Many times its hard to change their ways but after asking Dafne, I got a better idea of what to do in such a situation. Dafne elaborates, “Make them interact with you

and the class so they have more of a reason to be motivated. Make them have connections and make connections and make them understand that swimming is a life skill that they can carry for the rest of their lives. If that fails to work, talk to the supervisor, the parents to get them more motivated, or just try to find out what’s making the child not behave correctly. It might not even be something that you can see right away, you have to find out.” When Dafne says this, what she is meaning is that, although the problem is in the child, you have an obligation to teach them how to behave, because without good behavior and motivation, they will never learn good swimming skills. Most of the time, kids don’t want to learn because they feel that it is useless to listen, they think they know how to swim correctly already. Obviously that is not the case and you have to make sure that you get through that barrier and move further in their development. Because when It comes down to it, we are there for the children, and that is what truly matters at the end of the day. When trying to

understand why they are acting out this way we have to take in their own incentives for acting a certain way. Healthychildren, a website that is powered by pediatricians and approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics ,explains, “Don’t take your child’s behavior personally. Temperament is innate, and your child probably is not purposely trying to be difficult or irritating. Don’t blame him or yourself.” What Healthychildren is explaining is that what is happening with the child is that they are acting a certain way because they are enact a certain response. With this information, your best thing to do is get to the root of the problem, figure out their incentives for acting such a way and act accordingly. You should make sure that you make it clear that acting bad or being difficult does not solve their problems. This is a life lesson that is best and possibly only taught the hard way, and this makes the swim program invaluable to teaching children proper behavior.

Chapter Three Refining The Teaching Experience 25

Rethinking Teaching Methods What does it take to teach a child a skill? It takes a little bit of natural skill by the child, but when it comes down to it, how can you really translate your knowledge to the child? Searching around I figured out many tantalizing answers. Out of all my research I came to the conclusion that a mix of answers, centering around being visual, patience, and mutual respect. Without respecting your child, they won’t feel very obligated to try what you are teaching them, and without patience they will not be able to figure out the technique by themselves. Being visual with children is key to their understanding of the concept, because when you just explain through words they will only get an idea of what you want them to learn. Without these 3 core concepts, your pupils will not have success. Visual learning is by far the best way for children to learn. As the author of “How to Engage Children and Keep their Attention”, Marissa McKneown explains on hubpages:

Provide real experiences wherever you can. Your interaction with children is a chance to pull them away from the virtual world of computers into a real life sensory experience. Children love what they can touch and taste and smell. Reading about animals is no substitute for meeting real live animals. Hearing about the life-cycle of a plant bears no comparison with getting to dig up soil and plant your own seeds.(hubpages. com) What McKneown is digging into is that visual learning is the best kind. Although she is talking about learning outdoors and not on computers, the same can be applied to learning in the pool. If you just explain with talking, it just does not compare to learning by walking through the steps. When you explain that you need the students to get a full arm stroke, getting their arms all the way back, getting their arms out of the water when they are reaching as far as they can, fully extended, they can only imagine what you just said. When you are visual and show

the children through example, they can see what the concept is more vividly, and with more depth of the technique. Helping them, walking through the steps to have a good stroke with them really changes the learning from night to day. Bret Gustafson, a swim instructor explains his teaching experience, 95% of the time with kids at least for me, talking with them is not the right thing to do. Showing them or holding their hands and stepping them through it is completely the right thing to do because they have a ton of different things going on in their mind and if you’re just telling them how to do things I don’t think they put 2 and 2 together and try to learn it. If you are walking them through it and showing them how you do it and how they should be doing it they will learn a lot better.(Bret Gustafson) What Bret is trying to get across is that you cannot teach the way you think you would best be taught, you have to teach the best way that the children are taught. 27

The Psychological Side to Teaching

Often when children donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

get the swimming concept is because they do not quite visualize what it is like to do, how it feels to do it themselves. A great tactic that I use when Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m trying to teach the children to learn that pushing the water is what moves them, I tell them to imagine the pool is just a big bowl of ice cream, and to move in it they have to scoop the ice cream with their hands. This helps them visualize that their hands should be like an ice cream scooper and be cupped to get the full amount of water movement, and also this makes the class more fun, because who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like ice cream? Patience Is crucial to making sure that the child has the best experience. Without having patience for your child to learn, they will lose interest with swimming just like you lost interest with them. Some children have natural skill with swimming, and others do not. You have to give them time to learn, and just like parenting, you have to give your attention to where it is needed. With kids that need more patience you

have to redefine what your expectations are for them. In many ways they are on a different level than what the other children are at and you have to change your teaching techniques for them. Journalist Joy Campbell on Yahoo Voices, an online publishing site formally known as Associated Content, explains that redefining success will get make a difficult child into a great learner. Campbell explains: Parents of difficult children must revised their expectations. You must redefine what success is all about in raising these children. You must set a level of expectation that is realistic. It must set the limits and boundaries of the child. You can start counting the blessings you experience each day instead of the chaotic incidences. Success may be redefined as learning to respect others and properties. Success may mean the handling of consequences with acceptance instead of resistance. Success may mean getting along with other siblings. Success may mean one new friend for the child. Success

may mean being able to take vacations and enjoy it. Success may mean the child learning to be fun.(yahoo. voices.com) Although when Campbell made her article it was aimed towards parents dealing with difficult children, the concepts can be easily translated to teaching children how to swim. When Campbell defines success can mean multiple things, you have to make that true for the student. Little improvements should be seen as success in the grand scheme, not just the perfection of a stroke or concept. This is where keeping cool and being patient with the child comes in, because for the child to truly have success you must let the child take their experience one step at a time.

Keeping a Good Learning Enviroment Many of the times maybe the kid doesn’t want to learn how to do the stroke correctly, there are always ways to make the children get motivated and learn. Typically, when a student is taking a while to learn the concept, parents want to know what is wrong and why they aren’t learning as fast as the other kids. Many times when this happens, parents feel that it is the instructor’s fault that their child is not learning at a satisfactory pace, but the truth is that the child just takes longer to learn the concept than others. Dafne Gonzales explains her experience with her students and their parents, They don’t know some kids take a while to learn, they need more supervision, and also some support from them, I feel like also a lot of them don’t know the kids slack off when they’re there, and that they are aware of what their doing. They have to talk to them about it. You explain the dynamics of the pool, how certain movements will help them. You explain it and you make it really visual, you give them examples. If its not

working you can talk to your superior and try to get them working at home to help them build up the skills so they’re eventually able to do it.(Dafne Gonzales) What Dafne is explaining is that kids that are difficult to teach and don’t want to learn, you must take more interest in them, invest more time in their development as a swimmer. The parents of the child don’t understand that their child needs more time to learn, but that is okay, we can explain that to them and tell them that we will make sure that their child will get what they need to learn the concepts. Mutual respect in the teacherstudent relationship is a very important to getting improvement. Naeyc gave me some interesting ideas to experiment with my children, and mutual respect was a central point of the article. Naeyc elaborates, “Acknowledge what children do or say. Let children know that we have noticed by giving positive attention, some-

times through comments, sometimes through just sitting nearby and observing.” What Naeyc is saying is that checking, and showing your interest in their development is a great way to speed up their growth. I think that this is true with swimming, showing your interest, giving the student attention will really help them improve their skills. Doing so it shows that you respect your student will make them respect you and your rules and the rules of the pool. When respect is established, the child will get great improvements because they understand that you have experience, you are the teacher, and when it comes to swimming you know best. When you respect our child, a friendship can be established and ultimately that respect goes full circle and they will respect you.

Conclusion

verall, I think my time at the Y so far has been extremely rewarding, and I’ve learned a lot from my experiences there. As much as I had taught children, I believe that I have learned just as much if not more from them. They have taught me that all challenges can be overcome, try and fail until you succeed, but best of all how to enjoy my life to the fullest. Seeing all my students, laugh and play while learning a life skill really brightens my day because I feel that I am making a real impact on their lives and the community. Its uplifting, and makes me hopeful for the future of their lives and my life too. When I talk to them and ask them how their day was, what they did, most don’t tell; they can’t remember. But when they do share, its utterly amazing to hear how much fun they had and its great to see what they love to do. In a way I feel nostalgic, just getting a glimpse of what I was like as a little kid. It brings me back, and to me that type of time travel is priceless. With that in mind, It makes me want to really bring the best experience to them as I possibly can. I want them to have fun firstly, but I also want them to learn how to swim correctly with great form because in my life now, swimming has been important to me. In the future I hope to bring the same type of happiness that I have seen at the Y and bring it to my jobs after college and beyond. I would thrive to have the same type of community that the Y has, because parents and children alike work off each other, they give each other strength and strength in our community is key to creating a better tomorrow. In my Documentary I went into the Y wanting to see what I could improve on and see how I could change myself for a better experience but I came out with it with so much more. I figured out what it really means to be apart of the Y, what we strive to create and what we want to achieve; to make a unique place where children and adults a like can find a safe place to have fun and make themselves the best they can be. With our 4 core concepts, Caring, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility, we promote good behavior and good habits with our project “Healthy Living”. So one day, I urge you to just walk in to the Palo Alto Family Y on a sunny day and come in and feel the love that the place resonates. 35

Works Cited Campbell, Joy. “Ten Tips for How to Handle a Difficult Child.” Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., 24 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. Ferlazzo, Larry. “Five Key Strategies to Get/keep Kids Engaged at School.”Http://www.washingtonpost.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. Gonzales, Dafne personal interview. Feb 15, 2014 Gustafson, Bret personal interview. Feb 15, 2014 Guiome, Andrew personal interview. Feb 15, 2014 “History.” YMCA International. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. McKneown, Marie. “How to Engage Children and Keep Their Attention: Tips for Parents and Educators.” HubPages. HubPages, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Sothern, Melinda S. “Obesity Prevention in Children: Physical Activity and Nutrition.”Http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. “Strategies and Solutions For Handling A Difficult Child.” HealthyChildren.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. “Welcome to Palo Alto Family YMCA.” Palo Alto Family YMCA. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. “10 Effective DAP Teaching Strategies | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC.” 10 Effective DAP Teaching Strategies | National Association for the Edu- cation of Young Children | NAEYC. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. 37

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Teaching Adorable Monsters Dean Gustafson

The author of this book, Dean Gustafson was born October 17, 1996 at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. At an early age, Dean had been one of little words and with the help of his twin brother Bret, Dean was able to communicate what he desired. As he got older he had developed a unique opinion on life that has rapidly changed over the years. Dean Gustafson attended Almond Elementary school, Egan Junior High, and Los Altos High in his academic career. At Freestyle academy, Dean has connected to his creative side, and as a right brain thinker, has contributed to the Freestyle community in a positive and progressive way. In the future Dean plans to go to a 4 year college, and pursue a variety of subjects. Computer Science, History, or Graphic Design could all be majors that Dean could choose as his profession in his future life.

Teaching Adorable Monsters

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Written and Designed by Dean Gustafson

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