Theoretical Approaches to Working with Children.

Children are my life.  I work with children, I live with children, and I have a heart to help children.  I have read a few books on the brains that lie within those small heads, however none of them have been this interesting.  I have learned quite a lot about psychology and how it affects the way we interact with kids through this book.  Today I will share something I found really interesting within the pages of Child Psychology by Dr. Kairen Cullen.  In Chapter 3 of this fascinating book I read about the theoretical approaches to working with children.  The first and perhaps most interesting one is Behaviorism. Behaviorism is an approach in where the worker, let us say a parent, interacts with the child in a physical way.  They stress less feelings and emotions and hold the view that "behavior is learnt through experiences."(Cullen, 12).  As I read the example given in the book I thought of a time in which this has happened to myself.  When I was 5 years old I was bitten by a dog.  It was an extremely traumatic event for a small 5 year old child as myself.  The dog was larger than my small physique and the bite resulted in 7 rabies shots, seeing how i was living in Russia at the time.  This traumatic event lead me to fear dogs and obtain a gradual dislike for most large animals.  To work with this fear of mine a behaviorist would have gradually exposed me to friendly dogs until I knew that only some dogs where mean and others where nice.  This has influenced the way I help children face their fears. Understanding the process and the information behind n=behaviorism is extremely helpful to me.  Below Is a picture of my cousin and I.  This was taken and when I saw it I knew it would be perfect for this post.  My cousin is mildly afraid of some dogs and when I read this text I understood more on how to help her next time I work with her.

Do you use Behaviorism in the way you interact with people?

 

Works Cited
CULLEN, KAIREN. INTRODUCING CHILD PSYCHOLOGY: a Practical Guide. ICON BOOKS LTD, 2018. 

The Art of Sign Language: Basic Phrases and Fluidity of Movement

              The Art of Sign Language goes into detail regarding a multitude of phrases and words that allow for basic conversation with the deaf or heard of hearing. These range from greetings to discussing the weather to important phrases in case of an emergency. The text helped me by providing useful information about the fluidity and speed at which one should sign, "Remember that when signing phrases or complete sentences, fluidity is key. Separating words in a sentence or phrase with a pause can be very confusing, and fluid motion is a great skill to have when signing," (Brown, 25).

• "Hello, my name is Noah. What is your name?"

• "Good Morning. How are you? I'm good, thank you for asking."

• "What is the time? Where is the hospital?"

         I found that after enough practice, I could sign these basic phrases with ease and, more importantly, fluidity. The text shows many images to go along with the various signs, and accompanying text to go along with them. For instance, the text states that when signing the word "name", one taps the fingers together twice, (Brown, 22). These little tips helped me greatly when learning, as they prevented me from missing key aspects of certain signs that cannot be effectively portrayed in pictures. 

         How do you feel about visual learning at KR? Do you learn better with a picture to help or is the written word more your style, and which way should material at KR be taught?

Brown, Christopher. The Art of Sign Language: Phrases. Vol. 2, Thunder Bay Press, 2003.

By Noah Crissey

during the winter break I read about maintaining cleanliness in an aquarium for aquatic turtles in the book "Turtles and Tortoises for dummies". the book offered advice on what filters to but and what moss I should add and things like that but didn't offer an in depth section on cleaning. so for the break I tries 2 different ways to clean my aquariums, the first one being very in depth and everything was scrubbed down, which took 3 and a half hours, and the other method was faster but a little more rushed over but only took 1 hour.

now in the picture on the left is the rushed over cleaning and on the right is the more in depth cleaning. this is how the tanks looked a week after cleaning and on the right the water is far clearer and the gravel is much nicer than on the left. this would leave me to think that I should have the super in depth cleaning all the time, but the problem with that plan is that to do this it could take the same amount of time as 1 whole school day, which I don't always have time for. so I was wondering what would you do? would you clean not as well, but more frequently, or clean in depth, but not as often.

Strength Training: Side-Lying Lateral Raises

Hello everyone! With 2018 approaching quickly many of you have probably developed a New Year's resolution. Resolutions can be anything, but many people choose to focus on increasing their physique. If this is your resolution I can help you! Today, I will be informing you how to correctly execute the side-lying lateral raises exercise, which helps develop the deltoids. 

The deltoid is the main muscle located within your shoulder. This workout will strengthen and will also assist with making the muscle more toned. To do this workout, you must first lie on one side on the floor or a bench, if you own one, and clench the dumbbell with an overhand grip. Remember to prop yourself up off the ground with your elbow parallel to the ground. Next, while inhaling, raise your arm to a vertical position. After that, exhale and lower the dumbbell back to your side ending the rep. Doing 10 to 12 reps is recommended, anything more puts you at risk for injury and can possibly strain your muscles.

                                                              

Helpful pointers and tips: Support your back and avoid a back injury by tightening the abdominal muscles so your back will be supported. Also, having a weight lifting bench is very helpful because it prevents your elbow from becoming sore. Additionally, having a bench allows your workout to be more beneficial because you do not have to worry about balancing. However, doing this workout without a bench strengthens your core and your abdominal muscles. Finally, changing your dumbbell position from either beginning in front of the thigh or behind the thigh helps with working out different areas of the deltoid. Delavier writes "Varying the initial position (dumbbell in front of or behind the thigh) allows you to work all the deltoid fibers" (Delavier 45). This means that switching up your starting dumbbell position will help you strengthen all the deltoid fibers because there are three deltoid fibers in all which are the anterior deltoid, deltoid multipennate or middle deltoid, and the posterior deltoid. So by altering the dumbbell starting location you can work all three of these deltoid fibers.

In front of thigh dumbbell starting position.

Behind thigh dumbbell starting position.

Thank you for reading my blog I appreciate the time you spend reading my posts! I hope this exercise that I have showed you today will assist you in strengthening your deltoids. Hopefully, this workout can help you reach the physical goals that you have set for yourself. Personally, I prefer to do this workout without the bench because it helps strengthen my core muscles along with my deltoids,but what method do you guys prefer?

Works Cited
Delavier, FreÌdeÌric. Strength Training Anatomy . Third ed., Human Kinetics, 2010.

Healthy Breakfast Smoothie

Welcome back!
In my first post, I mentioned that one of my goals for this project was eat a healthier, more balanced diet, that would help support me in my fitness/wellness journey. In the third part of Ballerina Body by Misty Copeland, Copeland gives both nutritional advice and a handful of healthy recipes. I have always grown up in a very healthy household, where my parents rarely buy any junk food. I've also been vegetarian my entire life. However, my eating habits are not always the best.

This is especially true when is comes to breakfast. I personally hate eating breakfast, eating early in the morning usually makes me feel nauseous. Usually on school mornings, I skip breakfast and end up eating later in my classes.

This bad habit leads to lack of energy that I desperately need early in the morning. I also end up constantly snacking because I'm not full or satisfied. I need a boost of energy that can help me get through a long day of school and 4-5 hours of dance that night.

Misty Copeland dedicates a few chapters of her book to explaining different food groups/types, and how they will be beneficial to your journey. I focused on chapter 8, Eating for Energy. Reading this chapter and Misty's tips will help me find healthy recipes that will give me energy and keep me satisfied between meals, but aren't too heavy.

Copeland stresses the importance vegetables, and how they will provide you with the nutrients and vitamins needed to support a healthy lifestyle. "Besides helping to control weight and being loaded with fiber, vegetables are also full of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, from cancer-fighting lycopene in tomatoes to the alphabet soup of vitamins- A,C,K- offered by various greens" (Copeland 115). She also talks about the importance of fruits keeping you full for a long period of time. "Fruits are a potpourri of vitamins, phytochemicals, and fiber that leave your feeling full as well as enhance your health" (Copeland 116).

I chose the recipe called "The Ballerina Smoothie" to make for my breakfast. She recommends this as apart of her provided meal plans (Copeland 203). I love making smoothies in the morning because they are easy, as well as filling. I also love the taste and energy boost from the different fruits and vegetables.

Ballerina Smoothie:
- 1/2 cup of berries (any type)
- 1 handful of baby spinach
- 1 cup of nondairy milk (almond, soy, or coconut milk)
- 2 teaspoons of agave syrup or honey (optional)
(Copeland 203).

I chose to use soy milk because I had it on hand. I also chose to use agave syrup because I'm not a fan of honey.

Before and after blending

I made this smoothie for breakfast, and it kept me full and away from snacks until lunchtime. It also had a great sweet taste. I would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone else who may not enjoy a heavy breakfast, or just loves a good smoothie.

What is your go-to breakfast food? Or, what is your favorite kind of smoothie?

Copeland, Misty, et al. Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Lighter, Stronger, and More Graceful You. Sphere, 2017.

Lettering: playbill

Lettering: Playbill

The definition of playbill is "...basically for your 'old-timey' style and includes Western and circus-style lettering" (McDevitt, 40). In other words, playbill is simply a form of illustrative lettering, commonly seen with bright, eye-catching colors (red, orange, yellow,etc.). Typically, you would find playbill being used for advertisements in places like carnivals, circuses, etc. (example from the book below).

Playbill, for some reason, was really hard for me to get right. I've never been more frustrated and had so many drafts before. I kept changing the details of the words so that it would match playbill's style, but I just couldn't achieve the look I was going for. After an afternoon of overwhelming myself, I decided to look through Mary Kate's book to see if there were any techniques I could use to help me. There was one in particular that completely changed the way I designed my artwork: "Use hierarchy to emphasize the important words....Play with different styles for the serifs: they are often exaggerated, so don't be timid" (42). 

After reading that quote, I slightly changed the first word to match playbill's distinctive look, which consists of matching different styles, such as sans serif, script, and serif (40). I added a banner to "of the" so it would add more of a carnival look. Hierarchy is when you stack certain words on top of each other which allows you to work more and use more lettering styles. I used this technique by putting "Best" on the top and bottom with "of the" in the middle. About 6 tries later, I finally got the look right. 

I was really pleased with the finished work, but after completing it, I realized how easy it was for me to get worked up about how my art looks. I've never been so overwhelmed with lettering because drawing words is always so stress-free for me. At what point do you think you start to get frustrated with yourself when you're learning something new? How do you allow yourself to be less stressed?

Citation - McDevitt, Mary Kate. Hand-Lettering Ledger. Chronicle Books, 2014.

Nage Waza ( Throwing Techniques)

Judo has two types of fighting and are used all the time. This type of fighting is called Nage Waza which is the throwing techniques, simply fighting standing up. The person who is doing the action or is the one fighting is called tori. The person receiving the attack from tori is called uke. Unbalance of the uke is necessary and important in completing your move. In the pictures, I am demonstrating the throw called seoi-nage (shoulder throw) which is one of the basic throws in Judo. 

"Force uke off-balance with a right foot turning movement, drop the body, keeping close back contact with uke's chest, bend the right arm and drive the elbow under uke's armpit, throw over shoulder" (Wilson 48). In the last photo, you always want to "spot" them to make sure they don't get hurt and to respect them by holding them and not throwing them all the way.

 Performing this throw is not too difficult for me as i have been practicing this for years now and i have somewhat perfected it.  This one in particular is not my favorite as it is difficult to perform in a tournament with people who know how to counter it.

Next is the ground work of judo and I'll keep updating for more posts. Keep on reading!

 USJF. Judo For High School And College. George L. Wilson, 1975