Dewey Booster Park The parks pavilion we used for our last day
celebration. The parks two back fields. The front field we used to
walk our mile and partake in group games. The playground the group
would use for free play at the end of each gathering.
Our Team
All about ME.!.!.
My name is Ashley Griffin. Im in my Junior year here at UCFs
College of Education.
Im planning on becoming an Elementary school teacher in
hopefully Volusia county. My
interests right now consist of school, family/boyfriend, and
going to the beach. School has
always been my #1 priority and I never doubted that I was going
to college. I even aspire
to get my doctorate one day in child psychology. My family and
boyfriend of three years
played a big part in making me the person I am today and I
thank them for helping me
keep in together during all those long nights of studying for
finals. Since High School
Graduation I have been a Head Start and VPK teacher for 3
years. Ive always had a
passion for teaching and just being goofy and childish so
working as an elementary
teacher will make me feel right at home, my VPK students always
bonded with me
instantly because Im one of those teachers youll see crawling
around on the magic
carpet, playing dress up in house keeping, building huge
buildings in block center, or
simply singing along during music time. My motto is do what you
love and having fun
doing it .
All about the Children.!.!.
Our walking group contained African American children, Hispanic
children, Caucasian children, children with a Spanish linguistic
heritage, children with autism, asperger, and ADHD ranging in age
from 3 years old to 15 years old.
Fun Filled Days.!.!.
Each week we started by walking a mile with the children for
about 30 minutes and after we lead one group activity that included
all the children for another 30 minutes, the games included soccer,
capture the flag, sideline soccer, kick ball, and steal the bacon.
I also became a team captain and got together a walking team with
some of the children and we partcipating in the UCF KnightWalk for
babies, which was a walk we did in March at the UCF main campus
that raised money for the March of Dimes foundation. For our final
project day myself and the other two UCF students on my team
planned and held a celebration party for the children. We decorated
and had lots of healthy snacks, we also passed out certificates to
each child that told them how many miles they had walked and each
child received a little star medal with their certificate.
Ashley B, Marian, myself Ashley & I presenting awards The group
playing kickball. Getting ready for a group activity. The group
walking.
UCF KightWalk for Babies
On February 28 th myself, Dr. Hines and a group of children
from the walking club participated in a 5K walk around UCFs main
campus. The walk was a way of raising money for the March of Dimes
Foundation and together our team raised about $200 to donate. After
the walk there was music, pizza, and games that fellow UCF students
had put together.
My Personal Experience
This was such a great experience for myself and my two other
team members. I personally had never really gotten the chance to
work hands out with many students with disabilities and I feel that
this type of project allowed me the best opportunity to see the
children for who they really are and not only for what they can do
within a classroom. This experience had defiantly effected me a
positive way. I now can see that even small projects like this one
can have a huge effect on children. All children benefit from
active group play that involves all children not just mainstream
students. I even had discussions with Dr. Hines about how so many
of our children really began to come out of their shells while
participating in our activities. Its a great feeling to know that
we could help these children become more social with one another,
and the great part about out location at the park was that each
week we had new children that would participate, allowing our
walking club the chance to expand and reach other children who
benefitted from this experience. The thing that had the biggest
impact on me was how up until our final day I was still not aware
of some of the children's disabilities. Dr. Hines began discussing
some children with us and I surprised when she mentioned a child
that I was unaware had a disability. The biggest thing I have taken
from this project is that when you hear the words disability you
cant instantly think disabled. A disability does not define a
student and like I mentioned before sometimes a disability is so
minor that it can not be recognized easily and therefore you should
never address a student for example as this is an autistic child
but rather this is a child who has autism because first and
foremost the student is a child not a disability.
