Purposeful Play Debrief

Debrief to Purposeful Play

Initially I was not sure about how I felt co directing a purposeful play. Besides instructing dance and working as a paraprofessional I felt that a bit nervous because I am find that I am still figuring out how to teach as a human service worker.  We are not teaching like a standard Elementary or high school teacher. Youth workers are looking to teach a child's development growth in a sense of assisting students handle life's challenges.

I feel that if we worked more with context about youth work in class I would feel more comfortable in creating more purposeful play. I think there is a lack of knowledge spoken in class. In FNED 346 we spoke about each reading that was assigned and that really helped to understand the class expectations we had to understand, such as when we part took in our service learning assignment. 

I think in next semester if we had assignment to create purposeful plays for simple practice and for discussion in class where we could talk about what to add, what to change, what to do with young children, how to approach it with older children. We all will face lessons that do not work so I find that we need more practice because it can help figure out what works and what may not work. 

Addition to Blog Post 12/9/16 Elevator Pitch: For anyone confused about YDEV

Youth Work does not include student teaching requirement, we instead purposefully play with children.

This play is interactive with youth and age appropriate vocabulary 

Youth Work is part social work 

Youth Workers utilize emotional aspects

Youth Workers help students with social skills 

Youth Works act like a service worker to give confidence to students

Youth Workers read to students

Youth Workers can act as a tutor

Youth Workers listen

Youth Workers help children because they care for the future growth of youth

Youth Worker can work in so many places; hospitals, dance programs, coaching athletics, instructing science and math programs

Youth Works reminds me of my mom's comment; find a career that you love so that is does not even feel like work where you can be compensated to support yourself. 

See you soon!

Human Services

Youth work seems to have a long way to grow and I believe that I am still figuring out what youth work is everyday. I believe that is normal because I am at the cusp of my professional work with youth. When we enter any field, we may be sure of something concepts but others such as Youth Work is a concept that takes time to decipher.

In Strengthening Youth Work....
I thought "while youth workers are extremely motivated and committed to the mission of their work, they appear to be seriously affected by extrinsic factors such as compensation and organizational instability." I am aware that we need to be paid to support ourselves so we can buy a home or rent an apartment, buy food and save for the future. Yet, I love working with children, yes they can be a lot to deal with. Regardless, I have learned so much from children such as the children I worked with during time as a paraprofessional in summer school. They were frusrating but that taught me patience, sometimes we have to give and take.

Age....
"Regardless of diversity, some patterns emerge. While some professionals stay in the youth work field, others leave and then years later will come back to the youth field.

Personally, I think it is normal to want to leave work in difference avenues, we have only one life and we should experience all that we can. After taking social work 240 and social work 326 I began to genuinely enjoy the work that social workers do for youth. It made me think of all of the opportunities I could take and how I could grow like that. If I were to stay in one place and work for the same organization I feel that I would get bored. I am finding that I would never be able to keep up with the reading and writing that social work would have to do so acquiring a masters in social work is not in my near future. However, it does not keep me from surrounding myself with people who have a title of a social worker.

In Strengthening Youth Work...
it also states "that youth workers are paid about $25,000 annually along with a lack of healthcare. I know that I want healthcare benefits that I can support myself with. Despite that, I want to enjoy what I do. My mom said " it is all about finding a job that you love performing where it does not feel like you are working."

Historical Development....
First, youth development effects the focus on meeting needs and developing competencies for all youth, not just for the youth who are engaged in problematic behavior or at risk of becoming a part of the problem. When we are young we all need guidance, we are figuring ourselves out. It is a normal time in all youth's life. In our life, we experience so much, good and bad. Some people lose their parents or close friends at a young age and what young person knows how to cope with lose?

Historical Development tells us that youth development model assumes that  all youth must pass through a specific developmental process to become successful adults. We all come in the same way, we experience similar events in our lives, such as loss, frienships, memories, family and stages in our life, such as marriage and college graduation.

This is Youth Work

Chapter: The Power of Graffiti

"Over a couple of weeks that youth workers began to get to know the young people, working to build a climate where they are willing to engage more personally with them." When young people have something to say they may not be able to voice their feelings. Expression through art can be positive as we use color or lack of color, dimensions, shading, texture among other things can explain what someone may be afraid to vocally speak. However, graffiti needs to be positively done, what I mean by positive is the creation should be painted in a space that will not deface property, it can be done a school wall or on a canvas.

"For a week, the youth workers listened to what the kids had to say." A youth worker said "you have two ears and one mouth. Use them in proportion." I think that when people deface a piece of property with graffiti it is telling us that this person is not being heard, this youth worker is right, we can listen we have the physical ability to. When we do listen as a youth worker, youth can in time feel comfortable with this person and maybe in time trust that person. This may be a huge stepping stone because some people come from a world where trusting is not easy due to family members and their actions.