Autonomy supportive coaching posted by Matt

I liked where the article said that sports have been identified as an important part in identity exploration and formation.  Then it says, "youth who play for coaches trained to alter the quality of their interactions by behaving in more supportive, nurturing, encouraging, structuring, and nonhostile ways show greater changes in self-esteem".  With information like this, i would hope that coaches and practitioners alike would find out how they could become trained to alter their interactions with their team members.  I also thought the relationship between percieved competence and initiative and the important role they both play in motivation was a big part of this article.  It's important for coaches to help their players along and let them know they have high standards that they know are possible for them to complete.

Changing perspectives of being "cool" posted by Taryn

I liked at the beginning of the article where it talks about what defines at risk for youth and i think it's important for a practioner to know what situations their participants are coming from so they know how best to work with those youth and know how best to help them.  Then it talks about the benefits of adult-youth relationships and how positive relationships produce positive youth development.  For a lot of at-risk youth there are trust problems with adults, so i think it's important again for practitioners to know where their participants are coming from and try to figure out how to build a healthy, trusting relationship with them and hopefully help the youth steer clear of risky behaviors.  I think it's important for employers to hire those with character strengths and find the right fit for the program and for youth. I didn't really see the connection with the title of the article and the article itself, but i did find it useful and informative.

Trust Development

From personal experience, i can say that trust is a big deal in outdoor recreation.  The leader of a trip plays a critical role in the learning and growing process of outdoor education.  I may trust a leader's knowledge on a subject, but i may not have trust for them personally.  I've been on a few different outdoor educational trips and there have been leaders that i have trusted as a person and as an educator, and there have been leaders who i trusted as educated on the matter, but that i wasn't comfortable with.  The difference between the outcome of the trips was immaculate.  I couldn't agree more with the idea in the article from Mitten, "healthy leader-participant relationships are necessary to accomplish course goals". Again, I've had rough relationships with leaders and the trip outcome was not a positive one; whereas trips with leaders that i was close with were positive experiences that i would want to repeat.  I like that the article poses the questions to outdoor leaders of what can they do to establish and strengthen relationships with participants.  I liked where it said, "If a lack of trust in one's supervisor hinders performance, then it is reasonable to suggest that a lack of trust in one's outdoor leader could hinder the accomplishment of course goals." I do believe that a lack of trust in an outdoor leader hinders goals.  If i don't know that a leader believes in me and my ability, then i probably won't work as hard and I'll be extra cautious about what i say and do on the trip instead of working to my full potential and having that ability realized and recognized.  I think it's great that trust is being realized as such an important part of outdoor leadership.  All outdoor leaders should be taking a course on building trust and relationships so that they can learn to work with others and learn to work with all personality types too.

What the program is lacking...

1. More on budgeting: Maybe more scenario assignments in program planning
2. The Ropes Course class: we've heard this class was cancelled because of lack of interest, but there's a whole new batch of students, and we've all wanted to take it
3. More community recreation classes; the outdoor requirements are great, but because there isn't a degree for community rec, i would have liked to see the effort to help those out who aren't as into the outdoor rec life
4. The rec admin class could be more hands on; have a way for us to experience rec admin instead of just testing our knowledge and writing papers on it.

Stewards part 3

Recreation is crucial to our society and its future.  I was talking to a guy at work the other day and he mentioned that he never goes outside in the summer. I said how sad that made me, and he said that he makes $300,000 by sitting at home on his computer all summer. I then said that his quality of life will be diminished by not recreating, and he said that his quality of life is fine with money.  This conversation made me so sad; people think that money solves all of lifes issues and that recreation is not important to our future or our well-being. Recreation is important to our health, first of all.  We need to be outside and enjoy the natural air and exercise when we can. The obesity in youth is growing and without recreation it will be unstoppable.  Recreation is the only thing keeping our modern society healthy!

Reading Assignment

I am reading Leading at a Higher Level by Ken Blanchard

Interviews

I feel like people interviewing asks questions to set you up. You may think you have a great answer, but it can also be taken as a bad thing...So, what are some general answers we can use and re-word for questions like -What's something you haven't finished? Also, I'm good at eye contact and being friendly-but what other body language is important and telling? What are some things we can include in what we say to show that we really are interested and wanting of the job?