Activity 1 Feedback Blog

Service-Learning Activity 1

1. Who you received feedback from:

   • Data Coordinator from Sanders-Brown Center

   • Clinical Research Assistant from Sanders-Brown Center

2. Date of activity implementation and date of feedback:

   • Date of activity: 3/29/22

   • Date of feedback: 3/30/22

3. Briefly restate the needs or goal that you are striving to address

   • The primary needs that I am striving to address are giving people a way to provide engagement for their loved ones, providing an option for respite for client’s care partners, increasing cognitive stimulation, providing opportunities for physical exercise and social connection,

4. Blog

Introduction

My second time filming with the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging was also my first time filming an activity for my service-learning project. I had a lot of nerves going into this day, despite having met the folks before and having filmed with them before as well. Even through my excitement to embark on this project, I still found that I was anxious on the evening before activity 1 as well as the morning of. 

Experience

What I have accomplished so far in the project is communicating with the community partner about the needs of their clients, coordinating with members of their team to develop a plan for the activities I will contribute, finding dates and times to film and implement the activities, getting feedback about what type of music activities would be the most helpful, reserving space to film two of the activities, and implementing and filming my first activity. 

I felt that, based on the feedback that I received from members of the team I am working with, that my first activity and my work so far have been effective. During the filming, I felt unsure of myself because I do not think that I was as prepared as I could have been. In order to ensure an efficient filming session, I asked if I could tape up my script and chord charts with lyrics in front of me so that I could use them. The team was super accommodating and told me of course, and that several of their participants had used scripts for their segments. Despite my lack of confidence in myself and my worries that the team would think I was unprofessional or unprepared based on my need to use printed materials, I was happy that they did not seem to have any type of judgment towards me at all. 

Assumptions

Some of the assumptions that I had going into planning activity 1 were about the music tastes of the audience who would be consuming this content having never had the opportunity to actually meet them. Because of this, I needed to select an activity and music that I had found to be appropriate with past groups with similar characteristics. Of course, it would have been preferable to have had the opportunity to meet them, but I am limited by what is possible with the partnership I have set up. I received helpful feedback based on my implementation that affirmed the decisions that I had made during my planning of activity 1. One of the team members shared that they had personally witnessed older adults with dementia who were non-speaking begin to speak when similar interventions were implemented. 

I think that some of what enhanced the effectiveness of activity 1 was my use of printed materials to help me remember the questions that I wanted to ask, what I wanted to say, as well as my chords and lyrics to songs. Without these, I think that the filming would have taken much longer than I had intended simply based on how intimidated I become by the lighting and cameras that are necessary for the filming. Something else that I did that I think contributed to the effectiveness of activity 1 was practicing my songs and script thoroughly before time to deliver them, as well as bringing in visual aids to go along with one of my songs. Something that maybe diminished my effectiveness was the anxiety that I get from being on camera, which I especially noticed when trying to incorporate the use of solfege hand signs into one of my activities and continually forgetting them. I eventually told the crew to scrap that idea, as I did not want to take up too much of their time.

Knowledge and Skills 

As I mentioned in the previous section, some of the gaps in my knowledge and skills had to do with my lack of confidence in my own abilities. This is something that has been an ongoing process for me  – to have the faith that I know what I’m doing and that the work I am doing is helpful and high-quality. Honestly, as the filming went on I did find my confidence increasing and I found that it was fun to pull out some songs that were old favorites that I don’t necessarily get to use as much any more. Another skill that I want to cultivate in my future sessions is seeming more natural in talking on camera. When I talk on camera I can tell that my speech is somewhat stilted and unnatural where I’d rather it seem more conversational. I don’t think rehearsing what I want to say over and over will make it seem more natural, but I know that I need to rehearse it so I don’t draw a blank during the filming. Between now and my next filming on April 13th I hope to come up with some strategies for this.

Action

For my future sessions, I want to focus on how I can make my facilitation seem more natural and conversational. Another component that I will need to incorporate into my next session is completing an activity with their provided actors, which I think will be an added challenge to making my talking seem natural.