Hustle, Hit and Never Quit!

Now that our Pathfinder School students have practiced some of the tennis basics, they are learning to hit tennis balls at hula hoop targets, over the net and to their peers using the forehand stroke.  Tennis is a challenging sport, but also gives students the freedom to develop their own strengths in the game. Some of our students still need hand-over-hand assistance, but many of the students are hitting the ball over the net independently and are learning to control the better.

Along with learning skills, our students have learned about famous tennis celebrities, including Vanessa Williams, Andre Aggasi, and Roger Federer.  These gifted athletes demonstrate that hard work and dedication can lead you to something that you love for the rest of your life. At the end of the tennis lesson, we connected sports and jobs that our students enjoy doing, and discussed how hard work and dedication can help get them find employment after graduating from Pathfinder School.

“Animals” is the school theme for the summer session at Pathfinder School.  As we are outside on the sport court all day, the students see and hear lots of different animals, including birds, fox, deer, squirrels, etc. This week we watched the YouTube video “Bird Got Swing: A Musical Experiment” by the Cornell Ornithology Lab in Ithaca. Throughout the video the students would try to imitate the birds that jazz vocalist Theo Bleckmann was calling.  When we went outside to play tennis, if the students heard an animal sound they would stop, and point at or tell what animal they heard.  Then all the students would try to imitate that animal. If we couldn’t hear the animal clearly, the students would make the sounds that they thought the animal would make.  If you would like to check out the video please lick the link below

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/2014_video_and_slide_show/

Keep Active, 

Miss Shirey